European Tour Part 1: The Preparation begins

Good Morning radio heads. It's Saturday morning, 14th April 2007 at Nixon Street. The weather is fine, looking to a warm day of 21 degrees in Hobart, sunny and wind free, at least outside.

Pictured over to the right is my home in Nixon Street. God's house has many rooms.

I'm off to visit the travel agent, Kristen at Andrew Jones Travel, to sort out a few details and possibly to commit to aeroplane arrangements for the September '07 tour, for my daughters Sarah and Camille and me to go to France for the Rugby World Cup.

The general proposition is to fly to Frankfurt, there to find Owen Bird ("Birdman") and his family, and to stay with him for the weekend 1st-2nd Sept. He is near Heidleberg, so there will be things to do in that University town. Then, on Monday 3rd Sept, we will fly to Berlin and stay with Regina Prero and her and Robert's kids, Romy and Raquel. That will be terrific, as we have known Regina for 20 years and her kids since birth, and it will be very interesting to be in Berlin and staying with someone living there, rather than being in an hotel. An opera and a symphony concert would top it off too!

We will have 3 days in Berlin, then catch the overnight train to Paris. I'm looking forward to train travel; good points being no responsibility (cf driving), drops one in the centre of cities, and one can read, listen to music, chat, and watch the view. No time lost as it goes overnight!

A few days in Paris to explore the usual, whatever that will turn out to be: the Triumphant Arch, the long avenue, the tall pointy metal building of no apparent practical purpose, the building where paintings and things are kept, the river and the church, the night club thingo, etc. Anyway, as you can see, I've read up on my Lonely Planet, and know the names of all the cultural places.

Then we will go under the channel to London, by train, and have a look around there for a few days; over to Wales to Cardiff for the first rugby test; Australia v Wales at Millenium Stadium. We plan to catch up with those Australians who get there; including Leigh "The Whale" Sealy and Liz Sealy, Geoff Copping and family, possibly Merv Simmons.

From "I don't care if they wipe all the endangered species off the face of the earth" Wales, we will fly back to France and do a little travelling in the countryside for a week before the 2nd Test, Australia v Fiji at Montpellier. There, again, we will catch up with the Coppings, the Whale, and Birdman.

That will absorb 3 weeks, and with only one week to go (must get back to school you see) Birdman is willing to drive us into Italy, and we can explore Venice, Florence and Rome. Why not!

It is very exciting planning and working toward executing this project. I am very much looking forward to travelling with my two girls - they speak a little French, and will be good companions, and interested in the culture, climate, people, architecture, and natural environs. Food also will be tantalising, and just having a holiday won't be a bad thing either. Not too much wine, because we will want to get up early and explore.

Reading so far: Lonely Planet "France" 2007 edition: about $40 and full of info. Exchange rates ($1 AUD = 1.6 euro or $1.62 AUD = 1 euro), maps of the country, and cities, photos, draft itineraries, classic routes, history, France today politically, culturally, economy and socially, web sites, the National psyche, food and refreshments, religion (a bit more Catholic than we will have been used to), literature, arts, film, architecture, environment etc etc; and that is only the first 70 pages of 970. I'll report further.

Anyway, it is 10am and I should go and have an ernest chat with our Kristen from Jones Boy Travel. Bye for now. PK