Maps courtesy of www.theodora.com/maps (with permission).

The route:

• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Paris, France
• Beaumont-Le-Roger, France
• Basel, Switzerland
• Munich, Germany
• Naples (Pompeii & Vesuvius), Italy
• Venice, Italy
• Bratislava, Slovakia
• Prague, Czech Republic
• Grainau, Germany

Lyn, my loving wife, kept telling me her parents could help take care of the kids and I should go ahead and take a break and go to Europe. She even made reservations for me. My last vacation was two and a half years ago. It would be nice to do something other than child care for a change. Lyn had to stay behind in case there was an emergency with either the kids or her parents though she toyed with the idea of joining me for two or three days during my trip.

The Naples Bay are, including Vesuvius (in the center), from space. Vesuvius erupted and buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum with ash and mud, preserving it for modern day visitors to get a glimpse of life 2000 years ago. The Naples Bay area is now filled with people from Salerno in the south to Naples in the north.

I needed a vacation, but was now kind of hard to conceive one on my own. It would have to be one where I would be constantly busy so I wouldn't think about my wife and kids. I tried to think of the different trips I could take. I could return to the Philippines, but it wouldn't be good without Lyn. I could travel around the states, but again I thought I would miss Lyn too much. I could have taken a trip organized by a tour company, but that didn't seem to be very intriguing. Though I had been there five times before, I kept thinking about going back to Europe.

At the time of this trip the exchange rate was $1.29 for 1 euro. Four years ago it was $0.80 for 1 euro, which translates into a 38% decline!

I called Frank, a German friend of mine and asked if he would be interested in joining me for a visit to Pisa and Pompeii and Herculaneum (two Roman towns entombed by the volcano Vesuvius). He also suggested going to Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Also, I had always wanted to be in the Paris friday night skate again, a fantastic event where thousands of skaters get a police escort to see the sights of Paris. There were many friends to visit as well.

I started to formulate a plan. I could start in Amsterdam, always a fun place to visit and with many bike paths. Next, I could take the train down to Paris, be in the skate, and go out to visit Philippe, Sarah, and their children Alexandre and Pascaline who live about an hour or so west of Paris. Then off again by train to Andy and Sylvia in Basel, Switzerland. The next stop would be with Frank, Sabine, & Regina in Herrsching, Germany (near Munich). From there we would drive down to southern Italy and back through Pisa to Slovakia and the Czech Republic and returning to Herrsching. From there I could visit Cathrine and Uwe in Grainau (near the Austrian border), Germany and Ulli in Lienz, Austria.

For 2 weeks, I left behind my wife Lyn and our children Adam and Danica.

Things went pretty much as planned except that we substituted Venice for Pisa, which turned out very nicely. And I ran out of time to see Ulli. In the planning stage, Frank had suggested flying down to Italy, but we decided against it. Frank also ended up renting a car rather than almost 4000 kilometers (2500 miles) to his. The drive was quite an experience, but I would never drive long distances in Italy again. The toll roads are too expensive and the city traffic would likely be very bad (in Naples it was horrendous). Also, there was lots of road repair going on which slowed us down a lot. I think it would be much better to take the unreliable but relaxing trains and arrive in the town center. I think we could have seen Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Vesuvius all from one tour bus.

I would have liked to have visited Agnes (pictured) and Francoises, but they were on another trip to India.

I suffered a lot of pain on the trip. I was apparently grinding my teeth in my sleep from the start of the trip which caused terrible pains around my mouth. I only realized the cause after the trip. I had lower back pain which I've had for a few years now and upper back pain from carrying luggage around. With my skin cancer (including surgery and long post operative infection) and attending to the needs of a todler and an infant, I haven't been getting as much exercise as I used to and so I'm just not in very good shape right now. My right leg has been going numb at times and it did quite a bit on the trip. On the plus side, my back is a little better now, maybe from not having to drag around a 40 pound kid for a couple weeks. I can actually bend over without reaching down with one hand to my knee for support.

I am very thankful to all the wonderful friends who let me stay with them and especially thankful to Frank for going on an incredible auto trip with me and putting up with all my weird quirks. Frank was wonderful on the trip and I thank him so much for helping me get some very memorable experiences.

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