The end?

I always like to think that there's really no end to a good vacation - just a long layover in between where you have to work for a while. That doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye to a wonderful place, and this time was no exception. It's Monday today - we arrived last night around 9PM after a long day of plane rides, bad food and a long layover in Jersey where we managed to catch part of a football game. The culture shock of returning to America was thrown in our faces twofold this time around, as we both had to muster up the strength to get into the office by 7AM this morning and deal with mounds of backlogged work.

But the memories are still fresh - just past the horizon, seemingly. Intermittently throughout the day, I found myself sitting back, turning to look out my window, and letting out a deep, whimsical sigh. It's hard to imagine we could have done so much in just two weeks. It's hard to imagine that just three days ago we were sitting in the shade of chestnut trees, eating pretzels and drinking liter-sized mugs of beer without a care in the world. It's hard to imagine that less than a week ago we were drifting, dazzled, down the most beautiful river in the world.

But the hardest part of all comes a bit later - where do we go next? :-)