Europe Trip Review - Half Over

Our Rooftop Mansion in Crete - Greece

The Orangerie - Darmstadt

The Reichstag - Berlin

Stanislas Square - Nancy - France

When Lulu planned a 70 day trip to Europe - I thought she was crazy. But her track record is good - so I just go with the flow. Today is day 36 - and it has been better than my wildest dreams. Everything is going fine.

My friends think - how can you afford it? It is simple - Lulu is paid to do this. She is an expert on school library media centers. People seek her advice. Her nut is covered. I must pay for my plane tickets and food. We would not be doing this if we would be paying the freight - at least not nearly as often.

We left home May 19th - we flew from Tallahassee to Atlanta to NYC. In New York - Delta offered us $4000 to give up our tickets to Athens. We said OK - and we were ahead $4000. They even have a new system where we got the credit in Amazon Gift Cards that never run out. What a way to start out a 70 day journey. It covers over a lot of mistakes.

We got to our destination - Chania - Crete - Greece - a couple hours later. Nancy had booked the former governor's mansion for a group of 8 of us for a convention. We were there for a week and had a blast. We rented a little Fiat convertible.

Next was a flight to Frankfurt and our new home - Darmstadt. Lulu is a visiting professor here at Darmstadt Hochschule University. We are staying in a visiting professor guest house.

During this Germany gig - we went to Berlin for 4 days for another convention. Lulu was a guest of the State. In 3 days our month in Germany will be over.

This past weekend we spent our anniversary in Nancy - France. What a beautiful romantic city that is! For the first time - we saw an opera. It was all over the place in Italian - and French - but the music was enchanting. We had nosebleed seats - but were then comped a VIP private box.

Now you are up to date. It seems like forever since we were home - but it really has passed quickly. We have had splendid weather - in 35 days it has rained 2 nights - no days! We had some hot 80s days - but now it is more 70s. We have no air conditioning. We leave the windows open. Very nice sleeping.

We have traveled by plane - train - automobile - tram - boat - cab - subway - trolley. We have had a rental car in Greece and Germany. We took a high speed train to Berlin. We will fly to Copenhagen - then London.

We each travel with one bag - that way if we get offered a bump - we can take it. As a result - you see me in the same 5 outfits. If I mix and match - I can wear them 25 ways!

The trip gets better Friday - we go to Copenhagen - Denmark- for a week. We will be there with my son and his family. Then we all fly to London. Lulu teaches a class for FSU in London. We also have our 12 Bedford Place apartment there. We have 4 sets of guests coming.

What is nice about a trip like this - we get to sample each country like residents. We cook meals - stay in residences - have working cell phones - and internet. We have TV from home - Sirius Radio - and The New York Times and Washington Post. I almost forgot - the Tallahassee Democrat.

August 2nd - we fly home to Tallahassee. Another bump to bookend this trip would be appropriate.