Some takeaways:
You'll make lots of new friends on a small boat! We met Shelly and Steve (who is a keen photographer, and we bonded over the castle pics), Grace and Bob (Grace is game for all adventures, but Bob is not so much), JoAnn (who speaks loudly and slowly, always a talker, and who revealed little by little that her husband is a programmer who's created four patents in his lifetime for software of various sorts), and Margie and Yolanda! Margie and Yolanda became our plus ones at dinners and excursions--they walked at our pace and enjoyed the same things we do. They live in South Carolina and Virginia, respectively, and were the kindest of ladies--I'm glad we bonded over the days of our trip. We've exchanged social media addresses and I hope we keep in touch! They gave mom and dad a card and some Lindt chocolates for their anniversary and were our guests at the celebratory dinner.
You'll see lots of things but not too many things! I was expecting to see four monuments before lunch and to clock ten miles on my watch every day, per my experience with other group tours, but no, no. That is not the Avalon way! We sleep in! We take the Gentle Walkers tours! We get an hour for lunch! Dinner is two hours and always at 7:00! Then, after dinner, NOTHING. You're free to wander about the boat, taking pics and chatting with your new pals.... Who knew that touring and vacationing could be RELAXING??
I heart my fam. They are my very favorite people, and I'm so, so happy we got to do this together; we know each other's paces and preferences and humor and triggers, and traveling like this is the most comfortable kind of travel. I'd do it again tomorrow. Isn't it lovely when your family are your friends? Of course, we wish there were others present today, but we Three Musketeers do okay. We're waiting for our takeoff from Zurich, and mom is reading, dad wants to go get in line, and I'm blogging. All is normal. :-) See you soon, mes amis!!
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