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Starting a new adventure

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We leave Monday April 28 with an overnight flight to Bucharest, Romania with a connecting flight through, Chicago and London Heathrow before reaching Bucharest. We arrive early evening on the 29th and  will spend the first night in a gotel.  The following morning we'll take a tour of Bucharest before boarding our ship in the early afternoon.  Our trip includes stops in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Germany and finally The Netherlands where we'll fly home from Amsterdam on May 22nd.   Some highlights include Budapest, Vienna and Nuremberg as we sail the Rhine, the Main and the Danube. Our last day in Amsterdam will be on our own and I'll finally get my tour of the Anne Frank house.

Day 50 - Thursday, August 1, 2024 - Back to The USA

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  A 4 am alarm started today.  That's 7 pm Wednesday, Phoenix time).   In the atrium on Deck 1 at 4:30 am, departed the ship and identified our luggage before boarding our bus.  We were rolling with a Viking agent in board our bus at 5 am.   Check in and baggage drop took a long time!  One couple, was with the check in attendant for 20 minutes.  And there was only one attendant operating a counter. Finally got rid of our bags and checked through to Phoenix.  Then another small wait in security and a last line in immigration line.  It's 7:05 am here, the pilots and crew just showed up and the plane is here.   Looking good so far.   Wayne received permission to board with group 1.  Bless his bum knee, his brace and his chair came.  Surprise as we boarded, we were upgraded to row 9, first class and all it comes with; a menu and full breakfast.  There are three seats across but the middle seat is block...

Day 49 - Wednesday, July 31, 2024 - Stockholm Sweden

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  What a great tour  today to end 49 days of cruising.  It was a busy morning.  We had to go off ship and through Swedish immigration at 8 am and then I had to check in for our flight.  That's always an "iffy" process with British Air.  You just never know what problems you'll encounter with ship wifi and a crummy British air website.  With boarding passes in hand for the first leg of the flight, we boarded our tour bus at 9 am for our 3 hour bus tour of Stockholm.   We had a great tour guide.  He spoke wonderful English and had a great sense of humor.  He has never been to the US but deemed our bus to all Green Bay Packers and Mets fans!  Huh? We learned a lot. Not just about the city but about living here in Stockholm.   It's a very expensive city and country.  As he walked through the math, I'm not sure wlhiw anyone can afford to live, even in the outlying areas that are less expensive. We stopped at an overlo...