Pre-Cruise Preparation

It is Sunday morning and I have spent many long days since June last year getting ready for our holiday to end all holidays. Deb and I saw an advertisement in the Sunday paper travel guide about cruises on the Queen Mary 2 to Southampton from Singapore. The prices were quite reasonable, so we decided to investigate more on-line, and were able to make a booking for the cruise through a travel agent in Frankston Victoria.
The cruise was something I have dreamed of for many years, and this one seems to be a wonderful way for us to get to the UK. We fly to Singapore from Sydney on 13 March, stay overnight in the Fullerton Hotel in Singapore, then join the QM2 on the 14th March to cruise to arrive in Cochin (India) on the 18th, from there we cruise to Dubai (21st), Salalah (Oman) on 23rd March, then cruise through the Suez Canal to arrive in Alexandria (Egypt) on the 28th. From there we travel to Athens (30th) then on to Rome (1st April), Cannes (2nd), Barcelona (3rd), then on to Le Havre (France) arriving 7th April and finally in to Southampton on the 8th April. We spend the night at the Caesar Hotel in London, and then transfer to Youth Hostel accommodation at YHA Thameside (9-13 April) then overnight in another hotel before joining our Globus tour of Britain.
When we first decided to travel to the UK the main objective was to do family history research, along with seeing the country, and we planned on travelling under our own steam with a fairly flexible itinerary. This was all to change however, when the financial world crashed and everyone's superannuation took a beating - ours included. The price of petrol had also skyrocketed, and we became concerned about being about to fund the holiday in the UK, given that the exchange rate between the A$ and the UK pound was pretty steep.
Fortunately for us, another advertisement appeared in the Travel guide of the Sunday papers - this time for a Globus tour of Britain, which started a few days after we arrived in England in April.
I rapidly contacted our travel agent, and asked her to see if she could get us on the tour - and she was successful, so now we had an arranged tour of Britain, which will take us from London, across to Oxford, Stratford Upon Avon, and Warwick on the first day, next day we travel from Warwick to York, Day 3 from York to Edinburgh, day 4 in Edinburgh for the day, day 5 Edinburgh to St. Andrews, Braemar and Inverness, day 6 Inverness to Fort William and Glasgow, day 7 from Glasgow to the Lake District and Chester, Day 8 from Chester to North Wales and then by ferry to Dublin, day 9 spend in Dublin, day 10 Dublin to Kildare and Limerick, Day 11 Limerick excursion to the West Coast of Ireland, day 12 Limerick to Adare, Ring of Kerry and Tralee, Day 13 Tralee to Blarney and Waterford, day 14 Waterford to Bristol, day 15 Bristol to Bath, Glastonbury and Torquay, Day 16 Torquay to Cornwall on excursion Day 17 Torquay to Stonehenge, Salisbury and back to London. 30th April, Overnight in a London Hotel.
On the 1st May we go back to the YHA Thameside for 4 more nights, then travel to Cornwall for 4 days - to do family history research, on the 9th May we transfer to the Isle of Wight for some more family history research. On the 15h we transfer back to London before taking the Eurostar to Lille in France for a 3 day tour of the Battlefields of the Somme. We then travel to the Charles De Gaulle airport to fly home to Sydney with Etihad Airlines via Dubai. Arrive in Sydney on the 18th May at some ungodly time of the morning - but will be transported home by limosine courtesy of Etihad. Whew!! that's nearly 10 weeks away from home.
Deb and I hope to be able to keep this blog going while away and those who are interested are invited to read it. I am hoping to be able to post some photos this time - however that will depend on being able to access the internet while away.