Travel Plans, and 2007

We have almost fully confirmed our Travel plans for November! After some time studying, and doing research (plus deciding what we can afford), I have decided on a trip to Italy in November, and then a trip with Britty into Germany in December. Here is the itinerary of my trip.

1. Fly to Rome from Hamburg and spend four nights. Staying in a hostel, however hostels are still very expensive in Italy.
2. Train on Italy Euro Star from Rome to Venice (6 hour trip). The train is certainly not as expensive as traveling on the Deutsche Bahn in Germany! Three nights in Venice, once again in a even more expensive hostel.
   
3. Train from Venice to Florence, which is another 2.5 hour trip, and is still quite a reasonable priced. Two nights in Florence, maybe, and most likely not enough time. Once again staying in hostel accommodation.
   
4. Train it from Florence to Pisa, and then stay in Pisa for a night in a private room!! Check out the leaning tower of course.
5. Wake early the next day to fly home from Pisa airport on Ryan Air. Ryan Air requires check in approximately 2 hours before the flight. If you get there any later you will be stuck with a sequence number below 90 which means you will almost get in a fight for a seat! I guess I can't complain because the flight was almost free except for the additional charges (baggage charge) that help them make some money!
   
6. Train from Luebeck in Germany to Kiel on the Deutsche Bahn.
   

So in total it is 10 nights. Unfortunately as I said earlier Britty isn't able to get out of work for this trip! I wish she was able to come with me, but unfortunately her work doesn't give her 50 days of holidays per year! I also really wanted to make sure I got to see a little bit of Italy before we make a decision as to where to live in the future. Once we decide we are going to have other priorities other than travel.

Even though Britty can't make the trip to Italy, she has managed to use up some more of her 24 days of holidays per year in December. At this stage our trip is pretty much planned with just the accommodation to sort out in one city.

From what I have seen of Germany so far it is a very very beautiful country. We have been to Frankfurt, Hamburg, Flensburg, Luebeck, Bremen, Berlin, Kiel, plus countless small towns in and around the state we live. However there is one more state that I really want to visit before we leave for the land of OZ. That state is Bavaria!

The plan is as follows:

1. Britty and myself drive to Köln in the very west of Germany and spend two nights exploring the city. Köln is one of Germany's biggest cities and should be a fantastic place to see.
2. Next Britty and myself drive to Munich for four nights. There are so many things to see and we hope that four nights will be enough. It is also Britty's birthday during the stay here, so I will most certainly make sure we do something special on the day!
   
3. Following our Munich trip, we then head to Nürnberg to stay with Britty's cousin for 3 nights. Nürnberg is the second largest city in Bavaira, and has some very famous Christmas markets which we will need to check out.
   
4. The last leg of our trip is to visit Britty's great Aunt in Halle.
   
5. Then we head back to Kiel.
   

Once we get back from this trip that will pretty much be all the traveling we can do before I come back to Australia. The remaining time in Germany will be spent with Britty, her family and friends.

Have a great weekend where ever you are!

Scott