I now have my itinerary in front of me. I will be going to 7 new countries and Sicily. The new countries are Tunisia, Malta, Romania, Albania, Croatia, Morocco, and Ukraine. We will also be cruising the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. The other countries will be Portugal, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, and Turkey and I have been to all of them before.

This cruise is very port intensive and it is going to make it difficult for me to keep up on my blog. It is nice to have sea days in between ports but at one point during the cruise there are as many as 7 ports in as many days. Fortunately, that is only one time.

The insurance company was very fair and I will have no problem replacing my auto but I am not going to do so until I return from my cruise. I will keep the rental after the insurance won’t pay any more and then will drop it off at the Inn at Gig Harbor and take the shuttle to the airport. Then when I return, I will take the shuttle to the Inn at Gig Harbor and pick up another rental to get me by until I get the new car.

I will probably not post again until I am on the ship but keep checking. With my luck I never know what might happen before I board.

The package arrived last Friday and I just filled out the forms, read the vast amount of information and submitted my orders. I have posted every date and event in my day calendar and I have everything ready to pack with exception of hairspray and a couple of books.

As Yogi Berra use to say, it is déjà vu all over again. You will recall my telling you at the start of my blog last year that I totaled my BMW in the snow. This time I was minding my own business turning left on a green arrow when a car smashed into me. I was T-boned and I will post a photo of the car. The lady driving was 93 years of age, still working, and didn’t even hit her brakes. Both the officer and the insurance investigator said I was lucky to be in my BMW330xi with dual side airbags. The strength of the steel beams and the airbags kept me here to blog. They did take me to the hospital for xrays and I escaped with just abrasions, contusions and soft tissue injuries. A little sore and a little achy.

I should be on a ship. I am not meant to live on land. Anyway, this is the start of my third blog for the Grand Voyage of the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Hope I remember how to post and upload photos so this will be my test run.