Preparations for the journey

Our journey

Jim and I are about to embark on a wonderful trip from Istanbul , Turkey to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The past several months have made this feel more like a journey of anticipation and preparation while riding on a roller coaster of uncertainty whether we’d be able to go at all. The political situation in this area of the world caused Regent Cruises to change the itinerary eliminating two nights in Luxor, Egypt, changing a port in Israel and adding in a third Greek port. All of that did a little bit to calm our nerves about this trip.  We kept saying over and over we were confident the cruise line would not put their very expensive ship at risk….not to mention risk the lives of the passengers. Seemed like daily we went from excitement to dismay to finally excitement about the trip.

THEN Jim began seeing flashing lights in his right eye. After several visits to the doctor they decided he was having a retina detachment. A procedure using a gas bubble injected into his eye would hopefully fix it and we could travel. That didn’t work, but the doctor said she could do surgery and fill his eye with silicone oil so he could fly, but his vision would be blurry. So that happened on Halloween- what a TRICK that turned out to be …..while ultimately being a great TREAT.

So we are in the midst of completing the great packing process being mindful to pack light. Jim cannot lift or bend, so managing the luggage will be a bit tricky.  We must get everything into two suitcases and a very small carry-on. I really wanted to use a luggage service and ship the luggage. It was quite expensive and the banker Jim won out in that decision. So I’ll be praying for lots of help at the Orlando and Istanbul airports for both of us AND the luggage.

Meanwhile we look forward to sharing our adventures with you. We are traveling with friends from St. Louis, Kathy and Bos Irvine. Kathy will also be writing a blog, www.knbtrips.blogspot.com. She is a great writer and focuses often on the life style and culture of the area. I’ll be reading her blog just to see what I have seen through her different lenses feel free to join in.

As always in our travels, I am grateful for the excellent help of the most marvelous travel agent in the world, Leigh Berghane. 

Particularly on this trip I am grateful for the prayer support of family and friends, marvelous modern medical procedures, and the grace of God- for I know it wouldn’t have happened without  all of that!!!!  Thank you Thank-you Thank-you.

We depart tomorrow morning bring driven to the Orlando Airport by Maritza Fernandez our wonderful housekeeper. From Orlando we fly through Frankfurt to Istanbul arriving about 4:40 PM Monday evening. The sun sets in Istanbul at 4:45PM Makes for a really short day. Someone asked me if we were ready for "the trip of a lifetime." We have been so fortunate to have so many trips of a lifetime. Each one has been so special- filled with amazing experiences and here we go again!!

So stay tuned as we visit several Greek Islands, Cyprus and Israel, which are all new for us. Then we'll see some familiar landscape in Jordan and Oman ending in 3 stops in United Arab Emirates.