the clueless american

Ellen and I are going on a big vacation from July 24th to August 6th, and here in these pages I'm planning to describe everything I can, from start to finish. I'll be posting mainly about the technical parts of the trip, such as reservations, websites, prices, etc. The goal is to post the whole plan before we leave and then report on how everything went once we get back.

At the same time, Ellen's planning to keep her own journal of the trip, which is bound to be more descriptive and less about the travel specifics. Between the two we're hoping to at least entertain ourselves, if no one else. Enjoy!

For as much information as I have in my head about this trip, I'm having such a hard time deciding how to start! I guess the best thing to do is give a general overview and then go from there!

For anyone who might stumble across this without knowing who we are, Ellen and I live in Santiago de la Ribera, Spain, where I'm stationed at the Spanish Air Force Academy as an Exchange Instructor Pilot. You can find more info about us and where we live through the main site at www.tedandellen.com.

This summer we are going on a 7-day cruise from Barcelona to Athens on Orient Cruise Lines with Ellen's oldest sister Joelle and her husband Ted. (Joelle married Ted about 10 years before Ellen and I got married, so at family gatherings I'm always Ted #2). Joelle and Ted live in the US and will be flying into Barcelona and leaving from Athens. In addition to the cruise, Ellen and I will be spending 3 nights in Venice before returning to Spain.

As the cruise is less than 3 weeks away, we've already done nearly all of the planning, but my intention is to post each step of the process in chronological order. Thus, although the whole trip idea began with the cruise, I won't give those specifics until I get to Barcelona. Sound groovy? Like the way I jump between formal and informal writing? Well, deal with it. It's 3:30 in the morning and I'm starting to get a little punchy!

So, the short version of our itinerary:

Home - Barcelona
Cruise Barcelona - Athens
Athens - Venice
Venice - Barcelona
Barcelona - Home

Without any further introduction, on with the posts!

If anyone actually pays attention to this page, I will soon (a relative term) be converting it from the summer vacation travel blog to my general travel blog and maybe just a regular blog, who knows. Right now I have trips to Holland, London, and Melilla/Morocco to write up. If you read this and leave a comment or email, it will definitely provide some incentive to get those trips posted in a timely fashion!

Unlike the cruise entries, where I back-dated them to match the dates of the actual trip, I think I'm going to leave these entries dated as I write them. That will keep my home page from going blank every couple of weeks.

Back in November, while Ellen was enjoying an excursion to the States, I had to go to The Netherlands for business. Although it sounds like a dream-come-true for a Maxim subscriber, my trip was pretty low-key.

First, notice that I didn't say Holland. Although it's still popularly called by that name, one of the official government websites I found stated that Holland is the name of the province which contains Amsterdam, but it is not the name of the country. The site went on to report that it would be offensive to call the country Holland, but naturally when I arrived there I saw both used to describe the country's name. So much for political correctness :-)

In keeping with my previous format, I'm planning to break up the entries into transportation, lodging, and sight-seeing. This should make each entry a little easier to read while at the same time making my blog look a lot more active than it really is!