Vacations that view the world

Tom and Beverly Vaughn and Tom and Toni Nunno of Gulf Breeze took an incredible vacation that included an exciting view of part of the world. After three full days touring London and seeing various plays the two couples boarded the Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas to embark on a 12-day cruise to the nations of Scandinavia, including Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland in addition to other European countries like Russia and Estonia.

While visiting St Petersburg, the Vaughn's and the Nunno's took a river and canal cruise and spent the afternoon at the famous Hermitage Museum, Russia's largest art museum, with an astounding collection of over 2 million pieces of art. As a side excursion, they boarded a Russian plane in St Petersburg and journeyed to Moscow where they visited the Red Square, St. Basil Cathedral, Kremlin Towers, and Lenin's Tomb. The tour of the Kremlin included the armory chamber, which houses a collection of unique Russian treasures, including royal crowns, jewelry, and priceless Faberge eggs. They took a picture in front of the plane and were immediately visited by security personnel. It seems no one is supposed to take pictures of Russian planes.

Beverly said: "In Moscow, the people were very proud to talk about how western they're becoming and how they're going from 700 square feet homes to 1,200. If they only knew!"

During the evenings on the cruise they experienced what are referred to as white nights, where the sun doesn't set until close to midnight, and even then, only for a few hours. They felt they were lucky with the beautiful weather. They enjoyed life aboard the cruise ship. Even the Baltic and North seas were unseasonably calm and flat.

The Vaughn's and the Nunno's are already planning their big trips for next year. The Vaughn's will take a cruise out of Barcelona that finishes up in Venice in May and the Nunno's will take a 14 day cruise through the Panama Canal in November and have already booked their 2009 cruise which takes them to South America.