In September Greg and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary! A few months back I told him I wanted to do something special. I suggested we go to Australia as I have wanted to go there for a long time. I got no response.
The more I thought about it, I decided that was too long of a flight (I think something like 20 hours from where we would fly out of). One day we were sitting on the back porch and I told him instead of Australia how about the Netherlands, Denmark or Switzerland. He immediately responded Switzerland!
This was going to be my first time to go to Europe, Greg had gone about 20 years before on a business trip to Germany, and then he and his colleagues went to Switzerland.
More time went by, we went on another trip to South Dakota and I told him when we get back, you need to get in touch with your cousin-in-law (whom I had never met), and is a travel agent to sit down with her and discuss our plans. This was the later part of July.
The initial plan was to go to Switzerland, Austria and Germany. In discussing our plans with Jo Ann, she asked if we had ever been to Prague, that it wasn't that far away. For several years we had talked about going there with family members, but it never happened. So we added Prague to our list!
We discussed mode of travel from country to country and decided transferring luggage from train to train was going to be too much, so we would rent a car in Prague (near the end of our time there) and drive to our next destinations.
Next were tours and excursions that we wanted to do in each country. After doing some research and recommendations made by Jo Ann, plans were made.
Jo Ann suggested we fly first/business class as flight times would be long and sleeping would be easier in seats that lay flat. The only other time we have flown first class was several years ago we were going to Vegas (I think), our flight was canceled and we were told to come back for a later flight. When we did, we were upgraded to first class!
Reservations were made to fly Lufthansa from Houston (George Bush Intercontinental) to Frankfurt and then on to Prague. We would be leaving September 26 and return October 10. Then Greg found out that Lufthansa still required masks to be worn while flying and there was no way were were going to do that, so the very last day the flight could be canceled Jo Ann made arrangements with Delta (KLM) but it would require coming back a day later, which was fine with us.
The hardest part of traveling for me is that I always take too much. Plus I have to take the jewelry to go with the outfit and the shoes/boots that I want to wear. I keep telling myself you don't NEED all that you take, but I also don't listen to myself either!
I also took a carry on (tote) and a purse that had too many compartments that when I would go to look for something I had to go through every one of them to find what I was looking for. By the way, the backpack in the suitcase I ordered especially for this trip and it never got used. I have to have stuff in front of me as I am constantly getting in to my purse for my phone, sunglasses, etc.
Next up - finalizing tours and excursions!
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