Am I Ready?

The Quest, my second voyage on this ship

It actually seems like only yesterday - albeit with Christmas and New Year's plus a busy January squashed in between - that I returned from my fall vacation.  I have been asking myself am I actually quite ready to take off on another adventure.  While I am not entirely sure, I guess the answer must be yes as my bag is almost packed and on Friday, March 7th, I head off again.  My hesitation may also be because I don't usually travel this early in the spring.  

Unfortunately, the initial plans for this vacation included a friend joining me on a cruise which is the first part of the trip.  However, she had to cancel because of a health issue so I will be doing that part alone.  Thankfully, I am getting somewhat adept at tackling travel on my own, particularly cruises.  Going solo anywhere is something my much younger self would be impressed with as I didn't even like going shopping alone in my teenage years.  Now, it is nothing to fly to new places and explore them independently!

This trip will really have two parts:  it starts with an Azamara cruise from Grand Canaria, one of the Canary Islands, with stops in ports in Portugal, Spain, Morocco and Gibraltar before finishing in Lisbon.  Once I disembark there, I will then spend about 12 days with my friends, John and Pedro, who retired to Portugal from London a couple of years ago.  That part of the itinerary is a bit up in the air but I think we will go to some places I haven't seen before and I also hope we might be able to visit Porto as I really enjoyed it the one time I was there.  

This trip is shorter, nearly 4 weeks, than the epic (for me) journey I did last fall.  For most of it, I will be in places I've never seen before and, for sure, Morocco will be a completely new experience.  Hopefully, I will have some interesting stories to blog about! 

Below, for reference, is the cruise itinerary.  I will start by spending a couple of days in Las Palmas, one of the towns on Grand Canaria, before I board the ship.  I am familiar with the Quest as it was the ship I was on for the Croatian Intensive cruise I did last October.  I will also know one friendly face on it as Astrid, the Assistant Cruise director, from that voyage is also on it this time.  Further, I am really looking forward to some warmer weather!  




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