so far the trip looks like:

two weeks in stockholm
a week we're tryna decide on
two weeks in paris
three weeks ... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
fly home from rome

between stockholm and paris, we're looking at an overnight ferry to helsinki, three nights there, then fly to copenhagen for three nights, then fly to paris

after paris ... ? this train route looks appealing! maybe stop off for a night or two at a few places

then rent a car and explore puglia

Copenhagen is out, it's Riga instead.

We'll take a ferry from Helsinki, stay for two nights, and fly from Riga to Paris. The ferry docks after dark, so really just one full day to see Riga, but we can check out the national art museum and a couple gothic and medieval churches, shop, have time for some some flânerie and a nice dinner. In Riga. Fucking Riga.

So I booked a room at the Hotel Neiburgs in Riga.

Copenhagen can wait.

Lynn booked an apartment in Stockholm for two weeks in April. It's really close to my daughter's apartment (in Saltsjö-Boo); we've stayed there before and we're lucky to be able to return.

I am looking for a hotel in Helsinki for three nights.

Then we can work on the post-Paris part of the trip. Lynn wants to spend a few days in Turin before heading to Puglia. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ OK! Never been to Turin!

oh wait there is no longer a ferry from helsinki to riga. we're going anyway — we'll fly!

i booked a "sea view" room from stockholm to helsinki. still need a hotel there. but i am busy watching ligue 1 soccer matches all day.

i booked flights from helsinki to riga (on finnair), then on to paris (air baltic to AMS, KLM to CDG). we just have to find a hotel in helsinki and travel/accommodations for the first five weeks will be set in place.

what happens after paris is still a little bit of a mystery. we have three weeks to get to rome for our flight home. we had thought of spending a short week in lyon, but italy beckons so we'll prob'ly take a train to turin (and then get to lecce somehow).

i booked TGV tix from paris to turin; looks like we're going to bypass lyon after all. someday i want to spend a week there, but lynn is in a hurry to get to puglia.

looking at hotels in turin, where we will spend a few nights.

made real progress today: booked hotels in turin and helsinki!

2½ weeks left to plan. i'm sure lynn will want to spend a few days in rome at the end, so we'd better scoot from turin to lecce as quickly as possible. it's a ten-hour train ride, even on the frecciarossa, so i'll be looking for a morning flight, which is under two hours.

from lecce, we'll be traveling mostly in a rental car. (a panda!) (note to self: book a rental car)

we're about six weeks out from departure.

i booked a flight from turin to brindisi. lynn found an apartment in central lecce ("the florence of the south") for four nights, and a bougie (but inexpensive) agrotourism place in salve (wherever that is) for five nights, which we'll use a base for exploring with our rental car.

there's a few ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ nights in puglia.

then on to rome, where lynn found an apartment not too far from gregory's, a fabulous jazz club.

then home!

it looks like this.

four weeks out. i finally got around to booking train tix from lecce stazione to roma termini, and reserving a rental car (stick shift!) for nine days of bouncing around puglia. housing for four nights in puglia is left open, to figure out when we get there.

i'm so glad i didn't book those full-flat turkish air tix out of DTW (although a recent mal au dos flareup is making me dread the overnight flight to LHR ... in a chair. ugh. and i'm about a half million miles short of an ugrade #alas)

J-1

the travel is fully booked: bus, ferry, train, plane, and rental car

and so are the accommodations: apartments in stockholm, paris, turin, lecce, and rome; hotel rooms in helsinki and riga, an agrotourism masseria in salve, and four unknown nights in southern salento (hopefully not in our rental car)

plans to travel light thwarted once again #alas

we have two carry-on bags, which was the plan

also a large bag that looks like a medicine bag, full of presents for the kids and grandkids, which we will leave in sweden

and a collapsible bag that we plan to ship home from paris with our winter clothes (and probably some gifts)

so by the time we are bouncing around italy, we should be down to those two carry-ons

plus a knapsack on each of our backs

yeah, that is not traveling light, is it?

not traveling light, yet again #alas

125 lb. or so

Surprise: Sky Club!

TIL that bc I traveled too much decades ago (and became a Million Miler on Northwest — remember them?), I now have permanent Gold Status on Delta, which admits me to Sky Club on international flights

boo ya

LHR Terminal 2

Waiting to board our next flight.

We are both wiped out from the transatlantic flight.