Travel Plans

I have finalised accommodation in Europe and am now commencing the US part of my journey.
The Round the World air fare has been paid (it sounded an awful lot in NZ dollars) and I am to fly from Dunedin to Sydney on August 7. 
I will, of course, stay with my sister and hopefully catch up with friends.

On August 19, I will fly to Bangkok staying in the hotel near the airport where I have stayed 3 times before (please red and yellow shirts, solve your differences by then) and onto Frankfurt on August 20, again staying at the same hotel near the main station as in 2008.

Then I will travel by train to Copenhagen, on the overnight ferry to Oslo and train again to Bergen where I board the Hurtigruten ship, MS Richard With, for 11 nights journey along the Norwegian coast and fiords to places like Tromso, Hammerfest and North Cape before turning around at Kirkenes and returning to Trondheim.
At Trondheim I will catch the train back to Oslo and have a good look as I stay there for 2 nights before continuing to Copenhagen for another 2 nights.  I visited both cities back in 1974 but would expect many changes since.

From Copenhagen I will catch the  train to Esbjerg then the overnight ferry to Harwich and train onto London.

I am quite excited to have just booked 3 nights at the Proms.

The night I arrive I have a program including Schubert's 8th (Unfinished) Symphony and Mozart's 40th plus some works by Schumann.  The following night is Monteverdi's vespers and then on the Saturday night I have a ticket for Proms in the Park. I do not have a Snowball's chance in Hell of getting tickets to the final night in the hall but will watch it on the screen from across the road.  However the park also has a pre-concert which will include Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras.

After 4 nights in London I am going to the Lakes District for 3 nights at Ambleside, hopefully relaxing with some walking after all that wonderful music.


Then there will be a rush by train with overnight stops back in London, in Luxembourg (to add another country to my list) and Mainz before meeting my friends from South Africa who started all this a year ago.

I met Kathy and Peter on the train to Oberammergau in 1980. We attended the Passion play together and later travelled part of the Romantic Road. We have kept in contact and I have had dinner with them twice when they have visited Sydney.

After the decision to have a 30 year reunion, we had a breakdown in communication and I went ahead and booked anyway. We established contact again this year but it was too late for them to gain accommodation in Oberammergau so they are staying at a nearby village and I will spend one night with them before going to my hotel in the town itself. Hopefully we will see each other at the play.

The day after the play (September 22) I am flying from Munich to Chicago and the second half of my epic journey.