Wednesday, 4/20. Seventeen days. Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, Turkey. This cruise was long in coming. Originally booked to be a Russian River Cruise in April, 2020. Then it became this cruise, set for April, 2021. Here it is at last. We’ll be on the Viking Sky. This ship had an exciting 2019 when it lost its generators off the coast of Norway. It was a near thing. We were on her identical sister ship in 2015 for my first post retirement cruise.

We won’t have to wear a mask on this cruise, which is sort of a good news/bad news situation. I fully intend to wear one in certain circumstances, such as in elevators. Yoriko will probably wear one all the time. We need to spit into a test tube every morning.

We booked a two-day pre-cruise extension so we arrive in Venice two days early. This is fortunate, since the Sky isn’t docking in Venice, or even across the bay in Fusina. The harbor is closed temporarily for a “pending Environment Study”, whatever that is.  We have all day Friday to visit Venice. On Saturday we’ll be transported 90 miles (three hours?) south to Ravenna. New excursion options await. I feel bad for those who arrive on embarkation day in Venice, then have to endure the drive. Viking has compensated by offering some on board credit and a discount for a future cruise.

Anyway, we have done our two boosters, VERIFLY, Antigen test, EU locator documentation, and Lufthansa paperwork. We have our boarding passes! The flights are relatively painless; Lufthansa still has a mask policy, which is actually our preference.

Since I was 14 (no joke, I remember the moment), my retirement plans were to travel. The pandemic threw a huge wrench into those dreams. But this will be my third (our second) post pandemic adventure. I’m back on track!