Wednesday April 13: Disembarkation in Venice and the Flight to Hamburg
Bob: We had breakfast early and then repaired onto Deck 10 to watch the Atlantica wind its way through the Venetian archipelago. The sun had just risen, so we were treated to a very pretty view of a new day breaking over the bridges and canals of Venice. The water traffic was just tremendous with the vaporettos (water buses), water taxis, work boats, and pleasure craft criss-crossing the waters. |
Monika: The last night there was some motion in the ocean, but we still slept well. We woke up around 7 and decided to head up to breakfast first. We then watched as we slowly sailed into the laguna and past the Lido, finally coming to the entrance of the Grand Canal. |
Bob: We said "Hello" once again to St. Mark's Cathedral and the Doge's palace as the Atlantica passed by and curled around the far end of the island to the cruise ship terminal over on the Piazza Roma side of it. St. Mark's square and the buildings around it were gleaming in the morning sunlight, and it was fun to see the row of gondolas moored along the Grand Canal waiting for their daily cycle of giving tourists a unique and historically authentic, albeit expensive, experience. |
Monika: When we reached the Doge's Palace and the lion statue and could see St. Mark's Cathedral, our ship turned away from the Grand Canal to head towards the cruise dock. Although, we could not get our passports until 9:45, we were asked to vacate our cabin by 8:00. So we went down to our cabin, got our stuff together and then settled in the theater, our meeting point, for some serious reading. |
Bob: The Atlantica did not, of course, travel down the Grand Canal as it was far too big and required far too much water under the keel. Instead, we followed the carefully marked channel westward around the end of the island to the cruise ship dock and terminal. Disembarkation was as efficient as possible given that we non-European Union passengers had to first retrieve our passports after they were stamped by the Venetian immigration officials, and then leave the ship, retrieve our luggage in the terminal, and find our shuttle bus to Marco Polo airport. Getting on the shuttle bus was the only step handled poorly by Costa, and I think that some passengers had missed their 10:30 shuttle bus. To be fair, loading the shuttle busses was complicated by the huge amount of luggage that some folks had used for the 19-day cruise. We had one small wheeled suitcase each plus a small backpack, but we were definitely at the low end of the continuum. What I observed was that the 10:30 shuttle still had seats available on the bus but no room left in the luggage compartment when they finally ceased boarding passengers and departed for the airport. That made for some very unhappy people! |
Monika: By about 9:35 I went down to where we were supposed to pick up our passports. A lot of people were sitting there waiting, but it looked like they were about ready to start the distribution. So I ambled down to the tables and was one of the first ones to get our passports. When I left, the line was getting quite long. So I was happy I had come relatively early and could settle back to do more reading. Our disembarkation color code was finally called by about 10:30. We found our suitcases easily enough and headed out to the waiting buses. We saw a bus going to the airport but that was the 10:30 bus which left quite soon after we arrived. Around ten minutes to eleven the 11:00 bus came, and only people who were on the 11:00 bus list were allowed to go on. We dropped off our luggage, found a couple of seats, and were glad that we had the transfers. |
Bob: Be that as it may, we departed at 11:07 and arrived at the unloading zone at Marco Polo airport over on the mainland almost exactly 20 minutes later. After checking our luggage and enduring the usual screening and security, we waited for our British Airways flight to London for the first hop of our flight. I was amused to see BA was still serving complimentary wine as well as soft drinks together with either a chocolate-covered biscuit or a "savory snack" consisting of small, salted tidbits like pretzels and crackers. Both were quite good and it really was in contrast to domestic flights in the U.S. where the complimentary beverages have been whittled down to water and soft drinks and the complimentary food eliminated all together. Ah well. After a 4-hour layover at Heathrow airport's new Terminal 5, a big busy place, we took the second hop of the day from London Heathrow to Hamburg, Germany, and were again treated to wine or soft drinks plus the small snacks. Fortunately our luggage had made the plane with us, so we just had to pick it up off the carousel. Heinke and Gustl were waiting for us just outside, and It was good to see them again. Despite the fact we really had not done anything active during the day, we were both worn out and after driving home to their place we just chatted briefly and then turned in for the night. |
Monika: We got to the airport the required 2 hours early and checked in and then opted for some sandwiches for lunch. We ate outside the secure area, since we had brought with us a water bottle, and I had a beer. We said good bye to the water bottle after the meal and trashed it; it had served us faithfully throughout the cruise. The plane was on time and we were served drinks, even beer or wine, and either a bag of crackers and pretzels or a nice chocolate cookie. So we were happy campers. In Heathrow we had a 3 hour layover and opted for another sandwich, but shared a Coke. Finally around 9 p.m. we arrived in Hamburg and were happy to see Heinke and Gustl waiting for us. We had not seen them for two and a half years and they did look a tad older but still in seemingly good health! |
| Index |
| Prolog | Map of Transatlantic Cruise | Map of Drive in Ireland | Epilog |
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