Hi ho, off to Prague we go

Greetings gentle reader, and welcome back to the Helen & Mike travel extravaganza. We're off on another whirlwind trip, and it's going to be so much fun I can hardly say.

The basic itinerary is:

Sydney
London
York
Brussels
Kirchlengern (near Hannover)
Prague
Lednice (In the south of the Czech Republic, site of the wedding that is the point of this trip!)
Vienna
Heidelberg
Frankfurt
London
Back home to Sydney for Helen - Mike is staying in London for a few extra days with another side trip to York.

Whooee!

We will of course be making extensive use of the European public transport network. The type that runs on rails, that is. Mike is super-experienced at this sort of thing, so he's been in charge of booking transport. I have a thing for looking at hotels online, so I've been the Accommodation Girl Friday.

Trip highlights/aims include:
* Qantas club. The best part is when they come around and bring you drinks.
* Visiting Lush shops in London. Everyone needs a hobby, okay?!?
* Visiting a curry house in Brick Lane. It gives H&M something to talk about over their frequent curry dinners at home.
* Visiting the Mallard steam Locomotive. It's like cat nip for train geeks.
* Seeing Grant & Cath again, hopefully hanging with them a bit in London.
* Drinking LOTS of beer in Belgium.
* Eating LOTS of chocolate in Belgium.
* Looking at LOTS of lace in Belgium, possibly collecting pictures/books for Helen's mum.
* Visiting Bruge, saying "That's where daddy's from" at least fifteen times (Austin Powers reference) and having a Belgian Dip - dunking my nose in a big frothy white hot chocolate. Photos to follow, I promise.
* Visiting Claudia, Christophe and kids, finally getting to meet them in person.
* Learning how to pronounce "Kirchlengern" properly, learning if there should be an umlaut in there somewhere.
* Birkenstock shopping. I am SO loving the exchange rate at the moment.
* Staying on Wenceslas Square in Prague, exploring the Old Town.
* Sling shopping in Prague - it's sale time, didn't you know?
* Visiting castles - Really looking forward to this part, maybe it's the result of all those fairy tales as a child, where the fair maiden is rescued by the handsome prince. Maybe it will have dungeons! And a tower! And a dragon! And a moat! Cool!
* Meeting Craig and Eva, hopefully before we front up at their wedding. It's only been the once that I've had to the "Hi, I'm Helen, nice to meet you, have a nice wedding, better go since the bride's just arrived" conversation, but I suppose that worked out okay.
* Eating LOTS of yummy tortes in Vienna.
* Eating LOTS of yummy schnitzel in Vienna.
* Wandering around LOTS in Vienna.
* Going to somewhere as unexpected as Heidelberg and just checking it out.
* Coming home, chilling out, then getting my ass to the gym to work off the beer, chocolates, wedding cake, tortes & schnitzel. Trying to achieve this BEFORE I have to see my dietician again, mostly to avoid that disappointed look you get when people really WISH they could tell you off, but know it's pretty pointless.

Post-trip aims include:
* Becoming an aunty for the fourth time, organising a baby shower for my sister before said niece/nephew arrives. She hasn't had one before (a baby shower, that is), so this seems like as good a time as any.
* Getting a damn clothes dryer. A girl's got to have goals, hasn't she?

Anyway, that's the plan. I still have to survive one more day at work - roster day, so I'll probably be running around like a mad woman and end up looking like I've stuck my finger in a power socket, my hair standing out from my head in every which direction. Then it's a long weekend here in Oz (hooray! DVD fest!) and I get a whole week to relax, intend to do housework but probably won't actually do it until the last minute (as Shakespeare said, Know Thyself), pack my bag, unpack my bag because I need the stuff I've packed, re-pack my bag, wait for pay day, go and buy more stuff to take, try to stuff all things into my bag, have to re-pack and take half the stuff out... This could go on for quite some time... Catch up with friends before we go, etc. etc.

More to follow, and I hope we all enjoy the trip!

H&M