Hey All,

Back from the trip - it was therapeutic to get away, and now finding it's therapeutic for me to be at work again.

Trip was good - though I have to say that I think Parisians are much much nicer than Romans. In fact, native Italians seem to all have a stick up their bum. Rude, obnoxious... yup. And I'm using New York cabbies or bankers as a comparison (sorry). But the food was good, sights were good, and I was able to catch up on some reading.

Took a Costa cruise as part of the trip - and for all y'all wanting to do a Mediterranean cruise, go with a carrier that primarily does North American cruises (NCL, Celebrity, Princess, etc.). We wanted the "Italian flare" and I got pretty lit up by it. There were 35 English speaking folks on board (including UK and US). All announcements were in (order): Italian, French, Spanish, German, English, and Japanese. And some times, they just left off the English and Japanese. Food was good, but by Italian standards - all meats (including in Rome) were served sliced "thin" - imagine a filet about 1/2 an inch thick, drizzled with a light sauce. Formal nights had no lobster. That being said, it was "new" and in that sense, adventurous.

Filled a 2GB card on my camera - pics to follow.

Sorry I've been out so long - working on scanning the VA pass pics today or tomorrow.

BTW - Barcelona had a lot of cigar shops - cheap - and prices were consistent across the board. If you do purchase any though, get them at Duty Free in the airport if you're hopping in between - you save 25% off some prices that we pay here to enjoy ours.

Missed y'all. Looking forward to reading up and catching up.

Cheers,

Paul