Where to Even Start?!

Miss Ginger is home, after a long, exhausting day of travel from Rome, via Newark, to Houston. After a hot shower in a stall the size of an entire European bathroom, a good night's sleep in her own king size bed, and a long snuggle with 2 very affectionate kitties, she is left to sort through the rubble of her now-ended journey.

She's got a suitcase full of dirty clothes, a camera with over 2,000 images in it, and copious notes and bon mots jotted into her iPad to share with you, gentle readers. Just how to organize such a project has her head spinning, but she's developed an idea.

In the style of her "Consumer Product Reports", Miss G has decided to create a page on her blog dedicated to Drag Queen travel. Using her lipstick rating system, she will sort out the sights, events, hotels, and gliteratti that make up her FABULOUS journeys! It's going to take a while, and she's got to get some work work done today, so, until she has a chance to get the project moving, here are a couple of highlights from the trip to whet your appetite:

Amsterdam was every bit as beautiful as Miss G remembered, and the weather was cool and comfortable, if a bit damp at times. Amsterdam was perhaps the first "master planned" community, with a series of concentric canals that lay the city out in a walkable, easy to learn semicircle, where all roads leads back the the center, the Centraal train station.

Of course, she went there for the Gay Pride parade, and her vantage point this year was from a houseboat rental on the canal: truly, the way to go! This spot allowed for some awesome photographs, so you can look forward to photos of floats, festivities, and lots of hot men! Miss G will post a couple of the best on here on the blog, and get the rest upload into albums so you can browse them at your leisure!

Miss G got to check another item off her bucket list: she's always wanted to see the inside of a windmill, and she was not disappointed! We were able to crawl all around inside it, and Miss G was truly amazed at the technology of the time! There's a whole post on windmills coming, so look forward to that!

Another bullet off the bucket list, overnight rail travel, was also checked off, thankfully. Here's Aunt Tonya in her bunk... MeeMaw was above and Miss G was below. That 60's era sardine can was a nightmare, and there's an entire post coming about European rail travel. It's a great way to move about the continent- IF you know what you're doing. Miss G is getting pretty good at it, so she'll have a few pointers for you!

The train trip absolved itself by delivering us to Venice, undoubtedly the most unique city on Earth! Breathtakingly beautiful, incredibly cultural, and very easy to get around, Miss G definitely wants to spend more time in Venice, and has a whole post planned on what she did, what she learned, and what she'll do differently

next time!

After Venice was Florence, and visits to the Uffizi to see Venus and to L'acadamia to see David. Florence was another great city, and an art lover's dream. Photos, and even this reproduction, of Michaelangelo's David just do not do it justice to the real thing! He is truly beautiful, and so much larger and perfect than I ever realized!

And finally, a quick visit to Rome, just enough time to see the major sights from the street. This is another "go back" place for Miss G, since it was really just a quick overnight to position herself near the airport for her return crossing. It was enough time to tell that Rome is definitely THE European city to city if you only have time for one. As a place where history, culture, and hospitality come together, it can't be beat!

Now, the phone is already ringing, and work is calling, because I KNOW they are going to want me back a day early! What good does it do to plan a jet lag day if you don't get to take it?!