Saturday, August 1, 2009

New Travel Blog!

I've setup a new travel blog that will be the ongoing home for all of our adventures as we attempt to visit 7 continents, 100 countries, and all 50 states in the USA.

Here's the link: www.paulandlibby.com

Sunday, August 24, 2008

And finally... pictures!

Photos! Photos! Photos!

Libby on balcony, leaving Villefranche-sur-Mer

Well, I've finally managed to sort, select, and add comments to the photos from the trip. We captured a lot of images on our journey this summer (well over 1600 photos). I've managed to reduce those to about 500: 400 or so of London and our ports of call (on average about 50-60 per city), and another 100 or so of the Norwegian Jade. Needless to say, this is very "comprehensive" (read: overkill)... but I thought it the best representation of the places we visited.

That said, consider this an "all-you-can-eat" buffet of our Europe by Sea 2008 pics. View what interests you and skip what doesn't. It's the same price either way (free, so no complaints). :-)

The Ship:

Norwegian Jade

London & Ports of Call:

London, England (Pre-Cruise)
Malaga, Spain
Barcelona, Spain
Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
Livorno (Pisa), Italy
Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
Gibraltar
Lisbon, Portugal
Vigo (Santiago de Compostella), Spain
London, England (Post-Cruise)

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Behold: Social Networking

I'm proud to note that others have used my blog as inspiration to start their own... whether travel-related (Dick) or family-related (Feik). Of course, these are folks who know me outside of the so-called blogosphere. Given that, it's somewhat amazing (philosophically speaking) to know that you've had an influence on a complete stranger's life (even in a small way). Thus, I was both pleased and bemused to come across this message posted on the Internet:

We are going on NCL's Jade on 7/13/08. We leave Friday for our vacation and I decided to blog our trip. Paul's blog was very helpful to me so I thought would give it a try. I also hope to make updates daily while we are on the ship. Here is my website:

http://amyandbriansworldtour.blogspot.com

Feel free to ask any questions about the ship or our trip in general. Enjoy.

Behold the power of social networking, I suppose...

I wish Amy and Brian a wonderful time aboard the NCL Jade!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Additional Literature: Now Available

Here's my last update of documents from the cruise...

- Shore Excursion Info / Price List
- Port Information (Provided in "NCL Shopping Guides")
- Misc Information (Fitness, Spa, Disembarkation, Internet Access, Etc.)

I hope / plan to start posting actual pictures of the ship and ports in the next day or two. Fortunately, the three day weekend should help get me caught up. Once those are posted, this blog (in terms of active updates) will sadly be coming to an end.

Hmm... I guess it's time to start planning the next big vacation, huh? :-)

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Menus: Now Available

Here are pictures of many of the menus (especially of the speciality restaurants) from our sailing on the NCL Jade. We ate at every dining venue, save Sushi (which I'd really hoped to try). This, of course, makes for a good excuse to sail around Europe again!

http://picasaweb.google.com/paulandlibbyvacations/MenusNCLJadeJun08

Monday, June 30, 2008

Freestyle Daily: Now Available

I've posted the first batch of pictures: the entire archive of "Freestyle Daily" bulletins.

Given the somewhat limited space on Picasa, I don't intend to keep these online indefinitely. But, I will keep them available for at least six months (after which I suspect they'll prove far less helpful anyway).

http://picasaweb.google.com/paulandlibbyvacations/JadeFreestyleDailyJune13WesternMed

George Carlin

One of the interesting side effects of an overseas vacation, and perhaps especially so of a cruise vacation, is that it's easy to get "unplugged" from the news of the day. As such, I was unaware of George Carlin's death until last night when I saw a promotion on CNN for a special Larry King tribute re-run. How very unfortunate!

As I acknowledged the death of Tim Russert on the blog (which I did hear of while we were gone), I thought it only appropriate to mention George Carlin, who I'd have to say is a greater loss to me personally. Indeed, George Carlin is my favorite comedian and it's difficult to imagine someone taking his place in my esteem. Sadly, it seems that much of the news coverage has focused on his fame (or infamy?) vis-a-vis his "Seven Dirty Words" routine. That's not to say that Carlin's routines can't be viewed as highly offensive. Yet, his perspective (on issues large and small) was unique, his mastery of language superb, and his delivery flawless. While I didn't agree with all of his views (though I sided with him in the majority of cases), it was his rhetorical skills that I most admired and marveled at... indeed, one might even say I've studied his work. And, though I'm certainly no George Carlin, I'd like to think some of my language skills are borrowed--at least in small ways--from him.

George Carlin was a comedic genius, who's wit always exceeded his filth.