St. Petersburg, Russia

We spent this day on a tour in St. Petersburg which was fun. We saw Catherine's Palace -- don't ask us who Caterine was because we have no clue, alot of St. Petersburg, had a great lunch, and went to the Hermitage Musuem where we saw tons of artwork. It was a great day but rather exhausting. We are really glad we did it; although, Russia is quite sad and quite poor. I did get in a little dancing with a Russian man which Tres found quite amusing. Tres took alot of illegal pictures which he enjoyed doing, and we laughed at all the nude paintings and sculptures. I guess when it comes down to it, we are really not that cultured and would prefer some rock climbing.

Copenhagen, Denmark

I have to say Copenhagen surprised us both. It was beautiful -- breathtaking. Now, I see why so many artists got inspiration here. It is amazingly beautiful, but I do not see how they afforded it. I have never been anywhere so expensive. We started our day off walking around and thinking we would take a train to Helsingor -- the supposed castle that gave Shakespeare his inspiration for Hamlet. Well, that turned out to take longer than expected so we ended up just taking in the city. Taking it in is about all we could afford. The economy is great, and it shows. The first thing we saw was the real little mermaid. She wasn't half as built or beautiful as Disney's, but it was neat to see. Then we headed into town. They have this neat thing called city bikes where you put in 20 kroner to rent the bike and when you are finished you take it back and get your money back. Being so thrifty we thought that was a great idea. We rented the bikes and started biking through the city. It was great. Then we found a church we wanted to see. I have pictured the steeple here. We climbed all the way to the top. It was great. The bad part was we had no way of locking the bikes up so we left them with all the other bikes in front of the church. Stupid Americans! When we looked down from the top of the church, we saw our bikes were gone. What a great business these kids have - return the bikes and get the money. We enjoyed the day anyway. We walked back from the church and took in quite a few sites. The big surprise for the day was our snacks. They looked great in the window. They tasted great in our mouths. Rasberry and chocolate muffin (real raspberries. mmm...), jalepeno, cheese, tomato, and garlic muffin (taste of mexico), and a vanilla, pecan, chocolate piece of pie. The price in US dollars we payed -- 14 dollars!!! We ended the day seeing a beautiful windmill in an old military/city community. We had a great day but think Copenhagen is easier on the eyes than exploring.

More pics from Amsterdam

I wasn't able to put all the pics on one websposting so I am adding more here from Amsterdam.

Just Another Day in Amsterdam!

I have to say that today may have been our favorite so far. For four reason -- Meg, Joe, Maggie Mae, and Owen. My sister and family met us in Amsterdam for the day. We had a great time -- good clean fun. We totally missed the red light district, as it is not child or Christian friendly. Hehe. We actually loved Amersterdam. It was alot nicer than we expected. We started the day off by meeting them at the hotel. Maggie immediately was ready to go and play which we were eager to oblige her. We then left the hotel and got paddle boats and paddled around the canal. It was fun but tiring. Yes, Meg left it up to us to do all the paddling. :) Maggie and her friend Annie loved it. Meg and Joe had some friend visiting from Kentucky with them. They were really nice, and their kids were great too. Next, we ate what most people in Amersterdam would eat -- Mexican. Tres' pic, of course. It was the first big meal we had eaten in along time, and we did eat up. Then we walked around Amsterdam to Anne Frank's house. It was a really neat and somewhat sad place. Maggie sure did liven it up. She was good, just curious and wanted touch everything. We had such a good time and miss them already. We met some interesting characters that day. Meg even got hit on by a man we later saw getting arrested by the police. Holland was playing a world cup soccer match the day we were in town which explains Joe and Tres' headgear, not to mention their partying spirit. We love you all very much and thank you so much for making the visit and making our day.

Brussels, Belgium

We only had a few hours in Belgium so we decided to hit a chocolate shop first. The chocolates were great, and we devoured them in seconds -- 2 kilos!!! We then just walked around a little. We headed toward the beach to check it out. By the time we arrrived, I needed a pitstop. The bathrooms here are much different than in America. No travelmarts with nice bathrooms. You have to pay to use the restroom everywhere here!!! 30 cents in euro which is about 50 cents to us Americans just to pee. Tres says "For the price of a pop, I was able to pee". Belgium was nice. We just didn't have enough time there. Judging by the chocolate, I would say we would really like it given more time.

Aahh, Paris!

We went on a tour to Paris because it was two hours from where we docked. Tours are nice because they are free, but they are always a little rushed. Tres and I had to ride on separate buses in order to "watch over" the groups. Basically, we babysit. Tres was sick the whole day with a stomach virus that is going on throughout the ship. It was nice to see all the tourist things -- Eiffel tower, arc de triumph, etc, but we would have liked it better on our own. There was little boy named Tom who had taken to Tres and helped take care of him throughout the day. We loved being with him considering the average age on our ship is 75-80. Tres is now feeling better.

Bordeaux, France

This was a great day. It totally redeemed France for us. We started the day off renting bikes from little shop in the middle of town. We set out to find some vineyards and chateauxs (castles). After cycling for awhile, we realized we had no clue where we were or were headed. Luckily we bumped into a man on a strange contraption called a hand bike. He pointed us in the right direction but Vicki and I had to have a pic with him. Vicki is one of our dancers on the ship. We enjoy traveling with her, and she speaks French which was a big help. On the way to the vineyard, we found heaven. We had been cycling for three hours on no food so when we saw the golden arches, we knew it was a gift from God. After a refreshing dollar menu dinner, we headed off for a vineyard. It was beautiful and neat because we had never seen grapes growing before. There was no chateaux though. We then headed back to the city, knowing we had another two hours of cycling ahead of us. When we got back to Bordeaux we biked around the city which had some great architecture. This church was one we were particularly fond of. After a full day, we returned the bikes and were on a mission for food. We found a great restaurant and enjoyed a wonderful outside meal. France has been redeemed!

Leixoes, Portugal

So, this day was a little frustrating. Portugal is very difficult to get around, mainly because none of the streets are marked, and they have no one map for the city. We took off with three different maps of the same city and knowing not one word of Portugese. We found a great market with every kind of fruit, veggie, and fish you could imagine. We decided to buy breakfast and lunch – one kilo of strawberries. They were delicious. We then took off on a bus to find a palace and surrounding gardens. To our surprise, the palace was a large glass library – a little disappointing, but the gardens were great. The rest of the day was unfruitful because of the maps. We finally spent the last portion of the day trying to get back to the ship on the many different forms of public transportation they have in Portugal. We made just in time and spend the rest of the evening watching movies and laughing about the day. We look forward to being in Bordeaux.

Well, we completely enjoyed our last day in Spain. We took a bus out of Cadiz into a small town called Santa Maria. It was too cold to swim so we decided to roam around. We ended up at a bullfighting stadium where we got to take a free tour! It was so cool. There were mounted bullheads in the opening hall! I am used to deerheads but certainly not bulls. The stadium was really neat, and we got some fun pics there. The only thing better would have been being able to see a real fight; although, we were told they are quite gory. After the bullfighting stadium we found a true American staple -- Ben and Jerry's. God was certainly blessing us! :) This was our breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was good to have a taste of home and wouldn't you know the other people there were Americans too! It was quite funny. The ice cream in Europe is better than ours in the states. It is much creamier, but we definitely have better flavors. Our next stop was the Santa Maria Castle, and guess what, the tour was free! It was definitely our day. Christopher Columbus had lived there for two years. Cool, huh? We also made it to the supermarket that day to stock up on Milka chocolate bars -- our new favorite. Nestle makes them, but we don't have them in America. We then took a water taxi back to the ship which ended a great day. Our only regret every time is that we don't have more time off the ship.