MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE 2011

The counter on my computer tells me that in 45 (May 13, 2011) days Cindy & I leave on our trip. We are going on a Mediterranian cruise. This will be our second cruise.

I have to tell you all about it. I am so excited.

We fly from El Paso, TX to Chicago & New York to Barcelona, Spain. We get there on May 14 a day early so we will get to see a bit of Barcelona. Then on Sunday, May 15 we board the Royal Caribbean Ship “Voyager of the Sea” with 2500 of our closest friends for a 6 night cruise which takes us from Barcelona (Spain) to Toulan (France), Florence (Italy), Rome, Messina(Sicily) and finally ending in Venice. At each of those stops we will be doing our best to see what we can see in the time we have. After the cruise we will spend a few extra days in Venice then taking a train across Italy to the Cinque Terra on the west coast. After a few more days there we take a train to Milan and fly home.

I am particularly excited about seeing Florence, Rome, Venice and the Cinque Terra.

Cindy & I have been to Venice before but only for 1 ½ days which was way too short. This time we will spend the night taking a gondola ride and also having a glass of wine at an outdoor café in St. Mark’s Square. I want to see the Academia Museum also. And of course we will have gelato. I believe I will get a Carnival mask as my souvenir.

In Rome we will see the Roman Forum, Coliseum and Vatican. We have never been to Rome and I fear the few hours we have there will have to do. Choices had to made about what we could see and afford so all along the way we are doing everything we can to enjoy our time there.

The Cinque Terra is a national park consisting of 5 small villages perched on the rocky coast of western Italy. Rick Steves (the travel guru seen on public television) introduced us to the Cinque Terra and ever since we have wanted to see it for ourselves. So we tacked on 3 days to spend relaxing and just enjoying the scenery.

Once we return I will tell and show you all about it.