As many of you know, Pat and I are off on an excellent European adventure this spring. I wanted to give you our departure and return dates along with some idea of our itinerary.

Our trip commences on March 5 when we leave Philly for Budapest, arriving on March 6 where we will pick up our rental car. We will be traveling around central and eastern Europe for the next 5 1/2 weeks. Currently we plan on starting in Slovakia for a few days, visiting Vienna, Graz, Ljubljana, and heading down the Croatian coast to Dubrovnik with a side trip to Sarajevo. Then, we swing into Albania and visit Tirana before heading east into Macedonia, Bulgaria, and the Black Sea (said with a strong Turkish accent) and then going north to Romania (and Dracula) and west again back to Budapest. This is all tentative. Since we are independent and have our own wheels, we could keep going south to Greece or never go south at all and visit Italy or even Scandinavia….

In any case, we leave Budapest on April 12 and fly to Malta for a "vacation from our vacation." If the snowy weather we've all heard about persists in Eastern Europe, then the sun of the Mediterranean will be pretty welcome. We fly back to Budapest on April 23 to begin the third phase of our adventure – Slovakia.

Actually, the Slovakia leg is the genesis of our focus on Eastern Europe. Ever since our visit for Dan and Renie's wedding in 1999, we have been wanting to return. An assignment from Dan's English language newspaper, the Spectator, to visit wellness/spa facilities across Slovakia and write about our experiences as English-speaking more mature travelers, makes this possible. We'll be rockin' and rollin' across the Slovak countryside getting massages and playing a little golf. Not too shabby. Of course, then there is the writing part…. And, I'll be missing the first two months of the Phillies season.

Follow us on our blog (you can signup on the Blog to get email notices of when we make a posting) and on twitter (I sound like every talk show on TV) and, if you find yourself in Europe somewhere where our paths will cross this spring, get in touch. We'll be monitoring our email pretty closely. And, applications to carry our bags will be gratefully appreciated….