All packed and ready to go!

My Friends,

We are only 3 days away from the first leg of our trip to Europe!  Airline tickets have been purchased to Copenhagen via NYC.  Looking forward to seeing my awesome Niece,  Andrea Williams, perhaps having lunch with her on Monday!  In NYC we meet up with our favorite traveling companions, Ron and Nancy Pinkerton, as we begin a new chapter of traveling for the next two months.

Monday night we catch the Red Eye to Copenhagen, Denmark.  I haven't been there since 1968!  We will sightsee the area for the next three days.

From Copenhagen, we board a Princess Cruise ship for an 11 day boat ride on the Baltic to Sweden, Finland Norway, Estonia and St Petersburg, Russia.  That should be fun! 

Back to Copenhagen and we catch a flight to Budapest,  Hungary.  After three days in town we board the Viking River Cruise ship for a little 8 day ride down the Danube through Vienna and into Germany.   Looking forward to docking most every day to tour amazing cities and sample tasty cuisine along the way.

After 3 weeks of resting,  if we aren't tired yet, we grab a rental and drive to Oberamagau, Gernany, near Garmisch - Partenkirchen  (my favorite place in the world since 1967).  A few days later we drive near Interlaken, Switzerland where we have rented a .......now get this .....Wait for it .........Wait for it....a two bedroom camper, parked on the lakefront!  Is that crazy, or what??

A few days later we drive to Milan, Italy to catch a flight to Tirana, Albania where a long time friend will pick us up and take us to Lushnje.  Tom Bonner is our Missionary friend and fellow contender in the Faith, from our church in Gresham, OR.  We have known Tom since 1974 when we lived in Hood River.  It will be good to see him and spend a couple of days in his element.

Back to Milan to catch a train to Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy where we have rented an apartment barely a stone's throw from the awesome blue water of the Mediterranean Sea.  Three weeks of this life and we fly back to New York.
But wait!  There's more!  3 or 4 days later Deb and I catch a train to Vermont to check out the Fall colors!

My Debby is my very own personal Travel Agent.  She has spent several months putting all this together.  This is the trip we have chosen to celebrate our 45th Wedding Anniversary, Debby's Retirement and my 70th Birthday! 

I will be writing blogs and posting photos on www.mikeanddebby.blogspot.com, if you want to follow us.  Or, try Googling us at "Where in the World are Mike and Debby?"

Happy Trails!