Organized Chaos

 We are at that point in the packing process that things are getting just a little chaotic. But it is organized chaos. The suitcases are completely packed, the carry-on bags are 90% packed, and we only have those last-minute day-of-trip sort of things to add. The charger cables, the cell phone, the boarding pass for the airlines, the pill box, the toiletry kit.

 Add to that, we are busily cleaning house. We prefer to return to a completely clean house after a vacation, it softens the blow of having to do your own cooking and cleaning to not have to start in right away.   As a consequence, we have both things to be thrown away and things to be put out so as to absolutely not forget them, taking up the same space on the countertops. All the while, we are trying to clean around them.

I just spent five minutes looking all over the house for the Blue Stuff spray. That’s the one used on mirrors and glass surfaces. It is supposed to reside in the carryall box where all the cleaning supplies are kept. But I just couldn’t find it.

 It was hiding from me.  Underneath the blue cleaning cloth.

Yep, that’s the sort of day we are going through. The plane leaves very early tomorrow morning, we are heading out this afternoon to an airport hotel so as to be ready to get checked in early and through security.  I’ll be back in a few days for our first travel update, after our 28 hours of travel to Singapore and a few hours rest.

Around the World in 35 Days

I know, 35 doesn’t sound as good as 80 days, but yep, that’s what we are going to be doing.  Circumnavigating the globe by plane, ship, train, bus, taxi and Uber.   For some reason, I just happened to look at the map and realized we aren’t doing a typical fly-there-and-fly-back-the-other-way trip. 

We’re going west, all the way around.  Albuquerque to Dallas, Dallas to Tokyo, Tokyo to Singapore (where we get to rest up a few days after 23 hours of flying) then board the ship, sail west to India, Africa, Europe-with appropriate port stops along the way-and then a few days in Rome and then fly to Chicago and then home to Albuquerque.  I’m trying to think if we have ever done this all the way around trip before, but I don’t think we have.   So, this is a new first for us!  And we didn’t even plan it that way, LOL.

Packing is nearly done.  Meaning I am packed a week early, with only the last minute charger cables and pill dispenser to add to the carry on bag.  And Tom has separated out some of the clothes he will eventually take, is mulling over the rest, and hasn’t yet figured what that will be or how it will fit in the suitcase.  He’ll pack the day before we leave and we will both dash back and forth to the laundry room doing last minute washing and mending and looking for just recalled items we really (don’t) need.  UPDATE: After I wrote the above, Tom went into the bedroom and packed his clothes.  And I sewed on three loose buttons he found on his tux.  All that is left now is the gadgets and stuff we actually will be using between now and departure.

Like the travel pillows.  Tom found his in the travel supplies the other day and tossed it onto the growing pile of ‘things to pack’. That’s when I remembered that mine blew out on our flight home from Barcelona last April.  ‘Ah well’, I said, ‘I don’t really need one, I can just wad up my jacket and the blanket’.   

But then today I got to thinking, maybe I do want one, after all.  It is two really long flights to get there.  So of course I looked to see what was available on Amazon and had Prime two day delivery.  I clicked on the most likely option to read its ‘features’ and noticed an outlined box at the top of the page informing me that “You ordered this on April 17, 2018”.  I did?  I did!  And then I promptly forgot all about it.  Til now.  I put down the iPad, walked right into the bedroom, yanked out the drawer with scarves and wallets and gloves and immediately saw the same little blue bag from the Amazon picture.  My new forgotten travel pillow, right where it should be.  

I’m not sure if I should be embarrassed I forgot both that I blew out my old pillow and replaced it, or if I should just be happy that I found the new forgotten pillow.  I’ve decided I’m going with the latter.  

Pay No Attention to this Post

Because my previous blogging app has stopped being updated or supported anymore I am attempting a few new apps and methods to make blog posts. So while you can read this if you want there won’t be anything fun to report it’s just me attempting to post some words and pictures in as simple a format as possible and if you do read it, it may change as I try to go through editing and updating and trying out different apps.

Alright, if you read this far anyway....I have figured out a way to get the text updated and added.  And even the pictures, which are from last nights storm and what we woke up to this morning.  But what I have been told, and what seems to be working now, is that once on board the ship it will be hard to add pictures because they take a long time to upload on this app. So I may have to add the pictures to Facebook,  because that updates very quickly. We’ll just have to see how it works once I get on board.

Dusting off the old blog

Wouldn’t you know it I go back to my trusty blogging app only to discover it no longer has functionality. And I have no recollection of how to use the original blogging page. I’m going to fiddle with it over the next few days and see if I can get it going because we do have a nice trip coming up that I know at least three or four if you would like to keep track of, LOL.

I am nearly done packing, and of course, Tom won’t start for for five days yet. One good thing that happened today was I found a travel wallet full of euros that I had forgotten about since last April when we came home from Barcelona with it. Yay! Free spending money!!

Everything here fits inside one medium sized suitcase and one under seat carry-on bag. Even the wallet with the found euros.

Stay tune because the adventure continues in 10 days

Barcelona Day 4

It is nearly time to go home, and we have to say, we are ready. Today was not particularly eventful; we rode the HOHO bus around to all the sights, did not see a thing that we missed earlier or wanted to spend more time visiting. The two highlights of the day for us were the Miró Museum and the cafeteria lunch at the 9th floor of the Corté Ingles department store. It has an incredible 240 degree view above the city and they also have a full bar and gelato along with all their food options. Enough said.

I do have a couple of pictures from the Miró...

And one from the HOHO bus, a store that appears to have been named after me.

And that about wraps it up for us. We have a car scheduled to pick us up at 7 am, then it is one of those 21 hour airport-flight marathons and we should arrive home Friday night. When our body clocks will think it is 5 am and time to get up instead of almost time for bed.

See you all next time!

Barcelona Day Three

After a much-needed night of hard sleep, we arose a little later, had a quick continental breakfast and headed off to the Palau Musica Catalan. This is an active music venue, built in the early 1900s, and in the ornate style known as modernisme. This is the same style used by Gaudi. Words cannot really describe it like the pictures can:

Next, we headed to the Picasso museum, where my favorite part was the 37 paintings of the Las Meniñas series. Picasso studied the Diego Velazquez original painting, re-imagined it in his own colorful style, then took each element of the painting and using color to define each element, drilled down the paintings u til he was left with only the face of the central figure with the other elements used as lines delineating her face. Fascinating to look at all these paintings side by side and seeing what elements are retained and what are discarded in this progression.

And after that busy morning, we stopped for tapas, then headed home (hotel) for siesta, then out for a light dinner. Tomorrow we will go on the HOHO bus and see what we have missed so far!

Barcelona Day 2

Oh my sore feet...but at least it is not my knees! We walked a lot for me today, probably four miles, which Tom does every morning, but even his feet are sore. And we are both hot, sweaty and tired. As are most of the rest of the group, LOL.

Despite our best attempts to keep from getting ripped off by a taxi driver, we fell victim to a real doozy of a schmoozy rip-off artist. Only 15€, and it will make for a good story next month, but aggravating nonetheless. But we got to our hotel, walked over to La Sagrada, saw the church (could not go up into the roof as the elevator was broken😢 and now we have to apply for a refund...). Pictures of the light and bright interior don’t do justice to the color and variety found inside. It was lovely.

The spiral staircase we would have had to climb down, if we HAD been able to go up to the top...look up high:

And lastly, this was dinner tonight. It was delicious.