jpalbny

I like my Bombas far too much to leave them out on a chair!

Je suis trop occupé en riant pour écrire une réponse. L'équipe ici est très amusant! Thanks for the laughs everyone. Those socks have a life of their own!

She's adorable! But where have I seen that mouth before? Separated at birth?

How interesting! On my laptop I have video but no audio. But yeah I get both on my android phone.

Well, Chris likes gardens quite a bit, so they always make it to her to-do list. When we spent a weekend in Frankfurt, we definitely visited the Palmengarten. Very nice. There's a Geldmuseum nearby vhich we enjoyed. And of course, Lohrberg is a wonderful place to spend an afternoon.

Have a great time and looking forward to following along! Your breakfast view is spectacular, and much nicer than mine as I'm getting ready to head in to work.

Thanks for taking one for the team, Fletcher! I've heard great things from people who have visited "Utopia" so maybe I'll heed your advice.

That's a very rational concern. Glad you're on the mend though.

When in doubt always take Stumble's name in vain!

One of our covid projects was a wine cellar. We used a contractor we'd used a few times before so his crew knew us well. When the project was done they bought us a bottle of that as a gag gift for the wine cellar! It's still aging in the cellar... Anyone know the optimal "drink-by' date?

I see what you did there but in spite of it, I enjoyed your post! Have another restful sea day tomorrow and eagerly awaiting your update post-Djibouti!

Hey now. We cut our teeth on that back in the '90s. When we were feeling like something extra special we went for the reserve!

No wonder I can pack less; I only do color blocks. They take up less room without the extra vowel.

Yes. It appears on board magically. And disappears just as magically once the wine list is inspected. Enjoy!

Looks like a nice itinerary! Haven't been on L'Austral yet so don't know the difference between the MDR and the Gastronomic Restaurant. Yes - we wear casual clothes around the ship all day. Even shorts and T-shirts are fine for dining in the MDR, if appropriate for the ambient weather. We were just in Indonesia with Ponant last month and it was hot, so casual clothing was appropriate. I've never turned the TV on in our stateroom in two Ponant cruises. But as an Anglophone who also speaks two other languages (not French), Chris has never felt out of place on Ponant. I can speak plenty of French if necessary, but it isn't a requirement. You can do just fine if you only speak English. @AussieBoyTX has a thread about this on these forums. I'm too lazy to search for it as it's too close to my bedtime... Jacket not required. Dockers and collared shirt are more than sufficient. Hope that you enjoy your cruise!

That pizza looks perfectly cooked to me. It's not beef, so let that fire rip, and cook it to well-done! A few charred spots are desirable. Ron, loved your humour about the name of the port and its resemblance to a well-known GI pest. And the Kinder throwing rocks. I would have joined them, being a big kid myself...

We sailed on River Beatrice (before she was upgraded to SS Beatrice) on a similar itinerary - Budapest to Passau. That was in 2016 so obviously things could be different now... Yes, the CD gave a talk about all the excursions as part of an overview on the first night. That was SOP on all of our Uniworld cruises. Hope you enjoy Uniworld as much as we have!

2 for 1 Zen is even better! And "Twilight Anesthesia" sounds like something that you should patent as a cure for jet lag. Off to make dinner but already looking forward to the next installment.

Glad that your adventure is off to a (mostly) great start! I hope it only gets better from here. Enjoy Explorer, our first introduction to SS back in 2009 and still a favorite.

Do you have a photo of his dinner jacket?

Ok, that's the church we climbed to. It's an enjoyable stop. More fun if you climb the stairs! 😉

The republic would crumble, if that were the case!

Tough choice! We love both cities so IMO you should concentrate on the place that you've not been. For London, have a look at the Hotel St. Pancras. I think it's a Renaissance property (or it was when we stayed there). The building is gorgeous and it's on top of the train station so catching the Eurostar is very simple. In fact if you book some room categories, they include an escort to the train station by hotel staff, who will put you in an express line to clear immigration faster. King's Cross - Saint Pancras is a major hub for the London Underground so you can get anywhere else in London very conveniently from there. When we took the Eurostar to Paris pre-cruise in 2018 we stayed at that hotel and enjoyed it. We went from London to Paris in the afternoon, leaving after a (late) checkout and arriving in Paris maybe 6PM. We had a nice dinner then flew out of CDG early to get to our cruise. But it would be just as easy to take the train in same-day. The Gard du Nord area (where the Eurostar arrives in Paris) isn't the nicest neighborhood but it was OK for one night. Enjoy whichever choice you settle on - it would be hard to make a bad choice here.

What do you do for the tour in Lamego? We stopped there for about two hours on our self-drive from Porto to Salamanca. We went to the old town near the castle and wandered there for a bit. Nice views from the castle, but not much of a "castle" per se. There was a cute little archaeology museum near by. Again, a quick stop. Then we went to another part of town and climbed the stairs all the way up to the Church of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios. Beautiful staircase with azulejos along the way. We didn't visit the church. There are some pictures of Lamego here: https://notadourocruise.blogspot.com/2019/11/day-6-along-douro-from-porto-to.html Don't know anything about the other option - sorry!

There was a thread about this just a short time ago. Consensus was that 11:15 was too early for a flight. Wouldn't recommend trying for an even earlier flight than that.