Just one more night before we depart on our trip! Packing is going a little slower than usual, we have been busy doing other things around the house. We have everything picked out, washed, ironed and folded, but not yet placed in the suitcase for the traditional elimination activity. We normally have reduced the content down to a manageable weight by this time, but have not yet gone through that exercise. I guess we will make that happen tonight. We have discovered that the cruises are actually harder for packing than the land trips, mainly due to the formal wear addition for the cruise. Along with the formal wear is the inclusion of shoes, and shoes are not packing friendly items. Although we really want to only have one checked bag each, we are now contemplating the addition of one carry-on suitcase, mainly for shoes. This was the case for our last long cruise to Hawaii and Tahiti, we just could not manage getting everything in one bag and that was a warm weather trip. Knowing we are going on a colder climate trip this time, means the clothes themselves are more bulky, and heavier to pack.
We will give it a try tonight to see what we can eliminate, knowing we have access to laundry facilities on the ship, which is not the case on land based trips. The elimination of clothes step is always part on the normal “packing process”, we just usually have it accomplished before the last night.
It appears that the weather will not be good for our initial flight to Atlanta, a large winter storm is expected to peak in our area tomorrow bringing heavy rains. Once we are in Atlanta, we do not expect any issues with the transatlantic flight to Amsterdam, where we get our connecting flight to Barcelona.
Here is the remaining plans for out two additional port stops in Civitavecchia, Italy (For Rome) and Funchal, Madeira
Civitavecchia, Italy
We plan on taking an early morning train from this port city into Rome. It is about an hour train ride, and we plan on stopping at the train station near St. Peter’s. We will spend some time at the Basilica, most likely taking the trip up to the Dome, if the weather is good. Afterward, depending on the time, we will select a couple of other sights, possibly heading to Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, the last of the four Major Basilicas in Rome that we have not ever visited. Having been to Rome previously, we have a good handle on getting around the city. We are in port from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, so we have a good amount if time for our sightseeing, more time than daylight at this time of year.
Funchal, Madeira
Funchal is another port we have visited previously, having been there on our Malaga, Spin to Mimi, Florida Transatlantic cruise in 2009. We are considering a couple of options, taking the cable car up to the town of Monte, and possibly taking Lavada walk called “the Tea House Walk”. The levadas are open canal systems that were developed from the early 16th century, to distribute water from the rainfall heavy and wet regions on the north of the island to the drier sun parched regions of the south. There are more than 1,350 miles (2,170 km) of levadas and they provide a remarkable network of walking paths.
This particular one is easy in difficulty and easy to access. Some of the others are many miles long, and require special equipment and many people suggest using guides to go along for safety. Other options for sights include the Botanical Garden and the Monte Palace Tropical Garden. Again, weather will dictate how much of these things we do. We have decided against another trip on the Monte Toboggan, which are the wicker basket sleds that slide down the roadway for about two miles, guided by two men on the back, using heavy soled rubber boots to quide the sled. We have herd about a few accidents where passengers have been hurt, and since there are no safety devices as you go about 30 mph down the roadway, we have opted to forgo that on this trip, having ridden on our last visit to Madeira. In addition, it was difficult for us to get back into Funchal from the end of the toboggan ride last time, so we are opting for some diversity on this trip.
Hopefully, all will go well with our plane flights tomorrow, and we will be posting actual travel information from here on out.