L'introduction/Introduction

About five months ago B and I decided to head to Europe.  Tickets were duly booked with only certain destination being Zürich where one B’s friends was living.  No other decision was made for some time as I was not certain about where we should go.  Since we were close to Germany one thought was to spend some time there.  However, apart from booking a flight to Zürich we held off on a decision.

Later B met with her friend Mary and she suggested we should visit Jungfrau which was not far from Zürich and accessible by train.  Decision was made and the next stage of travel planned. 

I had been watching Masterchef, The Professionals and in one of the episodes they took the contestants to Alba in Northern Italy.  I looked it up on the map and made the suggestion that we go there for a few days. B agreed and that was next part of the trip planned.  We needed to pick up a car from somewhere and Geneva was the appropriate place to do it.  There was a hiatus while I pondered the next part of the trip.  Bev had indicated a strong desire to have cycling as a part of our trip and I very much liked the idea too.  I have always wanted to go to the Loire Valley and a quick search of the internet suggested that it would be a brilliant place to go riding.  There are lots of cycle paths, especially along the banks of the Loire, plus there are vineyards and lots of Chateaux to see. 

Initially my thought was to do a cycle tour where some company would book accommodation and take our bags to each destination. However, the more I looked into it the costs seemed out of proportion to the service provided.  When all seemed too much I had my Eureka moment! Why not I asked myself base ourselves in one place and visit all the places we wanted to go to from there.  I discovered that the trains would happily take bikes so if we decide somewhere is too far we can get on a train. 

After having made some of those decisions the rest of the trip came together very nicely courtesy of AirBnB largely.  Apart from the places mentioned we will also be going to Burgundy for a few nights.  

I hope to write a little bit in French so that I can practice the language  but it will primarily be in English.

Enjoy the blog.