Lest anyone believe long-term travel is all giggles and bubbles, here’s a little diddy about what happens when things don’t go exactly as planned and why we didn’t stay in Lyon. It’s a philosophy I’ve long-held close to my heart; life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.  Because let’s face it…. no matter how hard I might try to channel my inner Pollyanna, there are travel days when Murphy’s Law just stomps all over said plans.

When you conjure up the Burgundy wine region of France, in your mind’s eye, what do you see?  Think about it for a moment before reading further.  Now, did you envision green vineyards as far as the eye can see, stunning countryside with a historic church steeple rising on the horizon, granite cliffs and maybe a french castle on the hill?  Sounds pretty great, right?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and proclaim that Salzburg and the surrounding region has got to be some of the prettiest country we’ve ever seen.  Actually, Austria takes the prize for spectacular scenery.  I don’t think it could get much better.

If you’ve been traveling with us for a good long while you know I am madly in love with Julia Child and I’m mildly obsessed with Marie Antoinette.  Now, it’s time to come clean and tell you I also have a slight obsession with the true story of those who actually lived The Sound of Music.  Not the Hollywood version, although I can sing along with pretty much the entire movie, but the people who lived the story.  The von Trapp family.  Fraulein Maria.

When you stroll through the public park in Zagreb, Croatia on a summer’s evening after the heat of the day has cooled, and you realize you can hear Elvis singing in the distance, you know you’re in for an interesting experience.

Hello from Ljubljana, Slovenia.  We left home six weeks ago, June 29.  It took us nearly a month to get back into our travel groove. It’s a very different lifestyle, and mindset, traveling long term. It most assuredly takes time to adjust from home to being on the road.  And, don’t get me started on the challenge of the re-entry mindset once we return to the US.  Now that takes some adjusting!

There were days in Budapest that I swore the rubber soles of my shoes were melting into the pavement as each step became more and more challenging; as if I had wads of gum stuck to the bottom of my shoes.  A global heatwave named Lucifer enveloped Europe and it caught up with us the day we arrived in Budapest.  We could feel it as soon as we stepped out of the Keleti Train Station.

You know the scene in the classic story The Wizard of Oz when the wicked witch of the west cries out, “I’m melting, I’m melting?”  I couldn’t help but think of that melting green-skinned witch as a couple of hundred people sat in overwhelmingly hot train cars, at a random train station, in rural Croatia.

As the train rumbled in to Vienna I stared out the window to catch my first glimpse of what I thought Vienna should look like.  What I saw did not fit the image in my mind’s eye; skyscrapers!  Wait, there are skyscrapers in Vienna?  I suppose in my wild imagination I thought everyone should have been waltzing along the River Danube.

I’m starting this post with a photo.  It’s a photo that depicts one of the best aspects of travel.  Anytime you can learn from an experience and meet good people, such as this group we met in Dresden, it’s a win.