Made it to Venice

Through a series of fortunate events, I can report that we have successfully made it to Venice, gotten aboard, and are en route to Split, Croatia!!

The flights were… flights.  Charlotte to Boston was delayed, but not by all that much.  We had both planned on just flying with carry-ons, but the overhead baggage storage filled before we boarded, which meant that we had to exit the terminal and then go back through security with our bags in Boston.  Boston to Heathrow was very smooth, except that the 12-year-old sitting next to me didn’t have much self-awareness or personal space awareness, so that got a little old.  Lucky that we had a two hour stopover in London, because we made it with minutes to spare, after moving from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5.  That is one sprawling metropolis of an airport.  London to Venice was awesome, because I was dead asleep for most of it (the only two hours of sleep that I’ve had in the last 30 or so).

Actually getting on to the cruise was super easy (in spite of the fact that they had us coming into Venice having had a layover in Frankfurt, rather than in London).  Check-in took about 20 minutes, and went very smoothly.  Priority sub next was to book our excursions for the remainder of the trip.  We have chosen to:

·         -Visit a national park, renowned for its waterfalls in Croatia (tomorrow);

·         -Hike Mt. Vesuvius and tour Pompeii on Monday;

·         -Do a “Taste of Rome” tour on Tuesday.

We’re still on the fence about the other two stops (Florence and Marseilles).  For Florence, I was thinking a full-day highlights tour, while Ben was thinking a Tuscan wine tasting.  Dad, I know that you’re pulling for a tour of Florence, but if this excursion doesn’t work out, I’m calling it all the more reason to start planning a full-family trip back to Italy (with you as a translator, of course ;).  None of the excursions for Marseilles have struck us as “must-do’s,” so we may wait and see how we’re feeling after either the tour or the wine tasting.

So far, everything has gone more or less exactly as planned.  Looking forward to the first excursion (and as much sleep as I can possibly cram in between now and then)!

P.S.  My blog posting may be a little more sporadic than it was on my last trip.  The Internet is available on the cruise, but it is $35 per hour.  That is ridiculous.  I cannot handle it.  So… moral of the story, I may be posting a little less regularly.