Getting Started

Tomorrow, May 14/12, Emily Fish and I will be off on the 15-day tour of some European cities that we have been planning over the past year or so. In 1988 when I was finishing my graduate school work I had the time and the extra money to travel in Europe, something I had longed to do for many years. In 1986 I had gone to London by myself for a couple of weeks and though I had found it terrifically interesting, I was excruciatingly lonely. This time I was determined not to travel alone. The difficulty was that I knew no one who had both the free time and the money to make it possible. I began to consider taking Elizabeth, then 11, with me. To gauge her interest I simply told her that I wanted to travel in Europe but had no one to go with. With her eyes fairly popping she immediately jumped in with: I'LL GO!!! And so we went together: a 19-day bus tour with Trafalgar Tours -- London, Brussels, Amsterdam, the Rhine, Lucerne, Innsbruck, Venice, Rome, Florence, Nice, Lyons, Paris, and back to London. It was an amazing trip for both of us, not always easy by any means, but wonderful nonetheless. It opened up for me the broader experience of the world that I had been tasting for years through books and movies and gave me the experience and confidence to gradually move on to other locales and adventures. For Elizabeth it was also an opening. She speaks of that time as having given her a bigger feeling for the world and its possibilities, many of which she moves toward as her own life continues to develop. As my grandchildren have grown and become such interesting young beings, I promised each of them a trip somewhat like that Elizabeth and I took. In 2009 Theoren and I took a two week tour of Italy with Cosmos. It was really fun. Theoren developed more and more confidence interacting with the 50 or so other guests on the tour. Many were from Austrailia and New Zealand and they were terrific people. He especially bonded with a computer geek from Singapore -- they had a lot of jokes with one another. So now it's Emily's turn. Theoren had particularly chosen to go to Italy as he had studied the Roman Empire and wanted especially to see the Colosseum. Emily expressed a desire to go to Paris though also was drawn to Italy. I put London in there as well as I haven't been there for some time and love to walk about in the footsteps of one of my favorite people, Samuel Pepys. So our itinerary is: London for three nights; the Chunnel to Paris where we will have two and a half days, then catch the over-night sleeper train to Venice; three nights in the glories of Venice; train to Florence; a day trip to Pisa to climb the iconic tower; train to Rome for three more nights, and then home. It's a whirlwind, I know, but it will be fun and it will be a learning experience for both of us -- not just in the places we visit, but also about ourselves and each other. We will both keep journals and we'll take advantage of each locale to talk about the history and importance of each. We would love to hear from any of you who are following our trip -- just a hello, or, even better, some news of yourself. Love to all.