Interim Update - and a new travel scenario!
Well as you'll know, if you've read this far, there has been a hiatus in this blog and we haven't yet got out of Krakow. Except that the group arrived back home on 17th August!
Keeping this blog updated on tour became a tad too difficult - busy, tired, wifi issues, laborious to write on the iPad - there were a raft of reasons and it came to a bit of a halt.
Around this point I also committed to a back-to-back trip following directly on from the Russia one - this time a holiday with my husband Brett. We'd been invited to a friend's 50th in Portugal and had factored it out on account of me being away, various projects on the go and it consequently got put in the too-hard basket.
While I'm away, Brett gets the urge to just go. I say go and give him my blessing. He then says why don't I come with him. Hmmm, that's hugely tempting but not really possible, I'm already in Europe and due to fly home when he's planning to fly to Lisbon.
How about you fly home and we leave for Portugal that same night, he suggests. What!?
How about leaving the next day, I propose.
It makes it too tight to get to the party and also chops into holiday time. In and out in one day, or he goes alone. I have a day to think about it, get my head around it. Oh, my head is in a spin.
I canvass a few of the group about this. They say "just do it". They suggest I get them on the plane in Singapore and fly from there. At night, in my room, I check out the options. Singapore to Lisbon and then Lisbon to Auckland as two one-way legs is going to work out monstrously expensive. It's much cheaper to fly all the way across the world, and then all the way back!
I work out that it is going to involve 74 hours (3 days) of travel including four long-haul legs, 16 hours' layover in Singapore heading home, five hours at home unpacking/washing/repacking and doing some admin (if all is on schedule), and then back to the airport for a 17 hour flight to Dubai and then onto Lisbon! The plan for this trip is Lisbon - Peniche - Mallorca - Barcelona, including the 50th party celebrations in Portugal, catching up with friends at their holiday home in Mallorca and a couple of days in Barcelona. An added bonus is that we will manage to catch up with son Sam and his girlfriend Anna somewhere along the line.
I decide that yes, indeed, I can do this. It's a good job I truly do love flying and don't really suffer from jetlag!
This meant a back-to-back double trip to Europe and being away for another two weeks on top of the four weeks of this Russia trip. Back to NZ on Saturday 31st August. Wonderful exciting madness! (And it was an incredible trip!)
And so, I shall resume this blog from my office back at home ... the memories are still very much alive in my mind and going through the photos brings back it all back.
So, read on if you still want to come on the rest of this fabulous romp - Poland, Danube cruise and Czechia to come ... there are many more stories to tell!
Meanwhile, here's are a couple of photos of the Portugal/Spain trip - the forst at Berlenga Island off Peniche, Portugal and swimming at Cala s'Almunia in Mallorca. Superb - and that's another blog ...!
Keeping this blog updated on tour became a tad too difficult - busy, tired, wifi issues, laborious to write on the iPad - there were a raft of reasons and it came to a bit of a halt.
Around this point I also committed to a back-to-back trip following directly on from the Russia one - this time a holiday with my husband Brett. We'd been invited to a friend's 50th in Portugal and had factored it out on account of me being away, various projects on the go and it consequently got put in the too-hard basket.
While I'm away, Brett gets the urge to just go. I say go and give him my blessing. He then says why don't I come with him. Hmmm, that's hugely tempting but not really possible, I'm already in Europe and due to fly home when he's planning to fly to Lisbon.
How about you fly home and we leave for Portugal that same night, he suggests. What!?
How about leaving the next day, I propose.
It makes it too tight to get to the party and also chops into holiday time. In and out in one day, or he goes alone. I have a day to think about it, get my head around it. Oh, my head is in a spin.
I canvass a few of the group about this. They say "just do it". They suggest I get them on the plane in Singapore and fly from there. At night, in my room, I check out the options. Singapore to Lisbon and then Lisbon to Auckland as two one-way legs is going to work out monstrously expensive. It's much cheaper to fly all the way across the world, and then all the way back!
I work out that it is going to involve 74 hours (3 days) of travel including four long-haul legs, 16 hours' layover in Singapore heading home, five hours at home unpacking/washing/repacking and doing some admin (if all is on schedule), and then back to the airport for a 17 hour flight to Dubai and then onto Lisbon! The plan for this trip is Lisbon - Peniche - Mallorca - Barcelona, including the 50th party celebrations in Portugal, catching up with friends at their holiday home in Mallorca and a couple of days in Barcelona. An added bonus is that we will manage to catch up with son Sam and his girlfriend Anna somewhere along the line.
I decide that yes, indeed, I can do this. It's a good job I truly do love flying and don't really suffer from jetlag!
This meant a back-to-back double trip to Europe and being away for another two weeks on top of the four weeks of this Russia trip. Back to NZ on Saturday 31st August. Wonderful exciting madness! (And it was an incredible trip!)
And so, I shall resume this blog from my office back at home ... the memories are still very much alive in my mind and going through the photos brings back it all back.
So, read on if you still want to come on the rest of this fabulous romp - Poland, Danube cruise and Czechia to come ... there are many more stories to tell!
Meanwhile, here's are a couple of photos of the Portugal/Spain trip - the forst at Berlenga Island off Peniche, Portugal and swimming at Cala s'Almunia in Mallorca. Superb - and that's another blog ...!
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