A mammoth undertaking

I thoroughly enjoyed my holiday – more than I had expected to in fact. I’d thought long and hard about what sort of holiday I wanted, and when to take it, and it all worked out very well.

I was badly in need of a break after the bid had been submitted, and before all the hard work starts on actually delivering the promised programme. Plus I knew that I’d find the anniversary of Christopher’s death very gruelling, so I wanted something booked for soon afterwards to give me an incentive to keep going. It was my local pharmacist though who spurred me into booking a break. We were chatting when I picked up a prescription several months ago, and he asked me if I had any holidays booked. When I confessed not, he said “That’s very unlike you! I’m sure it would do you good to have something booked to look forward to.”  What a pity I couldn’t get the holiday prescribed on the NHS, because he was absolutely right!

I chose a cruise because it offered a lot of structure, but also the opportunity to dip into and out of the organised activities depending on how I was feeling. I also liked the idea of unpacking only once, and having the boat take me on to somewhere new every day. The cruise operator was the same one that I went to Venice with over Christmas, and is French, so I knew the food would be good. The company I travelled with had a total of 12 British guests on the cruise, all of whom were very interesting people. We all ate together on board on one big table and had a lot of fun (with unlimited wine at both lunchtime and dinner which certainly added to the gaiety!). That worked very well, as one of the things I particularly dislike about holidaying on my own is having to eat by myself at dinner time.

La Belle de L'Adriatique moored at Vis

I only joined in on two organised excursions, both to rather beautiful national parks. All the other stops were at interesting walled cities and fortified towns, where it was very easy to pick up a town map from the lounge bar and wander around on my own with my guide book. I do object to being lectured at in 40 degree heat and no shade! I take the view that if I’m interested, I’ll have done my homework and researched the place (as I had with Split and Dubrovnik). I much preferred doing the sights at my own speed, and stopping for an icecream whenever it got too hot.  And when I felt particularly antisocial, I could always retire to my air conditioned cabin with a book and just enjoy the views from the windows.

I missed Christopher very much – particularly in the towns of  Split and Trogir which we had visited together. In fact, it gave me quite a shock when I was walking through the narrow streets of Trogir, and unexpectedly came across a restaurant where we’d stopped for lunch three years ago. But, on the whole, and excepting little difficulties like that, it was a very enjoyable holiday and I’m very glad I made the effort to go.