Our excursion today from Cartagena was to the provincial capitol called Murcia. It was a 45 minute drive and we de-bussed in front of the town hall in a beautiful square with yellow flowered bushes and fountains. We walked to Cathedral Square to see the 17th century huge cathedral and to Bishop's palace on the same square.. the cathedral exterior was quite ornate. It was dedicated to Mary and was on the site of a previous 5th century church and then a mosque. We next walked to the Royal Casino which was a museum with interesting architecture in a former casino and which is also a gentleman's club in addition to being a museum. Then we had a short walking tour and free time for refreshments before driving to the hills to see a monastery dedicated ... read more

ROME DAY 3 Today we left Rome to go to Civitavecchia to board our ship. On the way we decided to see Ostia Antica. It is very cold again and raining. Valentina is our guide today. The drive ti Ostia takes about 1 hour. For over 600 years Ostia was Rome’s main port and a bustling commercial center. Around the 5th century AD the town started to decline because of malaria and competition of other ports. There is a large stone road that runs the entire length of Ostia all the way to the sea. this is lined by the cemetery which was on the outside of the town proper. There is the main gate, the Rome gate which still has large marble slabs marking it. Then there are the storage rooms for all the goods ... read more

Well we got off to a rocky start, but we finally made it to Rome. We left our house on Friday at 7:30 am for an American Airlines flight to Philadelphia. On the way to the airport Dennis got a text from AA saying that our flight to Philadelphia was delayed 3.5 hours. That would make us get into Phildelpphia after our flight to Rome had left. We had Kam our driver, pull into the cell phone lot at the airport while Dennis called American. The earliest they could get us to Rome was on Monday. They said that Delta and British Air had no availability. Being naturally cynical, I called British and found that they did have availability on their flight on Friday in all classes. We booked a first class ticket at an exhorbitant ... read more

Well we have been at sea for 3 days now. After we left Prince Christian sound we went along the southern coast of Greenland and then turned north into the canal that went to Narsarsuaq. We went into the canal and saw the landing strip that had been built by the US government for WWII. Icebergs were floating in the canal and some people went on a boat ride to see the icebergs up close. When they returned to the ship we headed south for Newfoundland. After a day at sea we approached the norther tip of Newfoundand. We were supposed to have a stop at L'Anse aux Meadows. However the swells were too big for them to safely drop off the tenders. So the Captain announced that he was sorry but he was cancelling the ... read more

ICELAND AUGUST 2017 TODAY we are in Reykjavik Iceland. It is overcast, as usual, and the wind is blowing at 35 miles per hour. I am venturing out by myself today as Dennis is still confned to the cabin. We left the ship early, about 8:30. We were allocated into groups of 10 and then put into “super SUVs” These were huge vehicles whose tires wee about 3-4feet high. There were black tubes sticking out of the truck and attached to the tires. Our driver explained that he could raise or lower the pressure in the tires from inside of the cabin. We set off on the ring road N1 and headed north. We drove through desolate countryside for about 1.5hours. We then turned off the main road onto a side road that led to a ... read more