Host Bonjour

Understatement!! It's spectacular, as is the Music Box. Thanks for sharing, and returning to post week 49! (Sorry, this time I was late to pin...) Colleen

Hope everyone had a pleasant Thanksgiving, or... Thursday, as otherwise known on this plant 😉 Dave, you must be out on a squirrel hunt. I don't see a Photo-of-the-Week 48 to pin, so I edited last week's topic to cover this week. Honestly, you need a week or two off!! Just read a fun article in The New York Times about glass ornaments (not unlike your furry tailed friend) that are made to represent an interesting amount of people, places, things. If Santa doesn't drop any new camera, gear, or lens in your stocking (or for chanukah) this year, maybe there's a glass rollie ornament or old roll of Kodak or TriX to decorate your place with 😄 Keep well! Colleen

Thanks @malted muse and @Steerpike58for the great convo. I shared this topic over on our Digital Photography forum which includes a board for videos, photo kit and other tech gear. I have a feeling they're going to enjoy it over there. Thanks again for the wonderful content 🙂

Not sure everyone knows about our little tech, photo, and video world in/around CC, so I thought I'd share this topic/posts I just stumbled across over on one of the CC Ports boards. (They also get into some cool gear chat!) Thanks @malted musefor sharing with everyone 🙂 Enjoy!!

Loved reading your report! Thanks for sharing, it will be helpful for CC'ers interested in ways to pass time in Civi, one of the most frequent questions on the board. Glad your visit was wonderful and appreciate the time you took to write a report here. Onto the next journey and visiting Tarquinia upon your return.

Thanks for sharing this informative piece from The Sun by Ryan Gray. 👍 We always like to give credit when posting content from other sources 😉 I feel like it'll hurt students and artists and such, those whom you'd kind of want to have access to the city, though maybe as can often be the case, pensioners and students etc will be free or reduced charge. Otherwise, yes! The money can only help with preservation and restoration costs. We hope 🙂 Thanks again for sharing!

Just about anywhere in Italy is challenging (if not closed, shorter or reduced hours) on a Sunday, but with that said, as Genoa is a port city and not a small provincial town, you'll be able to find somewhere to eat lunch. And yes, on regular business days, it's likely most businesses will close for lunch in the afternoon. Small independently owned shops will almost certainly be closed, but any large franchise type operation may be open for limited hours. If there's any place you have an eye on checking out, I would google in advance to see whether or not it will be open. Enjoy your Med Cruise, it's going to be amazing 😎

Yes you can, at at the front desk. Otherwise, tourism would go into sharp decline. Servers will speak english in citie It's true there will be less English spoken outside of cities, but with professional workers, and definitely the younger generations, there will almost certainly be English speakers because everything is inter-connected these days, and it's incorporated into education at an early age. Don't overlook using Google translate, which includes a speaking component that will "speak" words. I believe that similar to maps, a fair amount of it works offline. (I'm into speaking languages so I've not experimented, it didn't exist when I needed it in Hong Kong, China and Japan!) And it's available in a staggering amount of languages. It's important to be prepared in the event of any encounter that might require language facility. In no instance should one expect everyone to be fluent in our own language, even if more of the global population are capable of speaking it (and mastering), these days. Keep the phone charged and ready with a language translator at the ready, hopefully not for use in any emergency, just finding an amazing winery or castle 😉

I would have never noticed 😂 and it's another brilliant shot, in every way. I must have lost a sense of romance, these days I notice murmurations, whichever tree is the "conversation" tree (you know the one) or, as happened recently, why one edge of a building was lined end to end with birds, while directly across the street, was lightly populated. Missing the courtship for sure. And this photo begs for captions. I love it.

Do they ever make a sound! Not when reclining of course, but when two get to kicking each other, wow. In the Blue Mountains I witnessed, from decent distance, an all out brawl and the howling sounds sure broke the silence in an otherwise tranquil setting. Quite a thing to be wandering amidst these creatures that are lounging about... routine for you all, I'm sure. But what an experience, which is exactly why we travel. Talk about a way to travel, joey there has the best ride in town. I almost thought this was a camouflaged reptile. This is what the absence of any variety flora and fauna in one's environment does to a person. 😂 So, so cool. There's a YouTube channel called The Dodo which posts very short videos of all types of animals. There is one from Australia with the brightly colored red and green bird, a lady who gets her daily visitors of a community of these birds. One brings his girlfriend. We don't see any pigeon romances around here. I guess you just have to look! Thanks for the spectacular photos, everyone, every week.

Honestly don't think we've seen this question, or if so, not for a long time. My best thought would be to ask your hotel to recommend a service? It might be interesting to go into the city, drop your luggage at the hotel if it's too early to check in, and plan to visit Le Marais and Montmarte, two particular neighborhoods of Paris with unique appeal. A taxi could easily bring you to both areas, recommend where to explore (Le Bastille, Place des Vosges, Sacre Coeur, Moulin Rouge etc) pick places to eat, walk around, and before you know it, time for bed. Give you a bit more of a feel for Paris. Check with your hotel. Good luck.

They're not necessarily wrong about HoHo's in terms of getting a feel for a city, but I think it's most helpful for certain cities, particularly those that have many sections that aren't necessarily connected in any particular way. Paris is very well connected, by design: look at it on a map (with the arronidissments noted) and observe that they are arranged in order, clockwise, crossing the river from the Right Bank (where the 1st arr is, in central paris) jumping the Seine to start at the 5th, on the Left Bank, and then crossing the river again to start the 8th, etc etc. It's also not very big. You would spend most of your time exploring the inner circle of the city, though by all means, be ambitious, especially if you're DIY. That's why the best way to do Paris is a combo of walking, metro, or even renting a bicycle. (Maybe a bus, but Paris also can be notorious for traffic depending on the day and time) Another HoHo issue is that the buses cannot fit down many of the smaller (and more curious, picturesque, pedestrian/tiny car/scooter only) streets of Paris. They do the grander boulevards, which are worth seeing, but you really want to dig into les quartiers... the neighborhoods. If it were me, when I arrive I would check in, if it's time to eat, ask for a recommendation from the concierge (or folks at the desk, who know the area well) in a near-ish place so you can have a nice walk, maybe with an alternate route back. Get an unlimited transit pass while you're out. Walk by the river, maybe take the Seine cruise (and take another at night, yes it's lovely) because it slices through the city, in itself, a great overview. Or, depending on where you're staying, just park yourselves in another cafe and people watch somewhere splendid, swing by the Louvre and walk along rue de Rivoli or pop into the Tuileries, on the Champs Elysées, Boulevard St Michel, Boulevard St Germain, or go to Champs du Mars and relax for a while. Walking from Place d'Etoile to Place de la Concorde is a stroll, but if your lodging is somewhere along the way, it's lovely. Just ideas for previews. If you have 3-4 days or more in Paris, you will have enough time to take in museums, gardens, see monuments, parks, shops, whatever it is you're interested in but keep in mind that no one can see everything. People miss things when trying to do too much. It's such a beautiful city with architecture, history, atmosphere, all around you. Make room for some random things and let the DIY spirit set you free. Oh and with Notre Dame still being renovated, consider visiting Saint Chappelle instead, but you want sunlight for that. (I know there's Sacre Coeur, but the stained glass and concerts get overlooked)... Anyway... pace yourself, but stick to the ground on day 1, Paris is quite manageable. Have a lovely time.

🎉🎉 🍷🇮🇹 Buon Viaggio!! (e buon appetito!) Safe travels and keep us posted! Cruisemom42 rides again 🙂

Moved into snorkeling topic stickie at the top of the main page.

Added this topic to the main snorkeling stickie on the top of the page.

Thanks for sharing this. I copied the link to this topic and added it into the other thread where the information will be equally important and essential since folks continually visit the topic and keep it up to date. FYI, it's very easy to jump to the last, most recent page of any topic (sticky or otherwise) just click on the last page number underneath the title of the topic and be automatically moved to that page. If there are too many pages to enumerate on the screen, you'll see 1, 2, 3, 4...Last Page. Click on Last Page... and there you are: most recent posts only! Thanks to everyone as ever, for all the wonderful contributions! Colleen

Moved this topic into a post within the ArriveCAN stickie topic at the top of the forum. Thank you for sharing it joyandjerry 🙂 To see recent posts in that topic (or any!) hover your cursor over the name of the topic: a pop-up window will appear displaying the lead post, then two tabs appear above that post. One tab will say "first post" and the other will say "last post" enabling a quick jump to the last post. To make the jump, move the cursor to that tab and click; no need to scroll through the all of the posts. The ArriveCAN topic currently has four pages of posts. The oldest posts will be on page 1, newer posts will be found on subsequent pages. You may jump to any page by clicking on a page number, which appears underneath the title of the topic. To read the newest, most recent posts, it may make sense to begin with the last page and work backwards. In some cases, or if one is seeking a great amount of research for one's journey, maybe reading all of the pages will be worthwhile, and reading in any order will be great. 😉 Keep in mind: most recent posts, see last page of topic.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. We probably could do with a way to better highlight stickies and attract more attention. I've also tried to create topics by collecting or aggregating similar topics (threads), but there's no quick way to collect them, but probably the pinning situation made an aggregate of other similar posts, but then the same type of questions would appear. We aren't able to delete a topic because it's a regular subject, but we're beyond grateful for the stalwart members of the community that routinely reply to the questions. 🏆🏆 It's always wonderful and appreciated to see replies that direct users towards the search function to find recent posts for transfers to/from port, hotels, excursions, sightseeing, etc. (Hopeful that folks implement time saving techniques like copy/paste when sharing this info!) We could try using the search feature ourselves when we see FAQs, and when replying to a request, include a link to a recently posted topic. Things may remain the same, or, things might come around... slowly 😉 Again, very grateful for the thoughts, and always, for the wonderful contributions, to FAQs and everything in between, above and beyond. 👏👏🙂🙂 Colleen

Hi and happy Autumn (almost) everyone, So lovely to see the board buzzing again, hoping everyone that has sailed has had one (or more!) pleasant return to the sea, or on land–being out is being out! Stay safe and careful out there, but it sure is better. 🙂 Just wondering whether, or if, it made sense to add a sticky for any new hot topic or port, now that everyone is making plans and sailing the seas. It can help save time searching/scrolling or starting a new topic and waiting for replies, in case you're looking to get away soon! Barcelona (transportation or hotels?) is always popping, and seeing a lot of Seville questions, but also Canary Islands, and some other destinations posted lately. Everything is always super-efficient and I know the board legends among us can handle anything that comes along, at any volume 😉 so just figured it might be a good time to check-in. And it can always be temporary... we're in this sort of breaking out era. Yeah or nay, either way is all good. Cheers and Keep Well, Colleen PS: There is a great food and wine topic running on the Italy board, would that be fun to try here? Totally up to you!

Hi and happy Autumn (almost) everyone, So lovely to see the board buzzing again, hoping everyone that has sailed has had one (or more!) pleasant return to the sea, or on land–being out is being out! Stay safe and careful out there, but it sure is better. 🙂 Just wondering whether, or if, it made sense to add a sticky for any new hot topic or port, now that everyone is making plans and sailing the seas. It can help save time searching/scrolling or starting a new topic and waiting for replies, in case you're looking to get away soon! Amsterdam is always popping, (Schipol?) and seeing a lot of Dublin questions, but also Irish ports (or Scotland), and some other new things posted lately. Everything is always super-efficient and I know the board legends among us can handle anything that comes along, at any volume 😉 so just figured it might be a good time to check-in. And it can always be temporary... we're in this sort of breaking out era. Yeah or nay, either way is all good. Cheers and Keep Well, Colleen

👏👏👏👏 Lotttttssssss of ports to call at in Italy. 🇮🇹 ✅ Only one Venice. We need to save Venice.🚨 Nothing to see if Venice is uninhabitable or waterlogged. There are other ways to travel to Venice. Trains, roads, and planes, smaller boats go to Venice. ✅ Bummer? Sure. Inconvenient? Maybe. Disappointing? Probably. Venice forever? PRICELESS. 💯♥️ (The train ride across the lagoon is epic, another amazing way into Venice, just saying...) Might miss the big sail in, but won't miss seeing Venice. It's a win. 🏆🇮🇹 (getting off my soap box now...thanks for reading my TED Talk 😂)