Europe 2023

June 16 – July 2, 2023
In the summer of 2022, I was planning on attempting the Great Lakes Singlehanded Society’s Port Huron to Mackinac Island Challenge. To do this, it would have taken about two weeks to move the boat and complete the challenge and then 3 weeks to leisurely return the boat to Cleveland. Doing this would have precluded going on another vacation. To assuage my guilt of not going on vacation with Kathleen, I told her that I’d “take her anywhere she wants to go next year.” She immediately replied that she wanted to do a European River Cruise. She picked the Viking Grand European Adventure, and we booked the vacation last July. Unfortunately, the issue I had with my knee last year prevented me from attempting the sailing challenge. But we were still committed to the river cruise.
I admit that doing a river cruise wasn’t even in my top ten list of vacations I’d want. But boy was I wrong. This was literally one of the nicest vacations I’ve ever had. Viking does a phenomenal job. We met loads of fun and interesting people and saw things we wouldn’t have if I had planned the vacation. It was a 10 out of 10 trip. We came away looking at other Viking cruises that we’d want to do.