On September 4th 2006 we are leaving on the trip of a lifetime. Neither of us has been to most of these places previously, so we are VERY excited. We’ll be away for nearly 9 weeks, heading first for Ireland, then England, France & Italy.

We have been planning this trip for a year but there still seems to be an awful lot to do at the last minute! Our plan is to keep this blog as a travel diary, for our own benefit, as well as anyone who is interested enough to come along for the journey. We won’t have internet access all the time, but I will try to update the blog whenever I can.

We are getting very excited – this is really going to happen. Our motto for the trip (courtesy of Rick Steves, travel writer) is to “be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic“.What’s the key to enjoying travel? “One of the fundamental things is, if it’s not to your liking, change your liking,” says Steves. “This is a chance for us to immerse ourselves in something that’s different.”

This is where we plan to travel, using planes, trains and automobiles to get from place to place. I know it’s a bit hard to see, but if you click on the map you get a bigger version of it.

We are starting in Dublin, & spending 6 days in Ireland. Then we fly to Liverpool, and spend 13 days in the English countryside, followed by 10 days in London. We fly from London to Bergerac in southwest France, and spend 8 days in rural France, visiting the Dordogne, the Loire Valley & Normandy. Then after 6 days in Paris we fly to Venice, where we will stay 5 days, followed by 4 days in Florence, 2 days in Siena and 4 days in Rome. From Rome we fly home.

This is our vision of the holiday – sitting in an undiscovered cafe somewhere in a quiet corner of somewhere exotic with a fabulous view, wonderful food, and oodles of ambience. I’ll let you know how it turns out!