Monthly Archives: May 2016

May 31 Rain promised. Occasionally delivered in small amounts. Useless pin and chip cards. We have several. None work on the train system. None. No trouble with the wireless credit card. Have not seen apple or Android pay. A day … Continue reading →

May 30 Rain promised, not delivered QB in fine American regalia. Walked around the fine wide wall, about 3 miles around. saint martins cathedral lucca, nicely decorated 11 th century forward. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucca_Cathedral Dinner: branzini        In Album Lucca 2 Check … Continue reading →

May 29 Rain, glorious rain promised but hardly delivered. Later a bit of thunder and cloudbursts. Luccahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucca Ancient and medieval with a tortured as well as a cultural past. Church san Michele in Foro, 11-12 century with many renovations over … Continue reading →

May 28 Another perfect day. The great art gallery, uffizi, earlier the admin offices well explained in link. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffizi Enormous. Hundreds of Roman statues, endless Italian paintings, overwhelming in scope. We spent 2.5 hours and had to rush through done … Continue reading →

May 27 Sleeping late was a necessity. Then where to start and even harder where to stop. Our usual city wandering with each twist and turn finding beauty, history and interest. We were here 40+ years ago. Camping. A very … Continue reading →

May 25-26Warm The adventure begins. First stop: Florence aka Firenze – and the lathe sinkhole Florence Italyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence SFO to Heathrow and then Gatwick to Florence. Gatwick is a dump, especially before security. We are staying right along the Arno, the … Continue reading →

May 20. Rain Early departure, required, from the ship. Then a day in Seward before boarding the scenic evening train to Anchorage. SeaLife center, aquarium, marine study place, hosts an aviary with among other species, tufted and horned puffins, two … Continue reading →

May 19 Highlight of the cruise is a visit to Hubbard glacier. Morning visit with full narration via the PA system. Once again a spectacularly clear day. Each day we were told how unusual not to have rain, or just … Continue reading →

May 18 Very early departure from the boat. A trip by train and bus to the Yukon and back. SKAGWAY, ALASKA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skagway,_Alaska Advertised as an excursion, scenic, requiring a passport as it goes into Canada. Scenery and wildlife. Number one … Continue reading →

May 17 Colder and raining JUNEAU, ALASKA Second largest city in the USA  (by area) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneau,_Alaska Shuttle ride to Tongas national forest, under control of Dept of agriculture. Tanner’s haves no guns. A smaller but interesting glacier with a good … Continue reading →