On the road again
I love that song by Willie Nelson. “🎶The life I love is making memories “with my friends and I can’t wait to get on the road again.”,🎶 That’s what I’m talking about! Debby and I are off once more with our Pinkerton friends to Iceland, Europe and beyond! We actually leave October 1st. Our house sitters will be busy while we are away. I will leave a book of jobs. 😎
Debby has put two years into creating and planning a special trip for us as we all celebrate a milestone or two in our lives. Ron and Nancy are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, while their daughter, Rhonda and her husband, Steve (who are meeting us in Paris) celebrate their 25th!. Also, Debby and I are celebrating OUR 50th Anniversary, WE will also be celebrating my 75th birthday, hopefully in Paris. I’ve never celebrated a 75th birthday in Paris before! So it’s going to be fun!
Our trip in a nutshell: we leave Chicago October 1st for a United flight to Reykjavik, Iceland. We will stay in the downtown area for two days checking out all the ice. Then we fly to Lisbon, Portugal, staying 3 days in a gorgeous downtown hotel with awesome views. Next is Madrid, Spain for 2 days and then Barcelona for 3 days.
Catching a train, we head for Paris. After 5 days in Paris, we head for Milano, to Venice for the day, then to Florence for 3 days.
Next stop is Italy’s Cinque Terre National Park to stay in a familiar downtown Manarola apartment for 3 days, one of our favorite Italian destinations.
We then head to Milano for our flight to Athens, Greece. Here we board Viking Cruise Ship headed into various ports in the Mediterranean. It will be exciting to cruise with the Vikings! I hope I get one of those hats with the horns!
We will also be meeting up with Tom and Lynn Gaumer and a half dozen others for the cruise! That should be fun!
Our cruise ends near Rome where we will sightsee for 2 days before catching our return flight to New York City on November 2nd.
We are very excited to see new places and feeling blessed to be able to take such an awesome adventure together.
I leave behind my four-legged friend and companion, Toronto. It was simply too much hassle and paperwork to get him in and out of all these places. He will be well taken care of by our good friend, Tess Carter, a bonafide Guide Dog puppy raiser. She will also help us take care of the Resort while we are away. There are always a myriad of jobs to be done around here. I am confident that Tess will do a great job. Our neighbors and the Johnson City Police will also help keep an eye on the place. We live in a good neighborhood
We are barely a week away from our flight to Chicago. We have appointments to get our COVID test the day before we leave. Iceland and Viking requires vaccinations AND a COVID test. Guess they don’t want to take any chances! But that’s okay, so does Italy and the USA return. The Viking cruise lines also requires almost daily testing during the cruise, especially when we return from a shore excursion. Luckily, they just do a temperature check and a saliva swab. I much prefer those to the invasive brain swab with a foot long Q-tip!
Mike
