Welcome New Viewers

This blog covers the period January 1, 2007 to September 2007, during which time Sally and I visited 31 countries by plane, boat, train, bus, taxi and foot, and never once lost our baggage! The primary purpose of keeping the blog was to share our adventures with our children, other family, and close friends, while we were on the road. However, I would like to think that it contains some ideas that might be of interest to a broader public.

Unfortunately, to read it, you must go backwards...to January and February to read about New Zealand and Australia...to April to see some amazing places in Southeast Asia...to May to see the pink city of Jaipur and the sandcastle like Jaiselmer in India. June will take you to Greece, Turkey, and then up the underrated Adriatic Coast. If you have time, do check out Albania, our first post in July...it was one of the most surprising stops on the trip. July also found us at the Hotel Gellert in Budapest with its historic wave pool, and in Prague where we found one of Frank Gehry's best buildings...known locally as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers!

The architecture of Poland and Russia is described in some of the later July entries along with our experience being kicked off a train between Warsaw and Moscow. August finds us in South America. In addition to Rio and Buenos Aires, Parati in Brazil and Colonia in Uruguay were two relatively unknown gems that we were delighted to discover.

We hope that this blog will inspire you to now start thinking about leaving your jobs and comfortable lives for a while, and visit some places you have never seen before. Or even heard of! We are so very glad we did it and hope you will enjoy reading about some of our experiences.

ps: to read about some of the planning lessons that I picked up along the way, you might want to check out my Vancouver Sun Column 'Homes Away from Home' which can be found at www.michaelgeller.ca