We’ve arrived at the largest port on the Mediterranean — a title well
deserved. This port is huge! It’s well protected and well established.
We’ll disembark for a tour in about an hour. We’ve had breakfast and a good
night’s sleep. It is cool, a bit breezy, and partly cloudy with a forecast
high of 66 degrees. Just right for sightseeing.
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We’ve boarded and done some exploring of the boat that will be our home for
the next 12 days. It is a very big boat. Jet lag is also slowing both of us
down this afternoon. Maybe it’s time for a nap?
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Good morning from Barcelona! We’re in the country of rapid-fire speakers
where my 1979 Spanish has no chance. The night went fast (for me) but Nina
has come down with a cold. The day is just now dawning at 8 am in the
morning. We’ll do a little sightseeing and the off to the boat.
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We’ve actually been here for about 7 hours. The flight from Milan was
another uneventful flight — on time and no hassles. All the luggage
arrived. We took a taxi into town to our hotel and got a couple hours of
sleep. Our friends and traveling companions Gary and Pam arrived about 7
pm. We had a soda with them at a sidewalk cafe. They headed for bed and
Nina and I went to dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. Now it’s time for
bed and hopefully a full night’s sleep. Then it’s off to the cruise ship!
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We’ve arrived in Milan. The flight from JFK was on time followed by a very
long walk to the gate for the Barcelona flight. I like uneventful flights
and the one to Milan qualified. We’re this far and quite tired. Another
hour and we’ll be on our way to Barcelona.
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The first leg is finished. We’re in New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport waiting for the next flight to Milan. We’re in the Business Class Lounge which has comfortable seating, electrical power, and free soft drinks and snacks. Flying international Business Class enables us to be in the lounge. We’ve got about two hours before the Milan flight boards. From there the calculation says it’s a eight hour flight. That’s plenty long enough!
The Salt Lake Airport was very busy this morning. I’m always surprised at how many people are at that airport every time we go through there. It took about 45 minutes to get through checkin and security after we got to the terminal. That left enough time to get a quick breakfast. The flight left a few minutes late leaving due to waiting for some connecting passengers. We arrived in JFK ontime — scheduled for 4:21 p.m. and we arrived at the gate at 4:23 p.m. Service was good and the flight was full — except for two seats. I wasn’t able to get an upgrade on this flight to New York (Nina did and was in First Class). but I scored a front-row seat in economy with an empty seat between me and the guy sitting by the window. That meant plenty of legroom for the flight. I was happy. So here we are — on our way and life is definitely good.
We are in Salt Lake City for the evening. Tomorrow morning we go to the airport and begin the long trip eastward eventually to end up in Barcelona, Spain. So, we’re almost ready to start! It’s been a very quiet evening. I’ve been in Salt Lake since Wednesday evening for business meetings. The meetings were interesting and informative and ended this afternoon about 4 p.m. Nina drove down this morning and spent time with Heather at the Family History Library. We met up at the hotel about 4:30 p.m. She’s moved into the hotel room and it’s good to be together again. We had a very nice dinner at The Olive Garden and then watched the end of the White Sox / Angels baseball game (the White Sox won). Just right to wind down and get ready for the long flight tomorrow. Here’s an attempt at our schedule for the next couple of weeks — with everything in Pocatello times:
| Date | Time | Action | Place | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11/15 | 9:55 am | Leave | Salt Lake City | Delta 1962 |
| 2:21 pm | Arrive | JFK | ||
| 6:20 pm | Leave | JFK | Delta 84 | |
| 11/16 | 2:20 am | Arrive | Milan Italy | |
| 4:25 am | Leave | Milan Italy | Iberia 4653 | |
| 5:55 am | Arrive | Barcelona, Spain | ||
| 11/17 | 2:00 pm | Leave | Barcelona, Spain | Grand Princess |
| 11/18 | 12:30 am | Arrive | Marseille France | |
| 10:00 am | Leave | Marseille France | ||
| 11:00 pm | Arrive | Livorno Italy | Florence | |
| 11/19 | 11:00 am | Leave | Livorno Italy | |
| 11:00 pm | Arrive | Civitavecchia Italy | Rome | |
| 11/20 | 11:00 am | Leave | Civitavecchia Italy | |
| 11:00 pm | Arrive | Naples Italy | Pompeii | |
| 11/21 | 11:00 am | Leave | Naples Italy | |
| 11/22 | 10:00 pm | Arrive | Mykonos Greece | |
| 11/23 | 5:00 am | Leave | Mykonos Greece | |
| 11:00 pm | Arrive | Istanbul Turkey | ||
| 11/24 | 9:00 am | Leave | Istanbul Turkey | |
| 11:00 pm | Arrive | Kusadasi Turkey | Ephesus | |
| 11/25 | 10:00 am | Leave | Kusadasi Turkey | |
| 9:00 pm | Arrive | Athens Greece | ||
| 11/26 | 8:45 am | Leave | Athens Greece | |
| 11/27 | 11:30 pm | Arrive | Venice Italy | |
| 11/28 | 4:05 am | Leave | Venice Italy | SN 3202 |
| 5:50 am | Arrive | Brussels Belgium | ||
| 11/4 | 2:35 am | Leave | Brussels Belgium | Delta 125 |
| 12:30 pm | Arrive | Atlanta Georgia | ||
| 1:55 pm | Leave | Atlanta Georgia | Delta 520 | |
| 5:53 pm | Arrive | Salt Lake City |
No guarantee that all of this is right — but it should be pretty close! We’re moving up to the starting line….
The trusty machine is back home, plugged in, and chugging away. The local computer store did a repair, then a windows repair restore, and then fixed some things in the registry. That was enough to get things fixed!! We’re back in business with the Windows XP machine. However, I’ve found the iMac Mini to be a very capable machine. My next buy will be a Mac laptop when they’ve got one out on the Intel chipset. Meanwhile, it’s good to have all the files back.