Switzerland! Italy! Egypt! Crazy!

I am beyond excited to announce that my next major trip is less than a month away! I will be traveling, with my friend and neighbor Maria, to Switzerland, Italy and Egypt over the course of almost 16 days! This will be my longest trip ever, and definitely the first one that has included two continents. Did you hear me people?? I am going to Africa...finally! It may not be Kenya and Tanzania just yet, but it is Africa. I am beside myself with excitment!

Why the strange line up of countries? Well it all started with us talking about wanting to go to Africa. We both agreed that Egypt would be an amazing place to visit! Then, United happened to announce a sale on using airline miles to fly to Europe. Given that I have a large amount of miles saved up anyway, I couldn't pass up this deal! So we booked flights with miles to Geneva, Switzerland because it allowed us to travel on the days we needed. I've never been to Switzerland so I have absolutely nothing against seeing another country on our way to our main destination.

Currently our itenerary is something like this (not set in stone yet):

• Fly to Geneva and take the train to Milan, Italy. Stay the night and Milan.
• Fly to Cairo the next day and stay two nights in Cairo. This will definitely include trips to the famous museum and the pyramids at Giza.
• Fly to Sharm El Sheik and spend three nights at an amazing beach side resort on the Red Sea.
• Fly to Luxor and spend a few days in the Luxor/Aswan area seeing the amazing sights of southern Egypt.
• Overnight train back to Cairo. More Cairo sights before we depart Egypt. (8 nights total in Egypt)
• Late night flight to Milan. Stay overnight in Milan.
• 5 days of traveling through the region of Tuscany, including Florence and possibly making the trip over to Venice. Not sure if we are going to rent a car to do all of this or rely on trains yet.
• Train back to Geneva for a little bit sighseeing and then our flight back to D.C.

Yes, it is a ton of traveling. But we will see and do some amazing, incredible things! I hope to post from every major stop on the trip. We will see how far I get with that goal.