4/24/2010 Med cruise: Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your Ears

[auntlynne]

...When I first went to China, it was not uncommon to find just one long drain in the ground and partitions spaced apart with NO doors. You just do your business and go. ...No toilet paper either.

1995 China - ditto. Although at the tourist locations, they were troughs made of tile. Clean. But still...

 

[Becx N Gav]

Hi everyone,

Just found out that my partner and I will be on this cruise. We'll actually be covering it for the site - so it's kind of a 'working cruise' for us, but somehow we'll muddle thru The timing is great on this as my partner, Walter, is turning 50 just before we leave. He better remember this when my 50th rolls around

If enough people are interested, I'd be interested in throwing a party on the ship for all the DIS'ers and their friends who'll be joining us. If it's something you'd be interested in, just post here so I can get an idea of how many will join us and we'll set it up.

Look forward to meeting some of you in Europe!!

Pete

We'll be there Pete

Okay, I think I got the roll call up to date with what I have.

Lynne, count us in on the FEs. Any idea when the final total will be in? As in- will it be in before we leave for Morocco on March 6th, or will everyone just have to settle for Philadelphia related gifts?

We have nothing done for this cruise. Nothing planned besides one tour out of Naples. This is so unlike me. I wasn't even this disorganized when we cruised while dh was in Afghanistan. Even with our youngest ds having surgery and being sick, that trip went like clockwork. This one, not so good.

Julie

Hi Julie, thanks for adding us in I'm not sure if it's important or not but DH's Disboards name is Gav N Becx (the opposite of mine!) but if it's easier to keep him under mine that is cool too. I'll have to get him to post on here at some point.

Here are two banners:

Lynne, these are all awesome Thanks for getting these looking so cool

Lynne, thanks for the all the images and for our personalised name tags. I think the one on the right is a bit more balanced.

Any idea how to make the banner be displayed at say 80% so that it doesn't take up my whole post!

With different sizing if you
copy and paste the image into word
then highlight the picture
go to the bottom right corner of the picture and you get the diagonal arrow when you hover over it, click and drag and it should shrink the image and keep the width height ratio

I hope everyone had a good weekend? We spent a little time looking at the DCL excursions and I think we have our shortlist.

Valletta - we're going to have a wander round by ourselves.

Tunis - still deciding which tour to do, I think we will do a half day DCL one.

Naples - train to Pompei and just see what it's like, I'm not sure if we'll want to tour the whole day so may just see certain parts we like the look of (need to get a guide book)

Civitavecchia - train to Rome and just take in the sights, again we'll probably spend a few hours there.

La Spezia - DCL Pisa, I think this will be the easiest option for us and it will be nice to have a tour of some sort on the vacation.

Ajaccio - DCL - still deciding which tour we'd like to do.

Villefranche - a day on the ship we figured if we ever have the urge to see the south of France we'll do a week there at some point.

We're hoping to have quite a relaxing trip but I didn't want to pass up the oppertunity to see some of Italy, Malta, Corsica and Tunisia while we are there - I think we'd be less likely to do those places independently.

We booked our flights yesterday, my Dad can take us to and from the airport as he lives really close and it will save us paying for parking We're flying early Saturday morning and in the afternoon coming home - we should have plenty of time each way in case of delays/traffic etc.
We've paid for one bag and next weekend we'll do a dummy run of the clothes we think we'll take and see how heavy it is (we can have up to 32kg - over 70 pounds - which I can't even lift!) if it's too heavy or we can't fit in enough we can get an extra bag added. I think we'll be good though as we have a huge bag and can pack some things in our hand luggage. I'll also be doing laundry once or twice.

 

[auntlynne]

...We booked our flights yesterday, my Dad can take us to and from the airport as he lives really close and it will save us paying for parking We're flying early Saturday morning and in the afternoon coming home - we should have plenty of time each way in case of delays/traffic etc. ...

Do you fly out of Birmingham? London Heathrow? or Northampton itself?

 

[Becx N Gav]

Do you fly out of Birmingham? London Heathrow? or Northampton itself?

We're going out of Stanstead which is north of London and flying back into Luton again north of London - they tend to both serve European and internal destinations. We're only about an hour south of Birmingham so could have gone for that but we'd have had to get a train to/from or park there. Northampton doesn't have a big airport - just for leisure flights on small aircrafts.

Have you been to the UK?

 

[auntlynne]

I was fortunate to spend 2+ weeks there in May 2008 with my brother, sister-in-law, sister & 3 of her daughters (aged 17, 15 & 12.5 yo at the time).

After a quick stay in London (2 nights), we headed over to Stroud, Gloucestershire. Rented 2 cottages and took day trips to Bath, Blenheim Palace, Tintern Abbey...Then it was up to the Lake District. We had a house in Boot, about 7 miles from Wasdale. One week each in Stroud and Boot.

Great fun. Still miss the strawberries and Channel Island cream yogurt from Tesco. Can't get yogurt that good here in the US.

 

[Becx N Gav]

I was fortunate to spend 2+ weeks there in May 2008 with my brother, sister-in-law, sister & 3 of her daughters (aged 17, 15 & 12.5 yo at the time).

After a quick stay in London (2 nights), we headed over to Stroud, Gloucestershire. Rented 2 cottages and took day trips to Bath, Blenheim Palace, Tintern Abbey...Then it was up to the Lake District. We had a house in Boot, about 7 miles from Wasdale. One week each in Stroud and Boot.

Great fun. Still miss the strawberries and Channel Island cream yogurt from Tesco. Can't get yogurt that good here in the US.

Some lovely parts of the country - in fact I was watching a show about Tintern Abbey yesterday You guys certainly packed in a lot of places, I need to see more of my own 'back yard' I've never been to Wales and have only seen Glasgow in Scotland
Yes the Channel Island products are yummy that and clotted cream from Cornwall / Devon - it's just a shame they are bad for you On the whole though I have to say I prefer American desserts / cakes / brownies, the grass is always greener eh?!

 

[auntlynne]

I'll trade you - you can have our desserts, which are too sweet for my liking. But I don't think I'd give up our kitchen appliances - we never could get the stovetops (or ovens) hot enough - couldn't grill a steak to save our lives. The first place had one of those always hot slabs of metal for a heating surface. In the lake district, it was all modern appliances that just couldn't cut it.

But we loved the fact that no matter where we were driving, we could stop at a petrol station or an M&S (love them!) market on the motorways and get great sandwiches. They could leave off the rocket, though (baby arugula - a little too peppery).

 

[auntlynne]

Tintern Abbey:

Niece Karen in the Abbey (reviewing pics on her camera):

...

 

[Brooklyn]

Hi everyone! I feel like I have not been on this thread in forever. You guys are moving quicker now through the pages.

Let me see if I got this right...

Lanyards - Lynne you are providing these?

FE - We are doing a gift exchange?

Anything else I am missing?

Thanks for the info!!!

 

[TheCruisers]

Please add us to the FE's list.

Eleasa, DH Jim and DS Raine (8) GTY

Thanks
Eleasa

 

[guynwdm]

Ok, I am now ready to think about this trip. I just got back from WDW for a week and am ready to think and get things planned for this trip. I am trying to figure out what my Dad would enjoy tour wise. I want to make sure he has something he will enjoy and not be frustrated between the language and his being so hard of hearing. I am thinking of just booking through the cruiseline than trying to do something on my own. Convenience is overriding the budget at this time. At least the post stay in DL paris is booked. I am going to try and keep up on the posts better now.

WDW was cold, I had to scrape frost off the windshield of the rental car. The plant damage is very easy to see in the parks. Some animals were not out in AK due to the temps.

Can't wait to meet everyone!! just 67 days!!

 

[carpenta]

Ok, I am now ready to think about this trip. I just got back from WDW for a week and am ready to think and get things planned for this trip. I am trying to figure out what my Dad would enjoy tour wise. I want to make sure he has something he will enjoy and not be frustrated between the language and his being so hard of hearing. I am thinking of just booking through the cruiseline than trying to do something on my own. Convenience is overriding the budget at this time.
just 67 days!!

Just a note: the previous tours in Pompeii and Rome we were given headsets for narration by the tour guide. The guides spoke very good english and your dad could control the volumn. The Amalfi coast drive is scenic and not stressful. Some Rome tours can be a lot of walking and the tour we took in Florence that guide was an Olympic walk racer at the speed she covered ground. Most everyone spoke English if not well enough to converse easily. Hope this helped.

 

[guynwdm]

Just a note: the previous tours in Pompeii and Rome we were given headsets for narration by the tour guide. The guides spoke very good english and your dad could control the volumn. The Amalfi coast drive is scenic and not stressful. Some Rome tours can be a lot of walking and the tour we took in Florence that guide was an Olympic walk racer at the speed she covered ground. Most everyone spoke English if not well enough to converse easily. Hope this helped.

Thanks for the heads up on those. I have already told my dad he needs to hit the mall everyday and walk to get ready for the trip. Sometimes headsets help and sometimes they make things worse. About 85% of his hearing is gone so it is hard to know how those things will work. We had good success on the canal cruise so I am optimistic.

I do know from experience that "rigorous" excursions mean different things. I am flashing back to a zip line experience that was about a 4 hour hike in the mountains. I was thinking more just sliding down, they did not mention that you had to hike up. I survived but about 1/3 quit half way through. I knew I was in trouble when you had to rock climb up about half way through the trip.

 

[goofprincess]

Make FE fun. Not a chore. It can be quite fun trying to find a little something to share with others.

 

[goofprincess]

i had to change from "friends....lend me your ears" to incorporate the vitruvian mickey; but i think this looks pretty good for name tags. You should be able to see someone's name without having to get in the "personal space."

looking good

 

[goofprincess]

What version of Bejeweled are you playing?

I think I have Bejeweled 2 on my itouch.

I play it on my phone and now Tony "borrows" my phone to play He already took over my cafe and has our "dog" farming with a friend's pet cat.

 

[auntlynne]

After all the banter about Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, I started playing yesterday. Got the 25k, 50k, and 100k medals, then right back to a 17k round. I will master that game.

Off to work on a B2B logo for shirts, magnets, whatever.

Any requests - round, rectangular, really big for the front/back? a pocket size design?


Lynne

 

[Becx N Gav]

I do know from experience that "rigorous" excursions mean different things. I am flashing back to a zip line experience that was about a 4 hour hike in the mountains. I was thinking more just sliding down, they did not mention that you had to hike up. I survived but about 1/3 quit half way through. I knew I was in trouble when you had to rock climb up about half way through the trip.

Wow Rob - scary stuff I know I would refuse to try and climb anything (well maybe stairs ) but to have to scale rocks - no way

I do hope you are able to find something suitable for your father.

Thanks Lynne for the cool logos - I've just managed to get it into my signature If anyone wants the link (it's from my Flickr page) to the small image let me know

I spent last night looking at Rome - we're trying to keep our spending down (famous last words ) so I was looking at what you can see just walking around. I think we have enough to keep us occupied for a few hours and take in some of the major sights. I may visit our library and have a look at guide books (I'm not going to buy one for a few day trips). I may purchase a map or see if I can find a detailed one on line.

 

[shushh]

If anyone wants the link (it's from my Flickr page) to the small image let me know

Yes please!

 

[Becx N Gav]

Yes please!

Hi, I just sent a PM