YCGL - Wednesday, June 5, 2024 - The Next Grand Adventure - Final

 OK, It's time to travel again!  And do it on a grand style!

On June 13th, I'm flying down to Texas to spend another week with my brothers.  Hopefully I'll be healthier this time than in April.  

On the 19th, I'll meet up with a group of 16 others and fly via Turkish Airlines to Istanbul and then on to Thessaloniki, Greece to start an 11-day tour of Greece, the Aegean islands and Kusadasi, Turkey, basically following the Footsteps of the Apostle Paul's second journey.  

Then I'll spend two extra days in Athens before flying to Bergen, Norway.  

I will then start a Hurtigruten cruise from Bergen, up over the top of Norway to Kirkenes, adjacent to the Russian border, and back down to Trondheim.  I will stay the 15-18th there and then 

Head down to the farm where Sally's grandmother grew up in Vingelen.  I will attend the wedding of Tore Hilmarsen and Marit Helene Kirkbakk Hangaard on July 20th.  

Then on the 23rd, I'll fly to Boston to meet up with my son Erik and Eliza for a week.  

I'll finally fly home on July 30th.  In total, I'll be gone 47 days.

So, let's fill this out a little now, before I start my travels.

This all started last fall when we learned that Tore and Marit were going to get married next summer (2024).  I basically invited myself to attend and visit.  And since I was going to be in Norway, Sally and I had talked about the next Norwegian cruise would be on the Hurtigruten, the fleet of Norwegian ships that carry mail and passengers to the communities on the northern Norwegian coast.  I figured this would be the time to do it.  So the original trip was going to be to fly to Bergen about July 2nd, take the Hurtigruten on the 5th, cruise the 11 days and then get to Vingelen for the wedding and fly back home from there, which would have totaled 25 days.  Not a bad plan.

But then I read about the Footsteps of Paul tour with Mike Rinehart that was going to be from June 19th to the 30th.  It dovetailed right into place with the Norway trip.  The group was flying out of Houston, so it made sense to visit the brothers before hand.  And then I was explaining all this to Erik and he said, "Hey, come to Boston on your way home.  We can go to Martha's Vineyard for a couple of days and then come back to town."  So, that's how it went from 25 days to 47.  

The Greece  Trip

June 19-June 30 - The Greece trip is a guided "Footsteps of St. Paul", more or less following the arc of his 2nd and 3rd missionary journeys.  This is also a tour that Sally and I had talked about doing. The tour includes land and sea portions .   

It is being led by Pastors David Hansen and Michael Rinehart.  I don't know David, but Mike Rinehart is an old friend.  He is currently the Bishop of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America).  Before that, he was the third pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Conroe, which mom and dad helped found with Jack Lien back in the 1970's (by which time I had moved out).  Jack was the father of Miriam Lien Clifford who I visited in Little Rock, AR back in April on my eclipse trip.  

June 19 - I'll meet up with the group at the airport for a 9:00pm flight to Istanbul, arriving on...

June 20.  We'll continue to fly to Thessaloniki and stay there that night.

June 21 - Tour the port city of Kavala, Philippi and Thessaloniki.

June 22 - Tomb of Philip II of Macedonia (and father of  Alexander the Great), the Byzantine churches of Veria and the mountaintop monasteries of Meteora.

June 23 - Delphi and Athens.

June 24 - Athens, the Acropolis and Mars Hill (if its not too hot!)

June 25 - Athens and cruise to Mykonos.

June 26 - Kusadasi, Ephesus and Patmos.

June 27 - Rhodes.

June 28 - Crete and Santorini.

June 29 - Athens and Corinth

June 30 - Athens, then on my own.

July 1-2 - Spend the day in Athens, then fly to Bergen, NO

The Norway Trip

July 3 - Visit Kristin, a friend from Laramie.

July 4-5 Tour Bergen, then catch the Hurtigruten.

July 5-July 15 - The Hurtigruten is a fleet of ships that deliver mail and passengers up and down the coast of Norway. There are 33 stops between Bergen and Kirkenes which are repeated on the way south back to Bergen. I will be getting off at Trondheim on the way south.

July 15-18 - Tour Trondheim

July 18 -23 - Vingelen and Tore and Marit's Wedding on the 20th.

July 23-30 - Fly from Trondheim to Boston.  Spent the week with Erik and Eliza.

July 30 - Fly to Laramie!