This trip has been a long time in the making. Originally a Viking Danube cruise and Holland America (HAL) cruise from Copenhagen to Athens booked in March 2021 and May 2022 respectively. Unusual for us to book this far out, we tend to be last minute travellers. With Covid lockdowns and border closures it seemed a good idea at the time but it has been such a long wait. We think we prefer our earlier modus operandi.

However, on New Years Eve 2022, Kieran and Cat announced they were expecting our first grandchild at the end of August. Can’t miss that! The cruises were canned, and we were back to the drawing board.

The new itinerary includes stopovers in Dubai, eight nights in London, a 28 day HAL cruise to Greek Islands, Turkey, Israel and Italy, a 10 day Norwegian Mediterranean cruise, with stopovers in Barcelona and Rome. We are away for nearly nine weeks.

Pete’s sister Judy and her husband Malcolm will be joining us for the second half of the HAL cruise which will be fun. They have also just become grandparents to Arlo (courtesy of Kimberley and Jason), and we will be able to commiserate over drinks at the end of the day about how much we are missing them.

The packing experiments and research have been extensive – we are both taking just a carry on bags. Easy for Pete, he did this last time. I am a bit more high maintenance, usually preparing for every eventuality - for both of us it needs to be said. However, the bag has been purchased and the ruthless examination of every item commences. So far, it is under the Emirates 10kg allowance. PS: We do have a medium size as a last minute back up….

We are closely watching the GBP, USD and Euro – the NZD has tanked and sinks further each day. Not sure how long we can wait, but hopefully it will bounce back within the next three weeks.

The wait continues.