The Jetway and Big Ben are In Sight!

I have spent the last couple weeks working on arrangements for our trip to Europe. Since my last post, we have made leaps and bounds on decisions about where to go and what to see. After a particularly interesting conversation with Monique about Traci, and how she could get lost trying to find her way out of a wet paper sack (or in her own words, she's like an "uncharged GPS. Potential yes, but the nonetheless lacking."), we decided our trip should start in London! I absolutely love London, and I am so excited to be taking my sister there. This is a perfect place to start her crash course on Europe because, of course, they speak ENGLISH! (Well sort of, but it will be easier for her to understand than, lets sa,y starting her off where they speak FLEMISH!)

We have decided to spend 4 nights in London, then fly to Amsterdam, where we will spend 3 nights. After Traci gets her fill (which I am sure WON'T happen on this trip, unfortunately) of Holland and the Netherlands, we will train through Brussels, and on the Ghent, which happens to be the same train station for Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, and where Traci will be living for three weeks once we leave. Actually even longer, because all three of us will stay at her B&B for the last two nights before Monique and I move on to a hotel near the Brussels airport for our morning departures.

I am getting so excited about this trip, but I am completely on information overload when it comes to booking hotel rooms, looking for tours, researching sites, and everything else that planning a European vacation involves (rent a car versus take the train, etc). Its crazy to me how much work this is, and I'M A TRAVEL AGENT! I guess it really is easier booking a trip for someone else! :)

We have all of our hotel rooms reserved, so that is a load off. Most of the transportation details have been decided, so that is good too. Now comes the fun part: deciding what we are going to do in each of the cities! I have some great ideas, and we have already decided on a few sites (Madame Tussauds in London, the flower marts and cheese farms in Amsterdam, and this mini-Europe model park in Brussels), now we are just waiting for more input from Traci on what she does (and DOESN'T) want to see.

If someone had told me a year ago that I would have the opportunity to travel through Europe again with Monique, AND I'd get to bring my sister as well, I would have laughed and said yeah right! But here we are planning hopefully one of the greatest trips ever. I just hope it lives up to everything (and exceeds!) Traci is dreaming of. What better gift could I give one of my favorite people?