Ajaa! Resa!

The Mrs. and I are getting ready to go to Europe. Finland and Sweden specifically.

We are inveterate planners. Travel is time is money. Lots of it these days. We don't want to waste any time while we're there. Not that we'll be sprinting from attraction to attraction.

Rather, we want to parcel out the time efficiently to see as much as we can at a pace that's slow and enjoyable. That's harder to do than cramming in as many sights as humanly possible to the point of sensory overload or just jumping on some generic tour bus that takes you past everything without actually experiencing anyplace. Not that well-run tour buses (or tour boats or tour trams) don't have their place. I think of them as the "condiments" of travel rather than as a main course. Or maybe they're more like that first trip through a buffet where you taste a small amount of everything before going back for a second course where you take a lot of what you like and none of what you didn't.

Time management is important to us when we travel. Between my age, the economy and the political state of the planet I'm starting to hear the clock tick on our "big trip" travel days. I want to see more of the world before the opportunity is gone, and the way things are playing out that opportunity may be gone sooner rather than later.

On the bright side, if circumstances limit my movement in the future maybe I can finally get around to visiting Ellis Island, finding that staircase where the Polo Grounds used to stand, and maybe even make it back to the Statue of Liberty for the first time since I was around 12. Doors close and doors open. So they say.