Client Confidential: European Adventure
This month (and some future blogs), I’m handing over the reins to my husband, Sean to provide his perspective on our wonderful European trip that we’ve been on since the beginning of August. I hope you enjoy a peek into our journey.
Greetings from France….Belgium…..Netherlands….actually, today it’s “Greetings from Austria. “
As this month’s Postcard Excursions guest columnist, I’m pleased to author “Client Confidential” to share an update on a six-week, six-country walkabout throughout Europe that I’ve been on since the early days of August. (In full disclosure, I’m not just a “client,” but also Trish’s husband….and Trish is here with me every step of the way.)
This once-in-a-lifetime adventure began with modest expectations. Upon my retirement on June 30, my wife asked me how I’d like to celebrate. My response was, “I’d like to take our adult children to Greece.” Since I’m married to a travel advisor, we immediately booked a September 7-day Greek Island Tour with Celestyal Cruises, a small ship European-based cruise line specializing in the region. As we told our family about this, others wanted to come along. Our group grew to 16 travelers, which made us eligible for a special group discount. (Side note: I’ll be posting details about our cruise in September… but Postcard Excursions currently has a specially negotiated group rate for this same cruise in May 2027. If Greece is on your bucket list, here’s the perfect solution. Find the details here – but space is limited.)
Shortly after booking our cruise, Trish was informed that – as an Advisory Board member for KHM Travel Group (a leading host agency that provides access to many exclusive packages and travel partners around the world) – she would be attending the Board’s annual meeting to be held in Bordeaux, France on board an Avalon Waterways River Cruise. (What? Would you expect a leading travel host agency to hold annual meetings at a hotel?) Since the Board meetings were in early August, we were suddenly looking at two separate flights to Europe over six weeks, one to France and one to Greece. We put our heads together and came to the obvious conclusion:
Let’s just fly once and spend six weeks in Europe. It made complete sense – I’m newly retired and Trish is in the travel business and can always benefit from “research.” The concept of 42 days of travel in Europe was both exciting and daunting. Equally, however, we knew the stars may never align like this again.
From there, Trish and I had the great fun of mapping out our itinerary – what countries to visit, where to stay, what to do….and, of course, what to eat and drink. I could write an entire blog about the many, many destinations we considered, or about our process in fine-tuning the itinerary…but instead I’ll close this Confidential by highlighting where we have been and where we are going.
And, if Trish likes my blog post, I will come back next month and share insights and highlights from each our destinations as part of next month’s Confidential. What did we like best? What would we do differently? How did six weeks in foreign-speaking countries change us? I can’t wait to tell you. Stay tuned.
Sean Smith
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Trish and Sean’s Excellent European Adventure
August 4 – 12 Bordeaux (Avalon River Cruise), then Paris
August 12 – 23 Brussels (Belgium), Bruges (Belgium), Amsterdam (Netherlands)
August 23 – 31 Vienna (Austria), Salzburg (Austria)
August 31 – Sept 3 Budapest (Hungary)
Sept 4 – 12 Greek Islands Cruise and Tour
Photos and insight to come….
