May 14, 2012: Preparing for the Baltic Cruise!

     I know that our Baltic cruise is almost here because I'm cleaning everything in our house.  Once again, we are blessed because Marion and Mary Ann are coming to stay in our home and watch over all the critters. Thank you, M&M!

     Here's our Norwegian Cruise itinerary:

Wed., May 30th: Fly Lufthansa to Frankfort, Germany, and connect to Copenhagen, Denmark.

Thurs., May 31st: Board the Norwegian Sun in Copenhagen. We'll be cruising with my sister and husband, Mary and Bob Larranaga, and our friends, Mary and Rick Weirich. The ship sails at 5 p.m.

Fri., June 1st: Wamemuende, Germany. The cruise line is promoting an excursion to Berlin, but we've opted to have a quiet day in port. To reach Berlin, it is about 3 hrs. via train and that just seems too much for the beginning of a cruise.

Sat., June 2nd:  At sea. This is a day to recover from jet lap. We've planned dinner in one of the speciality restaurants on the ship.

Sun., June 3rd:  Tallinn, Estonia.

Mon., June 4th:  St. Petersburg, Russia. We're taking a 2-day tour with a private driver and tour guide.

Tues., June 5th: St. Petersburg, Russia. The second day of our tour!

Wed., June 6th:  Helsinki, Finland.

Thurs., June 7th:  Stockholm, Sweden.

Fri., June 8th:  At Sea.

Sat., June 9th:  Return to Copenhagen and transfer to The Square Hotel.

Sun.-Tues., June 10th-June 12th: Tour Copenhagen and surroundings. We may take the train to Malmo, Sweden, to visit the town where Roy's grandmother, Thyra Hanson Thorpe, was born.


May, 2011: Earlier in the week- Toga Night!

Someone in our group had the brilliant idea of having a Get-Acquainted-Toga-Party. Gee, I wonder who came up with that idea? Hmmm.

It was too cold to run around the villa on Monday so the Toga Party was postponed until Tues. Diane and John drove to Ikea in Bari and bought sheets for some of our group. Then then worked on making wreaths for us. We had brought our own sheets and gold-sprayed wreaths.


Again, Paul prepared many wonderful treats for us!