We returned to Florida in October to spend the holidays with our kids, help with wedding planning and attend Dale’s high school reunion. On New Years Day, we flew back to Washington to take care of some unfinished matters (rebuilding the deck and adding a spiral staircase between floors) and to get in a little skiing. Trevor came for a visit and then we returned to Florida again at the end of March to prepare for our next travel adventure.
We have a home exchange for the entire month of May in Vienna and will also be spending time in Germany visiting relatives near Stuttgart and seeing Bavaria. From Vienna, we plan to visit Hungary (Budapest) and the Czech Republic (Brno and possibly Prague).
Our plane left Miami around dinner time on Thursday, April 23, scheduled to land in Madrid the next morning. Unfortunately, our departure was delayed due to weather and we arrived in Madrid too late to make our connection to Munich where we had reserved seats on the train for Suttgart.
The airport in Madrid is very modern and clean.
Upon landing, we found the customer service people at Iberia Air to be very accomodating and when I explained our situation, they graciously offered to fly us direct to Stuttgart where we would arrive at nearly the same time as we had originally planned with our round-about ticketing. So, instead of spending most of Friday on a train, we spent it in the Madrid airport.
Fortunately, all the terminal traffic was on one side of the terminal and the other side was empty making it easy to find somewhere relatively quiet to relax during our layover.
Miles to go before I sleep.
The Road Less Traveled 
Hi, Mark! It’s about 9:15 pm in Tokyo, where Susan and I are spending our last evening before a very long day tomorrow going home. Our undies are washed and we have internet now wherever we go — wish we could take that feature home to the States.
We have recovered most of our health and learned our way around a bit. We get a little bit more functional in Tokyo every day. There are lots of things to like about this city, and the things to dislike are more about us: our poor health and our inability to speak or read Japanese.
We had some amazing adventures, and Susan has posted them on Facebook.
Would love to hear more about what you’re doing in Vienna. It’s a place I would love to visit someday.
Best to Dale as well as you.
Rich
Richard Buck (206) 639-7707 January.32nd@Gmail.com
Rich, Have a safe trip! Mark
Dear Mark,
I love your titel of this day! I hope you can spend wonderful days in Wien, please keep us posted….
We miss you and Dale
Heike