Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

May there be enough water in the rivers, enough food on the tables - and enough sunshine to enjoy the scenery as you cruise along whatever river you choose...

Our river cruise this year is taking care of another item on our "Bucket List" --> seeing (some of the sights in) Russia. Quite excited that our trip is less than 5 months away. Also, we are travelling with friends - who have never been on a river cruise - so are really looking forward to spending some time with them as we visit places that we have only read about in books.

Will also start planning the next trip... to China. Walking on the Great Wall (while I am still young enough to walk without gait aids!! :D ) is another "Bucket List" item. Hopefully 2013 will bring about that opportunity.

Anyone else addressing items on their Bucket List this year??

Fran

We went on a Russian River cruise in 2010 and had a wonderful time. Should you be interested, the book Russka by Edward Rutherfurd is historical fiction taking place from 180AD to present in Russia. It is about 1000 pages long. We read it as we sailed and loved it.

Fran, Happy New Year to you also. We will remove 2 items from our bucket list this year--the Black Sea with Oceania in Aug and China with Viking in Oct. So looking forward to both. DH gets his new knee at he end of this month and should be ready for the Wall. Have been avidly reading the Viking China thread on other cruises board. It has wonderful info that would apply to all lines.

In Russia, don't forget that the town of Uglitz has the best prices. Pat

Paul - thank you for the suggestion... I will look for that book.

Pat - thank you for the reminder about Uglich... I found 2 copies of "Russia by River" (one for me, one for my friend who is traveling with us...) - and am reading about the various stops. I am *always* looking for the "best prices" - so this is good info to have.

We are planning on combining a land and river cruise tour for our trip to China. My niece was adopted from Szechuan province - so we are going to China with my sister and her family. We plan to do Bejing together, and perhaps down to Chongqing to see the Terracotta Warriors before we part ways. They will be going into the interior to visit the area of Mia's birth - and we will head towards the Yangtze. We hope to be able to go to Guilin -and to Shanghai.

I am sure that your husband will be glad to get his new knee... He will have lots of time to heal before your travels.

Fran

Happy New Year to all of you!! Hope everyone has a great year of traveling! We are off to India soon to see our 8th Wonder of the World -- the Taj! Have to do it before we can't do it any more. Pat -- hope your DH has a speedy recovery after knee replacement surgery!

Sheila

Fran and Sheila, thanks for the kind words for Terry's surgery. We always seem to get most of our snow during Feb., but the younger males in the family have pledged to shovel the snow. Sheila, enjoy checking the Taj off your bucket list. A healthy new year to you both. Pat