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.

Just shy of one mile in length, The Berlin Wall East Side Gallery has 100 murals. It is an open air gallery of art and history.  I don’t think a visit to Berlin is complete without seeing this section of the Berlin Wall.

We took a free walking tour while in Berlin.  It was comical on a few levels, but it was all good.  Our guide, who was Brazilian and German, was adorable and highly personable.  She was also a nervous Nellie as ours was her first tour as a guide in Berlin after only living in the city for two months.  She was a bit tongue tied and probably forgot most of her own tour notes but she could not have been any sweeter.

This is a first for me; writing a post while whooshing along the rails from Brussels to Berlin on a high-speed train.  I have to say, it makes for a pretty great office.  I just have to remember to look up from time to time as I’m prone to motion sickness and we’re whooshing backwards.  I’m probably pushing my luck!

Lagos, Portugal.  A beautiful seaside destination where all things summer come to life.  It’s been the ideal respite as we start this next chapter – the expat experiment.  And, while our visas took longer to get our hands on than we anticipated, it all worked out for the best.  I always say, life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.  Actually, it was Allen Saunders who coined the phrase, but I borrow it a lot.  I hope he doesn’t mind.

The logistics of leaving.  It’s an interesting situation in which we find ourselves as we continue to wait, wait, and wait a bit more for our Portugal visas to come through.

“The line between disorder and order lies in logistics…” – Sun Tzu

With 30 minutes to spare, we ordered our standard Starbucks, Americana and Chai Latte, and sat down to catch our breath and sip the hot steamy goodness.  As we sat and sipped, we casually browsed our paperwork and quickly realized we had forgotten probably the most important piece of the puzzle, our passports.  All we could do was slap a face palm and laugh. For two people who are ridiculously organized, to the point of obsession at times, how in the hell did we forget our passports?

It should come as no surprise that I am a lover of the written word; of books.  No matter how many times we pack up and move, there are a dozen boxes of books that move with us.  Over the years I’ve downsized as much as I can, but I have my collection of true loves and I will never part with them.  So, with that thought in mind, if it’s possible to be in love with a library, then I am hopelessly in love with the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

What are travel advisories? I’m guessing most everyone knows the terminology, but what exactly is a travel advisory? The actual definition can be somewhat daunting but as with all things in life, there are two sides to every story.