Bon Voyage!

---

After months of anticipation, we are finally leaving on a our 3 week journey to Europe! The world headquarters for cleverbridge (http://www.cleverbridge.com - the company I work for) is located in Cologne, Germany and I'm lucky enough to go there once a year around this time on business. This year Meagan is joining me and we decided to tack on a short vacation to Italy at the end since we'll be so close. This is Meagan's first trip outside the US and she'll be getting her first stamp in her brand new passport when we head through customs in the Frankfurt airport. Packing was a bit difficult since the weather in Germany will still be pretty chilly but it will start to warm up when we get to Italy. Always a struggle not to bring too much stuff! Karneval will happen when we are in Cologne meaning we both needed costumes for the 6 night celebration which is sort of the equivalent of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, LA. It wasn't easy but we were able to find all the components for some pretty awesome costumes which you'll see in some later posts...Our flight leaves from Chicago at 2PM central time Sunday and, after transferring to a giant Boeing 777 in Toronto, we'll arrive in Frankfurt, Germany at 7:30AM local time Monday morning where we'll catch a train to Cologne. See the route for the first leg of our trip below. More to follow!

---