Well, I guess you all know that I had a great time, but how did it come to pass? The most obvious answer is that I had the time because I didn’t have sponsorship to run the whole series this year. My wife’s mother had left her money specifically earmarked for a trip to Europe. It had been sitting in the bank for 22 years, so we had the money.

Early in our marriage, summer meant two school teachers could go on vacation. But to one teacher (me), that meant more races farther away from home. So that’s what we did for 28 years. Of course, we did stop and see things as we traveled across America. But summer was racing season. Time off for vacations was in December and January. Not a nice time to go to Europe. (Besides, it was often a great time to race in Australia).

Joanne had powerful arguments--cruises were really cheap. We could put two, ten-day cruises together for not much more than one. Besides you don’t want to go all that way for just ten days. Cruise ships have free food and CASINOS. A friend could get us a cheap room in Rome (that added three days to the end of the cruise). You’ve never been to Europe and you can swim in the Mediterranean. We will see Casino Royale (I’m a James Bond fan). Have you ever seen anything 3,000 years old? But the final argument was “I’ve followed you all over the world doing what you wanted, so now’s my turn.” GAME.SET. MATCH. To be fair, it really wasn’t that harsh--maybe it was my own guilt.

So we picked our cruise and made our reservations. I did insist that we take out the cancellation insurance in case some one came up with money to race. We did have some time constraints, since I was going to run Sonoma (and , I hoped, Seattle). She found a perfect cruise.

As we got closer, I really started to look forward to it. We did our homework. Each night, we would sit in our gazebo, listening to her waterfall, and research one of the ports. She had everything ready to read. During happy hour, we would learn what there was to see, what shore excursions were offered, and what we could expect.

Early on, we decided the shore excursions were very expensive and we could find our own way where we wanted to go. We booked one in Tunisia. Mostly, we would go on our own, using public transportation or our own feet.

So off we went. The flight (no non-stop available) was long, but I was used to that. We got to Rome the next day and went to the ship and our verandah room(my wife insisted). It was in the back of the ship--what was this! But, now I would recommend it to everybody. When you enter or leave port, you don’t just get to see one side. You can see everything. We spent every evening on the verandah at happy hour, just enjoying the whole country. The views were spectacular.

The first 10 days were the Western Mediterranean. The ports were Livorno (Florence and Pisa), Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Mallorca, Tunis, Palermo (Sicily), Naples, and back to Rome. I won’t bore you with a day-to-day account. Although I am not particularly religious, the first European church in Florence (the Duomo) was spectacular. How did they make the domes? The picture (photo 1) does not do it justice.

The Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona--by the architect Gaudi (photo 2). I thought this must be where we get the word gaudy, but my wife says not. It is beyond words, as I hope you can see in the picture.. Another theme throughout the trip was my wonder of people starting projects that lasted so long, they never got to see their dream come true. This church has been being built for over 100 years.

Some guy tried to pick my pocket in Mallorca while I was getting on a bus. We had read about taking precautions while traveling. I told Joanne that the wallet she had given me for Christmas (made of stingray skin--we had a moment of silence for Steve Irwin) was so hard for me to get out of my pocket because of the rough skin, nobody else could get it out. I was right. I turned around, our eyes met, and we both knew the other knew. I couldn’t hit him. I’m in a foreign country, I don’t speak the language, and he didn’t have my wallet. So I turned and got on, and he walked the other way.

In Tunis, we saw the remains of Carthage (photo 3). I had visions of Hannibal and Alexander the Great. Mostly ruins now, they were three thousand years old. Somebody had pieced together the most amazing mosaics that were floors and wall decorations (photo 4). What a jigsaw puzzle that must have been. The baths were huge buildings which included hot, warm and cold areas--an important social part of life back then. The city itself is beautiful--whitewashed buildings trimmed usually in only blue (photo 5).

In Naples, we went down to Pompeii--ruins from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79AD. People were frozen in their agony under layers of ash and pumice. They still preserve the graffiti and erotica found there. The picture is a temple with Mt. Vesuvius in the background (photo 6).

The layover day in Rome found us on the train to the Vatican. The largest church in the world. I looked at Michelangelo’s statue of the “Pieta” and could only think --one man, a hammer, and a chisel made this. No machines. I’m a machine kind of guy and respect the talent of men who use machines. But, how could this be done without machines?

I was in awe the whole trip. The grandeur of the buildings. The creativity of the artists. How long ago?

Before we left, I have to admit I worried about going to a country where people spoke a different language. I only speak English. Joanne speaks some Spanish and Italian and can figure out some French. I made her do all the talking in those places. But what about Arabic, Greek, and Turkish? Guess what happened in those countries? Joanne said, “I don’t speak this language, so you go and make yourself understood.” She was right, that is part of the European travel experience. And, I admit, I had fun doing it. Sure, you can find a lot of English speaking people now days, but not everywhere. I know.

I’ll end the first installment of my trip with these thoughts, since we are talking about languages. While in Rome, we flipped on the TV and were confronted with Eddie Murphy’s character ,Axel Foley, speaking Italian. Hysterical . We found people everywhere who wanted to speak English with us, to practice what they knew. This universe is becoming very small. People do not hate Americans; in fact, they want to know everything about us and our way of life. I had several people who asked what I do, and when I told them, they actually had seen drag racing and knew what I was talking about. No, I wasn’t recognized over there ( I did try to drop the Greeks name while in Greece, but it didn’t help either), but the sport is out there. We need to recognize that people all over the world know what we do and would like to know more.

Next blog: Part II of the trip.