It's just too much.

If you have read this far then you know I spilled the beans and told my wife about my plans for our 30th wedding anniversary.  From this point forward it actually became easier to narrow down, what is now, our plans.  The first thing I did was research air fare since including Greece in the trip would obviously raise that price.  Surprisingly, it did not raise it out of reach so we began to plan what we would do in each country.

Our first stop would be Athens.  With the abundant Greek ruins we would be in heaven stopping by the Temple of Zeus, the Parthenon, a trip to the Oracle at Delphi just to mention a very few.  Of course what would a trip to Greece be without visiting the picturesque village of Santorini?

We discovered early that renting an apartment in each country would be far cheaper than staying in hotels (there will be more on apartment rentals vs. hotels in a later post).  Athens has numerous apartments available for short term rental, anywhere from 3 days to a month with prices which are very reasonable when compared to hotels.  I narrowed my search down to 3 apartments and moved on to transportation.

Apparently, getting around Athens is best to do as a pedestrian.  Traffic jams are constant and Greeks like to strike.  Actually, most European countries strike quite a bit and if you watch the news you will see they can effectively shut down a city or a country.  It probably isn't fair to say the best way is as a pedestrian but it did seem like less of a hassle.  Taking a taxi means paying attention to the time of day and the meter.  In Athens, there are two rates, one for daytime and one for evening/night.  I came across several reports that stated taxi drivers will set the night rate (which is higher) during the day when they pick up tourists.  To keep from being overcharged you had to constantly be aware of what the meter was set to.

As it turned out, during my research I happened across "George, the famous taxi driver of Athens".  You can access is webpage here http://www.greecetravel.com/taxi/ George's story of becoming a taxi drive is interesting and very telling of the economy and a Greek's love of his country.  With several testimonials, not only on his website but also in several travel forums, it looked like George was going to get hired for a few days while we were in Greece.

Our next stop would be Paris, we fly in and go to an apartment then enjoy the city and all it has to offer.  I repeated the apartment and transportation research that I completed for Athens, this time I researched Paris.

Again, I was able to find affordable studio and one bedroom apartments located in the heart of Paris.  I narrowed the choices to three and not finding a "George, the famous taxi driver of Paris", set about trying to make sense of the Metro system.  Of course, we plan on walking a great deal but at the end of the day, when you are 2 miles from the apartment and tired, hopping on the Metro is just the way to go.

Moving on to our next stop, we planned to travel to London then Edinburgh.  The same research narrowing of choices was done as we looked at what to do in London and Edinburgh.

Travel to London from Paris is relatively easy, you can fly, take a ferry across the English Channel or take a train.  We didn't want to fly so we were left with one of the other two choices.  The train through the channel tunnel (I am told some call it the chunnel but not to call it that while in Paris or London) would take 2.5 hours from the the center of Paris to the center of London.  Nice and quick.

The ferry would take pretty much the whole day however, the advantage would be traveling to the coast and enjoying the countryside then crossing the English Channel and watching the white cliffs of Dover grow ever larger as you neared England.  Then the travel through the English countryside to London.  We were undecided for quite awhile until we had an "aha" moment.

If you remember, the original plan was four weeks.  We looked closely at everywhere we would visit and everything we would see and do.  We then realized, even with four weeks, we were trying to do too much.  I say this because my wife travels the same way  I do, at at leisurely pace.  We don't want to rush through all the tourist sites and wolf down our meals.  We want to immerse ourselves in the life and culture of where we are.  Certainly we would visit the sites high on our personal "must see" list, the Parthenon in Athens, the Louvre in Paris, Stonehenge in England, Kilvarock Castle in the Highlands of Scotland and finally the Military Tattoo in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle.  Those were just the sites at the top of the list for each country.  Those were followed by other sites we definitely wanted to see.  Then of course there would be shopping, eating, time spent waiting in lines, transportation would take time as well.  Let's not forget the mundane tasks either, four weeks away from home means we would have to do laundry.

We sat back and reassessed what we really wanted to do.  It amounts to this, it is our 30th wedding anniversary and we want to celebrate the achievement.  We don't want to have memories of being rushed, hurried, exhausted and just plain run down.  We want celebration memories.  We decided four weeks would be too long and we would cut back to one destination.  When all the pros and cons were weighed, the history and romanticism of Paris won.

We would spend three weeks in Paris, France, the City of Lights, the City of Love.  We could relax, stroll the neighborhoods in the different arrondissements.  Visit flea markets, shop the wine and cheese stores.  Take a morning croissant or baguette for breakfast

And that brings us within a week of where we currently are.

Until next time, keep planning. 

The Cat's out of the Bag

The original plan was to take 4 weeks vacation and spend it all in Europe.  Of course, with that much time available I wanted to visit different areas, countries and cultures.  I also wanted to make this trip romantic which is why one of the destinations I picked was the City of Love, Paris, France.  Naturally, I thought if we were going to be that close to Scotland we could go the the highlands and visit Kilvarock Castle, my ancestral home.  From there we'd make our way down to the lowlands where a branch of her family began.  And lastly, head to Spain to discover where the other branch of her family began.  All destinations would be relatively close and easily accessible.

But, I had a thought.  A thought that many husbands wish they had had before they bought a bowling ball for an anniversary gift.  The clueless husband does have his heart in the right place, "I love bowling, get the wife a bowling ball and she'll love bowling too and we can spend more time together."  Ahhh, no, it doesn't work that way.  It works when you include your wife and get her input, what does SHE really want?  And that was my thought, I had the perfect trip planned ... in my mind.  Naturally, after I had "the thought" I did what any reasonably sane husband would do.  I ignored it.

I continued planning the perfect trip but for some reason it wouldn't come together.  I couldn't get flights to line up, hotels were getting expensive, the time frame of being there meant we could enjoy this but miss that.  It just didn't feel right.  All the time I spent researching and planning, "the thought" was still there.  It would poke through the cloudy ignorance of husbandhood and make me doubt everything I was trying to do. I decided I would get her input without her knowing she was giving me input.

One night I casually turned the conversation to traveling, don't laugh, I can do casual.  Anyway, I asked her, "If we ever make it to Europe, where would you want to go?"

"Paris."

Paris, check.

"Scotland."

Scotland, check.

"Greece."

Greece, che ... what?

"Greece?  I don't remember ever talking about going to Greece, honey.  Why Greece?"

"I don't know, I just always thought it would be cool to go to Greece."

Okay, time to regroup.

Quickly checking my mental geography maps it was easy to see Paris and Scotland are in Western Europe while Greece is about as far east in Europe as you can go.  Suddenly images of Sleepless in Seattle with Tom Hanks filled my mind.  The scene where he is explaining to his son where Seattle is in relationship to New York and utters the classic line, "what are they teaching you in school?"  Mind you, all this played out in my head as I would never, I repeat, never say this out loud to my wife.  (Husbands, boyfriends too, take note of that.  Don't question your wife's intelligence, accept the fact that it is far above yours and always will be).

I don't actually remember if it was that night or the next day but I quickly realized this was not going to be something I could plan secretly.  I had to tell her what I was up to.

I do remember my wife being very excited about it and she enthusiastically threw ideas out for where to go and what to see.  They came so fast I don't remember everything she suggested.  I mainly remember her being very excited about it and very appreciative too.

Let's Start with a Flashback

It really isn't much of flashback but it should bring everyone up to real time.  Let me explain.  I first thought about surprising my wife with a trip to Europe several months ago, so the upcoming flashback will bring everyone to the present without the feeling of coming in in the middle.  With that in mind, the next few posts are events that occurred in the near past, (no more than four months ago).

When I first thought of Europe my idea was to take all my vacation time at once, I intended to spend four weeks traveling Europe.  My wife could enjoy the sights and I could enjoy the sight of my wife enjoying the sights.  My first attempt at an itinerary fell short, all I could think of was England, Scotland and France.  For those who happen to be geographically minded, you'll notice the three countries listed are all in Western Europe.  With France being the only country on the European Continent.  So, I did what all good husbands do, figured that was good enough.

Once I made up my mind that I was really going to do this, I had to discover if I could really afford it.  So, the mighty search engine that is Google became my new best friend while I checked air fare and hotel costs.  Transportation and food had to be considered as well.  After all, I do not intend to visit the continent famous for its gastronomical treasures and eat at McDonald's.  I want to sample the local fare and I know my wife will as well.  So, add extra to the food budget.

After several days spent trudging through the never ending results of numerous search queries, I came to the conclusion I could actually do this.  I can afford this.  Of course, it meant actually staying within a budget for the next few months and I had to come up with a plausible reason for my wife that would explain why I am suddenly being somewhat anal about the budget but, I could do this.  For those that are considering there own traveling adventure, as we progress I will pass on the costs.

Back to the planning.  I was concerned about getting our passports.  Most Americans never travel outside the border so there isn't a need to have a passport but, we had decided a few years ago that even if we never used them we should get passports.  My mother-in-law lives a few miles from the Canadian border and should we ever decide to visit Canada while visiting my mother-in-law, passports would make the crossing much easier.  So, since we had already decided to get passports I would just tell my wife its time to get them, there would be no suspicion.  First hurdle crossed.

Next time I'll let you know how I let the cat out of the bag.

Starting off

I guess I should start by giving a little background as to what this blog will be about.  When my wife and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary I surprised her with a blank check to any jewelry store of her choice.  Before you respond saying how nice it must be to be rich, I can assure you of two things.  One, I'm not rich, I work an entry level supervisor's position in logistics.  The pay keeps a roof over our heads and food in our bellies.  Two, I know my wife.  I knew she would not head to the nearest Kay jewelers and throw down on a $30,000 diamond ring.  She went to a silversmith and bought a very nice bracelet and necklace of woven fine silver.  Beautiful pieces for a beautiful woman.

On our 25th anniversary, she wanted a new vehicle.  After 15 years of driving a mini-van, our children were grown and she wanted a pick-up truck, yeah, I married a country girl.  So, I went out and bought her the truck of her choice.  Again, her choice was very simple.  A full size truck with a full size bed.  No fancy paint job or interior she would have to worry about getting scratched up as she hauled lumber or firewood or camping stuff around. 

So, as you can see, I've put myself in the unusual position of having to one-up myself every five years.

On July 2nd, 2013 I will have been married for 30 years ... to the same fantastic woman.  In today's society of throw away relationships, I'm rather proud of this.  Of course, now I needed to come up with something special to mark this milestone.

I considered many things but finally settled on one I knew both she and I would enjoy, a trip to Europe.

And that is what this blog will be about, the planning and execution of traveling to Europe.  I really don't know how often I'll post, I'm going to set a goal of at least once per week.  Since my wife has not been out of the United States since she was a mere child and I haven't been out of the states for almost 35 years, we will be starting from scratch, planning the itinerary and applying for passports, I think I should have something to post each week.  Hopefully, we'll have a little fun along the way and for anyone that decides to follow this blog, maybe you will learn from my experiences in traveling and starting a blog (which I did not see myself doing at all, ever).