Departure

Suddenly, here it is. Tomorrow's the big day. The wife and I are off at 8am for a couple weeks' vacation in Europe. As ever, the planning has been going on so long that it's hard to believe the trip is actually here.

Our first week will be spent in Paris, taking in the sights and eating untold amounts of amazing food. The bulk of our research for this trip has been spent on where to eat in Paris, so you can bet that most blog entries will center around food.

After Paris, we head to Amsterdam to connect with Gerry and Christina, whose wedding provides the reason for this trip. They'll be tying the knot in Christina's home town of Groningen, on September 10th, but we'll spend a couple days in Amsterdam with them before heading northward.

In Amsterdam, we'll spend Christina's birthday in a pub watching a World Cup qualifying match between Ireland and France, which promises to be a hell of a time. That's Wednesday 9/7, and Thursday I hope to drag someone down to The Paradiso to see Four Tet play a show. Never seen the dude spin live before, but I've had a few of his records on a short leash to my ear for a couple months now, and I can't get enough. We'll see.

One thing's for certain, though: I will be catching Wilco at The Paradiso on Monday 9/12. Gerry and Christina leave for their Tanzanian honeymoon the Sunday after their wedding, but we'll be spending a couple extra days at their place on Bloemgracht before we go home on Wednesday 9/14. How cool, to pretend we live there for a couple days and to just get to hang out like that for a while before coming home.

Sounds like there are some big plans for the wedding days, but I've yet to be privy to those. So, if you're interested, read along over at the other blog, CHess Travel Blog, and see what we're up to.