Two Days Away From Europe and Africa '09

In almost exactly 48 hours, I will be packing up the car (well, someones car...hoping to find a ride to IAD) to head for Geneva, Switzerland. There have been a handful of changes since the last time I posted. Some by choice, some not so much.

We decided that our time in Egypt was being spread too thin and that we would be too rushed with not enough time to really take in all of the amazing sights. So, as painful as it was, we canceled the reservation (which was made using points of course) at the amazing Marriott resort on the Red Sea and cut the beach part of the trip out. We will instead be spreading those three nights across Aswan (2) and Cairo (1 more). I think we will be very happy about this decision in the end as it allows us to spend time in southern Egypt and see some of the most amazing ruins, temples, etc that Egypt has to offer. We also hope to include a day trip to Abu Simbel from Aswan. Look it up! It also means we will be about 40 miles or so from the Sudan border! And last week the temperate was 110 there.

Just recently, as in yesterday, we were notified by Alitalia that they had changed both of our flights rather drastically. This has really screwed us up. Our flight from Milan to Cairo now leaves in the early morning instead of the afternoon. We had planned on staying in Geneva and taking the train over in the morning to the airport in Milan. Now we have to cancel our hotel in Geneva (paying a penalty of course) and lose the ability to relax and see Geneva for the first day. We have to get a train to Milan the same day that we get to Europe - it makes everything much more of a rush. Also, the flight back to Milan was moved from late night to early afternoon. This also screws up a few things and means we now have to spend most of a day in Milan - which of all the places to spend time in Italy, it is not on the top 100.

Well, these are little setbacks that will not hold me down. This is going to be the longest trip I've ever taken and I can't believe it is only two days away!!

We finally picked a villa in Tuscany to stay in, right outside of Florence on a vineyard in the Tuscan hills. This is really going to be two amazing trips in one. I will have tons of pictures, videos and blog posts (hopefully) to share with everyone. God I love traveling.