Wednesday, July 1: Depart
Our trip begins on Wednesday, July 1, when we fly from Calgary to Boston.
July 1 - 3: Boston, USA
We have three days in Boston, staying at John Jeffries House. We're going to be staying right across from the Boston Harbour during "harbour days," so lots of American bands, re-enactments and ceremonies.
July 4 - 11: Boston to Southhampton via New York
We'll be travelling on the Cunard Line, Queen Mary 2 "Eastbound Transatlantic" voyage (hence the name of our blog). We stop for one day in New York, and then on to Southhampton, England.
July 12 and 13: South Coast of England
We'll be wandering around the South Coast for a couple of days, visiting the spots that Bruce used to visit as a lad. We'll be staying at the Spring Cottage, Felpham, West Sussex
July 14 - July 17: Oxfordshire, England
Bruce's parents live in a town outside of Oxford called Abingdon. We'll be staying with them for a few days before we head North.
July 18-August 06: Iceland, Faroe Islands, Norway
We fly from London to Reykjavik on July 18. We'll have five full days in Iceland.
On July 24 we'll make our way to the Faroe Islands, a small archipeligo about 800 kilometres from Reykjavik. We'll be staying at the Skansin Guesthouse in Tórshavn.
We leave the Faroe Islands on Wed. July 29 and fly to Oslo, Norway
In Norway we'll be following a very popular tourist route that combines an inland train tour and a coastal ferry trip to cover Norway's highlights. In fact, the tour is called Norway in a Nutshell, and you can see it at http://www.fjordtours.com/hurtigruten/
The tour in Norway proceeds as follows:
July 30: Trondheim, Norway
July 31: on Hurtigruten (boat)
Aug 1-Aug 3: Bergen, Norway
Aug 4: Flam
Aug 5 and 6: Oslo
August 7: Glasgow, Scotland
We leave Norway on August 07, flying from Oslo to Glasgow. We'll spend the day in Glasgow before heading to Glen Nevis for a few days of hiking.
August 8-11: Glen Nevis, Scotland
We'll be staying at Achintee Farm at the foot of Glen Nevis. We'll spend a day on the Jacobite Steam Train and then a few days of hiking on Glen Nevis (which is the flat part at the bottom of Ben Nevis.) Our host at the Achintee Farm disagrees: he thinks we'll be holed up at the local pub while it pisses with rain the whole time. That's Scottish tourism for you.
August 12: Glasgow, Scotland
We return to Glasgow en route to Edinburgh. We'll be staying at Adelaide's Guest House.
August 14-19: Edinburgh, Scotland
We're mostly in Edinburgh for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and to spend a large portion of our budget. We'll be at the Edinburgh Central Hostel.
August 20,21: London, England
We'll have two days in London, Aug. 20 and 21. Among other things, we'll take the Riverboat to Kew Gardens
August 22, Orpington, England
On Aug. 22, for the first time in decades, we'll be re-uniting with Bruce’s extended family. All three of them.
August 23-28: Normandy, France
We'll be staying with Bruce's parents, siblings and nephew in Normandy. We'll be at Le Quesnay, a 17th century stone farmhouse. We're given to understand that the plumbing has been updated since then.
August 29-30: Giverney
We'll take a sleeper train from Paris on Sept. 2, arriving in Venice on September 03. On September 04, Kim will join us in Venice. We'll probably stay for a day or two and then move on to Croatia
We haven't planned Croatia much at this point. We'll be with Kim Clayton for about a week(some of you will remember Kim, and some of you will remember that she is Rosalie Pederson's sister), probably touring the Dalmation Coast. Once Kim leaves us, we'll find somewhere in Croatia to settle down for a few weeks. Kim, Cara and I will light a candle on September 07 to honour my soon-to-be-fallen comrades as the new semester begins at SAIT.
That's it for the summer. The rest of our trip is tentatively scheduled as follows:
SEPTEMBER: Croatia
OCTOBER: Italy
NOVEMBER: Italy / Egypt
DECEMBER: somewhere for skiing / German Christmas markets
JANUARY: South Africa
FEBRUARY: Spain
MARCH: Portugal (including Azores Islands, Madeira)
APRIL: United Kingdom
MAY: United Kingdom
JUNE: France
