Off to Europe again

I will get back to the constructivist view (see previous posts) but not yet.
With some Long Service Leave, Tania and I are doing a winter tour this time but not on the bikes. General plan is fly out to Rome on November 22nd and then onto Riga (Latvia) for 4 nights. Latvia is my mother's homeland and I actually own her old house there as well. We visited there in 2001 and I was the first of the family to return there since mum had left in 1948 so it was a very emotional time for me. It will be great to see what has happened to the place in the 10 years since especially the 2008 finance problems and with the country being so dependent on EU money to survive as a country.
After that, we're down to Calabria for a couple of weeks before meeting up with the boys in December for a meeting in Milan with Romanian relatives and then Chamonix ski/snowboarding for a week. Then onto New York for Christmas and NewYear and home by early January.