Brushing up on Foreign Languages & 21 Days Until Liftoff!

At last count, I think the total number of countries we will be visiting reached 12 or 13 (if you count stopovers in Bangkok & Dubai). So as you can see, there will be lot's of different launguages to navigate during our journey. Although in the majority of areas you can find someone who speaks & understands some degree of English, I have decided to try & learn some very basic words/phrases in the most visited areas. To assist in this task I have down loaded a couple of translation Apps for my IPad/iPhone. One has a voice translation feature & the other (my favourite) has a list of common words & phrases in muliple languages as well as the option to type in your own word or sentence. The countries in which we will be visiting very briefly or just making a cruise stop have been eliminated from the list in order to make this project more manageable. 

I am currently working on French & Italian & yes you guessed it ...... getting them a little confused in the process. Already I am imagining how embarrassing it will be when I greet an Italian in French! Luckily there is no exam at the end as I would fail miserably. It's fun practising, although Mike is beginning to doubt my sanity!

On the subject of Italy, I found the cartoon below on an Italian tourist website & thought it very appropriate to my style of blog writing. Those who read about our New Zealand trip will understand why. 

Until next time,

Betty & Mike

Happy Easter & Countdown to Departure!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Easter break & spending time doing something special. The weather is certainly being kind (well here in Central Western  NSW anyway), although I suspect we had our first little taste of frost last night. Official minimum was 0 degrees C, so in my books that's a frost. Considering it is late April, we have been very lucky this Autumn, however, there is certainly a chill in the air & although we have yet to turn on the heating, that day is very near.

Given the fact we have just a smidgen over 3 weeks before we depart for the European Spring & Summer, Bathurst's cold frosty Winter in not a major concern to us at this point! Maybe when we return in late July we will be wishing we had another month in Europe. Unfortunalety my Lotto win last night (I actually dreamed I won $20,000) only amounted to $11.15, so no extensions possible this time.

On the preparations front, all is progressing well. We were contacted by our travel agent last week to say all our documentation for both sections of this holiday, has arrived, so we have an appointment Wednesday to sort through & make sure all is in order. Once we have those tickets etc physically in our hands the reality & excitement really sets in.

One area of this trip which was not organised by our TA was the train journey from Genoa, Italy to Monte Carlo. Because the TA was unable to access tickets until next month, last week I decided to go ahead & book myself. After an interesting journey via a few Europe Rail web sites, I managed to secure tickets in 2 sections on the date/times required (fingers crossed). Because we are travelling through 2 countries (Italy & France) we need to change trains. So the first segment from Genoa to Ventimiglia, in Italy takes approximately 3 hours. Then we change trains at Ventimiglia for Monte Carlo which is a trip of approximately 20 minutes. As the tickets are mostly in Italian, I just hope we can find the correct platform, carriage etc. Should be an interesting exercise considering we will each have 2 suitcases to juggle onboard. I have researched the distance between the cruise port in Genoa, where we disembark, and the rail station so that should just be a 10 minute taxi ride. As we have about 3 hours from disembarkation until our train leaves, all should be fine. Time will tell, so stay tuned for my post on June 1st!

The only other aspect of this trip we have booked ourselves in the hotel in Venice for our 2 night stay pre Mediterranean cruise. Hotels in Venice are very expensive, so finding one with a lift, airconditioning & in the right location is not that simple. Once again I did heaps of research & eventually found a nice little Hotel (Hotel Violino D'oro) located very centrally just off San Marco Square & within easy walking distance of all attractions. It is right on a canal overlooking a Gondola Station so should be lovely. The last time we visited Venice, briefly in 2010, we stayed in Maestre which is located outside the island & requires a bus & boat to reach Venice itself. This time we were determined to stay right in Venice itself to soak up & experience the local culture. Because there are more than 400 pedestrian bridges in Venice, Hotel selection is important as the least number of bridges you have to drag your suitcases over to reach your hotel, the better. I think we have 2 or 3. Once again, only time will tell if our selected Hotel was correct. Stay tuned :)

Until we can finally pack our belongings we just have the last minute bill paying, hair cuts, obtaining sufficient medication supplies & sorting paperwork left to do. No excuses to be anything but super organised for this trip. Hopefully that will be the case.

Until next time ..... enjoy Easter :)

Betty & Mike

A Beautiful Family Wedding & Just 5 Weeks Until We Leave

Although not entirely related to our upcoming trip to Europe, this post does involve a small amount of travel. But the focus is not on our drive from Bathurst to Sydney, it involves a very beautiful Wedding we attended in Sydney's Royal Botanical Gardens on Saturday April 5th, 2014.

As this was the Wedding of Mike's youngest daughter, Jess we travelled to Sydney on Friday & arrived at our Hotel (The Marriot at Circular Quay) around 3pm. After unpacking we went for a walk around the Quay & Rocks area before getting drenched by another downpour in the rainy Sydney weather. We then headed back to the Hotel to shower & change for dinner with the future bride & most of the female wedding party, in the Hotel restaurant. Dinner was wonderful & most of us decided on the seafood buffet which was an excellent choice. Very fresh lobster, oysters, crab, bugs & prawns were the order of the day. 

The weather forecast for Saturday was for showers so we were very excited to see some sunshine upon awakening Saturday morning. Mike & I walked down to Circular Quay & had a llight breakfast at a cafe near the water. As we were not required until lunch time we decided to jump on a Ferry & went to Manly where we hopped off, wandered around for 30 minutes & then came back, arriving at the Quay around 12MD. By this time the clouds were increasing & it began to look like more rain was inevitable. 

By the time we left for the Gardens the sun was shining & it was quite warm. It was my first visit in many years to The Royal Botanical Gardens, in this instance The Rose Pavillion, & it was beautiful. Just perfect for an outdoor Wedding! Mike managed the long walk through the gardens with a beautiful bride on his arm without any hiccoughs & ceremony was just beautiful. Drinks and nibbles were served in the shaded Pavillion following the ceremony & many photos (both professional & otherwise) were taken. I will add a few of mine at the end of this post as I am trying out a new App (iResize) which reduces the size of photos, making the uploading process much faster. Am hoping this will work well with limited internet access in Europe.

The sun continued to shine as we walked back to The Marriot Hotel where the reception was being held. We sat & had a drink and chatted with family whilst waiting for the reception to start at 6.30pm. The reception room was beautifully decorated, especially the table centrepieces which were lovely vases filled with cream orchids & tealight candleholders hanging from the arrangements. Not a great description, but they did look very effective. The food was just delicious & everyone seemed to have a great time!

The first thing we noticed the next morning when opening the curtains, was the pouring rain! After a very wet Friday, not a drop fell in the city on Saturday, then rained most of Sunday. Very fortunate for all concerned. We met up with most of the bridal party for coffee the next morning before everyone headed off in different directions. The bride & groom were off home for a few days before embarking on their honeymoon later this week. 

So we are now home & getting back into holiday planning mode. As the weather continues to get cooler I am moving some of my Summer clothes into the spare room ready to pack. We are also starting to set aside lot's of makeup, toiletries etc so we have an idea of what we still need to purchase. Suitcases have been decided upon, well for this week anyhow!

Time to sign off and try to post the photos. I will attempt to write a post every week from now until we leave. Not sure if there will be much in the way of interesting content though.