The French writer, Jules Verne, created the story about Phileas Fogg circumnavigating the world in 80 days back in 1872. Inspired by that fictional feat, Mick and I are about to embark on our very first around the world trip, and I must admit to being a little worried that we may have bitten off more than we can chew!!

Our trip will take us to 5 different countries and take 53 days. We have designed our itinerary around particular wine regions that we want to visit, and have added a few places we have really wanted to see in between our wine tasting adventures.

Our first stop will be Tokyo, where Mick will be my tour guide as he has been there twice before. The last time was less than 2 years ago, so hopefully he can remember his way around the second-most-populated capital in the world. (I doubt it though, as he gets disoriented very easily in our home city of Brisbane). After I read that the main part of Tokyo city boasts a population of almost 14 million, I decided that he will definitely be carrying an AirTag!

I must admit I have never had a yen to visit Japan (no pun intended) – but this trip will give me a chance to explore the capital, and perhaps I will want to go back to see other parts of the country at a later date.

Our trip will comprise 5 international flights, 4 domestic flights, 2 train trips and 2 bus trips. I have booked 3 rental cars (Italy, France and America), and hope that my good luck with hire cars continues on this trip. I have also booked a few one day excursions here and there, but other than that we are on our own itinerary. So what could go wrong?? Hopefully nothing.

Our final country will be America, and it was only after I had booked the tickets that I discovered we will arrive on a Tuesday in early November – but luckily it will be the week after the election – Harris or Trump? We are pleased our stay is confined to the north western side of the country which should be okay with whatever happens in the election.

We had initially planned to visit the Napa Valley but changed our minds, and our plans, to visit a less well-known, but reportedly excellent wine region. That added one extra domestic flight for us but we are both quite excited about that leg of the trip now.

One very exciting part of our trip will be when our friends from Dubbo (NSW) will join up with us in Europe for five days. They spent ten days with us in France in January 2019 when we were house sitting and living in France for the year. I am sure we will have a wonderful time again, albeit in a very different part of Europe.

We specifically decided to travel rather late in the year, knowing the weather will be quite cold in some of our destinations. But, we wanted to avoid the peak crowds and the very hot weather of the summer months, not to mention the crowds travelling to and from the Olympics. Hopefully that will have all settled down by the time we get to Europe.

My goal will be to write a little ‘something’ on most days. Hopefully you can join us on this adventure.