Back from the Dark Ages

Thirteen countries, four thousand miles and five thousand photographs later, we arrived back in the US, land of good food, relaxed living and Internet. Of the thirteen countries, the combined land area and the combined population of three of them are less than the land area and population respectively of little old Rhode Island! As for European cuisine, forget it! Despite numerous forays into indicated restaurant districts, we managed no more than three or four enjoyable meals during the entire trip. The remainder of the offerings, while not good, were certainly not cheap!
The map below gives a rough outline of where serendipity took us - just click on it for more detail.In addition to weight restrictions, width restrictions and height restrictions we traversed grades as steep as 25% and climbed hairpin roads so tight that we had to perform three-point-turns at some of the corners. Overall, the little wagon took all of this in her stride and produced a useful 23 MPG to boot - just as well with diesel prices at around $5.50 per gallon. Other posts will be dated as they happened and will appear below this post. More to follow...