Across the Ocean, Wide and Blue!

This image of Turner Beach in Antigua has special significance to me because it was among the last travel photograph that I made on film. It has been a very difficult decision for me to make the change from Fuji Velvia film to CF digital cards but as they say, time marches on and I am now photographing exclusively in digital format. This past spring and summer have been spent in learning the ins and outs of my camera and adapting my film camera techniques to digital. Hopefully I'll be ready when we depart for Rome in November.

A major factor in the decision to switch was the relative ease of traveling with a digital camera as opposed to the hastle of packing, unpacking and storing transparency film supplies, going through airport inspections, etc. So far I believe that my supporting gear for my photography will be a small tripod, extra batteries, camera cards, battery chargers, voltage adapters and a portable CD burner. We've still got almost three months before we leave and my list will probably change.

My wife Doreen and I feel that a good part of the fun in traveling is the research we do before we embark on a trip. That is one of the reasons that we were very pleased to find Travellerspoint on the web. Since this is our first trip to Europe (and Italy in particular) we're hoping to glean as much information about Rome, Florence, Siena and Genoa before we start our trip.

Just realized that we haven't given any background about us. Well, we are both in our sixties and retired; Doreen from nursing and I retired from almost forty years in the photography business. Traveling is one of our great joys - we are always interested in seeing new places, re-visiting favourtite places, and of course, our great passion for cruising always tempts us. We are Japanese-Canadians and live in the heart of the continent - Winnipeg, Manitoba. Ours is a great city of ethnic and cultural diversity - not so much a melting pot but a mosaic of peoples who are proud of their ethnicity and heritage and share their culture with one another. If you would like to hear more about our city, let us know!

On November 23, 2005 we begin a long anticipated trip to Italy to begin a 23 day tour and cruise. We will be flying from Winnipeg Manitoba Canada to Rome. We'll be spending six days in Italy where we will tour Rome, Siena, Florence and Genoa. In Genoa, we will board the Costa Magica to begin our cruise portion of our trip.

Our first port of call is Barcelona, Spain followed by two days at sea. We then call at Funchal, Madeira followed by St Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands.

The next five days will be crossing the Atlantic to begin our Caribbean phase of our cruise, and we will be stopping in Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten, Nassau and then disembarking at Fort Lauderdale.