Hi Everyone! Two weeks from today we leave! Amazing, since it is a dream about to come true! We have our itinerary fairly set now, at least in large blocks. We purposely don't want to get too detailed since when we're traveling independently we want to have the freedom to "mosey" as Jon says. Here is the basic outline.

August 23 - fly from Seattle to Helsinki via London

August 26 - join the GCT (Grand Circle Travel) tour entitled "Norwegian Fjords and Lapland"

September 9 - fly to Paris to begin our month's stay in an apartment

October 8 - pick up our leased car and begin travel to Germany, Poland, Czech Rep. and Vienna

November 9 - fly to Jerusalem to join the GCT tour "Ancient Egypt and the Nile River", which includes time in Israel and Jordan

December 4 - fly to Barcelona and begin independent travel in Spain and Portugal, including 2 weeks in an apartment in Granada (Dec. 14-28). We pick up our leased car when we leave Madrid on Dec. 13

January 7 - begin time in Portugal

January 22 - return to Spain

February 3 - fly to London to begin independent travel in Great Britain

February 26 - take the ferry to Dublin and begin time in Ireland

March 10 - fly to Rome and begin independent travel in Italy, including 2 weeks in an apartment in Lucca in Tuscany (April 1-14) and a side trip to the Dalmatian Coast

April 23-fly to Athens to join OAT (Overseas Adventure Travel) tour "Treasures of the Aegean: Greek Island Cruise, Athens and Istanbul" including a post tour in Turkey

May 13-fly to Stockholm and begin independent travel in Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands

June 6-in Amsterdam, join GCT tour "Grand European River Cruise" which follows the Rhine and Danube rivers, ending up in Bucharest.

July 3-fly to Marseilles and pick up leased car then travel to Sablet, Provence to begin 5 weeks stay in an apartment. During this time, we will visit Switzerland for a week.

August 7-fly home from Marseilles.

As you can see, we'll be busy but we're hoping the pacing is reasonable. If we get tired, we'll just stop for a while! We are taking a carry on suitcase each and what Jon calls "the mother bag" which we will be checking and will contain the extra clothes etc. that are not vital to the next part of our trip.

I'll post another entry either just before we leave or from Helsinki! Bye for now.