Another Katie & Mike Cruise Adventure 2007

A beautiful, yet charming little Christmas Museum. It wasn't too large to prevent us from taking a little time out from our trip.

Quaint little German town that has preserved it's medieval heritage and flavor.

Here, we visited the Christmas Museum.

Triberg should be a "poster city" for the German Tourism Board. We thoroughly enjoyed the time that we spent in this area!

The locals are friendly. Prices are reasonable and competetive. The view(s) is/are unforgettable.

Our biggest regret is that we were unable to spend more time here!!!

While this hotel possessed the typical Ibis quality, cleanliness and modern accomodations; all were offset and shaded in the negativity of it's remoteness! The staff were friendly enough to be sure.

It's location (on the south-west fringe of Rome) was far from public transportation and even LOOKED like you were in a remote location. I would NOT try to walk to this facility from the Metro stop (at least 1km)! The area even appeared to have a "seedy/dangerous" look which was enhanced at night. To further compound the remoteness, there were NO Taxis waiting, so you were literally ON YOUR OWN!

The taxi ride from downtown Rome cost about 25 euro. All of these points offset any cost savings gained by staying at this "economy" type hotel.

We journeyed through this facility many times while we were in Italy.

It, like most European train stations, has shopping and eating establishments quite comperable to what Americans are used to seeing in shopping centers and malls.

On our last night in Rome, Kathy

It took about 4-5 hours to ride between Rome and Padua. (This journey was conseived while we were in Italy.)

After we stored our luggage in the compartment in the entryway of the car. We settled (for most of the trip) in as doubles in a four seat area. I made trips to the dining car and would ferry food, drinks and whatever to Kathy who worked on her journal back at our seats. I drank several cups of espresso while drinking in the sights and experiences of the moment.

As we began our drive up the Rhine, I realized that we were on the other side of the river than I wanted to be on. As we entered Niederheimbach, I saw a sign indicating a ferry crossing point. We entered the queue and were on the boat in less than a half-hour.

For about four Euro, we were soon in the middle of the Rhine river (something that I never dreamed of) seeing the sights on both banks from a unique perspective. We crossed and de-boarded quickly and were very quickly back on course (on the proper side of the river) headed north along the river.

Had we doubled back to the nearest bridge crossing, we would have lost A LOT of time, not to mention how much more fuel that would have been consumed.