England, Germany, Belgium & France

This was another cruise/land vacation we took in November of 2011. We started the vacay in London and stayed at a quaint B&B for a few days and bopped all around the city and eventually headed to Southampton where we embarked on a Fred Olsen Cruise.

Prior to the cruise we left our luggage at a pub by the port so we could visit Stonehenge -- and that pub was a tourist site on its own with its interesting cast of characters -- it was the Stonehenge version of CHEERS!

After leaving the pub, we headed to the cruise port and my husband thought we were at a casting for the remake of the film COCOON -- we were actually on a senior citizen cruise which I knew when I booked it -- but I didn't care since I booked it for the ports! My husband must not have been paying attention when I mentioned that to him weeks before we left! Many passengers actually thought we were the entertainment on board b/c of our youthful appearance!

The cruise was AWESOME -- seniors and all -- although the food wasn't always top notch - the ports on the other hand were! We cruised thru Hamburg & Antwerp where we stayed overnight in both! The other day was spent at a winter zoo in Bremerhaven which was "cool". We saw some great Christmas Markets, ate horse meat in Belgium (sorry vegetarians) along with some great waffles and almost got arrested in Germany - - long story short -- just don't go to foreign country strip clubs!

After the cruise we disembarked in Southampton -- caught the train to Paris and stayed there for a few nights where we hit lots of the tourist attractions courtesy our feet and/or the Metro -- one of my favorites being the catacombs!! Another fantastic 2 week trip!

Total cost: $2500