This has been a busy busy week. Some of it good and some of it just downright hellish and busy. We started out by getting home from our Transatlantic Cruise on Saturday the 20th. Saturday was the day from Hell to begin with. We landed in Miami at around 6:00 am Sat morning, disembarked and after standing in the "Line from Hell." I can't imagine what took us so long to get through this line and get our suitcases but finely made that hurdle. We got a porter to take our suitcases out the bus which was another adventure. Had trouble finding our bus but finely saw our people getting on a bus so we figured this is our bus. When we got there they put our suitcases in the bus but some guy standing there kept telling us it was not the discovery travel bus. Don't get on! Well I finely just got on as our suitcase were there and everybody else from our group was there. We got to the airport and found another porter who helped us with our suitcases then walked around to our gate. We decided to get something to eat but all that was there was a pizza place so Lee & I, Jim & Alma caught a people mover and went to another gate. Had a wonderful meal of an American Burger, fries and a beer. We were standing by the place to catch a people mover to take us back to our gate when some of our people came by telling us that they had changed our gate and here we were right by it so that was lucky. Then we had a long wait. Our plane wasn't until around 4:00 or sometime thereabouts. So we settled in for the long wait. Then a very short flight to Tampa and another bus to Strawberry Ridge.
Since Thursday was Thanksgiving we decided not to put up any Christmas Decorations this year. That was until I talked to Linda. Seems some of her friends want to come around and visit every ones villages so ......... that is what we did for the rest of the week. We drug heavy boxes down from the shed, cleaned the floors in the living room, moved around all the furniture, and set up the village. What a job that all was.
Mingled in with all the Village activity on Monday evening we discovered the dishwasher wasn't working so we called our trusty faithful and speedy repair man, Brian who came right out on Tuesday morning. Brian said it would cost almost as much to fix this dishwasher as to get a new one. Well I said to Lee "Gee we won't be able to get it by Thanksgiving. You will have all those dishes to wash by hand Why can't you Brian says? We can??? I asked in amazement. Sure Let me see what I can do and I'll call you back." Well long story short. Brian was back on Wednesday Morning, brand new dishwasher in tow and I was just finishing up my village. Then we had a wonderful meal and visit with all the children, and grandchildren who were in town and not committed elsewhere. Yesterday and today we have been chilling out and recuperating. So ends the week.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Ingleby Village
Ingleby Village
By Jeannie Lewis
The village of Ingle sits high on a cliff in the northernmost area of Maine overlooking the ocean. In the town there is a high meadow pond where the townspeople skate in the winter and fish in the summer. In the lower valley farmland is a beautiful little stream runs through with a mill house and pond. Ingleby maintains its early American charm with its quaint old buildings and early American Dress. Progress has passed Ingleby by in many ways. Mr. Ingleby still rides around in a horse and buggy even though motor vehicles have been on the market for quite some time now. Ingleby is run with the iron fist of Norman Ingleby who is the banker of the town and holds mortgages on all the properties. Norman is the descendant of a Frenchman named Guillaume Couture who came to New France in 1641. Guillaume has quite an interesting story of his own but for now we will concentrate on Norman Ingleby. Normans’ family has always had wealth and privilege but Norman who was the rouge of the family has quite a few skeletons in his closet. In the early 1920’s young Norman went to New York City where he met a young man named Santos Trafficante. Since his Fathers death Santos was the head of the Tampa Mafia in Florida. Santos and Norman hit it off from the start. The young Mafia Don told Norman of his rum running and drug dealings with Cuba. Norman had never imagined going to Cuba but became convinced this was the thing to do. He and Santos made plans to form a partnership and off Norman went to Cuba where he experienced the high life of the Cuban clubs. Norman spent many hours roaming from club to club with Santos and his friends. Norman hand a romantic fling with a dark eyed beauty in Cuba forgetting all about his family at home. After 3 years of the high life Norman Senior arrived in Cuba dragging his son home to settle down and get married to the town beauty and take over managing Ingleby Village.
After his fling Norman settled into the quite life of Ingleby but still maintained his wild life. He had an affair with the beautiful housekeeper Lyla who became pregnant. Lyla married the postmaster who had always loved her and they had their child who they named Jamie. Jamie was always the town clown. Everyone said he would never amount to anything but the year of the big fishing tournament came and Jamie entered the tournament. Jamie rented a small rowboat and rowed out to sea. Toward the end of the day Jamie snagged onto a fish. The fish was the monster of all fish. Jamie fought and struggled with the fish for two days being dragged further and further out to sea. On the third day the fish gave up the fight and Jamie pulled him in onto the boat. The fish was so big his head hung over one end of the boat and his tail over the other end. Jamie rowed and rowed and was finely spotted by the lighthouse keeper who had maintained vigil throughout the ordeal keeping watch for Little Jamie. Jamie won the contest and bought his mother, who was now a poor struggling widow, a Bed and Breakfast with the winnings. Jamie settled down and married the little girl who sells Christmas wreaths in front of the town cafe.
In the meantime Mr. Ingleby had maintained a running feud with a local farmer named Trent Carrillo. Ingleby felt the farmer was encroaching on property that belonged to him. Ingleby did all sorts of dastardly deeds such as cutting off the water supply to the farm. Trent built a mill house and diverted the creek to water his crops. Still Ingleby persisted. Trent hired some help from a close by village of Peyton Place in Riverview and they managed to fend off Ingleby. Little did Ingleby know but young Trent was his son by the dark eyed Cuban beauty. Trent had stowed away on Ingleby’ last rum ship out of Cuba. Trent sailed into the port of Tampa and set about becoming an American. Trent worked on the railroads up and down the coast. Trent was an avid gambler and made his fortune playing poker in the caboose of the trains. When Trent was well established and had money in his pockets he arrived in the town of Ingleby and bought his farm land. Ingleby was outraged that this interloper had gone behind his back and laid claim to the best farmland around. Inglebys’ wife had made the deal while Ingleby was laid up with a bout of the flu.
Seems like Ingleby constantly has his share of woes. Now came the year of the Gypsies. One dark night a group of Gypsies came into town and set up their carnival without permission or permits. Ingleby was to say the least outraged. He went into town shotgun in hand to confront the Gypsies and shut them down. Well Norman had a change of heart this Christmas. He came down on his buggy and looked around. "His People" were having such a great time at the carnival that he put away his shotgun and negotiated with the Gypsies. He had a piece of land way down in the hollow and if they would promise to give him a 75% cut of the profit he would lease the land to them for 99 years. The Gypsies being pretty shrewd agreed to a 50% cut and a 150 year lease. Since he (Ingleby) figured he may lose a lot of business in the town by the townspeople who threatened to go to Peyton Place to do all their Christmas Shopping, agreed to the Gypsies terms. Ya know Ingleby is a finagler anyway and always looking for a way to line his pockets. Also by doing this deal with the Gypsies he doesn’t have to deal with all the County’s red tape and put out all that money for the big Urban Renewal project he planned for next year. He is saving a bunch PLUS pocketing 50% of the Gypsies take. The piece of land he leased to the Gypsies is pretty ragged looking right now we had to wait for a big snowfall to hide some of the debris left by the construction of the Carnival. But the carnival is up and running and everyone is having a grand time. As for Ingleby he is up in his mansion drinking eggnog and counting his take from the carnival.
All was going pretty well until this shyster Mayor of Peyton place decided he wanted the carnival so he hired a lawyer to stir up the Gypsies. The lawyer came into town in a hot air balloon well can you imagine Mr. Mayors surprise when the lawyer landed and found some of his own relatives from the old country were the Gypsies in question. The lawyer was Jewish and the Gypsies are Jewish Gypsies. So the lawyer Mr.Linskey severed his contract with the Mayor, joined his kinsman and set his balloon up as a ride. His is now representing the Gypsies pro bono.
By Jeannie Lewis
The village of Ingle sits high on a cliff in the northernmost area of Maine overlooking the ocean. In the town there is a high meadow pond where the townspeople skate in the winter and fish in the summer. In the lower valley farmland is a beautiful little stream runs through with a mill house and pond. Ingleby maintains its early American charm with its quaint old buildings and early American Dress. Progress has passed Ingleby by in many ways. Mr. Ingleby still rides around in a horse and buggy even though motor vehicles have been on the market for quite some time now. Ingleby is run with the iron fist of Norman Ingleby who is the banker of the town and holds mortgages on all the properties. Norman is the descendant of a Frenchman named Guillaume Couture who came to New France in 1641. Guillaume has quite an interesting story of his own but for now we will concentrate on Norman Ingleby. Normans’ family has always had wealth and privilege but Norman who was the rouge of the family has quite a few skeletons in his closet. In the early 1920’s young Norman went to New York City where he met a young man named Santos Trafficante. Since his Fathers death Santos was the head of the Tampa Mafia in Florida. Santos and Norman hit it off from the start. The young Mafia Don told Norman of his rum running and drug dealings with Cuba. Norman had never imagined going to Cuba but became convinced this was the thing to do. He and Santos made plans to form a partnership and off Norman went to Cuba where he experienced the high life of the Cuban clubs. Norman spent many hours roaming from club to club with Santos and his friends. Norman hand a romantic fling with a dark eyed beauty in Cuba forgetting all about his family at home. After 3 years of the high life Norman Senior arrived in Cuba dragging his son home to settle down and get married to the town beauty and take over managing Ingleby Village.
After his fling Norman settled into the quite life of Ingleby but still maintained his wild life. He had an affair with the beautiful housekeeper Lyla who became pregnant. Lyla married the postmaster who had always loved her and they had their child who they named Jamie. Jamie was always the town clown. Everyone said he would never amount to anything but the year of the big fishing tournament came and Jamie entered the tournament. Jamie rented a small rowboat and rowed out to sea. Toward the end of the day Jamie snagged onto a fish. The fish was the monster of all fish. Jamie fought and struggled with the fish for two days being dragged further and further out to sea. On the third day the fish gave up the fight and Jamie pulled him in onto the boat. The fish was so big his head hung over one end of the boat and his tail over the other end. Jamie rowed and rowed and was finely spotted by the lighthouse keeper who had maintained vigil throughout the ordeal keeping watch for Little Jamie. Jamie won the contest and bought his mother, who was now a poor struggling widow, a Bed and Breakfast with the winnings. Jamie settled down and married the little girl who sells Christmas wreaths in front of the town cafe.
In the meantime Mr. Ingleby had maintained a running feud with a local farmer named Trent Carrillo. Ingleby felt the farmer was encroaching on property that belonged to him. Ingleby did all sorts of dastardly deeds such as cutting off the water supply to the farm. Trent built a mill house and diverted the creek to water his crops. Still Ingleby persisted. Trent hired some help from a close by village of Peyton Place in Riverview and they managed to fend off Ingleby. Little did Ingleby know but young Trent was his son by the dark eyed Cuban beauty. Trent had stowed away on Ingleby’ last rum ship out of Cuba. Trent sailed into the port of Tampa and set about becoming an American. Trent worked on the railroads up and down the coast. Trent was an avid gambler and made his fortune playing poker in the caboose of the trains. When Trent was well established and had money in his pockets he arrived in the town of Ingleby and bought his farm land. Ingleby was outraged that this interloper had gone behind his back and laid claim to the best farmland around. Inglebys’ wife had made the deal while Ingleby was laid up with a bout of the flu.
Seems like Ingleby constantly has his share of woes. Now came the year of the Gypsies. One dark night a group of Gypsies came into town and set up their carnival without permission or permits. Ingleby was to say the least outraged. He went into town shotgun in hand to confront the Gypsies and shut them down. Well Norman had a change of heart this Christmas. He came down on his buggy and looked around. "His People" were having such a great time at the carnival that he put away his shotgun and negotiated with the Gypsies. He had a piece of land way down in the hollow and if they would promise to give him a 75% cut of the profit he would lease the land to them for 99 years. The Gypsies being pretty shrewd agreed to a 50% cut and a 150 year lease. Since he (Ingleby) figured he may lose a lot of business in the town by the townspeople who threatened to go to Peyton Place to do all their Christmas Shopping, agreed to the Gypsies terms. Ya know Ingleby is a finagler anyway and always looking for a way to line his pockets. Also by doing this deal with the Gypsies he doesn’t have to deal with all the County’s red tape and put out all that money for the big Urban Renewal project he planned for next year. He is saving a bunch PLUS pocketing 50% of the Gypsies take. The piece of land he leased to the Gypsies is pretty ragged looking right now we had to wait for a big snowfall to hide some of the debris left by the construction of the Carnival. But the carnival is up and running and everyone is having a grand time. As for Ingleby he is up in his mansion drinking eggnog and counting his take from the carnival.
All was going pretty well until this shyster Mayor of Peyton place decided he wanted the carnival so he hired a lawyer to stir up the Gypsies. The lawyer came into town in a hot air balloon well can you imagine Mr. Mayors surprise when the lawyer landed and found some of his own relatives from the old country were the Gypsies in question. The lawyer was Jewish and the Gypsies are Jewish Gypsies. So the lawyer Mr.Linskey severed his contract with the Mayor, joined his kinsman and set his balloon up as a ride. His is now representing the Gypsies pro bono.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Final Installment of Cruise
November 11, 2010
This is the 5th day of our cruise at 6:00 am and woke up early for a change. I decided to order room service coffee and try a bit of writing. We have had a wonderfully restful cruise. Lee and I have not stepped off the boat since we got on. We had decided that this was going to be just a cruise with no ports of call. The ship stopped at three ports and so far a day at sea. We have done nothing but eat, drink (in more moderation than we expected) and gambled. So far the machines have been very good to me. I have already put my money that I brought along to gamble with and $200 extra in the safe. And I have in my pocket $135 to gamble with now. Lee hasn’t been so lucky this trip he is feeding the machines. That is normally the reverse with us. Yesterday, our day at sea, we had a fun filled day. We enjoyed breakfast with Jim, Alma slept in) then played bridge with Lucille and Norma, hit the slots a bit then went to a wine tasting. By then it was time for Lunch. After lunch tucked into a quiet nook to read a bit, gambled some more then time for dinner. Ah what a “chore” shipboard life is. After dinner we did a fun thing. Lee and I. Jim and Alma went to the Martini Bar and had a flight of martinis. A flight of martinis is a sampler of 6 of their different martinis. You get a small glass of each. The drinking of it is not what's fun. It is the watching of the mixologist prepare the drinks. He takes all the shakers, mixes the drinks in each then stacks up 12 of them together. Then he hops right up on the bar and tips them over so that the drink pours into each of the glasses. It was amazing to watch. I wasn’t all that fond of the drinks but it sure was fun to watch.
We have had some really rough seas. Waves were up to 18 feet. Really difficult to walk around. Good time to find a quiet nook to just sit. Or a good hot machine in the casino. As I am writing this we have pulled into Funchal Portugal. It is just beautiful! It is still dark and the mountainside is like a black velvet cloth strewn with jewels. It is spectacular. The sun will be rising shortly and we should have a marvelous sunrise. The weather is cool and clear. But not so cool you can’t step out on the veranda without a sweater. I am sure Lee with have to wrap up like a mummy as he tends to get colder than I do. As for right now I am just sitting here with the door open and enjoying the morning.
Adendum
The remainder of the trip was pretty much the same every day. I would get up early, order my coffee on the veranda then wake Lee up to go to breakfast. Many people like to go up to the buffet but we enjoy going to the main dining room, sitting and be waited on. So much easier than carrying those trays to the table. After breakfast we would play bridge until time to eat lunch. Again in the main dining room. After lunch time to read a bit then maybe a movie if they had something good. Not a real good selection of movies on the ship I have found. I also spent time watching Grey’s Anatomy season 6 on my iPod. Next is afternoon cocktails, sometimes on our veranda with Jim and Alma and sometimes in the Martini Bar. Then Dinner, a show, maybe some gambling then to bed to read. On the cruise I read 6 books and Lee read 5 so the Kindle really came in handy. Surprisingly enough I gambled away the $135 that I kept out of the safe but the rest I actually brought home. So unlike me.
Once we got out into the Atlantic the seas became calm so smoothing sailing all the way across the Atlantic. It was just so beautiful every morning I would get up early and watch the sun rise over the ocean. I will be posting some pictures later as soon as I download from the camera.
This is the 5th day of our cruise at 6:00 am and woke up early for a change. I decided to order room service coffee and try a bit of writing. We have had a wonderfully restful cruise. Lee and I have not stepped off the boat since we got on. We had decided that this was going to be just a cruise with no ports of call. The ship stopped at three ports and so far a day at sea. We have done nothing but eat, drink (in more moderation than we expected) and gambled. So far the machines have been very good to me. I have already put my money that I brought along to gamble with and $200 extra in the safe. And I have in my pocket $135 to gamble with now. Lee hasn’t been so lucky this trip he is feeding the machines. That is normally the reverse with us. Yesterday, our day at sea, we had a fun filled day. We enjoyed breakfast with Jim, Alma slept in) then played bridge with Lucille and Norma, hit the slots a bit then went to a wine tasting. By then it was time for Lunch. After lunch tucked into a quiet nook to read a bit, gambled some more then time for dinner. Ah what a “chore” shipboard life is. After dinner we did a fun thing. Lee and I. Jim and Alma went to the Martini Bar and had a flight of martinis. A flight of martinis is a sampler of 6 of their different martinis. You get a small glass of each. The drinking of it is not what's fun. It is the watching of the mixologist prepare the drinks. He takes all the shakers, mixes the drinks in each then stacks up 12 of them together. Then he hops right up on the bar and tips them over so that the drink pours into each of the glasses. It was amazing to watch. I wasn’t all that fond of the drinks but it sure was fun to watch.
We have had some really rough seas. Waves were up to 18 feet. Really difficult to walk around. Good time to find a quiet nook to just sit. Or a good hot machine in the casino. As I am writing this we have pulled into Funchal Portugal. It is just beautiful! It is still dark and the mountainside is like a black velvet cloth strewn with jewels. It is spectacular. The sun will be rising shortly and we should have a marvelous sunrise. The weather is cool and clear. But not so cool you can’t step out on the veranda without a sweater. I am sure Lee with have to wrap up like a mummy as he tends to get colder than I do. As for right now I am just sitting here with the door open and enjoying the morning.
Adendum
The remainder of the trip was pretty much the same every day. I would get up early, order my coffee on the veranda then wake Lee up to go to breakfast. Many people like to go up to the buffet but we enjoy going to the main dining room, sitting and be waited on. So much easier than carrying those trays to the table. After breakfast we would play bridge until time to eat lunch. Again in the main dining room. After lunch time to read a bit then maybe a movie if they had something good. Not a real good selection of movies on the ship I have found. I also spent time watching Grey’s Anatomy season 6 on my iPod. Next is afternoon cocktails, sometimes on our veranda with Jim and Alma and sometimes in the Martini Bar. Then Dinner, a show, maybe some gambling then to bed to read. On the cruise I read 6 books and Lee read 5 so the Kindle really came in handy. Surprisingly enough I gambled away the $135 that I kept out of the safe but the rest I actually brought home. So unlike me.
Once we got out into the Atlantic the seas became calm so smoothing sailing all the way across the Atlantic. It was just so beautiful every morning I would get up early and watch the sun rise over the ocean. I will be posting some pictures later as soon as I download from the camera.
November 7, 2010
So home with my laptop today I decided to start it up and see what the problem was with blogging on it. Lo and behold the menu bar is right on top where it belongs. Must be something with the shipboard Internet. So maybe we won't blog on the ship. I just hope when we travel to Alaska in May, everything will work. I will add the posts that I did in Word on the Trip
November 7, 2010
Today is Sunday and day 2 of our Journey. Yesterday was a bit as I had predicted on my last blog with a few minor differences. We of course had the bus ride to the airport, long wait at the airport, short jaunt up to Atlanta and then the differences begin. We had signed up for me to have a wheelchair in Atlanta and Barcelona. Well is seems that my experiences with wheel chair travels have gone south. I had problems with them on my last trip and they have continued to be problematic on this trip. Upon arriving in Atlanta they didn’t have me on the list but eventually produced a chair for me. The young man assigned to push me took me to a handy dandy elevator where he was greeted by a female attendant who informed him that the elevators on the “T” concourse (where we were heading) were out of order so he had to take me back up the elevator and then had to call someone else to push me all the way over. There I sat watching the rest of our group being pushed by on their way to Concourse T. Presently someone came pushed me to the end of this concourse where we took one of the people movers to our destination. We had a 4 hour wait for out next plane so our plan was to stop at a restaurant and have a hamburger and French fries. We stopped at Samuel Adams and finely were waited on after several people who came in after us. We ordered our burgers and watched the couple who had come in directly ahead of us be served burgers. At that point the waitress came over and told us they were out of burgers and would we like to try the buffalo chicken sandwich. Well we did and it was good but the point of this story is that the two who were ahead of us were eating our burgers. Good thing I am a pleasant person or I would have gone right over and grabbed the burgers away from them. Ok, nuff about the damned burgers. We finely caught our plane and after a long 9 hour flight (they had told us that it was only going to be 6 hrs but it was 9) we arrived in Barcelona. Then the fun began with the wheelchairs. There were 24 of us in wheel chairs and a most unorganized system I have never seen. I only wish I had had a video camera to capture this entire production on video. We all had to sit and wait for the rest of the passengers to disembark then we all moved to the front of the plane. They loaded us onto a people mover truck which elevated right up to the door of the plane. It only fitted about 7 of us at the time. Then they road us over to a door where one person would wheel one of us at the time, park us by the door and then go back and get the next person. Next move was to line up at the elevator (which only held one wheelchair) So he moved one person at the time and put us in a line then run back get the next person and line them up and so on and so on. Finely some of us got the idea and wheeled ourselves. This moved things along a little quicker. Presently Lee decided to wheel me and I drug the wheelie suitcase along. It was all quite comical. We all relayed ourselves through immigration and out to the area where Brenda, Leonard and Tom were waiting for us with our suitcases that they had pulled off the belt for us. We exited out through the door and the Celebrity (Cruises Ship) people were waiting for us. For some unknown reason this person and our wheel chair man whisked 7 of us away from the pack (we must have looked dangerous or something) and took us out to this enormous waiting area where no one was so we couldn't do any damage to anyone. We waited and waited and waited until finely someone came and got us and took us to the bus. A 30 minute bus ride got us to the ship where we had this long check on process. Then a long long walk up the gangway to the other end of the ship. We were able to drop off our hand luggage and got back off the boat to go to the duty free store and grabbed a couple of bottles of wine. Our state rooms were now ready for us so we collapsed for a short nap. By the time we got up our luggage had made it to our door and we unpacked and “feathered our nest.” Now we are all settled in We had a cocktail in the Martini bar then went to dinner, the show, a bit at the casino then finely made it to bed at 11:30. By now it had been something over 36 hours without sleep and I was so wound up I just couldn't sleep. That is until my head hit the pillow then I slept like the dead.
Until 9:00 Sunday morning. Now we had missed the sit down breakfast at San Marco restaurant so had to go up to the Buffet. I normally hate the buffet. I like to be served not have to grab a tray and carry it to the table. But I must say the meal was perfect. The eggs were cooked to perfection and everything else was just great.
Today is going to be the day for running into know it all, big mouthed old ladies. We were in the Captains Club area waiting for someone to come help us when this crazy lady came up and started asking about getting here boarding pass printed. She just kept on about it so I finely asked her what she was talking about. What boarding pass did she need? Well she was going to Ft. Lauderdale and had to fly home from there so she wanted her boarding pass. I said you mean to the plane. Yes that is what she wanted. I told her she couldn’t get that here she had to get that from the airport. The ship has nothing to do with that. She said oh yes she has had that done before. We finely figured out she meant getting the pass online so I told her she couldn’t get that until 24 hours before her flight. OH no she knew better. So I finely just walked away. The next crazy lady we ran into was in the lounge upstairs where we were trying to read when this loud mouth lady came in complaining well If they are going to have this they should have it when people weren’t all ashore. I say what are you talking about? Have what? Well the party she says. I said no there is no party going on here. We are just us trying to read. Lee said maybe she is in the wrong place. NO SHE KNOWS EXACTLY WHERE SHE IS. She has been on the ship many times before. You get this invitation to the elite club party. I said well do you have your paper with the invitation and it should have the time and place on it. She just kept going on about this special invitation party blah blah blah. Finely got tired of trying to talk to her so I buried my head in my book and ignored her. How do I attract these crazy people?
November 7, 2010
Today is Sunday and day 2 of our Journey. Yesterday was a bit as I had predicted on my last blog with a few minor differences. We of course had the bus ride to the airport, long wait at the airport, short jaunt up to Atlanta and then the differences begin. We had signed up for me to have a wheelchair in Atlanta and Barcelona. Well is seems that my experiences with wheel chair travels have gone south. I had problems with them on my last trip and they have continued to be problematic on this trip. Upon arriving in Atlanta they didn’t have me on the list but eventually produced a chair for me. The young man assigned to push me took me to a handy dandy elevator where he was greeted by a female attendant who informed him that the elevators on the “T” concourse (where we were heading) were out of order so he had to take me back up the elevator and then had to call someone else to push me all the way over. There I sat watching the rest of our group being pushed by on their way to Concourse T. Presently someone came pushed me to the end of this concourse where we took one of the people movers to our destination. We had a 4 hour wait for out next plane so our plan was to stop at a restaurant and have a hamburger and French fries. We stopped at Samuel Adams and finely were waited on after several people who came in after us. We ordered our burgers and watched the couple who had come in directly ahead of us be served burgers. At that point the waitress came over and told us they were out of burgers and would we like to try the buffalo chicken sandwich. Well we did and it was good but the point of this story is that the two who were ahead of us were eating our burgers. Good thing I am a pleasant person or I would have gone right over and grabbed the burgers away from them. Ok, nuff about the damned burgers. We finely caught our plane and after a long 9 hour flight (they had told us that it was only going to be 6 hrs but it was 9) we arrived in Barcelona. Then the fun began with the wheelchairs. There were 24 of us in wheel chairs and a most unorganized system I have never seen. I only wish I had had a video camera to capture this entire production on video. We all had to sit and wait for the rest of the passengers to disembark then we all moved to the front of the plane. They loaded us onto a people mover truck which elevated right up to the door of the plane. It only fitted about 7 of us at the time. Then they road us over to a door where one person would wheel one of us at the time, park us by the door and then go back and get the next person. Next move was to line up at the elevator (which only held one wheelchair) So he moved one person at the time and put us in a line then run back get the next person and line them up and so on and so on. Finely some of us got the idea and wheeled ourselves. This moved things along a little quicker. Presently Lee decided to wheel me and I drug the wheelie suitcase along. It was all quite comical. We all relayed ourselves through immigration and out to the area where Brenda, Leonard and Tom were waiting for us with our suitcases that they had pulled off the belt for us. We exited out through the door and the Celebrity (Cruises Ship) people were waiting for us. For some unknown reason this person and our wheel chair man whisked 7 of us away from the pack (we must have looked dangerous or something) and took us out to this enormous waiting area where no one was so we couldn't do any damage to anyone. We waited and waited and waited until finely someone came and got us and took us to the bus. A 30 minute bus ride got us to the ship where we had this long check on process. Then a long long walk up the gangway to the other end of the ship. We were able to drop off our hand luggage and got back off the boat to go to the duty free store and grabbed a couple of bottles of wine. Our state rooms were now ready for us so we collapsed for a short nap. By the time we got up our luggage had made it to our door and we unpacked and “feathered our nest.” Now we are all settled in We had a cocktail in the Martini bar then went to dinner, the show, a bit at the casino then finely made it to bed at 11:30. By now it had been something over 36 hours without sleep and I was so wound up I just couldn't sleep. That is until my head hit the pillow then I slept like the dead.
Until 9:00 Sunday morning. Now we had missed the sit down breakfast at San Marco restaurant so had to go up to the Buffet. I normally hate the buffet. I like to be served not have to grab a tray and carry it to the table. But I must say the meal was perfect. The eggs were cooked to perfection and everything else was just great.
Today is going to be the day for running into know it all, big mouthed old ladies. We were in the Captains Club area waiting for someone to come help us when this crazy lady came up and started asking about getting here boarding pass printed. She just kept on about it so I finely asked her what she was talking about. What boarding pass did she need? Well she was going to Ft. Lauderdale and had to fly home from there so she wanted her boarding pass. I said you mean to the plane. Yes that is what she wanted. I told her she couldn’t get that here she had to get that from the airport. The ship has nothing to do with that. She said oh yes she has had that done before. We finely figured out she meant getting the pass online so I told her she couldn’t get that until 24 hours before her flight. OH no she knew better. So I finely just walked away. The next crazy lady we ran into was in the lounge upstairs where we were trying to read when this loud mouth lady came in complaining well If they are going to have this they should have it when people weren’t all ashore. I say what are you talking about? Have what? Well the party she says. I said no there is no party going on here. We are just us trying to read. Lee said maybe she is in the wrong place. NO SHE KNOWS EXACTLY WHERE SHE IS. She has been on the ship many times before. You get this invitation to the elite club party. I said well do you have your paper with the invitation and it should have the time and place on it. She just kept going on about this special invitation party blah blah blah. Finely got tired of trying to talk to her so I buried my head in my book and ignored her. How do I attract these crazy people?
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Trans Atlantic Cruise
We just got home last night. So Sorry I was unable to blog while at sea. I spent big money so I could have Internet service for the entire trip and lo and behold for some reason when I tried to add a new post I had no menu buttons at the top of my blog page. I need to remedy this situation as I want to be able to blog the Alaska trip coming up in May. As I said we just go home and lots of stuff to do for the next day or two but I have some pictures and post that I saved on the laptop and will be posting the cruise within the next day or two.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
TransAtlantic Cruise
The big day is almost here. We have waited for this cruise for a year and are so excited. Tomorrow will be a very long day. We leave Strawberry Ridge at 9:00 am for the airport. There we have to wait until 12:30 for our flight but due to the long lines that is fine with me. Sure don't want to miss this plane. A short flight to Atlanta and then another long wait. Again I don't mind as we will have a chance to grab a bite in the airport. Then the 6 hour flight to Barcelona. Once in Barcelona we will have a long bus ride to the cruise terminal where there will most likely be another long wait to get checked in and board. Once on the ship we will be taken to our room and drop our carry on bags . Can't do much there until our luggage finds its way to us then we unpack, feather our nest then can take off and explore the ship and watch it sail out of the harbour. Well that is my take on how the day will proceed but we will see how close I am to it all. Stay tuned for out adventures on the trip.
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