The Grand Tour: Great Rivers of Europe Part II

About in 2007, just before my husband's retirement party, I went to the mall to look for a spring jacket. Retirement was on my mind. How would we fill up the time? Would we ever travel? If we could take just one big trip, where would we go?

The sales clerk who helped my pick out my new jacket sang its praises. She said she had worn the same style jacket every day on her recent trip to Europe. That is when I first heard of Grand Circle Travel and their tour called: Great Rivers of Europe.

Jim, who doesn't really like to travel and hates to fly, began to research taking a European trip. We asked ourselves many questions. Where shall we go? What will our mode of travel be? Will we join a touring group? How much do we want to spend? When can we go?

Finally, it was decided that Germany had to be a destination. After all, Germany is the homeland of Jim's family. German was Jim's primary home language as a child, his major in college, and the subject matter that he once taught. After deciding on the destination, we then selected the river trip tour offered through Grand Circle Travel.

Getting There and Back Again

Once on a trip to Las Vegas, my husband turned to me mid-flight and said, "Sally, I have to get off this plane." The look in his eyes told me he meant it. Somehow, I was able to convince him that he could survive the stress of that particular flight. When it came to flying to Europe, I was more than a little anxious about how we both would handle the flight. Whenever, we talked about going overseas, my husband would say he was driving over. Since this was not really an option, and since he really wanted to get to Europe, we were fortunate to be able to fly with Lufthansa on our first trip overseas together. The flight accommodations, flight crew, and meals could not have been better. Yes, while it is unheard of in today's flying experience, we had two wonderful meals provided for us while on board the flight.

We did feel cramped when it came to leg room. On our flight home, being the more seasoned travelers that we had become, we purchased economy plus status for 100 Euro each. This upgrade gave us very generous leg room on our United flight from Paris to Dulles to Denver. Both of us still consider the upgrade one of the best purchases we made on the trip. The additional room was worth every penny. At our ages, and after Jim's two knee replacements and hip replacement, he just can't sit in a cramped position for very long, and neither can I!

We decided that we would try to get the most bang for our travel dollars that we could by taking both the optional five-day pre-trip extension to Vienna, Austria, and the six-day post-trip to Brussels, Belgium and Paris, France. This meant that we would be gone for 25 days. More than once prior to the trip, during the trip, and after the trip, I questioned our sanity at making such a choice. That is a very long time to be gone from home, especially for my homebody husband. Surprisingly, he handled the flight, and the length of the time we gone better than I. In the end, we are happy we did the "whole enchilada."

A quick overview of the trip:

Vienna, Austria - April 21, 2010 - April 26, 2010

Renaissance Wien Hotel

A bit dazzled and dazed by the long flight, the short layover in Frankfurt, and the cab drive to the hotel, we were amazed to actually find ourselves in Vienna, Austria. Our program director, Miriam, met us at the hotel and took us on a brief walk around the area near the hotel in order to familiarize us our surroundings. Within the hour, we were expected at a Welcome Drink Event where met the others who would be in our group of fellow travelers for the next 18 days.

Vienna is a wonderful city that lives up to its reputation of being a place of charm and beauty. We loved our time there. Beginning with a city tour, we visited such places as: the 'real' Belvedere, The Museum of Fine Arts, and Schonbrunn Palace.

Two of the highlights of our time in Vienna included evenings when we paid a visit to the wine district of Grinzing, and to the beautiful Kursalon where we listened to an orchestra playing the classical music that one associates with Vienna. Probably, the most unexpected delight and surprise of the entire trip was our visit to Bratislavia, Slovakia.

Cruising the Danube, the Main, and the Rhine

On April 26, we boarded the M/S River Adagio in Vienna, Austria to begin our tour of Germany via the Danube, the Main, and the Rhine. This was our first time aboard a ship of this size. We really didn't know what to expect from our accommodations, but found the size of the room, the quality of beds, the size of bathroom, and storage space was perfect for us. We liked being with a smaller group than you find on a large cruise ship. We found the social gathering areas to be comfortable and welcoming. The meals were fantastic. Just think, I was able to enjoy three wonderful meals a day for two weeks without shopping, cooking or cleaning up the kitchen.

Once onboard, we did encounter problems that could not have been foreseen. On April 29th, while in Regensburg, Germany, we learned that one of the major locks of the more than 60 locks that we would encounter on the trip was malfunctioning. We were told that it would be at least until May 1st before we could leave Regensburg and proceed on our way.

Much speculation, worry and doubt began to be expressed by our fellow travelers. Would we be able to actually make all of our scheduled stops? What if the lock was not repaired for days? Would we leave our ship and be driven through Germany on a bus? Would we be given our money back and sent home? What would become of our long dreamed of tour?

Fortunately, the trip was saved because the lock was repaired and we began on our way again.

Unbelievably, the same thing happened again a few days later. These problems and delays caused some adjustments to our travel, but we were able to complete the trip on-time and as planned. We were very impressed by the way the staff and the company handled a very difficult situation. According to all sources, this problem with the locks has never happened to any of tours before.

Our cruise began on April 27, 2010, in Vienna and ended on May 9, 2010, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In the 14 days that we were on board the River Adagio, we visited the following cities and towns:

• Melk, Austria
• Passau, Germany
• Regensburg, Germany
• Nuremberg, Germany
• Bamberg, Germany
• Wurzburg, Germany
• Rothenburg, Germany
• Wertheim, Germany
• Heidelberg, Germany
• Frankfurt, Germany
• Mainz, Germany
• Koblenz, Germany
• Cologne, Germany
• Amsterdam, The Netherlands

We made many new friends, took many photos, ate a lot of wonderful food, and stored up memories that we will forever treasure.

As our new friends departed from our ship and our lives on May 10, 2010, Jim and I felt many conflicted emotions. We were so sad to see our new friends leave. We were tired and a bit envious of those who were returning home. The only couple who did both the pre and post trip, we had to adjust to and get to know a new program director and a new group of fellow travelers. We couldn't decide if we were sorry or excited about traveling on to Brussels and Paris.

It was with these ambivalent feelings that we disembarked from our familiar surroundings and boarded a bus on its way to Brussels, Belgium where we would stay for two days before boarding another bus to take us to Paris, France for two more days.

By the time we got to Delft for a late cup of coffee and pastry after touring a porcelain factory, and then on to Antwerp for lunch, we were back in our groove and happy to be touring again. As news of delayed flights because of volcanic ash began to be sent to us via our BlackBerry emails capabilities, we were even more convinced that we not only had it in us to keep out the touring, but we were also happy that we had decided to do so.

In future posts, I hope to share a few stories, insights, photos and memories that we picked up in our travels.

Time Between The Brackets

Jim and Sally's Trip to Europe

Part I

Closely bracketed by days when travel to Europe was either interrupted or not allowed, our departure and arrival flying dates gave us perfect flying weather. It was almost as if the dark cloud that had covered much of Northern Europe lifted at just the right time; thus, we were able to fly from Denver to Frankfurt, and then on to Vienna, on Wednesday, April 21, 2010, with absolutely no problems or interruptions. For nearly three weeks, we did not even think about Eyjafjallajokull. Why should we? Instead, we focused on enjoying our long dreamed of and planned for adventure in Europe. Around May 9th, just as many from our traveling group were planning on returning to the US, we again began to turn our thoughts the skies. Would they be friendly? Would we find a clear path home?

Through email, we began to hear that our friends who were scheduled to depart from Amsterdam on the 10th of May had not been able to fly out as planned. Some were delayed enough to have missed connecting flights. We were upset for them, but grateful that we still had a few more days of travel ahead of us and were not scheduled to fly home until noon on May 15 from Paris.

Again, on the date of our departure, the skies opened up, consequently, allowing us to fly smoothly, and on time from Paris to Dulles and then on to Denver. In my mind, I see our travel dates as days safely ensconced between two brackets of dates typified by dark clouds of menacing ash. Those brackets were dark days, but just inside of the brackets, those days were clear and safe for travel.

I promise I will not bore you all with long details of our trips that are accompanied by many pictures. I do hope to share some of the insights that we gained and new experiences that we found interesting as we left our comfort zone of living a quiet life of retirement and ventured out to cross the Atlantic Ocean to explore six countries of Europe in a time span of 25 days.

Our trip directors shared a great quote with us: "Life is like a book. If you don't travel, you only read the first page." We certainly found that to be true. While my insights and observations may be different from those experienced by others, I hope to at least capture some of my treasured times by writing about them in this blog.

Helen Hunt Jackson wrote about her adventures in Colorado Springs, Colorado, after she moved there in 1876 from Massachusetts. In one of her essays, A Colorado Week, she recounted the splendor and the awe inspiring journey of making her way with a group of people from Colorado Springs, Colorado to Leadville, Colorado. The first day had been quite scary as the horse drawn wagon scaled its way over steep, rocky mountains long before roads had been created to make the journey less treacherous. The difficulty of the journey did not stop the visitors from noticing and commenting on the trees, the flowers, the grasses and the wonders of the various mountains that surrounding them.

Jack, the touch old driver who had once been a stage driver in Mexico said, " There's great difference in folks noticin' things." When asked to explain, he said, "I was a-thinking of the two people I drove up here day before yesterday. I never heard 'em say one word from first to last about the thin' they see' an they wanted to turn right an' come straight down 's soon 's they got up. I don't know what such folk's them takes the trouble to travel round for. I s'pose it's just for the name on't--to say they've done it."

Hopefully, we never become such travelers. We tried to see and do as much as we could. Stay tuned, I hope to share a few stories in later posts.

Up in the air - or not!

To pack or not to pack: that is the question.

Will volcanic ash in Iceland keep us from flying to Europe on this coming Wednesday?

The planning for the trip began in January. We bit the bullet, took money out of savings, and put it down on the trip of a lifetime to celebrate our retirement. We both felt healthy and well enough to travel and decided that this spring was the right time to take the trip of a lifetime.

Now, we, and so many others worldwide, are keeping our eyes on Eyjafjallajokull. A week ago, I couldn't have even told you were this place was, or how to say it. Ok, I still can't say this multisyllabic word, nor can I spell it, but I do know that this mountain of volcanic ash is creating chaos and disrupting travel all over the world.

Specifically, Jim and I are scheduled to leave Wednesday, April 21, for Frankfurt. From there, we are fly to Vienna where we plan on staying for four days. The centerpiece of the trip is a two-week riverboat excursion across Germany. After departing the riverboat in Amsterdam, I am still hoping to spend the day touring tulip filled gardens before taking a train to Brussels. Our stop in Brussels is planned to last for three days. We then travel on to Paris for the last three days of our trip.

Mother Nature may have other plans. We are hopeful that the air clears soon and that there are no more eruptions. In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who are already caught in the chaos this natural disaster has created. We are grateful that no lives have been lost. We also pray for wisdom on the part of the airlines. It is reassuring to be reminded that all in all, no matter what, God is still driving the bus when it comes to travel!

Inspiration

My friend and I meet once a month on Monday nights to write. The two of us form our own little writing group. We begin our writing group by writing about a one word prompt. I always shutter in anticipation to see what word Lynette will come up with for me at our monthly writing time.

A few months ago, she gave me the word: inspiration. By definition, inspiration means: the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp.to do something creative.

I love inspiration, but can also be led astray by it. I can start down an inspired path and then discover that I have lost the vision that led my down a particular path, or worse yet, I am bored by what once had inspired me.

I mostly find inspiration in the garden. It is there where I create wonderful visions and ideas in my head as I dig and dream. In the garden, when I've had the inspiration to create a vision that I thought would work, I find that I am also forgiving of my failures. I accept that nature may have had other ideas, or perhaps, I did not consider nature's rules when I first created my vision. It is freeing for me to accept that my inspiration was incomplete.

In the garden, I am forgiving for my lack of foresight. Thinking that I have accounted for potential growth, I've planted shrubs or perennials too close to each other or too close to a walkway. When a plant just doesn't work out where I thought it would, I just get a shovel and move things around. Oh, if only life were like this!

Basically, I'm just a dig in the dirt kind of gardener who is led by the vision in my mind. I don't have that freedom in my writing. I wish I could follow that same wild, colorful and unplanned kind of inspiration in my writing that I have found in gardening. Perhaps, it is in the garden that I most able to create voice. I am working on being able to bring that same voice to my writing.

Easter Weekend

Most of our children are scattered all over the state. Two live out of state, and one lives out of the country. This means that holidays take some planning if we want to spend the time together. Since no long term planning had happened this year, we decided to just let Easter slid by with no family get-together until my daughter called last week and asked if she and her sister and her sister's two children could come down for the weekend. "Great," I said. "That way we will be able to spend some time together, celebrate Easter, and celebrate your upcoming birthday."

Before you know it, the plan grew. I decided we needed to invite my husband's three daughters, and his grandchildren down for a wiener roast on Saturday. Once my daughter in Utah heard of the plan, she decided to drive to Colorado with her daughter to join in the family gathering. In no time, the number of guests expected for the weekend grew from four to twenty.

No problem...the girls could all bring a salad for Saturday, and we would grill hamburgers and hot dogs. Since we now would have three birthdays to celebrate, I decided on ordering a cake. My husband insisted that we order red velvet from Sweet Daphne's in Colorado Springs. Since the red velvet is so messy, I suggested we also order cup cakes and cookies from Schuster's Bakery in Pueblo.

Now, that we had the food taken care of, I suggested we buy the Easter candy for the kids and put them into plastic eggs for an egg hunt. So, $75 worth of candy later, we began to fill plastic Easter eggs with candy,and assemble Easter goodie bags for each of the grandchildren. As we worked we realized we had never had a big Easter celebration at our home for the grandchildren. It seems that we were way too busy working to have been able to take the time out to prepare for such an event. While we were working, springtime meant that we were attending proms and baseball games, wrapping up state assessments, grading end of year projects and planning graduation. In other words, we were too wrapped up in working with other people's kids to spend time with our own.

Thankfully, all of that has changed now. The former high school principal pictured below was now able to channel his enthusiasm, excitement and energy into fill filling plastic Easter eggs to be given to his grandchildren! He really got into the entire project.

Sadly, I realized that some of the grandchildren are now in middle school,and that one has already gone off to college. I worried that the older kids would not enjoy hunting for eggs or eating cupcakes topped with plastic Easter rings. I found out just how wrong I was.

Once everyone arrived on Saturday, we began the day by digging into our delicious food.

Then, we announced that it was time for all the kids to go for a walk with Grandpa Jim and Buster. This was our way of giving the adults time to hide the 115 candy filled plastic eggs for the children to find.

Grandpa Jim surrounded by his adoring grandchildren, his dog, and his grand-dog.

Grandpa Jim and the grandchildren and dogs leave for a field trip in the neighborhood.

After the walk, the grandchildren had a blast running around in the backyard finding all of the colorful Easter eggs. Once all were reassembled, it was time for more pictures and for Grandpa Jim to distribute the Easter goodie bags and the cupcakes. After all, Grandpa Jim has a his reputation of "goodie man" to keep up.

How could I have ever thought that middle school kids wouldn't love to hunt for Easter eggs? I learned that no matter how beautiful and mature our young adolescent granddaughters are, they still love candy, cupcakes, and pink Easter bunny rings.

It seems a good time was had by all. Everyone went home with more candy than they collected at Halloween. Great memories of time spent with our wonderful family were carefully filed away by us all. And, now that we are retired, the best part of all was: we didn't have to get up and go to work on Monday morning.

Master Gardening

Yesterday, I finished my course work for the Colorado Master Gardener Program through Colorado State University Extension. I started the program in January and have attended classes every Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. I now must complete 50 hours of volunteer work to complete the program and receive my certification.

Becoming a master gardener has been one of my retirement dreams. As with all dreams, I found that the reality of reaching the goal that comes from the dream requires much commitment and hard work. I also found that at this stage in my life, I have less patience for sitting in a classroom and learning more material. Always one for needing to be the "A" student, I was rather surprised to see myself not needing to excel in the coursework associated with this program. I just accepted that I am a novice when it comes to all I need to learn in the life sciences. Let's just say that whatever background knowledge I had in that area was really buried in the back of my brain.

The terms found in botany, entomology, soil management, abiotic factors in the environment and etc. are terms that I normally do not think about. Who knew that soil could be such an interesting topic? (Anyway, it was to me.) I also found entomology fascinating. I look at the world around me in a new way. I also know that I have much to learn about gardening and all the problems that go with it.

Yesterday, we learned about producing small berries and fruit. As I listened to our instructor, Carol O'Meara, speak of growing raspberries and grapes, many memories came flooding back to me about my days as a young mother in Utah when we grew raspberries and grapes in our back yard. I harvested the grapes for juicing.

Thinking of those September days when I could actually smell that it was time to harvest the Concords and begin making juice, I became quite nostalgic. I think I will plant at least one grape vine this year. I want to again enjoy the satisfaction of harvesting fragrant grapes and making some wonderful, home grown, home-made juice.

Sally harvesting grapes with Julie, Fall 1981

Acclimatizing to Becoming the Sole Mistress of My Time

"Acclimatizing to becoming the sole mistress of my time" is a repeated theme in my life since retirement. This phrase, discovered in the book I am currently reading, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, rang very true to describing my own on-going struggle. The quote was actually used to describe Fanny Burney following her retirement from the court of King George III and Queen Charlotte where she had served as Second Keeper of the Queen's Robes. She obviously eventually became "accustomed" to her retirement because she went on to write novels, plays, and a biography. Her many diaries and journals were published after her death. It is important to note that her readership included Jane Austin and Dr. Samuel Johnson.

I loved this quote because it so accurately describes some of the frustrations experienced by those of who have always had so many demands on our time. As stay-at-home moms, we have jam-packed days that are dictated by chores, crying babies, curious toddlers and demanding pre-schoolers. We dream of the day when our little ones will begin school only to discover that our time is still not our own.

In my case, I went from being a stay-at-home wife and mother to becoming a single working mom overnight. My time had an entirely new set of demands. I had to continue to raise my children, keep house and provide meals, and I had the sudden and unexpected burden of becoming gainfully employed and educated. Somehow, I lived through those days and was able to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table while working at a very low paying job while I worked on finishing a college degree at night.

Between 1989 and 2002, I worked full-time and earned three degrees: a BS in Business Administration, a BA in English, and a MA in Teaching the Linguistically Diverse. Believe me, I was not "the mistress of my time" during those years. In 1992, I married my husband. In 1996, he became the principal of a large high school. So, I added the duties of being the wife of a high school principal to my long list of "things that keep me very busy."

As they say, "it was all good" during those years. I loved my multiple roles of wife, mother, daughter, teacher, and wife of a principal. I had little time to spare. It seemed that we were always on the go, and I had multiple demands for my time.

I've learned that I am motivated and become more productive when I am surrounded by others or when I participate in discussions or conversations. That is one area of my life that is missing right now. I don't have enough interactions with other people. So, in order to feel more energized and productive, I will need to mix with people more often. I must guard again becoming isolated. I've found that when I don't have a job to go to, it is way to easy to get lazy and isolated.

Productivity still remains a value that I wish to see reflected in my life. I don't want to be on the shelf, but I find that I now struggle knowing exactly what I wish to produce. I know I don't want to create lesson plans, educational design plans or curriculum maps. I am certain that I want that part of my life behind me. However, education still remains a passion in my life. I am concerned about the direction of the current educational system, I am just unsure what, or if, I want to do anything about my concerns.

For now, my blog, does keep me writing. I don't write much, but I do have place where I can write. I also have my writing group (of one other person) which serves as a place where I can exchange writing ideas, get feedback, and give support. This exercise in meeting to write and share ideas and thoughts on writing serves an important role in helping acclimate to this stage in life.

The part about retirement that I don't have down is believing that I have the right to be the "sole mistress of my time." That is what I will continue to work on now that I don't have the needs of children or demands of the school bell to dictate my time and direction.