“It doesn’t matter where you are going. It matters who is beside you.” -- Anonymous
This is my favorite travel quote of all the ones I have posted. Since I joined Val in retirement in 2012, we have visited 56 countries and travelled through many areas of the US and Canada, and to share these travels with Val has been the most special time of my life. We have had joyous times together, we have had challenges, uncertainties and scary times, we have argued and disagreed, but through it all, we have looked out for each other, helped each other and always loved each other. We are getting older and our window to be able to travel is closing, but we will have these memories to share for the rest of our lives. The quote is right, the places we visited have been great, but the most important thing is that Val and I have done them together. I can’t even imagine what those experiences would have been without her or how it would be, traveling without her in the future. Thank you, Val, for another wonderful trip together.
Final Thoughts
First off, some stats from the cruise. We visited 24 ports in 18 countries and traveled almost 23,000 miles, nearly the circumference of the earth. We completely circumnavigated the continent of Africa with stops in North Africa, Sub-Saharan areas of East and West Africa as well as South Africa. A truly unique trip.
The Grand Africa cruise lived up to its name and was certainly Grand. It was one of our best cruises, but also the most challenging. The heat and humidity were almost constant through much of the trip, and the lack of air conditioning off the ship made it a challenge. Many of the countries we visited lacked a tourist industry that made even a simple thing like finding a bathroom a challenge. We were constantly warned to be careful because of safety issues in many of the ports.
Having said all that, we wouldn’t have traded this experience for anything, this trip was wonderful. We were in places I never imagined I would ever be and had many truly unique experiences. And, for all of my moaning about the humidity, bathrooms, and air conditioning, on most nights we had an air-conditioned ship to return to with clean beds, good food and crew members waiting on us hand and foot. No wonder so many of the Africans we talked to couldn’t imagine what it was like travel on a cruise ship.
For me, the best part of the trip was our safari. Going on an African safari had been at the top of my bucket list for a long time and although it was a short one, it more than lived up to my expectations.
What Val liked the best (second best for me) wasn’t just one thing, but the overall immersion into the culture of Africa. Obviously, we didn’t get an in-depth look at any one area, but we were in many places and were able to get some understanding of what Africa is about. We visited villages and cities and saw a lot of the countryside as we traveled on our various tours. I think we were surprised to find that many of the things we thought were just travelogue scripted shots, were actually part of daily African life.
We also found the African people very friendly and as curious about our lives as we were about theirs. It was a humbling experience as so many of the things we take for granted at home are luxuries beyond even thinking about for many of the areas in Africa. The phrase “a first world problem” is much more than just a humorous catch phrase now as we sailed home realizing just how good we have it here in the United States.
I could go on and on about Africa, but I’ll leave it at that and just repeat that we had one of the best experiences of our lives on this adventure.
So, what is next for us. In the blog I mentioned the Australia Cruise we have coming up, but we decided to cancel that. It was a wonderful cruise that left from San Diego traveled to Hawaii and through the South Pacific stopping at various islands along the way and then completely circling Australia and New Zealand before returning to San Diego stopping at more South Pacific islands along the way. Sounds wonderful doesn’t it. We thought so too, but it is 94 days long and after our 71-day Grand Africa cruise, we thought it would be just too long for us. We never thought we would say that, but I think we reached our limit at 71 days.
So again, what’s next. Just about the time we cancelled the Grand Australia Cruise we got an e-mail from Holland America offering us a huge casino discount on a cruise that we had already taken but had always wanted to do again. I don’t quite understand how the casino discount comes about as the discount far exceeds any amount we have ever spent in the casino, but maybe it’s just because we go to the casino almost every night when we aren’t in port.
The Cruise is called the Voyage of the Vikings and leaves from Boston and goes up the East Coast of Canada then on to Greenland, Iceland, Scotland, before getting to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The cruise then starts back visiting Ireland, Northern Ireland and then Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and Eastern Canada again before returning to Boston. The cruise is 35 days in all and leaves this summer. Here is a link to the first time we did the Voyage of the Vikings in 2016.
The itinerary is slightly different than the first time we took it, so there will be some new places and some familiar places. This was one of our favorite cruises, so we are looking forward to doing it again. It is also the cruise where we met and became friends with Ken and Mary Beth who we still keep in touch with and see whenever we get a chance.
We hope to do a road trip to the Northwest US this fall, but you never know these days. However, one definite plan we have is our 28 Day Alaska Arctic Circle Solstice Cruise that we signed up for on this cruise. It isn’t until June of 2024, so we have plenty of time to plan for that.
So that’s it for this very long cruise and blog and as always, we’ll see you on down the road.
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