Should We Stay or Should We Go

Photo by mana5280 on Unsplash Our first port of call was Split, Croatia. None of us had been here before, so we arrived without any real expectations of what we would find. I woke up just as we were making our way into Split. The sun was beginning to rise over the hills, casting a beautiful glow across the city. The ship moved quietly and slowly toward the port, and I stood on our balcony watching the town begin to awaken from its slumber. There was something lovely about seeing Split this way, before the streets became busy and the day really got underway. It was a peaceful introduction to a city that we were about to spend the day exploring. Once we were off the ship, we walked toward the old town. Split has a fascinating history, with much of the historic centre built within and around the remains of Diocletian’s Palace. The palace was built around the beginning of the fourth century for the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who chose this spot on the Adriatic as his retirement home. To...

Yesterday was another sea day, and after the busy start to our trip, I think we were all quite happy to have one. I started my day enjoying a tea on the balcony, just listening to the sound of the waves on the ship as we moved though the water. We didn’t do anything too exciting.  We wandered around the ship, found something to eat, and spent time together. With all six of us travelling together, those quieter moments are actually pretty nice. There is always someone around to have a coffee with, sit and chat with, or just enjoy the view with. I think we are also beginning to settle into the rhythm of the cruise. There is something about a sea day that makes you slow down, whether you intend to or not. We don't have to figure out where we're going, what time we need to be somewhere, or how we're going to get there. For a day, the ship takes care of all of that. The scenery outside was changing, too. We sailed past the coast of Apulia, or Puglia, in southern Italy. Apulia ...

Our first two days on the ship were sea days. While we much prefer port days, having a couple of days at sea gives us a chance to catch our breath, especially on an itinerary as busy as this one. Yesterday, I think we all welcomed the slower pace, but probably none more than our jet-lagged couple. I’m usually an early riser, but when I opened my eyes yesterday morning, it was already past 9:00 a.m. Apparently, I needed the catch-up too. There was no rush to get anywhere, no sightseeing plans to keep up with and no alarm telling us it was time to get moving. It was a good day to settle into ship life and enjoy the fact that we had nowhere else to be. But there was one thing I had been looking forward to all day. Later in the afternoon, we would be sailing through the Strait of Messina, the narrow passage that separates mainland Italy from Sicily. It lies between Calabria, the toe of Italy’s boot, and Sicily, and has been an important waterway for thousands of years. At its narrowes...

We left Amsterdam in the afternoon on October 1st, feeling a little sad to say goodbye. It had been such an amazing place to visit, and we were so happy we had taken the time to explore it together. But now it was time to move on to the next part of our trip, and really, the whole reason we were taking this trip in the first place. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we were finally doing Son #3’s graduation trip. He graduated from college in 2020, right in the middle of COVID, which made planning any kind of trip pretty much impossible for the next year and a half. When travel started opening up again, he wanted to wait a little longer because his then-girlfriend was finishing her doctorate later that year. He wanted the trip to be a joint celebration for both of them. Then she graduated, got a job in Virginia, and the two of them decided to get married. At that point, the green card process became the priority. We couldn't really plan a big family trip when he needed to be ava...

  For our last day in Amsterdam, the men decided to visit the Rijksmuseum while I chose something quite different. I went to the National Holocaust Museum. I knew before I went that it would be a difficult visit, but I also felt that it was something I wanted to do while we were in Amsterdam. The museum tells the story of the persecution of Jewish people in the Netherlands during the Second World War, beginning with what life was like before the war and following the gradual process of discrimination, persecution, deportation and murder. What struck me most was how much it helped me put a picture in my mind of what actually happened here in Amsterdam. We had spent our days wandering through beautiful streets, along canals and across bridges. We had admired the old buildings, enjoyed the cafés and watched people going about their everyday lives. Then, inside the museum, I was reminded that these same streets had once been the backdrop to something unimaginable. The museum is lo...