Saturday, April 26, 2014

Today we tendered into Taormina.  Our tour was scheduled for 10:30 am to 7:30pm today.  We went and got in line for the tender around 10:00 am.  It was a quick ride and when we arrived on shore our driver/guide was already there waiting on us.  His name was Guiseppe.  He went over the order of the tour with us.  We were scheduled to go to Mt Etna.  It was very cloudy outside and I asked him if we would be able to see anything.  He said that it was our choice as to what we did but if we didn’t want to go up there he would make suggestions for us and we could decide.  We instead decided to go to see where the moving “The Godfather” was filmed.  

I didn’t take notes of all the villages he took us to so I can’t tell you where we went.  Normally I have the write-up of the itinerary of the tour that we signed up for but since we changed it, I don’t have anything to go on.  He took us to several villages on top of mountains and they were all charming.  When we stopped for lunch we saw a wedding procession through the streets.  The bride was having her picture taken in front of a church.  We also saw the Lincoln Towncar convertible that they were supposed to leave in.  Unfortunately it started raining while we were there.  I didn’t see where they went.  I guess they ducked inside a building somewhere. 

When we left that village, Guiseppe said that it wasn’t raining on the other side of the mountain so he took us to another place.  It was freezing cold up there and it then started raining there.  Then he took us to another place where there was a Roman Theatre that we could tour.  We got up to where it was and there was a cost.  Just from looking in it looked like there were a lot of stairs.  Since it had been raining there I didn’t want to go because I was afraid it would be slick.  Pat is the only one that went.  While we were waiting on her it started raining there as well.  When she came back out we found a coffee shop to sit in to try and stay dry.  When it was time for Guiseppe to pick us up we walked through the rain and he was already there waiting on us.  

At that point it was evident that our day was pretty much rained out so we told him to take us back to the ship.  After we caught the tender back to the ship it was around 5:00 pm so we got back in time for dinner.

After dinner we went up to the Crow’s Nest and got a cup of coffee (think Starbucks) and listened to Krista (guitarist) sing and play the guitar.  While we were there, we saw people going crazy taking pictures of something through the window.  Pat went and checked it out.  It seems that Mt Etna was showing for the first time that day.  We got a picture of it.  It appeared that it was snow covered so maybe it was a good thing we didn’t try to go that day.

We went back to the cabin early.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Today we docked in Naples. This was a bank holiday and the beginning of a long weekend for the Italians.  Our driver/guide today was Luca.  He told us to call him Big Luca.  The traffic was already beginning to be bad so he had changed the order of our tour.  

We began with a drive along the Amalfi Coast and stopped along the side of the road at several locations to take pictures.  We went all the way to Postiano where we stopped and took a quick stroll through the village.  We didn’t have long to stay but we did make time for a quick cup of coffee.  

We then drove to Sorrento for lunch.  We told Luca that we would like to eat where the locals would eat.  He took us to an excellent place for pizza which was very inexpensive.  This was a welcome change because previous days our food was expensive.  The 4 of us ate for less than $20 total.  Sorrento was closed to vehicle traffic.  Pat and I walked into town for a quick look.  It was too bad that we couldn’t stay longer.  This was a beautiful place and lots of little shops to look in.

When we left Sorrento we started our drive back into Naples in bumper to bumper traffic moving at a very slow pace.  We had reservations with a tour guide at the Herculaneum.  Our guide was Roberta who is an archaeologist.  We had a 2 hour walking tour with her where she explained everything to us.  She said that this site was better preserved than Pompeii because Pompeii was covered in ash and lava from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius which was very heavy and ruined everything. Herculaneum was covered by mud and this helped in the preservation of the ruins.  It was amazing at what all remains.

After this walking tour we were pretty tired and decided to go back to the ship a little early.  We had a little bit of time to rest before dinner.  

After dinner there was a very good piano player that provided the evening entertainment in the Showplace at Sea.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Today we docked in Civitavecchia which is the port for Rome.  Our driver/guide (Constantino) was there to meet us at 8:30am.  The ship had docked at 7:00am so I think we may have been some of the last people off the ship.

Our tour today was for the Italian countryside.  The drive into Rome was about an hour.  The traffic wasn’t too bad early in the morning.  Our first stop was at the Catacombs, the curious underground maze of tunnels hallowed out of volcanic rock, where the earlier Christians, persecuted by the Romans, had to practice their religion in secret and bury their dead. It was supposed to be 8 euros per person but they didn’t have any change and we didn’t want to use a credit card so they let the 2 of us in for 15 euros.  The restrooms were also free to use.  They had different signs to line up at depending on what language you spoke.  It took them a while to call the English language people because they had a lot of Italian kids there so they were trying to get them through.  

The Catacombs are run and managed by the Vatican.  Our guide was from Australia and really good and easy to understand.  He first took us into a room and explained what we would see inside and then we more or less walked through at a steady pace and he did a little more narration inside.  We were not allowed to take pictures and we had to walk down a lot of stairs which wasn’t too bad going down but coming up was quite a challenge.  

Constantino took us to several small villages where we got out and walked around some.  There was a monastery where we got out and walked some.  The main village that we went to was Castel Gandolfo, where the popes have kept their summer residence for centuries.  On one side is a view of the sea and the other side is a view of the lake.  We had lunch in a little italian restaurant which is run by a couple of women.  They serve a variety of pasta dishes and the pasta is all homemade by them.  It was kind of funny because we were left there by ourselves and the people working there didn’t speak English.  When the waitress came to see if we had finished eating, she walked up and in a loud voice said “Stop”.  We thought we had done something wrong.  All she was wanting to know was if we were finished eating so she could take our plates.  

After lunch we went back into Rome and drove by the Colosseum and stopped at a couple of other places for photos.

Traffic was really heavy getting out of Rome.  We were supposed to be back to our ship at 5:30pm but Constantine told us it would be closer to 6:30pm which was the all aboard time.  The traffic thinned out so we made it back in time.  We were too tired to go to the dining room.  They were having an Italian BBQ out by the pool so we went to that.  

I finally got a chance to try out the coffee bar and it was just like having a Starbucks.  So much better than the other coffee they serve.  The singers and dancers were the entertainment so we skipped the show and called it an early night.

When we got back to the room our cleaning had come so I went to put everything up.  Unfortunately the clothes in the little basket were not ours so somebody else got our underwear and we got somebody else’s.  I turned it in.   I certainly hope they find our stuff!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Today we docked in Livorno.  We had a private tour with Driver in Rome.  In fact, all of our tours in Italy are with this company.

Our driver/guide met us promptly at 8:00 am this morning.  When he introduced himself (his name was Michael), Craig asked him where he was from and he immediately said Italy.  He didn’t have an Italian accent.  I immediately thought New York but didn’t say anything.  When Craig pressed him further it seems that his Mom was from New York and came to Italy when she was 22 fell in love and got married.  She knew no Italian and Michael said she had difficulty learning it.  Along came Michael and his sister.  Michael said that his Mom started teaching him English beginning at 6 months old.  He is fluent in English (with a New York accent) and Italian.  He has relatives in the US so comes back frequently to visit.  He has dual citizenship and hopes to pass that on to his soon to be born child if it is possible.

We had a lot of fun on our tour.  While driving to Pisa we passed by a pretty good sized US Military Base.  The name of it was Darby Military Base.  When we arrived at Pisa, Pat and Terry climbed to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  It took them a little less than 30 minutes to climb up, take pictures and come back down.  They said that the stairs at the top were narrow and winding.  While they were climbing, Craig and I visited the restroom where we had to pay 50 cents (euros) each for one visit.  We then walked around and looked at the outside of the beautiful buildings there.

From Pisa it was on to Florence.  We saw some beautiful views on the way and when we arrived.  I thought it was very crowded there but Michael said that he had seen it worse.  Luckily the tour company had permits to drive us up close to the sites so that we didn’t have to walk a long way to get to them and he was able to wait for us nearby.  

We had lunch in a little sidewalk cafe.  The food was quick and good.  It did get kind of windy while we were eating and was blowing things around.  When we finished lunch we drove to the Accademia Gallery, Europe's first school of drawing founded in mid 16th century and visit several masterpieces including Michelangelo's statue of David.  We could have spent hours in there because there was so much to see.  It would have been nice to have a private guide in there as well or at least have the headphones and do a self guided tour.  

By this time we were getting tired and asked him if we could go on back to the ship.  There were a couple of other things that he wanted to show us so we just drove by and didn’t get out of the van.  Of course we did have time to stop for gelatto.  The name of the place was La Carraia and he said it was one of the best places around for gelatto.  

We were supposed to have been back to the ship at 5:00pm and we got back around 4:40pm so we didn’t cut much out.  When back on the ship we went straight to the Neptune Lounge for a snack.  After all we weren’t going to be able to eat dinner until 5:45pm.  That was another hour we would have to wait!

After dinner we went to the show.  The entertainer was Leanne Mitchell.  She was the winner of BBC1 The Voice in 2012. She really put on a good show.

When we got back to the room to get ready for bed, I realized that our cabin steward did not leave us a card to fill out for room service breakfast.  It was 10:00pm and he was already off duty and the Neptune Lounge was closed.  It took forever to get the front desk to answer their phone and then it took 2 calls to them to get the to finally bring us the form.  Once we got that and filled it out, it was time to go to bed for the night.

Tomorrow we will be visiting Rome.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Today we docked in Monaco — one of the wealthiest places in the world.  

We had a private tour booked here with Ingrid.  She came highly recommended on Trip Advisor.  When we exited the ship at 8:30am she was there waiting for us.  After spending the day with Ingrid we felt like we had known her a lifetime.  She was absolutely wonderful!

We started out the tour by driving on the Grand Prix course.  The Grand Prix will be taking place in Monaco the end of May so a lot of preparation work is currently being done.  We got to see the Grand Casino by passing by.  

Today we had decided to go to Antibes, Biot and Tourrettes.  As we drove out of Monaco, there was so much traffic coming in to work for the day.  Ingrid said that 40,000 people drive into the city each day to work.  Monaco has a population of around 36,000.  The traffic looked almost as bad as the traffic driving into Dallas each day.  Of course, Dallas has bigger roads.  These were only 2 lane roads.

We drove through Nice on the way to our first stop in Antibes.  In Antibes, the first thing we did was stop at a little sidewalk cafe and have a cup of coffee.  It was right beside the daily market.  After our coffee, we walked through the streets of the village.  It was really interesting looking at all the doors on the homes with the different types of door knockers.  Before we left, Ingrid treated us to a local snack called Socca (I think). I don’t remember what she said was in it, but it was very good.  It is cooked in a big skillet and is thin like thin pizza crust but doesn’t have the same consistency.  If I can ever get all of my pictures posted, I have a picture of it.

The next stop in Biot we were starving so we went straight to a cafe to eat lunch.  I had some of the best lasagna that I have ever had.  I guess I should have gotten some french food but this really sounded good and it was the only thing on the menu that I could figure out what it was since the menu was in French.  After we ate, we told Ingrid we were ready for our next stop.

We then drove to Tourrettes.  This was my absolute favorite. I love going to these Villages.  We walked through seeing where these people lived — up and down hills.  There were lots of artists in there working.  She showed us one place that had an amazing view.  As we were leaving, she stopped and bought us an ice cream cone.  The ice cream was violet ice cream.  It had natural violet flavoring which was delicious.  This area is famous for their violets and lavender. Unfortunately it was not the season to see them in full bloom but they did have some beautiful flowers.

As we drove back to Monaco, she drove by some other villages so that we could see them but we didn’t stop.  We saw some amazing scenery. Right before getting back into Monaco, she took us to a lookout point above Monte Carlo.  The view was magnificent!  As we drove back into town she showed us the place on the road where Princess Grace lost her life.  It was a really tight hairpin curve.  They said that it is still not known what actually happened that day.

We had planned on making a short stop in the casino but the traffic was really heavy and we didn’t want to get caught up in a traffic jam and miss the boat so we opted to skip this part of the tour. We had told her that we wanted to be back to the ship by 4:30pm so we could get ready for our 5:30pm dinner reservation.  When we parted, we felt like we were saying goodbye to an old friend.

We had gotten dinner in the Pinnacle Grill as part of the Explore 4 package and this was where we were going tonight.  They have changed the menu since the last time I was there (several years ago).  I really don’t think the menu was as good as before but we did enjoy ourselves.  After dinner, the Rosga’s went to the show and Craig and I went to the casino.  We didn’t stay long because we have another early tour in the morning.

Tomorrow we will be docking in Livorno where we will go to Florence and Pisa.  Pat and Terry are climbing the Leaning Tower of Pisa while Craig and I watch.

Monday, April 21, 2014

This morning we docked in Marseille, France around 8:00 am.  We had a private tour booked for 8:15 am. As we exited the ship (a little early), we saw our tour guide already there waiting for us.  She told us that we had a 2 minute walk to her van.  Well let me tell you, she was young and fit and it might have only taken her 2 minutes to get there, but it took this group of old people a little bit longer to get there.

Our tour took us to Aix en Provence where we took a walking tour.  She said it would only be about an hour and a half but we didn’t walk that fast so it took us longer and by the time we finished, I was exhausted.  I’m not sure what made me book a walking tour in the first place.  We saw lots of interesting architecture, tasted different types of food, saw the morning market, and saw lots of people walking their dogs.  It was a holiday being the day after Easter so most of the shops were closed so we just looked in the windows.

After finishing our walk we were hungry and ready for lunch.  We went to a lovely winery where we ate.  It was a nice relaxing lunch and the food was delicious.  We didn’t order wine.  Craig and I just ordered water and they gave us a thimble to drink it in.  The Rosga’s ordered coffee and they didn’t get their coffee until they had finished eating.  

After lunch we took a quick walk around the winery.  They had a lot of interesting sculptures on the grounds that we looked at.  We also got a glimpse of the house that the family used to live in.  The owners of the winery are from Ireland and they still own it today.

We then drove to the village of Lourmarin.  There was  castle there that we got to see the outside of.  It was closed during our visit and would not open until later in the afternoon.  There seemed to be more shops open in this village and there were lots of people there shopping and eating in the sidewalk restaurants.  Just as we were getting ready to drive through another village it came a downpour so we told her to go ahead and take us back to the ship.  It was 2:30pm then and it was an hour drive back.  She was planning on getting us back to the ship at 4:00 pm anyway so we didn’t miss took much of our tour and we were pretty tired after all the walking.  On the ride back, i kept my face buried in games on my iPad.  She was driving like a crazy woman and I was convinced we wouldn’t be making it back in one piece.  In fact we passed a wreck on the way back.

When we got back to the ship, it wasn’t raining there yet so we beat the rain.  As soon as we got inside I went straight to an open bar and got a coke to drink there and one to take back to the cabin.  I was so thirsty.  Once back to the cabin I looked outside and it was pouring down rain and all the buses were getting back from their tours and they were getting soaked!

I was so sore from all of the walking that I decided to take a hot bath in the jacuzzi tub.  That felt so good.  I could have gone to sleep in there but it did relax me before we had to get dressed up for formal night.  I wore my long dress that I wore at Krista’s wedding and Craig had rented a tux from the ship.  I think we cleaned up pretty nice.

Tonight we had reservations for the Tamarind at 6:00 pm.  This is one of my favorite restaurants.  They serve some of the best asian food on the high seas.  All of he servers are female and they really pamper you and take time to explain everything to you.  We were going to go to the 8:00pm show but dinner lasted past 8:00pm.  I think the Rosga’s went in to the show late and probably the 10:00 pm show also.  Craig and I went down to the casino for about an hour.  I didn’t have much luck tonight but I still have some of my credit on my card.

We have another early tour tomorrow.  We will be docking at Monaco and have a private tour to other parts of France as well as making a brief stop at the casino in Monte Carlo.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

We woke up this morning to rain in Barcelona.  We spent a leisurely morning at the hotel and checked out around 11:30am and got a taxi to the port.  It was a very fast trip.  Check in was probably the easiest that it has ever been.  We were in our cabin in less than 30 minutes.  We had lots of paperwork in our room to go through.  We had made reservations at all of the speciality restaurants and had the confirmations for them as well as some gift dining reservations.

Soon after arrival in our room, the Rosga’s came and knocked on our door.  We visited for a few minutes, went to the Neptune Lounge to take care of some business and decided we needed to head to the dining room while they were still serving lunch — after all, there was no way we were missing a meal!

After lunch we went to check out the Rosga’s Aft Wrap Around Balcony Cabin.  It had a really nice balcony.  The cabin seemed to be smaller than the other ships and it had a lot of wasted space.  However, they do have a wifi router in their room so they should have good internet connection.

After our visit, Craig and I came back to our cabin and our luggage had already arrived so we put everything away.  Shortly after that it was time for the dreaded life boat drill that I hate to go to but I understand that it is necessary.  It didn’t last long and then we went to check out what the casino looked like.  It wasn’t open yet so we couldn’t play.  

Our dinner was at 5:45pm so after checking out the casino we went back to our cabin to get ready for dinner.  We then went back to the casino to play about 30 minutes before dinner.  We both had luck so we were happy.  

We arrived to dinner at 5:45 and the doors were already open so we headed to our table — table #1.  We had requested table #22 since it is a favorite of ours.  It was even approved by Holland America and we had a written confirmation from them.  When we were assigned table #1 we asked what happened and we were told that table #22 was a table for 2 and not 4.  We didn’t go check to see if they were telling us the truth since our new table does have a window and it is in the front part of the dining room so we don’t have to crawl over so many people.

Dinner was good and the service was fast.  When we booked our cruise, we received a free package called Explore 4.  This package gives each person in the cabin 15 drinks per day not to exceed $7 each.  This includes bottled water, cokes, coffees, and alcoholic drinks.  We asked how it worked and they said basically our drinks were covered as long as it was served in the dining room or at a bar.  Anyway, they have started charging for cappuccino in the dining room so we were able to use our cards for that.  The Rosga’s like to drink sparkling water with their meals so they were able to use their cards for that.  There is no way in the world we would ever be able to drink 15 drinks a day.  My body couldn’t hold that much liquid.  I just remembered that I should have gotten a bottle of water to take on my tour tomorrow before I came back to the room.  Oh well, maybe our tour guide will have water for us.

After dinner Craig and I went back to the casino where my luck continued.  I hit jackpot after jackpot.  The biggest one that I hit was a little over $200.  Of course I put a lot of the money back in the machine.  After all you have to spend money to make money.  I think I put in about $80 of my money and I now have a credit on my card of a little over $300 so if I say so myself, I think I did pretty good for the day.  I  don’t think Craig did as goo.

We have come back to our room to rest up for our day tomorrow.  We will be in Marseille, France and have a private tour booked.  I would tell you what we are doing, but I don’t remember.  Tomorrow is also our first formal night and we are eating dinner in the Tamarind Restaurant.  This is one of my favorite restaurants on the ship.  

Saturday, April 19, 2014

This morning we woke up fresh and ready to go.  We went down to eat our free breakfast in the hotel and it was very good.  I told Craig that as long as I can have cereal and fruit I was happy and they had both of those along with fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee.

We had a private tour booked today.  Our guide Paloma met us in our lobby around 10:00 am this morning and we got in the car when our driver Alberto drove to pick up the Rosga's.  Our first stop was Basilica de la Sagrada Familia.  She explained the scenes we were seeing on the outside and then took us inside and explained everything to us inside.  It was a very brief stop.  We were supposed to have gone up in one of the towers but the tour company failed to secure these tickets for us in advance and there were not available. (Review about this will be posted in Trip Advisor).

We then made a stop at Parc Guell.  The tour company also failed to get us tickets for this either so we just went around the outside and looked in.  Another disappointment that will be reviewed on Trip Advisor.

Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell are both works by Antoni Gaudi and are both very interesting.  There are several houses in Barcelona that he designed as well.  We only drove by those houses and didn't try to visit them.

After these 2 stops we did a Panoramic tour of the city and we got to see some very good views of Barcelona.  We told her to drop us off near our hotel and asked her for a recommendation on somewhere to eat lunch.  She took us to a place that was very good but the wait was an hour.  We found another place on our own that was ok.  I got pizza which was just ok.   Craig got fish and chips and it was really good.

The Rosga's came back to our hotel to see our tiny elevator that was just big enough for the 4 of us to get in and took a quick look at our private terrace with bathtub.

A little later Craig and I decided to go back to the 7-11 type store and buy some more Coke Zeroes.  He was trying to ask the guy if there was someplace around there where we could buy a sandwich.  Craig said ok, what kind of sandwich do you have.  The guy then said "Thank you very much, have a nice day".  We just looked at each other and said thank you and left.  I told Craig that maybe the guy thought we were trying to give him a sandwich and he was telling us he already had one.

On the way back to the hotel we found a little restaurant that had pictures of hot dogs and hamburgers.  We went in there and got them to understand we wanted to get our order to go. I got a hamburger and Craig got Bratwurst.  Apparently there was only 1 person that spoke good English.  She was the 3rd person that was able to help us.  When we told the 2nd person that helped us that we wanted to get something to go.  She said ok, and walked away.  I think she thought we were telling her that we were leaving and not ordering.  Anyway we finally got our food and came back to the hotel.  We are now in for the night.

Tomorrow we get on the cruise ship and I am so ready to get somewhere that I can unpack and will be around people that speak decent English.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Our flight to Brussels was a good flight.  Craig was in 1K and I was in 2K directly behind him -- we both had window seats.  They served us lots of good food.  I had roasted nuts, appetizer (spring roll and coconut shrimp with mango sauce), tomato basil soup, chicken wrapped tamale, and chocolate sundae with walnuts.  There were lots of good movies to watch.  I never to go the movies so any of them would be new to me.  I watched "Gravity" and "Dallas Buyers Club" and enjoyed them both.  After 2 movies I decided I had better get some sleep.  I only slept around an hour or two before they woke me for breakfast.  I only had the fresh fruit and yogurt.

Once we landed in Brussels we had to decide where we were supposed to go.  The airport was very easy to negotiate.  We had to go through security to get into a different part of the terminal.  The lines went quickly but they had no body scanners, just regular walk through type.  Of course my knee set off the scanner to the agent working there got up close and personal with me if you know what I mean.  Craig's watch set it off for him and he had to be searched as well.  Once through that we quickly made our way to the Lounge.  It was very crowded but we found a seat to relax.  It wasn't long until it thinned out.  It was well stocked with food and drink and the restrooms there were unisex.

About an hour before our flight we went on to the gate to get some different scenery (we had a 4 hour layover here).  We were to begin boarding at 12:45pm for a 1:10pm departure.  The flight was then delayed to a 1:25 pm departure.  They boarded us all on a bus and drove us to the other side of the earth to our plane where we had to walk up 2 flights of stairs to take us to the jetway which took us to the plane.  We were in Business Class which in this case was row 1.  There was no separation of seats on the plane.  We had 1D and 1F -- 1E was left empty.  Business class meant that we got a meal (which neither one of us ate), pre-departure drinks (which neither one of us took) and reserved luggage space over row 3.  The flight had an on time arrival even after leaving late.  The flight was short and uneventful and I slept through most of it.  The jet lag was setting in.

Barcelona has a beautiful airport.  It was very easy to find our way.  It also was not crowded as well.  After a short wait our luggage came out promptly, we loaded it into a cart and off we were to fid our driver. He was there waiting on us and took us quickly to our hotel -- Alexandra Barcelona (Doubletree).  Check-in was quick and easy and we were offered chocolate chip cookies which were very good.  Our room is nice along with a bathtub on our rooftop terrace.  The room was hot when we got there so they promptly sent a maintenance man up who spoke no English.  It wasn't long until we were back in service.

We decided to try and find a grocery store to get some soft drinks.  When asking the front desk for directions we were told that it was a bank holiday for Good Friday and the grocery stores weren't open.  They did direct us to a 7-11 type store which is open 24 hours a day.  It was only a couple of blocks away and they had drinks there.  They seemed reasonable at only 1.75 euros for 2 coke zeroes.  Once we got back to the hotel we called it a day because we were really tired.  I think it was only about 6:00 pm (if that late).  Of course I woke up at midnight and stayed up an hour or so before falling back to sleep.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

I don't remember if I mentioned yesterday but our hotel room was HOT.  It seems this is an older hotel that can either have heat or air.  Well since it was under 50 degrees, they had heat.  When I complained (not that I do that), they opened the window for us which did cool the room off.  However, we were next to a parking garage and the noise kept Craig awake most of the night.  I on the other hand slept like a baby.  I woke up at 3:30am and Craig was up making coffee and eating a snack.  I just rolled back over and went back to sleep.

We went downstairs to have the breakfast buffet and it was really good.  They had cereal and fruit and that is all I need to be happy.  We got a late checkout at the hotel and didn't have to be out until 3:00pm so we stayed in the room all day resting.  It felt really good.

We decided to walk on over to the airport and check in around 2:30 pm to get ready for our 6:00 pm flight.  Check in was easy but Security was the pits.  I had never seen lines so long.  This time I got TSA Pre Check and Craig didn't.  There wasn't any way I was going to send him off on his own so I suffered right along with him.  Once through security we had another long walk through the tunnel to our gate.  We are lucky that the United First Class Lounge is near our gate.

Craig has been grazing on all the good food but I have been trying to hold off.  I know they will serve us so much food once we get on the plane.  I am usually so full from the meal that I never have room for dessert (which is probably good).

Our flight to Brussels is around 8 hours and then we have a 4 hour layover and then a 2 hour flight to Barcelona.  It won't be long until we are there.

I think I will sign off for the day so I can enjoy the lounge.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

We started our big trip today.  This morning our driver picked us up at home promptly at 9:00 am and drove us to DFW Airport.  We checked in without incident at the airport.  Craig got TSA Pre check and I did not.  This means that he got to waltz through the metal detector without taking off his shoes, belt, hat or anything.  I had to completely disrobe and go through the body scanner and then after I got through I remembered that I had not taken my pedometer off so I had to take it off and they had to send it through the scanner.  Once we got that over with we had to walk about a mile to get to our gate.

After United kept changing our flights almost a year out, we decided to break our flights up into two days.  We booked using air miles through US Airways when they were part of the Star Alliance.  After United changed our flight where we wouldn't make our connection, US Airways booked us on their flights to get to Chicago.

We boarded our flight around 11:30 and we took off around Noon.  We will be in first class on all legs of our flights so we will have plenty of room to stretch out.  The first flight was from DFW to CLT (Charlotte, North Carolina).  The second leg was from CLT to ORD (Chicago).

We were the first ones to the luggage carousel.  Craig checked with the office to make sure we were in the correct location and they assured him that we were.  Our bags had priority on them which usually means that they will be the last ones out.  We watched bags come out and ours were not there.  Then I noticed the man from the office bring bags out and put them on the carousel.  They were ours!  I guess our bags had caught a faster ride than we had been on.

We were staying at the Airport Hilton so we wouldn't have to deal with any shuttles.  It is very convenient and the rooms seem to be comfortable.  However, they have no air conditioning because it is cold outside.  They opened the windows for us so I wouldn't burn up.

We decided to go find something to eat and the hotel is very limited.  I spied a sports bar and thought maybe we could eat there.  I ended up getting a hamburger that cost $17 and a glass of coke that cost $4.  I am thinking maybe we should have stayed somewhere else.  However, the hotel did give us a late checkout for tomorrow.  We don't have to be out until 3:00 pm and our flight leaves at 6:00 pm so this will work out good.

Tomorrow we leave Chicago around 6:00 pm and will fly to Brussels.  This leg will be on United and then we have a 4 hour layover.  From Brussels we fly to Barcelona where we will stay for 2 nights before boarding the ship.

It has been a long day.  I think I will sign off now.

Tuesday, April 2, 2014

I am getting ready for another big trip. This time I am going to the Mediterranean on Holland America ms Nieuw Amsterdam.  This is the first time on this ship but she is a sister ship to ms Eurodam which I was on for the Inaugural Cruise in July 2008.

We will be flying in to Barcelona and spend 2 nights there pre-cruise and will be spending 4 nights in Venice post cruise.  I still have lots of things to do to get ready for the trip but wanted to get my blog up with links for the pictures as well as the link for the itinerary.

This is a very port intensive cruise so I don't plan on posting daily this time.  As I get time I will try to update the blog.  The cruise is 12 days and only 1 day is a sea day.  We have tours booked every day on the cruise as well as a tour in Barcelona and 3 days of tours in Venice.  I will need to come home to get a rest.

With us moving into our new home (hopefully this summer), my cruising will probably be slowing down, so enjoy and follow along.