Travels Over the Summer

Well.......I took quite a sabbatical from my blog over the summer. I stayed on the road all summer long departing from Abu Dhabi on May 23 for the US and then returned for only a few days before starting a long summer of jetsetting. Josh and I went to Luxor, Egypt for a few days to sweat, soak up the sun, tour all the temples, and generally get harassed by the locals. Then, we took off for Germany, Paris, made a quick stop in Switzerland, and Italy. I stayed in Italy for one month house sitting for my sweet friends Jill Butterfield and Terry Meadors. I really was more babysitting for their "baby dog" Biko. It was a treat to spend time in their little "row house" in Beorchia while roaming the countryside with Glenda Green looking at houses and apartments. My what a grand time we had looking at old rustico houses and day dreaming about how wonderful they will look when we are finished restoring them. Sad thing about that is one must have "MONEY" to restore one of these places, and LOTS of it I think. Just that fact alone can burst your bubble big time. It did not deter Glenda and me. We just kept right on looking at houses. We bought decorating and restoration magazines and sat in little cafes drinking Prosecco while pouring over all the designs and ideas presented so beautifully on the pages. Meeting with Italian realtors can be challenging at best. They have a very different idea about how to sell real estate than we do in the US. Piano, Piano.....slowly, slowly is their motto I think. They do not get in a hurry and believe me there is NO pressure. I still do not have the price on a house I looked at three weeks ago. The owner's nephew, on vacanza to parts unknown and no return date in sight, will tell us the price when he returns. So I have my Italian friend Carla waiting to find out the price to relay to me. I am also waiting on a "good deal" from another realtor on an apartment. Wonder what that will be!

Exhausted from all the house hunting, I flew to Belgium to meet up with John. We drove around the countryside and stayed in a couple of Bed & Breakfasts just relaxing and....relaxing....and relaxing. Did some running in cow country, drove over into France, walked about some old Abbey ruins at the edge of France, petted some local horses, shopped in the local groceries, drank Belgium beer, ate Belgium waffles and chocolate, watched the final of the Tour de Roermond in the Netherlands, took a lot of photos, drank lots of cappuccino, and generally had a good time.

Packing my bags today to head back to Italy to catch my flight back to Abu Dhabi in the morning. Wow, it has been a whirlwind...but soooooooo much fun. What a charmed life I lead!

I'll spend some time over the next few weeks catching up my blog. Talking about some things I did right before I left....the Souk.....rug shopping.....then lots of stuff about Europe.....and will post photos!

Looking forward to being back to my blog!