November 10-13, 2019: Three Days in Barcelona, Spain
	September 22, 2019: The Friedman-Tarradell Nuptials
	Return to the Index for 2019

Early this year, Greg was browsing around the cruise sites and ran across a repositioning cruise from Barcelona to Buenos Aires. While it stopped at some of the same places as previous cruises we'd taken, there were enough new stops (many of them in South America where we have not cruised before) to make it worthwhile.

Greg is quite the experienced "cruiser"; while we have been on four cruises with him so far, he has been on a good many more.

This cruise will be on a new cruise line for us (although not for Greg)- Viking Cruises. In fact, Greg has been on the very ship that this itinerary uses- the Viking Jupiter- one of the small ocean ships (Viking is best-known for its river cruises around the world) that Viking has added to its fleet in recent years. At just under 1000 passengers, this will be the smallest of all the ships we have been on (although slightly larger that the first cruise ship I was on with Grant back in 1991.

Viking is bucking the trend towards larger and larger mega ships, aiming for the niche market of upscale, older folks who want to get away from kids, rock climbing walls, shopping malls, and olympic size swimming pools. The Viking Jupiter (about which you'll learn more later) has none of those things. What it does have, according to Greg and the online information we found, was a quiet elegance. What it also has is a steeper price for that elegance. This cruise will be close to double the price that we have aimed for in the past, although ofsetting that cost disparity will be free airfare to Barcelona and back from Buenos Aires, free Internet access for all our devices throughout the ship, free wine, beer, and sodas (and the permission of the ship for passengers to bring aboard moderate quantities of alcohol), no-charge specialty restaurants, and even free shore excursions in each port. Just about everything is included.

So we agreed with Greg that this would be a viable option for a Fall cruise, and we booked it early in the summer. I worked with the air desk at Viking to book our flights on American, which meant that Fred and I could have our Platinum benefits available on the flights to Barcelona and back from Buenos Aires. Our travel professional, Greg's friend Zoran, got us some cabin credits as well; these would essentially pay for the expected tips at the end of the cruise.

We also made plans to spend a couple of days in Barcelona ahead of the actual cruise, and also a few days in Buenos Aires after its conclusion. I also made plans for Fred and I to make a side trip from Buenos Aires to Iguasu Falls. While I was there back in the late 1970s, I thought it was something Fred should not miss while we were so close. Greg opted to stay in Buenos Aires on the day of our side trip, as he had also been to the Falls before.

So, in a nutshell, that's the upcoming trip.

On the pages that follow, you can come along with us as we visit Barcelona for a few days before the cruise, you can join us on our excursion to the old city of Ronda in the mountains of Spain when we dock in Malaga, you can ride with us to an old Portuguese fort south of Casablanca in Morocco, and you can visit Goree Island near the city of Dakar, Senegal, the point from which many thousands of African slaves were taken to the New World.

You'll also get a chance to find out what sea days aboard the Viking Jupiter were like, and you'll also be able to tour the ship with us on one of the four sea days as we cross the South Atlantic.

In South America, you'll stop with us in the old town of Recife, Brazil, at the confluence of two major rivers and the South Atlantic, originally a slave port but now a bustling city of some 2 million people. Next, you'll be able to go with us on one of our most interesting and scenic shore excursions- a visit to Rio de Janiero's Sugarloaf and Corcovado mountains, the latter being the site of the iconic "Christ the Redeemer" statue. Next, you'll come with us as we tour the city of Montevideo in Uruguay (the second of the two new countries we'll visit on this vacation).

As we reach the end of the actual cruise, you'll see quite a bit of "The Paris of South America"- the beautiful city of Buenos Aires- where we will stay for one night aboard the ship and then three nights in a rental apartment just near the Botanical Garden in downtown. And finally, get ready to see one of the world's most beautiful natural wonders- the world's widest and most complex set of waterfalls- Iguasu- as Fred and I have a private guided tour of both the Argentinean and Brazilian sides of the Falls.

So buckle up as we fly out of DFW on the morning of November 10th, to return a month later on December 7th.

The Trip from Dallas to Barcelona

Most of our packing was done on Saturday, and since we had to leave the house early on Sunday morning for our 9AM flight to New York's JFK airport, we retired fairly early on Saturday night.

For one reason or another, I found myself unable to sleep much at all- wondering whether all the travel would work out, whether we'd hook up with Greg (who we'd taken to the airport on Saturday as he had an entirely different routing) easily in Barcelona, whether the cruise would be a success, and so on. I couldn't seem to shut off all the concerns, and so I was up even before the alarm went off at 515.

The day began with our first-ever ride with Uber, since calling on a friend so early for a lift to the airport would have been a bit much. I was pleasantly surprised about how efficient the Uber app was, and how easy it was to schedule a ride days ahead of time. Our car showed up exactly on time, and we were off to DFW a few minutes after 7AM.

This was the first time I've flown in over a year, and I discovered that TSA Pre-Check status doesn't, apparently, last forever, so we had to go through the regular screening line. Fred made it through easily, but I was delayed and something in one of my carryons seemed to cause even more concern, so it took me twenty minutes to finally get into the concourse.

Platinum status on American still gets us priority boarding and our choice of seats, so getting aboard the flight to New York was pretty easy, and just after 9AM we were in the air.

The flight was uneventful, and about 2PM (New York time) we were landing. Getting off the plane, it was a bit of a hike to our departure gate for Barcelona, but as both flights were on American, at least we were in the same terminal complex.

While there are almost hourly flights on American from DFW to New York, they go to three different airports, and leaving Dallas at 9AM was the only way to ensure that we would get to JFK in time for our 530PM flight to Barcelona, so once we got to our gate in New York we had a 3-hour wait until we could board the flight to Barcelona.

There wasn't much to do, so we just read or used the free Internet access until the flight was called. I got up a few times to walk around, and took a couple of unremarkable pictures with the new camera that I had brought along (a backup for my older one). One picture looked out the window across the gate area towards the city (which was too far away to see). We were in a new section of this particular terminal, and the concourse was very utilitarian- very much unlike the older, classic TWA terminal that most folks think of when they think of JFK airport.

About 4PM, the gate area started to fill up, and we began boarding a bit before five PM.

I usually like to select seats in exit rows, but on the Boeing 777 they are always bulkhead seats, and Fred prefers to have a seat in front of him to put one of his bags under. So we sat in the aisle and window seats of the three-seat row just behind the two-seat bulkhead row on the starboard side of the plane. Fred had a seat in front of him but I didn't, so that worked out well. The flight wasn't packed, and we lucked out in that no one sat between us.

It was an eight-hour trip to Barcelona, but the time passes fairly quickly these days as there are movies galore to watch via the seat-back entertainment systems. I, myself, had brought a large inventory of my TV shows that I watched on my tablet (as I didn't see a movie that I particularly wanted to watch). I spent my eight hours watching four or five episodes, consuming the two meals provided, and playing some games on my tablet.

I don't sleep on airplanes, so for the second night in a row, I didn't sleep at all, and by the time we landed in Barcelona just after 7AM Monday morning Barcelona time, I'd gone with out sleep since Saturday morning- almost 40 hours.

These days, one is always apprehensive about luggage, but ours made it with us to Barcelona. I changed some money at the airport for the cab ride into the city and to the hotel that Greg had booked for us for the two nights before we got on the ship.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	November 10-13, 2019: Three Days in Barcelona, Spain
	September 22, 2019: The Friedman-Tarradell Nuptials
	Return to the Index for 2019