Vienna, Vienna, Austria12th July
Our 2018 European adventure has begun!
We are currently cruising at an altitude of 39,977 feet at 565 miles per hour.
The outside temperature is -50C! Now that’s cold! And yet inside we are comfortably warm. Thanks to frequent flyer points, we are also very comfortable in the business class section of this Emirates plane as we fly from Perth to Dubai.
I sensibly skipped the evening meal served on board, having indulged in plenty of food in both the Adelaide and Perth lounges and on our first flight. Instead, I settled down to try and get as much sleep as possible before breakfast was served about 7 hours later. Of course, Michael kept on eating and drinking — I don’t think he has a stop button!
But back to the beginning of our journey: we were picked up by our chauffeur (one of the benefits of flying business with Emirates) just before 3pm. Having spent several weeks ‘packing’ (throwing things I thought I might like to take with me on top of my suitcase, ready to sort), I was actually organised with enough time to vacuum the family room and clean just about all of the junk off the bed in my study (it hasn’t been this tidy in years).
On the way to the airport, Alisha called to let us know that baby Nola had taken a little tumble out of the car and was now at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital as a precautionary measure — but that she seemed OK. She’d hit her head on the kerb. Talk about a distressing way to start the holiday! Fortunately, she was fine, and was discharged after being held for observation for about 4 hours.
Alisha and children (Oaki and Marlo) joined us in the Qantas Club for a while and then escorted us to the gate to say farewell. We’re going to miss all our little munchkins, but will have lots of video chats with them over the next 6 weeks, I’m sure.
So where are we off to this time?
Well, we will begin our adventure in Vienna, Austria. Then Gitti and Hermann (who live south of Vienna) are going to pick us up and take us to some places in Lower Austria and then to Slovenia. They’ll drop us back to Vienna where we’ll go by train to Munich, and then Baden-Baden in the Black Forest where we’ll spend a couple of nights with Astrid and Michael.
(Gitti has been my pen friend since we were 13 years old; and I met Astrid in a playground in Rose Park in 1989 when she and her family were living in Australia for about 18 months.)
Astrid is driving us into Switzerland where we plan to do some hiking in the mountains for a few days. She’ll then drop us off in Colmar in the Alsace region of France. During our week there, we’ll be joined for a few days by our English friends, Lynette & James, whom we met in a lodge near the Abel Tasman National Park (NZ) in 2011.
We’ll then travel by train to Dijon and then Paris, and then on to London for a couple of nights. Our next destination will be Instanbul, Turkey. (As we didn’t have enough frequent flyer points to fly all the way home in business class, Michael found some affordable flights from Turkey to Singapore so that we don’t have to lower our standards!) After one night in Singapore, we part company, with Michael flying home with Qantas via Melbourne, and me flying direct to Adelaide via Singapore Airlines. (We didn’t have enough points in the one program to fly together!)
So sit back and enjoy the ride! There’s plenty of room on our bus!
Please feel free to make comments or ask questions. We would love to hear from you all, especially the quieter ones hiding down at the back of our virtual tour bus!
Cheers!
Merrilly
Merrilly
Debbie
2018-07-12
Looking forward to our Emirates flight in September, we fly out of Adelaide to Dubai. Love the photos! Xx
claire
2018-07-12
be safe and looking forward to the travel envy, fabulous descriptions and pics Cxx
Lynne
2018-07-13
Hello. I'm glad to hear that you are off to a good start. I'll be up in Adelaide next week but when I get back I'll catch up on your latest adventure. Cheers Lynne
Carina
2018-07-13
So glad you are off and hope it is amazing. Photos look amazing. I love your headshot. You look fantastic. Love ya and happy travels xxx
Tom
2018-07-13
Here I am. Down the back of the bus. Glad you got away ok, after Michael's last minute work demands. Great to catch up last weekend. Happy travels and looking forward to our next adventure.
melandmic
2018-07-14
Hi Everyone, Welcome on board! I hope you are all comfortable, even at the back of the bus. It’s great having you all with us on our adventure. Thank you for your comments –– I really enjoy hearing from you all. I’ve only just realised that the above comments had been posted — it’s a pity this program doesn’t send emails to alert me, but now that I know I will be checking regularly. So please feel free to chat away and enjoy the journey. It’s early Saturday morning here. Michael is out jogging – – or perhaps walking, as he has a sore ankle. I am lying in bed and have been listening to the news on my ABC app. It is time to get up and get ready to get on with the day. Hopefully, it will be a little more relaxing than yesterday. I will write all about Fridays hectic schedule over breakfast this morning. Thank you again for joining us on our virtual tour bus!
Ian
2018-07-17
I have finally been notified how I could catch up with the virtual bus with its community of "old" fellow travellers on your European holiday. I am enjoying the scenery of many interesting cities and geographical areas, together with excellent commentaries by Merrilly as she records the highlights of their six week tour. Yippee!
melandmic
2018-07-19
Welcome aboard, Dad! I’m not sure why you weren’t receiving notifications automatically — I’ve re-entered your email address, so hopefully you won’t miss the bus again!