Iceland. 🇮🇸

The Land of Fire and Ice is a most appropriate name for this spectacular country! One amazing spectacle of nature after another made our eyes grow wide, and our knowledge and appreciation of the world grow deeper.

Favorites: the people- friendly and happy, the Perlan Museum ( but take a cab to get there, long and arduous walk!), South Coast Tour, Reykjavik Kitchen Restaurant, and, of course, Sundhóll public baths, a delightful authentic experience.

Could have better: not much except the Keflavík airport, which, given the number of tourists arriving daily, needs some serious updating and technological assistance.

Scandinavia🇸🇪 🇩🇰🇳🇴🇫🇮

We loved the intertwining of history of this part of the world, and the gorgeous natural beauty and culture of the capital cities, the smaller towns, and the meandering fiords. Our guides for every trip were either very good or excellent ( the last guide, in Bergen was spectacular) and taught us more than we can ever hope to remember.

Jim’s favorite capital was Copenhagen and we wish we had more time there. Coming immediately after our rich but exhausting day in Berlin, we felt we didn’t do it justice. Wendy’s was either Stockholm or Oslo, mostly for the fantastic museums (Vasa in Stockholm, Fram and Kon Tiki in Oslo).

🇩🇪 🇵🇱

Berlin and Gdańsk are permeated with such deep history, it made us feel rather small in comparison. And we learned SO much—from Gdańsks’ resilience and recovery from WWII, to the Solidarity Museum from which we got a deep appreciation of the history of the rise and fall of Communism of the 20th century. And the quaint, beautifully rebuilt old town was the icing on the cake.

Berlin was our most intense day and Stefanie’s choice to get a private guide made all the difference, rather than trying to find and learn about everything ourselves. We all felt the deep connection as our guide, Lee, made sure to connect the dots of history and all the important landmarks of both the war and particularly Jewish events in the short time we were there.

Fiords🇳🇴

It bears repeating how absolutely gorgeous this part of the world is. And, the almost perfect weather added not only to the glorious pictures, but to our overall attitude and enjoyment of our time there. Our Norway in a Nutshell trip lived up to its expectations and was an enjoyable way to experience all aspects of nature.

Our expectations about this cruise, and the Viking Cruise Line were high from all the research, Facebook, Trip Advisor reviews etc. Since we have very little, if any cruise experience ( not counting River Cruises), it is very difficult to compare to the hundreds of choices out there. But we were very satisfied, dare we say, ecstatic about the quality of the staff, accommodations, amenities, food and overall experience on this ship. Plus refusing to nickel and dime you to death, and having no casino or kids, this was a class act all the way. We heard many personal stories from crew members about the " family" way in which they are treated. They are from all over the world, most are hired with previous experience, trained impeccably, seemingly paid well, and go out of their way to be friendly and accommodating.

The entertainment was also extremely high quality throughout the cruise, the spa area was heaven!!, and food overall was delicious with more choices than you had meals.

A special shout out to our room steward, Ahmad, and the cruise activity director André Gaffney, both of whom could not be better.

The one major downside was the internet. We are waiting for our cellphone bill which will reflect the number of times we had to go into cellular data mode, in order to send, receive and post our pictures and blog.

But everything else was near perfect. We will miss the twice a day cabin cleaning, the spa, our outside balcony ( all rooms have one), the delicious and abundant choices of food, and most of all, the smiling welcome faces of staff and crew. An amazing experience, and yes, we already signed up for another!