Hi Wonder-folk,

As you read this, Steve and I will be heading to Tbilisi, Georgia to spend a week with family there.  It’ll be our first trip to Georgia and I’m so excited.  I’ve always loved traveling, especially internationally.  Yes, it’s a long haul.  Yes, the aisles get narrower and the seats smaller every year – but walking through an international terminal is still a thrill. All those doors – like something out of an old game show – marked with tantalizing destinations.  This way to Japan, that way to Vienna, or Paris, or Rome.  I can hear Bob Barker in my head, asking which it’ll be – Door #1, #2 or #3?

We’ll be flying to Munich first, where we’ll have a nine hour layover before our flight to Tbilisi. Steve, who does not enjoy airports, will park himself at our gate and spend the hours immersed in a suitably massive tome. He selects these carefully in advance – air travel is a chance to read uninterrupted for hours on end, and he doesn’t like to waste these opportunities on light fare. One year, thanks to a series of epic delays, he made it through “The Dawn of Everything,” David Graeber and David Wengrow’s 700-page history of humanity.  I just glanced at his backpack and noticed Charles Mann’s “1491” near the top, so I guess I know where his mind will be this time. Actually, I’m no slouch either – on our last transatlantic flight, Neil Price’s epic history of the Vikings, “Children of Ash and Elm,” kept me entertained for 600 pages.  

But there’s no way I’d waste hours in a European airport sitting in a chair reading!  Not when there are cafes where I can sip German coffee and eat dark, seed-filled German breads. Not when there are Swiss chocolate kiosks and boutiques filled with German-engineered pens, pharmacies stocked with herbal tisanes, newsstands full of British books and magazines to browse. My strategy for layovers is to saturate my senses with colors and textures and tastes, so that by the time we board the next flight, all I want is the peace and quiet of my (tiny) seat. 

Anyway, that’s what we’ll be doing today and tomorrow.  And then Tbilisi and Georgia to explore!  

We’ll be back with new episodes beginning June 13th. 

Until then, wherever you are, enjoy the beginning of summer!

— Anne