Jul 2007

Our trip officially started at 12.25pm today, at Nuernburg Hauptbahnhof when Lloyd’s parents dropped us off to catch our train to Munich. That’s it! No more family to host us, feed us or ferry us around; from now on everything we do will draw on our trip budget. No more comfy BMW SUV to transport our backpacks (mine at about 30lbs and Lloyd’s at about 45-50 lbs. . .). From now on, we will feel the full weight of all the “stuff” we researched and deemed indispensible for our adventure.

We’re already planning what we can ditch, and where, to reduce the load. ;o)

Having saved almost 30 Euros with the discovery of the Bayern ticket, we celebrated our superb cost effectiveness with a cappuccino and hot chocolate as we waited for our train. Ha! The first clue that we’re not your average backpackers! Our budget is limited for sure, but if you stick around you’ll see that we have pockets of pure decadence amidst our budget hotels, overnight trains and camping excursions. No doubt, you could travel for three times the duration on our budget. But we’re not 20 anymore and I need clean sheets and a hot shower and a decent cup of tea at least every 48 hours or so!

We began our journey as so many of our holidays over the past few years have been entirely spent: with family. Seems quite fitting, and we had very nice visits with all our parents, as well as numerous relatives in Germany.

In London, D’ell and Emma hosted us in the docklands, as in years past, and Jacquie’s parents joined us for a few days. London always seems to be a center of gravity for us, and setting out from there was a perfect start.

In Germany we spent time mainly with my parents, and were hosted by relatives in Geroldgruen (see our World map for the locations of any place we have visited!), and Nuernberg where we attended my Mom’s Golden (re)confirmation celebration. We set out from Nuernberg (see “Our departure” above ) and had a couple of quality days in Munich prior to going to Greece.

I confess we're not generally in the habit of being early to airports, but thanks to my bro - and perhaps also our own excitement! - we arrived at Stansted and still had multiple hours to kill after having cleared security.

So....

or it that doesn't pass the time for you, try this . . .