The next time I’m back in Venice, I’ll be staying at the Amadeus again.  The area’s great too – nice restaurants and shops, and they’re all cheaper than what you’ll find near San Marco.  Oh – the “bad area” is actually next to the BUS depot… not the TRAIN station.

I got a wonderful deal on this hotel through Orbitz, I paid approximately $95 per night – and our room had a balcony with a nice cafe table. The rooms have great character without being too kitchy, and have all the amenities you’d expect from a 4 star hotel.

Check the Amadeus out click here

The city offers wonderful cafes and numerous shopping streets including their own version of the Ramblas with the Catedral de Cadiz at one end. The Cathedral features an impressive collection of treasures.

For those with a little more time, and the will to rent a car, the villages surrounding Cadiz are some of the most picturesque in Spain famous for their whitewashed buildings. Seville is approximately 2:30 by train.

Arriving at Hotel Grand Central, they didn’t have my reservation in the computer, but I had my confirmation and they had no problem putting me into the type of room booked at the rate booked. Everyone at the hotel is wonderful. Friendly, helpful and professional. The night porter brought my bags right up to the room, and later also delivered my roomservice (good food). The look of this boutique hotel is very “stylized.” The corridors are dark with accent lighting, and the lobby is very modern and minimalist. It works. The rooms are smart and functional, and the size you would expect in Europe (if not a little larger), but small by American standards. The beds are comfortable and large, a nice flat panel TV, a complimentary minibar, a nice desk, the bathrooms are well appointed, and there’s plenty of closet and drawer space along with a safe. The coolest thing in the rooms are the remote control blinds. You just push a button and you can put them up or down. My room was on the corner and overlooked the street with a charming side view of the cathedral.

Location wise the hotel is ideally situated for exploring Barcelona. Less than a block from where the Bus Touristica stops, the Cathedral is across the street, and Placa Catalunya (the start of Las Ramblas, & KFC) is an easy 5-10 minute walk. In the immediate area there is an abundance of restaurants, small bodegas, and shops.

For dinner, I admit I should have done something more “local”, but the KFC near Placa Catalunya just smelled way tooo good. If you’re in the mood, I highly recommend it. I’m not sure what the difference is between the Spanish version of KFC and the US version – but the chicken is really good. They probably use a different oil.

After a wonderful night of sleep I had the morning to explore some more before heading to the port and boarding the Marco Polo. I decided to spend it wandering around the Ramblas and watching all the street performers. It amazed me at the ingenuity of some of them. My favorite was the guy with bike and peddaling skelaton. He had a lot of fun with everyone that stopped to watch. Toward noon I picked one of the many restaurants lining the Ramblas and had a wonderful pizza for lunch while continuing to people watch.

After a short walk back to hotel, my luggage and I were off in a taxi to the port to board one of my favorite cruise ships of all time, Orient Line’s Marco Polo.

1) Visit the Tower of London – for a truly unique experience become part of a 700 year old tradition of locking up the Tower and attend the Ceremony of the Keys. You’ll get to see the Tower the way most people don’t, at night. It’s FREE, but you have to request tickets ahead of time. Oh, don’t be late! Click Here for more info

2) Spend a Sunday shopping, eating, and cruising the canals in Camden Lock. After you’ve shopped and eaten along High Street, take a cruise along London’s Canals and see a London most people don’t even know about. For more info click here.

3) Have lunch or dinner at the Marlborough Head Pub, 24 North Audley Street, London W1K 6WB (Tube Station Bond Street or Marble Arch). The perfect place to land after a hard day shopping Oxford Street. Great food, and this place oozes gothic charm. Hint: Be sure and sit downstairs and watch the uninitiated try to find the hidden doors to the bathrooms… It’s Halloween all year at the Marlboroughead!

4) See the Changing of the Guard – The most classic is of course Buckingham Palace, but if you’re there when the Horseguards are doing their thing – that’s really a show! For more information click here

5) If you’ve got kids, or are just a child at heart – check out the London Dungeon. A little cheesey, but always fun. More info click here

6) Visit Hampton Court Palace. Fan of the “Tudors”? Visit the Palace Henry the VIII killed Cardinal Woolsey to get. It’s well worth the trek to the outskirts of London to visit. Beautiful gardens. For more info click here. For a truly unique experience – stay at the Palace, for more information you can contact the Landmark Trust, click here

7) Have lunch, dinner, or take-a-way from the London institution, Sea Shell (49-51 Lisson Grove, London NW1 6UH). A short walk from the Marleybone Tube/Rail station it has both great take-a-way and a very nice restaurant. Click Here to visit their website.

Not in the mood for Fish and Chips? How about some ribs? Adams Ribs (23 Shaftesbury Avenue,
London, W1D 7EF) at Picadilly Circus will have you coming back to London just for the Ribs. You can catch a movie, or do some shopping before or after you feast.

9) Visit Harrods. Even if you manage to go to London and not shop – you need to see the Department Stores of All Department Stores at least once. Don’t want to buy anything? Then have lunch in one of the many restaurants available, or get take out from the food court.

10) Take a cruise on the Thames. See London from the river.

11) Take a day trip on the train – anywhere. You can go to Dover, Southampton, Brighton, York, Cardiff, or a dozen other places on a daytrip on the train from London. It’s a great, relaxing way to explore the English Countryside.

12) Spend a day visiting a museum. Like the classics? Go to the British Museum. Modern more your style? Visit the Tate Gallery.

Catherine’s Palace, one of the most recognizable and photographed palaces in the world, is stunning from the outside – let alone the inside, and what most people envision when they think of the palaces of the Czars. The trademark vivid blue finished palace, with white trim and gilden gold accents are whimsically decorated with statues and charming doornockers, is situated in the middle of lush grounds with statue gardens and tranquil pools (the pups have definately got it made!).

This was definately one place it paid to have a private tour guide. The line to enter was over a half hour long. We walked straight by the line and into the palace. Every aspect of the palace is exquisite, from the carved ballustrades, to the fresco on the walls and ceiling, to the furnishings, to the parquet floors. Some of the rooms are neo-classical (not gold guilded, more pastel colors, painted walls with cherubs and flowers, statues and carvings that look like the walked out of Rome), and some have been restored the the Palace’s original granduer featuring mirrored walls and guilded gold everywhere.

After our tour of Catherine’s Palace we headed to Pavlovsk which was a gift from Catherine the Great to her son Paul. It’s built in neoclassical style and is the least oppulent of the palaces we visited. It also felt the most like a home. I can see why this was Paul’s wife’s favorite residence. Note: if you’re looking for cheap souvenirs we bought some really cute Russian Stacking Dolls here from a vendor outside. They were the Chicago Bulls – Rodman/Michael Jordan era. Rodman even had green hair! We paid around $3.00 US. They were a hit back home. You can buy expensive, well made ones in the craft stores – but the more eccentric ones (like the NBA teams) are a lot more fun. On our way back to the ship we drove past Church of the Savior “On the Blood.”

with beautiful stuccoed painted buildings – there was just one problem with that… the weather. It seems that there is so much damp and cold here that the finish on the buildings becomes dingy almost immediately. Well, it was a beautiful idea, and unfortunately now they’re stuck with it.

The lackluster exteriors of St. Petersburg’s buildings gives way to incredible delights on the inside. I haven’t since this much gold guilding since Rome! The first stop on our little expedition was the Winter Palace, also known as the Hermitage Museum. The world famous Hermitage museum is one of the largest museums in the world housing classic paintings by the likes of Renoir, Degas, Monet, Cezanne, van Gogh and Gauguin, along with treasures from Russia’s imperial past and other objects d’art from around the world. Technically the Hermitage is an extension of the Winter Palace, the museum/palace actually is actually three different but adjoining buildings; The Large Hermitage, The Winter Palace, and The Small Hermitage. To give you an idea of the size of the museum, the Winter Palace (building) alone has over 1000 rooms and 12 miles of galleries with more than three million exhibits. Unless you plan to spend a few days wandering the halls you need to decide which collections you want to see. One advantage the Hermitage has over a typical museum is that it used to be a palace, though none of the Czars spent much time here, it is palatial. Ornate carvings, gilded walls, murals, frescos, every royal touch you can imagine – the building itself is a work of art, let alone the priceless treasures of art it houses. One of the most interesting pieces is a Peacock Clock attributed to English Jewler/Clock maker James Cox. After leaving the Hermitage we left to visit a small church that now houses on the second floor quality Russian handicrafts – a great place to go souvenier shopping!

We returned to the ship and relaxed for a while, and then left on another wonderful adventure. This one was a tour booked through the ship, it was an evening concert at the Rose Pavilion featuring classical music performed by one of St.Petersburg’s best chamber ensembles. They were incredible – and young! I don’t think any of them were over 25.

Adding to the beautiful music was the atmosphere. We were greated upon arrival by impeccably attired waiters presenting us with a glass of champaigne at the entrance to this gorgeous classical building with cherubs and angles in gold with strands of flowered garland painted on the walls. It was a perfect evening except for the two people in front of us who insists on talking through the entire performance! I swear they’re following us around! Doesn’t anyone have any consideration for anyone else anymore?

The Old Town of Tallin is everybit as magical and enchanting as its reputation. One of the first sights visitors are treated to after passing through its medieval walls is a round ivy covered fairtale tower surrounded by cobblestoned streets. The old town is charming. It looks like it is straight out of a Brothers Grim or HC Anderson storybook, although a few of the buildings look like they served as backdrops on the set of Highlander 2 or a Batman movie.

As you work your way up the hill to the center of the old town, there are charming stores housed in the whimsically painted gingerbread storybook houses, and some very wonderful bakeries that will put calories on you just walking by. There is a also a very old church, which is actually one of the more nondescript buildings in the old town.   Be sure to walk through the alleys – it’s well worth it. Don’t forget to visit the shops and stalls that line the town walls they sell everything from handmade sweaters and handblown glass to your typical tourist junk. We could have definitely spent more than a day here. If you do a cruise of the Baltic – make sure you choose one that stops in Tallin, it just maybe the highlight of your cruise!

After we finished walking (and shopping) around the old town, we walked back to the hotel/shopping center in the “modern city of Tallin” where our shuttle would pick us up to take us back to the ship. Shopping advice – stick to the stores and stalls in old town, the merchandise is a better quality and price. You can find wonderful knit items, beautiful (inexpensive) glassware (including hand blown items) and crystal, charming wood carvings, and other arty items in Old Town.

We rejoined the ship and headed for our next port – St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Norwegian Dream is an event when she passes through the Kiel Canal. For one very special reason… there is one bridge that she is taller than. In order to use the canal the engineers of the ship had to get creative. They had to find a way to make her fit under this bridge. Their solution – She “Flips” her funnel and lays back her mast in order to fit. Not only is this a site for the passengers onboard to see – but it’s quite the event for the locals too. There were several people that were actually on top of the bridge to watch her “Flip her Funnel.” After a beautiful, full day transversing the Kiel Canal we headed for our first port – Tallin, Estonia.