As previously mentioned, I had a few more additional layover days to book things up for, in Vienna, Venice and Strasbourg. I'm happy to report, I have now booked up some attractions at each and got together some sort of plan for each of the days. With a second look at things I had previously identified to visit, I've had a change of heart on some and identified new things too. I don't want to overload Grizzly with too much culture, so there's a couple of more relaxing things to do, other than traipsing through some state apartments or the like.
Having got everything booked up, I'm busy now getting the itinerary together. It's nice to have a paper copy of what is planned for each day. I have a spreadsheet also, that logs everything, from the Eurotunnel crossing, to hotels and attractions, complete with costs, mileages, etc. It serves as a costs tracker as we go, so that come the end of the tour we know exactly who has paid for what and more importantly, we've both paid our share. With me booking the hotels, a lot get automatically charged to my card, so to even things up, Grizzly usually picks up the meal tabs. It worked really well last year, with just a €5 adjustment needed at tour end.
Moving away from this year, we've had some discussions about 2024. We have or will have, pretty much covered all of Western Europe, a fair amount of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, so options are fairly limited. North Africa was mentioned but we're not really sure our steeds are most suited to that environment, so we are pretty much agreed, that we shall head down to the tip of Italy again but this time, take a ferry across to Greece and see what they have to offer us. Hopefully, plenty of sun, culture, beer and giros. Maybe even a salad or two. Now that would be a novelty! š It's early days, so nothing has been totally agreed. I expect that will happen in a few weeks and then the hard work will start. I've knocked up a quick route, which gives us a riding mileage of about 3800 miles. We usually rack up 4500ish, so there's a bit to play with. Watch this space for updates on that and the realease of the new blog.
Under 40 days to go now. Might have to start thinking about what I'm packing soon.
That's all for now.
