This would be our third visit to Malaga but we were still looking forward to revisiting the Alcazaba where we were first introduced to Islamic architecture. Even after seeing some of the most magnificent buildings and mosques in the Muslim world, the arches in Alcazaba still impressed us.
Our Carnival cruise ended on Saturday and our Celebrity cruise to the Balkans begins on Monday. Plenty of time to fly from Barcelona to Bologna and get up to Ravenna, right? Not necessarily, especially if you are flying on Iberia Airlines and you want your luggage with you!
The flight from Barcelona was late getting into Madrid and we had to scurry to make our connection to Bologna. Evidently the luggage handlers didn’t share our sense of urgency and our bags didn’t arrive with us. We dutifully filled out the forms and hopped a cab to our hotel. Surely our luggage would show up in the morning.
Not only is Iberia Airlines famous for losing luggage, the place to reclaim it in Bologna is open only from 9:30 to 11:30am and 8:30 to 10:30pm. After spending the entire day waiting at the airport—when we really should have been in Ravenna— only my bag arrived.
While John was cancelling our Ravenna hotel (thanks, Marco), re-booking in Bologna and working on alternative plans, I was talking with our Australian friend, Trish, who works for Celebrity, and the main reason we booked the cruise But the ships leaves tomorrow and John has no clothes!
This morning, fingers crossed, while we waited for the Lost Luggage office to open we talked to a young couple from Texas who had just finished a Celebrity cruise. Iberia lost her luggage, too, but she sailed anyway—ten days without her luggage. When she told us how wonderful Celebrity was to her—free laundry, tracking her bag, free bottle of wine—John decided to bite the bullet and take the cruise, luggage or no. But the Travel Goddess smiled on us! When Jonathan pulled John's bag from the pile he could only say, “Ti amo!”
