Our Gurus

It would be impossible to do this without the help of experts and we have four.  First is our son and wonderful daughter-in-law. We are fortunate that they have traveled much of the world including many places we plan to visit. They have been almost as excited about this as we are and have offered much invaluable advice.  Our next traveling companion is the Man in Seat 61, http://www.seat61.com/index.html#.U0d8kVe9ZPc. Mark Smith (sorry about the blurry photo Mark--it's the best we could find of you on the 'net) spends his time traveling around the world on trains (what a tough job!) and he has a website that is unparalleled in giving great information to folks like us who plan to relax for a thousand miles or more on Europe's trains. Last is an old buddy--Rick Steves. Rick is the author of what we consider to be the best guidebooks in the world. He took us through England and Paris with nary a blunder (well, maybe a few but most of them were our fault). We're counting on him to take us on this trip as well, and we are investing in his books once again. Just to prove that we not completely old fogies though--this time we're not taking the actual books. We're taking eBooks! We've downloaded them onto our Kindles and it is a lot less weight to drag with us.