Why The Big Chew?

     You are probably wondering why I chose this title for my blog for our next European adventure. No, I haven't taken up the horrid habit of chewing tobacco. No,I don't chew Big Chew chewing gum since I don't even like chewing gum. The real reason is because I might be wondering if I bit off more than we can chew on this trip.
    After Lynda's hand surgeries this past year we weren't sure we would be able to travel extensively in Europe this fall. But after attending a good friend and softball player's funeral I came home and asked Lynda if she would be able to handle it. She replied in the affirmative and now we are heading across the pond again. With Allen's death I realized once again that our time on this earth is short so we should enjoy it while we can. So we got some airfares that pleased us and a direct flight to Frankfurt from Austin, a rental car and proceeded to decide where to go. As the Beach Boys song says 'we're planning out a route now' and the one we planned is ambitious. It seems like a lot of driving but we live in Texas so we're used to that.
    Our first stop will be outside  Nirnberg. Then we head to Prague, drive through Slovakia to Budapest, to Vienna, to Salzburg and to Bled, Slovenia.  After that we are spending a couple of weeks in Italy in more familiar territory near our old friends, Michael and Liliana and our new friends Sergio and Andrea.

    On our journey we will take small boat cruises, tred on ancient streets, visit palaces and castles, attend an international wine festival and many other things. We have been brushing up on our German as we will be in three Germanic countries. After Italy we drive to the beautiful city in the Alps, Luzern, Switzerland. Then we travel back to Frankfurt and hope to meet up with our good friend Kelly there. From there we have a brief stop in London, England and then return to Austin.
    In doing so we will have crossed the Alps twice, gone into former Eastern European countries, used five different currencies and walked constant kilometers. We are staying in apartments, private homes, villas and hotels using Air B&B, Home Away, and Booking.com. We travel across on Condor Air and back on British Airways. The trip will be almost five weeks in length. Weather will be cooler and according to the forecast we are in for a little rain early on. But that is travel. We are taking backpacks like we did in 1971 and packing light. However this time they have rollers attached and handles as well as the traditional backpack straps.
    Last year we stayed in one spot most of the time in a small village in Italy so this will be entirely different. A couple of years before we travelled around England in search of British TV locations. A year before that we did environmental things in Slovenia, Croatia and Italy. This trip will be different and I hope I haven't bit off more than we can chew.
    Speaking of chew I will be blogging as much food as I can as well as the people who make it. I will be writing down my thoughts and show you photos of things we have done. I hope you will enjoy it.