ollienbertsmum

If you have actually emailed them, I would suspect that is a ‘no’. I don’t go up that side of the Rock to notice.

Been 7 times pre and post-cruise, experience s that I have not been robbed in Barcelona. BCN is one of my favourite cities. I did have my purse stolen by a taxi driver in Malaga. It can happen anywhere.

Those caterpillars are amazing. I am glad that you do not have to kill them. The insect population is so threatened by pesticides and by loss of habitat. Even if my lettuces do not do so well, I feel that the environment is winning. I actually completed my PhD two weeks before I retired. I wrote two reports that I signed as Dr Bear rather than Mrs. I did not need the qualification for my job and I could not use it for promotion. Now the only person that calls me Dr Bear is my nail technician! I am however happy that I did it. It was one of those ‘personal challenge’ things. It would have been easier to do a marathon.

Welcome to the world of no more weekends and Bank Holidays. I have almost completed my first year and love it. Before I left work people were asking ‘but what will you do with yourself??’ There were times that I wondered if they were right and that I would be bored. They were so wrong. To be honest I could spend my days at home and never go out. However I now have so much more time for my family, which is precious to me. I walk eldest’s dog, I meet girls for lunch once a week, I have time to cook a family supper, I have time to babysit my cute nephew occasionally, I now have a balcony (tiny) full of plants, I can go swimming/walks more often and I can visit my elderly parents more than just annually. They really are getting frail and I might have to stay for much longer periods, but I least I can. One of my current obsessions is with caterpillars. I don’t like them eating my lettuces but cannot kill them. I have bought a cage and feed them. I watch them change over time and release them (hopefully to fly away from MY lettuces) once they emerge from their cocoons. At first I was disappointed that I keep getting moths and not butterflies, but actually they are equally interesting. Now would I have had time to do that with a full-time job??? And now my sister has given me a new obsession. An App called Merlin. It is free from Cornell lab. It helps you identify birds around you, the easy way is by bird song. We mostly get gulls, but it is surprising listening out to how many sparrows, swifts and doves we have around. Life is so interesting this side of work. I hope you feel the same.

Been watching the cricket and see how hot it looks at Trent Bridge. I think we are fortunate that we get sea breezes and can bathe when it is this hot - although A/C is becoming more common (not for me, I hate it).

I did not realise how expensive it is getting - and how long the waits are for some people. To be honest, if the wait is over an hour, I think skip the queue and get a taxi. For other times there are the skywalk (Not sure if it is included in the nature reserve cost or if it is only included in the Gibraltar Pass), the Windsor Bridge, Princess Caroline’s Battery. If you are local you can get into these places by showing your ID. We do it regularly - when it is not baking hot the Mediterranean Steps are a great alternative to the gym. If you are fit and your ship is in port for at least 6 hours, that is a great way to visit Gibraltar.

It is still June. It is really hot now in the southern med. OnTV they were showing Royal Ascot saying that it was baking there. However rain stopped play at the women’s Ashes. I think that was a little further north. Just book your holiday and take an umbrella- you will need it for the sun or rain.

and that will be easy. If you like walking you could easily walk from St Peters to Trevi. Don’t miss the Pantheon.

Hank I want you to travel forever. I love your wise advice.

I think that what you need to establish is when your DH says that he wants to visit the Vatican, does he want to visit the museum or St Peters or both. On our first visit to Rome we took a ship tour, this included the Vatican but only St Peter’s basilica and square. We were well happy. I was just excited to be in the Square. We also had Trevi fountain, a taster of the Roman forum and the Colosseum included. We have been to the Vatican museum in a subsequent trip, taking the train to St Peter’s station with early tickets. That worked well with lunch in Piazza Navona which was a lovely way to spend an hour or so. You can walk through St Peters Square and go on to visit a number of other iconic locations. I don't think that nowadays you can avoid security in any of the big Basilicas but they do not all require the same queues as St Peters. I recall being impressed with St John Lateran, I always try to fit in Santa Maria Maggiore before going back from Termini Station. Santa Maria del Popolo is a wonderful church for art (I think it only opens in the morning) but takes out a smaller part of your day. The Pantheon is also fabulous. One of our days included a late lunch at a restaurant right opposite the Pantheon. Sitting eating opposite an inscription that basically said ‘Marcus Agrippa built this’ is a memory I have forever. We had two glasses of wine so went back to the station in a taxi and had ice cream at Civitavecchia. I enjoy Trevi fountain on every trip. What I am trying to say is that you cannot do everything in one port day, but you can do things that are a little off-piste and still enjoy the treasures of Rome.

We live in the Southern Med and we dont have a/c. However on our first cruise, on a tour of Rome my DH got a horrible heat rash that meant he had to forego Pompeii the next day. That was July. Being used to the heat does not even make you immune. We did go on to have more July cruises though. Female members of the party carried umbrellas. Really helped. When DH retired from his career in teaching we went in October/November. I would recommend but know that not everyone can do that. There were still crowds in October though. You cannot avoid them, you are one of them 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think the cruise lines have got to be clearer where the cruise goes from. They do not go from Venice, they should not say that they do. As you found out Bologna is closer to Ravenna than Venice. We stayed in Bologna for two days prior to our cruise and it worked well for us. Ljubljana is closer to Trieste than Venice or Treviso airports!

Last time I was in Barcelona was back in 2016. I recall something similar to that in Trieste last month. That is that staff help you hand in your luggage, checking that you have the correct labels. However we walked with our luggage from the taxi to luggage drop. On disembarking allof the luggage was laid out for us to collect ourselves. Those using shuttles to and from the airport may have had more help. On our return at Venice Marco Polo we saw a good number of cruisers being guided through the airport. I cannot recall seeing anyone with mountains of luggage. not sure how helpful that was.

Sorry to hear how much of a mess the last part of your journey was. I think airlines work much tighter schedules when it comes to staff rosters and then when they exceed hours it becomes their undoing. I bought air tags and have as yet have had no reason to use them. My iphone 8 gives fairly basic location so no good for keys around the house etc. I am curious to know if your air tags have actually helped you track your luggage.

Was this a Flix bus? Are you sure there were no restrooms? I thought that when we were half way between Trieste and Venice, then I saw someone getting up and going downstairs. I realized there were toilets. Flooding was not expected. Closed train lines are not going to happen regularly because of flooding.

Ok so I had not thought about the public bus, it would have got you to Piran in-the same way as the so called Hoho. It was not really a hoho because it just took you to Piran and picked you up 2 hours later. I was on my own and appreciated the commentary from the guide. Not sure if I mentioned on this thread or another, had I seen the tours available I would definitely have gone for the Lippizaner visit. Choosing between Ljubljana and Bled would be hard. Can you do both? I think our cruise may have covered them In Rijeka port stop as well. I actually think Ljubljana is winking at me for a long weekend, only problem is that we can’t get direct flights

Have you posted about this cruise. I went to Japan in 2016 and would love to dream about going back 😃

Thanks for the pictures. I think that you did my “cruise that never was” which was a June 2020 on Iona (aft cabin for the first time ever) that never happened. I put the money back from the cruise into Premium Bonds and so far have won £225! I sort of made up for it by going to Tromso in February with youngest for her 30th birthday. We had a brilliant time and saw northern lights on 3 different nights. DH and I went on a cruise to Croatia and Slovenia last month. It actually made me determined to go back to the fjords but on a land tour. What I enjoyed in Tromso was not having to keep an eye on the time for sailaway. Maybe I noticed it more since I have retired. Hope you are not feeling the heat too much. I visited my parents in Nottinghamshire over the weekend and it was hot. Heat and houses with carpets do not go well together.

Thanks for posting. Brings back memories of our cruise in 2018.

We went from Venice airport last month after a cruise ending in Trieste - but chose a 7 pm flight. Busy, because it was friday but not chaos. We could easily have got there for a 1 pm or later flight. You could try going from bologna (which was our arrival airport, but we wanted to see Bologna. You would have to go for a late flight - takes more than 4 hours by train from Trieste.

Not sure if you can see from the screenshot but the supermarket Pam, just up from the train station (and bus station) was well stocked and only about 1.5 km from the port. We were there for one and half days and did not see much better for wine or groceries. I liked Trieste as an embarkation port because it was quiet.

I have replied about this before. We have got off the NCL Epic (which is always scheduled to arrive at 6 am ) among the first passengers. For us the crucial factor, apart from an early alarm, was to have snacks in our room so we did not need to waste time in the breakfast buffet. We took fruit and cakes from the buffet the previous day.

We walked to the train station. It was completely flat. Really easy and just about 1 km. There were some people struggling with the journey- those with large suitcases (not us, I have listened toRick Steves multiple times) and those with 4 wheeler luggage.