"Where are you going?" "When can we see your itinerary?".....I hear those questions a lot...and as promised in my December Blog I will give you the " Where in the World is Bob today...."
February/March 2011....
Beginning in Sydney Australia for a few days then headed to New Zealand to tour the North as well as South Islands. I plan to spend about 9 days in each...Christchurch will be the embarkation point for a South tour of New Zealand's Alpine Grandeur. I will be visiting Christchurch, Queenstown, Dunddin as well as Milford Sound. The Interisland Rail and Ferry will take me from Christchurch to Wellington in the North Island. I will begin a Northern Exposure tour of the Island visiting Wellington, Taupo, Rotorua, Bay of Islands, Whangare and Auckland.
Flying from Auckland to Sydney I will spend a week in Sydney taking in Mardi Gras and the carnival atmosphere of this capital city of New South Wales. Staggering out of Sydney .....I head south to Melbourne, Capital of the State of Victoria.
Leaving Melbourne and on to Tasmania (my favorite place in all of Australia)..Spending 10 days there will be very easy touring from Hobart to Port Arthur, Tarreleah, Peppermint Bay, Bay of Fires and Cradle Mountain. I will leave Tasmania from Hobart to head back to Melbourne to sadly leave Australia.
After a few precious days in Melbourne I leave for Bangkok, Thailand. A few days in Bangkok and then an excursion to India to visit the Taj Mahal and then returning to Thailand for some much needed beach and sun time in Phuket Thailand. Ten days should suffice wouldn't you say....well maybe an extra day.
April/May 2011
Fasten your seat belts...this is going to be a jam packed month plus...thankful to have the 10 days of beach life...now to Hong Kong and some dedicated shopping (yes...Virginia I do shop..a lot...well let's say Bob bargains...and no better place for me than Hong Kong.) From Hong Kong a short hop over to Dubai to meet up with my good friend and former OCC colleague Bryan Stirewalt. Leaving Dubai I head to the UK...taking in as much as I can in a month by BritRail...i.e., Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Dublin, Cardiff and London.
May 2011
Time to head home for a few months to catch my breath...and get ready for round 2 beginning in September...
Headed back to London to take on Europe for a month by Eurorail...how about Paris?.....then on to Madrid and Barcelona for 8 days...next up..Italy - Milano, Napoli, Roma and Firenze..13 days worth... now on to Germany for Munich and Berlin with 7 days in the former East/West German City. Now heading back to London I stop off in Amsterdam and Paris for a couple days each....
November 2011
Let's head to South America....leave London for Buenos Aires for 10 days of enjoying this fantastic city and area of Argentina. Plus a couple days to just rest up from Europe...and before heading over to Guayaquil Ecuador and a 7 day tour in the Galapagos Islands....ARE YOU KIDDING ME...Is that not the greatest....the Galapagos...WOW!!! Okay...sorry I got carried away there!!
Leaving from the Galapagos I head to Peru...and a week taking in Lima, Lake Titicaca, Cuzco and Machu Picchu....but only for a week....time to move on to Santiago
December 2011
Santiago, Chile.....but only for a day ...for I have always wanted to go to Easter Island. I am in Chile....so why not...so off to Easter Island out in the Pacific for 3 days and then back to Santiago for 3 more days.
Next up....Sao Paulo!! Wait...wait ...how could I go to Brazil without visiting Rio de Janeiro? I could not...so why not...I head there for 4 days...to partake in my own Carnival to celebrate my birthday...Rio style!!! (Have you guessed that this boy is sometimes a party animal? )
Returning to Sao Paulo I spend a few days to absorb the last of my South American adventure...then it is back to the USA!!
And where could we begin....DALLAS of course!! And I am hoping that Cowboys will be playing a home game in the 5 days I am there....please Jerry...please...just for me???
Finally I wrap up my tour in Chicago to spend Christmas with my Daughter,Son-In-Law and my two grandchildren....Back in Washington for New Years 2012!!
WHEW......now lstart thinking about your 2012 travel plans...ummmmm Italy and Greece are on my list already!!
Happy New Year...
p.s. Now, you need to re-read the Blog and decide where you would like to meet me on this World tour...some have already signed on to Sydney...Berlin...and Buenos Aires!!
