Flying out of Washington, D.C., ends chapter one of the trip. I think it was a good way to leave the USA for a while. A gathering of our closest friends in New York, a drive to see the natural beauty that the US has to offer, catching up with my old friends in Southern California and Maryland, and seeing my close family. It was a bit melancholy boarding the plane, but I can’t think of a better way to leave though.

We’re flying Virgin Atlantic to London. Virgin is an interesting airline—it was cheap for one thing. But the flight was filled with advertising, lots of junk was on sale. The drink cart only made one appearance and the seats were terrible. The seat pitch on Virgin is ridiculous—mental note, next time get exit row.

Anyway, our European itinerary is roughly this:

• Three days in London
• Train to Paris
• Three days in Paris
• Overnight train to Barcelona
• Three days in Barcelona
• Train to Cinque Terra in Italy
• Venice
• Florence
• Rome
• Somehow get to Greece
• A few days on the mainland
• Five days on Paros, a Greek island
• Get back to Athens for our flight to Australia.

Along the way, we’re going to spend time with Chris (Jeni’s brother) in London and Paris, travel a bit with Eric Nevin in Italy and Greece (if you know who Eric is you know how momentous this is), see an old colleague of mine, Matt Marcus, and an old friend, Fred Sabb—both in Florence.

Our itninerary is still rough, but we’ll see how it turns out. I’m excited for chapter two.