We picked up the tickets and passports today from Cox & Kings and got a last minute shock to see that the Bangalore - Mumbai leg was unconfirmed, but that seems to have gotten sorted out.
Here's our itenary:
18th night: Leave Bangalore and spend the night in Bombay airport (wince), catching an early morning flight on Qatar Airways to Doha and into Rome on 19th evening.
20th: Guided tour of Rome and the Vatican City (St. Peters' basilica, Colosseum (sp), Piazza Venezia, Circus Maximus, Forum Romanum, Trevi Fountain. Drive to Arezzo in Tuscany.
21st: Drive to Pisa, then Florence, (Signoria Square Ponte Vecchio) and drive to Padova near Venice
22nd: Venice (walking tour, canal cruise, Piazza San Marco, Murano Glass Factory) and drive to Innsbruck Austria
23rd: Drive to Swarovski Crystal World in Wattens and then to Liechtenstein, and on to Switzerland. Visit the Aare Gorge and spend the night at Hasilberg
24th: Mostly on our own, we're skipping the optional tour of Mt. Titlis
25th: The Jungfraujoch -- a train ride to the highest altitude train station in Europe, a walk on the Aletsch glacier, then to Interlaken and Harder Kulm
26th: On to Geneva and the Chamonix Valley.
27th: On to Paris (la France!), guded city tour.
28th: Free day in Paris (we're skipping the optional Disneyland tour), and a 'formal' evening with a cruise on the Siene, and the Bonheur show at the Lido.
29th: The Grevin Wax Museum and shopping at Galleries Lafayette in Paris. On to Netherlands.
30th: Some cheesy stuff in Netherlands ( cheese farm, clog making factory!), instead of Rembrandt and the pot-laced cookies. Lame-o. But atleast we take a canal ride. Drive to Antwerp for the night.
31st: City tour of Brussels, drive to Calais, and take the Eurotunnel to ... London ! Guided tour of the city. But we don't do much else in London. Pity.
1st: Leave London in the morning and reach Mumbai early morning on 2nd June. Transfer to Bangalore flight and reach home at 11:00 am on 2nd.
Well. I'm tremondously excited but also stressed out that given my super-high anticipation, something will get screwed up :-). Mood swings and all that :-).I'm kind of a Europhile and while I've seen some of Europe earlier there's always so much more. Nowadays, when I go sightseeing I can sit and stare at a single monument or temple for a long long time, if given the time and enjoy myself quite happily. And in 2 weeks I'm going to be taking in stuff like all the history of Rome (after having read Colleen McCullogh's series of masterpieces on ancient Roman history, to actually be there in person), Venice, Switzerland scenery, Amsterdam, and all the other good stuff. I don't know how its going to go, but its *NOT* going to be uneventful either way.
We're still figuring out packing, but if there's space, I'm going to take a laptop and see if I can squeeze in some internet time.
3 comments:
Wow, this sounds like an incredible once-in-a-lifetime kind of tour. That's just too much to do in 10 days. Hope you'll have a great time and lasting memories :-)
"But we don't do much else in London. Pity."
You might try to get in touch with Srinu and spent the night with them perhaps. Bharathi aunty is there too right now apparently.
"We're still figuring out packing, but if there's space, I'm going to take a laptop and see if I can squeeze in some internet time."
I would strongly enocurage you to pack light. That is one of our biggest regrets, all the lugging along we had to do in train stations and everywhere. As for the computer, I would advice a strong no-no. Unless you are willing to accept the 50% possibility that you will return from Europe without it!! Besides, there were internet cafe's everywhere we went including inside the hotels at a reasonable price.
Enjoy the tour.
Be extracareful with passports in europe - pick pockets abound.
Arvind
Very best site. Keep working. Will return in the near future.
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