Unnecessary Information.

My wife's decided she doesn't want to go on this trip.

Myself, I blame our travel agent.

While we were sorting out our paperwork, somehow the subject of "squat" toilets came up. Apparently these are more correctly known as "squatty potties" and Denise has been forewarned by our travel agent that she might well encounter them on our trip. Now some of you of the female persuasion may already have had some experience of these types of amenities in different countries around the world, and I can understand how an unexpected encounter with these types of facilities might be quite intimidating for the uninitiated. However, I don't think there was any good reason for an ad-hoc training seminar in the use of squatty potties to take place in our lounge.

There I was, sometime later in the day, innocently sitting at the dining room table having a cup of tea with my wife and sister-in-law, when this subject was introduced to the conversation. It turns out that said sister-in-law is something of an expert in the correct protocol and use of these amenities and was quite keen to share her knowledge and experience with her sister. It seemed to me that a lot of the instruction that followed had to do with ways to stop your feet from getting wet. I must say that I will be eternally grateful for the fact that she had the good grace to lead my wife into the next room (lounge) before demonstrating the correct technique and body positioning required when using squatty potties. Unfortunately, the distance between the two rooms and the volume of the instructions and accompanying laughter were such that I now have a mental image embedded in my brain that will quite likely cause nightmares.





The upside of this instruction is that I am sure that should my wife encounter these types of facilities she will be extremely confident in her ability to negotiate her way through the various steps required to ensure that she doesn't get her feet wet.

Alternatively, she might follow the procedure she used when we travelled in Thailand, where, upon encountering these types of amenities, we immediately stopped what we were doing and returned to the hotel.

Time will tell.

The Plan

2013 and the older generation is all sorted - in one way or another - and the younger generation is all sorted. So it's time for us - the most important generation - to do some of the stuff we've always dreamed of doing. One of the items on Denise's bucket list was to see Paris, so that's how this all started. It's now grown to mammoth proportions and the plan now means we'll be away from New Zealand for nine weeks.

How did we get from two weeks to nine?

That's a very good question and deserves a considered and rational answer. So... when I think of one, I'll let you know. In the meantime, here's the plan...

A couple of days getting to Rome.

Just under two weeks to get from there to Paris - via Tuscany and Milan then by train through Switzerland and into France.

Two weeks in Paris.

Train to Amsterdam then a couple of weeks on a River Cruise where we end up back in the south of France. 

A week or so getting lost around Arles, Orange and Avignon and eventually we need to find our way to Nice. 

From Nice to Prague for a Christmas Market Coach Tour to Budapest, via Vienna.

Then back to Auckland.

Now my plan is to keep an active blog going through the whole trip. That's the plan. Come Christmas time we'll all be able to see if I stuck to it. A big part of this plan depends on whether I can work out how to use Google+ and Blogger on my Ipad and Iphone properly. For instance... How do I insert photos in the right places?

Ohh!! That's how. Ok, now I'm good to go.

What? What do you mean....? The photo's not that old.

Anyway, I thought I'd start by telling you why a good Travel Agent is like gold. When you find one, listen to them, 'cause they know what they're talking about. This is not an advertisement for Travel Agents, but what we've found is that it's all the little things they do that can make the difference. We've learned all about pre-bookings, pre-paid gratuities, one-way transfers, day tours, "skip-the-line" tours and cash passports. But even with all the best planning in the world I'm sure we'll still have little challenges as we wander about, but that's OK. We're grown-ups now so we should be able to handle a few hiccups without too much stress, and a lot of times the unplanned events are the most fun.

When we first started to organise this trip, the idea was to use RCI as the trip organiser (travel agent). RCI is a Timeshare organisation that we've been members of since we bought a timeshare in Thailand about 15 years ago. Over time we've used RCI a lot and we've had some really nice holidays with them.  But, this time it was such a mission to get their attention that we've only used them to arrange a River Cruise. So then we had to find another organisation to arrange all the flights, land movements, accommodation and tours. Luckily, we found the House of Travel. I walked in off the street in my tatty old work clothes, sat myself down and said I wanted to arrange a trip to Paris. Jacqui, who just happened to be the agent faced with this demand, immediately set to and now, here we are some weeks later all ready to head off.

The downside of using a Travel Agent is information overload. We've received so much information on so many different things that at times it's all a bit overwhelming. Just when we think we know when, where and how we want to do things we get offers of "better", "cheaper", higher quality"' more interesting" or "better suited" options. I guess this is all done with the best of intentions, but "whoa!!". This might go some way to explaining how the two weeks became nine.

Now, I'm a bloke. So my plan is to throw a week's worth of clothes in the suitcase and I'm good to go. It seems it's a little more complex if you're a blokette. So what clothes should a lady take? The short answer is... All of them. We're going to be experiencing temperatures ranging from -2 degrees to 20 degrees, balmy skies in Tuscany to snow in Prague, so we've invested in a few merinos and a couple of warm, but not bulky, jackets. Everyone tells us the answer is layers, so my first layer will be PJs and we'll see where we get to from there.

We're hiring a car to wander 'round Tuscany and the South of France and one of the requirements is for the driver to have an International Driving Permit. These are issued by the AA in New Zealand - probably similar type organisations in other countries - and cost NZ$20.00 When I looked up the website it told me I needed a passport photo, a photocopy of both sides of my licence and a copy of my passport. If you do it online you might need all this stuff, but I went to the AA shop in Hastings and spoke to a nice young lady who threw the photocopies in the bin, took my NZ licence details and issued the permit to me there and then. She also told me all about reciprical rights - including free maps - and gave me a letter on AA letterhead to show to any European organisation we might need help from. All in all I'm very impressed with the AA.

So, here we are with three weeks to go before we head off, and it's time to try to remember all the stuff we have to do before then. In about four weeks time I'll be able to tell you all the stuff that we forgot. Hopefully the list won't be too long.

Don't forget to subscribe to this and we'd really like plenty of questions and comments. The web address for this blog is www.cgf400.blogspot.com Please share with anyone you think might be interested.