We leave Sydney on 14 July and fly to Hong Kong for an overnight stop. Next morning we catch a plane to Helsinki, then change for Munich, arriving in the early evening. We have three nights in Munich then pick up a hire car for 10 touring through Germany to Amsterdam, where we have organised a 4 day exchange in an apartment.
At the beginning of August we move to Delft to meet Ray and Trish, who have organised an exchange there.
Alan and I leave for Paris on the morning of 10 August to meet with Rick and Anne and Bec and Dan. We spend two nights with them and then board a train for Grenoble. Our ultimate destination near there is an alpine skiing village called Villard de Lans, although it will be summer, so walking trails rather than skiing trails. We will be there for my 60th birthday!
On 27 August we pick up another hire car and travel slowly through France, following the full length of the Lot River, from its source in the Alps to its mouth near Bordeaux. Its joined the Garronne by then.
On 10 September we meet up with Ray and Trish again and a bunch of their friends in a property outside St Emilion in Bordeaux. After 2 weeks of eating and drinking and swimming etc, we travel with Ray and Trish into Spain to Bilbao, Zaragoza and a couple of nights in beautiful Barcelona.
Next we fly to Palma de Mallorca, where we have another two week exchange in an apartment in the old part of Palma.
On 16 September Alan and I fly to Helsinki for two nights before boarding a plane bound for Sydney. It will be an extraordinary long flight, but we arrive back in Sydney on 20 October.
