Overseas again? Do we ever stop traveling?

Like you can travel too much. I mean, it's been a year since our last big trip.

From my perspective that's way too long a gap. We've been hanging out for this trip in a big way, not least because it's a chance to cash in on my long-service leave, and tomorrow we're finally off on our big Mediterranean adventure.

Starting in London.

Don't bother explaining that England isn't in the Mediterranean. I know. London's just the starting point. We arrive there with our friends Anna and Mario, who we'll be doing most of our holidays with, and do lots of tourist stuff. Go to a few museums, get on the London Eye, get drunk with the Queen... the usual. Oh, we'll also catch up with the nephew, who moved there earlier this year.

Then we head off for the Mediterranean.*

From London we fly to Croatia, staying on the island of Korcula, which is famous for not being famous.** After a week or so we drive north to the Plitvice Lakes National Park, which is famous for its lakes, and then to Pula, which is famous for being even less famous than Korcula.

Our cruising itinerary. Awwwwwesome.

After Croatia we head across the Italian border for a two day stint in Venice (no shoe shopping this time, unlike our last trip in which we hit every shoe store in Venice at least once), and then board the Ruby Princess for an 12 day tour of the Eastern Mediterranean, including Athens, Mykonos, Santorini, and Naples.

They throw us off the ship in Civitavecchia, and we'll spend our last week in Rome.

Holidays. What's not to love?

Me being dramatically less awesome than Jake.

Technically today's the first day of the holiday, but I kick-started the holiday on my last day of work last Friday. I needed to get into the European holiday mood.

Nothing says "European holiday" like a Hawaiian shirt and a ukelele. So I wore my second most garish Hawaiian shirt, strapped my little uke to my back, scootered into work, and held a short concert for my colleagues.

I'm no Jake Shimabukuro, but I do love my uke. I expect to have lots of free time to practice my uke on holiday, especially during the week on Korcula. Mario is far less excited about this than I am.

We're almost done packing, with lots of free room in our suitcases. Emma assures me the empty room won't be a problem after London and Rome. I am far less excited about this than she is.

But not enough to dampen my enthusiasm for the trip.
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* I suppose I could have called the blog "Brian and Emma's Great Starting-in-London-then-off-to-the-Mediterreanean Adventure", but that would have been far too much effort just to add a small amount of semantic precision. I do that kind of over-fiddly stuff for a living, I'm giving myself a break while I'm on holiday.

I should also point out to my friend Paul that the blog URL is "great-med-adventure", not "great-meds-adventure". That would have involve staying much closer to home while having a completely different kind of trip.

** Korcula is also famous for being where Mario was born.***

*** At least within their family. Not so famous outside the family.