Planning, preparing, anticipating

TravelerPlanning our latest "expedition" has occupied much of our time over the past 6 months or so, ever since our friends, Pete and Jean Murphy, agreed to join us on a Baltic cruise. One thing led to another, as often happens in our world, resulting in the addition of a transatlantic cruise on the front end followed by 2 weeks of exploring Europe on the tail end. We will leave Miami on April 30 and return stateside June 8. Planning the cruise was breezy easy, but the majority of the "land cruise" has been handled by the Stewart team using a variety of resources and ideas. Lots of reading, then more reading, then tiring of the reading for a while, then returning to the reading. Recently, I found a delightful book called "Le Road Trip: A Traveler's Journal of Love and France", a refreshing break from guide books and online travel sites. Preparations completed, we have moved to what the author calls "anticipation". She says, "Anticipation is a crucial phase of any journey. It's the promise that life will be different, better, for having seen as amazing sunset over the pyramids of Egypt, for dining on gourmet delicacies in Burgundy, for experiencing the stillness in a Zen temple in Kyoto. We want the same thing from travel that we want from love, a life-changing encounter with destiny. Plus fantastic scenery." Although we won't be in Egypt, Burgundy, or Kyoto, we anticipate relishing in good local food, small villages, a few historical sites, a cathedral or two and simply soaking it all in. We hope you will join us by occasionally glancing at our travel blog. The first 6 days we will be somewhere in the Atlantic. Blog will resume on May 7 when we stop in the Azores for one day.

Cyndie Van HookI'm sure it will be a fabulous trip. We just returned from our 23 day jaunt. We are going back to Israel, wonderful country. Venice was awesome too. We have booked back to back cruises to Australia and New Zealand for 2019. 33 days!!