The Day of Departure

It's still dark and our flight is not until 10:10 am ... Arriving at the airport and checking in three hours before take off is the cause of this pre-dawn arising. All packed last night except for the toiletries kit. All the baggage complies with all of the airlines' allowances. We are five carriers for the 10 flights - 13, if you count Aegean hubbing at Athens between Rhodes and Crete as well as Crete and Santorini! There are over 20 hotel bookings and seven cars rented. The 1977 trip year on the road was nothing but backpack, travel cheques and airline ticket. How things have changed?!

Off to Singapore today to stay with friends and former colleagues who teach at the American International School in Singapore. We are laying over for two days. Don't want to rush into the jaws of a vacation. Anyway, A Singapore sling in at the Long Bar at Raffles seems like a civilised way to start the journey.

Leaving the house in the hands of Kristian and Julianne who are moving in to looked after Holi, the Kelpie/Jack Russell dynamo who keeps us company.

Need to get up and go - only five minutes until the appointed time. More to come

Three Days before Departure

The airlines' (Singapore and Lufthansa) respective websites encourage hope that the planned trip to Germany, Turkey, Greece and the USA will go ahead more or less as planned. Eyjafjallajokull - a real challenge to pronounce - has certainly taken centre stage in Lyn and my lives as we have nearly three months of overseas travel planned and the likelihood of enormous complications being created as the ash billowed from Hephaestus' little Icelandic chimney. -What is the Norse god of volcanoes called? Is it another of Thor's portfolios? More likely responsibility for volcanoes falls within Loki's brief as eruptions are at best a form of mischief ...

We have proceeded as if no disruption to our plans would occur, intending to begin on Thursday contacting Flight Centre and/or airlines directly to determine if we needed to adjust to the travel chaos that has been reported in the press, on TV and on the Internet. Friends are scheduled to fly to Europe today, so if they are flying with Qantas, they will be either staying home or making alternate arrangements.

For now, we will continue to pack, make arrangements for our affairs to be attended by Kristian and keep our fingers crossed. If we get away, I will make more postings about our travels. NB this is my first ever blog.