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Those ravioli look delish! And much healthier than my dinner. I wanted to cook something new today but couldn't find any inspiring cuts of meat at the grocery store. So it was going to be pork chops for dinner. Until I came up with the idea of making one of my favorite German dishes, pork schnitzel in a creamy mushroom sauce. I've seen it called either Rahmschnitzel or Jägerschnitzel. Not sure which is more correct. I suspect that the version that I make incorporates traditional elements of both. So I pounded the chops out a little thinner, coated them with salt, pepper, and paprika incorporated into a bit of mustard, then fried them and kept them warm in the oven while making the sauce. Onions and lots of mushrooms fried in butter, add flour, and then (homemade duck) broth to make a gravy. Put the chops back in and rest in the oven while I went to step two... A dish like this begs for Spätzle. But we didn't have any. So I made them from scratch. Flour, eggs, milk, and salt came together into a nice dough. After I got the water boiling, I squeezed the dough backwards through the coarse holes of a cheese grater (the side that you use to shred mozzarella) into the boiling water. They were cooked within a few minutes and ready to eat. Lastly, I stirred some sour cream into the mushroom gravy and dinner was served! The reason that I think this is a combination of the two recipes is because Rahm means cream, and Jäger means "hunter" (as in, hunting for mushrooms in the woods ) so this recipe incorporates both elements. I first tried it for lunch in Trier, as part of a combination schnitzel plate. Half was served with a creamy mushroom sauce and the other half with a spicy pepper and onion sauce called "Zigeuner" Schnitzel. I have been hooked ever since. The homemade Spätzle were great. Irregular and rustic but delicious, and they went well with the mushroom gravy. After this I'm not sure that I will want to buy the ready-made ones again.

Glad you're eating well on the journey home! We will wave to you in 2 weeks when we fly by on our way to Helsinki.

Great itinerary! We have driven ourselves around all of those places and are available for hire... 😉

Yay for Chef Pia! She taught me the easy way to make Kaiserschmarrn. She always feeds us too well.

The "scenic lookouts" are always easier to spot in that direction..

The Darien Jungle stop (October 2013, on Explorer) claimed our cameras, when we got caught in a somewhat unexpected rainstorm. Luckily our cell phones were more waterproof... Looking forward to your visit and pictures.

Les, on our Spirit cruise in November 2021, the black ties never appeared. Others have posted here that they appeared well in advance. Sounds like your guess is as good as mine (well, probably better).

Hope all goes well and the news is positive, DW.

Working for me too, DW. Must be someone messing with the Transatlantic cable...

That looks really interesting. A shame if it's not as well-prepared as it could be.

I've done 6 expeditions cruises on SS. Dress runs the gamut. Either option would be fine for dinner. I've done sweaters and blazers on different occasions. Or a more casual button-down worn over a t-shirt. Sweaters are more useful than a blazer, because a sweater can be an extra layer under your parka if needed. But a blazer would be festive over the Holidays for sure. Knowing me, I'd probably bring one of each. And a festive tie too. We're just trying to help ease your anxiety about the weight limits. And I've been on plenty of expedition cruises so I'm speaking from experience. So from the perspective of someone who's done a lot or expedition cruises: you don't need as much as you might think. Layers make up for almost anything. But that's hard to believe until you find out for yourself, usually after overpacking a few times. We used to be overpackers as well, so I get where you're coming from...I guess it's anxiety-provoking either way. Your choice seems to be whether to worry that you've not packed enough, or worry that you're too close to the weight limit (or over). I hope you all have a great cruise!

I thought we were talking about the Dawn? 😉

If you had stopped in Albany on your way up, I had some extra Loonies and Toonies that I could have given you!

Sorry to read of your loss but glad to know that you're back on Uniworld next year. We haven't been on a Uniworld ship since 2017 and we miss it. Hope it's a great trip! In Brussels, you could look at Hotel Amigo which is right next to Grand Place. It's a Rocco Forte property - we've stayed in a few of their hotels now and they have all been very nice. I think I booked it through my Amex Platinum card for some extra perks like free breakfast though I can't remember that part of it at all. The hotel was convenient to everything that we wanted to see in Brussels and it was an easy walk to/from the train station which had a direct connection to the airport.

Glad you're safely on board and looking forward to your updates!

The man's stuff is probably also good for the dog, so it's really 7-in-1.

We didn't notice much difference between our November 2021 cruise on Spirit, vs our memories of other pre-COVID cruises. That said, the ship wasn't full so that may have made a difference. We'll have to see what our expedition on Silver Wind is like in June. Definitely NOT a fan of the included excursions on the classic cruises, for a pumped-up fare. We can usually do twice what they offer for half the price, on our own. And the D2D doesn't hold much appeal for us either. So these changes may affect how many or few future bookings we make, especially if they become permanent.

Enjoy it! I'd say, "Stay dry!" but that could be taken the wrong way...

Wow. That was fast.

For a monthly subscription fee, of course!

Hey @Lois R, we grabbed a bottle of Barr Hill gin yesterday and tried it in a G&T. The honey flavor was intense and very enjoyable. It went well with a Mediterranean tonic but I bet it would be great in other cocktails too. Looking forward to enjoying the rest, and thanks for the recommendation!

Gnome12, just saw your reply as I was typing mine, so apologize for the duplication The destination definitely matters as well. For example, if you're going to Lyon the trains leave from Gare de Lyon. There are a number of major train stations in Paris - Gare du Nord, Gare de Lyon, Gare Montparnasse, Gare de l'Est, and several others. The closest train station may not be the one you need to get to, depending on where you want to go. Have a look at the French train website (https://www.sncf-connect.com/) and check some itineraries for where you want to go, and where those trains leave from. Also if you've never taken trains in France, The Man in Seat 61 has great information about trains in Europe and beyond. Here is the part of his website dealing with trains in France: https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-france.htm

Looks like an open-and-shut case of Peyronie's disease to me.

Air travel is a complete mess right now. I always book my own air just to "keep control" but it's been such a headache lately. Have spent a busy few weeks keeping up with itinerary changes. We fly to Finland next month. Last week KLM suddenly canceled the last leg of our journey, from AMS to HEL. So now we have an 8-hour layover in AMS to look forward to. And we get to Helsinki 6+h later than we thought we would. Well, I guess Schipol is lovely this time of year... If we could trust that we could get back in on time we'd hop the train to the city for lunch. But I'm not confident about that plan. And today I got an email about the air we've booked for our March cruise, Bali to Singapore. Korean Air has changed the flight schedule of their JFK-ICN leg, so our nice connection from JFK-ICN-DPS just evaporated, and now we have exactly zero minutes to make the connection in ICN. Guess that won't work very well! Luckily AMEX was efficient today and it only took 20 minutes on the phone to get that changed. But instead of a leisurely 12N Saturday departure from JFK, we now have to finish work Friday, drive to JFK that night, and leave at 12:50AM Saturday (late Friday night). And now we have a 10-hour connection in ICN. Oh well. We get to Bali 90 minutes earlier than we were originally scheduled... I'm checking things frequently because I'm sure that these will not be the last changes.

Agree, Valencia is hard to visit by cruise ship. Too big and too spread out. At least SS had a shuttle to/from the Old City which helped significantly.