Back on the road again!

I have been a rather negligent blog writer...I fully intended to blog as a travel journal but didn't get very far....for a few reasons. First the actual planning of the day to day and week by week logistics takes a long time. It was almost a full time job between booking travel, activities and accommodation. And then there is the little stuff - laundry, groceries and packing up each time we changed cities. I thought I would have ample time on the train but more often than not I had other things to organize. And I had to keep up to date on local, national and world news. Oh and celebrity gossip and sports. All very distracting! So to update the blog (and I can't remember where we were when I lasted posted) we spent 4 weeks with my sister Rhonda travelling around France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Luxembourg and Belgium. We visited 35 different Christmas markets and ate more than 50 different Christmas market foods. I hope to eventually do a review of the markets but I think my favourites were Vienna, Metz and Brussels. But they all had something we enjoyed and it was a great experience. Then we all traveled home together and had a relaxing 3 weeks hanging out with Grandpa and the dogs. Rafa finally decided that Dad is a good trustworthy person and he turned into his velcro dog. Wherever Dad goes Rafa follows. The dogs are so affectionate it was nice to know Dad was getting lots of love from them. And I knew he would take good care of them but to see them in their daily routine was delightful. The girls were also able to skate and did a 2 day 3 on 3 tournament which was good for them. Then we packed up our summer clothes for our very long travel day to get to Australia. 3 hours in the car, 3 different planes, a shuttle bus before we finally arrived in Melbourne. I will have to post about how we managed the 32 hours of travel but it involved lots of snacks. I was ready to get back on the road but I do miss the ease of home. Stage 2 of our World Tour is 24 days shorter than Stage 1. It also involves two cruises for a total of 38 days on a ship. You might think that sounds relaxing but it will be balanced by 45 days of camping in Tasmania and New Zealand. Not sure why I have done this myself but I am going to learn a lot about myself along the way! Plans for Stage 3 are also in the works - I am very excited about our big finale!