Bali Bound

Now that I'm home again vacation is starting to just feel like a wonderful memory.  It's a little sad how fast it can end.  But the trip didn't really feel like it flew along at a crazy pace.  And now it's back to real life! Our last day in London we had extra time in the morning to wander around but we still had to have our bags out at a specific time and that threw the schedule a little bit.  But I was up early and walked down to Trafalgar square.  I'm still a little awed at the sheer size of London but how incredibly walkable the city is.  Also it was really nice to get there before the tourists and take pictures when it was just me!  And of course I fit in one last waffle.  That's a delight I will miss. We did survive the plane ride.  Air Canada had a far better crew on the way back home than on the way there, I might consider traveling with them again for an international flight.  The one thing I did find amusing is Heathrow air...

Oh Venice. I don't know entirely what to say about you. It feels sad to compare it to the las Vegas version but there is a little bit there. The entire island exists because the tourists want to go there. It's a strange place to wander what with the combination of tiny little alley ways, canals and bridges. It is also crazy busy. Even on a rainy morning. By the time we left there was 4 cruise ships. But we had a good day. We started out with taking a boat from the mainland to Venice. Also, did i mention that it was pouring rain and windy, it was cold, even for this tough Canadian girl. We did also get to visit the Doge's palace. It was the Venetian dukes palace. We did a guided tour and he gave us a lot of information. A lot of information. But it was ornate like every other palace we've seen. We made a little group with a few of our fellow travelers after the tour. We did have a bad learning experience with lunch but were happy to learn that at least ...

It has been both a laid back day and a busy day. Today we hit three countries in less than eight hours. Crazy times. We started out in Germany where we were woken up to a crazy rainstorm. We did have good timing and it was finished by the time we were off. We then made our way south through Austria. What a beautiful area it is. They call it the Tyrol and it is lush and mountainous. We had a mid-morning stop in Innsbruck. We had a bit of time to spend in the old town area. Sadly, the golden roof was covered for cleaning. I'll admit this is always the risk of traveling in the off times. Many areas have been nice and quiet but it does mean that this is the time of year that maintenance is done. But there was plenty other things to see and it was a nice spot for the morning. After our morning stop we made it through brenner pass into Italy on the way to Venice!! It was quite the drive. I understand why my travel agent thought I was a little bit nuts to do London-Pari...

It's starting to feel more real now. I'm currently at the airport waiting for the flight. I'd also like to say that the airport got real fancy in the last few months since my last trip. I'm a little sad that the international area isn't open yet. It's still surreal that this time tomorrow we will be in Amsterdam, probably heading to Keukenhof. Home of the bulb fields. Or maybe we'll be sleeping off the jet lag I'm still a little off with the time change. I'm hoping that it doesn't hit us too badly as we leave at night and in theory can sleep on the plane. And it'll be night time by the time we get to Amsterdam. Either way I'm getting used to the lack of sleep with my weird work schedules so I have hope it'll all be good. Our plane has arrived!! In a few hours well be in the air on the way to excitement and adventure.

Hello again, If you were wondering, we leave on Saturday the 5th in the evening and we return May 20th. I'm sure it wil be a real whirlwind of a trip but I couldn't decide on just a few places. I chose the trip that gives a few nights in each places so we'll be seeing a lot of Europe! I've also discovered in the last bit that while looking up information my cereal box French (as I like to call the little bit of the language I've picked up over the years) is far better than I thought. I guess I'll have to wait and see how it goes once we make it to Paris. But I'm off to continue packing as we're gone in less that three days!

In less than a week Cindy and I will be on our way to Europe for a two week extravaganza.  So here's my attempt to share the travel stories and keep in contact. Here I have a lovely map for you to see where we are going (we're starting in Amsterdam and ending in London): View Europe Destinations in a larger map