"She Who Rides Many Ponies"

EUROPE! Here we come!

I've moved in on Durangos space for a while. I want to begin sharing my plans for our upcoming trip.

This is a picture of the outside of our hotel in Venice.  Should be an interesting place, right on the Grand Canal :-))

 I've read SOOO many reviews on these places.  I hope I've found us good ones!

We aren't too fussy about our accommodations as long as they don't smell!  I have a hard time with that.  Looking forward to the food, the wine, the...ok,  the food and wine is pretty high on my list :-(

I can't wait till I'm actually there....

We have talked about going to Europe for several years, however, we have both been through the loss of our parents now, and it just never seemed "the right time" to be thinking about leaving.   One parent would fall ill, when that one passed, another one became ill and so the story went.  

I'd give up ANY trip to have them all back, but,  it is the circle of life and so,  we have decided to take "that trip" before WE are too old to enjoy it.

I'm thinking about taking my laptop,  to blog about our adventures so you can all virtually join us if you'd like.  Who knows?  You might get some inspirations to travel!  But, on the other hand....with space being at such a premium, I may JUST SAY NO to technology and blog about it when I get back.  I really believe that we are TOO attached to our Facebook, and notice that most people feel they have to send pics. or post pics. IMMEDIATELY!  Im debating because I really want to just "be in the moment" and not necessarily "share" it now.  It COULD wait till I get home.

I have also decided to do my own research, and book everything ourselves.  With the internet, its very easy to read reviews from other travelers and make decisions on Lodging, Restaurants and Tours.  I'm a HUGE review reader, as well as writer.  I belong to Trip Advisor as a senior contributor and feel this is an excellent way to make travel choices.  But, this is the largest trip I've ever booked, so you can be the judge if this was the way to do it or not.  We'll see....!

We will be gone about 3 weeks.  Hopefully I haven't booked us to busy, we both like to travel  leisurely.   We have started by booking a Mediterranean Cruise (Greek Islands) and we then began to "build" our trip around that.

We will be seeing Venice, Debrovnik Croatia, Athens Greece, Iamir Turkey, Split Croatia, Florence Italy, Pisa, Tuscany and Rome.   A week of this will be on a cruise,  and a couple day tours.  But other than that, we will be exploring... :-))

We are giving ourselves plenty of "slow" time to explore on our own. 

Get this....We have decided to take this 3 week long trip in ONE CARRYONE suitcase each....I know... sounds impossible, and it MAY be, but I'm incoorporating some good ideas to help with this.  Hopefully you will find them helpful too!

Stay tuned, I will be posting those "cool" ideas on how to fit everything I need, hopefully into one small bag!