London calling

In just over three weeks I'll be on the train heading up to Sydney, in readiness to fly out to London the following day. We're going with QANTAS via Dubai. My international trips so far have been with Cathay Pacific, so it will  be interesting to see the difference between airlines.

We've bought BritRail 4 day Flexipasses for day trips out of London. I've been discussing destinations with my parents, and it looks like one day will be to Dover and Canterbury. Dover is a little over two hours from London Victoria station on the train, and Canterbury is 16-27 minutes (depending on the train) closer to London. In Dover, we're planning on visiting Dover Castle. We can stand on the top of the white cliffs, but it's a bit hard to really see them from that angle.

Canterbury has many attractions, the most well-known being its cathedral. Also on my list is St Augustine's Abbey, the Canterbury Roman Museum, St Martin's Church (the oldest church in England still in use as a parish church), and the Canterbury Heritage Museum. I'm not sure we'll have enough time for it all, but there are many more places to see if we get through that list!

We've also become members of the Historic Royal Palaces, the organisation that looks after the Tower of London, Kensington Palace, the Banqueting House, Kew Palace and Hampton Court Palace, so we're hoping to get to all of them. By becoming members, we qualify for the HRP new members tour of the Tower of London, held after hours (and being high season, it will be great to see it without the crowds). I rang London one night last week to make sure we have places booked on the tour.

Our other purchase has been the English Heritage Overseas Visitor Passes, giving us free entry to any of hundreds of properties on the English Heritage list for 16 days. Dover Castle is one of those, and once we've decided on where our other day trips will be, I'll check what else is in the area. Eltham Palace, southeast of Greenwich, is looking good, and there are quite a few properties within London itself.

But for now, I need to concentrate on finishing off a list of jobs required by the end of the financial year. Trip planning will have to wait for a week!

The travellers return

We're back. Actually, we've been back for two and a half weeks, but there's been plenty to keep me occupied and no time for blogging. I'm planning to share photos from the trip, but in the meantime here are some of the things we brought back.

I bought this necklace in Paris, from a little shop on Rue des Abbesses in Montmartre. We were stating up near the top of the hill, and walked past the shop many times during our two week stay, on the way to and from Abbesses metro station. The necklace was in the window, and caught my eye almost immediately - I bought on Day 2 of the trip, and later went back for matching earrings. The range of colours means it goes with just about everything :)

And this is how it looks on (with the earrings, and a new hair colour):

The next two photos are of one of my Venetian purchases. It was my birthday while we were in Venice, and I was given some money to buy something for myself (thanks everyone - you know who you are!). Nan McElroy, who I'd engaged to give us an introduction to Venice, suggested that I have a look at Attombri, next to the Rialto bridge. I did, and I met one of the two designers (brothers Stefano and Daniele Attombri - we met Stefano), who showed us some of their pieces. I couldn't choose between this one:

... and this one:

... so I came away with both :) The small glass beads in each one are from among thousands bought by the brothers when a Murano glass factory closed down - I was told they date from the 1920s. The larger beads are newer, and some are specially designed and made for Attombri, like the etched blue disk above.

And then to Rome, where we found Sancesario Bijoux on via dei Banchi Vecchi. Another artisan workshop, the family of designers only make a maximum of six copies of any one piece. The jewellery is all made by hand, using old techniques, and the glass in the earrings and bracelet I bought is Venetian.

Travel Books - part 3: Venice

Everyman Mapguide: Venice
Eyewitness Travel: Venice and the Veneto
Venice: Pure City [Peter Ackroyd]
Frommer's 24 Great Walks in Venice
The Venice Experiment [Barry Frangipane]
A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance [Marlena De Blasi]

I've spent a lot of time on websites researching Venice. I suspect I'll spend a lot more time reading novels set in the city once I get to know her a little :)

Travel books - part 2: Paris

I need to do more planning and less talking about it, now we're down to nearly three weeks until departure. So I'm just going to list some of the books I've read in preparation for this trip, and maybe they'll inspire someone else. It's by no means a comprehensive list, but just the books I've bought and referred to most often this time (and I may come back and add more if I think of them):

Frommer's Paris: Free & Dirt Cheap
France: Instructions for Use [Alison Culliford & Nan McElroy]
City Walks Paris: 50 Adventures on Foot [cards]
Paris to the Past: Traveling through French history by train [Ina Caro]
Parisians: An adventure history of Paris [Graham Robb]
The Sun King's Garden [Ian Thompson]
Walks through lost Paris [Leonard Pitt]
Eyewitness Travel: Paris
Everyman Mapguide: Paris

Travel books - part 1

I'm a bit (well, more than a bit) of a sucker for books. And when I'm planning a trip, my focus is on books about the places I'll be visiting, because I like to know stuff before I get there.

I still have my Eyewitness Travel guides to Paris and Rome on hand from the 2010 trip, but I've added the Venice and the Veneto guide from the same series this time.

They're great guides for planning, but pretty heavy to cart around, especially if you're going to more than one city, as I realised last time while dragging my bag up flights of stairs from the London Underground and up to our second storey apartment. So I'm using them a lot for planning, but don't intend to take any of them with me. With that thought in mind, I also bought the Eyewitness Travel Pocket Map and Guide for each city - a very condensed version of the larger guides, with a foldout map in the back of each book. They're only 154 x 74mm in size, and less than 10mm thick, so very portable. The writing is pretty tiny though - not too bad in good light, but I'm not getting any younger, so I kept looking to see if there was anything better.

I also have the laminated StreetSmart Paris map and CityFlash/Hallwag International Rome map from the 2010 trip. They're both good clear maps, although not all the smaller streets are named. You can write on them with an erasable marker - handy for planning routes - and just wipe them clean when you're done. The Paris map includes a metro map - very handy. I'll probably take these with me.

Then I found the Everyman Mapguides. These small (124 x 74mm) books divide the city into sections, with a foldout map and information (what to see, where to eat, etc.) for each area. While not all the small streets are named, the maps are very legible, and the format means you're not trying to deal with large folding maps in the wind. These ones will  be going with me.

Yes, that is a New York edition tacked on the end. Not for me - my parents are going to the US while we're in Europe, and I thought this might be handy for the couple of days they have in NYC.

Rome food tour (9 weeks & 1 day)

I've just booked the X-man & myself onto a Walks of Italy Rome Food Tour. We start off at the Campo dei Fiori market, and learn about and taste different foods, including meats and cheeses, bread, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, gelato or cannolo, and coffee - of course! And we get to make (and eat) our own pizza in a restaurant - the X-man is pretty keen on that idea :)

I'm working on more structure for this trip - some tours, guided or self-guided, some museum passes (so we can visit lots of places, without having to stay for hours in each one to get our money's worth), and a few day trips out of the city for contrast.

La Madeleine

Lamppost along the Place de la Madeleine, Paris. Photo taken in October 2010.

Today I ordered the boychild a small Pacsafe crossbody bag so he can carry a few things (like his camera) himself on the trip. Also ordered an RFID-shielded wallet, big enough to take the passports and credit cards. These days the pickpockets don't actually need to pick your pocket to get your details - a relatively inexpensive reader held in the vicinity of a passport, credit card or other ID with a radio-frequency identification chip embedded can read your information (credit card number, name, and other details) through your standard wallet/bag/pocket without even touching you. I withdraw cash from an ATM once every few days while we're away, so the rest of the time the cards and passports can be safely tucked away. Funnily enough, Miss Tizz's class at school had a visit from Constable Kenny Koala yesterday, and this was one of the topics mentioned. There is a DIY solution which involves wrapping your cards in aluminium foil - it doesn't completely shield them, but it means the reader has to be a lot closer (within an inch or so - not impossible in crowded areas).

Next I'll book our Paris to Venice train tickets, and then make some decisions about museum passes and other things we might like to book in advance.

Dear Diary, today I went for a walk ...

Just a short walk - 16km from home, down the hill, round the lake, and back up the hill to home. According to my Polar heart rate monitor (which I purchased when I started the 12WBT program, and which provides great motivation to keep going) I burnt 1531 calories. It took 3hr 20min of actual walking, with a break in the middle for a breakfast of poached eggs, spinach and one (just one!) slice of bacon, plus a much-needed espresso after an early start - the sun was still coming up when we started.

Many many thanks to my friend Sam who could easily power away much faster than me, but who walked with and encouraged me the whole way (especially that last painful bit uphill!).

In other news - I have booked two tickets for Europe in September! The X-man and I are jetting off to Paris, Venice and Rome for about 5.5 weeks. Yesterday was the point where I'd had enough of tracking fares, and just decided to book it and stop looking. Now there's just apartments, trains between Paris and Venice, and Venice and Rome, and a little matter of a passport for the boychild to sort out. Lots of fun over the next few months :)

planning for paris

Today I received a stroll offer from Paris Greeter-Parisien d'un jour. Actually, it was a second offer - I had to refuse the first because it was only 1.5 hours before our Eiffel Tower booking, and on the opposite side of the city - we just wouldn't have made it in time. Fortunately the volunteer was able to make it earlier in the day, so we are all set for a stroll around the 12th arrondissement one morning in Paris :) It's a district I probably wouldn't have visited on my first trip to Paris, apart from the train station as we left on our way to Rome, so this is a great opportunity to explore a little further.

Femme au jardin (Claude Monet, 1866)

I also found out, thanks to the wonderful people in the Slow Travel forums, about a Monet exhibition at the Grand Palais which opened this week. Huge crowds are expected, and it was strongly recommended that I pre-purchase tickets, which I've done. Well, one ticket - Miss Tizz is under 13 and therefore is entitled to free entry. It's supposed to be one of the biggest exhibitions of Claude Monet's work ever put together, and we're very much looking forward to it.

update on oxford

I went back to the Oxford Tourism website in another attempt to buy the Harry Potter walking tour tickets, with no success, but I did notice there were four less tickets available - only 11 left. Right, no messing about waiting for emails. So I rang them (which is kind of a big deal, because I really don't like phone calls much). No problem, except that the computer of the person who answered the phone decided to freeze, so I was passed on to a second person, and had to go through the story with them (I'm ringing from Australia ... e-shop not working ... can I buy tickets over the phone?).

In the end, it was no problem, just a lengthy international phone call, and we're booked in.

Miss Tizz will be pleased in the morning when I tell her :)

change of plans

Posting from the netbook, just to see how it goes. The keyboard's a little smaller than usual, but it's not bad at all. And as I type, Duran Duran's 'View to a kill' is on Rage, with some fabulous shots of Paris and the Eiffel Tower. Not long to go now!

My plan to use a Travel Money card while overseas didn't last too long. I found a better alternative with the ING Orange Everyday account, which comes with a VISA debit card. I can link it to a high interest savings account, and transfer money online, instantly, whenever I need to access it. I can use the VISA debit card at ATMs internationally to withdraw cash in the local currency, or use it for EFTPOS transactions, to pay bills via BPay, and transfer money with their 'Pay anyone' facility. Much simpler, the international ATM withdrawal fees are the same or lower than the other options I was considering, and it looks like a good everyday account for when I'm home too. And Billy Connolly does their ads ;)

sorting out the money

I've been trying to get my head around just how much money we're going to need while we're away. We've paid for the major travel expenses, most of our sightseeing in London and some for Paris and Rome, deposits on the three apartments (and the London one needs to be paid in full before we leave). So basically it's down to the balance of the accommodation, some entry fees and local transport, and food and basic supplies for the apartments.

We'll have a kitchen and a washing machine in each place, so we can live fairly cheaply (we like good food, but we're not really 'foodies'; we're not into serious shopping - no plans for French frocks or Italian boots; and we're not even going to attempt to see everything in one trip - we'd prefer to spend some time soaking in the local culture rather than paying to go into every museum and gallery and tourist attraction and historical site). We'd like some nice meals out over the five weeks, but we're not hunting Michelin-starred restaurants or the latest trendy and expensive bistro.

So what's it going to cost? How long is a piece of string?!

I joined the Slow Travel online community some time back, and there is a wealth of information, both on the main site and in the forums. At the risk of sounding daft, I asked this very question. I can look up exchange rates, but that doesn't tell me a lot about the cost of living in another place. One reply I received said that 20 euros per day should be fine in Rome if we're doing our own cooking, and that wouldn't be skimping on groceries - Italians would live on less that that most days, but we obviously won't be buying in bulk or from discount supermarkets out in the suburbs.

So what I've come up with is allowing 100 GBP per day in England, and 100 euro per day in France and Italy, pre-loaded onto a Travel Money card along with the apartment rent balances for Paris and Rome, accessible via ATMs and which can also be used like a credit card at point of sale (and which is NOT linked to a bank account). I'll take 100 GBP in cash to get us started. And I'll also have my normal ATM card and credit card as backup, although I'm hoping not to use them.

And I just have to hope I've got it roughly right!

sunset views

Another booking made, this time for a sunset visit to the Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower, Paris
Photo: Free On Line Photos

The Australian dollar is doing quite well against the pound and the euro at the moment - might be time to organise some cash and a travel money card.

27 days until departure!

getting an overview of rome

I bought hop-on hop-off (HOHO!) tickets for London and Paris as a way of getting our bearings, and this evening I purchased similar tickets for Rome.

110 Open bus at the Colosseum

Archeobus on the Via Appia

While I'm sure there might be cheaper ways to get around (if you know where you're going!), with 48 hour tickets for these buses, audioguides and the option to get on and off at stops of interest, I think they'll be a good introduction to the city.

on packing and luggage

I've been working on our packing list, and I think I've just about got it down pat. I assembled a few lists from various websites, copied them into an Excel file, eliminated the items that doubled up, and then eliminated the things we won't be needing. I've read packing advice from many, many experienced travellers. I've taken into consideration that there are washing machines in each of the three apartments we've booked, and that we're going to big cities where we can buy essentials if we choose not to take them with us (like shampoo - we're just going to buy it in London rather than lug it halfway round the world).

And I took my Excel file and divided it up into bags - two cross-body security bags (Pacsafe Citysafe 100 for Miss Tizz, and the 200 for me), a cabin bag, and a smallish wheeled bag each.

Today I did a rough test pack, and went shopping for the second wheeled bag. I looked at lots of bags - some way out of our price range (did you know you can pay $1200 for a suitcase?!), some too big (I'd just be tempted to take extra stuff because I had room), some too small (while it would be nice to get by with carry-on luggage only, I think having a little breathing space in the bag for things we pick up along the way is a wiser choice for us), backpacks and rolling duffels and some just plain ugly and flimsy.

Then I found it: a 53cm (21") wheeled bag, with an expanding section (which I don't plan on using, but it's handy to know it's there), an exterior pocket, internal straps to secure your stuff, sturdy padded handles on short and long sides, an extendible handle for wheeling, and slightly padded to protect the contents a little. I would have liked the purple one, but the shop only had it in black or grey, so I settled for black and a lime green luggage strap for easy identification.

And the best bit? It was on sale! Marked down from $130 to $55 :)

same but different

Part two of my book order arrived in yesterday's mail - France: Instructions for Use. Again, it's a little book full of lots of practical information, like getting around by public transport, using phones (fixed and mobile) in France, and how to order coffee (apparently cafe au lait is a tourist-only thing; noisette - espresso with a dash of milk - sounds like the French version of the Italian macchiato).

Each of the books has an accompanying online book in PDF format (and there's one for Greece too). They include information and tips on things you might like to consider in planning your adventure - where to say, what to pack, how to travel within the country you're visiting (rail passes? point-to-point tickets? car rental?) and much more. They don't tell you what to do, but they're a great guide in making decisions. And they're free :)

8 weeks (and counting!)

I don't think I mentioned my latest book purchase from The Book Depository. Half the order arrived today - Italy: instructions for use, by Nan McElroy.

It's a little pocket-sized book with lots of practical info like how to use the ticket machines at the railway station, how to negotiate various types of shops, the Italian post office and ATMs, and recognising road signs if you're driving. And it has the relevant vocabulary and a basic pronunciation guide to get you through. It doesn't tell you about history and where to stay or where to eat, so it's nice and compact to carry with you as a reference on your travels.

status update for france

Last night I finally decided, after much dithering, to purchase 3-day Paris a la Carte passes for the two of us. This pass is a combination of the L'OpenTour hop-on hop-off buses and the Batobus river boat shuttle.

One of the L'Open Tour buses at Notre Dame

For 20 euro (child pass) and 44 euro (adult) we have the run of four bus routes (including one that goes practically past our door, although we will have to walk all of about 5 minutes to the nearest stop) and the 8-stop boat route, all of which interconnect. We could have opted for a 2-day pass, but it was the same child price, and only 3 euro difference for the adult pass.

We'll still use the metro at some stage - it's more direct and faster, but it's also underground, so there's not a lot to see as you travel.

Batobus on the Seine

The buses depart every 10-15 minutes during peak season (which includes October), and the boats run every 25 minutes (oddly enough, October is listed as low season on the Batobus brochure).

At this stage I'm not going to order museum and attraction passes - they're quite expensive, and we'd need to pack a lot into each day to justify the cost. One of the main advantages with the passes is the 'skip-the-queue' feature, but as children get into most museums for free in Paris, it would be silly to buy a pass for Miss Tizz. Especially when I've heard that if you go to the alternative Louvre entrance, you can usually buy a ticket and walk straight in.

artesia train: booked!

I've just booked a double sleeper on the Artesia overnight train Paris-Rome! Feeling very pleased with myself, because I managed to negotiate the first part of the booking in French, thereby avoiding being transferred to the Rail Europe Australian site (which I couldn't convince to give me compartment options - just first or second class, and first class was only available as a four person compartment - we definitely wanted a double sleeper, just for us). My other Australian option was through Railplus, but it would have cost about $A150 more!

In case it helps anyone else, I went to the Artesia site, switched to French, selected the www.voyages-sncf.com option (on the left, under Réservez) and put in the rest of the trip details (fairly easy to figure out the form, even for a French novice like me). That transferred me to www.voyages-sncf.com (still in French at this point), where I needed to add more details, and I selected 'Australie' in the country list at the bottom. I was then redirected to www.tgv-europe.com - in English! From there I just followed the prompts, and even had an option for free postage of the tickets to Australia, so I don't have to muck around with retrieving the tickets from a machine in Paris.

You may be able to shortcut this by going straight to the TGV Europe site, but this way worked for me, and I saved nearly $150!

Artesia Palatino - day
[photo: www.seat61.com]

Artesia Palatino - night
[photo: www.seat61.com]

status update for england

Last night I ordered 1-day Yorkshire passes - same deal as the London Pass, but for Yorkshire in the north of England. We'll only be able to take advantage of the York city attractions, but again the big benefit is the convenience of having pre-paid and not having to worry about cash or the budget when we're there. We definitely want to visit the JORVIK Viking Centre, DIG, the York Castle Museum and York Minster. It's going to be a long day!

So ... where are things up to for the English leg of our journey?

• Airfares into London Heathrow - PAID
• Train from Heathrow to the city - PAID (Oyster card)
• Accommodation - deposit PAID, balance to be paid via Paypal before we leave Australia
• Public transport around London - PAID (Oyster card, can be topped up in London if required)
• The Original London Tour (hop-on hop-off bus) - PAID
• London Pass (2 x 6-day passes for city attractions) - PAID
• Britrail Pass (3 non-consecutive days train travel anywhere in England) - PAID
• Yorkshire Pass (2 x 1-day passes for York attractions, plus discounted hop-on hop-off bus tour) - PAID

We still need to pay for the London Eye ride (tickets can be pre-ordered, but I need to research this a bit more, and would prefer not to be locked into a particular date). We'll also pay for The Stonehenge Tour (Stonehenge/Old Sarum/Salisbury bus + entry fees) when we're there, plus whatever we decide to do on Day 3 of our day trips. Other than that we'll need to buy food and consumables for the flat, plus we'll need a little spending money as we go (but we're not planning on any massive shopping sprees, so we won't need a fortune).