Countdown

Restless Leg Syndrome is the bane of many insomniacs. You lie in bed, willing your body to relax and drift off, and suddenly your legs begin twitching and kicking of their own accord. We don't want to be still, they insist, we were built to move and move we shall! They tingle and burn, constantly drawing you away from unconsciousness with their thrashing

The travel bug is much the same. It twitches and burns in your brain, telling you that you need to move, move, move. Glen and I appear to have a maximum tolerance of three years between major travel expeditions. Year one is tolerable, as we are still fresh with the glow of our most recent trip. By year two, we begin to fantasize about jumping in the car and driving away for a few weeks. By year 2.5, we begin to say to one another "we don't really need a condo...we can always find somewhere to live." We start eyeballing our possessions with an appraiser's eye, wondering how much we could get for it on Kijiji and how many nights at a hostel that desk and cabinet could fund. Major renovation projects are undertaken solely to deal with travel-related restlessness.

By the start of year 3, both destination and time frame are selected. This is good, because by this point there is nothing left in the house to renovate and no other outlet for our nervous energy. We proceed to squirrel away cash to fund the adventure, and the upcoming trip takes over three quarters of our brain.

It has been nearly three years since we came back from our adventures in New Zealand and Australia. It is time to go.

This time, we're going to Germany to take advantage of their hospitality for one month. This odyssey will not be the same length as our last, but the intensity will likely be greater! The bulk of the trip will take place in the southern half of Germany, with side trips to Amsterdam and Prague. We shall do battle with large pretzels and even larger steins of beer. We shall contemplate all forms of wurst, including the dreaded blood sausage. We shall hunt castles and cathedrals and men in leiderhosen. We shall drink wine on the Mosel and schnapps in the Black Forest. Every form of indigestion will become familiar to us, and our legs will ache with excessive walking and cycling.

Germany! You are ours for the taking! Sound the sirens - the geeks shall again be abroad!