Back in the saddle again? I wish; this is part 42 of back in a plane seat again. This time to Athens, then Rome and a finish in Paris before heading back in a week. Each year I do a trip with my son Kevin (to France), one with my wife (could be anywhere; past two years it was Africa) and with my daughter Becky (last year it was Peru). I confess to preferring the weather in Peru in December, although it’s not really all that cold here… yet. But you sure have to pack a lot more for temps in the low 50s (and rain) than in the 70s or higher. That plus there’s only an hour or so time change to Peru I think? 10 hours to Athens. Plus three plane flights (San Francisco to Houston to Munich to Athens).

Oh, right, the desserts reference. Everywhere you turn you find a “bakery” but not like any “bakery” you’d normally come across. These “bakeries” specialize in anything-sweet. Lots and lots and lots of chocolate. Did I mention chocolate? And coffee. And just about anything else that can have sugar added to it. In Wisconsin they do pub crawls; here you could do a bakery run and see if you could escape a town without exceeding your bike’s weight limit.

Tomorrow we’ll be walking to all the historic sites in central Athens, Wednesday we’ll be off to Delphi, Thursday morning we fly to Rome, Saturday morning to France and the next Tuesday we’re home. I was talking to a guy on the plane who said “Shouldn’t you take a month to do that?” Maybe he can afford a month away from work, but I can’t, certainly not all at once. But what I should have told him is “I can’t take a month off my bike!”