Prolog
Bob: Taking advantage of the Spring migration of cruise ships from their wintering grounds in the Caribbean to Europe, we signed on with the Costa Atlantica for a rather long, convoluted cruise from Miami, Florida, to Venice, Italy. The cruise was planned to hopscotch down the Leeward Isles before crossing the Atlantic to the Canary Islands and Madeira and then curl around Spain into the Mediterranean Sea and thence around the boot of Italy to finally arrive at Venice! Although that all was scheduled to take 19 days, it included several new ports as well as a couple of ports that we were keen to revisit. Besides, we had enjoyed our previous cruise on the Costa Mediterranea during Wanderung 18, so we considered the length of the cruise to be a plus rather than a minus. Although we had considered spending a couple days in Venice, which is one of our favorite cities in the world, we finally opted to visit Monika's sister Heinke and her husband Gustl who live in Hamburg, Germany. None of us is, after all, getting any younger and it's nice to touch base when we are in the neighborhood, so to speak. Of course, the neighborhood in this case is the continent of Europe, so getting from Venice to Hamburg required booking another flight. The final piece of our Spring Fling was to join up with my sister Lois and take a 3-week driving tour of the parts of Ireland that we had not seen during our previous trip where we saw mostly the southwestern third of the country (Wanderung 9 in 2005). Given the heartwarming hospitality of the Irish people we had encountered during that tour, we had long wanted to see the other parts of the country, and Lois was game to come with us. Adding Lois and her luggage to our tiny rental car would make it downright cozy, of course, but we really liked the pleasure of Lois's company, and she would split the costs, so we were looking forward to making a rather leisurely ramble around the western and northern sections of Ireland. |
Monika: During the last 6 months I had looked into Bob's ancestry in lots of detail. I came into contact with one person who not only send us a will by Bob's great-grandmother Sarah Kingston Holmes, but also excerpts of a book about his ancestors. We found out that the great-grandmother seemed to have owned a place of about 365 acres somewhere north of Kinsale, and back a few more generations the Holmes clan appeared to live at a place they called "Holmesfort", all of which was in County Cork. And to top it off, another ancestor was even mayor of Cork around 1785. So I got really curious and started talking with Bob and Lois about a trip to Ireland, in particular County Cork.We all decided on a three week road trip with a week in Cork and a two weeks traveling around western and northern Ireland. Well, once that was settled, I found us a nice transatlantic cruise from Miami to Venice that gave us a few extra days to visit my sister in Hamburg. Of course, this meant several afternoons in the library to book flights, B&Bs, and other essentials. I also couldn't resist finding transatlantic cruise back in August, so that I could book a cheap roundtrip Europe-Washington-Europe flight. Our spring cruise was booked on Costa Cruise line on the Costa Atlantica, and by sheer coincidence, that ship had been docked in Key West when we stopped in Key West during our anniversary cruise. So we had some idea of the exterior of the ship we were getting onto, but remembering the overwhelming decor of the Costa Mediterrania we had been on for a Baltic cruise during Wanderung 18, I was curious about what the inside of the ship would look like. |
Bob: But 6 weeks is a long time to travel anywhere, and I started getting nervous about the whole thing a week ahead of time. As a result I immediately started gathering all the required stuff and packing my suitcase, much to Monika's amusement. Hey, but making sure all my travel clothes still fit and could be crammed into one medium-sized wheelie was a great relief to me and helped me relax. Days later, Monika finally took a couple of hours to casually throw things into her suitcase, so by Thursday afternoon we were ready to roll. On Friday morning we closed up the house and waited outside for our taxi, which fortunately came right on time. Our driver drove very smoothly and was a very nice young man to boot, so we had a pleasant and relaxing ride to Washington National Airport. |
Monika: I set the alarm clock for 6AM with the taxi expected at 8, but, of course, by 5:45 we both were wide awake and decided to just get up. This gave us plenty of time for all the last minute details, like putting all the keys into the safe, turning off the water and turning the heat down. The taxi came on time and the trip to the airport was uneventful. |
| Index |
| Prolog | Map of Transatlantic Cruise | Map of Drive in Ireland | Epilog |
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