wordsimageslife
an exploration of life as a parent & designer

Feeling a bit worldly?

create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

There it is, another map. This time the red represents the 4% of the coutries of the world I've visited. Now, I love to travel and 4% really isn't a lot. As you can tell, I've spent a lot of time in Western Europe, well not a lot of time, but that's been my main travel destination in my overseas trips.

First was my ten-day tour of Germany, Austria and Italy (4 cities) that I did solo in 1991. Airfare was dirt cheap back then due to the first Gulf War by the first President Bush. I had $300 and no responsibitliies a journal in my backpack and "Let's Go Europe," the guide for those who don't need fancy hotels and expensive meals. Or as they like to say, 'the independent traveler.' Any how, that was quite a trip and I can truly say, I hope that my kids will do it some day. (While I of course hold my breath the whole time and make sure they call me everyday). But I did get to realize my dream of writing in my journal (you guys might remember those, they involved pads of paper, wrapped with a sometime leather like fabric or even leather itself, and you wrote with a tool called a pen. Some people, including myself, sometimes even used a fountain pen, where you dipped the pen in the ink to write with it. )

The second and third trips were taken with my lovely wife Karen. First, for our honeymoon we visited England (London), France (Paris) and Ireland. We spent most of the time in Ireland, where we rented a car and drove from Dublin down south and then west and north along the coast. It was a fabulous trip with all the expected and unexpected events that an adventure like that has to offer. Definitely was an early test of our young marriage. Especially the events in Charles DeGaulle airport, and getting to the airport. In my own state of rush and clumsiness (not looking where I and other people are in space) I knocked a guy in the head on the plane as I was trying to turn around to put the bag in the overhead. His wife cursed us the whole trip (London to Paris) and the other 'passengers' just hated us because they held the plane for us. Once we reached DeGaulle, things only got more interesting as the bungee cord on our luggage carrier snapped into Karen's hand causing a large, painful contusion. And ice in French only means ice cream. It took a house call at our hotel later that night, with Dr. Freddie, to finally get everything under control. I'd tell you about my falling over barbed wire in Ireland, but I've rambled enough.

Finally, our second trip was much more successful, as in no injuries. We did a five-day bike tour of Provence with a weekend thrown in at a little fishing village called Cassis and a weekend on the other end in Paris....

Posted by robdesign at January 30, 2004 03:57 PM