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Topic Summary

Posted by: RonLeavitt
« on: May 18, 2015, 11:10:57 AM »

Our Retirement Celebration is upon us!

We're headed off on a one month trip to Europe next month.  We'll be staying a week in Rome and Istanbul, taking a two week Seabourn Greek Island Cruise, and staying a week in Venice and Florence.  Ellen has traveled extensively in Italy and she is excited to be going back and to show me some of her favorite places.  I've traveled by train through northern Italy stopping in Milan on the way to southern Germany.

In the past we had used travel agents to arrange hotel accommodations.  This trip we have booked through homeaway.com.  I looked into AirBnb, but I did not like their full payment up front policy.  Based on the pictures, the map location, and email chains with the owners; we should have very comfortable if modest flats close to the city centers. 

I have long wanted to sail the Greek Islands in my own skiff or sailboat.  For now a comfortable and elegant cruise will do nicely. Ellen and I prefer to be spontaneous in our travels and love the freedom to pick and chose what we want to do once we have arrived.   We are not schedule driven people; our plans are always flexible.  Now a cruise is quite different.  The ports of call are fixed, the Seaborn shore excursions are fixed, arrival and departure times at each port of call are fixed.  Worse, we had to book our excursions ahead of time to be sure to get a spot. A 4x4 tour of one of the islands had just one spot open.  We had to go on a waiting list for the second seat!

Still we expect the cruise to be one of our most memorable.

I'll post more detailed information about our homeaway bookings and the cruise soon.

Ron