Day 37 or 38 or 39 - Last Posting

This is actually day 38 or day 39 since I messed up on the numbering a few days back and again very early in the trip but what the heck ... 37 ... 38 ... 39 .... 40 ... who is really keep track. If you count the day we left and tomorrow when I return it will have been 40 days. We made it back to Paris ( flying from Nice ). Nice was a mistake. A very nice resort town but not one to try to see in one evening. And it took almost 7 hours by car from our Villa near Siena. I was jamned into the back seat with Lucy between piles of luggage. The original plan was for three of us to drive back together and with three there would have been plenty of space. But a fourth was added during the last week before we left and I ended up getting bumped out of the front seat into a cubby hole in the back and the extra luggage eliminated any possible available space. Getting lost four times on the way didn't help either and with my back problems it was difficult for me and ruined a day. I should have flown back to Paris from Florence but that's a lesson learned.... unless you are in charge of making all the arrangements then don't count on things going like you would want them. The pictures posted are just some of my favourites of the people we were with. Most are repeats but I don't have the patience tonight to work through new pictures. I leave in the morning so this will be my last post since Lucy isn't posting. (she's coming back on Wednesday). I've enjoyed doing this blog although it is a huge commitment of time and actually a lot of work. I can't count the number of times I spent hours working on photos to post and not able to get an open line until quite late in the evening. These blogs take more time than anyone on this trip with me realizes and since I needed some quite to work on pictures I also felt isolated quite a bit of the time. Everyone else was laughing away in another room and I was forced to work on my pictures or else NO Post and that was not acceptable. I would do it again though since I sense from some of the comments that others enjoyed following our adventures and that made it worth while. I will also have a reasonable record of my trip although because it takes so much time doing photos I wasn't able to document very well the different places we visited or the dinners we ate or the things that we did. But pictures ... man o man do I have pictures. It will take me weeks to go through them at home and to sort out the ones I want and to print the odd few that are worthy of hard copy. I think I will enjoy doing this more than some of the time I spent actually taking the photo's. The highlight of the trip was the balloon ride in champagne country. The low light as mentioned was the detour through Nice. Even lower than getting my wallet stolen in Rome. Lots of good sites, food, people and the odd laugh here and there. Thanks for checking in and I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have posting something every night. And finally thanks to all my traveling companions for putting up with me. Ciao ... au revoir ... good bye. Dennis