Day 99 of 111. Madrid, Spain

The ship was docked in Barcelona when we took off on a train to Madrid. We will meet the ship when it gets to Cadiz. We only have a few more ports and then a seven-day sea voyage to get back to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA. It has been an amazing adventure. I seem to use the adjective, “amazing” quite a bit, but it is a perfectly valid word to describe the mind-expanding experience this has all been.

Two items… how will we pack everything we have in our staterooms into the bags we have brought. On the Holland America Grand World Voyage, we get to our rooms and occasionally find gifts sitting on our beds. Sometimes these are hats, sometimes beautiful (and bulky) glass picture frames, Lego kits to make little ms Amsterdam ships, and luckily even an extra suitcase. Add to this the few souvenirs we have purchased. Luckily, we do not buy very much. This packing will be problematic, but apparently on the way home a representative from FedEx will join the ship and help with shipping stuff home.

Our second item is the fact that we are still several hours out of sync with the US. We passed the International Date Line early in the cruise, so we have been a day ahead of our friends at home for the great majority of this trip. We have had instruction to set our clocks back an hour, every once in awhile. On the trip across the Atlantic, we will have to set our clocks back almost every night. This will result in 25 hour days, which is fine with me!