Spreading My Wings Again

I think we can all agree the last few years have been challenging.  We are finally now cautiously inching our way back into the world after coping with the COVID lockdown.  Many of us have been chomping at the bit to get going.  I took a first step late last summer by travelling to Newfoundland with my sister for nearly 3 weeks.  Having returned home from that unscathed, I then headed to Europe, my preferred destination, one month later.  That time, I spent time in Alsace, Lyon, Nice and Zurich.  That trip also went smoothly.  Continuing to be emboldened, this spring, my sister and I went back to Alsace and then to Paris to celebrate her belated 70th birthday and, again, that also went well.  So, I am ready, convinced that travelling is, once again, fully back on my agenda!

A major epiphany for me this year has been how very precious life is.  I am of an age when some friends and family are facing health challenges or, worse yet, "shuffling off this mortal coil".  It has been a real wake-up.  While I know that I am no longer young, in spite of my superior skills of denial, this year has underscored the importance of doing what we can while we are still able and embracing a "carpe diem" lifestyle.  So, buoyed by that approach, I am heading off again. This time it is one of the more ambitious - as well as expensive - trips I have taken.  I leave on October 8th and return home on December 9th.  I am also going further afield than I have before and, while I will be with friends and family some of the time, I will also be travelling solo for almost a month.  That feels a bit daunting for me!  However, I also know that I will return more enlightened, with a myriad of wonderful memories and learnings that will have changed me.  

I love the Côte d’Azur so, for the first leg of this journey, a friend and I will spend nearly 3 weeks in that part of France.  I fell in love with Villefranche sur Mer in 1979 and have tried to go back regularly since.  The Mediterranean coastline between there and the mouth of the Rhone will be our focus as well as inland Provence.  After my friend flies home, I will spend another week in Nice before I fly to Athens.  After a couple of days there, I will board a cruise ship for the second stage of my journey.  Many of the ports of call are places I have never seen before such as Egypt, Israel, Turkey, and Cyprus; as well, some are more familiar places like Sicily and Naples.  The cruise finishes at the port near Rome where I will fly to Germany.  For the final leg of the trip, I will meet my sister in Munich at the beginning of Advent when we will explore the Christmas markets of that city plus Vienna and Prague before going to Berlin.  I have a significant birthday this year so that city was my pick for where I would turn 3/4 of a century - how did that happen!  My friends who live in Alsace will meet us there.  Then, after a short stay in Frankfurt - and one more Weihnachtsmarkt - we will return home.  

So, that is the outline and I hope you will be interested in following along with me on this adventure.  Thank you.  Sorry.  No photos - YET!