Less than two months to go!

Time seems to be accelerating as we head into the final weeks before our departure. Our preparations are going well, and so far there are no raging fires that need putting out, and fewer and fewer things are left on the to-do list.

We have managed to make some more changes to the itinerary as well: our stay in Nice will be shortened from 6 weeks to 5 days, LOL! I don’t know why it didn’t dawn on us earlier, but Nice is not the best place to base yourself for exploring Europe in the age of RyanAir. No, that honour goes to London. My parents have kindly accepted to put us up during our time in the UK, and this will allow us to go on a few short city breaks to various exotic destinations, as decided by each member of the family. Greg has chosen to visit Estonia, having seen a page about Tallinn in the Lonely Planet country guide for kids, and thought it looked nice. Let’s hope it lives up to his expectations in November! Nina chose Belgium or Switzerland, because they have good chocolate, and she LOVES chocolate! (best reason ever). Sophie chose Italy, and I chose the Greek Isles.

Our initial plan was to spend 6 weeks in Europe and 2 weeks in the UK, but now it will be the inverse. After Nice, we fly to Venice, where we will be celebrating Sophie’s 40th birthday with friends from home, before heading up to Lake Como by train. From there, we take the train into Switzerland, to Lucerne, then on to Basel. This will have to be a lightning tour of Italy & Switzerland due to budget constraints, but at least we will get a feel for the place, and Nina will get her wish to eat massive amounts of Toblerone in Switzerland.

As for the rest, we have now booked flights from Windhoek, Namibia to New Delhi, with a short stop-over in Doha, Qatar. Our arrival date in Delhi is January 23rd, 2017. We will have one month to spend in India with our friends Phil & Arti, it will be lovely to be able to spend some time with them, hopefully have a few adventures too!

That’s about all the news I have for now. Look out for a couple more (panicked) posts before the journey begins!