It's official. I'm an early bird.
A few weeks ago, we put down a deposit on a 15 day Rhine/Danube Cruise in August next year, and by being such clever early birds, we will get a super-duper cheap return airfare to Europe!
How cool is that?
That would be um... very.
Of course, living on the other side of the planet, we intend to make very good use of this cheap airfare and plan to extend our two weeks cruise to approximately two months traveling around Western Europe! This will use up a chunk of my Long service leave. My first lot was spent on Maternity leave, so I figure it's MY turn this time.
Who is we though, I hear you ask. Well it's Vaughan, my ex, who is going to be my travel buddy.
I think it says quite a bit about our current relationship that we get on well enough and share sufficient interests that we can even consider traveling together.... and do it without killling each other.
On the contrary, we've been having a ball with the planning and budgeting. Well he's having a ball with the budgeting side of things. Me, I'm just praying that there's going to be enough money in the kitty by the time we leave.
Right now, there is half a crate's worth of brochures on my living room floor and we have spent weeks discussing:
1, the relative merits of leasing vs hiring a car in Belgium and France,
2, doing an independent rail tour of Switzerland and
3, how to get from Munich to Budapest via Prague.
The short answer are:
1 Yes. Leasing a car is the way to go if you are going to be touring for three weeks or more, which we will be doing after our cruise. Check.
2 Traveling by train seems to be the smart way to get about in Switzerland, especially if we plan to include the Glacier Express - an eight hour trip that goes from the Matterhorn (in the West) across a gazillion alpine bridges and tunnels to St Moritz (in the East. You don't want to be leaving a car behind for that one.
So Check that one too.
3 A four country group Eurail pass is going to be our friend for this sector. We plan to spend about three days in Bavaria, another three days in Prague and take a sleeper train to Budapest (where the cruise begins). Final check.
We've also been checking out 'B&B' accommodation in rural France and Belgium (what would we have done without Google maps and the internet?) and I've been exploring the possibilities of doing several half-day cooking classes. There is one in Budapest which sounds great, but I'm also interested in doing classes in Normandy and in Burgundy. I figure that if we're going to be away for two months, a few low-key/ do-nothing type days would be in order. Since one of the highlights of my last trip was my Tuscan cookery class, I think fitting in two or three classes would be great. Good wine, good food and good company. You can't beat it!
We're also interested in visiting the historical WWI sites near the Somme (one of my great uncles fought there.) Of course we mustn't forget the Normandy D-Day landing beaches,and just down the road is the Bayeux tapestry. Oh dear, the list goes on ... and on.
Our biggest danger will be that between now and when we go, we will find so many things that we can't possibly miss out on, that we will run ourselves ragged when we finally get there.
Speaking of which, I have learned my lesson from my last sojourn. We are going to stop off in Asia going over and coming back, in an effort to offset the dreaded Jetlaaaaaag.
It may still be more than a year away, but I'm getting excited now!
