RTW 2024 Carefree Travel

  You can't sail around the world without it impacting your view of the world. So here are my top four from the trip. I never truly realized the horrendous impact that European Colonialism had on the world from the mid-1400s until well into the last century. The devastation and cultural destruction was massive. It seems the Spanish and Portuguese were the worst, the Danes, Dutch and Germans the best, and the French and Brits were somewhere in the middle. It's way different seeing it in real life than reading about it in a history book. And yes - my forefathers contributed on a huge scale. There was a time when the sun never set on the British Empire. 

  We've been home for three months and have had much time to reflect on our trip, discuss it, and answer hundreds of questions. We had billed this as "the trip of a lifetime," and it indeed turned out that way. It was better than our expectations, so kudos to Regent (and ourselves) for an incredible five months.  Our relationship not only survived all those days at sea but also gained and grew from it—which is more than we can say for some other couples. In addition to upgrading to a bigger cabin for more personal space, the secret was " divide and conquer ." We didn't feel the need to do everything together, whether that was on or off the ship. Allison played cards, learned bridge, and had her gym and coffee buddies. I did the same with the morning deck walkers and sports players. Between us, we rapidly got to meet most of the passengers and crew. We used the same philosophy on the excursions. About 2/3 of the time, we were together, but when one of us saw ...