It has been a dream of mine to take my grandmother, GG, on a river cruise for quite some time. My dreams were put on hold as an array of scheduling issues and a little thing called COVID plagued the travel industry. After months of planning, I was able to deliver the most exciting news to my grandmother in March: “GG! We’re going to Germany.”
The plan was simple. GG and I would fly to Frankfurt to experience one of Emerald Cruises’ Moselle river cruises. I was excited to cruise the Moselle, as it has been dubbed Europe’s most beautiful river by my father. Unfortunately, the trip wasn’t as easy to execute as I had initially thought…
Not minutes after I hung up the phone inviting GG to join me in Germany, she started packing her bags. My grandmother is a very prepared woman. Some joke that I was born with a clipboard in my hand. If that’s the case, then GG was born with a daily planner, calendar, checklists (yes, more than one), a rolodex, an Excel Spreadsheet, and a filing cabinet in hers. Her most impressive piece of packing advice? To bring an extra copy of my eyeglass prescription in case something happened to mine and I needed to get another pair of glasses made while we were gone.
Shortly after GG (quite prematurely, I might add) packed her bags and was ready to travel, our trip was moved. A new plan and new adventure awaited us. Instead of heading to Germany we would fly to Bucharest, Romania. Having never been on a lower Danube cruise, I was excited to see a new part of the world.
“Isn’t that a bit dangerous given the current situation in Ukraine?” GG asked.
“They wouldn’t send us if they thought so,” I assured her.
Turns out, GG was right. As always.
Not too long after our flights to Romania were booked, I got a call from Emerald Cruises saying that we may be better suited to sail through Southern France on the River Rhone. Though an unexpected destination, I was eager to sail the Rhone again after my trip through France last October. And I was especially eager to take my best friend, GG, which stands for Gorgeous Grandmother, by the way.
After numerous checks off our (GG’s) list, suitcase packings and unpackings, and plenty of phone calls (mostly to assure I had a backup copy of my glasses prescription), we are finally on our way to Nice to board Emerald Liberte.
Though the path that we have taken to this trip has been uncertain, I am sure of one thing: GG and I will have the most fun together we have ever had in our entire lives. I can’t wait to share what lies on the road, or river, ahead.
Make sure to follow our adventure on Instagram. See you next week!
Britton and her grandmother are guests of Emerald Cruises for the purposes of reviewing Emerald Liberte and the itinerary.
This article was originally published at River Cruise Advisor.