After a short nap, I ran out to the Barnes & Noble at Franklin Park and picked up a copy of Eyewitness Travel for Venice by mistake. "Venice?" I thought as I got in the car, "I thought you were going to Vienna!" Of course, I was right. That's one of the greatest things about arguing with yourself. You're almost always right. So, I went back inside and switched out that Venice book for the correct Vienna book. They were on the shelf next to each other, so perhaps that's how I grabbed the wrong one. Or, perhaps I was just so excited about leaving for Europe later that day that I lost my head and grabbed the first book that started with "V". B&N benefited from my return trip as I also picked up an Eyewitness book on Prague. More on these books, later.

As I was saying, I was a little stir crazy that day waiting for the appropriate time to leave. I had already checked, rechecked and double checked my luggage to see if I had forgotten anything. I'd even asked Stupid for her input on which workout gear to take along. I found it amazing how much we depend on electricity compared to just 20 years ago. Had this been 1990, I would have been traveling with about twenty fewer pounds of electronic adapters, cords, plugs and equipment. Among the things that I did take were my Nook Color, my Kindle, my cell phone, my GPS and my laptop - and all of the cords and plugs that go with them. I had watched as much daytime TV as I could possibly stand. Normally, when I get bored, I get active. I'll go for a bike ride or find something to do that will keep me moving. I also did that on D-day. I pulled out the mountain bike and played around in the street practicing some track-stands. I rode some wheelies and generally showed off for my neighbors' kids who were outside playing.

Chris took me to the airport that day. I drove up to the airport and handed him my keys with a goodbye hug. He used my car while I was gone so that they could experience the freedom of being a two-car family for a while. I only asked that he park it in my driveway a couple of times so that my house didn't look abandoned. I never did follow up with him on that to find out how many times he did that, and at this point I don't care. The house wasn't burgled and he got good use of the car for a couple of weeks. As he drove away, I felt a little sad and got some butterflies about the trip ahead. I waited for my classmates to arrive not believing that I could actually be the first one to arrive and knowing that I was. Each time a car stopped to let someone out, I looked to see if it was one of my friends. Bored with that after only a few minutes, I decided to go inside and check in. It was then that I coined the first nickname of the trip. The Bag Nazi was just waiting to pounce on anyone with any bags, be they carry on or checked bags, that were over the prescribed weight limit. As I approached the check in counter he picked up both of my bags. First, he lifted my checked bag onto the scale at the counter. Initially, I thought, "Wow, that's service!" Then, he picked up my carry on bag and moved it aside apparently to get it out of the way so that I could check in without issue. This entire time, the young lady at the counter was busy processing my boarding pass and getting my paperwork in order. The Bag Nazi interrupted this process to inform the young lady that my carry on exceeded the 8KG (17.6 lbs) limit and was 9.3KG (20.5lbs) in weight. She said, "That's close enough. We have ten empty seats on this flight. I don't think those 3 pounds will matter." Bag Nazi continued to press the issue by pointing out that I also had a laptop bag that I was carrying on. This didn't seem to phase the counter attendant in the least. She looked at The Bag Nazi and said, "He's fine." while handing me my boarding pass. She informed me that my flight would be leaving from gate [THE ABSOLUTE FARTHEST GATE FROM YOUR CURRENT LOCATION] as is standard policy at Detroit Metro Airport.

All checked in, I went back outside to await the arrival of my friends. Eventually, the Hummer limo containing Doug, Michael, Richard and Shirley pulled up in front of the terminal. . Shortly after that, the remainder of our group showed up one by one. After they got past The Bag Nazi, we made our way through security without issue and made our way to the gate from which we would eventually be departing. Since there wasn't exactly anything entertaining on the monitor above the gate , we made our way back down the entire length of the terminal to find the TGI Friday's. We enjoyed some drinks and some food before heading back to the gate. The memorable moment from the Friday's was when the waitress asked Michael if he was "still nursing that drink" and asked if he wanted a nipple for it. That was certainly not the norm for Michael as I would learn over the next two weeks. Mike can hold his own at the bar. Trust that.

On the way back to the gate, we saw the always-on-the-job Dr. Tom in distracted-walk mode for the last time. Mind you, this is the way that people are used to seeing Tom when he's not sitting in class. Walk 8 feet; read a little; stop walking; read some more; walk a little; repeat. Back at the gate, we shared stories of what it took to get ready and how nervous some of us were and how routine this was for others. We checked our email and surfed the web. We read. We chatted. There was a lot of nervous energy and the early stages of what would become lasting comradery began to surface .

Getting on the plane was an adventure that began with them calling for all business class and first class passengers. It was then that fellow traveler and EMBA graduate Yousef got up to board the plane with them. As we stood waiting for them to call our sections, we watched him inch closer and closer to boarding the plane. All the while we gave him crap about how he was too good to be seen with us and wondered aloud about how he got a first class ticket when we were all stuck in coach. Alas, it was The Bag Nazi who was at the gate checking to make sure that none of the rogues from steerage would board ahead of the value of their ticket. Yousef handed his ticket to The Bag Nazi and was promptly directed back to the seating area with the rest of us lowly coach passengers... much to the delight of his fellow travelers. Spontaneous seat upgrade FAIL.

This was my first flight aboard a Boeing 737 or any other plane of similar size. I was surprised at the number of seats per row. My seat was in the center section of the plane and on the opposite end of the row sat my classmate and teammate, Doug - seen here bent over and wearing a ballcap. Directly in front of me was a video monitor. Initially, it contained only flight information. Though, eventually, we were able to watch movies or listen to books on CD through that interface. I watched Source Code and Thor during the 8 hour flight because I couldn't sleep. I couldn't sleep because the guy in front of me reclined his seat immediately after takeoff and the guy behind me was pounding on the back of my seat throughout the flight. Perhaps that was payback for the time when I stood up to get my bag out of the overhead and stepped onhis foot. Perhaps he was just an inconsiderate asshole. The food they served on the flight was good for airline food. I had teriyaki chicken, rice and veggies for dinner. Breakfast was a roll and some fruit cup thing. It was about 1/4 cup of pineapple, star-fruit and srawberries. With dinner, and when the beverage card came around again, I enjoyed some German beer called Warstein. It was ok. It certainly doesn't compare to the beer that we had when we landed in Prague. Though, The Czech Republic is the birthplace of modern pilsner beer, so it would be hard to beat that. I also had two coffees. Here again, they didn't compare to the coffee I had later in the trip. There's really nothing quite like the amazing coffee which is pretty much the standard in the areas we visited.

We had to switch planes in Frankfurt and we had a short layover. That was ok at first because, when our first flight landed, we were all anxious to stand and walk around a bit. Eight hours is a long time to sit still. We rode a bus from the plane to the termainal. The bus seemed to turn every 15 feet and it felt like we were 2 miles from the terminal based on the time we spent on the bus. I couldn't see where we were going because I was in the back half of the bus. We were glad to get off that bus . We also had to go through security in Franfurt. What a treat that was. We also get our passports stamped. This was the only stamp that I got while in Europe. The Germans are nothing, if not efficient. Their security check was about as smooth as anything I've ever seen. They use the same machinery as we use in the US, but they do it so much more efficiently. As an example, they use the same plastic tubs that we use to push our belongings through the x-ray machines. They have an automatic tub return system that does not rely on people to stack the tubs and return them to the area where the tubs are needed. I think they probably push through about twice as many people per minute as they do at Detroit Metro. What they make up for in efficiency at the security checkpoint, they lose in efficiency in the plane boarding process. The area where they check the boarding passes was too small and they just called everyone at once announcing the plane as ready for boarding instead of loading by sections. Plus, we had to carry our luggage down stairs to get onto a bus that took us about 200 meters to our plane. I suppose it makes sense to use a bus because you don't want people walking across the tarmac and getting in the way of airport traffic. Still, the boarding process could best be described as FUBAR. While we waited for boarding to begin, we enjoyed each other's company and did some people watching.