In 10 days we're off to Barcelona where we'll spend 3 days before boarding for our 14 night cruise. We're on the inaugural cruise of the Oceania cruiseline - they bought 2 of the Renaissance ships which went out of business after 9/11. They're beautiful midsized vessels that hold about 650 passengers.

>From Barcelona we head to southern Spain and will visit Palma De Mallorca, Malaga and 2 days in Seville (Cadiz). After that we cruise to Portugal where we'll visit Lisbon and Oporto. After a day at sea we'll spend 2 days in Bordeaux, France where we've booked a private car/driver to take us all around the wine region and to visit some chateau's. The ship then heads north to the Channel Islands and finally to Dover where we disembark and head to London where we'll spend one night and catch up with some old friends.

I mention all the ports in hopes that perhaps some Ziner's might jump- in with a don't miss in any of the places we'll visit.

We'll be back towards the end of July and hopefull summer will have arrived in the North East by then!

Enjoy your time at your cottage, it sounds like a perfect get-away and I'm sure will spark you into planning some of your future travel adventures! :-)

Happy Summer to all!

Candice NYC