Home...

We had quite the travel day yesterday. It started when I went to print boarding passes and the Delta to Alitalia link would not work so I ended up with boarding passes for just the first leg. Our driver did arrive early and we got to the airport in good time, and after some guesswork as to which terminal, we got to the check-in counter where the agent was able to update our itinerary and check our bags through to Detroit.
During our 2 hour wait at the airport, our gate at the airport changed twice, resulting in a couple of walks, then when it was time to board we did not get on a plane, but a bus! After all the passengers filed in, it took us to our plane sitting on the tarmac along with many others. Apparently this is how Alitalia deals with a shortage of gates.

Our flight to Amsterdam was uneventful and arrived on time. We flew over the Alps on our way and caught this nice picture of them from the air.  I was surprised at how "short" a mountain range it is.  Compared to flying over the Rockies  the Alps appeared and were gone in a few minutes. Once in Amsterdam we had a long walk and no boarding passes for our Delta flight, which caused some consternation as we approached a security checkpoint.  Fortunately it was just a European Community exit station so our passports were stamped and we headed for our gate.
Once there the security process was quite involved. Our passports were recorded by an airport agent, they were verified again and we were interviewed by a US agent, then we finally got our Delta boarding passes. Once we had that, we still had to pass through a USA style secondary screening device! WHEW!
The fight to Detroit was long - 8 1/2 hours. I watched 2 movies (Star Trek and The Internship) and played some games on my iPad while Mary watched 4 movies:  Field of Dreams, The Devil Wears Prada, Mamma Mia and Driving Miss Daisy.
Once home around 5:30 pm, we unpacked, bought our traditional Little Ceasar's pizza for supper, made a few phone calls, then crashed since it was after midnight in Rome. We both woke up around 3am (our biological clocks think we are still in Rome!) so we dealt with the pile of mail, started laundry and prepared our task lists for today.
After this long, three phase trip it seems like it's been forever since we left for London, but it;s nice to be home.

The Roman Coliseum

Our last day in Rome.... Big travel day tomorrow. We leave for the airport at 6:00 am (That's 1 am Eastern time), fly to Amsterdam, then on to Detroit arriving late afternoon

Today was our Roman Coliseum Day.  Our tour started at 10 am and we finished the Coliseum at noon, then headed to the Roman Forum, where the Roman Senate met and was the heart of the city, then on to Palatine Hill where the Emperor's house and gardens were situated. It was a LOT of walking and up and down some very large and steep steps.  This was a very strenuous tour. Our guide was very good and kept us moving while describing the events and background of the structure.  

Some things I learned about the Coliseum and thought would be interesting to pass along:

1. It was not built until after Nero
2. Constructed form 70 AD to 80 AD
3. Used a sand floor to make it easy to clean up the blood.
4. It was only used 10-20 times/year
5. Admission was free (the event was paid for by the sponsor), but tickets were required for seat assignment and entry door
6. It was used as a church in the16th century and contains a memorial to the Martyrs
7. Was in use until the 7th century, then revived in the 15th century
8. One side actually fell down and was rebuilt in the 1800's. 
9. Seating was by class with the VIPs on the lowest level followed by military, then the common people, with men on a lower level than women.
10. Contained public bathrooms on the main floor only so the ladies on level 5 had a long way to go!
11. The loosing gladiator was only killed if the Emperor was present and the meaning of the famous Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down sign has been lost over time.  For example, Thumbs Down could either mean to kill him or to sheath your sword, sparing the looser.

This afternoon has been a relaxing time, organizing for tomorrow's trip home, and getting ready for our last Italian dinner in Rome.

Home tomorrow....  8-(

Vatican Day in Rome

We, thankfully, had a late start today as we were both fairly tired and slept in.  We had the hotel breakfast and then headed out on the HOHO bus for the Vatican. Having visited the second smallest country in the world a few days ago, today we visited the smallest! Here's a scale model of the entire country.

We arrived as the morning outdoor mass was finishing up, so as we walked toward St Peters, throngs were walking the opposite way.  After taking numerous pictures we headed for the Vatican Museum entrance which is on the opposite side of the Vatican.  We found our meeting point for our tour and then had a nice Italian lunch. 

We had an hour to kill so it was fun to watch all the tour groups arriving, many of which were from cruise ships.  Once we were assigned our tour guide, she introduced herself as an art history major interested in geography and architecture.  She talked a very long time about the Sistine Chapel, which should have been a clue of what was to come.  Once we started into the Vatican Museum we were quite overwhelmed with TMI syndrome - Too Much Information - from our tour guide. After hearing lengthly discussions of each mural in several rooms and being nearly 2 hours into a 3 hour tour that was to cover the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, and St Peters Basilica, and seeing several other tour groups from the same company leave us in the dust, we turned in our radio receivers and bugged out.  Apparently our act was either contagious or she got the message, as shortly thereafter we saw several others from our group without their radio receivers. 

We loved having time to gaze at the beauty of the Sistine Chapel.  It's a no-photos, no-talking place, yet we saw several people sneaking pictures and the background "buzz" was loud enough that the security people came on the microphone to tell people to BE QUIET! - all to little effect. I found that to be quite disrespectful of the attendees. Distractions aside, just seeing it was quite amazing and made the tour very worthwhile. 

St Peter's was amazing as well.  They were starting the 5:00 mass as we were there so part of the church was closed off but the beautiful singing resonated through the sanctuary.  We could still see Michelangelo's famous Pieta (Mary holding Jesus body) and the famous statue of Peter holding the Keys of the Kingdom among many other statues. The bodies of two Pope's are on display in the Basilica.  The body of Pope John XXIII looked quite presentable while the body of the 17th century Pope Innocent XI was definitely showing its age.

After that we went to the HOHO stop, but the 6:00 bus was full.  We caught the 6:25 bus and, thankfully, they held the 7:00 (last bus) a few minutes so we could take it back to our hotel near the Coliseum. After stopping for dinner on the way back to the hotel (I did NOT get lost this time!) we are relaxing and enjoying the rest of our evening.

Tomorrow is our tour of the Coliseum!

Arriving in Rome

We arrived at Civitaveccia, the port for Rome, where it was a blustery and chilly morning. Last night, as we passed Portofino, we felt the predicted gale force winds.  The ship was moving so much that, as we headed to the ship's Motown production show we could not help but bounce off the walls.  Doing stairs was a "grab onto both hand rails" event.  Before the show, one of the props kept sliding out of position so they had to remove it. But the show went on!  The dancers did a great job of handling the moving deck.  Mary and I were both feeling a bit queazy so we took the sea-sickness pills and went to bed.  But shortly after we took them, the ship cleared that weather pattern and was not rocking as much.  At least the medicine helped us get a good night's sleep!

Our shuttle was not scheduled to arrive until 9:30 so we were among the last people off the ship at 8:45.  It was cold waiting and we were thankful that the driver arrived at 9:10. 

Once at our hotel in Rome we headed out for the HOHO (hop-on/hop-off) bus and did one loop of Rome, stopping at the Trevi Fountain for pictures and lunch.  The fountain was very crowded and we had to push a bit to even get to the railing. If this is Rome during a non-peak time, I'd hate to be here during a peak time!  It was very hard to get a picture of the fountain without a lot of heads in it, but with some creative cropping we did get this one picture.

As we walked back from the fountain we stopped at a local pizza parlor and had a nice lunch.  It was a small place, but the food was excellent!  

Our major mishap occurred after we got off the HOHO bus.  I could not find the hotel!  After waling a few blocks I checked my phone, but without a data plan could not access my Dropbox files.  Finally one nice restaurant gave us their wifi password so I could access the hotel information and we go the street name and made it back.  Lesson learned: When in a foreign country, always have you hotel address written out!  I broke that rule and paid the price.  Once back I scouted the area for a good restaurant and we had a nice meal of lasagna and Cannelloni with Gelato (Italian ice cream) for dessert.  

We are safely back in our hotel and looking forward to the Vatican tour tomorrow afternoon. 

Departing the Ocean Princess

When we came back to our cabin this morning the dreaded luggage pad was on the bed.  After lunch we dutifully packed our suitcases, keeping out our good clothes for dinner and tonight's Motown show and our clothes for tomorrow. After the show, those clothes go in the suitcases which are then set out to be taken off ship in the morning.

We have received exceptional service on this ship, especially from our cabin attendant and dining room staff. That will not go unrewarded as we have envelopes prepared for them. This is above the tips assessed by the ship and distributed to the staff.  

One other nice thing that happened on this cruise was a surprise for Mary. The on-board jewelry store was having a silent auction for various pieces and one was a ruby earring set that exactly matched the ring she got in the Caribbean 2 years ago!  I put in a bid and won!  It's like the earrings and ring were made to go together.

We took a Hop-on/Hop-off bus around Genoa this morning.  Nothing too special; we saw lots of Christopher Columbus monuments, old buildings and the like.  One surprising thing was passing through tunnels right in the middle of the city! Parts of the city were very pretty and other parts, well, it's a large city...  Motor scooters are everywhere here.  I call this shot "Genoa Parking Lot"

No bridge today since our "fourth" was on an excursion that would have been back by 1:30 but left late and had extra travel time due to departing from Genoa.   So I played Goofy Golf instead and ended up winning a Princess lanyard.  Today's course was not nearly as challenging as the one last week that went through 3 rooms.  Today we merely had to navigate around all the blue lakes  since hitting one was a penalty stroke.

So off to the third leg of our trip - Rome! 

Portofino, no Genoa!

Surprise!  As we returned from breakfast at 6:30 to get ready for our 7 AM excursion in Portofino, the captain came on and said that due to large swells now and a forecast of gale force winds by 3:00 pm, he was canceling this stop and hustling to Genoa where one pier berth was available, hoping to beat any other ships to it. So once again the Shore excursion desk is scrambling. 

Since Genoa is north of Portofino we will have to leave earlier to make it to Rome on schedule so we may not have much time in port.  Mary and I are now planning to just go ashore and walk around the town a bit.  

We have experienced a lot of firsts on this cruise!  

1. Experiencing sea sickness
2. Two skipped ports (Previously we missed a Guatemala stop on our Panama Canal cruise and missed one stop at Princess Cay due to high waves on a Caribbean cruise)
3. A Man Overboard
4. Trouble getting off a tender
5. First time we are doing both a pre-cruise and a post-cruise stay overs

So more to come as we explore Genoa today!

Monaco

Another nice day on the Ocean Princess. We arrived in port an hour early today and had to tender to shore.  It was overcast and raining as we headed out on our excursion, but by noon it had cleared and we had a sunny afternoon before the rains returned later afternoon.  We even had a rainbow to greet us from our balcony after we returned from dinner!

On our excursion we visited the Royal Palace of Monaco as well as the main Catholic church where the Royal Wedding of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier occurred in 1956.  The palace was beautiful and had a well-narrated tour.  Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed. We were able to take pictures inside the church where this picture was taken.  We had over an hour of free time during which we walked a beautiful garden along the coast. 

We also happened to be outside the Palace at 11:55 when the Changing of the Guard happens!  It's a short ceremony, lasting under 10 minutes that involves a short march from the barracks to the palace, a ceremony, then marching back to the barracks. Mary got this nice picture of the drummers and buglers leading the squad of soldiers.

After returning to the ship (see details below) we had a late lunch on the back deck where we love to eat our buffet meals on the Princess small ships.  From our table we could see three countries at the same time: Monaco, France, and Italy! We love eating breakfast and lunch out here in the open air as long as the weather is fairly warm.  

Our tender ride back from Monaco was rather exciting. We sat near the front of the tender to get good pictures of the ship and were some of the last ones off.  After most people were off the tender some swells picked up, and we had to sit down for a few minutes before it was safe for us to exit.  From our balcony we watched several other tenders arrive and they had even more trouble!  One had to wait (with passengers bouncing around in the swells) for several minutes and when it came time for them to dock, they were unable to stabilize the craft so they had to release the ropes and go around again!  10 minutes later they tried again and were successful.  I have video of the tender bouncing around, but taking too long to upload it from the ship.   I bet those people were very glad to get off that tender!

We had even more excitement when, during dinner, the Ship's PA announced "Man overboard on the port side"!  Fortunately, a few minutes later they announced that the person had been recovered and the boat teams could stand down.  No word if it was a passenger or crew, but I suspect it was a crew member working the tender dock. 

Upon returning from our excursion we were greeted by those dreaded dis-embarkation papers 8-( You always know they are inevitable, but seeing them lets you know this part of the vacation is about to end.  On to Portofino tomorrow, then Rome!

Barcelona

Today we had a full day excursion to see Barcelona and the Montserrat monastery.  All went very well as we had beautiful weather and a delicious (and too large!) lunch.  

After driving around town we got out of the bus and walked to La Sagrada Familia, an unfinished church that has been under construction since the 1880's.  As you can see, this church has a very intricate design with 4 spires on each of 4 sides plus a still-to-be constructed central spire which will support a statue of Jesus. The one finished side is devoted to the story of Mary, with scenes depicting the Annunciation, Birth of Jesus, visit of the Shepherds and Magi, the Presentation, and Jesus in the temple.  Another side is devoted to the Crucifixion, with various scenes related to that event. 

After this tour, we headed for Montserrat. This famous Benedictine monastery is the end of an 1100 KM pilgrimage.  Walking this pilgrimage dates back to the middle ages and people still walk it to this day. I must say that after walking 1100 km the challenge of climbing all the steps to this monastery must be very foreboding.

The church itself is very large and beautiful and still has 80 active monks living here.   They also run a school that has a famous boys choir.  There was a very long line to see the Black Madonna (estimated at 2 1/2 hours).  There was also a funicular (cog railway) to go to the top of the mount from which you could see the Pyrenees , the border with France, or walk to visit a cross on the top of the mount.  Another 45 minute walk lead to a chapel marking the cave where the Black Madonna was found. 

We had a bit of adventure when it was time for the ship to leave port.  We were schedule to leave at 4:00 pm, but were still tied to the dock at 4:20. The captain then announced that, based on the wind speed and direction (which was very strong and was hitting the ship broadside and pushing the ship into the dock) we needed help from two tugboats.  One had arrived, but a second would take another 20 minutes.  The captain decided to try it with one tugboat to pull us away from the dock. With that help, the side thrusters, and the ship's main engines, we did make it away altho at one point the ship stopped pivoting for an extended period of time (not a good sign!).  Then after we were turned toward the harbor exit, a small sailboat decided to exit just ahead of us.  With the encouragement of 5 long blasts of our horn and a nearby Police boat, the sailboat quickly got out of the way. 

On to Monte Carlo!

Third Sea Day

We enjoyed a relaxing day at sea today, our last sea-day on this cruise. The highlight of my day was 4 hours of bridge, 2 in the morning and another 2 in the afternoon. 

While I was playing this morning, Mary went to the cooking show and kitchen tour. In the cooking show, the head chef and Maitre 'D prepared an appetizer, pasta dish, and dessert.  Here's one picture she took of the food preparations and some of the prepared sandwiches and salads in the ship's kitchen.

Today's buffet lunch was exceptionally good.  It included peanut butter and banana sandwiches, pot pies, and had a super good dessert table featuring Tiramisu, cannoli, pineapple cake and many other choices.

After lunch we stopped by the Tanzanite talk and drawing.  I attended mostly to double Mary's chance of winning, but she did not need this as she was the lucky winner of this beautiful, 3 stone Tanzanite pendant valued at over $125!  She was thrilled to be selected as there were over 3 dozen people attending the talk.  She found it fits quite well on her Omega necklace so she wore that set to dinner.

Speaking of dinner, tonight was the best menu of the cruise - lobster and giant prawns for the entree and floating islands (Mary's all-time favorite) and a hazelnut soufflé for dessert. Check out her picture of Floating Islands.  

Gibraltar

We had an enjoyable and relaxing day in Gibraltar.  One surprise was to have the Crown Princess docked next to us which we not only sailed on in 2010 but will be cruising again in a mere 135 days.  This picture shows the relative size of our small ship vs the size of the Crown.

We had a very chatty tour guide who took us up the cable car to the top of Gibraltar, then to the Siege tunnels before wrapping up at a museum. Gibraltar is famous for their monkeys and we saw several of them today, including two mothers with nursing babies.  Mary captured this beautiful shot of a mother and her baby.  With all the great monkey pictures she took it was hard to single out just one so her's a second!

I found the siege caves very interesting based on their WWII significance, but they really go back to Revolutionary War times. With the British navy pre-occupied with the American Revolution, Spain decided to re-take Gibraltar and started a siege.  After two years of no progress, the French navy, always looking for a way to mess with Britain, joined the fight and constructed siege boats for an innovative attack.  But by then the British had hand dug these tunnels to obtain superior firing position on them and prevailed.  After his surrender at Yorktown, Admiral Cornwallis crossed the Atlantic to end the siege. 

We spent the afternoon lounging around the pool and relaxing before watching the Crown Princess depart, followed by our sail-away at 5:00 pm. 

Africa is only 14 miles away and on a clear day you can see it from the top of the cable car run.  Unfortunately it was overcast while we were up there in the morning, but we did see Africa from the ship after we departed Gibraltar. 

Here's one final look at "The Rock" as we have our last day at sea tomorrow and head to Barcelona. 

Cadez

Last night while were watching a movie, the captain came on he PA system with "an important announcement". With all the tension about Syria I feared this was a major international event like a terrorist attack.  But it turned out to be that, due to a port workers strike, we would not be able to dock in Portamio, Portugal, and would be docking at Cadiz, Spain instead.

The excursion options were delivered around 10 pm and the one to Seville looked interesting, but it's an 8.5 hour excursion due to a 2 hour bus ride each way. As much as Seville is reportedly a great place to visit, neither Mary nor I were up for another long bus ride.  At the port talk this morning they mentioned that Cadiz has a hop-on-hop-off bus so we decided to take that.  It made for a very enjoyable narrated ride around the town under bright blue skies and moderate temperatures.  As you can see, the town has quite the Arabic influence on its architecture.

The town is renowned for its beautiful beaches as you can see from this picture.  Since we  have a short sail to Gibraltar for tomorrow we are not departing until 11:00 pm so the sail-away will be in the dark. 

Paris - Revisited

Since we're on a second sea day I went back through my Paris pictures an found a surprise. The Paris guide talked about about the architectural alignment of various buildings and I happen to catch one of them!  The first picture is of, what I call the Little Arch. 

But when I zoomed in on my picture.looking directly through the arch you can see it is perfectly aligned with the Egyptian Obelisk and the Arch D'Triumph. Very impressive!

I also caught this nice rear view of Notre Dame cathedral from our boat ride and thought I'd post it as well. Remember that on the web site you can double click on any picture to see a larger version of it.

Today we slept in.  In the morning I played bridge while Mary went to the fruit and vegetable carving.  We then enjoyed Pub Lunch and a port talk on Gibraltar in the afternoon.  The evening show is a comedian so we may or may not attend that.  Thankfully, the seas are much calmer today.  Many people, even some experienced cruisers, were sick yesterday morning and lots of talk about that being the roughest water many had experienced. 

On to Portimao, Portugal! 

Wind and Waves

We're on our first of two days at sea before arriving in Portugal.  As we head down the English Channel to the Atlantic Ocean we are definitely feeling the rougher seas.  Being in the front of the ship on deck 6 we are close to the bow and definitely know when the ship hits a trough!   Except for a few hours on our 2011 "Around England" cruise we have not sailed in the North Atlantic which has a reputation for being rough. This has to be the roughest seas we have experienced on all of our cruises. 

We won't be using our balcony this morning due to it being covered with sea spray every few minutes.

Speaking of our balcony, in the afternoon the sea swells had calmed a bit so we can now use it.  Either the ship is moving a lot less or our stomachs and legs are getting used to it. Probably a combination of the two. 

Our room is nice, and the balcony is typical Princess size.  One thing we like about the Princess small ships is that you get a small couch that you do not get when on the larger ships. I thought I'd include a picture. 

Nothing major planned for today. Port talk in the morning, Bridge in the afternoon, formal night tonight followed by the production show "Do You Want to Dance".  We did get a new table assignment and I *think* it's a table for two, but need to check that out in the dining room today. It's nice to think the 10 euro note I slipped to the Maitre 'D on Saturday was helpful...

Paris!

We had an excellent, but very long excursion to Paris today - 10 1/2 hours including two 3-hour bus rides. But it was all worth it.  Many thanks to our friends Gail, Kathy and Judy for recommending this excursion. 

Our day began very early since we had to be ready to leave by 7:00 am. Once we got to Paris we went to the Eiffel Tower for a 10 minute picture-taking stop. I put on my Red Wings shirt so I can submit a picture to redwings.com once we get back.  It was very neat to see the Eiffel Tower for the first time from this close distance. Little did I know about all the picture opportunities to come!

Our next stop was at the Arch D'Truimph and for 45 minutes of shopping on the Champs Elysees.  The macaroons from one store were highly recommended so we bought 2 apiece and enjoyed them on a bench.  They were delicious! 

After a driving tour of more Parisian sights including the Notre Dame cathedral, we arrived at our boat for our 2 hour luncheon ride on the Seine.  Mary and I both said this made it one of our top excursions ever!  Cruising on the Seine on a beautiful, sunny day while being served an excellent lunch with bottomless wine glasses - can it get any better? (Mary on boat)

Near the end of the river trip we were surprised to find a replica Statue of Liberty in the middle of the Seine. (statue and Tower) 

And lastly, here is my favorite EiffelTower picture.

To the Ocean Princess

We had a very relaxing drive to the Ocean Princess today, once we got underway.  Our pickup time was 10:30, but the driver was already there at 10:00 with 4 other passengers as we got to the hotel front desk to check out.  The driver gave us a London tour as we headed from Kensington in the west side to Greenwich in the east. Yes, we did cross the Prime Meridian on our way to Dover, but there was no sign to mark where that was 8-(  

We arrived at the ship just after noon and were among the first on board. There were no lines and no waiting so we flew through security and the check in process.  After going to our room we did our usual camera tour of the ship before enjoying the buffet for lunch.  We also checked on our dining table and  were very surprised to find we are at a table for 10!  I visited with the Matre' D with a 10 Euro note in hope of correcting that, but with 91 requests for 13 tables-for-two we won't find out for certain until tomorrow when we return from Paris.

As you can see form this picture, the while cliffs of Dover are very spectacular and glow white in the sun   We are now awaiting our safety drill at 4:00, followed by the sail away party and dinner at 6:00, featuring Pina Colada soup, one of our favorites. Now I just have to decide between prime rib or Hawaiian Luau Pork...

Not that we're anxious....

Buckingham Palace

Today was our Buckingham Palace day and I am happy to report that it was better than expected. Not many pictures today since none are allowed within the palace.

It was raining this morning and there is no public transportation that gets you very close so I opted for a taxi and that was well worth it as he dropped us off right at the ticket booth. We arrived as it was opening so the lines were minimal. We toured many of the public areas of the castle: entrance ways, receiving rooms, dining rooms, a fabulous 50 meter long room containing Charles I art collection
featuring various Dutch and other masters including several paintings by Rembrandt. There was also an extensive exhibit about the 1952 Coronation. After some souvenir shopping at the gift shop we headed on to Harrod's.

Harrod's was fascinating! This one huge department store sells anything and everything. We visited the Christmas and Toy departments. The Toy department had several large Lego figures like this Santa Claus. They were demonstrating fake snow (add water to the powder and it turns into snow; after a few days it turns back to being a powder).  We were very tempted to buy some for our nephew's children, but knew the parents would probably not appreciate it.

We bought a sandwich for lunch there before catching the Tube back to our hotel. Fortunately the predicted heavy rain never materialized and we were able to walk back to our hotel from the subway stop without getting wet.
Tonight we're headed back to the Zetland Arms for supper, then packing up for our 10:30 pick-up for the ride to Dover and the Ocean Princess.

Sightseeing in London

Today we had a simple plan. See Kensington Castle, then ride the HoHo (hop on, hope off bus) around London and see what we wanted to do. Not many words today, but lots of pictures.

We really enjoyed Kensington castle. We were both amazed by the design and quality of the displays.  It was like taking 3 mini-tours to see the Kings quarters, Queen's quarters, and then the modern dresses.  The first picture from the King's quarters shows the formal dining room.

 The next is a sample of dresses worn by Princess Di. They also had several cases of dresses worn by the Queen as well as Princess Margaret.

After that we decided to ride The Eye once again on our way around the HoHo route. These three pictures were taken from The Eye. The first is Buckingham Palace followed by St Paul's and Big Ben with Westminster Abbey in the background.

After the Eye, we rode the rest of the route on a very hot and humid, but sunny London day. We enjoyed seeing places like 10 Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, St Paul's Cathedral, and many more London fixtures. We made it back to our hotel by 5, with ample time to cool off before heading out for dinner at our favorite pub, the Zetland Arms. We took The Tube (subway) to St Martin of the Fields for a baroque music concert featuring Vivaldi's Four Seasons and several other numbers like Pachabel's Canon in D. The string ensemble (accompanied by a harpsichord) was excellent! Walking back at 10:00 at night through a vibrant neighborhood with very busy restaurants was an unusual experience.

Rain is expected tomorrow but our only planned activity is Buckingham Palace and lunch at Harrod's, then getting ready to head to the Ocean Princess Saturday morning.

Bill Schott