The Big Vacation Plan

I grew up to a culture of traveling around the world. My parents would take a long vacation once a year and go somewhere outside of Israel. I don't know how many countries they've been to, but if I count those that I recall I reach over 30 countries (with some repetitive visits to their favourite). It's all true about the wandering Jew. When my parents plan a vacation it starts immediately upon return from their last vacation. For the next 11 months they will research, read books, talk to friends, and talk to travel agents, and create a detailed itinerary. When I say "detailed" I mean "the day planned to the hour and kilometers driven per day." They're the masters of planning vacations. They book hotels way ahead of going on vacation and they announce their arrival to friends and family in other countries down to the hour and bar/restaurant. I feel really lucky to have grown up with them and joined them on several trips. Their vacations entailed a couple of museums/galleries a day, a couple of castles per week, and a serious immersion in impressive architecture and historical landmarks.

With my husband being a Navy brat along with his many years of service in the Navy, he's had a similar exposure to travelling the world, though he didn't experience the travelling hundred of kilometers per vacation. So I introduced him to the culture. Our first major vacation was around Ireland in 2 weeks. Then we circled Scotland in 10 days. Then we did cross countried from Montana to Maryland in four days. In between we had several 2 weeks around Israel (and Jordan one time). So we did enough training for The Big One!

We're going to Australia!!!

But first, I'm flying to London (alone), where I will meet with my parents who are flying from Israel. We'll spend five days in London together (a very early birthday present for my mom's 70th birthday). Then, after five days, I'll be flying to Sydney, Australia. My husband will join me two days later (arriving eight hours after my birthday), and we will spend the next three weeks traveling through Australia.

I've never been to London. In all my trips around the world, I never got a chance to go there. So this is my first. My parents lived there three years before I was born, and have travelled there several times since. This was my chance to see the place that's mentioned in many books, articles, news and conversations with friends. So I bought a travel book about London and spent last weekend creating the itinerary for my vacation in London.

Took me a day and a half to research all the places of interests, maps, prices, special deals, opening hours, distance from each other, subway deals, Travelcard, London Pass, you name it. After a day and a half I had a nice itinerary with three or four places of interest to visit every day, including websites, prices and ideal times to visit. I must say that researching London's places of interest was quite enjoyable since it's all geared towards tourists. Every website conveniently places the "Visit Us" button in a prominent place on the page, and once clicking on it you get the prices, hours, and any other pertinent information. With all this information, trying to figure out a schedule that ensures that every FREE option is arranged on the correct date, was quite tricky. I ended up giving up one free entrance to a museum for the sake of watching the Change of Guards at Buckingham palace. It better be worth it!

I'm particularly excited about a surprise I'm planning for my mom. I bought tickets for a show. I bought it a while ago. When I asked her last week what places in London she'd like to see, she mentioned wanting to go see a show. I immediately dismissed her and said I'm not interested in going to any shows. She seemed disappointed and said okay. On the day I arrive I plan on giving her the early birthday card with the tickets to the show in it. The funny thing is that I found out after my parents had already booked a hotel for our stay, that the theatre is right next door to the hotel!!! This is really convenient because the show is the night before I leave for Sydney and they leave back to Israel.

One more week. I'm SO excited!

Todah La'el hayom yom shishi!