When the wheels touch the runway ... C'mon .... you know it's true. No matter how much you love to fly and no matter how much you trust your flight crew .... after a 8+ hour flight ..... when the wheels touch the runway ...... After what seemed like an eternity at 37,000 ft, we had finally arrive to destination numero uno. Venice. Small talk and anticipation always fills the time between the wheels touching the runway and when ones true vacation actually be...

And so the vacations begins ..... this particular one will take us to places we have only dreamt of going. Venice, Florence, Pompeii, Rome, Sorrento, Positano, Capri, Giglio. One week of backpacks and trains. One week of the elegant brass and mahogany of the most luxurious tall ships on the planet ..... The Royal Clipper ...... with one of our favorite bands, the amazingly talented and unpretentious Big Head Todd and the Monsters .... and 150+ of the most awes...

Travelling is a funny sort of thing. Especially big trips like this one. You build it up in your mind and try to keep the anticipation in check. Then the trip arrives and it's a flurry of traveling and getting settled into the trip. The first few days always seem to go at a nice steady pace, and then by the time you are halfway through, it seems like the afterburners kick in and before you know it, you're on a plane again, heading home. This trip was no different...

For our last full day in Germany, the Neckar Castle Cruise was a perfect way to wind up Heidelberg. We grabbed a cab to the boat and headed out on our 3 hour tour. This tour was to take us from Heidelberg, through 2 locks, past the towns of Ziegelhausen, Neckargemünd, ..... all the way to Neckarsteinach...... And back. The trip up was nice and relaxing. As we cruised, a narrative of the town and castles was played. It was really quite nice to just sit back a...

I don't even know how to begin to describe Baden-Baden, let alone Baden-Baden on a cool September morning. Magical is one word that comes to mind. Fairy tale like? All I know is there are only a handful of times in life where I truly wanted to stop time ..... and this was one of them. It was around 9:55 am. I was standing by the fountain in the center of town, church bells from the cathedral were ringing. The air was cool and crisp. That perfect temperature and s...