Seven More Days!

A week from today we will be on our way. First, some time in Napa Valley and then aboard the Queen Elizabeth for a 23 day segment of her 2015 World Cruise.

Today, Carolyn closed the luggage for the last time before we leave. We are all packed in two 46 pound pieces to be checked and two 25 pound carry-ons, one camera bag and one largish purse. There is also a small empty duffel bag packed in one of the larger pieces to get us over the weight hump on the Australian flights where there is a 15 pound carry on limit and 46 pound limit on checked pieces. All that is left to pack are our two small laptops, iPhones and Kindle Fires. They go in an outside pocket on our carry-on pieces.

We are carrying more on this trip than in 2009 because they will not ship luggage from Sydney to Cape Town. The reason being that the luggage security can’t be guaranteed once it reaches South Africa!!  Therefore, we need to carry our cruise clothes instead of simply shipping them like before. This has made Carolyn really selective and we will be wearing things over and over not only on the over land part, but also on the three cruises. Thank heavens for ship's laundry and washer/dryers in the various cottages!
   
We now have all our visas: Australia, Indonesia and Myanmar. We have pages clipped together for the Thailand, Seychelles and South African visas which we will get on arrival at the airport. We are still using our passports from the 2009 and 2011 Around the World and Circle South America trips. Many countries required a visa for those trips so quite a few pages are full or have at least one or two stamps. Fortunately, we got new passports in 2006 with the maximum number of pages and then paid extra for additional pages. We really have plenty of pages but some countries (South Africa) require two clean facing pages or they won’t let you in! Since the officials don’t stamp the pages in any kind of sensible order, we are going to attempt to protect a couple of facing pages like the cruise ships do. We did get a second passport, so we are OK whatever the agents do.  Getting a second passport was an experience!

Dick has been busy getting all business and personal matters set up for our sojourn. Last thing we will do is drain the pipes before we lock the door. Right now the yard looks terrible, but by the time we get home all will be lush and green. Carolyn will feed the roses next week last thing since they are normally fed on Valentine’s Day. So, hopefully they will be blooming when we get home!

Next report we will be traveling!