Dueling Backpacks

We made no excuses. We knew a cruise was way outside our typical budget. But we justified it by the facts that it included what would have otherwise been a long-haul flight across the pond and, for a cruise, it was a pretty good deal. In the past we had paid similar prices for one-week cruises, but this was for two weeks and it took us through some new locations in Spain and Portugal on the way home.

Day 500 (November 10, 2019) – Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA On the 500 th day of our trip, the Nieuw Statendam docked at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. We were up before dawn to pack up our bags for the last time and to grab some breakfast. After eating we went up to the top deck to take a look around. It was a beautiful day. The sun was rising over the ocean and it was already pleasantly warm out. Of course, Port Everglades itself wasn't much to look at. It’s mostly parking lots and shipping docks, but it was our first view of the US in over 16 months.

Day 499 (November 9, 2019) – The Atlantic Ocean We had a full week of sailing on the Atlantic to get from the Azores to Florida. I wouldn’t say that we were bored during that time, but the repetition in our daily routine was very noticeable. We were content having nothing to do anyway. We spent a lot of time lounging around, reading books, and eating. Probably too much and too frequently on that last activity. We met a lot of nice people too, although it was difficult to really find any new friends to hang out with since, as I mentioned before , w e were perhaps the youngest onboard by at least a couple decades. But we were glad to have chosen the slow boat home rather than a flight. We were eased back into being home with each passing day. It was much more enjoyable than what I imagine would have been the jarring sensation of walking off an airplane and suddenly being back again.

Day 493 (November 3, 2019) - Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores It took two days at sea to make it from Cádiz to the Azores, a group of nine small islands in the middle of the Atlantic. The Azores are officially part of Portugal and Portuguese is the native language. Our Spanish skills were one again useless, but we did enjoy the few occasions we got to use them during our prior port stops in Spain. The two days it took us to get there were fairly uneventful. The weather was cool but pleasant. The sun was warm. The Atlantic was relatively calm, but it did rock the boat enough to be a constant reminder that we were on a floating ship. The glass-like stillness of the Mediterranean was long gone. When we arrived in Ponta Delgada I was kind of glad for the opportunity to get off the water and onto land. It never seemed to matter how many motion sickness pills I took, the swaying of the boat always seemed to get to me a little bit. Not enough to feel ill, but enough to not feel like I