Danube River Day 7 (Nuremburg, Germany): The Last Day

Today was the last day of our trip.

Our tour didn’t begin until after lunch so we took a bus out to explore the city center of Nuremberg. There’s a lot of statues, art, shops and restaurants out here. Nuremberg is a very medieval town.

Our excursion today took us out to the Imperial Palace. While wondering around the castle our guide explained a lot of the castle defense features to us. Our tour didn’t take us through any of the castle’s buildings which was disappointing. It’s incredible how much thought the architect and builders put into the design of the castle. Because we explored the area before our tour, we had already been to a lot of the places that our tour guide took us.

After we got back from our excursion, we had dinner and I went back to the room and packed… I dislike packing!!! I’m not sure if I’m going to get any sleep tonight. We have a super early flight tomorrow.

This trip has been an absolute blast! I’ve never traveled to such a cold place before and boy was it super cold out here. The cold made me realize how much time we spend outside when traveling. On this trip I went to a classical concert and saw some gorgeous castles and palaces, visited a monastery and an abbey and had the best bratwurst sandwich I’ve ever had. This has also been the first time I’ve ever celebrated a new year while traveling. That was one of the highlights of my trip!

Here’s to many more!

Until my next adventure, Cheers!

Danube River Day 6 (Regensburg, Germany): A Walking tour, Downtime and German Fare

The only thing we have planned for the day is a walking tour through Regensburg.

Our three and a half hour walking tour started out on the pier and we made our way to the city center, a visitor center to warm up and a cathedral. The pier was deserted! Because today was a holiday everywhere was closed. Regensburg is one of the largest towns in Germany and locals believe it has the best Bratwurst in the world. We were actually able to try some at the world-famous Sausage Kitchen which was luckily open today. It was the best thing I’ve eaten on this trip so far!

After lunch on the ship I lounged around for a while and was finally able to take that nap I’ve been wanting to take the whole trip.

Dinner tonight a themed night with typical German fare. They had pretzels, sausages and a cheese plate waiting for us at the table and even more food and deserts at the buffet line. It was delicious!

What a way to start a new year!

Danube River Day 5 (Passau, Germany): A New Blog Entry, A New Year, A New Decade!

Today was our first day in Germany!

I woke up way before my alarm clock went off and lounged around for most of the morning. Our excursion today wasn’t until early this afternoon.

Passau is a medieval town and is known for its beautiful architecture. It's equipped with cobblestone roads and everything! I grabbed a lot of pictures. Our guide took us on a walking tour through the city and showed us around for about an hour. We didn’t stop anywhere this time. After our guide finished the tour, we had free time to shop before we had to head back to our ship. Not a lot of the stores looked open but they were. We found a dollar tree type place and ended up picking up a bunch of souvenirs so I headed back to the ship to drop off the souvenirs and intended to head back out to explore some more but ended up staying on the ship for lunch.

We didn’t have anything planned after lunch so we had a few hours of down time so I attempted to take a nap again and ended up puttering around until dinner.

After dinner we went up to the lounge for a few festivities before the new year countdown at midnight. We played name that tune and had a few drinks. As a DJ you would think I would rock at that game but I didn’t do so hot.

I needed to get some ideas organized for my blog so I took a break from the festivities and went back to the room to get some thoughts down and freshen up before I went back.

What a year this has been!

I can’t believe the year is over… I can’t believe this decade is over! I’ve never celebrated a new year, let alone a new decade, so far away from home on vacation before so this is super new and super exciting to me. 2019 was a very interesting year. I’ve been on some of the most amazing trips and of course met some awesome people. To me, it isn’t destination that makes the trip but the people you meet, the people you travel with and the things you get to lean and experience. Don’t get me wrong, going to world class destinations is still absolutely incredible and I have so many more places that I want to go. I already have future travel plans in the works!

Hope you guys had an amazing year! Here’s to a new year, here’s to a new decade!

Happy new year everyone!!!

Thanks for reading,

~Dustin

Get out there!

Europe: Day 1 (Barcelona, Spain) - Dogs, Cross Airport Marathon and Lots of Food

In case you guys were curious, I'm sitting in a cruise ship cabin in Barcelona!

Today was one of the longest travel days I've ever had and we met a few unexpected friends along the way... Therapy dogs! On the way to LAX a passenger in the seats across from us was traveling with a therapy dog. He was very well behaved and listened to instructions well. The dog traveled great too!
Some PUP's (Pets Un-stressing Passengers) were also wondering around the airport. We were able to interact with these dogs. We met JJ, Sergio and their humans. They had trading cards too!

We landed in Terminal 8 at LAX and had to get to the Tom Bradly International Terminal on the other side of the airport. This airport is huge! We walked for what seemed like an eternity following an never ending sequence of signs and arrows. I wasn't sure we were going to make it on time but we did and had time for a little shopping too.

The next leg of our trip takes us to Frankfurt, Germany. On the way I binge watched a whole season of Big Bang Theory and didn't sleep much. I'm starting to fall in love with that show again. For dinner we had salmon with a horseradish sauce over rice with spinach. The vegetarian option was a pasta with pesto and marinara sauce. They also served us hash browns, scrambled eggs and spinach for breakfast before we left the plane. Because of the time of our flight we got dinner before breakfast.

Our last plane ride was Frankfurt to Barcelona. Then we had a 30 min bus ride to the port.

We checked into our rooms but our luggage wasn't there yet so we headed out for food. On our way out we got sidetracked by a Port Talk presentation where we learned about the activities and excursions for tomorrow. We actually left in the middle of the presentation for the dining room because we were so hungry and tired. We finally got food!!!

Our luggage was probably back by this time so we went back to our rooms to unpack and settle in. Then my Sister and I went to explore. We found the buffet and ate even more. We haven't on this ship very long and we're already eating everything we find! This is not looking good for my girlish figure.