Fifty years
married. Wow. Difficult to digest that fact! Most of it was spent just day by day getting
by….raising the kids, paying the bills, two differing backgrounds rubbing
together until most of the rough edges had been worn away. And here we are….50 years married.
Decision
was made to really celebrate – just the two of us…by traveling to most of the
places we had mentally written on our “bucket lists.” And most of the places, no surprise, were the
same.
So the
travel plans were pretty easy in that regard….as for the rest, well, Lar made
them look easy.
The
itinerary, as he wrote it in August was as follows:
9/18 –
Direct flight to London
9/19 –
Arrive 1000 AM, Heathrow - Check into
hotel – tour on our own
9/20 – Tour
London
9/21 – London to Brussels, Belgium on bus tour
9/22 – Brussels – Rhineland, Germany – Wurzburg Area
9/23 – Wurzburg area – the Romantic Road – Rothenburg Neuschwanstein Castle – Innsbruck, Austria
9/24 – Innsbruck – St Moritz, Switzerland
9/25 – St Moritz – Bernina Express Train to Italy – Lugano, Switzerland
9/26 –
Lugano – Lake Lucerne
9/27 – Lake Lucerne – Interlaken – Gruyere – Geneva
9/28 – Geneva – Beaune, France, Paris
9/29 – Paris
9/30 –
Paris Tour (bus) ends
9/30 – Move
to new hotel, tour on our own
10/1 – Paris sightseeing
10/2 – Taxi
to Beauvais airport fly to Pisa
10/2 – Car
rental – drive to Tuscany
10/2 –
Dinner at B&B
10/3 – 10/6
– Tuscany
10/6 –
Leave by train to Rome
10/7 - Rome
10/8 – Rome
10/9 –
Leave Rome for Holland America Pier to board for cruise
10/9 – Adriatic
Explorer Cruise on Noordam
10/10 –
Cruise in Strait
10/11 – Corfu, Greece
10/12 – Kotor, Montenegro
10/13 – Dubrovnic, Croatia
10/14 – Venice, Italy
10/15 – Venice, Italy
10/16 – Sea
Day
10/17 – Katakolon, Greece
10/18 – Santorini, Greece
10/19 – Athens – Overnight
10/20 – Athens – Leave ship at 0600
10/20 –
Check into Hotel and sight seeing
10/21 – Athens Airport to fly to Manchester England
10/21 –
10/26 – Wales with friends
10/26 –
11/02 – To Ireland with friends
11/02 –
Back to Wales
11/04 – Manchester Airport to fly home.
On 13
August, I wrote in journal that the sights I was looking forward to in London were:
Boat tour
on Thames
Big Ben
Coventry Gardens
Harrods
Millennium Bridge
The South
Bank – Jubilee Promenade
The London Eye
4 Sept I
wrote:
“About a
week ago Lar hurt his back. He’s been
pretty much laid up and out of commission.
Tonight we went for his MRI.
We’ve just
2 weeks now. Very uncertain about his
ability to travel.
Meantime,
keeping positive, we sent Richard and Jois our itinerary and I researched
public bathrooms in France and Italy ( a big concern of mine!) and best
walking shoes and where to get them.”
On 18
September, oldest son and his family came to see us off. Neighbor, Erin came to go over care and
feeding of the plants. Our van driver,
Brian, came on time, despite the fact that the company had sent another driver more
than an hour early.
Lar had
spent an extra fee for Priority Seating (early boarding) but it meant
nothing. We boarded as usual, in a line
with everyone else…Note: don’t buy that
again!
Our flight
was amazing! I usually go crazy on long
flights, but this one seemed to last no time at all. Our attendant kept Lar’s ice pack filled
which eased a great deal of his pain. We
watch the movie Gatsby and I played a number of games on the monitor. I also love watching the progress of the
plane on GPS.
Heathrow is
huge – but Lar held up well, I lugged most of our bags, and once through
security and customs we were met by a rep from Cosmos (our tour) who took over
the suitcases, lightening my load.
She got us
onto a van and we were whisked to the hotel – Jury’s Inn, Chelsea.
Another helpful Cosmos rep met us there, and sat and chatted with us in
the lobby as we got our bearings.
We signed
up for a tour and The Taste of London excursion for the evening.
We had a 3
course meal in an historic English pub, the Butcher’s Hook and Cleaver - W.
Smithfield and then a scenic Thames cruise on The Silver Bonito during which we
saw a number of famous sights – Big Ben, the London Tower and Bridge, St.
Paul’s Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament.
We shared a table with Charles, a recent widower from South Carolina, a young woman from Australia who was taking a European tour on her own, a Chinese girl who is an anesthesiologist and her mom. She was fulfilling her mom's dream of taking this tour, even though it was difficult to be away from her neuro-surgeon husband and their three little girls.
It was a magical night, really - we had such a good time seeing the sights and meeting people. It took me a while to realize that we weren't going to be with these same people for the tour....they were folks from various tours who had signed up for the Taste of London.
Next day we were on our own. I was a little frustrated that we couldn't get out and see more of London, but Lar was beginning to move a bit easier, and while I wanted him to keep moving, I didn't want him to over do it. So we took an easy stroll a few blocks from the hotel.
After returning to the hotel for a rest, we set out for the waterside to find a pub we'd heard about.
The Imperial Wharf and the Waterside Pub were well worth the stroll! Kristen the bartender was very sweet, and the true ale she served me was a great recommendation. Lar chose a Guinness and they both went well with the fish and chips and mushy peas. The fish was a delightful, moist and delicate haddock. We had a great day and Lar was holding up well.
To check out the Waterside, go here The Waterside
