Our Europe Itinerary

Still new to this blog thing, and not a lot of spare time to come to grips with it, but we hope to add bells and whistles (and photos) as we progress. Meanwhile, Don's in Manchester till Friday night, and typing in our semi-tentative (!) itinerary, which goes like this:

Friday May 30: Drive to Dover to spend night in Ramada.

Saturday May 31: Ferry to Calais. "Plan" is that we'll drive straight into Belgium, down through Luxembourg, and out again into France, to Strasbourg and then Metz; from there down through Switzerland (Basel) to Lucerne; and from there to our hotel in Mestre, Venice's shoreside counterpart.

Monday June 2 to 4: Explore Venice. Not by car because the puddles are reported to be HUGE.

Thursday June 5: Drive down via Rimini and inland to Jane's and Ian's place, Il Vecchio Cantinone (http://www.cantinone.eu/it/about_contact.htm) and stay there several nights, relaxing and exploring.

Tuesday June 10: Cross the Appenines to a hotel just outside the centre of Rome. Several days exploring the City That Needs No Name ...

Friday June 13: Drive to Italy's west coast and head north past Livorno and Pisa and up to Genova; from there to Geneva (don't get confused) and on to Dijon; and thence back to Calais and the ferry home.

Sunday June 15: Arrive home mid-evening.

Astute persons may be able to identify likely stopping places on the ways to Venice and from Rome, but we booked nothing either way and don't know where we'll end up on each of the "journey" evenings. We only know we're so looking forward to the adventure!

Getting ready for Europe

Monday, a Bank Holiday, and (of course) wet and windy -- a good day for staying in and completing preparations for our Europe trip. We did some shopping on Saturday (AA European Driver's Handbook, AA European Road Atlas, French B&B's, handbooks for Rome and Venice), and more on Sunday (European car kit--hazard triangle, fire extinguisher, first-aid kit, GB sticker, headlamp adapters to stop our left-hand-drive car dazzling those right-hand-drive motorists on the Continent: all mandatory in the coutries we're going to); and we also worked out a rough itinerary, which we'll post separately. Today, though, we're going to finalise the routes and timings and print it all out, then Don's going to pack for Europe because he's going to be in Manchester this week and we want to get away promptly when he gets home on Friday evening.

In the Beginning ...

... Well, that was a long time ago. But we've been in the UK for almost four years now, and are still loving it (mostly), but missing old friends, family, and contacts Back Home in Aotearoa-New Zealand.

So for them, and for new (and old) friends and family here too, and anywhere else, we step out into the blogosphere. Per ardua ad astra! (or some such).