Brian Smith

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Amsterdam to Miami Travel Notes AUGUST 19, 2024 – AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (Day 253)      Amsterdam greeted us with a mix of charm and grit as Gwen and I wandered through its interesting neighborhoods. The beauty of the historic canals and centuries-old buildings contrasted sharply with the occasional pockets of dirt and trash that […]

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Copenhagen to Amsterdam Travel Notes AUGUST 10, 2024 – COPENHAGEN, DENMARK (Day 244)      Copenhagen, Denmark, is one of those cities that seems straight out of a European daydream—filled with castles, canals, and more surprises than you’d expect. Our day exploring this place was packed from start to finish. We kicked

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Southampton to Copenhagen Travel Notes JULY 26, 2024 – SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND (Day 229) Gwen:      Today was a rare adventure as I ventured out on an excursion to Windsor Castle on my own, while the rest of the group stayed aboard the ship. I’d been eager to visit this iconic site, known

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Barcelona to Southampton Travel Notes JULY 10, 2024 – BARCELONA, SPAIN (Day 213)      Today was a much-needed catch-up day onboard our cruise ship. With this being a turnaround day, we took the opportunity to focus on some essential tasks—doing laundry, researching new destinations, and working on our travel photos. It

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Rome to Barcelona Travel Notes JULY 1, 2024 – ROME, ITALY (Day 204)      We have “Town Hall” meetings for the World Cruisers in the Tropical Theater whenever they need to pass along information on the World Wonder tours, Visas, or anything else that impacts us as a group.  At the

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Ravenna to Rome Travel Notes JUNE 20, 2024 – BACK TO THE SHIP!  RAVENNA, ITALY (Day 193)      Today’s the day we finally got back on the ship, and I think we were more than ready. As fun as it’s been to explore new places and do all the exciting things

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Off Ship: Ireland to Italy Travel Notes JUNE 1, 2024 – TRAVEL DAY TO DUBLIN, IRELAND (Day 174) Wow, hard to believe that we are only 100 days away from the end of our world adventure. We packed up and headed towards Zurich. We stopped in Lucerne along the way.  It is

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Heaven and Heritage: Switzerland to Venice Travel Notes MAY 22, 2024 – TRAVEL DAY TO GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (Day 164)      We flew out at 10:30 a.m. enduring a 5 hour flight to Geneva.  We had no real complaints as the flight was fairly comfortable.  We left the dry Jordan desert to have

ALL TRAVEL NOTES World Wonders: Egypt and Jordan Travel Notes MAY 10, 2024 – TRAVEL DAY TO CAIRO (Day 152) We took a taxi to the Sharjah airport.  We enjoyed breakfast in the lounge and then had lunch on the plane.  Everything went smoothly as we touched down in Cairo.  Doug and Margaret were already

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Singapore to Dubai Travel Notes APR. 24, 2024 – SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE (Day 136)      The first thing of note on this port is that our day here was way too short.  We had some delays in getting off the ship by customs and technicalities.  Couple that with a 2:30 p.m. All-Aboard

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Beijing to Singapore Travel Notes APR. 8, 2024 – BEIJING, CHINA (Day 120)          We didn’t get off the ship today as we are still tired and didn’t know of anything that we HAVE to see.  We turned in our passports and logged off and back on the ship

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Hong Kong to Beijing Travel Notes MAR. 28, 2024 – HONG KONG, CHINA (Day 109)      We decided not to get off the ship today as we have seen everything in Hong Kong we wanted to see.  All four of us spent a couple of days in Hong Kong back in

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Brisbane to Hong Kong Travel Notes MAR. 11, 2024 – BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA (Day 92)      Doug and Margaret are going on a Trip Interruption until Bali to make sure they can scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef.  We got off the ship together and took an Uber to the Novotel Airport

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Los Angeles to Brisbane Travel Notes FEB. 11, 2024 – LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (Day 64)      We had a plan.  We were trying to figure out how best to resupply in Los Angeles.  We had researched Amazon Lockers and other ways to get merchandise while in port.  One of our issues

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Valparaiso to Los Angeles Travel Notes JAN. 23, 2024 – VALPARAISO, ARGENTINA (Day 45)    We started our day meeting up with Sebastian of Valparaiso Wine Tours.  There were 8 of us total with Shannon, Erika, Jodi, and Brenda joining us from Serenade of the Seas.  We began the tour with short

     We have been blessed to be able to travel quite a bit over the last few decades. To explore the world and see other places and how other people live has always been fascinating to us. But what is really the fascination? Is it the places we go to, or the people we

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Buenos Aires to ValparaisoTravel Notes JAN. 5, 2024 – BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (Day 27)       FINALLY!   After many hours of struggling to migrate this domain to a different hosting platform, I was able to get a complete backup to restore.  It has been a frustrating process, but I sense that it will

ALL TRAVEL NOTES Miami to Buenos AiresTravel Notes DEC. 8, 2023 – GETTING TO THE AIRPORT We didn’t get much sleep the night before our trip. Our bags were already packed in the Highlander (barely), and fitting all our luggage into a single vehicle had not even crossed my mind. As it turned out, it