Our next crazy 48 hours….

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It’s Saturday, our final full day aboard the Norwegian Spirit. Tomorrow morning, we’re #2  on the disembarking list. We’ll get in line to get off the ship, wait in another line to grab a cab to the Marco Polo Airport in Venice, Italy in order to pick up our awaiting rental car and begin the almost four hour drive to our new home in Boveglio, Lucca, Tuscany.

We’ll arrive in Venice at 2:00 pm today.  Wisely planning our time to ensure we do exactly what we hope to do in Venice, adds to the excitement and enjoyment of the next few days. Disembarking a ship is one of the least favorite aspects of our travels (along with airports).  Carefully planning our exit gives us both a sense of comfort and control, easing the process along the way.

The anticipation of finally seeing our new home for the summer gives me butterflies. If it were a “vacation” for a few weeks, I’d be less concerned. But spending two and a half months is a long time, as long as we’ve stayed anywhere since leaving Minnesota on October 31, 2012.  

Our biggest concern is the fact that the house isn’t air conditioned. It’s hot in Tuscany in the summer. Recently, I contacted the owners, Lisa and Luca, asking about the comfort in the house in the heat. They assured us that the thick stone walls of the 17th century house stays cool all summer.

Having spent the past several months in very warm climates with much of our time outdoors, hopefully, we’ll be acclimated. As long as we can sleep at night, the warm days will be tolerable.

So here’s the rundown for the next 48 hours:

7:30 am to 8:15 am today:  Breakfast in the Raffles Cafe.

8:15 am to 11:30 am today: Currently we’re outdoors on the covered patio, overlooking the pool, writing our story.  Our laptop batteries last about 3 hours which always motivates us to complete our story within that time frame.

11:30 am – 1:30 pm today: Pack all of our bags, leaving out clothing and toiletries for tonight and tomorrow morning.  Recharge our computers.

1:30 pm – 3:00 pm today:  Spend our final time by the pool reading our books while enjoying the fact that most of the passengers are getting ready to disembark to Venice when the ship arrives around 2:00 pm, which leaves the pool area quiet and relaxing.

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm today: Now in port in Venice, our MiFi will work. We’ll head to the 12th deck to the Galaxy of the Stars lounge in the bow of the ship to do our banking, pay bills, update our budget from expenses on and off the cruise, entering all the receipts. We do this at the end of every cruise and every few days when staying put for a few months to ensure we don’t miss entering a single expenditure.

4:00 pm – 4:45 pm today:  Shower and dress for the evening in comfortable clothing and shoes bringing a warm sweater for me.

5:00 pm – 6:30 pm today: Meet our fabulous friends Nicole and Gerry for cocktails in Champagne Charlie’s for our final time together with them and our favorite bartender from Bali, Gusti! What a guy!

6:30 pm today: Get off the ship to go to Venice. Hopefully, we’ll be able arrange for an evening gondola ride at sunset.  This will allow us plenty of time to explore Venice. 

11:00 pm tonight: Return to the ship in time to place all of our luggage outside our cabin door, get some rest, planning to get up by 6:00 am.

6:30 am – 7:15 am tomorrow: Breakfast in Raffles Cafe.

7:15 am – 8:00 am tomorrow: Return to our cabin to gather our hand luggage, placing it on one of our luggage carts, finalizing packing our of digital equipment which we always carry with us.

8:00 am – 9:30 am tomorrow: Wait in our designated area for our number to be called to disembark the ship.  

9:30 am – 10:30 am tomorrow: Wait in line at the taxi stand for a ride to the Marco Polo Airport where we’ll pick up our awaiting rental car.

11:00 am – 11:30 am tomorrow: Pick up rental car. Email Lisa and Luca using laptop and MiFi telling them we are on our way and our expected time of arrival at the house.

11:45 am – 3:00 pm  tomorrow: Drive from Venice to our new home in Tuscany, stopping for photos along the way, hoping to arrive by 3:00 pm, our tentative time to meet Lisa and Luca.

3:00 pm – 6:00 pm tomorrow: Familiarize ourselves with the house. Unpack all of our luggage. Find a nearby restaurant for dinner.

6:30 pm – 8:30 pm tomorrow: Dinner at the local restaurant,-presenting our prepared Italian language instructions for my gluten-free, grain-free, starch-free, sugar free and low carb way of eating.

8:30 pm – 10:00 pm tomorrow: Email family and friends that we’ve safely arrived in Tuscany and finally test out our new bed.  ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ (Much needed by then!)

Monday morning, awaken early as usual: Photos! Story! Trip to the grocery store! Getting acquainted with our new neighborhood! Find a health club! Do laundry! Go for a walk!

Hopefully? Grinning from ear to ear as we enter this new phase of our journey.

By the way, any of these plans are subject to change. 

Planning for our arrival in Tuscany begins…Also, tomorrow’s a big day…

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Tomorrow, we’ll be gone the entire day visiting many exciting places of interest in Dubai. Of course, the cameras will be clicking, hopefully getting great shots of the sights this unique area has to offer. Please check back on Tuesday when we’ll post the story and photos of our private day trip with our cab driver Umer, as we travel in air-conditioned comfort in a newer SUV.

How far ahead we plan our means of transportation from ships and airports to vacation homes is determined by several factors; the availability of transportation to our final destination, the accessibility to the location, the likelihood of a string of cabs ready to transport passengers, the time of day of our arrival and, the urgency of our desire for peace of mind.

In our case, peace of mind is at the top of the list. Tom, worrier than he can be, finds comfort in planning well in advance with directions and a map in hand. I’m perfectly comfortable planning a few weeks in advance, rationalizing that “last-minute deals” might be the way to go. However, my ultimate goal is to keep Tom from worrying and get us to our location with the least stress. 

We plan to get to the airport in Dubai the following Monday for our flight to Barcelona, where we’ll stay for one night at the Hotel Grums again. The next day, we’ll grab a cab to take us to the port of Barcelona to board our eighth cruise since January 3, 2013, on a 12-day trip through the Mediterranean with almost daily stops in unique ports. (This will be our last cruise in 2013, with our next cruises scheduled in 2014 as we work our way to Hawaii to meet up with our kids for the holidays).

On June 16, we’ll disembark the Norwegian Spirit (I hope we like it!) in Venice, Italy, where we’ll have spent two days perusing this romantic city. 

The challenge: finding our way from Venice to our renovated 17th-century stone farmhouse in Tuscany, where we’ll spend the summer, a three-plus hour car ride. After the summer in Tuscany, we’ll fly to Mombasa, Kenya, a long flight away.

Over a year ago, when planning this leg of our journey, we accepted that a rental car for the entire two and a half months is vital, allowing us to take day excursions to other parts of Italy from this convenient location. 

With no nearby grocery stores and only a few restaurants, there is no way we are willing to feel trapped for the entire summer. The cost of renting a car, however small or economical, is outrageous. People have said, “Oh, I went to Italy and rented a car for $350 a week.” Well, let’s do the math. We’ll be there for ten weeks. We budgeted this expense, having checked on the pricing over a year ago.

Contemplating numerous options, we’ve come to the most stress-free solution to accomplish our goals: When our ship disembarks at the port in Venice, we’ll take a cab to Marco Polo Airport, a mere four miles, to pick up our awaiting rental car and drive ourselves to our awaiting property in Tuscany.

When we’re ready to fly to Kenya, we’ll drive the rental car back to Venice (it appears most flights to Mombasa depart later in the day), drop it off at the airport, and off we go to our awaiting flight.

We’d also considered; taking a train to Tuscany from Venice to rent a car in Florence, but then we’d have to get to a bigger airport to fly to Kenya. Returning to Venice is our most straightforward, least costly, stress-reducing option.

Today, we rented the car. We’ve heard horror stories about renting cars in Italy. Good grief. If you go online, you can find horrible stories about everything we’ve done so far. Refusing to spoil our experiences with needless speculation about “what ifs, would haves, and could haves” is pointless, sucking the life out of a potentially great opportunity.

As we know, things do go wrong. After all, I still have major sinus problems from that annoying ship-borne illness. After all, we’re practically trapped in our condo from construction at every turn, making walking outdoors nearly impossible. 

After all, is said and done, it’s all going to be OK as we continue to have the times of our lives, living on the roads, the seas, the skies, the mountains, the valleys, the canals, the deserts, and on and on.

No cooking for over two months, beginning in 11 days…

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The sun reflecting on the sea created the white line of the horizon.

Something startling dawned on me yesterday as I responded to a sweet email message from my new friend Nancy, who left Placencia, Belize a week ago today. Gosh, I miss her. I wrote that when we’re leaving Belize on April 9th, we won’t be cooking another meal until after June 16 when we arrive in Tuscany, Italy.  We’ll be cruising most of the time.

It was around 7:30 am.

What an odd reality, especially for me, the proverbial foodie, ambitious cook, and hostess. It’s hard to wrap my brain around it. 

Cooking has always represented love to me; creating and preparing great recipes, considering the nuances of a loved one’s dietary needs and interests all the while presenting a mouth-watering array of selections at each meal.

We’ll miss this view that we awaken to each morning.

At the end of each day, I’ve padded around the kitchen, banging cabinet doors, leaving the refrigerator door open too long, dropping morsels of food on the floor, and more in my hair, enjoying every moment of the preparation of the next meal.

I’ve never tired of the grocery shopping, putting the groceries away, chopping and dicing, mixing and stirring, standing over the hot pan or oven to eventually plate the delectable meal, proudly handing it over to Tom to partake.

Yesterday afternoon, around 5:00 pm, there was another wedding here. We didn’t want to intrude, taking this photo from our veranda which was much further away than it appears.   

He seldom comments about the food.  Our routine is that I ask if he liked his dinner when he puts down his fork. He looks at me and smiles, “It was OK.”

If the sound of the “OK” is uplifting and cheerful, he liked it.  If the sound of the “OK” is a monotone, not so much.  I won’t make that dish for him again. Ah, the language of love. He never needs to criticize. He knows it may hurt my feelings. That, he wouldn’t do.

Yesterday, we hitched a ride to Placencia village for our final grocery shopping trip, taking a cab back when we were done.  I’d made a list, as usual, on the grocery app on my smartphone, reviewing it frequently as we hustle through the store. 

This view as well…

With the Easter holiday upon us, the shelves were well stocked.  There wasn’t an item I couldn’t find including fresh ricotta cheese for a new low carb zucchini recipe I’m making for Easter. I’ll post the menu tomorrow, the recipe after we tried it, to ensure it’s worth posting. You never know. Tom won’t eat zucchini, but perhaps our Easter dinner company (there will be four of us) will like it. I’ll test it on our guests.

After spending our usual $160 at the grocery store, plus another $15 at the vegetable stand and $15 for the cab, we found ourselves well stocked. With plans to dine out twice with new friends, tomorrow night and again next Tuesday, we’ll be left with nine more dinners to prepare. 

Then, I don’t cook again until June 17th, the day after we arrive in Tuscany, Italy, shopping within the first 24 hours of arrival. 

With the upcoming 13 days living in Dubai beginning May 21st, we may not cook.  Instead, we may choose to dine out in order to experience the vast array of extraordinary international cuisine within walking distance from our vacation property. 

It won’t be worth the expense of purchasing spices and other cooking supplies while in Dubai, the only “short stay” of under two months in our upcoming travels. Himalayan Salt, pure, unprocessed, chemical-free salt from the foot of the Himalayan Mountains, is the only seasoning that we pack in our bags, the only salt we use when cooking.

Letting go.  Letting go of people.  Letting go of “things.”  Letting go of that which we know and love is a part of our journey. It’s not all “vacation-like.”  It’s not all romance, sunrises, sunsets and smiling photos.  We miss our children and grandchildren, more than they will ever know. Do we even have a right to say we miss them?  We’re the ones that left. 

All the quotes espousing “living the dream,” all the life-enhancing seminars attended in one’s career, all the wish-fulfillment sayings one ponders in their lives have come to fruition for both of us.  So, we won’t cook. 

Whining about wine…

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Built in Sub-Zero wine cooler.

Wine, the magical elixir, its delicate aroma, whether white or red, wafts through our nostrils to luxuriate our senses, our lips gently pursed to accept the first sip, creating the familiar warmth as it slithers down our throats.  

I love wine. Wine doesn’t like me.
As we contemplate our travels, many of which are havens of the finest of wine making; the perfect soil, the perfect weather, the perfect grape and the vast commitment and knowledge of its makers, I am saddened by the fact that wine doesn’t like me. 
Oddly, Tom doesn’t care for wine, preferring Courvoisier, in itself a form of wine, and oddly again, mixed with diet Sprite. What a concoction!  

Wine has represented a certain sense of comfort to me over the years, often saying, “Hey, let’s go grab a glass of wine.” or “Would you like wine with your dinner,” words I have often expressed to create a sense of comfort for the potential consumer of this centuries old tradition.

When we remodeled our kitchen eight years ago, we added a Sub-zero wine cooler, integrating our cabinet design in its installation. At that point, drinking wine had started not liking me. But somehow, I thought, “it” may “change its mind” if I honored “it” with this fine temperature controlled refrigeration system.  
Alas, to no avail.  Wine continued disliking me.
The drawer opened to some of the red wine in our wine cooler

Sadly, wine doesn’t agree with me, a quasi wine aficionado such as myself. I read the reviews, the books, attending classes and numerous wine tastings over the years.  I subscribed to Wine Spectator Magazine and shopped at liquor stores that posted the ratings.  

Over the years, I drank my fair share of wine, mostly red, mostly domestic, with many a homemade meal, never before 5 PM, seldom alone. I cooked with wine; fine sauces, soups and endless pots of roasted meats and vegetables, the aroma filling the air with delicious swirls of scent.
In 1996, I had surgery staying in the hospital for only 48 hours.  Upon returning home, feeling quite well, I looked forward to stopping the pain medication within a few days, thus allowing me to return to my enjoyment of red wine.  
A prized bottle of Layer Cake, a fine Shiraz, hard to find at the time.
A few days later, while preparing a pot of chicken, lentil and roasted root vegetable soup, I opened a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and poured it half full into my preferred prefect wine glass; delicate crystal, slender stem, sparkling clean.  

Bringing it to my lips, I drew a breath in anticipation of the familiar liquid.  It didn’t taste right!  Trying again a few minutes later, it still didn’t taste right.  I attributed the peculiar flavor sensation to the fact that only days ago, I had anesthesia for surgery.  Perhaps those drugs were still in my system affecting my taste buds. 

Tossing the glass of wine, I waited to try again several days later, again to be disappointed and confused.  Over the next 16 years, I continued to have a sad relationship with wine. Oddly, that surgery had caused me to lose interest in wine.
Eventually, my taste buds recovered. But I did not. Drinking only one or two glasses of wine, whether white or red, resulted in horrible discomfort during the night with an awful hangover continuing well into the next day. The less often I drank, the worse the scenario.  ine or any other form of alcohol appears to poison me, leaving me weak and shaky for no less than 24 hours.
Last night friends joined us for dinner (Yeah, I know we said no more entertaining guests!) and once again I tried drinking wine, hoping for a different outcome, finishing off a bottle of Pinot Grigio with my guests. It had been a year since my last glass of wine.
After a fitful night of tossing and turning, feeling shaky and queasy, I made a commitment to say “goodbye” to wine as one more item on my list of letting go of favorite things as we begin our journey, as mentioned in this past Sunday’s post.  

It will be difficult to avoid tasting the fine wines of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and South Africa.  The food, the wine, the ambiance, and the companionship all blend into the utmost of dining pleasure.  The exclusion of the wine, however difficult, will ultimately serve me well.  

Now tell me, how will we gluten free folks resist the bread and pasta in Italy, the croissants in France and the handmade flat breads in Africa.
P.S.  We will be getting a new camera before departure and hopefully learn how to use it. My Android phone doesn’t take good photos and sadly, we are both awful photographers. We will learn!  ny suggestions on a camera?