Bye, bye work

Work is finished and now it's time to get the last bits of our preparation together. Most of our hotels are booked, planes ticketed and packing underway. It was somewhat weird leaving work and saying "Bye, see you all next March". Work is a bit like oxygen - you don't miss it unless it's not there! I know I'll miss the guys and gals at work (But watch out, my aim is improving!) I'm hoping many of them will 'follow' us via this blog; not to rub anything in but to share some of the experiences we will be having. They're a great bunch of characters to work with and I'll sure miss 'em. And....... I still wake up at 05:30 every morning!

Without the help of my old boss Larry and current boss Susan I probably wouldn't have managed to get such a long period off work in one hit! I can safely say this now that Larry has retired to pursue his own travel and dining activities. It seems forever since we first planned to go  away and now it's almost upon us panic is beginning to set in. Have we done all we need to do, will the cat be alright, have we checked visas, arranged standing orders, let everyone know etc, etc, etc. STUFF IT - ITS ALL SORTED AND IF IT AIN'T DONE THEN IT CAN WAIT!

Our holiday really starts next Friday since our flight is at 06:00 on Saturday 8th so I doubt we'll sleep Friday night. We are having dinner with a group of friends on Friday evening and then will kick our heels until Russell takes us to the airport at 03:00hrs. My intention is to post on this site whilst waiting at the airport, with a few pictures and to start this travelogue off proper. So, for now it's adios. Keep safe everyone and a big thank you to all of you who have put up with me going on and on and 'counting down'  the days. Keep in touch through the comments section at the bottom of each blog and we'll see you all next March!

WORLD TRIP - Part 3

STAGE 3

Flying Air New Zealand we arrive in Los Angeles on Wednesday 2^nd January 2013. We hire a car for 10 days as we have 3 nights in the City of Angels before driving up to Las Vegas. We booked early and scored one heck of a hotel deal in Vegas; a penthouse suite at a knockdown price. Hey, them’s the breaks and one has to take ‘em when one can. It’s only around a 4 or 5 hour drive to Vegas but we are taking a side trip to Calico, a small re-activated ghost town run as a western cowboy town. The handful of residents who live there all dress the part and run the place as it was in the old Wild West days!

Whilst in Vegas we are visiting the Grand Canyon and I will probably take a walk on the relatively new Skywalk which stretches out over the canyon and allows one to look straight down. Julie believes I’m crazy to even consider it and to be honest I reckon she’s right!

Las Vegas is only a sampler for 3 nights as we return to Anaheim for a 3 day Disneyland experience. Again by booking well in advance we got good prices on the tickets and being low season there won’t be long lines and queues for the attractions. The pass gives us access to both Adventure World and Disneyland. The Adventure world experience has a phenomenal light show each evening that is arguably worth the visit in its own right.

After a total of just 10 short days we return the car to LAX airport and take our final flight to New York. Our hotel in The Big Apple is none other than the Waldorf. We have little planned for our 6 night stay. Our arrival will be on Saturday 12^th January. On Sunday 13^th we intend to partake of the ‘Legendary Sunday Brunch’! This includes among other items no less than 100 different deserts and Julie assures me that this will be her primary focus of the meal. For the rest of our stay we are not sure what we will be doing. There will be plenty of sightseeing and we will just wing it as we wish. Of course we will be visiting the Statue of Liberty and the 9/11 memorial site. As for my own personal wish – I intend to hail a yellow cab just for the heck of it. Oh, I almost forgot (yeah, right). I want a street-side hot dog, a Waldorf salad, baked cheesecake and a show on Broadway. And then we need to prepare for the penultimate leg of the trip which commences on Friday 18^th January, the cruise liner Queen Victoria.

WORLD TRIP - Part 2

STAGE 2

We arrive in England on Monday 12^th November. This will probably be a bit of a shock to Julie as she is a true Aussie and thinks any temperature below 15 degrees Celsius is ‘freezing’, and that there is no temperature below zero. Truth be told she is of the opinion that there is no such thing as ‘below freezing’ away from Antarctica and domestic food freezers. Oh boy is she in for a surprise!

Our time in England, or more accurately in the UK/GB, is to be a mix of family visits and touring. We will spend a total of 52 days with trips to Scotland and Ireland. We even plan to take my grand-daughter, Xanthi to France for the day shortly after our arrival in Eastbourne.

This whole trip started out originally with the notion of taking Julie to England for a ‘traditional’ Pommie Christmas and even hoping for a white Christmas. We hope to spend Christmas with my sister whom I have not seen for 18 years and Julie has never met. As mentioned earlier, we may even get a bit of snow but with the way the climate is stuffing around at the moment, anything can transpire. Anyway, after few days in Eastbourne with Xanthi we drive to Liverpool for 4 nights. Why? I have no idea, it just seems like a good idea and being kids of the 50s we can catch a Ferry across the Mersey and visit The Cavern Night Club.

Our next stop will be Loch Lomond in Scotland, staying at a place called Knockderry Country Hotel. This is within easy striking distance of a distillery but don’t let on to Julie because I haven’t told her yet! (It’s called cowardice)! The next stop is North Wales where we have booked a cottage for a week and this will be our base for touring. It will also be a break from hotels and hotel food, with us being able to cater for ourselves and not be bound by schedules. I know, all of you who are reading this really feel sorry for us and our ‘hectic’ lifestyle. We also feel sorry for us!!!!!!!!!

After our well earned rest we are then off to Ireland for a few days and then back to the UK to spend a few days in ancient Bath. Surprisingly for me but I have never been there despite being a Pommie! I don’t care how damn cold it is we have every intention of bathing in these ancient waters. Next stop Looe in Cornwall. We again have a self catering cottage and will be using it as a base to venture out and explore the Cornish coastline and Portsmouth. I spent many a happy holiday there as a child and teenager. Hopefully I’ll be able to find some of the old places I used to know and recapture some of my memories and show them to Julie. Then again, it may turn out to be ‘false memories’ after all. It could be interesting to see what posts are made on this blog as we visit the places and see if they actually do match up to my distant memories.

Southampton next to stay with Shane and Anna. This will be our base to visit Salisbury and Stonehenge amongst other things. Despite it being winter then a trip to the New Forest is planned, this area being one of my favourite camping spots during my miss-spent youth. It’s hoped that Shane and Anna can get a couple of days off work and spend the time with us on our day trips. However, we do realise that some poor beggars do actually have to work for a living and by this time we’re hoping to have forgotten what the word ‘work’ means!

On December 21^st we return to Eastbourne and pick-up my grand-daughter from school. This is totally unknown to her and will be a Christmas surprise. We take her by train to London for two nights to see the lights. On Saturday we will take her out to buy her a ‘special’ outfit and take her to see the Lion King stage show in the West End. Sunday we take her to Madam Tussauds where there is an effigy of Justin Beeber. For those who do not know, Xanthi is 9 years old and in love with Justin. She informs us that she is going to marry him! Anyway, before our return train to Eastbourne we have booked High Tea at a hotel for the three of us, our intention being to return one very happy, spoiled and worn out darling to her mother and nanna on Sunday evening. She will most likely be full of sugar and hyper-manic but hey, we’re leaving her there and retiring to our hotel for the night!

JACQUELINE – IF YOU READ THIS DO NOT TELL XANTHI – AND SORRY ABOUT THE SUGAR.

On Monday morning we drive to Grimsby for a long anticipated reunion with my sister Susan. This will be one of my highlights of this trip, the initial reason for making the trip to England at this time of year. Unfortunately our visit here is only for a few days as we drop off the car at Grimsby on the 28^th and take our final train journey to London for 5 nights. We plan to spend New Year’s Eve on the Thames to watch the fireworks and see in the New Year before the next stage of our trip to America on January 2^nd 2013.

WORLD TRIP - Part 1

STAGE 1

Two years in the planning and now less than 50 days to ‘take-off’. At first we thought we’d never get to this point and now it’s fast reaching a point of ‘Yikes! We’ll never be ready in time’.

At 6am on Saturday 8^th September we leave Perth for Dubai, UAE. There for 5 nights, we have a packed schedule of river cruising, swimming with dolphins and a 5 hour meal at the Burj al Arab hotel. This will take us through cocktails in the Sky Bar and courses in each of the hotels many luxurious restaurants and culminating with a chauffeured Rolls Royce ride back to our hotel. As each course is accompanied by wine I just hope we remember the trip back to the hotel!

 We then fly to Rome for 4 nights before taking a ferry trip to Barcelona, a trip of 21 hours. One of the highlights of Rome is to be a side trip to Pompeii and a trip up Mount Vesuvius. Hopefully the Mayan calendar is not right and that Vesuvius doesn’t decide to blow its’ top again during this trip.

The ferry to Barcelona is an over-nighter and we have a nice cosy cabin to sleep in. We pick up the train in Barcelona and head for Marseille in southern France. The main purpose of this stop is to take a side-trip to the Millau Bridge, until recently the tallest bridge in the world.

We travel through Europe by train using a Eurail Global Pass, enabling us a total of 15 days travel over the next 2 months. We then visit Montreux, Zermatt and St. Moritz in Switzerland with a scenic rail journey on the Chocolate Train for the day from Montreux to Montreux. We go to the Gruyeres cheese factory and the Nestle chocolate factory where we will be able to sample unlimited amounts of finished product! (This outing is for Julie – honest)! The rail from Zermatt to St. Moritz is to be on the Glacier Express through 91 tunnels and crossing 291 bridges during the 9 hour trip.

Our journey will then continue from St. Moritz to Salzburg, the home of Mozart. Here we plan on having a ‘traditional dinner from Mozart’s day’, whilst listening to a Mozart concert in Europe’s oldest restaurant. It is then on to Prague for 5 nights before proceeding to Krakow for a further 4 nights. Krakow will be our base for visits to the concentration camps of WW2. No doubt this will be a humbling and somewhat sad experience.

Next, its’ onto Berlin for a few days with a visit to the Berlin Wall site and ‘Checkpoint Charlie’. From there it’s yet another train to Copenhagen for a few days before catching a sleeper train to Amsterdam. (Hmmm! maybe I’ll take up smoking again, he he)! We have a week booked on a houseboat in Amsterdam, making for yet another experience, our primary objective of this trip after all.

The next stop is Bruges, Belgium where we hire a car for a few days and spend our days visiting the WW1 sites. My grandfather had no direct involvement in this area of the war as he was in the Merchant Navy. Never the less I have for years wanted to make this ‘pilgrimage’ to the Somme and Fromelles so this is a perfect opportunity for us to do so.

Now it’s on to Paris for the final leg of our European sector. There we meet up with Julies’ son Shane and daughter-in-law Anna. We have tickets booked for the Lido cabaret for the late night champagne show. A few days later we are booked for dinner and show at the Moulin Rouge theatre. This will be our final night in Europe before taking the Eurostar to Ashford, England. And yes folks, we do know that the UK is part of Europe but being a Pommie Git I like to distance myself from the rest of Europe!

BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND

This blog is available for those friends and family who wish to follow our progress during our 6 month plus trip of a lifetime. It is not intended to upset anyone; we are not trying to ‘rub it in’ about our good fortune at being able to actually do this journey. All we are trying to do is share our experience as best we can with those who want to share it with us. So, if you wish follow us as we set off on this, our once in a lifetime opportunity to have a holiday of a lifetime!

Our initial plans were certainly more modest than the final outcome became. It was more than 2 years ago when Julie and I talked about taking a trip to the UK for Christmas with my sister, Susan in Grimsby. At the time of the initial planning Julie had never been out of Australia so it was somewhat daunting. However, the prospect of seeing some of the heritage of mine was sufficient to overcome her very real fear of flying and plans were laid.

I had my long service leave due and the perfect opportunity was there. With this in mind we drew up plans and investigated air-fares and the like. This is where the trip started to take on a life of its’ own! Flying any airline involves a stop-over in one of the ‘hubs’ and the Emirates stop-over is Dubai. Who wouldn’t want a few days in Dubai? So the seeds were sown.

A colleague at work suggested rail travel in Europe and on investigation this looked like a great opportunity. Thus 2 months travelling through Europe became a real option and further leave was planned. Annual leave was added to long service leave and the experience was born. I was well aware of Julies’ fear of flying and had this brainwave to return via cruise ship, Southampton to Fremantle. When I suggested it to Julie she was all for it, killing two birds with one stone so to speak. Julie was then ‘researching’ cruises on ships such as the Athenia, and nearly fell out of bed when I suggested one of the Queens. The Queen Mary did this trip in 2012 with an overnight stop in New York. Naively we presumed this would be the same for 2013. As I had always wanted to see ‘The Big Apple’ it seemed like a perfect opportunity and we talked of a visit to Broadway and even a stay in the Waldorf for the night. Looking at the cost it did seem a reasonable option. This then became locked into our psyche.

When the Cunard schedule for 2013 was released it transpired that the Queen Mary was not sailing the itinerary suitable to us but the Queen Victoria was. However there was no New York overnight stay. It was also a later sailing and involved further extension to my leave. Fortunately I have ample leave so extend it was. We at first intended to fly to New York from the UK, stay a few nights and then join the Victoria for the journey home. We then decided to fly to Los Angeles instead and take in Las Vegas and Disneyland just for the heck of it. After all, if we are going to be crazy and spend the kids inheritance then why not do it all in style. It was as we were finalising our plans that we then decided to make it complete by incorporating the Indian Pacific and Ghan trains on our return to Australia. Of course that leaves the problem of returning to Perth from Darwin.

So, the final leg of our trip was devised. A consideration for our retirement has been to purchase a motor-home and tour Australia. What better option for our plans to test drive a motor-home than to hire one in Darwin for our return to Perth? The only problem being was the need to take yet more annual leave from work to do this. Fortunately I had sufficient leave available and I was able to secure this. Thus almost two years ago the final touches were put to the trip and the physical booking began.