Travel is . . .

. . . Not difficult if you are traveling alone

First of all, you tend to be more open to conversations with strangers and consequently meet more people than when you travel with another person.

Secondly,some people are just amazingly kind and inclusive. They'll invite you to sit with them at dinner, a show or a cocktail party. You always have the option of refusing.

I just spent a week on the new Holland America ship, Nieuw Amsterdam, reviewing it for a couple of publications. The ship is gorgeous, the officers and crew gracious. I blogged about the ship on www.allthingscruise.com.

Some strange things happen when you travel alone.

On the very first day, at boat drill, I met a woman,about my age and definitely height-challenged as I am. Because we both hover at around 5 feet (I'm actually 5' 1") we were positioned in the front of the line.

She said she's traveling alone, "so am I," I echoed, and a friendship took hold. We met for breakfast, had dinner together a couple of times and saw one of the ship's shows together. I believe we will keep in touch.

Then I took a shore excursion to El Yunque National Forest in San Juan. A young boy sat next to me on the bus with his parents two rows in front. He was from the Orlando area and knew the high school my grandsons had attended. Coincidence enough? No, he was born in the hospital in which I volunteer and where my youngest son was born. At one of the photo op spots I introduced myself to his parents and discovered his mom is the niece of a long-time friend with whom I'd had dinner 10 ddays earlier.

That night at dinner, my new friend and I were seated with a couple from California. After a lengthy conversation about food, cruising and books, he mentioned he'd lived in my exact Chicago neighborhood at about the same time I lived there as a young teen.

Coincidences? I am not sure. I know if I wasn't open to friendly overtures I would not have had as good a time.

A smile, my mother used to tell me, never hurts.