Our Winter Odyssey

When I first met Susan, almost 20 years ago now, she was an enthusiastic dancer. I met her at a dance club where I was bar tending. She told me about a dance she wanted to go to, a dance in a palace in Vienna on New Year’s Eve. It sounded like a fairy tale but it was a dream of hers then, one that has become submerged in our daily lives, but never totally forgotten. And still we dance when we can.

Casting about for what to get for her this Christmas it occurred to me that, after twenty years of dreaming, this was the year for that dream to come true; New Year’s Eve in Vienna at the Silvester Ball in the Hofburg Palace.

Vienna is a long way to go for just New Year’s Eve. And it was important to arrive early enough to get organized for the ball. But there was Christmas in the way and I did not to be travelling on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. That meant flying before Christmas. So to make a holiday of it I decided to fly into Budapest for a week where we would spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Then on the 26th we would take the train to Vienna where we would stay for a week and spend New Year’s Eve at the Silvester Ball.

Susan’s brothers and sisters and their families live in Tuscany and I know that she wants to see them, so, in early January we will travel south stopping in Venice for a few days and then go on to her home town of Arezzo in Tuscany. Ten days there and then to Rome and our flight home. How is that for a Christmas present?

One possible wrinkle is the weather: we are travelling in the middle of winter. However, that is when the New Year arrives. It may be rainy, it may be dull and overcast, it may even snow, but, it will be an adventure. 

It is my intention to take my camera, two actually, my new Canon R and my Canon 5D MK II, and two lenses, my 24-70mm f/2.8 and my 16-35mm f/4.0. My 70-200mm is just too heavy so it will stay home. The photography will be interesting and challenging, trying to bring life to winter’s grey.

While we travel I am going to try something new. I will write about our adventure, our Winter Odyssey, and post my comments right here together with a few photographs of what we are doing. You can follow along with us: see where we go, where we stay, what we eat, what we do. 

If you miss a post or two, you can catch up using the sidebar “Winter Odyssey Menu”. This menu will grow as we travel. I may create a page before I actually fill it so if you find a menu item with nothing in it, don’y worry. The content is coming.

So, join us. It should be fun and I will do my best to make it interesting.