Friday, 22 May 2026

Spring 2026 vacation prep

cruise route
Springtime in Europe? Sure, sign me up! 2 of the most appealing bits to this is that spring should mean cooler temperatures and fewer people. Well…maybe not. I’ve been monitoring temps for the last while and found historical temps when we booked the trip – historical temps say it should be highs hovering around 20º - ha! The forecast for the next 2 weeks has highs as high as 35º - OMG! That’s not every day, everywhere…but – OMG! As everyone knows, I am NOT a lover of heat…Chris in the other hand...

Spending time in Europe in spring will be new for us. Before I stopped working full-time it was summer or nothing…another perk of retirement.

cruise itinerary
Tomorrow evening, we board an overnight flight to Barcelona followed by a shortie flight to Lisbon for a 24-day European adventure. We will be 2 days in Lisbon on our own. Then we will be on the Windstar Legend for 15 days along the Atlantic coast to Rouen, France. From there we will fly from Paris to


Barcelona and finish with a few days on our own in Sitges, Spain before heading home.

this is what it was SUPPOSED to be like
This trip we are taking only carry-on luggage. We’ve realized that if we have access to laundry facilities (and really, who has 24 pairs of underwear anyway??) we need very little. Toiletries are always tricky, but for 3 weeks less than 100ml of everything is perfectly doable. Carry-on only makes us be disciplined with what we bring – no fancy clothes or shoes but sacrificing that for the freedom that comes with no large luggage is fantastic.

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Our itinerary will take us to some places we’ve been to and some that will be new for us. I’m looking forward to more pastel de nata in Lisbon and oysters in Bordeaux. I’ve always wanted to visit the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao and this time it looks like I will. Other look-forwards-to for me are sitting in a pub in Guernsey and shopping for dish towels in Bordeaux.
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Again, a really big looking-forward-to is being in Europe when it isn’t as hot as the face of the sun and packed with people – time will tell.


Ps…this is the 20th anniversary of the BLOG! I know, I know…I should find a better, newer platform. Or should I? March 23, 2026, was the first ever post and on May 10, 2006, we were in Lisbon!

I’m thrilled to have as many of you along with us!

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