I Don't Believe It!

 Quick update.

Previously I mentioned the Polish attraction I had booked, whose dates I have been able to move. Well, after over 2 years of shuffling the dates back and back, and within sight of the finishing line, the buggers have gone and changed their booking system, meaning I can no longer move the booking back beyond 31st December. 😒 What this means is, as there is no refund, they will finally get away with my £33 'donation'!  A quick look at the new booking site shows you can only book 3 months in advance, so the new booking will be on the back burner till the end of March. It also shows a price increase of about £12 too!

Having completed the rebooking of hotels, as mentioned in the previous post, I have already changed a couple of them, for something more suitable, which generally means with cheaper or more secure parking. That's always a high priority for me. One of my biggest bugbears with Booking.com, is the listings that say there is parking but when you dig down, it's at a public car park up the road. Not what you want with a motorcycle. It's got to be on site and we're always prepared to pay for secure parking, where available.

I've been through the routes again and tweaked where necessary and I've had a quick look at the cost of Eurotunnel, which is now about £30 more than it was when we first planned to cross in 2020. The service won't be any better though, you can bet that. The only other option would be to go across on the ferry but it takes a lot longer and the fares aren't massively different anyway. If we could get the ferry crossings and a night in a hotel for less than the tunnel, I'd consider going over the night before but that's extremely unlikely.

That's all for now.

Welcome Back

 April was the last time I posted to this blog. I don't expect you to remember but in that, you will see I said I would start to re-plan. Well, that didn't happen and only after 7 months have I been able to dedicate enough time to it. The tour will start on 20th June and finish on 19th July. Lorenzo Bertuccio, note; we shall be staying in Sermione 12th July.

I have now completed the first phase, booking the accommodation. I still had the list of hotels I booked the last time, so that was a good starting point, however, either some have closed, changed their name or in most cases, were not showing as available, so I've been forced to use alternatives. One thing that has been blatantly apparent in booking those I'd previously booked 3 or 2 years ago, is that the prices have shot up, so in some cases, that has also been a deciding factor in me choosing somewhere else to stay.

In that last post, I also said I had cut down a day by skipping an overnighter in Bratislava. I'm not sure how I intended to do that now, the upshot being, we are staying overnight in Bratislava once more. I have though, managed to cut a day out, that being the overnighter in Split. The reason for that, was purely cost. Unlike before, I just could not find anywhere available at a reasonable price for 1 night. We'll still be taking in the sights of Croatia, just not that far south anymore.

The next step will be to re-evaluate the routes and make sure the fuel stops previously identified are still valid. After that, I'll be looking at channel and Croatian ferry crossings, following that with the sightseeing ticket bookings. As I've mentioned previously, I still have a Polish attraction booking, that I have been rolling over for the last 2 years. That will need a re-date in a few weeks and maybe one more, before we actually make the trip.

I think that's all for now and brings you up to speed. Don't forget to sign up for email updates, if you haven't already and keep up with all the latest updates.

Here we go again

It seems an age ago since I first started planning this tour. It was probably only back in 2019 though. Previously known as the 'Blink and you'll miss it' tour, after postponements in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid, I have decided to rename it, The Third Time Lucky Tour.

With this summer's Italy tour just around the corner and everything in place for that, I can turn my attention to re-planning this one.

I've already taken a quick look at the route and have chopped a day off the duration, with a slight re-jigging. We'll still visit the same places, just we won't be staying overnight in Bratislava. Instead, we'll drop in on our way to Vienna. So now, I have to start looking for hotels again and getting the sightseeing venues booked up. One good thing, as I've mentioned before, the Polish attraction tickets seem to be infinitely re-dateable, so there won't be any issues there.

That's all for now.