my best cruise was the holland america's norwegian cruise in june when the fjords were still navigable...the norwegian cruise is similar to the alaska cruise...two differences are the fjords are majestic and the cities are actually cities, more than a main street and a saloon...the land excursions included natural beauties and cities with historic and cultural significances...like the hospital where dr. hansen worked, where nazis hid their subs, the hometown of grieg...there was still snow (more like ice) on the ground, only ski-able during the summer months...more like ice skating on skis...
my best short trip was a four-day visit to hong kong...i started with a day stop in tokyo to visit my cousin's kid working in tokyo...highlights included the ippongi towers contemporary arts museum, a walkabout the business district, and a visit to the tsukiji fish market...that same day i headed for hong kong...in three days we visited stanley's market which is a shopper's delight, victoria peak where i ran into the samoan 7 team, the huge buddha statue on lantau island after which we spent a delightful afternoon at disneyland which is kinda tiny but with a great lion king show, and an evening at the sha tin race track. we won almost all our bets, like four out of six, and still had won only a few dollars. i realize why so many people get addicted to racing and lose their shirts...we decided the last night in hong kong to treat ourselves to a great dinner in kowloon (i had roasted duck a la francaise) with dessert at the peninsula..great end to a great trip...
as to our independent travels, my best single country visit was france and my best multiple countries visit was the baltic-scandinavian tour...we met in paris and took the tgv to montpelier where we picked up a car and drove through southern france up through the vineyards of st. emilion, then up to normandy and mont st. michel eastward to reims and champagne country with a side trip to luxembourg (can i have a luxembourger i asked at macdonald's)..we ended our stay in paris with visits to museums. contrasting that was our multi-countries visit to the baltic and scandinavian areas, using various transportation modes including trains, buses, ferries, and a cruise ship...the highlights included a visit to hermitage, hill of the crosses, a three-star lunch in riga, and a shopping spree at marimekko....
my next blog will look at how my group plans for a trip...
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