Carolyn, you've nailed it - great start to your journal! And it's good to put a face to your name too. As much as I love writing for an audience, I agree the biggest benefit of writing a journal is to bring pleasure and memories to Future Me.

Yikes! Great train story, and so glad it worked out for you. It’s frightening just reading about it.

And thanks for writing this up and sharing it with us. It’s great to get another look at this country and be reminded of one of our best tours. And we should find a way to be in the same place at the same time one of these years!

Ben Parke will love this. He claims orange cats are the best.

Wonderful perspective. Get down to their level.

I think we love this about Europe as much as anything. We never tire of watching the animated family dynamics everywhere you go.

This never occurred to me, but I’ll remember it if we ever make it back here. What a delightful way to enter the city!

Helpful hint. Easier to make repairs/adjustments if you remove panniers first.

So glad you are posting your trip. Maybe next time you will take the plunge and post in real time. An abbreviated real time journal padded out after the trip is ended might be a reasonable compromise?