Home!!! Monday, February 8, 2010

So—it’s the end of our year of continuous traveling. And as they say in Gaelic, "Bíonn siúlach scéalach," or "The traveler has tales to tell." So I hope that those of you who have been following me on this blog have enjoyed reading about our adventures.

We’ve had such a great time and seen so many wonderful places, but it is so good to be home again, and this time for an extended period. Of course, if the house sells quickly, then we have to find a new one really quick. Our main place of consideration is now North Carolina, probably around Franklin, in the mountains. Hope we can find a little cottage in the trees. But first to get this place spruced up for a sale.

Just a few statistics on the last year since Ray retired in January—I keep wondering why we are so tired and our brains so scattered. Well, here is why:

Since Ray retired:

Number of nights away from home—314 (includes cruise nights)

Plane trips taken by Susan—9

Plane trips taken by Ray—11

Number of nights spent on cruise ships—66

Number of ferry trips—11

Number of islands visited: 32

Number of countries visited—15

Number of train trips taken—18

Number of languages we ran across—14

Number of Castles, Abbeys, Churches & Cathedrals seen—too many to count!!

Days it may take us to get over this much traveling—we’ll let you know when it happens! : )

But wouldn’t you know it, it wasn’t 8 hours before Ray got on the computer and started looking for our next adventure. We are meeting Margaret & Colin in Brugge to finally see the lovely place they have wanted to show us for so long. Ray has already used SkyMiles to purchase us two free round-trip tickets for this November!!!