Think of all the joy you’ll find …….. Update - January 06

[englishrose47]

I would love to see your Pandora charms. I

They are gorgeous !!! Also loved all the pix and the food porn!!

 

[caroleRWO]

Hi Karin,
Started seriously planning our September WDW trip this weekend - seems so long since we were there "properly" having done the WBTA the last couple of years and only managing a very few days at the end of our trips. We have two weeks free dining at OKW and thought I need to read through some of your old trip reports and dining reviews to get some additional ideas. It seems like much has changed in the last couple of years so we´ll need to try some new places along with our old favourites.
So glad you had a better time on our home away from home the Disney Magic.
Your upcoming Summer trip looks amazing!

Carole, Mike & Jenny

 

[Pinkocto]

You are excused! You have been on vacation!

It's so hard to get back in the groove sometimes.

I guess the tour we are going to share with friends in Cartagena is going to be awesome as well.

I agree



and before I read the birthday update I want to comment on the Italy trip. The last church in Florence on the top of the hill looked absolutely gorgeous! Too bad about the horrible icecream though. How sad.

Love the pictures of Venice. I gave myself way too little time there, hopefully one day I can get back. Everything is just so beautiful. Too bad about the one meal taking so long because they didn't have enough people working, but at least it was tasty. The fish and fruit/vegetable markets look great. How can you resist buying when things are so fresh and pretty.

The drive back home was beautiful. That last meal with the lasagna and fish looked delicious! Thank you so much for sharing that trip with us sorry you had to cancel your U.S. trip but this looked like a magnificent replacement.

 

[Pinkocto]

Great day on Grand Cayman I was thinking I remembered the first part of the day and then I definitely remembered when I saw the glassed off portion of the floor in one of the shops. What a nice day. Stressful for your tour buddies waiting on their one tender... I'm so glad this trip was so much better than your first time on the Magic. I have not heard many good reviews about Cabanas for dinner, I'm glad it was a good meal.

 

[jedijill]

Catching up!

You really need to go back to Florence and spend more time! I spent 3 days and it wasn't enough...some amazing museums and history there!

I discovered the "A taste of" tours when I was in San Juan and they are awesome. Yours looks great...If I ever go back to GC I will book it for sure!

Jill in CO

 

[TigerTown]

We just got of the Fantasy a couple of weeks ago and also did the Taste of George Town tour. That pepper Jelly was amazing and I loved the spicy yellow sauce with the Roti! My wife loved the Tiramisu and has vowed to go back to eat at Casanova the next time we are in George Town.

 

[franandaj]

I had become so immersed in Italy I had forgotten what the original TR was about. I couldn't even remember which ship you were on! Thanks for the reminder. I had no idea they would do a TS for you at the buffet during dinner service!

 

[momof3princes]

All caught up! Thank you for taking us along on your European trip, I feel like I saw a lot of Italy I would never have seen otherwise. So many beautiful sights!
Loved the switch to the Magic cruise too Your food tour looked so interesting and delicious!
The Yuengling Lager Tom had on the ship? Yuengling is from my area, a couple towns away from where I live
You must be so excited to travel to WDW soon!

 

[kid-at-heart]

What a great trip report. Thank you so much for sharing. You and Tom seem to have a great sibling relationship. I wish I could convince my sisters to travel with me. I just looked at your fall 2016 travel dates. It looks like you are hitting WDW two days after I leave. Where are you staying in Sept? OKW?

Kate

 

[Teri1]

Here you go. This is my Disney one.

My "memories" one.

All the Murano beads come from Venice, Italy.​

My bracelet is full I am going to need another one.

 

[Teri1]

7

Day 11, August 26

On the way back home … - Part 2

Bags heavy we walked to one of the Vaporetto stops, but there was nowhere to buy a ticket, so we decided to just walk back to the hotel.
It was a nice leisurely walk

and when we passed one of the gelaterias, I got myself a small cup of

Cassata ice-cream. We sat on a bench opposite a church and I enjoyed my ice-cream.

But then it was time to really make a move on and head back to the hotel.

We got all our carry-ons and went down to the garage, where our car was already parked at the exit. So we just loaded our stuff in, tipped the parking attendant, got in and off we went. Soon we had left Venice

and found ourselves on the motorway.

We made great progress and when we got close to Latisana we decided that we had enough time to drive towards Lignano, as one of our favourite restaurants is on that street. Soon we stopped there and headed inside. Since it was a weekday there were just a few guests there

so we were sure lunch would not take to long. But then after a glance at the menu we knew we were in for a longer break. They had some yummy things on the menu and so Tom ordered the

Cozze alla Tarantina, mussels in hot tomato broth, while I ordered the

Lasagna al Forno, the meat lasagna. They were both really good and quite large portions. But we still had ordered a fish for our main course. Tom had ordered a

Branzino, which came with a side of Polenta and a

Mixed Salad. The whole fish looked mighty big and even after it had been fileted there was more than enough of it on Tom’s plate. My choice had been the whole

Sole, which was very yummy. We both worked hard, but neither of us was able to completely finish the fish. So, there was no way we would be able to fit in some dessert and we just paid the bill and headed back outside. On the way to the restaurant we had seen several farmers who had little booths next to their farms from where they sold vegetables and farm products. We stopped at one and got a whole watermelon, some baby zucchini, tomatoes and some cheese. Shopping done it was now really time to head home. Soon we were back on the motorway and driving towards the border to Austria.

The motorway winds between the mountains and the views are really pretty

and soon we had crossed the border

and were back in our home country. It was a beautiful day for driving and the traffic was pretty light, so we made good progress.
We stopped one more time to fill up the car and pick up a

coffee drink for Tom and an ice-cream cone for myself. Then we drove for another four hours

until we reached our home town and finally our home, where we unpacked the car and settled into every day life again.

FINALLY DONE!!!​

I really enjoyed all the pictures. What a great trip!

 

[jenseib]

I am caught up!!! I have been slowly reading a little bit each day.
Your Italy trip is just amazing. And I am now hungry.....
I totally forgot about Toms Birthday cruise. hahaha. Your food tour looks fun, though I think I wouldn't like a lot of the things offered. How did you find this particular tour? I do know it would be something Skip would like.

 

[Leshaface]

I'm FINALLY CATCHING UP! And feel free to not comment on everything I replied to, I was way behind.

What a gorgeous view!

We did and sat down and were handed a Spanish menu. We needed to flag down the server again and with a sigh he went to get an English menu. By now I was getting pretty annoyed with the server. I was done with it when he threw the menus on the table.

Yep I'd want to leave ASAP too.

How different is this?! Never thought of just piling on my normal side salad on top of my pizza! Great idea.

That is so cute and in such great condition.

We still had quite a few groceries and so we prepared our dinner ourselves.

I know I've said this multiple times, but I just love the way you guys have your meals. Such a nice, different spread you have! If we ever make it over there, make us a meal please!

Ugh how devastating. California is all too familiar with mud slides as well. They are so dangerous and disastrous.

I was at the edge of my seat, keeping my fingers crossed that no one would drive in our direction as the street was a one way street for quite some time.

I find that the older I get, the more nervous I become in the car. Especially if i'm in the passenger seat! I'd much rather be the driver than a passenger. But those one way roads, no thank you

What a view!

I love how modern this apartment is, wow!

And there you go with your meals again, jealous.

The architecture is stunning.

We could not believe our luck when we got on the bus and found several empty rows on the top deck.

Wow!

After a while we came across a poster that advertised the Hard Rock Café. Our meeting place for the walking tour was the Hard Rock Café, so we headed that way.

Hard Rock Cafe in Florence! I did not see that one coming

And our guide told us right away, that it was only the two of us and we were good to go

Wow your own private tour, how cool is that.

Yeah, i'd demand this to be our first stop!

How beautiful!

Imagine a wedding in here? Oh my

I walked over and finally someone arrived and told us that check in was closed for a few minutes as someone had fainted in the parking area and they were taking care of the emergency.

Yikes

one of the parking attendants and they told us that cars that were parked here overnight would be put up on the upper level of the stack garage, there was CCTV and the doors would be closed overnight, needless to say that cars on upper levels would be locked and the keys be put in the office.

The nervous nellie in me is coming out! What if there was an emergency at night and you had to leave the hotel?! Your car is stuck there until morning?!

Oh yeah, loving that showerhead.

That looks familiar! I love how close Disney got to making it in the Italy Pavilion.

We were up early again. Tom made some tea and we had a cup, then we went to have showers. Tom let me go first, as I still needed to wash my hair. I was pretty careful not to slip on the marble tiles and when I was done I realized that I had not put my towel by the door. I carefully opened the door, leaned out and my feet started to slide. There was no way to prevent it, I slid along the tiles until I reached the bottom. It must have been quite the noise as Tom came rushing to the door. I could not even answer, as I was laughing that hard. And the whole accident left a nice black and blue souvenir on my thigh where I had scraped along the shower door.

and At least you didn't get terribly hurt! I'm like that too, if I trip or fall, I always end up laughing at myself and DH is always like, "Why are you laughing?!"

Tom loves that kind of thing and we took our time to explore the market.

Me too, I think fish markets are so cool.

Love that the filleted tableside.

Now that I have FINALLY finished my TR inside my TR - I really want to finish Tom's birthday trip report. Especially since we leave in exactly 4 weeks for our next trip to WDW.

I will repost the part of the day I had started before we left for our summer trip, so you might remember where we were at.

Totally forgot that this was a TR inside a TR!! At first I didn't see this red reply so as I was scrolling down and saw that you were up on the deck at 7am, I was like, "How did this happen?!"

Now I remember

Brilliant shots.

Ooh that fish looks yummy.

It was delicious and since Tom does not like Tiramisu I got double the treat.

How does he not like tiramisu?! Does he not like the sogginess of the bread? Either way, he got your beer, you get his tiramisu, good trade off i'd think

 

[englishrose47]

Just marking my spot !!!

 

[Bluecat74]

Love reading about Italy and really looking forward to Panama Canal

 

[Buzzfanmom]

Hi Karin! I have to chime in and say that I have recently found your trip reports and have become addicted! Your pictures and descriptions are so vivid. I really enjoy your writing style and look forward to escaping into one of your reports each night after work! Thanks for sharing

 

[GoofyFan1515]

which was about a 20 minute walk to check out the Duomo.

It was easy to find and we walked all around, enjoying all the lovely architecture.

So much lovely architecture!

We could not believe our luck when we got on the bus and found several empty rows on the top deck. We settled in and enjoyed the ride all through the outer perimeter of the city, which follows the “ring” and even crosses into it in some places.

Looks like you got great seats, and some wonderful views.........even before you got the front seats.

the Air Mexico, three signature mini Margheritas, made with Silver Tequila and Cointreau Orange Liqueur and served with a personal sized serving of

Looks like a great choice.

And while he was explaining the model the guide asked where we were from and was surprised when we told him that we were from Austria. There was a short conversation about why we had signed up for an English tour and he let his colleague know that his group had just turned into a German one as well, but he was happy to have the private group.

And the luck continues......

We still wanted to find the Disney Store and walked in that direction and after a few more minutes and some looking around we finally found it.

Goofy is always a good choice.

I am prone to trying some more colorful stuff in my wardrobe, but I often have to endure the snide remarks and jokes that go along with it........

We entered and it was beautiful.

Absolutely!

We did a bit more than window shopping once we had reached the other end of the bridge and the Disney Store.

I'm seeing a theme here.

Our next stop was the bridge of sighs. There is another bridge that lets you have a lovely view of it and with gondolas going through it was really a nice photo spot.

Wow.......Florence and Venice are so lovely. Would really love to experience them one day.

I carefully opened the door, leaned out and my feet started to slide. There was no way to prevent it, I slid along the tiles until I reached the bottom. It must have been quite the noise as Tom came rushing to the door. I could not even answer, as I was laughing that hard. And the whole accident left a nice black and blue souvenir on my thigh where I had scraped along the shower door.
A few minutes later I was out of the bathroom still laughing and advising Tom to be extra careful in the shower.

Yikes! I bet you wish you had let Tom go first in the shower now...........

Thanks for sharing your trip to Italy! It was wonderful to experience it along with you.........so to speak.

 

[Poolrat]

All caught up and so enjoyed the tour of Italy. Back on the cruise ship and remembering where you left off...


Looks like a nice tour- you always seem to know the good ones to pick.

 

[GoofyFan1515]

Bumping this up for you since I think you are back from your trip now. ....

 

[englishrose47]

Bumping this up for you since I think you are back from your trip now. ....

That is really something YOU bumping up Karin's thread !!!