Professor Sharon

It’s February 1st!   The trip that has been over a year in our brains, over 6 months in the planning, and starts in just 14 days!   Today’s snow and ice storm is one of the unpredictables in the list of what can’t be planned ahead; we sure hope we don’t have to battle the weather in order to leave.  Although we laughed at the news that the Middle East had a freak snow storm this week (it snowed almost 1/2 inch in Malibu last January when we were at the Getty!).

I debated whether I should start to count down by days or by tasks. The picture is  what we’ve been calling Travel Central.  The map has pins of places we first wished to go, then as the plans evolved, places we’re definitely going.  The calendar is double layered – the top part of January and February and tasks to get done; the under-layer the weeks ahead while we plotted out when to be where.   The book shelf and piles next to it have also evolved from piles over a year as we found related books and articles, into an organized system of folders for each destination, travel books, and fiction and non-fiction which we’ve read in preparation.   It’ll have at least one more sorting as we decide what papers are must brings and what will have to be left behind.

So the short itinerary as it stands now:

2/14 to 24, on a tour with the local temple of Israel;

2/24 – 3/2 Sevilla, Spain;

3/2 to 3/22 Spanish language school in Granada;

3/23ish to 3/30ish Marakeesh and the sands of Morocco with son and daughter-in-law (I & A) (is there a camel ride in my future?);

3/30 to 4/6 Madrid; 4/7 – 4/21 back in language school in Salamanca;

4/21-5/3 Barcelona; the next week we’ll meander up to Nice;

5/12 – 22 river cruise on the Rhone to Paris; a few days in Paris; train and chunnel to London for about a week (we hope our daughter & grand-baby might join us in Barcelona or London);

6/2 – 8  Queen Mary 2 transatlantic cruise home to a car ride home to Greenfield.

It really is going to be an amazing adventure!