1. Symi, Greece (with two days in London). This trip has been in the works for a while and will be a special one. We are going to spend a solid week on the island of Symi, a tiny island in the Dodecanse region of Greece, which is 12-island chain close to Turkey in the Aegean. Most importantly to me, the island is where my father's parents were born.
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| The clocktower in the harbor area of Symi, Greece. |
We have not been back since 2005 and we are not going alone. My sister, my parents and Kevin's parents are all coming. It's truly a family affair! Kevin's parents have not been to Greece and it will be nice to share the experience with them as well as spend time with my family. Plus, having my Dad there, who speaks Greek fluently will be rather nice! We chose two villas (Villa Cassandra and the Pitini House) in the upper village that we booked through Symi Visitor. I highly recommend this rental agency as they have some wonderful properties and are easy to work with--being incredibly responsive via email.
The family reunion will only be during the week in Symi. The parties will then split up and tour and vacation in different ways and locations. For Kevin and me, we will bookend the time in Symi with time in London. We are flying directly to London and then taking a flight from London to Rhodes and then a ferry onto Symi, bypassing Athens this time. I think it will be nice to enjoy a few days in London on either side of the Greece trip. London is a city we both enjoy and have traveled to enough to feel at ease. We'll spend one night in the financial district, close to Liverpool Street Station (as we have an early flight from Stansted and need to take an express train out to this distant airport). On the way back to the US, we will stay near the Earl's Court Station, which is on the Tube line to Heathrow. When traveling to London, I do think strategically about location as having an easy walk to the trains and being able to get back to the airport with all your belongings without transfers is really nice!
2. Chicago. In late July, we are taking a long weekend to visit friends and enjoy Chicago. Growing up and attending college in the Midwest, we both have lots of acquaintances in the Second City. (Meaning we do not have to worry about hotels as there is always some place to crash!) Another dear friend from Brooklyn is joining us for the weekend so we really will have a memorable time catching up with folks. Plus enjoying a break from the DC summer will be lovely.
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| Giant Mozart ball sculptures, Vienna, Austria. |
3. Vienna and Salzburg, Austria. At the end of the summer--right around Labor Day--we are heading back to Europe. This time, we'll be in Austria. Although we were just in Vienna a few years ago, a meeting is taking me back there and we really loved our last visit, it will be nice to go back and see a few of the sites we were unable to see the first time around. We will also be staying in a different section of town. During my meeting, I'll be staying in the MuseumQuartier, which is a lovely part of town and allows me an easy commute on the UBahn to the Conference Center for my meeting. After the conference, we will take a train to Salzburg, which will be new for us. We plan on doing the Sound of Music Tour (um, why go to Salzburg and NOT do this!) and we may take a daytrip out to see the Hitler's Eagle Nest Retreat. We also may take a daytrip from Vienna to Graz, the second largest city in Austria and a place we have not been or back to Krems and the wine country of the Wachau Valley, which runs along the Danube and is basically beautiful.
