Leaving the armchair to travel

I so love travelling. Planning the trip fills me with excitement and anticipation. I study maps and I read up on local history. I analyze hotel and restaurant reviews. Do we rent a car or use public transit? Can we fit in a castle visit AND a winery tour? How often does the ferry run? Sketching out an itinerary fills weeks of my time with dreams of picnics, evening strolls, relaxing hours in a pub.

But that’s just for armchair travelling.

On my actual trips, I’m stressed about packing, anxious about flights (not the flying, just everything before and after – checking in, luggage restrictions, etc.), worried that the plans which looked great on paper will fail spectacularly, leaving us stranded on a railway platform at 2am.

I’m pleased to way no disaster struck on our last bit of world travel. We may have encountered the occasional snafu (I now understand the jokes about RyanAir) but minor hiccups only add to the experience.

We cruised the Rhine and Moselle rivers, starting with a couple days in Zurich. Our hotel was located in a business park – not the most scenic location. But we set off on foot to explore and came upon a bike expo. We thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with the locals doing what locals do, and ate the most delicious bratwurst.

After the cruise we took the EuroStar to the UK, detrained in London, navigated the ‘tube’, got to the wrong platform so went in the wrong direction for a couple stops, got over to the correct platform retraced our steps (all while lugging three suitcases and a backpack) and eventually ended up at Stansted airport – which is an experience in itself.

We flew to Cyprus aboard that RyanAir flight I mentioned. It was the first time we used that carrier and so were unaware of their bizarre way of doing things. After a stressful couple of hours in three lines and a near-jog to the gate we settled in our ‘interesting’ seats and were ‘entertained’ by the continuous sales pitch from the flight crew. It certainly was…ah…memorable. (Cyprus was amazing and worth another visit but with a different airline.)

So while the actual trip didn’t match the paper trip exactly, I’m rather glad it didn’t. The minor hitches, and the accompanying bursts of adrenaline, only added to the travel memories.