May 18-28, 2012: Our Cruise in the Northern Mediterranean
	March 28 - April 11, 2012: Our Spring Trip to Florida
	Return to Index for 2012

Late last year, we started talking with Greg about taking a cruise this spring, and he was on the lookout for something good. By January, he'd found a bargain: two cruises, back-to-back. The first would be a repositioning cruise on Holland America's Noordam from Fort Lauderdale to Rome. The second would be on the same ship and would follow a route around the Northern Mediterranean, beginning and ending in Rome. In fact, we would just stay aboard when the first cruise docked and leave later that same day on the second.

Although there was a full day in Civitavecchia between cruises, the one thing the two cruises didn't offer was much time in Rome- or in Italy, for that matter. So we planned to make the trip a real odyssey and, at the conclusion of the second cruise, spend another eight days in Italy, staying in two cities: Florence and Rome. Greg did almost all the arrangements, and by the New Year Fred and I and Greg and his friend Paul had bookings for the trip. In February, however, Paul had to back out since he couldn't get the necessary time away from his work. Greg had booked a small suite for himself and Paul and a regular verandah room for us, and Paul's having to back out meant that Greg would have to bear the cost of the suite all by himself. After talking about it, we decided to jettison the verandah room and share an upgraded suite between the three of us. This cut the cost significantly, and Greg was able to move the three of us to the largest of that class of suites- one with an additional fifty square feet and a larger verandah. With a queen bed and a couch that made into a larger-than-twin-size bed, two desks, a coffee table and a couple of chairs inside, and a table, two chairs and two lounges on the verandah, it would be plenty large enough for the three of us.

We spent most of March evaluating the various shore excursions that were available, and we ended up booking excursions for the three of us in all the ports except for Cartagena and Barcelona, Spain (where we'd been before), Rome itself (where we'd be spending four days on our own), Messina, Sicily (the ship would only be there for a half-day) and Athens (Greg had arranged for the daughter of a friend of his who lived there to show us around for a day). All in all, it promised to be the trip of a lifetime (so far, at least).

This page is the index for the first cruise. Although you'll get plenty of information a bit later on about just what ports the ship will visit, for now, here is a high-level map of this first cruise:

All in all, Fred and I will be gone from Dallas for 35 days- the longest we've ever been gone on a trip. Because we were going to be gone so long, we arranged with our good friends Steve Friedman, Mario Tarradell and Lynne Richardson to stop by the house every few days and make sure that our cats Lucky and Tyger were OK and had plenty of food and water. They did yeoman service and a great job, and we would like to thank them again here.

So, the three of us left Dallas on the Tuesday morning, May 1st, flying to Fort Lauderdale. We stayed in the condo there that night, and the next day Ron Drew gave us all a ride to the Port of Fort Lauderdale where we boarded the Noordam. Sixteen days later, the first cruise ended when the ship docked in Civitavecchia, the port for Rome.

I will be organizing the album pages for this first cruise the same way I have organized other major vacation trips in this album- by breaking the trip across multiple pages (so that no one page takes too long to load and is too unwieldly to navigate). Basically, there'll be a page for every port, but there willl be additional pages devoted to things like our stateroom, the ship itself, and the sea days across the Atlantic.

INDEX FOR OUR FORT LAUDERDALE TO ROME CRUISE Wednesday, May 2 (Fort Lauderdale) To Florida/Embarkation/The Noordam Sails May 2-18 The Noordam: A Tour of the Ship and Our Stateroom May 3-8 (At Sea) Crossing the Atlantic Wednesday, May 9 (The Azores, Portugal) Exploring Ponta Delgada Thursday, May 10 (At Sea) Sea Day Activities Friday, May 11 (Lisbon, Portugal) Visiting Estoril; Lisbon Overview Saturday, May 12 (Lisbon, Portugal) Exploring the city of Lisbon Sunday, May 13 (Cadiz, Spain) A Walking Tour of Cadiz Monday, May 14 (Malaga, Spain) An Excursion to The Alhambra in Granada Tuesday, May 15 (Cartagena, Spain) Exploring Cartagena Wednesday, May 16 (Barcelona, Spain) A Day Trip to Montserrat Thursday, May 17 (At Sea) Sea Day Activities Friday, May 18 (Civitavecchia, Italy) The Repositioning Cruise Ends

At left is an index into the pages for this first cruise across the Atlantic. You can use this index to go directly to a particular album page if you wish, just by clicking on the date you want to go to. Of course, if you want to see everything, just click on the first date and begin with our trip to Florida and embarkation on May 2nd.

On each album page, you will find the typical links that will allow you to go forward and backward through the pages for this first cruise.

When you have finished looking at the pictures and movies for this first cruise, please use one of the "RETURN" links that appear at the top and bottom of each album page to come back to this index page. The link will take you back to the top of this page were you will again find the typical links that will allow you to move forward (to our Mediterranean cruise) or backward (to our spring trip to Florida) through the photo album.

We hope you enjoy coming along with us on our cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Rome, so click on the first link in the index and let's get started!