Planning AND Shopping AND Counting The Days!

After a review of magazines last night I discovered some further places to explore in Provence.  Some further investigation will determine if we want to dedicate time to visit them or not.  We have just so many days and we want to be sure to plan correctly so we don't miss the most important things we want to see.  Rick Steves says PLAN but then be flexible.  We agree with this philosophy.  We have found in the past if we don't "plan ahead" we simply look at each other and can't decide what to do. 

We have both been looking at and pricing small travel laptops.  Today one came up with a bargain price from Costco with free shipping and we ordered it.  The good thing is, if it is not what we want, it can be returned to the local Costco.  Of course, we get the free support line to help with the learning curve too.

Take a look if you would like:  PC2Go

Despite the time consuming distractions of the care Uncle Bill has needed, we are getting back on track with our planning and life here at home. ONLY 169 days until we leave for EUROPE!!!

Shopping Day

Today we placed our order for books, maps, and travel guides for our Europe trip.  Many items will be included with our tour, but we need a few things for the independent travel part of our trip.  When we booked the 21 Days Best of Europe trip with Rick Steves RickSteves.com we received a 20% discount code for any one time purchase.  It was soon to expire, so today was the day!  It was tremendously helpful to have visited the Travel Store when we were in Edmonds after our Alaskan cruise.  It is helpful to see and touch items as well, when making a decision about what is needed and wanted.  So now our purchases are made and we will have all the information needed to plan our independent travel after the program with the Rick Steves tour. 

The planning process

Today I spend some time updating and making this blog look more as it should so it makes some sense to the readers.  Be patient, I am new at this.  Now that most of our big transportation is in place it is time to start planning the details of our travel.  It is important to have good plans per Rick Steves and then to of course, be flexible.  We will spend part of our time on rail travel and we need to investigate just what will be our best option.  We also want to have a car for a few days in the Provence area after leaving our cousins location.  We need to determine if a rail and car pass or just a rail pass with separate car will best suit our need.  Hopefully we will have time to sit down and plan some of this very soon.

Our Cousins

09-23 I wrote to my cousins and that part is also going into place. René will plan our program while there and he will either take us, or loan us his "little car for daily use" - THAT should be interesting! I did drive before in France, and rural was a snap, cities-not so much.  We are making preliminary plans for both Paris and part of the Provence area we will visit.   There are choices, we can't see everything!  We are also in the process of purchasing insurance for our trip, that will be 1K+, but we MUST have it.  Anything can happen.  Here is a photo from Sharon's visit to France in 2000.

Airfare Completed!

09-21 It’s a red-letter day - we have now booked ALL our flights for our Europe trip! This is very exciting for us as our plans are becoming firm and we were able to book ALL of these flights for a total of $898.75 for the TWO of us!!! This was using a couple sources of points we have saved AND enumerable web searches and phone calls! We are very excited and very pleased, even if it has been frustrating with so many dead end searches along the way. The end result is very pleasing! Now it is time to begin further planning of our independent travel after we end our time with the Rick Steves tour on 23 May in Paris. See below:

     18 April - FAT to HOU (Fresno to Houston, via Dallas on American Airlines)

     03 May - LGW to AMS (London Gatwick to Amsterdam, British Airways)

     09 June – CDG to JFK (Charles de Gaulle to Kennedy, via Dublin on Aer Lingus)

     10 June – LGA to FAT (La Guardia to Fresno, via American Airlines)

Rick Steves Europe Through The Back Door

08-23 It was really exciting to visit Rick Steves Travel Center in Edmonds, WA.  We were able to ask a lot of questions and get all sorts of advice.  We also took a class on digital photography and we are even more excited than ever for our EUROPE TRIP!   www.ricksteves.com

A week in PARIS!

08-01 Today we booked the Royal Regency very near Paris! We were very excited to be able to use timeshare points for that! We will see what we want and can, in and around Paris, rest, then fly home. I hope this gives us enough time to visit the cousins and see everything we want in the Provence area and southern France.

A mild Shock

06-22 Shocking - we realized we will have just 9 hours or so to get to Amsterdam from Southampton! I counted the days wrong. We checked cheap flights and that should not be a problem, sure would like a buffer though. Considered canceling the cruise and just flying, or do a different cruise, John says “NO WAY!”  Anyway, there are a lot of cheap flights out of London airports, but it is too soon to book, they don’t book that far in advance.

The first steps....

06-20 We had an exciting day... Finally Rick Steves put their 2009 tour schedule on the Internet.  We are BOOKED!!!!  We will start his tour May 3 in Amsterdam!!!!

We will cruise transatlantic leaving 04-19 on the Voyager of the Sea, sister ship to our Thanksgiving cruise ship the Explorer of the Sea.  Galveston, TX to Southampton, England.  We will have about 36 hours to get from there to Amsterdam.  There is a train/Ferry combo that can do that from London to Amsterdam for about $60. each... if we want to sleep our way there in a room is it about $120. each... we might do that as it is cheaper than a hotel I am sure!  YAY!!!  We are both very excited about this.