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I fancy myself a backpack-carrying, adventure-seeking traveler, at home in hostels and on hiking trails. But there I was, on a luxury cruise ship, sipping wine with silver-haired foxes, fox-trotting with male escorts in the ballroom, and escorting myself on a tapas-like tour around Europe, sampling cities for a day via ship, bus, foot and bike. It was the biking aspect that had led to my unlikely sojourn on the ship, Crystal Cruises ' Serenity. Months before, my cyclist-enthusiast ears perked up when I heard about the cruise, with biking-based itineraries in several port cities. The regimented itinerary of a cruise with its scheduled ports of call, and the idea of spending that much time on a ship, wasn't all that appealing to me, but the prospect of biking around a few different European cities was. So I packed my sneakers, some cute bike shorts and an open mind. Embarking in Dover, England, I was sure I was the only passenger hauling a backpack on board when the butler assigned to my cabin floor did a double-take at the sight of my luggage. But after a restful sleep, rocked by the waves of the Atlantic and the gentle hum of the ship's engine, thoughts of hostels were but a distant memory. On the first of my 10-day adventure hitting seven cities in four countries, my cousin and fellow cruiser Olivia Female, I, and a few other cyclists biked around Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, on cruisers we were given. We traversed the quaint, compact island, two-wheeling by fawn-hued cows, primary-colored fishing boats and World War II bunkers.