All entries

Archives

July 18, 2025 2025 Canadian Rockies and Glacier Itinerary Day/Date Location Hotel Comments Day 0/Fri, Aug 22 Travel Day The Fairmont Palliser Tampa to Calgary Day 1/Sat, Aug 23 Calgary The Fairmont July 10, 2025 Day 8, Galeries Lafayette shopping and home Our airport pick up time was at 2:15 to allow an hour for travel and the three hour required check in time, so unfortunately, not much time for much July 10, 2025 Final thoughts, Tauck Castles and Kings Our biggest reward on this trip was that Stella loved it! The luck of finding not one, but 6-8 new friends and hanging out together everywhere July 9, 2025 Day 7–Île de la Cité and Notre Dame, the Louvre, Shopping, and Magic Show Restaurant (long) After another delicious buffet breakfast (the blue cheese was outstanding), we boarded the bus for a short trip over to the Île de la Cité, the July 8, 2025 Day 6–Versailles, Eiffel Tower with lunch, Bar Hemingway An early wheels-rolling call at 8:00 found us on our way to Versailles, the palace of palaces for the Louis’ and Marie’s ( 14, 15, and. 16th, aka July 7, 2025 Day 5–Eurostar train travel, Paris dinner and Tuileries evening walk. Today was mostly a travel day— we took the Eurostar train that travels under the English Channel to get to Paris. Although many people refer to it July 5, 2025 Day 4–British Museum, Kings Cross 9 3/4, Westminster Abbey Finally, temperatures were in the mid 70’s today, there was even a little rain this morning. The Londoner’s were ecstatic! And we were pretty happy July 4, 2025 Day 3, Tower of London, speedboat on the Thames, London Eye, and west end’s Mamma Mia Another jam-packed day, very fun and exciting. Off with her head!To the Tower of London we went, the bus detouring a bit through parts of the city July 2, 2025 Day 2, Kensington Gardens and Windsor Castle After a good night’s sleep after yesterday’s sleep-deprivation, we had an early start to the day. Our guide, Diane, pointed out many green spaces July 1, 2025 Pre-London, Travel, and Day 1 We arrived after an uneventful flight to Boston late Friday morning on June 28. Megan served a wonderful lunch and we relaxed with the family during June 24, 2025 Tauck Bridges — Castles and Kings: London To Paris Itinerary Day/Date Location Comments Day 1 - June 29 London Arrive London, EnglandCity Tour Day 2 - June 30 London Scenic Biking and Windsor Castle August 1, 2024 Final Thoughts, Viking Homelands trip and Iceland Iceland. 🇮🇸 The Land of Fire and Ice is a most appropriate name for this spectacular country! One amazing spectacle of nature after another made July 25, 2024 Scandinavia, Day 14 - Bergen, Norway We started our last day trying to change our panoramic tour of Bergen to the walking one. It was full, and they wouldn’t let us on. Boy, were we July 24, 2024 Scandinavia, Day 13 - Flåm Question— how many times can you look at scenery and ooh and ah and not get bored? All day and beyond, if you are in the incredible fiords of July 23, 2024 Scandinavia Day 12 - Stavanger, Norway The area around the town of Stavanger (pronounced sta-VAN-ger) is known for two things: it is the center of the Norwegian oil industry, one of the July 21, 2024 Scandinavia, Days 10 & 11–Oslo, Norway ( long) A little glitch today made a couple of plans more difficult, but in the grand scheme of things, did not affect us too much. Oslo is the only July 20, 2024 Scandinavia Day 9, - Ålborg Walking Tour and Pampering Our early morning tour of the city of Ålborg was lovely. It was history oriented, of course, but our guide, a young Mom who was somewhat recently July 19, 2024 Scandinavia Day 8– Copenhagen Still recovering from our 15,000 step day in Berlin, we lined up to take our Copenhagen on Foot tour at 9:30. Copenhagen is Denmark’s capital and is July 18, 2024 Scandinavia Day 7 - Berlin, Part 2 (Continued) A policy of modern Germany is to commemorate victims and resistance and to not glorify conquests. A stark example is a monument with a July 18, 2024 Scandinavia Day 7 - Berlin, Part 1 (Split into two posts due to length) We were up at 5:30 for an early morning 2.5 hour train ride from our ship docked in Warnemünde, Germany to July 17, 2024 Scandinavia, Day 6 — Bornholm This was a relaxing day, as we expected it would be. We didn’t dock in the small Danish island of Bornholm until noon, so we used the morning to try July 16, 2024 Scandinavia Day 5–Gdańsk, Poland ( long) There was a big fire at our intended port in Gdańsk, 20 minutes away from the city. As a result, our docking port was changed to Gdynia, an hour July 15, 2024 Scandinavia Day 4 - At Sea We only have one full “at sea” day, unless something unexpected happens, and today was it. We joined the hoards for a late breakfast and got very July 14, 2024 Scandinavia Day 3 - Mariehamn Our first stop after leaving Stockholm was in Mariehamn, capital of the Åland Islands. A stark contrast to the vibrant city of Stockholm, Mariehamn July 13, 2024 Scandinavia Day 2 - Stockholm A fun and lovely day except for the fact that Jim has now shared his cold with Wendy. Yuck! We got an early breakfast and went to walk out to meet July 12, 2024 Scandinavia and Iceland - 2024 Itinerary ### Iceland ### Day/Date ### ### Location ### Comments ### Pre-cruise: Day 1July 7-8 ### Reykjavík, Iceland Travel to Iceland, Explore July 11, 2024 Iceland Day 4 and Scandinavia Day1 - Travel woes, Stockholm and Viking Venus Our travel day did not start particularly well. We got to the airport at 5:15 am. Kevflivic airport is rather antiquated especially regarding July 10, 2024 Iceland Day 3 - Waterfalls and volcanoes and glaciers, oh my!—Tour of the South Coast (Long) We were picked up at 8 am for our tour from Your Day Tours, another company that came highly recommended. There are six stops on this 11 hour July 9, 2024 Iceland Day 2 - Golden Circle In Iceland, there are multiple tours with multiple companies to satisfy the desires of the exploding tourist population. We are taking two— the July 8, 2024 Iceland Day 1 - Reykjavik , Exploring the City Our flight from Tampa through Detroit was delayed, but we arrived in Reykjavik without too much trouble. A pre-arranged cab picked us up from the May 31, 2023 Jordan and Israel: Final thoughts Usually when we visit a country ( or two) we tour the sights, learn some history, and enjoy the people and food. Yes, we did all those important May 29, 2023 Day 19: Tel Aviv, Anu Museum, farewell dinner Most of what we did in Tel Aviv was in the Jaffa area because major attractions and shops were closed, so it was a somewhat low-key end to our trip. May 28, 2023 Day 18: Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Ilana Goor Museum Well, it is Shavuot, a “ high” holiday here so most things are closed. Not very good planning on OAT’s part since tomorrow is Shabbat and ditto! May 27, 2023 Day 17: Mount of Olives, Yad Vashem, and travel to Tel Aviv (long) A day we looked forward to, and also dreaded. Emotions ran high, but first much patience was needed. The bus this morning brought us to another holy May 26, 2023 Day 16: Masada and the Dead Sea Within just a few minutes after leaving Jerusalem, you are really in the desert. Our destination today is 1411 feet below sea level, the absolutely May 25, 2023 Day 15: Chagall windows at Hadassah Hospital, then to Bethlehem Although not on the original itinerary, Ibrahim arranged for us to tour the famous Chagall windows. This was a fabulous opportunity as we would not May 24, 2023 Day 14: Pantry Packers, Machane Yehuda (market), more friends of friends, home-Hosted Dinner After a more relaxed breakfast, we headed to the bus for our visit to Pantry Packers which is part of Colel Chabad ,an ultra-orthodox Jewish charity May 23, 2023 Day 13: Jerusalem - The Old City (very long) Finally, it was Sunday, with everything open again, we left very early as we had an early registration at the tunnels and Ibrahim wanted to take us May 22, 2023 Day 12: “A Day in the Life”, Israel Museum O.A.T. (Overseas Adventure Travel) sponsors a program called a Day in the Life. It gives an overview of the home life and the surrounding area of a May 21, 2023 Day 11: Traveling to Jerusalem through Christian Holy Sites, Shabbat dinner with friends Our first stop after leaving the Golan Heights and our “basketed” breakfast was to go down, down, down to the Sea of Galilee. This morning was a May 20, 2023 Day 10: Golan Heights - Off Road Jeep Excursion and more Today turned out to be a remarkable day. We set out from our cabins at Kibbutz Kfar Haruv to another kibbutz located 37 miles further north in the May 19, 2023 Day 9: Elijah, Nazareth, knafee, Sea of Galilee, the Golan Heights (long) Today we said goodbye to Haifa and drove out of the city to a major biblical site in the town of Muhruqa in the Carmelite Mountains. Here, the May 18, 2023 Day 8:  Akko and Rosh HaNikra Another UNESCO World Heritage site visited today, the crusader city of Akko. It is spelled three different ways ( including Acre). Ibrahim is a deep May 17, 2023 Day 7: Caesarea National Park, best falafel in Wadi Nisnas, Baha’i Gardens Today’s overview of Haifa took us first to Caesarea National Park, a major Roman ruin area on the coast between Tel Aviv and Haifa that is still May 16, 2023 Day 6: Goodbye Jordan, Hello Israel Another 7 AM departure, and time to say goodbye to the amazing city of Petra — and to Jordan. Traveling through the other side of the Al Sharah May 15, 2023 Day 5: Petra!! Petra is considered to be one of the new seven wonders of the world, and we eagerly anticipated coming here. To put it simply, it is something that May 14, 2023 Day 4: Travel to Petra via Mt. Nebo and Madaba It is approximately 143 miles from Amman to Petra and we travelled down the Desert Highway, one of three main north/ south highways in Jordan. As May 13, 2023 Day 3: Jerash, Ajloun Castle, and a home hosted dinner Thursday, Day 3. Jerash and Ajloun Castle, home hosted dinner The day started early with an hour long trip north to Jerash, an ancient 6500 year old May 12, 2023 Day 2: Discovering Amman We started getting a feel for the Jordanian culture on our morning bus tour around the capital city of Amman. It is home to more than 4 million of May 9, 2023 Days 0 and 1 - Amman: Travel and Arrival Sunday into Monday was a travel day- a very long one. We were happily surprised that it went pretty easily. A couple of blips: first, a major NY May 7, 2023 Trip Prelude: NYC -“Leopoldstadt” and MOMA We started our 24 hour NewYork visit with a pre-dawn departure to Newark with- wait for it- everything travel perfect! Spent about three hours at May 6, 2023 Israel-Jordan Itinerary - 2023 Date Location Activity Hotel Sun, May 7-Mon, May 8 NY->Amman Fly from JFK to Amman, Jordan Grand Hyatt Amman Tue, May 9 Amman Explore on our September 27, 2022 London and Scotland Day 17 Horrendous travel home, final thoughts With all the wonderful places we had been and people we met, we were not prepared for the inadequacies of September 26, 2022 London and Scotland Day 16 HOHO bus, Kelvingrove Museum, Meat Joint dinner A handful of us had extended our stay by one night in Glasgow, and used the day, once again to September 25, 2022 London and Scotland Day15 HOHO bus, Riverside Museum of Transportation, Cathedral of Glasgow, Scones!, Game Night After a delicious breakfast with attentive staff at our September 24, 2022 London and Scotland Day 14 Travel, intro to Glasgow, pizza Friday was our travel day from Inverness to Glasgow on the (local) train which took over three hours. It was September 23, 2022 London and Scotland Day 13 Shopping, and bike riding In Inverness Today was our “free” day in Inverness. It was wonderful to have a relatively late breakfast, get caught up on September 22, 2022 London and Scotland Day 12 Dunrobin Castle, Falconry, and a wee Scotch tasting We started our ride early at 8:45 out to the famous ( and intact!) castle of Dunrobin, passing September 21, 2022 London and Scotland Day 11 Culloden National Historic Sight, Loch Ness boat, Urquhart Castle We were most impressed with the museum, tour and story of Culloden. We even bought September 20, 2022 London and Scotland Day 10 The Isle of Skye (Note: to set the time perspective, this trip occurred on the day of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.) After a somewhat unexciting September 19, 2022 London and Scotland Day 9 Problematic travel, Inverness, schedule changes After an early start, we got to the Waverly train station in Edinburgh to find out that our train to September 18, 2022 London and Scotland Day 8 Grassmarket Market, HOHO, and Whisky! On Saturdays, there is a small market that pops up across the street from our hotel next to all the September 17, 2022 London and Scotland Day 7 St. Andrews, town, golf, Cathedral and School The town of St. Andrews is about 55 miles from Edinburgh and took us under 2 hours to get there. With September 16, 2022 London and Scotland Day 6 Abbotsford, Rosslyn Chapel, touring odds and ends Today, we did not go to St. Andrews, as earlier reported, (that is tomorrow), but our bus tour September 15, 2022 London and Scotland Days 4 and 5 (long) Monday was a travel day, and although we had originally planned to get to the Tate Modern for a short time in the morning,it didn’t work out. The September 13, 2022 London and Scotland Day 3 Churchill War Rooms,iconic tourist sites, London Eye and Borough Market Our first- thing in the morning visit to Westminster Abbey was cancelled September 12, 2022 London and Scotland Day 2 British museum, Royal Opera House, Convent Garden, and “Six” Our whirlwind tour of London started today with a traditional English breakfast here at September 11, 2022 London and Scotland Day 1 The Queen is dead, long live the king!! An unexpected and shocking beginning to our trip, this life changing event changes so much for the UK,and,as September 4, 2022 Day 5 - Lisbon to Evora Well, we thought we would have a relaxing traveling day, but it was not to be. Pretty fun though. After an early start, getting our luggage out, August 23, 2022 London-Scotland Itinerary London-Scotland Trip Map Sep 9 Depart Sarasota for London Sep 10-12 London Sep 13 London-Edinburgh Sep 14 Edinburgh Sep 15 St. June 4, 2019 Days 14 and 15: Travel and Quito We enjoyed the regular time wake-up of this long travel day—at least we didn’t have to get up at 4:00 am! We reversed our trip of a few days ago: June 2, 2019 Day 13 - Galapagos, Part 3 Lava Tubes, Tortoises, and Moonshine, CDRC (long!) What an amazing day. Jose and Xavi wanted to show us the diversity of Santa Cruz Island—from the June 1, 2019 Day 12, Galapagos, Part 2 Our excursion today began with a trip to South Plaza Island. Like yesterday, we left our hotel in the morning with Tomas, our tour director, and our May 31, 2019 Day 11 - Galapagos, Part 1 Boobies, Frigates and Land Iguanas, oh my! We left the hotel for our first full day adventure and headed down to the sea once more. The highlands, May 30, 2019 Day 10: Quito to Galapagos Today’s Quito airport trip was another early morning wake-up call. We were sorry to be leaving the lovely Swissotel but very excited about starting May 29, 2019 Day 9 - Quito Quito is the capital of Ecuador and is situated at 9350 feet on a plateau surrounded by volcanoes. Almost immediately we sensed a difference from May 28, 2019 Day 8-Travel Day and Peruvian Thoughts (Note: this was a travel day, so no pictures.) We usually wait until the end of a trip to write an overview, but this trip is almost like two May 27, 2019 Day 6 (evening) and Day 7 - Cusco Cuzco (or Cusco) was the capital of the enormous Incan empire which included modern day Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and northern Chile. Its population May 26, 2019 Day 6 - Machu Picchu, Part 2 One of the not-so-guilty pleasures afforded to us on this tour was the opportunity to stay at the Belmond Sanctuary Hotel, immediately adjacent to May 25, 2019 Day 5 - Machu Picchu, Part 1 This has been an amazing trip, so far, and it was about to get even better. Today, we finally achieved the primary goal of the Peru portion of our May 24, 2019 Day 4 - Exploring the Sacred Valley We are falling in love with the Andes. It reminds me of the Grand Teutons—every five minutes something new is around the corner, bigger and better May 23, 2019 Day 3 - Lima to Cuzco and Sacred Valley This morning, we awoke bright and early (i.e.4:30 am) to make our way once again to Lima Airport for our flight to Cuzco. Cuzco was the capital city May 22, 2019 Days 1 and 2 - Lima First days are always a little hard. Our traveling on the official day one was long, but relatively uneventful. We had the luxury of driving to April 4, 2019 Machu Picchu and Galapagos 2019 Itinerary Day 1 - Tues, May 21 Miami to Lima Weston Lima Day 2 - Wed, May 22 Lima Weston Lima Day 3 - Thu, May 23 Lima/Cuzco/Sacred Valley Aranwa Sacred September 19, 2018 Day 20 - Food, Culture, People, and Final Thoughts As wonderful as traveling is, the final part of traveling and arriving home and finally sleeping in your own bed, is the perspective you gain on the September 18, 2018 Day 19 — Barcelona - Joan Miró and the Palau de Musica Our last day in Barcelona started out with teeming rain, really the only bad weather day of the entire trip. Luckily it only lasted until about September 17, 2018 Day 18 — Barcelona and Antoni Gaudí Gaudí was a forward looking architect of the late 1800’s and was the primary influence of Spain’s “modernisme” style of architecture. Prominent all September 16, 2018 Days 16-17 - Barcelona After our lovely (and sad) farewell dinner the previous evening where we bid farewell to our new Odysseys Unlimited travel mates, we left Madrid September 14, 2018 Days 14 and 15 — Madrid After a delicious breakfast, our first full day in Madrid started with a bus tour with our local guide from yesterday. She pointed out buildings, September 12, 2018 Day 13–Toledo and Madrid Mostly a traveling day, we said goodbye to our quick and lively stop in Ubeda and got on the road for the long drive to Toledo. We made a couple of September 11, 2018 Day 12 - The Alhambra and Ubeda The scenery on the way from Ronda towards Granada was still spectacular, miles and miles of olive orchards, windmills, mountains and some crops. A September 10, 2018 Day 11 - Ronda What a fabulous city! Everywhere you go in Ronda there is a more beautiful view around the next corner. There is something irresistible about the September 9, 2018 Day 10- Córdoba to Carmona to Ronda Departing Córdoba en route to Ronda, we stopped at the little “white hill town”of Carmona. We were able to walk through the beautiful Parador (where September 8, 2018 Day 9 - Córdoba Thus far each day of our trip in Spain has brought us to a new town or city with a few recurring threads. All have a rich and varied history, with September 7, 2018 Day 8- Seville Although we are staying at a parador in Córdoba, today we made the ninety minute journey to Seville, where we spent the day. Our guide Emma’s September 6, 2018 Day 7-Evora to Mérida to Parador de Córdoba Our first day of serious traveling, we covered about 200 miles from Evora in Portugal across the border into Spain, ultimately arriving at our September 5, 2018 Day 6 - Evora We awoke in our “cell” in the Pousada Loios in Evora ready for a day of walking and exploring this very friendly and charming medieval town. As September 3, 2018 Day 4 - Lisbon A busy day—no problem making our 10,000 steps today! After breakfast, we started our day in Baixa (low land district) before wending our way up some September 2, 2018 Day 3 - Lisbon The next morning, we ate ( and ate) one of the best buffet breakfasts we have ever had in a hotel. Since our group tour tomorrow is on a Monday, September 1, 2018 Day 1-2 - Lisbon We left Sarasota en route to Lisbon via Atlanta. Our flights were uneventful (thankfully so,) other than getting very limited sleep during our August 28, 2018 Portugal and Spain Itinerary Day 1 - Fri, Aug 31 Travel from Sarasota to Lisbon Day 2 - Sat, Sep 1 Lisbon Corinthia Hotel Day 3 - Sun, Sep 2 Lisbon Corinthia Hotel Day October 6, 2017 Coda: Making a Little Sense of Geology (without snoring!) We have visited eleven monuments, state and national parks and learning about the geology of this area puts it all into perspective. It has been a October 2, 2017 Postscript: Las Vegas and Life for Three weeks in an RV (Note: This was written before the horrendous event in Las Vegas. We are heartsick about the senseless murder of so many people and our deepest September 27, 2017 Day 21 - Parowan Gap, Kolob Canyons, and Valley of Fire The final day of our trip was our “unplanned” day, so to speak. We had to get close to Las Vegas in order to return our RV early Tuesday morning. We September 25, 2017 Days 18-20 - Bryce Canyon National Park (Warning - lots of pictures!!) Brrrr….whoever thought that before September was over, we would be down to 24 degrees at night, and about 35-40 September 22, 2017 Day 17 - Capitol Reef National Park We must be getting a bit jaded (a little geological humor). If we hadn’t just spent four lovely days in Moab seeing Arches and Canyonlands, Capital September 20, 2017 Days 12-16 - Moab, Utah (2) - Arches National Park The iconic Delicate Arch, on every license plate in Utah is located here. We crossed off this item on our bucket list…but more about that later! We September 19, 2017 Days 12-16 - Moab, Utah (1) - Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park Moab, Utah is a bustling town in southeast Utah about a 3-hour drive (by RV) from Durango. It is located nearby to two spectacular national parks - September 17, 2017 Days 10-11 - Durango and Silverton, Colorado The Durango-Silverton Railroad has been in continuous operation since 1882 carrying passengers between these two quaint western Colorado towns. September 15, 2017 Days 8-9 - Mesa Verde A misnomer, Mesa Verde is not really a Mesa (well, not one single one anyway), but compared to the other sites we’ve visited thus far it is much September 13, 2017 Days 7-8 - Monument Valley, Mexican Hat, and Four Corners This trip has had several dimensions so far. The amazing beauty of Zion we found to be very spiritual. The unique rock formations, lights, and September 11, 2017 Days 5 and 6 - Antelope Canyon and Glen Canyon - Page, AZ (Warning - lots of pics, may load slowly) We’ve discovered a magical place that most people have never heard of. It’s called Antelope Canyon. September 8, 2017 Days 2-4 ZION National Park Zion’s 147,000 acres are a study of contrasts. Part extreme desert, part lush green areas made possible by water seepage from the various rocks September 7, 2017 Side note: the RV Rental Process This note is intended for those who are interested in more info on the RV rental process. After arriving at El Monte RV, the first step was to watch September 6, 2017 Day 1: Leaving Las Vegas, Onward to Zion Today was the day we picked up our RV from El Monte RV in Las Vegas. Being total newbies at RV’ing, we weren’t sure what to expect and had a lot of September 5, 2017 Pre-RV: Las Vegas-great eats, crowded and hot! We arrived on Thursday evening in 107 degree temps-only got a few degrees below that all week. Saw a couple of shows including Penn and a Teller who August 30, 2017 Sep 2017 - National Parks Trip Map & Itinerary Point Day Date Locations A 1 9/05 Las Vegas, NV - Pick up RV at El Monte, travel to Zion Canyon B 1-5 9/05-09 Zion National Park, UT July 24, 2015 Epilogue - Wendy’s Reflections on our China Trip We’ve been home a week, and not a day goes by where I haven’t read a huge article in the paper about China—the economy (bad), their stock market July 16, 2015 Day 19 -  traveling home through Tokyo Although we are not looking forward to more than 16 hours of traveling, several interesting things happened on our way home. Hong Kong airport is July 15, 2015 Day 18 - Hong Kong - Victoria Peak, Stanley Market, and HK at Night Unbelievably, this is our last day in China. The buffet breakfast was the best here of all the Shangri-Las we stayed at. It is going to be hard to July 14, 2015 Day 17 - Guilin to Hong Kong - Tea Institute, Hong Kong at Night We started off the morning not too early driving through Guilin to the governments Tea Research Institue where they grow tea, showed us how it is July 13, 2015 Day 16 - Guilin - sailing the Li river, rural life in China Guilin reminded us the most of Taiwan when we lived there. Just seeing the town, the many storefronts with wares, big bags of rice, people July 13, 2015 Day 13 - On the Yangze - Shennv Stream Our only excursion today started nice and early, at 7:45. Walked through several ships and docks (they all park next to either on the docks so often July 11, 2015 Day 15- Disembarkation, Airport hassles and Guilin Disembarkation was amazingly slow. The boat pulled up to a floating dock, inch by slow inch, and finally the ropes were thrown out. That took about July 11, 2015 Day 14- On the Yangtze - Shibaozhai Pagoda, heavy bargaining We were out again, bright and early to walk to the Shibaozhai Pagoda, a well-known attraction that is a 12-tier wooden pavilion about 400 years old July 9, 2015 Day 12 - On the Yangtze - the Three Gorges Dam Relaxing on our cruise this morning, we had a lesiurely breakfast, and then went to a lecture on Chinese traditional medicine. Dr. “Tony” onboard is July 8, 2015 Day 11 - Shanghai to Yichang and our cruise begins After a little extra time this morning to pack and have our last delicious breakfast at the Waldorf- Astoria, we started our journey towards Yichang July 7, 2015 Day 10 - Shanghai We are in love with our hotel (see yesterday’s post), and the food is wonderful. Breakfasts are luxurious (high quality tea and coffee), beautifully July 5, 2015 Day 9 - Suzhou to Shanghai - Silk and Sampans There was a lot of bus riding today with several stops along the way to Shanghai. Suzhou is known for four things as we wrote yesterday–beautiful July 5, 2015 Day 8 - Xi’an to Suzhou - Chinese Gardens Today was primarily a travel day but finished with some beauty and tranquility. We flew from Xi’an to Shanghai and from the airport in Shanghai were July 4, 2015 Day 7 - Xi’an - Terracotta Warriors and Dumplings Finally, the eighth wonder of the world–the Terracotta Warriors! Although we’ve seen pictures, getting up close and seeing the vast archaeological July 3, 2015 Day 6 - Beijing to Xi’an - the Tang Dynasty While today was mainly a travel day, we did manage to see a couple of interesting things and also learn a bit more Chinese history. The flight from July 2, 2015 Day 5 - Beijing - Silk Rugs, Great Wall II, Olympic City First stop today was a silk rug factory where we saw three styles of 100% silk rugs–those woven tight, tighter and extremely tight. Even a 12”x12” June 30, 2015 Day 4 - Beijing - Tiananmen Sq, Forbidden City , and more There is no rest for the weary on this trip–well not quite. After 4 hours of walking in the morning, we had an incredible foot massage. More later… June 29, 2015 Day 3 - Beijing - Temple of Heaven, the Hutongs, and Peking Duck After spending the past two days pretty much on our own, today marked the actual start of our formal tour through Uniworld. The first big surprise June 28, 2015 Day 2 - Beijing - Exploring the city We are finally catching up and feel like we are on our new time schedule–yay! After breakfast, we took a cab to the 798 Art District–a unique area June 27, 2015 Day 1 - Beijing - Mutianyu and the Summer Palace We arrived in Beijing at about 9 pm on Friday night after an extremely pampered and relatively easy day of travelling. All that hard work saving up June 20, 2015 2015 Uniworld China Trip Info (PDF) Trip details: 14-PAS-049-China-CC.pdf June 19, 2015 Our 2015 China Itinerary BEIJING ~June 25 Thu~ - depart Boston ~June 26 Fri~ - arrive Beijing, get to Conrad Beijing Hotel (late evening) ~June 27 Sat~ - private tour of