June 2014

The time has finally come to depart on our adventure. The day began with the trip to LAX from San Diego being uneventful. Upon arrival, we were greeted with a dilemma. Luftansa was looking for people to give up their seats and leave on Sunday in exchange for $800 per person. A very tempting offer, but we have activities planned for Monday in Warsaw befor departing Tuesday morning for Krakow. So, we declined the $1600 USD deciding to go for the adventure instead.

Luftansa is great as always with two warm meals and personal inflight entertainment. As the sky turned to dusk, moments later we were greeted with a gleaming orange sunrise before night could come. Looking down we could see brilliant white polar ice fields. The views as we continued on were incredible flying over Ireland, Scotland, The Netherlands and more we watched a beautiful multi-shaded green patch work quilt below us until we spotted the Rhine river and followed it towards Frankfurt.

Now we sit here in Frankfurt awaiting our final 1 hour 20 minute leg to Warsaw. The excitement has definitely helped us overcome our five hours of airline sleep.

Cheers,
Darren and Terri

Suddenly we look up and the calendar says its the middle of June. Oh my, where has time gone? As we finish the preparations for our European journey, it is time to make the final reservations on airbnb, check all of our needs, and start pulling the traveling pack together.

Yes, we have the hybrid Caribee Skymaster 70. The exact pack, filled with 30+ lbs., that we have been walking about two miles a day with to prepare for the upcoming adventure. As we talked about before, the pack offers the best of both worlds with a combination backpack and rolling bag. Sure, we most likely will not be having to carry it on our back for 2 miles, but taking a line from the Boy Scouts, we are going to "be prepared."

Along with the whole travel planning that has been going on since last year, plans for some special happenings on this trip have been in the works as well. Celebrating ten years of marriage, Terri and I have a couples massage booked in the Hungarian baths, a dinner on-top of the tower in Vienna, and a night on a private boat in Croatia. Part of the fun of this adventure has been finding some things to do that would not be on our regular list of activities here at home.

We also have several cathedrals on the list. For anyone going to Europe and wanting to let the imagination soar ahead of time, I highly recommend reading Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett.

The book shares some of the design elements used to build these magnificent structures, with a thrilling storyline that will capture the mind of the reader.

Many more thrilling items fill our agenda, as well as plenty of time to explore areas and get to know the locals as well. How's that packing coming you ask? Well the bags are full and we are under our 44lbs. limit. Have we forgot anything, hopefully not, thanks to the travellerspoint.com packing list. Yes, it is extensive, but it is good.

We have been months in the planning stages and now the trip is upon us, we look forward to sharing our journey with you over the next couple of weeks. Keep watching here for our story and pictures and we will try to update it regularly. Please leave us your feedback and comments, we want to hear from you!

Signing off until we hop on board that plane,

~Terri and Darren