Planning Travel Abroad

We interrupt your daily blog content of WW Freestyle to talk about…something else!

Are you all tired of hearing about Freestyle yet?  It does help me to stay on track by blogging about it but today, I’ll write about some other content.  Travel.

Kenyon and I have been meeting/talking with the travel agent as we continue to finalize our Europe plans for 2018.  It is all very exciting a little stressful when I think of the cost.  But, I made a commitment long ago that money shouldn’t be a reason not to travel.  Our first decision was if we wanted upgrade our airfare or not.  We booked our air through Viking River Cruises and at this point, were just booked for coach.  For a small(er) fee, we could upgrade to premium economy and/or for a large(er) fee, to first class/business class.  I consulted Facebook, talked to friends, family, and coworkers about people’s experience. 

Bottom line is we want to be as comfortable as we can for the long overseas flight so we went for the upgrade.  Here is what premium economy on British Airways gets us:

• wider seats and more legroom
• small, intimate cabins with expert, attentive service
• delicious meals and full bar service
• personal entertainment system with noise-reducing headphones
• larger free baggage allowance
• board ahead of economy passengers with priority boarding
• a wider seat with greater recline, lumbar support, head rest and foot rest
• extra leg room to stretch out, sit back and relax, sleep or work
• comfy cushion, blanket and amenity kit with toothbrush, toothpaste, flight socks and eye mask
• power supply for laptops and other electronic devices
• three-course meals crafted to perfectly match the time and duration of your flight
• a premium dining experience, featuring high-quality ingredients, fine china and linen napkins
• a wide range of special meal alternatives to suit your dietary needs
• complimentary bar service, hot drinks, juices and water (on some very short flights, a full bar service is not always available)

If you know me, you know I’m most excited about the full bar service.  So, I’m hoping in reality spending the extra money will be worth it.

We are still working to fine tune our itinerary.  So far here is our plan:

Fly from Boise to London (arriving next day) and spend three nights in London.  We are going to visit Warner Bros London Studio to see where Harry Potter was filmed.  We are also going to use the hop on/hop off bus for city touring. 

From London we fly to Amsterdam and will spend the night before boarding our Viking River Cruise.

Our 7-day river cruise travels from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Basel, Switzerland along The Rhine.  We will be in parts of Germany and France.  Our cruise includes daily tour excursions.  We chose this section of the river because it has many castles along it and we will have a tour of a castles as well.

At the end of our cruise, we will spend a night in Basel and then make or way by train to Munich, Germany for our last two nights in Europe.  No plans yet for Basel and Munich but we do enjoy walking around and taking in the sights.

Things I’m looking forward to besides just being among the amazingness that is Europe: I’m planning to ship home an authentic cuckoo clock from Germany and I also want to pick some up authentic wooden shoes from Amsterdam.  Of course, I’m also excited to drink ALL the European beer and maybe eat a giant pretzel.