Booney

My pleasure, @CarpeDiem54 - I’m happy to share the experience! Some of the castles are private residences (imagine living in one of those!), some of them offer tours, a few of them are wineries, one of them is even a youth hostel (what a cool place to stay!). So it’s nice that many of these castles are being repurposed in some way.

Hi friends! Sorry for two posts in one day, but the ship lost its internet connection for a while, and it’s been a bear uploading pics with the wonky wifi. Anyway, I had two more pics from yesterday that I wanted to share and couldn’t get them into the last post. After sailing past all of the beautiful castles yesterday morning, the ship docked and we were transported into Rudesheim. Once there, Mr. Booney and I took a cable car ride up into the hills. At the top, we had absolutely stunning views of the Rhine and the vineyards. We’ve been so lucky with the weather this week. It’s been sunny and gets up into the low 70s by midday.

Hello from Rudesheim, Germany! The name of our cruise - “Castles on the Rhine” - came to life today. We spent the morning cruising on the part of the river known as the “Romantic Rhine,” which is dotted with castles. Our tour guide told us that this area has the highest concentration of medieval castles in the world. It’s also known for it’s vineyards and wines - mostly Rielsings - so we saw many vineyards as well. It was a foggy, misty morning, which is not unusual for this part of the Rhine. Unfortunately it doesn’t necessarily make for great photos, but it adds to the mystique of the area. We passed 22 medieval castles this morning. Below is just a small sampling of them. I hope you enjoy the pics! This was my favorite of all the castles we saw - the castle and the setting are just perfect! This was a unique spot. There was a castle built on an island in the middle of the Rhine, and behind it, you can see another castle on the hill. Those are vineyards on the hill. Another beauty: Needless to say, we had to sample some of the Reislings while we were here...?

Thanks, @CarpeDiem54 - It’s fun to share them with everyone here!

Here are some more photos from Cologne. One of the many magnificent stained glass windows in the church. Each panel of the one on the left depicts a different story from the Bible: One of two pipe organs mounted high up on the wall. The organist uses a special staircase to reach it. Part of the historic area of the city: A view from the river park along the Rhine. The bridge is the most heavily travelled train bridge in the world. 800 trains pass over this bridge every day. We’re in Koblenz today which is a quintessential German city. Depending on how reliable wifi is tonight, I’ll try to post some pics. We’re enjoying our “Booneymoon” (love that @CarpeDiem54) so much!

Hi all! We spent the yesterday afteroon in beautiful Cologne, Germany. The centerpiece is the twin-spired Gothic cathedral dating from the 1200s. It’s truly magnificent inside and out. It is still a working church, so to speak, and is the most visited attraction in Germany. The wifi here is wonky, so it’s been difficult to upload pics. I managed to upload the one below, and will try to post a couple more.

Here are a couple of pics of the room. It’s small, but they’ve managed to get a lot of storage into a small space - a wall of closets that include drawers and shelves, and the night tables have three drawers. We have a wonderful view of the Rhine from our window, which they call a “french balcony.” It isn’t actually a balcony - just a window - but there’s plenty of room upstairs on the deck if you want to sit outdoors.

For our first dinner last night, no one was dressed up. Tonight is our welcome dinner and we’re supposed to dress up a little. Men don’t have to wear ties though - a sports jacket and nice shirt are fine. I brought a maxi dress and a Chico’s Travelers jacket to wear over it, which I think will be fine. I’ll let you know though after tonight! The rest of the week is supposed to be casual except for the last night which is the Captain’s dinner. But the same thing we’ll wear tonight is supposed to be fine for that dinner too.

Hi everyone! A quiet day today - not much to report. We checked out of the hotel and boarded the river boat, which will be our home for the next 7 days. These boats have much fewer passengers than an ocean liner - only 146 vs. 2,000 to 3,000 on some of the big ocean cruise ships. The room is lovely and the service and food are fabulous. We left the dock at 4:00 pm and will sail tonight and tomorrow morning, arriving at Cologne, Germany at 1:30 pm. We went through a lock tonight, which was very cool. The water levels are different in the canal that we took out of Amsterdam and the Rhine - therefore, the need to pass through a lock. Leaving the dock in Amsterdam: Relaxing on the outdoor deck waiting for our room to be ready:

Mr. Booney and I had another fun day in Amsterdam. We rode the tram to Museum Square but dropped our plan to visit the Van Gogh museum when we saw the line waiting for tickets (they weren’t selling Saturday tix online on Friday night when we tried to get them ahead of time). Not a problem as there are a number of other museums in the vicinity. We went to the Moco Museum instead which had exhibits for street and grafitti artist Banksy and for Salvador Dali - both exhibits were terrific. We did the canal boat cruise in the afternoon, and it was such a great way to see the city. The architecture here is so beautiful, and the house boats are very unique. There are 2,500 houseboats on the various canals throughout the city. This was a view down one of the canals with seven bridges in close proximity to each other crossing it: Another view of the city across one of the canals: We’ll board our river cruise boat tomorrow afternoon, which will be our floating hotel for the next seven nights as we cruise the Rhine. Can’t wait!

Hi from beautiful Amsterdam! Mr. Booney and I arrived around 9:00 a.m. local time this morning after an overnight flight (we’re working on pretty much no sleep for the last 24 hours!) It’s 6 hours later here than east coast time so we’re trying to stay awake to get ourselves on the local schedule. We walked a bit around the city today. I’m amazed at the number of bicycles here. It’s definitely the preferred way to get around the narrow streets. Bicyclers have the right of way, and the bike parking areas are insanely full: Amsterdam is a city of canals which are just beautiful: We plan on taking a canal boat cruise tomorrow. There are many people living on houseboats on the canals, which looks really cool. Also on the schedule tomorrow is a visit to the Van Gogh museum. And for the more risque side of Amsterdam...We saw a couple of mini red light districts today. The buildings have either a red street light outside, or red neon lights in the windows. The “working girls” sit in the front window in skimpy bras and undies - beckoning customers in, I guess! There are lots of specialty coffee shops that sell marijuana - you can see patrons sitting by the windows, drinking their coffee and smoking their joints. Plus plenty of what we called “head shops” back in the day, selling bongs, rolling papers and the like. You’ll find them alongside upscale boutiques selling Dolce & Gabbana and Stella McCartney. There’s a little bit of everything in Amsterdam! More pics to come during our travels.

There were other buildings on the property that had bathrooms. The main house was off-limits.

I have a couple of Hugh Hefner stories. My late husband was a Purchasing Director for a Fortune 500 company, and the daughter of one of the biggest vendors he dealt with worked for Playboy. Through her, in 2002 we were invited to the Playboy Jazz Festival held over one weekend every June at the Hollywood Bowl. As an added perk, we were invited to a cocktail party for Jazz Festival sponsors at the Playboy mansion the Friday night before the festival. Needless to say, we flew out to L.A. for the festivities! At the cocktail party, we were not able to go inside the Playboy mansion, but the vendor’s daughter gave us a tour of the grounds, which were unbelievable. There was a small zoo, peacocks roaming the grounds, the infamous “Grotto,” where all the sex parties took place (and which was set up like a giant hot tub in a cave), “Bunny Hill,” where all the Playboy bunnies hung out, and an outbuilding that was called the “Game Room.” The outer room of the Game Room had arcade games, but the floor of the inner room was basically a giant water bed. I can only imagine what kind of games took place there. During the cocktail party, Playboy bunnies mingled with guests and signed autographs. Surprisingly, they were demurely clad in cocktail dresses. The food was amazing, the alcohol flowed, and at one point Hef came out onto the veranda to thank everyone for their support of the Jazz Festival. He was in pajamas and the ever-present smoking jacket. He only spoke for a couple of minutes then disappeared into the mansion not to be seen again that night. The next day, we went to the Hollywood Bowl for the jazz festival. The vendor’s daughter had arranged for us to sit in a private box, which was very cool. The line-up of musicians was impressive and interestingly enough, the emcee was Bill Cosby. Well into the afternoon, Hef arrived with his entourage of seven blond girlfriends. They all came trooping in, single file, with Hef in the middle of the line. Too funny, and it was a most memorable weekend! The other story involves my nephew, who lives in L.A. A number of years ago he and his then-wife (now divorced) were invited to Hef’s 80th birthday party at the Playboy mansion. Then-wife is best friends with one of Hef’s god-daughters. Invited guests were told they had to wear either 1) nightwear - e.g., pajamas, negligee, nightgown, or 2) body paint. My nephew and then-wife wore pj’s, but there were guests there only in body paint. My nephew’s been in L.A. for years, has worked in the movie biz, and isn’t easily impressed by celebrities. But even he was amazed at the eclectic guest list - everyone from Mickey Rooney to a pre-political Donald Trump (who wore a trenchcoat and came with an entourage of body guards). My nephew said it was a night to remember.

How adorable! Not like my kitties - they act like we’re trying to amputate their paws when we clip their nails. Not an activity they look forward to. ??

I got such a kick out of Michael Payne. He could be so dramatic, but he knew his stuff. And yes, Chris Harrison before he hit the big time with the Bachelor!

Designer’s Challenge - it was one of my favorites too.

I loved “Ground Breakers,” “Curb Appeal,” and “Surprise Gardener” on HGTV. The demise of all their gardening shows was a shame. I never watch that channel anymore.

They already did. HBO remade Mildred Pierce as a multi-part mini-series in 2011, starring Kate WInslet. I believe she won an Emmy for the role.

@imisspuddy, my deepest sympathy on the loss of your mother. She will live on in your heart forever.

@imisspuddy - my thoughts and prayers are with you as you go through this difficult time.

I'll add my two cents too. 1. I agree with this one for my skin. I've tried the powder based foundations - Bare Minerals, IT Celebration Foundation - and they settled too much in the crinkles around my eyes. Right now I'm using one of the cushion compact foundations. I dab a Kabuki brush into the cushion and it gives a nice, air-brushed look when applied. 2. Ix-nay on this tip. I like some color on my lips. I use one of those 24-hour lipsticks in Blush which is a perfect shade of pink - not too light and not too dark. 3. Ix-nay on this one too. I have decent brows in terms of volume, but their natural color is so light that I look like I don't have brows. So I definitely use brow color. 4. Agree with @Coffeecup and @Denver Hoosier on this one. I'm not giving up my eye shadow. I use an eyelid primer (Urban Decay's is the best), then dust lightly with a neutral color, either a silvery gray or a beige. And I always contour the crease! Darker gray if I'm using the silvery gray base, or darker brown if I'm using a beige. I also highlight a tiny bit under my brow with a lighter shade. I also use eyeliner and mascara - of course! 5. See my comments about the foundation I use in #1. I use a translucent powder to finish it off because I also still have an oily t-zone at 64.

So cute! Love the little guy's red hair!

Cricket - not much that I can add that other posters haven't said already, but you and Joe are in my thoughts and prayers.

That's for sure! Lol - They actually had one area with several huge pumpkins sculpted out of metal. My kind of pumpkin pickin'.

It was @CarpeDiem54! We're lucky to have several beautiful gardens nearby - Longwood Gardens, Morris Arboretum, Chanticleer, to name a few. But this was so unique with all of the sculpture that it really stands out. There were so many small pathways off the main paths. Many of them led to tiny pocket gardens or garden rooms. There was so much to see we didn't get to everything - plus they have several buildings with indoor exhibits too. We are definitely going back in September to see what we didn't see today.