Great skirt Kathy - love the colors - my favorite house decorating colors!!! Joanna

I think Olivia bought it!

Oh Kathy, I spent so much time "shopping" on that site that night, it was SO much fun! In the end, I reined myself in and cut myself off, after I started thinking about all the cruising I want to do next year. I already have several similar skirts (but not that pretty). Since then, I only bought a pair of convertable pants for game drives, and my Tilley hat, which has not yet arrived.

Olivia - I could totally see you in that cute skirt! Perfect for casual night on board!

Back to topic - Greg, When are you and Gretchen flying home? We're On British Air on 6/22 Non Stop - Looks like a 3 hour flight (lol)

We don't come home until Saturday the 24th on a United LHR-LAX non-stop.
Greg

We have terrible seats on those flights booked by RSSC way in the back of the plane (noisy!). Good thing we have Bose Noise Cancelling headphones to listen to music or sleep

I paid my Mastercard bill yesterday. Funny how spending that much money can cause excitement!

Two months from today, we'll be in Nice. We're going Lufthansa, through Frankfurt. Same coming back from London. A bit of a pain coming back, but small price to pay for business class.

Oh, and we can book excursions on Monday! (I may look at Santiago.)

Wendy,

My bill is due the 20th, so I have a little more grace period, Ha! Funny, I put the Shore excursion thing on my calendar, but, we booked all the private tours, except for Honfleur and Santiago. I know we booked them for Malaga, Lisbon, Bordeaux, and Santander. Still haven't done anything for London but the hotel.

Are you going to do London on your own? That's certainly what I would suggest. Possible exception would be a day trip out of town, but I suspect you want to concentrate on London itself, with so much to do and see.

We're just going to wander in Honfleur, I'm almost certain (although Rouen is tempting.)

Hi Olivia and Kathy,

Sorry about going off-topic but I love the skirt too! Could you tell me the name of the website? Thanks!

PS If I buy it I promise I will not bring it on the same cruise as you :) !

Maria, www.coldwatercreek.com

Thanks Olivia,

You're right, the site is a lot of fun. There's so much stuff I might never get out of it!

Yes, Wendy, I think we're going to do Honfleur as a walk and wander port too. And probably London as well. Can only do so much touring, I've found and there is SO much to see that I will probably do the hop on hop off bus - I love those...

Maria, I really like some things from Coldwater Creek. The T-shirt things and the jean jackets are terrific. They have the Chico style travel knits too - but the print ones I've purchased and returned because the design wore off with the first wearing!

Those skirts from Coldwater Creek look gorgeous! Have any of you actually bought one? Are they as great as they look?

FYI:

Coldwater Creek coupon WJA2101, expires 4/30/06, entitles you to 25% off purchase over $100.

They wore off after you washed them ??

Maria - no worse -- the print wore off in some areas when I was wearing them. Two pair I bought to wear in Europe while on tour. Good thing I always overpack. I planned to wear those pants two or three times and hand wash them! The pattern wore right off. They took them back and gave me a coupon to make up for the fact I had them hemmed at the tailors!

Wendy,

I have several of those skirts and love them. Great for travel.

Kathy,

That's unbelievable! They must have had returns by the thousands!

Shore Excursions are open for booking. I went to the website today and it said I was disembarking in Honfleur! Anyway, I clicked through again and then it changed to Dover. We did really well with the cost of our private tours compared with the shore excursions.

Here is what the My Cruises said on the website until I clicked again:

My Cruise My Personal Information
Monte Carlo to Honfleur on Seven Seas Voyager Name:
Monte Carlo to Honfleur
9 nights
Departs June 09, 2006
Number of Guests: 2

Yeh, that was really weird! They still haven't put up the Santiago excursion, but from the price of the Granada one, it will probably be around $200.

They still haven't put the Santiago de Compostela excursion price up yet. Wonder what's going on there?

Wendy, as I recall, the excursion was around $130 last year. We did not go, thought it was too long a day....I think around 100 or so went on the ship excursion.
Cheers, Pam

Is anyone interested in doing the Normandy Beaches as a private (non-ship) tour? I've found a couple of tour guides who'll do a tailored tour (Pegasus Bridge, Omaha Beach, Point du Hoc, and American Cemetery) if anyone is interested.
Greg

Hope you find someone. I think the landing beaches excursions frightfully expensive, so I'm sure you could do better. I would only have been interested in going to the Canadian sites, sorry, and decided not to, since couldn't find anyone else interested, and even my husband didn't seem keen.

Greg,

I am not on WAVE (wish I were!) but I wanted to pass along the name of an excellent guide we used for a full-day D-Day tour last year. Our day with Paul was the highlight of our land trip of Paris, Loire Valley, and Normandy. I have to say we did this because my dad (who was traveling with us) was very interested - I was lukewarm going in - but the day was fascinating and we could have easily spent another day. The beaches and cemetery are very moving but I think Pointe du Hoc was my favorite site. I'd highly recommend Paul and Battlebus if it works within your schedule. His website is also very descriptive on the different sites in the area.

Paul Woodage
Battlebus
www.battlebus.fr
===============
Dena

Paul,
As an alumnus of Tustin Union High School, Class of a long time ago, Hi!. I've corresponded with Battlebus and Paul is tied up on a large 3 or 4 day group tour so they are unavailable. Christy (at Battlebus) actually recommended the folks I think I may go with (Fredric Guerin). Anyway he's been very flexible and if Wendy wanted to see Juno Center (Memorial/museum of the 3rd CDN)I'd expect he'd be able to accommodate. As a point of trivia: Name the only Allied unit to reach their D-Day objectives.
ANS: Canadian 1st Hussars.

Greg

Greg, interesting. I certainly did not know that!

So far we are undecided about this stop. Some of my ancestors are from Normandy, so I'm thinking that we will stay around Honfleur--after all, it's where Champlain sailed from, and Champlain paddled past my cottage on the Ottawa river some time later, so it will make a nice connection.

Wendy,
That sounds like a great idea. Honfleur is supposed to be very pretty. Gretchen's uncle Bill was with a Nebraskan Nat'l Guard unit (the 134th Inf) and was killed in the assault on St. Lo. So, she and I will likely do a D-Day Beaches tour in any eventuality.

Thought you might like something I dredged up.

The Juno Beach Centre or, in French, Centre Juno Beach, is a museum located in Courseulles-sur-Mer in the Calvados region of Normandy, France. It is situated immediately behind the beach codenamed Juno, the section of the Allied bridgehead on which 14,000 Canadian troops landed on D-Day 6th June, 1944 .

The Centre was conceived in the 1990s by a group of Canadian veterans who felt that the contributions and sacrifices of Canadian soldiers during the liberation of Europe were not properly commemorated and represented in the Normandy region. The project, spearheaded by veteran Garth Webb and his companion Lise Cooper, began initially as a grassroots fundraising campaign that eventually gained the financial support of many institutions and businesses and the Canadian and French governments at many levels. The Centre was inaugurated on 6th June, 2003. Over one thousand Canadian veterans attended the inauguration in 2003, as well as the 2004 ceremony for the 60th anniversary of D-Day.

The museum's scope is not only the D-Day landings. Through detailed and interactive exhibition rooms, the museum relates the story of life in Canada before the outbreak of the war, Canada’s civilian and military contribution to the war effort, and contemporary Canadian society in the decades since World War II.

The building itself, designed by Canadian architect Brian K. Chamberlain, is a single story structure endowed with five main points, thus resembling a stylized maple leaf. The exterior is clad in titanium scales and stands about 100 meters back from the present line of sand dunes. A ceremonial area, which features a statue entitled Remembrance and Renewal, stands between the Centre and the dunes. A gap in the dunes is filled by a symbolic structure shaped as a landing craft—a memorial to the French Resistance. An intact German bunker, once an observation post, stands immediately in front of this memorial.

The museum also houses a temporary exhibition space which changes approximately once per year and which highlights various histories and themes relating to Canada past and present.

The Juno Beach Centre is open year round and closes routinely for the month of January. It offers guided visits of Juno Beach that are provided by Canadian students.

As a litle remembered aside, the first wave of Canadians landing at Juno suffered 50% casualties, second only to "Bloody Omaha."

A couple of Longest Day movie trivia:

Bill Millin: the Bag Piper who accompanies Lord Lovat's commando plays himself in the movie!

Richard Todd: who plays Maj. John Howard, who led the assault on Pegasus Bridge was a young private in the 6th Airborne and was in the glider assault at Pegasus!

Greg

Thanks Greg, I knew some, but not all of that, we hear about it once a year. Nice to hear it publicized outside of Canada. Sorry to hear about Gretchen's uncle. My father sat out the war testing bomber engines, he was medically unfit. Same with David's father, he worked testing submarines in Connecticut. Funny, nobody in my family was in the military, but now I have a nephew in the US Navy, in medical school at Bethesda. And a step brother-in-law in the navy as well.

Wendy,

Found a shopping tips thread for Europe over on CC. Some interesting souveniers listed. In Portugal, pottery/ceramics are big. I found some special plates at the gourmet cooking store from Portugal - made for artichokes and melted butter and some for Asparagus too.

Greg,

We would be interested in taking the Beaches tour with you. Let me know the details. mehaley@earthlink.net.

I haven't had a chance to look at the Excursion site yet but had planned to do that tour, but saving money is always good.

Mary Ellen and Bruce

Thanks Kathy, yes, I have looked at that thread a couple of times. A bit hard to keep up with threads like that, they meander so. Another thing to shop for in Portugal is shoes!! :D

Kathy,
Are you talking about the "Must Buy" thread under Europe? I've always considered the phrase: "Must Buy" as an oxymoron :p .


Greg

I don't know what the thread title is...I thought it was Shopping in Europe. Being that I was in Italy in November, I was told about things you could buy there that you couldn't find here. I am a big believer in not buying things while traveling that I can find here - like Limoncello, why bother bringing back a bottle of something that I can get here for a comparable price? One woman on our tour bought 12 pint sized bottles of it and the struggle at the airport she and her husband had was ridiculous. I did buy a beautiful hand painted oversized platter and olive oil bottle and had it shipped. And for my friends, Pashminas, which fit in luggage and were light. I know I will find something to bring back from Wave. Usually I get a token piece of something wearable like my cameo from Sorrento or my Tahitian Pearls.

The Excursion out of Vigo to Santiago de Compostela is now up on the RSSC website, $169.

Yeh, thinking about shopping!! I am not in the habit of buying big things. David has bought me jewellery in several places, but I doubt if jewellery will come into play this trip.

I could easily imagine buying leather goods. In Istanbul I bought a couple of ceramic tiles, I could imagine doing that again in Portugal. Olive oil, now there's an interesting idea!

What I would really like to do some time is go on a decor shopping trip--take a couple of empty suitcases, fill them with great stuff for the home, and ship back lots of things too. So far Turkey is number one on my list for this, we'll see how Portugal stands up!

We're going to miss it - it's a Sea/Spa Day for us unless there is something happening for Cordon Bleu participants.

I'm going to talk to David about it this weekend, and then maybe book it. We can always cancel it once we're on board.

We booked Santiago for now. Will decide if we're going to do it once we're aboard. I am one that doesn't mind the ship's excursions, although I have only had experience on the Diamond Black Sea cruise we did (and FP of course.)