ljandgb

River cruises are a great way to get an introduction to a region.  Be aware, though, that your excursions will be limited (usually) to what the ship offers, as it can be very difficult to arrange DIY tours for a variety of reasons (exact docking times and locations are pinned down much later than ocean cruises and sometimes the ship moves to another town while the group is out.)  Also, it's common for the ship to leave port before dinner on many nights, so there will be no exploring town during/after dinner.  For some folks, this is completely fine.  Others may want more time to get to know a certain area. If you want the ability for your group to seek out a great local restaurant or an out of the way beer cellar, you might want to consider a land tour.  

Not bashing river cruises, and we have one scheduled for the fall (pandemic allowing) but it is does have difference from a strictly land based trip.

We've done the Amsterdam to Basel cruise.  It's really beautiful, and Strasbourg and Colmar in particular were revelations to me.

I'm showing my age with the "Bueller" comment.  It's right up there with "Danger, Will Robinson!"

Is the picture somewhere in Portugal?

Bueller?  Bueller?

In light of the discussion in the other thread of "no travel for a good while," I vote that we resume this thread.  As it is not mine, I'm not going to post anything, but would love to see it active again.  Even 5 days dormant seems like an eternity right now.

Even if it does get better in Europe, it's going to be a while before the US gets it's act together.  I would not at all be surprised if the world does not want us for a good while.  🙁

"Normal" will not be happening in September.  I do think there's a 50/50 chance of international travel happening by then, maybe with some sort of vaccine passport?  Who knows.  I think any travel plans for 2021 are not guaranteed.

We have a September 2021 Danube cruise planned.  My husband bought airline tickets 10 days ago.  I did not want to purchase just yet.  They've been changed drastically 3 times since then, as I figured they would.

At this point, buying a ticket is really just semi-reserving your space on a plane, going eventually to your destination, around the date you want to go.  Putting much effort in to which city, how many legs, etc, is mostly futile.

Oh, we ate there too.  Very good!  

We had 2 days there pre-cruise.  We stayed at the Scandic Palace, which is at the beginning of the Stroget, the large pedestrian zone that runs thru the main center of town, and which is right across from Tivoli and a block from the train station.  We did the free walking tour the first morning, which was a great way to get familiarized with the area. Agree Tivoli at night is beautiful.

Merry Christmas to all!  No hope of white Christmas here.  It's 70 degrees and sunny.  All the kids are home, we're doing lots of cooking, and playing board games.  I still don't have any Christmas travel photos, but I did have 2 girls that danced the Nutcracker for years so included some pics I took of that. Eleven Saturdays driving an hour both ways for a 4-5 hour practice, culminating in 2 weekends of performances.  The second weekend was always at a nearby venue built for musical performances and modeled after European performance halls. All the woodwork is handcrafted by onsite artisans. The girls loved dancing here even though it is not set up for stage performances.  They had to change in stairwells and libraries, but it was still the highlight of the season for them.  My daughter in the pink doesn't have the best form, but those Waltz of the Flower costumes were always my favorite.  The action shots are all from the first venue, where I could wander during dress rehearsal.

Wild card!  I have no Christmas themed pictures whatsoever.

St Vitus Cathedral, Prague, Danube.

Very interesting!

Such pretty pictures to wake up to this morning!  I'd just be guessing at the location, but wanted to say thank you for the holiday cheer.

I've traveled a bit over Christmas, but never near a river.  I got nothing.

I have that same picture, but I could not have told you the name of the house.  So pretty!

You got it, daisi! I posted from my phone and didn’t even notice the letters on the wheel. I should have posted this other picture. Maybe it would have been more challenging? And here’s a pic of the whole thing. 

Name what is in the photo. First guess the river. After that name the place in the picture. The person who first guesses correctly gets to post the next photo.

Thank you. Lots of googling "small urban canal" and variations.  Tricky because the bridge pictured is not the bridge usually photographed. 

And I think the white sign behind the parking sign might be the Eiffel tower.

Good one!

Canal St. Martin, Paris?

Hmm, not Paris I don't think.  England?  

Trying to think of places with significant waterways thru cities...

Ha!, I was going to say San Antonio also.  It looks very man made, and too shallow/close to the sidewalk to be any I saw in Amsterdam.

My daughter has the knack for finding every stray cat in any country we got to.  They make me sad.  

A day counts as something! We did do the toboggan. Here’s the view from the sled and a hilariously bad pic of my friend and I. 🤣

The mountain top pics are from a peak to peak hike on the spine of the island. It’s a well developed path as before there were roads with tunnels, it was one of the ways to deliver mail from one side of the island to the other. You can see the trail along spine of the hill there in the wide angle pic. The other pic is from a levada walk, along the ubiquitous water capture and delivery channels on the island. Walking the accompanying paths is very much a thing there. 

We spent a week in Cascais (pronounced cash-keye-esh) which was lovely and then a week on Madeira, which was an absolute revelation. Anyone spending time in Portugal needs to budget a few days there. It’s beautiful, wild, and yet very European. I also really enjoyed the Portuguese mindset which seemed both easy going and no nonsense. 
 

My pictures are all from Madeira.  The swimming pool complex is on the north side of the island and is open subject to the whims of the ocean. It was NOT open the day we went!

You got it, anhalter1960.  I had to confirm it's an excursion from Lisbon, but it definitely is.  Cascais is a resort town, once the summer location of Portugal's royalty.  

I'll photographically wax poetic about Portugal once  clinic calms down.