Post Format

Each daily post will eventually have two sections. The first will be a brief narrative of the day (“Just the facts, ma’am”). The second, likely posted sometime later, will have more details about surprising things I noticed, huge errors I made (hopefully with disasters averted), and anything else worth sharing. If all goes well, that’s where the good stuff will be.

Itinerary Long Version

* 9 Apr Fly to London Heathrow, arrived sleepy, but not exhausted on 10 Apr

* 10-12 Apr London (London Victory Services Club)

* 13 Apr train to Wolverhampton (attend Rocky Horror Show)

* 14-15 Apr train to Oxford

* 16 Apr train to London Paddington, return to Heathrow, rent car for south coast drive

* 16-21 Apr drive south and slightly SE, stay in Winchester, Portsmouth (two nights), Lymington (limb-ing-ton), Eastbourne

* 22 Apr return car

* 22-28 Apr London (near Piccadilly Circus)

* 29 Apr fly London → Barcelona

* 29 Apr-4 May Barcelona

* 4-16 May Viking cruise Barcelona-Venice (Marseille, Monaco, Italy, Greece, Croatia). Ship: Viking Mars, stateroom on the 5th deck.

* 16-19 May remain in Venice for post-cruise tours

* 19 May high-speed train Venice → Florence

* 19-25 May Florence (AirBnBs for the rest of the trip)

* 25 May train to Bologna, fly to Valencia

* 25-31 May Valencia

* 31 May fly Valencia → Málaga

* 31 May - 5 Jun Málaga

* 5 Jun Avlo train Málaga → Madrid

* 5-15 Jun Madrid (near Ópera)

* 15 Jun MAD → ABQ

The daily posts from the trip are not the place to find hard researched tips and insights about the places I visited and the things I did. They are the place to learn about how a nuclear engineer and sociologist travels, whether you wondered or not (too much wondering about some topics isn’t healthy). I employ the same snarky approach here that I apply to Navy ship repair. There’s more snark when I write about ship repair because the material is such a good source. If you want to know what I spilled on my pants, my blog is the place to find out. If you want recommendations for the best places and things to eat, buy a travel book.