Aside from the memories of all the wonderful things we got to see it was also a fun trip of meeting people. We had a lady who owned a tour bus company, and she was accompanied by another lady who owned a guest ranch in Australia. The ranch lady had her passport and thousands of dollars stolen from her purse in Florence. They had to go to the embassy about the passport. The money didn’t seem to matter much to her. We had another gal who was traveling alone. She traveled with a denim skirt a pair of slacks and a few tops. Not like everyone else with a ton of luggage. There was and a mother and daughter. The daughter was lots of fun. At a dinner she tasted every liquor and wine and was the life of the party. She spent the next day in the tiny bus bathroom. A young couple traveled with the husbands’ parents. The father had been in the war, and they were staying longer to take him to some of the places he had been in the war. Also, a widower that we got to know well, Bob Sims. He came to stay with us for a while and checked out Iowa. There were 48 very nice people and one man who was nasty to everyone. As he was leaving the bus on the final day he shouted at a lady from Croatia “I hope they bomb your country.” He also drank too much and was always late getting on the bus. Another couple was always late and one morning her excuse was “I had to let my tea cool.” Also, the night we went to the Follies they didn’t get back to the bus before we had to move. The bus driver drove back and forth down the street which had many X-rated stores. They were finally spotted standing under a not very nice sign. It was obvious that most of these people had loads of money. Even though the breakfast bars warned not to take extra food many of them packed their lunches. Breakfasts were always meats, cheeses, breads, and fruits. If you didn’t go early enough the hoarders could have it wiped out. Our tour guide’s favorite saying was “Now sit right back and Bobs your uncle.” Which we learned means everything is right with the world. He would also say “Sit well back. So, there it is. So, there you are.” Another crazy saying was “Why were you born so beautiful? Why were you born at all? You had nothing to do with it. Nothing at all.” We were stopped at many borders and soldiers with guns would come on and check all our passports. You could see the guide passing money to some of them. Vinnie who owned a vineyard had never seen snow so made himself a plastic bag of snowballs and threw them at people later on. We went to an opera in Vienna and when they saw some of us were Americans, they escorted us in carrying their guns. A little scary at the time. I never thought I would see the Sistine Chapel, the Pieta, Mona Lisa, Venus De Milo, Eiffel Tower, Leaning Tower of Pisa and the many other things. We went out to eat one evening with a group and no guide. Waiter couldn’t understand us, and we couldn’t understand him. One couple ordered lots of wine and made some others mad when the bill came and the waiter was told, by them, to just split it equally. Didn’t matter much to us because, since the money changed so often, we just handed it over and let them decide what to take. Enjoyed acts at Covent Garden on one of our free times. Saw the tunnel where Lady Diana was killed. At the airport for our trip home we were offered $700 each to take a later flight. Wish we had a cell phone back then. Couldn’t take it because couldn’t figure out how to let Mike know we would be late. Oh well, something about an airport with soldiers and guns didn’t make us very comfortable anyway. One of my favorite places was a village called St Paul De Vence in France in a hillside with narrow streets. Guess you would call it quaint. Just a few fun memories! There is more of this story than was emailed. You can see it all online.