July, 15, 2017: Copenhagen, Denmark

After a few days of rain here in Copenhagen, our first full day here was under beautiful sunny skies and on a Saturday, bonus. We met up with our travel companions, Bryan, Roxanne and Trevor and began our day with a comprehensive walk about throughout this picturesque city. Grabbed a canal side breakfast then jumped onto a 90 minute canal cruise. Finished the first part of our day with a lite lunch and a very short power nap. What a wonderful city this is, clean, friendly, safe and comfortable to walk around in. At about mid day just at the end of the canal cruise my camera's sd card was full and guess where my spare card is, in my lost luggage, hmm. It is a 32 gig card, so I am crossing my fingers that my luggage arrives from this evenings events. Upon returning to the hotel at about 6, my luggage did indeed arrive. once again I will say Swiss engineering at its best (problem solved within 24 hours, wonderful).

July 14, 2017: Copenhagen, Denmark

We had a wonderful flight with Edelweiss Air (a branch of Swiss Air), a pleasant airline in that the service was friendly and always with a smile delivered with a great demeanour - they show that they really love their positions. Our Jet lag saving grace was the Transit Hotel right in the Zurich arrival terminal, fantastic. The Zurich airport has a basic hotel for longer layovers, you can rent rooms for 3, 6, 9 or 12 hours. Our layover was almost 6 hours so for about $100.00 CAD we rented one of these rooms for the entire layover. They give a room with no windows (which is great), a very good bed, night tables, TV, telephone, internet and a place to have a shower with towels and toiletries. They give you a wake up call where you must get out of bed in order to turn off, reminiscent of "the button" on Lost - red and big. We crashed and woke refreshed especially after a nice shower. Checked out, breezed through immigration to our gate and arrived in Copenhagen 2 hours later. Waiting at the luggage terminal I had a feeling that I have never experienced before, the belt stopping with my bag yet to surface, ah not good. I will say this, they must be used to this, the person at the counter was very professional took down all my information and confidently told me that these things usually get resolved within 24 hours. Sure, I believe this when I see it. I mentioned that I had everything in my bag, IE. toiletries, because I do not ant to fly with liquids. He said one moment and then returned with a carrier bag stuffed full of goodies, thanks.

The bonus here was travelling through the metro and bus system with only one suitcase. One suggestion here, the Metro for us looked like the better option because of where our hotel was located in the centre of the city. The problem was at the metro station where we got off the escalator was under repair - four flights of stairs with the suitcase, not fun. Even though the train was going to take us for 5 additional walking minutes we would have been better off taking the train as there are no stairs. 

Ascot Apartments and hotel check in was quick they understood my predicament and took down my information and also reassured me that this should be resolved within 24 hours with the luggage being delivered direct to the hotel, okay I will try to relax. Checked in with Bryan, they were calling it a night with their jet lag kicking in, so we headed for a nice dinner before crashing for the night. All in all good travel day…

July 09, 2017: Rome, Italy

Quick hotel change to an Airport hotel (just convenient for a really early flight) then back to town to meet up our Niece Michelle who has been travelling in Southern Europe over the past few weeks. This was all done by train, easy, cheap and convenient and most importantly not complicated. You can purchase your train tickets two, well actually I guess three ways. At your hotel with your mobile device, go the trentiatalia.com enter in where you want to go, purchase and download on your mobile device, show to conductor when asked; The second way is to use the many convenient kiosks at the train station, the caution here is that many do not except credit cards but do take cash or Debit Cards; the third and not recommended way unless you are absolutely sure of your travel times and dates is to book this before you leave home -  not recommended as this could lock you in and prevent your from being flexible. With our niece we met with her Before she had left we and went over her itinerary in detail when we realized we were here on the same day, fantastic. Took her to a few highlight spots, Spanish Steps/Trevi Fountain Etc. had a wonderful dinner at a spot Jan and I had discovered a few years ago and then bid her fair travels on her next tour beginning tomorrow. Wonderful day, here are a few pics of the day, hope you enjoy…

July 08, 2017: Rome, Italy

We said goodbye to our travel mates and new friends from the gadventures group. gadventures, in short, great tour, great accommodations, excellent drivers and first class guide. Daniele Ciccone (Danny) always acted in a professional manner and made our hiking tour of the Almafi Coast first rate. He kept the group together as he paced each one ability out, led when he needed and stayed in the back also when necessary. Although someone could figure out how to this on their own, I would highly recommend going in a group like this one with gadventures. Great value as you do not need to worry about anything except which hiking shoes to wear, transportation, accommodation, most meals are taken care of and no scratching of head to find the best way as you are guided. I would definitely look to gadventures for another tour like this and only hope to get Danny as a our guide.

Fast train to Rome, quick check in at our close to the train station hotel  and the next thing you know it we are clocking a 19,000 plus step day, Jan legs and feet were not liking that, sometimes these things happen when you start roaming around Rome. We love this city and there is just so much to see and do, even though this is a return visit. We did stop in to see the Leonardo da Vinci museum, fantastic. They had many models of things he had drawn out, many were hands on - an amazing man at an amazing time. Here are a few pics of our day here… hope you enjoy.