Category: Planning

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.