Everything is booked!

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With a month and a half to go until I fly out, I am most relieved to have everything booked for the trip..... well, almost everything. The ferry's in Scandinavia were beyond my travel agent's abilities to book. Essentially I took that to mean "we don't get any commission on that". I'll book them myself.

On my first trip to Europe, I took advice to not lock down my plans too much as I will want flexibility once I'm over there. Considering the extra stress involved, I decided I was going to have everything planned out this time. It may not be as spontaneous, but dammit, I'm paying good money to enjoy myself.

Some people have asked about my itinerary. I need to look up some information on some of the tours, but here's what I can confirm now:

David's itinerary

Sunday 27th April - Fly out of Sydney

Monday 28th April - Fly into Athens and then continue on to Thessaloniki. Spend a couple of days seeing the city and hopefully some of the surrounding sights such as the tomb of Phillip II of Macedon, father to Alexander the Great

Thursday 1st May - Fly back to Athens. Spend a couple of days sight-seeing in the ancient city, before a 1 day cruise to some nearby islands and a 4 day tour of Greece that includes Corinth, Mycenae, Olympia, Delphi and Thermopylae.

Friday 9th May - Fly to the island of Samos (near the Turkish coast) before transferring to a ferry heading to the Turkish port of Kusadasi. From there I join a tour of the western coast of Anatolia, including Gallipoli and Troy. Finishes with 2 days of touring around Constantinople (ok, Istanbul for the non-history buffs).

Thursday 15th May - Fly from Istanbul to Berlin. I'll be spending 3 nights in the city, including a tour of Potsdam and Sans Souci.

Sunday 18th May - Catch a train to Hamburg. Spending 2 nights there

Tuesday 20th May - Catch a train to Copenhagen. I believe part of the journey is on a ferry. No, we don't get off the train, it drives onto the ferry! I'll let you know if that's true. I'll be spending 4 nights in Copenhagen.

Saturday 24th May - Catch a train to Aalborg. Spend 2 nights there - a must see will be the viking burial ground.

Monday 26th May - On my mothers birthday, I will be having a short train ride to the coastal town of Hirtshals, where I will board a ferry to Kristiansand in Norway.

Tuesday 27th May - Catching train from Kristiansand to Stavanger

Wednesday 28th May - Catching a ferry from Stavanger to Bergen. Bergen is in the middle of Fjord territory so it should be a nice trip. I am also going on a fjord tour while in Bergen. I'll be staying there for 3 nights.

Saturday 31st May - Catching a train from Bergen to Oslo. This is supposed to be one of the most scenic train journeys in the world. I'll be staying in Oslo for 2 nights.

Monday 2nd June - Up early for a train to Stockholm. I want to see the scenery on these train journeys so I chose the early train - no point arriving in the dark. I'll be staying in Stockholm for 3 nights.

Thursday 5th June - Flying out of Stockholm at some ridiculous time, so I can spend 4 hours at Frankfurt airport waiting for the flight back to Sydney. Oh, the joys of air travel 😊

Friday 6th June - Arrive in Sydney, just in time to enjoy the Queen's birthday long weekend.


So that's where I'll be going. If you've been to any of the cities I am going to and know of some great gem I need to check out, please let me know!

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Comments

[Liz Vincent]

Visit to Viking Burial Ground
Good to see you will be visiting the viking burial ground seeing your family history shows your ancestral family of FOTHERGILL who settled in Cumbria UK were descended from the Vikings. Good time to say hi to your ancestors. Shame you'll be away for your mother's birthday :-( and for mothers' day :-(. Still, think of the great presents you can buy her while you are away. :-)