Europe 2011 – Barb – In Her Own Words

Wow it’s 5am Sunday morning for some dumb reason we can’t sleep, so you all are stuck with me!!!!

It really was a wonderful trip…

I still have to pinch myself to be sure it’s real - I mean I’m from North Merna for Pete’s sake!!!!

Don’t know what the best part was, Venice was like a postcard no matter where you looked, it’s unbelievable, and the food, the food everywhere is soooooooooo good so different than ours such fabulous aromas and tastes, I’m seriously going to try to master some of it . . . don’t think I can ever face an Olive Garden again!!!

Croatia is simply a fairly tale it’s no wonder Tony Coucoach (sp) of the Chicago Bulls was such a hero - he would be like the friendly giant.

And Spain, well like all of Europe its so filled with history and beauty and the people are proud and do so know their history an hold their heritage and customs dear, like dance in the streets, not for the tourists but for their enjoyment and to teach the young to carry on with 90 year olds beside 3 year olds smiling wide and enjoying their dance, It’s awesome.

The markets - holy cow you would never believe it probably wouldn’t pass our health dept but I would give anything to have them here - fresh and wonderful lots of fruits & veggies I have never seen & wanted to taste…I think my new dream would be to go back & stay with a family for a week or more and learn to shop the market and cook. That would be amazing.

The cruise itself was not my favorite but you know except the cruise from Hell I took a number of years ago (some of you know what I mean, right sisters) you really can not like any cruise and the weather was perfect.

Ed won money I didn’t loose much and we made a lot of new friends and I got to play dress up everyday!!!

All and all like I said I’m a very lucky girl (ok old broad) and I am so thankful and only wish I could take you all with us.

Thanks Ed, it was another wonderful memory.

Guess I’ll go unpack.

Europe 2011 - Day 18 - he Last Day

The shower - rain head and 2 side nozzles

With sadness to had to leave Barcelona, but happy to be going home, we checked out of the hotel early in the morning and took a taxi to the airport.

On our way to Florence a week or so ago, we ran into two young girls on the train from the US. They verified with us that they were going in the right direction. When we were returning to the ship after missing the first train, they saw us as we were trying to get a taxi to the ship and they asked for our help in getting back.


From that point on, we saw them all of the time – in every port and on the ship. Just free spirits who would hydrate in the daytime and they drink everything it seemed at night. Our last picture is of the girls as we were going thru customs – amazing and funny. And that is the end of that story – they were going to Philadelphia and we don’t even know their names – but they were delightful.

The hotel dining room

Checking in was probably the smoothest we have ever had. The flight to New York was 8 hours and during that time we ate twice, slept for a little bit and watched a movie. A very uneventful flight – which is good.

Our layover in New York was only a few hours and then it was on to Chicago. Believe it or not our 3 hour flight from New York arrived one hour early at 5:30pm.

So we got our bags, got on the Marriott shuttle and were heading for home by 6:30pm – wow probably the best flights and connections we have ever had on a long trip like this.

The Lobby - flowers everywhere

At home we didn’t unpack at all and watched the University of Miami beat Ohio State and then went to bed.

We both awoke about 4:00am and started unpacking.

It was a wonderful trip



Breakfast - 1 of 5 tables of food!



The cab ride to the airport



The girls