Hong Kong

What a blast landing in Hong Kong and only several hours sleep. (my fault)
Hotel room not ready but we are there for a day only. So with 2 hours sleep we have cruised Hong Kong and enjoyed the pungent smells and sensory overload. High temps and feel of well over 30 due to the humidity. Lapping it up as have had lots of complaints about the weather back home.
Have eaten my prawn wontons and ready to come home.

Arrivando in ROMA

Buonajourno
Leaving early this morning we are travelling to Rome 2 hrs on the train. Trundling our suitcases and carryons along Florence footpaths is a workout. The wheels are just holding out as the paths are cobbled and rutted so you have to lift the bags over parts. Now our bags are over 25 kilos so it is my weight training. The train is super comfy so time for a nanna nap.
We have seen so much by train, small orderly vineyards, fields of sunflowers blooming and maize and crops basking in the humid temperatures. Ochre and pink villas with little terracotta rooves as we flit by village after village. Amazing little nurseries all topiary plants along side the tracks amongst the tall poplars.
We have visited the Vatican and Sistine Chapel and St Peter's cathedral. 3 hours tour of artefacts, sculptures paintings and painted fresco overload. The pope flew out overhead at 4pm to Korea.

last day in Rome
boo hoo we fly home tomorrow. Spent last day doing our own walking tour of the colloseum and the forums. We discovered a lookout on musem of tomb of the unknown
soldier.
Back to see the Trevi Fountain which is under renovation. it looks terrible. very sad.

Last pix is of vatican. the Pope opens the 2nd to last window from the right.

soldier.

Cinque Terre

2 1/2 hours from Florence is this seaside group of towns built into the rock. Had an amazing day up early to bus , train and boat around four of the villages. Manarola, Riomaggiora, monterrosa and Vernazza. The sun was relentless while we walked the narrow streets competing with all the tourists. I never thought we would manage to climb onto the rocking boat but we did and the view from sea was amazing. Ate our seafood salad and basil pesto pasta for lunch and topped with fruit salad and Icecream. Delicious but the trains running overhead directly gave me such a fright. Gelato to cool down.
Sat at lunch with a Romanian couple.
Una Lunga giornata ma buona.
Mamma mia!

Arrivederci Firenze

Buonjourno
Pealing church bells send us to sleep and wake us each morning reminding us we are in Firenze.
See you again fantastico Florence. We walked the streets today after visiting David.  nice body. That is the Michelangelo statue at the Accademia that was mesmerising. Luckily we booked a ticket early 9.45am and already a line for reservations. When we left the line was huge for both. The Uffizzi museum had ancient art from the region. We checked out the Uffizzi and Ponte Vecchio but the Jewelery though tempting did not make me part with Colin's money.

The streets are teaming  with tourists  walking along the roads with pushchairs and baggage, so the cars can hardly drive down them. Besides  the street sellers placing themselves on footpaths,  you also have to dodge the beggars lying across your path. Persons begging  because they have amputations, just poor or for their sick baby.  Some are Romanian poor. One lady was onto it as she sat by the lucky pig where everyone throws their coins and she was catching the excess.

Graci
Buonasera
Arrivederci

Manneken Pis

Little pis boy in Brussels who has clothes presented to him from foreign dignitaries.

Fond Farewells

We have Farewelled the cruise staff with hugs and gratuities and also our new friends .Up at 6 this morning and transferred to London from Southampton quite easily. Dropped Daphne, Colin, Billy and Evey at Heathrow and we travelled onto Victoria station. Stowed our suitcases and took off to covent garden to look for dancing shoes. Was lovely to be in London and the weather was warming up nicely.

Decided after lunch to go visit the queen at Buckingham palace and it was bustling as the mall was closed off for a family cycle race.on the way there we nearly got scammed. A man approached and asked for directions to Kensington. Suddenly two big men surrounded us and asked what we were doing and wanted our ID. I produced our passports and they asked for us to show them our wallet. We thought they were undercover cops looking for illegal money changers. Colin's wallet is attached to his belt by a chain and he pulled it out to show them. Then I looked at their odd suits   and said Colin don't show them. I asked for their ID and hey said never mind. When I asked again they left. On the walk back I saw them still hovering around. Lucky we didn't lose anything but had very little Sterling left anyway.
Pix of us outside Buckingham Palace.

Pisa is leaning

Pisa
Finally we have made it to Pisa. Train station in Florence was a nightmare as we missed the first train as the ticket line was so long. Finally got some help with the tickets and found someone to tell us where to go. This particular train to Pisa , goes to La Spezia. 1 hr in the sweltering carriage and we walked 25 minutes in 33° heat to be stunned by the spectacle of the leaning tower and the cathedral and surrounding buildings.  I was starting to fade as had a but of a tummy upset. We discovered  you get free tickets to enter the cathedral but they are timed so we had a leisurely lunch (best spaghetti cabonnara ever) to recharge. Made it back to Florence at 5pm. Pisa was amazing and even my favorite shop Desigual. Mostly closed on a Sunday though.

Florence
This city is a dream. I am in love love love with it.  Tonight we have had another amazing meal of asparagus risotto and cheese ravioli with meat sauce.
Pasta will never be the same again.

Brussels, belgium

Here we are in Brussels Belgium and just bought chocolates from Leonidas. They are amazing but no samples! !  What the! !
Brussels is lovely and great for a last stop.  1 3/4 hr's from Zeebruge.
Silly us are in the info centre using the internet as it is raining outside. But still warm.

We are looking forward to the next stage of our trip when we disembark tomorrow
really like this town of gothic and baroque architecture but with huge modern buildings as well.
The tours guides said the tax is high and used for building but they don't get the benefits like in sweden.
they speak Flemish, 
Dutch and French. 
Belgium known for chocolates, little pis boy, black mussels, waffles and frites with mayonnaise.

All At Sea

Thank goodness a day off touring and we are at sea all day heading to Copenhagen our second to last stop. 5 days of  excursions in a row including Russia St Petersburg was tough going but we were the young ones on the bus. Some of the older fatties were really slow even just getting off the bus. I nodded off again in the Princess theatre watching the singer. The shows are not as good as on the Royal Princess. But Colin,  Evey and I had a good laugh watching the obese ladies try and sit in the theatre chairs. They perch their big bums on the arms, then plop, the weight sucks down into the chair and they squeeze their fat into it. It is so funny to watch them perch on top then  suddenly suction plop into the seat. Haven't worked out how they extract themselves yet.
The cities are melding into one but we are trying to capture the features of each city to remember them  by.
Eva our Swedish guide made the day. She said In her Swedish accent. "I'm just going to have a sip of vodka, no?. Scholl. Jus joking, it is only water."
We were due to leave port at 4.30pm but watching from our balcony at 4.40, we saw 6 people get off the hop on off bus and run 200m to the gates to board .
The officer said "you are very lucky" in a loud voice and all the Portside passengers were laughing and clapping them on. If you miss the ship you are on your own. Good lesson.
We have only two days left and don't want it to end. Glorious weather all the way through too.
Haven't hit the pool yet as sea days are cloudy and cooler but the lobsters round the pool have put us off. 

Copenhagen Denmark

We are really enjoying Copenhagen as we opted to go to the fishing village Dragor. It is a heritage village with lots of thatched rooves and quaint gardens with hollyhocks  and yellow ocher walls. So different but not long here
Went to the palace and stood outside prince Fredrick an d princess Marys residence
ps thanks for emails glad u like blog. have to leave my little internet connection now and get on bus. Known for little mermaid statue, the long bridge to Sweden $40 to cross one way, best danish ever tasted.

Stockholm Sweden

Loving this place. God Morgan.
It is 33 degrees but the bus is air conditioned.
Girl with the dragon tattoo was filmed here. 
Visited
Gamla stan, old town, smallest boy statue, 
Vasa museum old reclaimed ship is amazing with the museum built around it.
Just went to where the Nobel prize is presented with the blue room and the gold ballroom. Very cool.

Helsinki Finland

Great start today after gaining an hour and felt better but we all slept on the bus again. Funny to look around and find every body snoozing with their mouths agape and heads nodding around. Helsinki was small in the city and similar to all the other Baltic Towns we have seen so driving 1 hour out to Porvoo was something different. A little 1423 town of wooden buildings and the tourist sampling the chocolate in the local shop was the high light. Unfortunately we didn't buy any as it was average but we did a good test. Will wait till Belgium. An excellent lunch was provided of salad, bread, beef olives and potato cake which was a little spicy but delicious and well presented. Dessert was 2  mini fruit custard tarts. Yummy. More complaints as we sat enclosed in the restsurant in 29°heat.The best and most unusual was the Temppeliaukio Rock church carved into bedrock and all the walls were rock and the ceiling a copper cupola joined by glass to the rock. Some of the Americans nearly expired just walking up the little rise to see it. Lol.

Relaxing in our rooms as we cruise out of the port. Billy has taken a photo of my lower balcony where the lady has displayed her underwear in the sun to dry. Not the best sight but he thinks he should enter it into the photo competition. Argggh.

Tallin Estonia and To Russia with Love

Hi all.  We really are enjoying this cruise much more than last time. For a start we have made it to 4 days without mishap. The ship may be older  but easier to get around as it is more compact. The staff are really friendly and not pushy with up selling. We have an excellent waiter Romnick and waitress Magdalena who are cherry and happy givng us wonderful service in the dining room.  The food has been nearly faultless and we are really impressed. Unfortunately  having 4 courses is going to show quickly. So we have done zumba, walking track, salsa class and line dancing today. Wiped out now. billy went on diet for lunch and only ate salad but then had a memory lapse about lunch due to not eating enough. Made up for it at dinner though.

Tallin
Gorgous little medieval town with tons of character. Red roof tops and stone walls everywhere.. We walked around and it took us 4 hours. Not worth doing a tour or bus. Pick up a map from the tourist bureau in old town and do your own tour.

At Petersburg Russia
6.30 start and on the go seeing Hermitage Museum and the treasures which were breathtaking with the 24 carat diamond and the jewel encrusted jewelery covered in diamonds, ruby, and emeralds. Rembrants and Raphael paintings. Peter and Paul fortress and cathedral.where a firing of the cannon gave us all a real fright. All the places are airless and hot and I felt faint as you are not allowed to take food out of this port. Unfortunately the Russian lunch was a let down with vodka that smelt and tasted like meths.  Visited the Catherine the Great palace (1 1/2 drive ) for a magnificent evening of a champagne hor d'oeuvres band playing entrance to the visit and orchestral ensemble. Even acting out from a queen and performance by dancers. Dinner was a little intense with us cooking in the heat and the Russian singers performing upbeat loud music Which was impossible to relax in. Not home till midnight and an early start tomorrow.

Day 2
Started at the Peterhof palace. Magnificent for a smaller palace esp the cascading fountains. Full on day as you go thru the palace the rooms are stifling, just like everywhere else we have visited. Little Russian ladies sit in the rooms fanning themselves and nearly fainting. The canal ride  up the Fontanka River was a breath of fresh air and a sip of sparlking wine helped. After a slightly better lunch but not rushing out to eat Russian anytime soon, we finished off with St Isaacs and the church of the spilled blood. Both huge and magnificent but different with tons of gold decoration and mosaic masterpieces and huge stone pillars. Our guide Constantine was top notch and went over the history and Tsar rulers but we couldn't concentrate. Sergei and Anatole our bus drivers didn't talk, as the Russians even the waitresses don't speak English unless they work in the souvenir shops. Boy were we glad to get back to princess for dinner. Billy and Colin even had two soups.