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Found it and had a laugh over my morning coffee. Thanks Lola!

I just learned from Voldemort that one of our favorite naturalists, Robin Aiello, passed away on Friday. We cruised with her to Svalbard back in 2011. Her energy and enthusiasm for her work was contagious. And she was a great zodiac driver as well! I hope that some of you got to travel with her on expeditions in the past. Our favorite story from the Svalbard cruise. The ship was anchored off Kvitoya Island but we couldn't land because of a Polar Bear sighting. So Robin took us to the rocky shore and maneuvered the zodiac so that all of us could touch the rocks, and thus we could say that we had touched Kvitoya Island. Recap here: From her brother: Dear Friends of Robin I am Robin's brother. At Robin’s request I am posting a message from her to all of you. As many of you knew, Robin had extensive open heart surgery over 12 years ago. It was a miracle she survived it then, and afterwards she continued on with her most amazing life of which each of you was a part. She always knew that her heart might suddenly fail at any time, and yet lived each day to the fullest. Our dear Robin passed away suddenly and unexpectedly from her heart condition on January 13, 2023 while staying at our home. Robin specifically wrote that she does not want a funeral. She wanted each of us "to celebrate her life in their own special way." She left a message to be posted on her page in case this ever happened. I have posted it below. My family thanks each of you for sharing in Robin's life, bringing joy to her world and making it the incredibly special existence that it was. From Robin to all: "My dearest friends - I have loved you with all my heart, and will miss laughing and crying with you. But I will still be here for you when you need me - just look out to the ocean and know that I am close and that I am still loving you. Thank you for being such an amazing collection of souls, each with your own special spirits that have added so much to my life. It has been an amazing life, and I have loved every minute (well, almost every minute). Do not cry - but instead, find something really funny and have a massive belly laugh - I will hear you and laugh along with you. Be well, stay well and know that you still have a friend 'out there' who loves you very much!"

Are you closer to Québec than Montréal? We have loved QC every time, and might even prefer it over Montréal, but it's a much longer drive for us.

It's OK M. I'll rent my Schwab ATM card to you.

So yesterday afternoon we drove to Montréal for dinner and an overnight. Tuesday was Chris's birthday but I was on call this week so our celebration was low-key. The weather was fine until the border. The last part was on seemingly unplowed roads but the Audi handled it well. Checked into our favorite, Hotel Nelligan, in the Old Town just a block from Notre Dame. This is one of the reasons we like the hotel! They had treats for us. Just the thing after a 3h30 drive. We went out to see the sights before dinner. Some funky star-shaped lights in the Place d'Armes. With changing colors. Over to Place Jacques Cartier for another pretty view. Rue Saint-Paul was decorated in a festive way. Back to the hotel to change for dinner. Happy Birthday, better late than never! A French 75 to start this off. We ate dinner at Restaurant Bonaparte. Food was great. Mushroom ravioli in sage sauce. I had foie gras. Yum! They have a great wine list. We went for something unusual - a red Sancerre, but made from 100% Pinot Noir rather than Cab Franc. It was lighter bodied but flavorful. Mains were a veal chop for me, and duck breast for Chris. Fantastic and not too huge a portion. Dessert? Their apple pie looked like a tarte tatin. We shared. We had more dessert in the room then wandered again to burn a few calories. This morning we slept in until after 7:00 before having breakfast and one last stroll around town. Place Jacques Cartier looks pretty by day as well. We stopped by an Italian épicerie in town before we left. Much smaller than Eataly, but great prices. So we stocked up. An easy drive home on clear roads. There was a long line at the border but our Global Entry cards allow us to use the Nexus lane when returning to the US. So, no wait. Now home thinking about a run on the treadmill before dinner... Not as much fun as yesterday but very much needed!

Agree; the Charles Schwab card works well overseas and in 5+ years of using it all over the place, they have meticulously refunded every cent of ATM fees. BoA is getting better; in many locations they do provide totally free ATM withdrawals, but their international network doesn't have the blanket coverage that Schwab does. Jazz - Ouch! Feel better.

NH probably means "not helpful" 😉

Amazing, DW. Enjoying the pictures immensely. We saw a glimpse of this in our week there. Agree that you're getting a much more immersive experience!

Enjoyed reading about your adventure so far! Good luck crossing the Circle and hope for more landings. Glad you are enjoying our favorite ship!

@Host Jazzbeau, I think Lirio is on a self-guided land trip. We visited Chrishchurch in 2008 pre-earthquake, on Oceania. We docked in Lyttleton where it was easy to get a public bus to ChCh. We also visited the Antarctic Center on our own. When we visited, they had a shuttle bus that would pick you up from downtown and take you to the Center. It ran in a loop on a regular basis. I don't see any info on their website about this now, though. You might ask them if they still offer that service, if you have another way to get to ChCh. Or perhaps take a public bus to the airport and walk 5 minutes to the Center. Otherwise, Google says it's 1h28 from Akaroa by car. Sounds like a pain - hope you can work something out because it's a fun place to visit. It set the table nicely for our Antarctica cruise the following year.

Agree w Stumble. And w Fauxnom. When Chris got Covid in September she was immediately positive by antigen test. I had symptoms too but tested negative for 5 days in a row. Finally gave up and got a PCR. Positive. So get the virus and get your positive PCR ASAP. If you wait and get sick later, you're sunk.

Bumbles bounce!

Guess they mean business...can't have those carry ons multiplying unexpectedly! Glad you're having a fun time so far.

Add in the fertilizer for an additional fee?

If anyone wants to chip in for the plane fare, I'll hand-deliver a few cases to Whisper

Cause for mutiny.

Sorry rojaan, we're at ALB, not ABY. And there are no flights from ALB-JFK! We usually drive there (about 3h) when we fly out of Kennedy. So JFK-LAX-SYD-MCY?

Having met all 4 of you in person, I can say that you'd have a fantastic time together! Too bad we couldn't be there too for that meeting.

Great perspective. We have been to the other 3, just have not visited Stockholm yet. If that's the best of the 4, we will hope to visit soon! We spent 3 days in Berlin on our own, and still could have used more time. So I'd be frustrated with a long bus ride each way, for a short overview in return - if it were my first visit to Berlin. You could certainly do a targeted visit to a part of the city in that time frame. But just as I wouldn't try to pretend that it's adequate to "see" Paris as a day trip from Le Havre, "seeing" Berlin from Warnemünde seems challenging.

We could bring tons of luggage, if we wanted to (missed Diamond status on DL by $27 this year, but Platinum is very nice). It's just easier not to. No waiting for baggage at Heathrow last week while the baggage handlers were on strike. Easy to take the tube to our hotel. It does come in handy when we want to check a few suitcases full of wine on the way home, though! But the luggage allowances are over the top. When we flew business class to Helsinki in November we could have each brought 3 checked bags of 32kg, plus two carry-on bags, plus a personal item. I'd have to buy more clothes in order to have that much to bring! Apologies to Mysty for dragging this way OT.

We bought smaller rollaboard bags recently. Just so we could enjoy the challenge!

On a SS cruise, that's like every 2 hours?

I can tell you that Helsinki was great to visit. We were just there in November and spent 3 nights. Compact and cute city with great restaurants and a pleasant sea front (even in the chilly weather). There's an offshore island Suomenlinna, a 10-minute ferry ride from the harbor, with pleasant walking paths and the ruins of an old fort. The town is easy to cover in about a half day. One of the days that we were in Helsinki, we took the ferry to Tallinn and spent about 5h there. Plenty to see and do, and I wouldn't have minded another hour or two. Charming medieval old town with city walls, great architecture, and nice viewpoints from the upper town. Copenhagen is well-known and worth some time exploring. It would take more than a day to do so, or at least one very long packed day. We spent a few days there independently back in 2018. We will be back in Helsinki in June to embark on our next SS cruise. Very much looking forward to a little more time there, in a different season. I don't know the other ports on your itinerary. I have visited Ronne once, in January (21 years ago) for a wedding. So my memory just may have been clouded by the amount of intoxicating substances which were consumed. I do remember my siblings deciding that it was a good idea to swim in the Baltic. I stayed out!

Once you let the Albanians in, no telling what happens! (PS nothing against people from the country of Albania; we here in Albany jokingly refer to ourselves as "Albanians" too). Also sorry to hear the news about rkacruiser. Lois, thanks for sharing.

It's a three-pie minimum, I hear! 🥧🍷 🥧🍷 🥧🍷