Today, we spent some time in Studio B, which is the ice rink aboard ship. We watched an ice show that was good by any measure. Considering that we’re in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with nine foot waves and a ship that is moving, this show was excellent. Continue reading →
Yesterday, we boarded Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. We’re on board for a 14 day Atlantic Crossing with a destination of Southampton, England. From there we’ll stay on board for another 14 days as we tour the Mediterranean with stops in Barcelona, Gibraltar, Rome, and a few others. We’ll post more on that later. Continue reading →
Today we started another vacation. And as with many of our vacations, we’re spending the night at one of our favorite Disney hotels, Disney’s Port Orleans, Riverside. We’ve stayed at this hotel many times before and even posted a story about it on Mouseplanet.com here.
Today, our check in at Disney’s Port Orleans is worth noting. Disney has a process where you can electronically check in without visiting the front desk, and today it worked that way for us. For our check in, we received a text message from Disney telling us that our room was ready, and giving us our room number. We already had a Magic Band associated with our account, and when the room was made ready it was associated with that room number. All we had to do was make our way to the room and walk in. No stopping by the front desk, no nothing. Tomorrow when we leave, we’ll just get up, load our stuff in the car, and leave. Easy Peasy. Continue reading →
Rothenburg over the Tauber is a medieval city in Germany, southeast of Frankfurt, and west of Nuremberg. At one time, it was the third largest city in Germany and the largest completely walled city. It dates back over 1,000 years and today is one of Germany’s treasures. The name Rothenburg ob der Tauber means “Red fortress over the Tauber”. Rot is the German word for red, referring to the red tiles on the roofs while burg refers to a fortification. Ob der means “over the”, and of course Tauber is the name of the river that runs by. Continue reading →
On the way to Rothenburg we stopped in a little village called Harburg. It’s a classic medieval village with a castle on the hill and narrow streets, barely wide enough to drive through. Probably those medieval city planners weren’t up to speed on the size of our 21st century cars when they layed out the city. Continue reading →
We stayed in Baden-Baden for only a couple of nights while we were visiting the Schloss Lichtenstein and the Black Forest. There really isn’t much we can report about this town, other than we were within walking distance to their old town, which is where we went each night to find some dinner. Continue reading →
Hohen schwan gau – in german means high (hohen) schwan (swan) gau (country, district). The community of Schwangau was originally nothing more than a couple of farm houses until King Maximilian II of Bavaria discovered the ruins of an old castle in the early 19th century. The castle, called fortress Schwangau was thought to have been originally built in the 12th century, and was the fortress of a group of knights. Continue reading →
Heidelberg goes down as one of those places that warrants a return trip at some point. While we weren’t totally blown away with the adventure, it was nevertheless a decent town to visit. We spent a couple of nights at a downtown Holiday Inn Express that was within easy walking distance to Old Town and the Heidelberg Castle. We spent one even strolling Old Town, and one day at the Castle and again at Old Town. Continue reading →
