Keen's European Vacation - YIPPPEEE!

We never thought we would do this!

Day Minus 90 - BLAST OFF! I will post a day per day for my own record and to share with those who are interested in to hear and see Europe through the eyes of a couple of novices!

The Keen's - Ready for Blast Off @ Cardiff NSW

Pete came home with Sunday paper about 4 months back and said, out of the blue, "do you want to go to India? To which I replied, not in a million years"! He then astounded me by saying, how about Europe, I know you've always wanted to go there! "How come?", I asked, "look at this" he says, as he shows me the add on the back page of the paper. "It looks like a bargain, even to me", says Smooth Pierre.

So within 24 hours, it was booked and we parted with more money than both of us ever conceived to spend on a holiday together. Still; bargain basement at around $4,000 AUD each. Also a few extras dollars were needed for admin fees and taxes and insurance but for under $5,000 each we were set!

We were a little trepidatious, we had heard about families and couples being ripped off by dodgy travel agents and scams, but I followed up and kept asking questions and eventually we were sent our tickets and booking confirmation....now we let ourselves believe that this trip of a lifetime, just might happen after all!

The itinerary blew us away, every iconic church, museum, region and sight we could dream up was included, and some must see's that we hadn't heard of. Could this really be happening to us?

The journey began weeks out with preparation for buying, packing and researching what you would need to take on such a journey. We are complete novices to this kind of travel. The bucket list tour of Europe! Seven countries in eighteen days on a bus with complete strangers! Needless to say, we probably left it a bit late to learn key phrases 2 days beforehand. Although Pete had done 4 years of French at school and was keen to get his Parisian on, with some locals! I seemed to be able to read Italian just as well as Siri, so we felt proud of ourselves and prepared to order beer and wine in 5 languages with gay abandon!

Our friends and neighbours and our kids helped us out in lots of different ways. Maddie who has dreamed of going to Europe since she was a little girl, was green with envy but very knowledgeable about it all and very encouraging. Nathan, with his travel tips and etiquette and our "last supper" dinner with him, Lee, Layne & Abby at Central Leagues Club. Kent's little chats and phone calls asking me lots of questions and his heartfelt text "Bi, see ya later! "

Mitch and Kylie and their little family being so excited for us; seeing them the day before at Mitchell's daring young men in their flying machines birthday experience. And Bree, Aaron, Blair and Alivia for our sleepover and day at the soccer the weekend before. Bree for driving us to the station and sending us off with lots of laughs and pictures, which is now becoming a tradition! She was more excited than we were! (She sent us off on our Bali trip five years before!).

Angela and Emma with their previous experience loaned us their amazing travel book collection from their 2 months spent in France and Italy and Ange and I spent many nights chatting and drinking wine discussing how amazing it would be.

Troy and Jess who are house sitting to look after our much loved Roxy, Whoopi, Kracka the bird, and the fish, with Ange's help (cause she knows the ropes as she has been saddled with it lots of times beforehand!) 

More organising to make sure our Wills were up to date and in place, my brother Brad notified, this precaution was for peace of mind, just in case of any emergency (it does happen, my friend Martin and Laurie's brother in law Gus both recently passed away overseas.) 

So with everything we could possibly think of being put in place, we left our lives in capable hands and hearts and took it on the toe!