Less than 24 hours to go.

Last night Geri packed her bag for the trip. When we got home from dinner and a play she realized that she packed the wrong things and also packed to much. So today she repacked. I packed today. I estimate that we are 85% packed with two suitcases both weighing 45 pounds each. This means we have two carry-on bags to fill tonight. When we fly from Barcelona to Florence in 2.5 weeks we will need to shed some things to meet the European weight restrictions. I think we will be fine.

We are about to go pick up our rental car that we will use to drive to the east coast in the morning.

We had a small issue with our notebook computer today (2 hours worth). It seems to be working now. I really want to take it instead of the laptop because of weight. That will be decided later tonight.

Thursday morning three days before we leave

Last night we saw a great and funny Opera from the HD MET. It was Le Compt. It was a first for the MET. If you get a chance to see it you will not be disappointed. Walking out oh the show we relealized we needed to get serious about packing and checking our paper work. So we decided to cancel most events for the next few days. That is except for exercise, tennis, golf and one more play to see Friday night. However we did get started. The bags have been taken down and they are ready to be packed. Hopefully later today. We will see.

Six days before we leave

It is Tuesday April 26th and we have done no packing; however, Geri has made some jewelry purchases. Someone told us we can find out who is on our cruise. I am trying to do that right now. Our concern is finding people who are interested in playing bridge. We plan to start packing on Thursday. We will see if we break with tradition since we normally pack the day before we leave and not three days before..

Still preplanning

At the recommendations of our friends David and Janice Cohen we booked our last hotel today. We will be staying Residence Le Terrazze in Portovenere Italy. It is on the water, close to the boat/ferry that will take us to Cinque Terre. We now have everything booked. Still looking at guide books to plan the details of our travel.

Planning our TransAtlantic cruise and travel in Spain and Italy

It is April 10, 2011. We are in the final phase of planning our cruise from
Florida to Barcelona followed by 5 days in Barcelona and 9 days in Tuscany. We
leave on May 1st from Fort Lauderdale on the Celebrity Solstice and arrive in
Barcelona on May 14th. We are currently reviewing travel guides for Barcelona
and Tuscany. All air has been confirmed, rentals cars booked for travel to and
from Fort Lauderdale, cruise side trips reserved, specialty ship restaurants
reserved, car rented in Italy, air travel from Barcelona to Florence booked,
cottage reserved in Lucca, Italy, hotel in Barcelona and hotels in Florence. We
need one more hotel in Cinque Terre. Lenny has rented a tux for the formal
nights on board the ship so we do not have to pack his Tux. We also need to get
sea sickness preventive patches. Our recent trip to Key West showed us we need
to be prepared. What did we forget? We set up our travel notebook computer so
we can send and receive email and send out a daily blog.