Planes, Trains and Orthotics: A Middle-Age Woman's Guide to Travel

 It’s been a great week traveling down European rivers containing plenty of water.  At nearly every port, additional travelers have joined our ship because, while on another ship, they got stuck (not literally) in a part of the Rhine River where the water level suddenly dropped.  As our ship has stayed in lakes and rivers located in Holland and Belgium all of which are very close to the North Sea, we have had none of those problems.   That doesn’t mean there haven’t been a few scary moments. I will admit that no one would ever describe anyone in our family as a “seafaring lot,” but there was an incident in the middle of the second night at sail, that scared nearly all of us to death—except for a few individuals who miraculously slept through the whole thing.   Bob and I were awoken to a terrible sound of grinding, that can only be described as wood being broken up.  Plus, the ship was swaying so badly that I wondered whether I should get out of bed (while t...

 We spent our first few days (pre-cruise) in the beautiful city of Basel, Switzerland, where our cruise was supposed to begin, but couldn’t because the Rhine River was too low.  We toured the Medieval Old City and learned about the city’s historical importance for commerce due to its location on the river.  We also went on a food tour where we were able to sample an incredible Gruyère cheese, just slightly better than Trader Joe’s, a type of gingerbread that gave your jaw quite a workout and then required you to surreptitiously remove the gingerbread from your teeth.  The best of the samples was the Swiss Chocolates. We tried two different types at two different locations, and both were fabulous.  Unfortunately, I can’t for the life of me remember their very long names. All I know was that it wasn’t Lindt. The big snafu in Basel, was our hip boutique hotel.  It was very European—which is great— but with such  a hotel, certain amenities are not availabl...

Preparing for our latest travel adventure can best be described as “stressful.” Of course, it didn’t start out that way. Several months go, we decided to sign-up again for a wine cruise that would take us to locations we have never visited, all while enjoying the fabulous wines that these European regions had to offer.  Besides the beautiful scenery of Switzerland, France and Germany, and the opportunity to try each country’s delicious wines (even though it was likely we would not be able to repeat their names), my sister, brother-in-law and several friends were also planning on coming along. Signing up for the trip was relatively easy and for about three months I was lulled into a false sense of security in which I thought that the biggest problem I would have was weighing my oversized suitcase at the airport.  I was wrong.  Three events happened that made the preparation leg of the journey a near-nightmare. 1. Mother Nature:  When Bob and I are watching the Viking ...

Bob and I are again visiting our neighbor to the north (Canada) to experience both the charm and optimal fall foliage of beautiful Quebec City.  It is a wonderful place to go for the aging traveler: It’s beautiful, you’re in another country but not too far from home, another language is spoken and all of your chargers fit into the electrical outlets so you don’t have to worry about adaptors! Our traveling partners, Mark and Judy, met us there to enjoy four days in this lovely city. Of course, we have to get there first… The grueling work (and aggravation) it often takes to board a plane now a-days, can be tough on our aging bodies. We have decided, after one too-many times of being herded into seemingly never-ending security lines and removing our luggages’ liquids, shoes, belts and laptops while going through Security and then worrying that we’ve picked up everything, to take the “LFTK” (“Less for the Kids”) approach to travel and just pay for TSA Pre Check and “Clear.” While it i...

 I wasn’t going to write a blog about my sister’s and my long-weekend junket to Seattle to attend a baby shower, but there were so many memorable moments, I thought I needed to document at least a few.   The shower was for my sister’s son and his wife and was to be held at the home of my nephew’s in-laws, located in the first Washington town over the Canada/ US border.  Our plan was to fly into Vancouver, make the short ride over the border and arrive in Blaine, WA, where the shower was to be held the next day.  It all sounded great when we were making the plans but the actual execution was far more difficult than we ever imagined. Before I go any further, I have to mention that we were flying United Airlines, and I have a United credit card, which entitles me to go into the lounge with one guest.  As we sat in the lounge in Newark Airport, we realized that there would be no food (except for a tiny bag of pretzels or one slightly stale Stroopwafel) on the six ho...

As I previously stated, we came to Newfoundland because of the musical, “Come from Away,” and the biggest draw for us was to visit “Gander,” the town and the people that inspired such a wonderful show. We were so excited to immerse ourselves into the place where this wonderful story took place, clearly showing that there were still kind and generous people left in the world.  We drove more than three hours and immediately realized that Gander was a bit of a bust.  We did go to the North Atlantic Aviation Museum, which included a 10 minute emotional piece (at least I was teary-eyed) by Diane Sawyer on the generosity of the Gander people during this trying time. Other than that, it could have been a town in any American community with a Walmart, a McDonald’s and a “Mary Brown’s,” the Canadian version of Popeye’s. It was early afternoon, and we now had to figure out what to do for the rest of the day.   After more than three hours in the car, K-Dazzle suggested to Judy that ...