Category: Planning

Back to Europe at Last!

On By Barbara GreenstoneIn Planning1 Comment

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on this blog. When we took our last European trip, to England and Scotland, the idea that we wouldn’t travel abroad again for four years was unthinkable. But that was the fall of 2019, and you know what happened in 2020.

We had booked a Viking Cruise in Russia for the spring of 2020, and we were really excited about it. The cruise was supposed to go along the Volga, from St. Petersburg to Moscow. We were looking forward to visiting the Hermitage and seeing the Bolshoi ballet, and a river cruise seemed like an easy an safe way to go. Then came the pandemic, and of course, the cruise was canceled. We rebooked for the fall of 2021, but Viking canceled again and rescheduled us for May 2022 (with a couple days in Helsinki thrown in). Then came the Russia invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and we decided we would not go, even before Viking canceled the trip.

Although we are septuagenarians, we’re both relatively healthy, so we did not stay home these last four years. We’ve taken several trips to New York and Boston by bus and train, and we’ve flown to Los Angeles and Chicago to see our son. We’ve been Covid vaxxed (I think it’s five times so far) and we took precautions during our trips including masking and, until recently, not eating in restaurants or bars. We’re still careful, but we’re feeling pretty confident about taking a trip abroad.

At the beginning of the pandemic, when we were all locked down, we coped, as many folks did, by subscribing to more streaming services. One of our favorites is Berliner Philharmoniker, and we fell in love with this orchestra. It made us think about how much we’d like to visit Berlin, and now we’re finally going. I intend to write daily posts on this blog so friends and family can travel with us vicariously and share our adventures.

We leave today from Boston on Icelandair for an overnight trip with a stopover in Reykjavik. If you only see Iceland from the airport, can you add it to your list of countries visited? (Asking for a friend.)

We’ve done our homework.

Here We Go Again

On By Barbara GreenstoneIn PlanningLeave a comment

Terminal E at Logan Airport

Fall seems to be a good time for us to travel, so we’re off again. We’re flying back to London, but then venturing on (by train) to Glasgow and Edinburgh for a few days before returning to London. We left home well before the crack of dawn this morning to catch the bus to Boston where we’re now waiting for our Virgin Atlantic flight to Heathrow. Neither of us has been to Scotland, so we’re really looking forward to this. In Glasgow we’ll hear the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Opera. In Edinburgh we’ll see castles and do a whiskey tour and whatever else catches our fancy. Then it will be back to London for two shows and a ballet.

You can follow our adventures here, on this blog, or catch my posts on Facebook. I’ll try to post daily and include lots of pictures.

See you on the Interwebs!

Best Laid Plans

On By Barbara GreenstoneIn Planning2 Comments

Pine Limb
Limb from one of our pine trees in the back yard. We were lucky it didn’t hit the house or the cars.

No matter how well I think I’ve planned, something always seems to happen to throw me off. This time it was a major storm that blew down a lot of trees and knocked out our power early Monday morning. We left this morning (Thursday) at around 10:00 and the power still had not been restored. For the last four days, just carrying out our normal routine was a challenge, let alone organizing and packing for a three-week trip. We managed somehow, and now we’re sitting in Terminal E at Logan, waiting for our flight. When we left the power had not been restored, but we cleaned out the refrigerator, unplugged everything, and walked away. Our kind neighbors will keep an eye out and let us know if the house explodes when the power comes back. On the upside, we went to the Merrill Auditorium in Portland last night, where it was light and warm, and heard Yo Yo Ma give an extrordinary concert. We considered that the beginning of our amazing musical vacation.

So, we’re on our way. Here’s our itinerary (roughly):

11/3-11/ – 11/6 Rome

11/7 – 11/10 Florence

11/11 – 11/12 – Milan

11/13 – Zurich

11/14 – 11/15 – Salzburg

11/16 – Vienna

11/17 – 11/24 – Viking River Cruise on Danube from Budapest to Nuremberg

Question of the day: Does the TSA give security exemptions to old people just because it takes us so long to put our shoes back on?

Counting Down the Days

On By Barbara GreenstoneIn PlanningLeave a comment

Traveling for fun is one of those pastimes we (my husband Paul and I) have always considered too extravagant and selfish to indulge in. We’ve traveled for business and family obligations, and we’ve traveled with our son to give him the experiences we didn’t have as kids, but we seldom took a trip just for our own enjoyment.

Now that our only child is grown and gone and we’ve retired (mostly), we’ve decided to take that trip of a lifetime while we can still walk and enjoy it. We began planning several months ago, knowing that booking the trip would force us to keep our promise to each other to retire in June.

Music, art, and history have always been important to us, and Italy has been at the top of our bucket list since we learned what a bucket list was, so the destination was a no-brainer. And every time we watched a program on public television, we would see the ads for Viking River Cruises and we’d talk about how much fun it might be to take one. It only took one conversation with a travel agent for us to decide to combine the two, hence the title of this blog (though it sounds a little like this guy).

I created this blog to chronicle our adventures and share the experience with family and friends. As we finalize our plans and count down the days to our departure on November 2, I hope you’ll come back to check out our itinerary and wish us a buon viaggio.