Twelve Days, Six Flights, Four European Cities. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Logan Airport, Boston, MA

Since nobody wants to see a photo of Logan Airport, I’m leading with an image from Ravennamosaici.it. If Italian train workers don’t strike next week, I’ll see Ravenna’s drool-inducing early Christian and Byzantine mosaics in person.

Well, geez, when I present it like that, my upcoming trip to Edinburgh, Florence, Ravenna, and Amsterdam sounds like a combination root canal/C-section/broken kneecap.

Admittedly, the itinerary for my jaunt across the pond involves a lot of moving parts. It started out simply enough, then grew organically, like the 100+ tulip and daffodil bulbs that I planted yesterday, the ones that will emerge next spring shooting their stems skyward, unfurling their fisted flowers, and spreading rainbows of joy throughout my neighborhood.

Assuming, of course, that the chicken wire does its job of keeping the damn squirrels away.

I’m optimistic/deluded that the tulips and daffodils I planted in my yard will look as gorgeous as those I saw at the Stevens-Coolidge House & Gardens last spring.

The bulbs of my trip grew like this:

• My daughter is studying abroad in Florence this fall. I don’t think this requires further explanation.

• JetBlue, home of my family’s 100,000+ pooled points, now flies to Amsterdam, which is one of my bucket list cities. Mr. Jordaan, here I come! (That’s the name of my hotel, not my wouldn’t-be-so-secret-now lover.)

• My niece who has been living in Edinburgh for five years is moving to Canada next summer. Yep, okay then, Canada is nice—but Edinburgh is another of my bucket list cities. And I haven’t seen Quincy since we had snow much fun not skiing at Sunday River in March. Edinburgh added to trip: check.

• I can’t wait to see Lucia and her haunts in Florence; however, I’ve really been chomping at the bit to see Ravenna, a mosaic lover’s paradise, or so “they” say. Day trip to Bucket List City #3, here we come!

If this sounds complicated, well, I guess it is. Along with my intricate network of flights, trains, and buses to and from airports, there’s the reality that I’m 89.9% likely to miss my flight from Amsterdam to Edinburgh tomorrow afternoon. Someone neglected to leave enough time between two international flights, and she hopes that EasyJet comes through with a flight delay.

E-Z-Jet! E-Z-Jet! Flight de-lay! Flight de-lay!

An hour’s all I need: then I’d make both my aircraft and afternoon tea in Edinburgh. Reservations await at a place that calls this tradition “a little naughty.” Tell me that doesn’t sound tantalizing!

You may be thinking, “Christina, your trip has disaster written all over it in alarming, red-Sharpie capital letters.”

To which I respond, “I prefer to think of my travel logistics as being ripe with opportunity for unanticipated adventure.”

Stay tuned.