Random Thoughts

This was the second river cruise we have taken.  I enjoyed this one much more than the first one.  The Avalon Scenery is the oldest boat in the fleet and will be retired after this year.  It is only 8 years old and very well maintained.  There were only 58 passangers on board(capacity is 135) so that made everything much nicer.  The staff was great!  The food was good...not wonderful.  Far less choices than on an ocean cruise.

The scenery along the Rhone and Saone Rivers was not anything special.  Nothing to compare to floating down the Rhine!  That was beautiful.  The little towns we stopped at were nice but again nothing special.  I was surprised to see Roman ruins in the south of France.  Those sites were interesting.  We really did enjoy the 2 optional excursions for wine tastings.  I was really impressed with the miles and miles of very well cared for grape vines we saw and ,of course, the wine tasting!  Made it home with 5 bottles of wine in my check thru luggage!!!!

Enjoyed our time in Paris, especially our night tour with Paris Authentic.  Paris is magically with all the lights.  I had wanted to either tour Versailles or the Louvre but there just wasn't time.

Charlie did pretty well.  We got off to a rocky start but he actually did OK.  I think the long flight and the intense heat was hard on both of us.  I'm not sure if another river cruise s in our future.  They are really very expensive and the long flights are not fun.  

We are looking forward to our winter in Florida and possibly finding a short, cheap last minute cruise.  Don't know what the future will bring but so far so good!!!!!