Your invitation

Well friends, here it is--the blog of our European Adventure!

First off, this is my first attempt at blogging, so please bare with me as I shoot up the learning curve. For starters, if anyone can tell me how to set the links in the "Welcome to Europe's Other Tour" section above to open in a new tab (or window), that'd be great!

So, this is to be know as the "Other Tour" going on in Europe right now--the first tour of course being the Tour de France bike race. Whereas the peloton of the TdeF will be riding their bikes around France for the most part, our tour involves the trains (with the odd bike thrown in for good measure) and the following places:

• London
• Beaune, France (for all things wine)
• Yverdon, Switzerland (where Selena used to live and play the beautiful game)
• Grenoble, France (in the Alps to see the TdeF peloton climb the 21 famed switch-backs up to Aple-d'Huez on Stage 17 - look for us on OLN Channel 49 on July 23rd)
• Cinque Terre, Italy
• Tuscany, Italy (a couple of days with the freedom of a rental car)
• Florence, Italy (Art, Churches, and culture, I suppose)
• Paris, France (insert cool Paris comment here)
• London

It's been said that people spend all their time at home wishing they could get away. Then, when they get away, they try to spend all their time doing whatever they'd usually be doing at home. With a few exceptions, Selena and I are planning to avoid this trap. What exceptions? Well, we plan to run (and cycle) as much as possible while we're "on tour", so expect to read many endorphin-inspired post-run diatribes. And, of course, the other activity that will "consume" us (sorry, for the pun:) over there will be eating. Then again, we're hoping that how we eat on tour, will be drastically different than how we eat at home. So, there you go--our trip is all about calories in, calories out, and all the sites along the way.

So, here's what we'd like from all of you:

1. Subscribe to the blog (click one of the two links on the lower right (probably the "Subscribe to Comments" one). By doing this, you should get a heads-up email each time we post to the blog.
2. Check in with the blog often (or at least when you get notified that we've posted).
3. Please Please Please make comments - this will definitely be the most fun on our end--hearing from all of you guys while we're on tour!
   

Alright, there it is! Stay tuned. I should be able to post next either just before we leave (Monday, July 14th) or once we arrive in London (15th).

Ciao!
PS The pics in the slideshow will be changed as we take a few new ones on the trip