I departed Regina for the 18 day European Encounter tour which I had much anticipated with a maximum 29X20X10 suitcase containing 20 kgs of weight, and a Roots carry on shoulder bag and my Roots camera bag. I also had a backpack included in my suitcase. Time would go to tell that I overpacked... I brought: 3 pairs of shoes (runners, sandals and going out shoes.) This was stupid. No more than one pair of comfortable walking shoes, and a pair of going out shoes was required. I also packed a rain jacket, a fleece, a sweater, about 4 pairs of pants, 4 pairs of shorts, pjs, swim suit (forgot a towel and ended up shelling out many euro later for one), toiletry stuff, and a number of t shirts, skirts and dress up shirts... Time would tell that there was very little opportunity to do laundry except in the hotel room sink. Bringing laundry detergent was a good idea... The weather would also vary considerably from rainy and around 15 celsius to hot over 30 celsius. A mix of clothes was therefore important. Maybe not quite so many however. In hindsite my suitcase was too large, but I am glad I had wheels!
There was not a lot of leg room on the plane. They did feed us decent airplane food, and a snack or two. To avoid jet lag I stayed up most of the flight, but didn't much enjoy 2 of our movies "Starsky and Hutch", or I can't remember the name of the other one.. The good one "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton" I had just seen and did nap through. We watched our progess on the big screen. Over Greenland. Finally over England. Finally after 9 hours and a bit, touching down at Gatwick. And I score my first ever passport stamp. YES... I really am a traveller now..
After picking up our baggage, we attempted to discover the best way to make it to the Contiki hotels. We asked 3 different people and received conflicting advice. Finally we decided to take the train, however ended up getting on the wrong one for the one we paid for. This simply resulted in a 4 pound upgrade when the ticket checker strolled through. Having had that incident, instead of taking the tube from Victoria Station we decided to cab... This ended up being a very time consuming venture as by the time we got to the cab stop there were about 20 or 30 people in front of us, and we ended up getting a cab eventually, but did provide a small tip to the guy flagging the cabs down. So after about a 12 Pound cab ride we arrived at the hotel. Yes, it was one of those funny looking British cabs. Wierd to be driving on the wrong side of the road. Anyway, finally we arrived at the Royal National.
We learned you had to take your handy contiki info down to the contiki basement to get your form signed before you could check into the hotel. This required lugging your heavy suitcase down the stairs, and back up again... This seemed difficult (however- by the end of the tour, we'd be used to it). So, we checked in. The room was pretty bare bones. Then we went for a stroll- used the contiki basement internet to email people that we arrived safely, and strolled around noting things such as the distinctive telephone booths. We then found a handy little convenience store and picked up some supper. By this time, we were tired and strolled back to the hotel. Tired from travel and the our transportation difficulties, we were ready for bed, and a little more than ready to turn around and go back home. But things would get better on day 2.
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Ireland
Looking back