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Of course! That's where we do most (if not all) of our souvenir shopping. Welcome home! Hope you have time to post some pictures and tell us more about the trip. But for now, enjoy some rest.

Love your take on life Lola! And I've got the "bad language while driving" thing going already. No point in waiting!

Challenging! From my (male) POV: If your cruises are expedition style and you don't need anything more dressy than button down shirts and khaki pants, and laundry is readily available on one or both cruises, then it's very doable. I'd attack it like this: Bring 5 pairs of pants. Make sure 4 can be worn on excursions but can be dressed up enough for casual dinner. Bring 6-8 t-shirts, mix of long and short sleeves. Replace 2 with turtlenecks if you want. One sweater or sweatshirt. One blazer to wear on chilly evenings. For outerwear we would bring our Silversea parkas which have two layers; each can be wors separately or both together for extra warmth. Wear clothes to dinner when they are clean. Wear them on excursions later on. Then wash them. Mix and match. Keep to two color schemes at most: gray/black, or khaki. Navy can sometimes work too. That way you have multiple combos. Bring a tie or two. They take no room but the same shirt looks different plain, vs. with a tie and blazer. Shoes - a pair of hikers (wear on the plane), black sneakers that can be worn to dinner or on easier excursions, and a pair of dressier shoes. We bring dance shoes for that category, which are super light and take up almost no room. We used to pack tons of stuff. Eventually we got tired of it. So we developed this system and it's been great. Chris uses a similar scheme although she tales fewer pants/shirts, and adds a few casual dresses that are nice enough for dinner. If you need formal wear for one of your cruises, it may be more difficult. But we have done multiple SS classic cruises with only our rollaboard cases. Tux and fancy dresses do fit. It can be done. But it took us a while to get over the "what if I need it" phase. IMO that's the hardest part. Good luck!

Wishing you the best of luck!

One rollaboard each has been our packing strategy since well before the pandemic. Other than our Antarctica cruise in January 2020 where we took a third bag full of boots and bulky cold weather clothing, I can't remember when we last used a suitcase bigger than a rollaboard. Our standard-size suitcases are definitely gathering dust. It's so much easier, as you will find. Walk off the plane and you're done. No waiting, no worrying whether your bags will be there. The only time we check bags is when we're coming home and we have bought lots of wine. If they do, then that's a sure sign that you don't want to hang around those types. But you'll be surprised how many outfits you can fit into a rollaboard. The secret is to cut down on the number of shoes, not the number of outfits. Also, go with similar color schemes so most everything can mix and match.

Thanks for the update, Lois! Glad that your leg is healing.

Found a new recipe in Food & Wine last night. Perfect for a hot sunny day. Linguine and Shrimp with Sauce Vierge. Since our first tomatoes of the season were finally ripe, we decided to make this for dinner. I chopped some freshly-harvested tomatoes and mixed them with garlic, onion, lemon zest and juice, crushed coriander seeds, hot pepper, and salt. Poor Chris was sweating on the treadmill while I made the sauce, but now it was my turn. The sauce sat out while I worked up an appetite. Then I cooked up some linguine, added the shrimp for the last 3 minutes, and tossed the cooked ingredients with the sauce. Added fresh chives and basil from the garden, and enjoyed! The flavors reminded me of gazpacho. The hot pasta warmed the sauce but the raw flavors were still front and center. It went very well with a Vermentino from Sardinia. Even a crustacean on the label! Now for a relaxing evening! The swimming pool is up to 90F/32C so it will be much more pleasant in the evening after the air temperature drops a bit. But time to keep the solar cover off so it cools down a little. I only keep the hot tub at 95F in the summer, so the pool temperature is getting a little too close to that!

We have not visited Domus Aurea yet - I assume that's the Nero's Palace to which you refer? Chris has had it on her list for Rome for some time - but from what I remember, it was not open the last time we were in Rome (2012). Which reminds me, we need to go back!

So sorry to hear - but I'm glad your sense of humo(u)r is intact! Hope it stays mild for you and that you're back to your holiday soon.

This one almost made me spit out my coffee this morning.

July isn't looking much better!

And another 12 coming up next year! 😄 Can't wait to see you there! Where are you going? Agree with Fauxnom that the itinerary might make a difference in the "average" level of dressiness, but you probably won't be out of place in dockers and a button-down shirt, if you split the difference. We've done 6 expedition cruises w/ SS in all different locations and climates, and we've never needed formal wear. If you WANT to take a blazer and tie, by all means do so. If you DON"T want to, don't take one. You will not be thrown overboard either way. I usually do take these items, because I like to. And a tie takes up zero room. And a blazer is handy in colder climates (for warmer climate cruises I take a lighter linen blazer). So, I dress pretty much like RachelG's husband. Except I don't wear the cowboy hat. 🤠

Safe travels QSS! Hope the flight issue is all sorted out for you, and is a non-issue.

Welcome home! Rest up and we are all looking forward to your wrap-up.

Wishing you a safe and (hopefully) stress-free journey home, Lois. So glad that the amazing SS crew took such good care of you on this trip even though it was far from what you expected.

Beautiful! I assume you went south to north?

Nice pic! Silver Spirit is a small ship, but Le Lyrial is definitely the baby in that photo.

Haha, that was my trick too, in Basel! Having visited both Frankfurt and Strasbourg, I'd probably rather stay in Strasbourg, though. So I'd probably take the train.

Did a Svalbard cruise in 2011 on Silversea. A spectacular destination and well worth visiting. Our stops were slightly different but we did go to a few of yours. This itinerary looks nice as well. You're mainly on the west coast whereas we more or less circumnavigated Spitsbergen. I have some pictures on my SmugMug page (link below), August 2011. One difference was that our charter flight w/ SS was from Oslo. I'm sure that Ponant does a nice job here as well.

It may be cruise-specific. We were up far too late in Panorama, for too many nights on our Spirit cruise last November. We had a decent crowd there most of the time, and João kept the music playing long after we should have dragged ourselves off to bed. It made for some late mornings.

Nice pix! But, the crowds... Glad we got to Split and Dubrovnik in April, just a few days before the cruising season started. Thanks for the updates, and keep on enjoying!

I see what you did there, Lola! Very clever.

Glad you are still onboard; happy that we can continue to follow along! Do you post from your phone or from a laptop/tablet? If you post from your phone, there is a not-so-difficult way to rotate the pictures. Rotate the photo to the desired orientation, then take a screenshot of the picture while holding your phone in landscape mode. Then, upload the screenshot. But I agree; the upside-down photo thing is a real pain.

It's my comic relief.

According to flight tracker, M&M touched down in Toronto a few minutes ago. ETA: we expect the first funny within 30 minutes. Timer is ticking!