Second verse, same as the first . . .

Hello all!

So we are off again, on another grand adventure! We can count the number of days on one hand, so it is about time to revive the blog. For those of you new to this, you will see the details of our Europe 07 trip in earlier posts. We decided to make this a tradition, and plan to update this every few days or so on our trip. It has a three fold benefit: keeping friends and family informed, recording the good and bad in case any are traveling in this direction, and keeping the moms calm as they worry about their little "babies" gallivanting across the globe. :) Hi moms!

So here we are, three days to departure, feeling . . . good about the trip. Things are purchased, itineraries planned (for the most part) and our heads are definitely there already. Tonight and tomorrow are all about laundry and packing, with the hopes that Thursday at 5 pm Tim leaves work, grabs Michelle and the dog and we are on our way to LA. After an overnight stay with Tim's sister Susanne we will be on an early Friday am flight.

A few changes this time from the 07 trip, we will just be traveling the two of us, no Duane or Brandon. :( Hopefully we will still have some of the high adventure even though we are minus two traveling companions. Also new countries in the mix: Spain, Portugal and Switzerland. All three are new to Tim, Switzerland is a repeat of Michelle's '96 trip with her friend Julia. And the timeline is a bit extended. The 07 trip was 21 days, the 09 trip is 24 days. Pretty soon we will just need to move there!

We will start the current excursion in Spain (seeing Madrid and Toledo) then to Portugal (seeing Lisbon and Sintra), then back to Spain (Cordoba, Seville, and Barcelona). The French Rivera is next (Nice, Cannes, Monaco and Marseille) then to northern Italy (Genoa, Milan, Cinque Terre, and the lake district), and Switzerland (Interlaken and Lucern) with a flight out of Paris. Whew, we are exhausted already!

This is the plan of course, and always subject to change based on fancy. You know us, wild and crazy travelers that we are!

So hopefully the next post will be from Madrid, where we can happily say that we have arrived and are enjoying the trip. Be sure to post comments on this, as after a few weeks Michelle gets a tad homesick and comments revive her adventurous spirit. Hugs and kisses to all!