Rio Travelers: May 2013

We will start by saying HELLO from home. Our vacation was wonderful but Ken and I are glad to be back in Florida. We arrived home from our 10 month adventure on the road on April 7th and had less than 2 weeks to unload the RV and pack for our European adventure. The trans-Atlantic crossing was fun and our ship was beautiful. It is only 2 years old and had some features, like the real lawn on the top deck where we played croquet and Bocce and the Hot Glass Show, that we had not seen before. The Corning Museum and Celebrity have a partnership where they provide 3 professional glass blowers on each cruise on their Solstice class ships. We loved watching the shows, especially the one that they did at night. There were 3 stops at the beginning of the cruise in Nassau, San Juan and St. Marten then we cruised for 8 days to South Hampton, England. Even with the shows, the visits to the casino and the Martini bar where the bartenders added some "flair" to the drink making at the frosted bar it was a bit too much R&R and I guess we will stick to flying.

Trans-Atlantic cruise on the ECLIPSE

OUR ROOM

SOLARIUM

OUR SHIP IS THE SMALL ONE NEXT TO THE "OASIS OF THE SEAS"
NASSAU WAS MOBBED

ATLANTIS IN NASSAU

THE 15TH DECK LAWN

IT WAS ONLY PENNIES

KEN BUILT A SHIP

THE WINNING ENTRY

ORDERING DINNER 0N AN I-PAD

ONE OF THE ACTS IN ONE OF THE SHOWS

A 2 STORY WINE RACK

ANOTHER AFTERNOON AT THE MARTINI BAR POURING 6 AT ONCE DID NOT SPILL A DROP

Upon our arrival in England, we flew to Switzerland where we had a 2 day pre-cruise visit in Lucerne before boarding the Viking Var in Basel (an hour away by bus). We also met up with our friends Bruce and Barbara in Lucerne for the cruise.

We did a walking tour of the city and found it fascinating to see buildings and bridges that date back to the 1300's and are still in use. We also had a 1 hour cruise on Lake Lucerne, a bus trip to Mt. Titlis in the Swiss Alps and a dinner show complete with Cheese Fondue and Alpine horns. Lucerne, like most mideval cities was walled, with the Water Tower and Chapel Bridge being part of the original wall and is neat, clean and beautiful.

Our hotel, the Schweizerhof, was originally built in 1845 and is a 5 star hotel.

I will give one plug to Viking. They took care of us from the time we got off the airplane in Switzerland until we left them at the airport in Amsterdam.

LUCERNE SWITZERLAND