Getting ready for my trip to Spain and Portugal

My friend Shelley and I are flying to Madrid in two days to join our Viking cruise adventure. We'll be exploring there for three days, then in Lisbon for two days, before boarding the 89-passenger Viking riverboat in Porto for a week on the Duoro River.

I've taken many trips - about 93 of three days or longer since I retired 15 years ago - but it's been three years since I've been out of the country. In that time I've aged physically - of course - and I need to be more careful about how I get around. I used to take long flights in stride. Now I have a newly complaining knee. I bought two seat canes for the times I'll need to sit while listening to a tour guide or standing in line. I may pack my trekking poles as well. I'll take my regular cane with me onboard.

I've been buying stuff! Pants and shirts and cooling towels and fans and sun hats and really good sandals and supportive shoes and a crossbody bag. Amazon has been my friend, and so has the nearby UPS where I have returned probably 30 of the 50 things I bought and tried on.  

I'm using ChatGPT a lot to help me prepare. I love this new tool, in spite of my suspicions about artificial intelligence overall. I have a thorough packing list specifically for where we'll be traveling, and tomorrow I'll fill the two suitcases. I wish I could take just a few items of clothing and have laundry facilities close at hand, but we're moving around. 

My biggest challenge for this evening is finding our adapter for European electrical outlets. I know we have one, but I'm not exactly sure where it is.

Forty-eight hours from now we'll be a couple of hours from landing in Madrid.

I am really grateful to be going on this trip - that I have a good friend in Shelley, that my husband Art is supportive of my going without him, that I can afford it. 

Mostly, life is good!