Things will be back to a groove around here soon, though I can't promise it'll feel like it used to. Somehow, I'm pretty sure Europe and the people I met changed me.
I was away from home for 31 days. Hubs was away for 21. Between the two of us, we took 9 flights.
I flew Austin-Chicago-London- Madrid for a total of 5,898 miles in 18 hours. Ten days later, Hubs flew Austin-Chicago-Madrid for 4,807 miles in about the same amount of time.
Together, we flew Barcelona-Naples, Venice-Madrid, then Madrid-New York-Austin for a total of 6,624 miles and 17 hours.
Between flights, we had a Eurail pass and took 5 high-speed long-distance trains for a total of 1,365 miles:
- Madrid to Sevilla
- Sevilla to Barcelona
- Naples to Rome
- Rome to Florence
- Florence to Venice
We took miles and miles of public transportation on all forms. Subway, tram, light rail, bus.
| Image from morguefile.com |
Mostly, though, we walked. Oh boy. According to my FitBit, I walked a total of 357,398 steps from the day I left to the day I returned. That ends up being approximately 156 miles. According to the elevation changes, I climbed the equivalent of 672 flights of stairs.
The averages wind up being 11,169 steps, 21 floors, and 4.85 miles per day.
This does not include data from the day I left my FitBit clipped to my pajamas and it went through the washer & dryer in La Alberca. Ahem. Oops. But it survived - yay!
I lost one pair of sunglasses (when I craned my neck to take a picture of the ceiling at La Sagrada Familia) and left my camera charger (with a battery in it) in our hotel in Sevilla. Thankfully, I contacted the hotel and they confirmed they had it. Doubly thankfully, one of my new friends stepped up and helped out by having it shipped to him, then delivering it to our hotel in Madrid the day we flew in from Venice. I think I owe him pretty big still. Thank you Antonio!
Hubs lost his beard trimmer (and spent the trip resembling a barbarian with his untidy facial hair) and tried to leave his DSLR camera at a restaurant in Florence. Thankfully, our waiter was not only honest, but quick. He ran after us - already having crossed the square - to return the camera. My heart still flips out a little when I think of that. And I kind of shoot Hubs stinkeye for not keeping the camera IN THE BAG he bought specifically FOR THIS TRIP. It all turned out okay, though, so I suppose it's a moo point. Not that I will stop giving him crap about it.
Now, though, I'm nursing a decent case of jet lag.
What do you want to read about in regards to our trip?
