Four of the Nine Suitcases for the trip

After all our household furniture and appliances were given away and our art collection packed for the shipment, we still had to keep clothing, bank papers, tax papers, medical papers, customs and passport papers, computers and all the attachments, work documents and personal items. These many things were packed into 9 suitcases for the voyage on the Independent Pursuit container ship bound from Antwerp to Richmond, VA. We needed everything for six months while we search for a place to live. We rented a short term furnished apartment, but the suitcases are filled with the stuff and stuffings of our lives. Like gypsies, we have to know what is where and what should be on top and what can wait. The shipping company allows 250 kilos of luggage per passenger, and we are nowhere near that amount. Although the angle of the gangplank could cause some embarrassment. We don't know what deck our bunk will be on, but we hope it won't be six stories up from the main deck. Actually, there are no elevators on a container ship, so we will be hiking up and down the inside and outside stairs for two weeks and should be stronger and healthier by the time we have to carry the bags off the ship. We chose bags with wheels, but stairs will be a hassle. Yesterday, Judy looked up the web site of the ICL and they announced that they will not be taking passengers in 2008. So, maybe we are the last ones to take passage with them. Everything is ready for the drive to Antwerp. Our friends will drive the rented van from The Hague to Antwerp and then help us with the bags and then drive the van back home. I think the last official duty we will have is to go to the passport office in Antwerp and get our passports stamped with the European Union Belgian exit stamp. Then, off to the ship and ready for the trip. The Independent Pursuit goes from Antwerp to Liverpool and then across the Great Circle Route on the Atlantic to Chester, PA and finally to Richmond, VA. Our daughter-in-law, Rikki, will drive up from Chapel Hill, NC and take us to her home with ALL the bags and two slightly greenish in-laws. Can't wait.

Judy and Kasia in Tbilisi

In the middle of all the hecticity of packing up our apartment, we flew off for a wedding in Tbilisi, Georgia. Our Polish friends were hosting a huge party for the wedding of Marcin and Ania. This photo shows Judy and Kasia(dressed in a Polish peasant costume) in the hotel lobby. The weekend was spectacular, although tiring. The airplanes arrive in Tbilisi Airport between 3 and 4 in the morning, so we had a 5 hour wait in Munich Airport. In the airport, Marcin was waiting with two taxi vans for the 10 Polish friends and little old us. Kasia and Ania were not there to meet us because they were recovering from an evening of serious drinking and fun. The hotel was in the old Jewish quarter of Tbilisi and up a steep hill. We got to bed at about 5 and slept until 10 the next morning. Breakfast was Turkish coffee, fresh eggs scrambled, dark bread and white cheese. On the first day, we had a tour of two of the oldest churches in European Christendom, because Georgia was the first country to accept Christianity. One of the churches has a crypt where the robe of Jesus is secured. The synagogue in Tbilisi is big and has three stories, each with its own synagogue and own rabbi and 3 congregations. Tbilisi is a friendly, warm town with a combination of old Soviet buildings and roads and trucks with a Mediterranean street life. Lots of cafes with strollers being invited to join in the fun. On the day of the wedding, the whole group of almost 100 guests were bussed to the home of the Polish Ambassador was our host for the official wedding ceremony. Then, champagne in the garden and finally off to the wedding party at a HUGE Georgian restaurant. The party lasted until 1 on the following morning. At midnight they announced that we were celebrating our 46th wedding anniversary. And the party went on. We returned to Amsterdam after leaving at 5 AM in Tbilisi and home at noon. The very next day, the movers arrived to pack us up for the trip to America. It was a tiring but very rewarding interlude.