Now For a A Slight Change of Place.

Initially we had planned to take the Britain and Ireland experience with Trafalgar Tours but due to the uncertainty of departure we upgraded to the First Class Wonders of Britain and Ireland tour. Essentially they are the same itineraries apart from the more centrally located Hotels, supposedly better rated Hotels   and the fact that the tour operates in the reverse direction than the cost saver tour.

It did leave us with a problem, unforeseen at the time we upgraded, and that was that we were booked into the Hotel Drury's Inn Chelsea (Seen Right) Our original first tour was due to depart from this Hotel early morning on the 24th August. This meant a early morning dash to Trafalgar's London Office or to the Kensington Forum Hotel where the new tour starts from.

So the need to change Hotels became apparent. So that's what we have done. The new Hotel is the London Kensington Forum Hotel (seen left). Located close to the Gloucester Rd Tube station, Hyde Park and the Royal Albert Museum and Hall.

Our new Wonders of Britain and Ireland departs from there so now there's no need for the morning dash to catch the tour.
Also we have the 22nd and 23rd of August to have a look around London before we depart on the 24th and this should prove to be an excellent starting point.



Countdown: 53 Days

Cheers

Neil & Lois

The London Pass or We're off to see the Queen

Whilst looking at web sites featuring the various attractions of London, my attention was drawn to a promotion for a thing called a LONDON pass. On further examination it turns out that this card enables the bearer to enter over 50 London attractions. Such things as the Tower of London, London Zoo, Churchill's War Time Cabinet rooms and many more. 

How does it work I wondered? It is a swipe card that has your details on it. You simply walk up swipe the card and the cost of the attraction is automatically deducted from the total on the card.

The cards are offered for 1, 2, 3 or 7 days use and are costed accordingly. We looked at the three day card which if memory serves me right was approximately 60 Pounds to buy and allowed you entry to attractions up to the value of 210 pounds. One of its other benefits was that you get to jump the queues and can just swipe the card and go straight through.

As well you can get the travel option on the card which gives you free use of Underground rail, overground rail, buses, tramways in the dock area and some river taxis for the three days. Considering I'm told that one trip could cost 4 pounds on the u/g it seems just the travel card makes the London card worth the price. All up the card ended up costing 80 pounds each with the travel option. Others have said that the oyster card is the way to go with the public transport but after doing the maths the travel card is better for up to 5 days, after which the oyster card becomes cheaper.

The card also comes with a guide book that can help you plan the attractions that you each would like to see. The card and book can be either picked up in London on arrival or they will ship it to your home prior to the trip, which is the option that we have taken.

As luck would have it the period that Buckingham Palace is open for inspection coincides with our stay and we were offered tickets which we promptly snapped up. So we're off to see the Queen.... well her home anyway. I suppose that they will be away at Balmoral... maybe another time.

Countdown: 56 Days

Neil & Lois

61 Days to go..but who's counting.

Gooday.

Let me introduce ourselves. We are the Perry's  and this is the story of our European Adventure. Firstly the good looking Beauty in the picture is my wife Lois and the other not so good looking person is me, Neil Perry. No not that Neil Perry.

Our trip, which back in the heady days of November seemed but a long way off, now looms ever closer as the days inexorably fade into memory, one by one.
Like everything we do most of the organisation of the trips and the financials have been done well ahead of time and now its only the small items that we need to take care of now. Applications for visa's need to be sent off to the Egyptian embassy for processing. Also a few more personal items for me, like sandals and that's really about all. Short of packing and my suspicion is that Lois has already done a lot of that, there's not really all that much left to do.

The background to our trip is that we will be travelling to Europe, Britain and returning via Egypt, in short we are away for just under 60 days.

We travel with Etihad airlines to London and then after two days join a Trafalgar Tour  "Wonders of Britain and Ireland". Returning to London we get to enjoy four days as we explore London and its many attractions.

From London we leave on our "European Discovery" tour where we will journey through France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and finally into Holland. Both Lois and I have not been to Europe since 1984 and 1980 respectively. As neither of us have seen Spain or Greece we looking forward to that. Also a three day cruise of the Greek Islands in the middle of the tour looms large in our imagination.

Returning to London we stay only one night before flying onto Egypt, were we start our "Egyptian Experience". After 9 days touring this ancient place and seeing what should be a incredibly different experience to that we have experienced for the bulk of our trip so far. Expectations are high for this part of the trip. Me for the history and Lois for the shopping. Hope the credit card is still standing when we are here. Finally after the completion of the tour we return home  from Cairo back to Melbourne.

That's about it for now, see you soon.

Neil & Lois