Early 2011, we re-started our planning. We settled on flying into Paris, spending a week discovering Paris, train through the Chunnel to London, a week in London, three weeks touring UK including Bath, Cornwall, Wales, Yorkshire and Lakes District then flying out of Manchester for a stopover in Singapore. We were all set to book our flight in July when we realised our week in Paris coincided with the Paris marathon and then a week later, when we planned to be in London, the London marathon was on. We looked at the pros and cons – we knew we may not have been impacted at all by the runners or extra people in the cities. Switching order – London then Paris – meant that we would have to travel twice through the chunnel and would have less time on our first day of touring. On the positive side, getting to our accommodation in a jet lagged state would be easier in English-speaking London than in French-speaking Paris. When we realised we could fly into London a day earlier on Easter Monday (something we didn’t intend to do in Paris), our minds were made up. No marathon in sight for us.

So I should probably explain some of the planning that has gone into this holiday. But firstly we need to admit the big mistake we made. We first discussed taking a holiday to Europe when we were holidaying in Tasmania in 2008. In 2010, I started looking at school holiday dates, knowing that we wanted to go in the first part of term 2, 2011. We had roughly decided a week in Paris, a week in London then time touring the UK. Both Matt and Libbie became aware of our plans. One day, Libbie came to us looking worried. She asked “Would we be away on her 21st birthday?”……

So now you know why we are travelling in 2012.

BTW, she had a great 21st birthday party in 2011 and we have had an extra year of planning so it was win-win around. Mind you, she will never let us forget.