Day one, flying to Tokyo

 

So we left Perth on Sunday lunchtime, heading firstly to Sydney and then on to Tokyo. A slight snag on the first flight, Em left her Kindle in the seat back pocket on the plane and hence all of her holiday reading. With 1,000 books on it! Oops.

We are hopeful of it being returned but probably only when we get back to Perth.

So we headed to Tokyo on a Qantas 747, after the joys of widescreen touch-screen video on demand on the domestic flight to Sydney we were hugely underwhelmed by the old school entertainment for the 11 hour journey to Tokyo, so with a couple of Red Wines on board, mask on, blanket on and a full 8 hours sleep was managed, you beauty!

 

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Three months today!

I guess that with 3 months to go I should pop up a bit of an update as this blog is a useful reference for those with whom we are staying. The itinerary stands thus:

Sunday 21st April - Perth to Tokyo via Sydney. 3 nights in Tokyo staying at Tama Ryokan, Takadanobaba nr Shinjuku.

Thursday 25th April - Tokyo to Athens via Zurich. 3 weeks island hopping. The initial plan of being independent, backpacking types took a bit of a turn with us booking a 5 nights stay to a really nice hotel in Santorini and flying there from Athens. I'm sure we'll try to be a bit more "back-packy" after that!

Weds 15th May - Athens to Manchester, via Heathrow. Staying in North Duffield with my cousin.

Sunday 19th May - Cheshire to maybe kill Zombies and catch up with friends. A Beatles based tourist experience should be in order whilst we are on the wrong side of the Pennines.

Sunday 26th May - to Brittany with our most excellent friends, the Buckleys, for a week. With a day trip to Paris thrown in for good measure if I can get cheap train tickets.

Sunday 2nd June - back to Britain.

Wednesday 5th June - to London for a long weekend, staying in Highbury with the most wonderful Johnathon & Stuart. Tickets booked for Matilda in the West End.

Sunday 9th June - back to Yorkshire for a few days, maybe with a side trip to Cambridgeshire to visit family.

Thursday 13th June - fly to New York, via Zurich. Staying at New York Budget Hotel for 6 nights which is nice and central near the Empire State Building.

Wednesday 19th June - fly to Washington DC for 4 nights. Staying at this place which is about as central to the tourist bits that we can afford.

Sunday 23rd June - To Orlando for 11 nights staying in Crescent Lakes in our "Bargain of the Holiday". We will have 5 days in Disney and 3 days at Universal Studios. I want to go to Kennedy Space Centre but no-one else shares the love for this notion. Harrumph!

Wednesday 3rd July - To San Diego. Spending Independence Day with our good friends the Arnolds. Hopefully watching the fireworks in San Diego, hopefully they will last longer than last years when someone pressed the wrong button and every firework went off at once rather than over 30 minutes. Ooops!

We will have a side trip to Vegas and the Grand Canyon from 8th to 13th July before heading off to San Francisco on Monday 15th July.

We return to Perth via Sydney on Sunday 21st of July after leave San Francisco on Friday 19th. We lose Saturday somewhere over the Pacific Ocean!

And there you have it 13 weeks of travel, all very exciting and creeping closer by the day.

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Untitled

treverien - Google Maps

Holiday House in Treverien, Ille-et-Vilaine, France FR11061


I'm just messing about with Blogsy trying to see how to put links & maps up. The above are links to the Brittany house we are renting.

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Vac Swim. Welcome to 2013.

 

As this will be my view for the next 10 days it seemed like a good idea to do a bit of blogging. Our friends, the Buckleys, got in touch overnight to say they had been able to book their flights to Brittany for our week there. We booked our flights a couple of weeks before Xmas with Ryanair whom, I suppose, are OK if you know what you are letting yourselves in for. They are reasonably cheap but very no-frills indeed. We have rented a house in Treverien, Brittany, for a week. It is called La Forge and is by a canal and most definitely NOT in a tourist area. The hope is that we can immerse ourselves in the romantic picture of what being in France actually entails. We will see how the reality works out.

There really is so much to arrange when you have 4 people going around the world for 13 weeks. We have found some really great free tours in New York but they need to be booked months in advance as does the obligatory trip to Alcatraz in San Francisco etc etc.

I had a bit of a result overnight too hearing from the lady who owns La Forge our Brittany home. She has a son in Sydney with whom she will be staying next Xmas. She suggested that I could send him a cheque to pay for the house and she would use the AU$ when she visited. Win-win. I save on the transfer fee and we both get a better exchange rate.

I also set the kids research tasks this morning and printed out sheets where they had to research where we are staying in each destination and look into 5 activities for our stay there including costs and distance from our accommodation and how we could get there. So far they have been observers in the whole process. They need to do a journal for school but we have negotiated that this could be a Blog instead. It's a whole lot more 'Now' than a journal and a damn sight easier to carry about.

 

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Having a bit of a faff.

Well, the iPad mini arrived last night. It's a wonderful piece of kit. As part of the excuse to buy this was to help us to manage our photos and for the kids to write a blog in lieu of doing a journal to keep the school happy whilst we are away. I thought I should research blogging Apps.

Blogsy was very highly recommended so it is now downloaded and here is my first trial Blog using the killer combo of the iPad mini and Blogsy.

I suppose it makes sense not to write too much in case it doesn't work, so I'll leave it at that for now and see if this works. Fingers crossed!

 

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All systems are go!

Well, I have been a busy boy. I took delivery of a new Credit Card from HSBC after swapping from my previous card. This new one is a Qantas Frequent Flyer Platinum Card which comes with 20,000 miles, very good quality travel insurance and, best of all, two passes to the Qantas Club Lounge!
With this new card in hand I went to see my friend, Scott, at Jetstar Travel in Hillarys.
$16,200 later we became the proud owners of 52 flights. That is $311 per flight and there are some bloody big flights in there too!
With the dates locked in and paid for it becomes expensive to change things now, that is one of the reasons why the flights are so cheap. That said, having things now set in tablets of stone makes it easier to book accommodation, car hire etc.

So far I have booked and paid for:
Tokyo accommodation - staying at a traditional Japanese "Ryokan", which is a Bed & Breakfast essentially. We are staying at Tama Ryokan in Shinjuku for only three nights but get there very early on day one so three full days should be enough to give us a taste of Tokyo.
Car Hire in the UK - Being 'independent travellers' I had notions of using public transport with our backpacks on. The reality of public transport for 4 people in the UK is expensive and inconvenient. The flight from Manchester to New York (via Zurich) leaves at 8.40am. Getting there for 6am means getting a 4am train for which there are no buses running! A cruise around the internet revealed a Ford Focus for 29 days at a cost of $590. A bit of a no-brainer really. Booked and paid for.
New York accommodation - http://www.newyorkbudgetinn.com is really centrally located in Midtown Manhattan. We have 6 nights in NYC and have two rooms, a Double with en-suite for Em and I and a twin for the kids. So very centrally located and easy access to all the essential tourist spots. So very excited!
Washington Accommodation - http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Gallery-Inn-Hotel/Washington-DC/21986 is located in central Washington, a four bedded room close to all the sights for a relatively bargain price - only $200/night (+ tax of course).
Orlando accommodation - We have managed to score a 3 bedroomed house in Crescent Lakes, Kissimee  for only $150/night (inc tax) so we are making the most of this and having ten nights in Florida. It comes with a pool and games room for the kids but with plans afoot for a 5 day pass for Disney, a 3 day pass for Universal Studios and a one day trip to Kennedy Space Centre we won't be spending too much time at 'home'.
Orlando Car Hire - A Chevrolet Aveo (Barina/Corsa) is a good budget solution and if we can cram 4 people and 4 backpacks in for the trip to and from the airport should address all our needs. $311 for 11 days - bargain. Booked and paid for!
Vegas Accommodation - http://www.theplatinumhotel.com is hopefully going to be our freebie for the trip. Being a karmic universe our good deed of a couple of years ago may well be getting paid back with 3 nights free stay at this wonderful place. Keep your fingers crossed for us please folks.
Grand Canyon accommodation - having stayed here http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/lodging-413.html a few years ago for an overnight stay we found it was all a bit too quick really so have re-booked for two nights. A small hike into the canyon will be in order as will having a look a bit further round the South Rim. Definitely one for everyone's Bucket List.

We still need to book flights, car and a Gite for our week in France, need somewhere to stay in San Francisco and Athens and I am leaving it in Em's very capable hands to get the family around the Greek Islands - no pressure then love!

We have bought Em & I a back pack each, mine second hand Kathmandu Interloper off eBay and Em a "Hybrid Trolley" in the sales. It does seem a bit surreal. I've been giddy with excitement for months, Em hasn't grasped that it is actually going to happen and the kids are just happy with a term off school.

Lock It In!!!

Well, the flights are booked. We now know where we will be and when. Scott, the travel agent, came back with the final itinerary and cost. I was most impressed that the final cost was even cheaper than his original quote by a few hundred dollars!! What a guy!

Sun 19th April: Perth - Tokyo (via Sydney)

Thurs 25th April: Tokyo - Athens (via Zurich)

Weds 15th May: Athens - Manchester (via Heathrow)

side trip of a week in Brittany

Thursday 13th June: Manchester - New York (via Zurich)

Weds 19th June: New York - Washington

Sun 23rd June: Washington - Orlando

Weds 3rd July: Orlando - San Diego (via Houston)

side trip to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon

Monday 15th July: San Diego - San Francisco

Friday 19th July: San Francisco - Perth (via Sydney)

I now look forward to booking in all the accommodation. We have bought Em's bag already in a sale and she has a 70 litre Hybrid Trolley Bag. Which means it has a backpack harness and a pull up handle with trundle wheel on the bottom. Perfect for her, I'm waiting to see if my bid on a Travel Backpack on eBay is successful.