Not long to departure now - just 24 hours. These trips are always a long time in the planning (mainly by Ann), but it doesn't start to get exciting for either of us until the last few days before departure. There are always other things that need to be done, so not much idle mind time available. Our first flight is Auckland to Shanghai then on to Paris. This is our first long trip with Star Alliance (Air New Zealand and then Air France) a change driven by Qantas' poor performance leaving us to our own devices in Dubai on the last trip in 2016.
All trips start with a bit of a mess, otherwise known as packing, strewn about the beds. It's hard to recall exactly what you took last time. This trip is three weeks in France and then three weeks in Sweden, so there is probably a bit more climatic variation than we've usually had to accommodate.
We have a few days in Paris, and meet with Choco and Vikki later in the week. We catch a train to Beaune for a few days of wine and food tasting, then it's back up to Joigny for a week on a canal boat on the Canal de Bourgogne. We have an out and back trip rather than the one way option to Corbigny that we selected originally. Flooding damage in the canal precluded that option, so now we will travel SE to Ancy-le-Franc and then back to Joigny. Our bikes will get us to Chablis, and we'll have to report later on the rest of the features.
This is our fifth canal boating experience with Locaboat, and all have been great. In 2008 it was supposed to be Dompierre-sur-Besbre to Corbigny, but the river Loire was in flood and we couldn't cross in our Penichette 1120R Gros Bouillon. We went as far north as Nevers on the Canal Lateral a la Loire and back to Dompierre. In 2012 we did Valence-sur-Baise to Agen, mainly on the river Baise. This was the season's final week of cruising (first week in October) and we got upgraded to a Penichette 1220R Espagnette, with a bit more space to store our gear. In 2014 we were supposed to travel from Lutzelbourg to Nancy, but problems with the lift at Arzviller, meant we had to start from a little town called Hess, near Sarrebourg, again it was a Penichette 1120R Etang du Stock. In 2016 we were back in Burgundy again , this time travelling from St-Leger-Sur-Dheune to Macon on the Saone. Yet another Penichette 1120R Coeuillon carried us on that memorable trip.
After canal boating Wayne and Vikki head to Germany and hopefully (strikes permitting!) we can catch a train across to the Loire valley for seven days of walking.
Then we fly to Stockholm and spent some time on the island of Gotland, followed by a few days in Stockholm and the archipelago with Anders and Anna Frigell. After that we head north to Sundsvall and then north again to spend some time with Janne and Margareta in the wilds of Sweden. Very much looking forward to all this now.
