Retirement
WOW – Carol and I concluded our working careers on Friday 29 June 2018 and we can really attest to what a great experience Retirement is.
We have been fortunate enough to have just finished a 39 day sojourn to Munich, Croatia, Scandinavia, Nordic, Russia (St Petersburg) and home through New York.
The temperatures that we experienced were the highest maximum temperatures that the countries had enjoyed and for example it was 34c in Oslo and that was at the Ski Jump at 400m above sea level.
The hotels in that part of the world are set up for dealing with the cool temperatures and not the hot summer temperatures that we encountered.
Our trip included a 5 day personal tour of Croatia – from Zagreb to Split (just Carol and I in a car being driven between cities), plus a personal walking tour in Zagreb – with 2 nights at the magnificent Plitvice Lakes (if you go to Croatia you cannot miss this UNESCO World Heritage site), then to Split where we boarded a small Cruiser (32 passengers) for a 8 night cruise from Split to Dubrovnik and back to Split. This cruise was a great experience and the 4 course lunches and dinners on board were inspiring and as good as any restaurant that we have been to. It was great to be in Croatia when they were in the semi-final and final of the Soccer World Cup and we were on the island of Korcula when the final was played and everything closed down while the game was on and what a great atmosphere with everyone so excited about the game. After the game you would not have known that France had beaten Croatia as there was music, flares and fireworks to celebrate the fact that Croatia were runners up – to say the locals were happy would be an understatement.
Dubrovnik was an experience and if anyone is thinking about visiting Croatia – we can highly recommend going.
Next part of our trip was to Scandinavia with 4 days in Copenhagen – enjoying the heat and discovering everything that this city and Denmark has to offer. The Oresund Bridge between Copenhagen and Malmo (Sweden) was something that we had to visit – with a bridge and tunnel joining the 2 countries. As it turned out we went over the Bridge by bus and then under it on our cruise ship.
The Regal Princess (3500 passengers) was our cruise ship in the Baltic and we visited, Oslo, Berlin (Via train 3 hours each way), Tallinn, St Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm and back to Copenhagen and this was a marvellous cruise. To see these large ships being manoeuvred into and out of the dock without the aid of a Tug Boat is a sight to behold and the Regal Princess has been by far the largest cruise ship that we have sailed on. It might be a large ship, but we did not feel crowded at all as there are so many areas for people to enjoy. We were fortunate to have 2 days in St Petersburg seeing many Castles and Churches and which also included a night at the Russian Ballet to see Swan Lake and this was an experience that we will not forget.
Home through New York and what a place – with people and cars (yellow taxis) everywhere. We stayed just off Times Square with action everywhere. We enjoyed the sights of New York, including attending a Harlem Gospel Choir Church Service and then for something totally different went to the Broadway Show – The Book of Mormon. We also had a day trip to Washington where we saw all the sights in a short period of time and the Lincoln Memorial is massive.
Unfortunately we then headed for home, with the best part – catching up with the family and grandchildren – and not having to go to work.
Ah – Retirement – we should have done it earlier. We are now waiting on the delivery of our Caravan, so that we can enjoy a different part of our life and explore more of Australia.
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