Departure Day!

The waiting was finally over & we departed Bathurst at around 9.45am. After an uneventful drive we stopped at Camperdown for lunch, then off to the airport where we dropped off our rental car & had just a few minutes wait before we checked in. By doing an online check-in & printing out our boarding passes the night before, the process was fast & seamless. Of course flying Business Class may have expedited the process somewhat.

We were then directed to the Emirates Business Lounge where we spent about 2.5 hours sampling the beautiful food & wines. This place was amazing with comfortable armchairs, great bathrooms and amazing views. We were so comfortable there it was tempting to just stay. Joking of course!

Our flight was on time & we boarded (via the express lane) around 6.20pm, with take-off at 6.50pm. We were offered Champaigne as we sat down. The seats were amazing with so much leg room & the option to go from upright to lying flat in seconds. After being served dinner (which we were unable to do justice to) it was time to sleep ...... And sleep we did! Mike managed about 5-6 hours in the first leg (Sydney-Bangkok) & I around 4.5 hours (the old cough kept waking me).

Landed in Bangkok after approximately 9 hours, just for a brief refuelling stop over & now heading to Dubai. Service on both legs of the trip thus far has been fantastic. After all the sleep on the first leg, I had a couple of naps but Mike didn't really sleep between Bankok & Dubai. Think he was too busy watching movies. Breakfast was very good & served about an hour out of Dubai. 

We are now in Dubai in the Emirates Business Lounge for an approximately 4 hour stopover. This terminal (3) is massive & they have 2 more with a 4th currently under construction. Getting between terminals must be an exercise in itself, luckily we don't move from this one. Just another 2 hours and we can board for the final leg to Venice. Plenty to do here though & very comfortable seats for relaxing.

I am writing this "journey" portion of the blog in stages while we are filling in time between flights. Also, I may not remember everything if I wait too long! No photos as yet, although I have been tempted to take pics inside the plane, I fear it may not be well tolerated. Hopefully I can locate my camera and take lot's when we arrive in Venice this afternoon. We will have free WiFi at our Hotel, so will upload something interesting then, hopefully.

Just One More Sleep .............

What a busy final week this has been! At least time has passed very quickly & I can hardly believe that this time tomorrow (Thursday) we will be checking in at Sydney Airport for our flight to Venice.

We just finished our packing & decided to weigh our suitcases, the results are very pleasing! For the first time ever I managed to come in under 20kgs for my main suitcase (19.6) & Mike's 24.5kgs! That certainly leaves some shopping space. Considering we each have a 40kg limit, we have done very well. My carry on was 7kgs & Mike's 5.5kgs. Luckily they don't weigh handbags because I suspect mine will weigh nearly as much as my carry on!

I guess the next time you hear from us will be after we reach Venice in 2 days. I will take plenty of photos making sure the next post will actually contain something interesting.

Until next time :)

Betty & Mike

The Suitcases are Finally Ready for Filling & Just 8 Days until we Leave!!

Our spare bedrooms are now officially packing zones! After our last (before our trip) visitors departed on Sunday, beds were stripped & remade today in preparation for the final phase before we depart. We each have a room to sort out clothing & decide just what needs to go & what does not. Although I won't actually pack my "hanging" clothes (yes I hate wrinkles) until the day before we leave, many other items can actually be readied for just placing in a suitcase. The final test will come at the last moment when we discover just how many of the "might need" items will actually fit. 

The clothing is really the easy part. It's all those other bits & pieces, like cameras, power adaptors chargers, leads, medications, first aid items & all the documentation that can take up more space than you realise. Don't tell Mike but I am trying to sneak most of this into his suitcase ;)

My packing room:

Hopefully my new red suitcases will be easy to locate on the luggage carousels :)

Mike's preparations:

We are really trying to keep our luggage to a manageable level, however being away for 63 days & restricted laundry facilities in many areas of Europe, certain items are essential. I think that people who swear they can survive a trip this long by just using carry on allowance must be very clever or very smelly at the end :)

The cold weather has certainly arrived, highlighted by the snow around the region this last weekend. Even more reason to want to escape to warmer regions. Unfortunately we will be returning in July when the worst of our Winter may still await us. 

All other preparations are going smoothly so now it's just a matter of waiting.

Until next time when I hope to have some more entertaining photos & news.

Betty  

 

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.

Counting Down to Departure

Well it's now just over 7 weeks until we start our dream Holiday, so the pace is beginning to pick up in the planning & organising department. I am very happy to say that many of the "to do" items on our lists have already been crossed off, so not a great deal can be done until the final week or so.

What we have completed or booked in the last few weeks:

• House Sitter/Dog Minder organised & orientated
• Flights confirmed & seats selected
• Airport Transfers (Venice & Prague) booked
• Venice Hotel (Pre Mediterranean cruise) booked
• Mediterranean Port tours booked 
• Hire car (to and from Sydney Airport) booked
• Sydney Airport Hotel on return from Europe (flight arrives 10.05pm) booked
• Travel SIM's for our mobile phones ordered
• Packing lists compiled
• Luggage organised (still deciding on size of carry on)

I am sure there are a thousand other things we have done (I won't mention the window & blind cleaning) but don't want to bore everyone silly before we leave Bathurst!

They say half the fun is in the planning, well I have certainly been doing lots of that & also a huge amount of research on many of the towns/ports we are visiting along the way. So if nothing else, I am enriching my European knowledge! The more I read, the more excited I get.

Until next time,

Betty