Summary
- People often find excuses to continue putting off their dream trip.
- David Godfrey shares his experience about finally going on the trip of his dreams.
Voice of Experience
Transforming Dream Trips into Reality
iStock.com/RichLegg
Jump to:
We have long dreamed of crossing the Atlantic on a ship, leisurely exploring Provence, and seeing the incredible Roman structures in the south of France. There were always excuses why this dream remained a dream. The excuses included the time needed, language, being away from home for over a month, the cost, finding our way around, and driving in a foreign land (with a manual transmission). We finally decided it was time to overcome the excuses and make the dream a reality.
I grew up with my great-grandmother and my grandmother telling tales of crossing the Atlantic on ocean liners three times between 1910 and 1913. They waxed poetic about life on the great ocean liners, long days at sea, and the thrill of spotting land. I dreamed of following in their footsteps. My grandmother told me, “Save your pennies, and you will be able to.” Inspired by Peter Mayle and “A Year in Provence,'' I dreamed of exploring Provence. My spouse is a retired professor of Greek and Roman culture and has a long list of Roman structures in France (and other countries) that he has dreamed of seeing. For decades, these were all dreams until this year.
Stepping back from full-time employment eliminated one obstacle, making it possible for me to travel for more than a couple of weeks at a time. This flexibility is one of the many perks of being a Senior Lawyer. With the excuse of time off eliminated, the dream was a step closer to reality.
We booked a repositioning cruise from Miami to Barcelona with stops in the Canary Islands and Spain. The 14-day itinerary is typical of a ship being moved from a winter season in the Caribbean to a summer season in the Mediterranean. There were at least half a dozen repositioning cruise options for late spring of 2024 from the east coast of the USA to Europe. I made the selection based on the schedule, itinerary, and, of course, cost. Cruise pricing is the Wild West, with discounts often changing from day to day. Ultimately, I paid about $3,500 for two people in a nice stateroom with a private balcony. That included emergency medical coverage but did not include mandatory gratuities, specialty dining, Wi-Fi, or drinks. We spent a little over $700 on board for tips, drinks, laundry, a great haircut, and a little shopping. When comparing cruise prices, look at what is included.
The first eight days of the trip were all at sea. I dreamed about time just watching the ocean slip by, and at the same time, I worried about boredom. I needn’t have worried. The ship is a floating resort. I settled into a routine of an early breakfast, watching the early morning from the jacuzzi on the top deck, a 10:00 AM enrichment lecture series, reading, lunch, walking and exploring, an afternoon nap, reading, and dinner. On the 8th morning, it was thrilling to spot land for the first time, just as it had been for my grandmother over 110 years ago. (We had only seen one other ship since passing the Bahamas on the first day.) The days at sea floated by.
The ship made four port calls before arriving in Barcelona. The first two were in the Canary Islands, a group of volcanic islands off the coast of Africa. The islands are a part of Spain and a special territory of the European Union. Las Palmas had the feel of a tropical island beach town. We wandered, shopped, and had lunch along the waterfront, which had a view of a black sand beach. Tenerife felt more like a European city. We picked up a map and recommendations at the tourist office and explored on foot. We had lunch at a local place in the market, ordering off the blackboard in Spanish and being only slightly surprised by lunch when it arrived. We stopped in Malaga and Alicante in Spain. We had spent a week in Malaga a couple of years ago, making this a revisit of familiar sights, Alicante was new to us, a port city filled with history.
We spent three nights in Barcelona, exploring the city in our unplanned and unhurried way. From there, we took the train north into France, spending a couple of nights at the medieval walled city of Carcassonne, a couple of nights at Arles with its Roman Arena and Theater, and then we checked into a Gite for a week. Gites are French country vacation rentals. We rented a two-bedroom apartment in a large farmhouse just outside of Saint Martin De Crau. It served as a base for exploring the region. We limited ourselves to sites within a 90-minute drive of the Gite. This allowed me to live out the dream of exploring Provence and living with the locals. Highlights were the Pont Du Gard, a Roman aqueduct; Aigues Mortes, a walled medieval city; the hilltop town of Les Baux de Provence, the Palace of the Popes in Avignon; and a section of a Roman aqueduct - in the middle of rural Provence that we found from a tiny road sign. The dream was exploring, and the reality was finding wonders in places we never expected to find them.
After the Gite, we checked into a hotel in Nimes. Nimes is home to one of the most intact Roman Temples in the world, the Maison Carree, and a Roman arena that is still in use as a concert venue. There is a surprisingly large Roman History Museum at Nimes. Nimes is a gem of Provence. Wandering the streets was like a dream in reality.
The trip back to the United States fulfilled one final dream: a ride in an Airbus A-380, the massive full double-decker. It is an astounding airplane and a very comfortable ride. I had a choice of flights home, and this one allowed me to turn another dream into a reality.
We overcame the excuses to do this. I put myself in a position to be able to be away from home for a month. We refreshed our French and used Google Translate - and shrugged our shoulders when words failed us. I drove - mastering roundabouts and shifting a manual transmission for the first time in a decade. We were gone one day short of five weeks - we had a wonderful neighbor who picked up the mail and checked on the house for us. I committed to spending the money, but the question is always, what did it cost? We spent about $10,000 and used frequent flier miles. We could have cut corners and spent a bit less, and we could have easily spent twice that amount. We did what we wanted, and we did it our way. When thinking about spending the money, ask yourself, “What are your dreams worth?”
We finally set aside the excuses and turned this dream trip into a reality trip. What have you been dreaming about for years? What is holding you back from making it a reality?
Author