Sunday, January 27, 2013

Circumnavigators!




When I was sixteen my high school history teacher took a group of students around the world.  I was one of them.  It was awesome.  I love to travel.

Anyway ...

A few years ago, for some reason, my son said he wanted to go around the world.  My wife said, "you have to be at least 10 years old to go around the world."  I have no idea how she came up with this number, and I suspect she was just putting him off, so she wouldn't have to tell him no.  I mean, 10 was a few years off and he'd forget by then, right?

WRONG.

The boy is nine now, and somehow, over the past few years, "you have to be ten to go around the world" has become "we will go around the world when you're ten."  I guess that's why he and his mother came home a few days ago with a stack of travel guides from the library.  The boy has gone through a stack of post-it notes, marking sights of interest.

And I guess that's why I was online yesterday investigating airfares and thinking what an itinerary might look like.

A tentative guess:  Fly in to Dublin.  Then to London, Paris, Milan, PADOVA!, Venice, Vienna, Prague, Warsaw and Moscow.  Airfare from Moscow to Hong Kong is surprisingly reasonable.  Then some kind of ship or boat or ferry or junk or something from Hong King to Japan and then fly home.

This will all change about 400 times as we price things, bargain hunt and get taken by whims into new directions.  Frankly, it might not happen at all.  But we're looking into it in a serious way.

And while my wife and I earn a reasonable living, we ain't rich folk.  We will be traveling coach and keeping our eyes open for deals.

Anyone out there with advice?  Let's hear it.  Ways to travel cheaply, useful websites, helpful travel books, must-see attractions, European rail travel info, you name it.

7 comments:

Jerry House said...

No advice, alas, except to suggest that you get him a girlfriend, because I've been told when a boy meets a girl, take a trip around the world. Hey, hey.

"Auntie" Jake said...

I promised our son, when he was four, we would return to Disneyworld when he was 12. I kept that promise but since you practically live at Disneyworld your son thinks that is old-hat. Kids have minds like steel traps...when they want to. Take the boy (and your lovely wife) on this trip of a lifetime. Make him a trade-off promise, you and your wife can live with him when you are old and need somewhere to live because you spent all your retirement savings keeping this promise. lol

Kieran Shea said...

victor:

http://www.freighter-travel.com/

Anonymous said...

No Glasgow/Edinburgh? BAD MAN!

Marco

Anonymous said...

A lap around Epcot on his 10th birthday won't cut it, eh?

I love my wife dearly and truly believe I married up, but one big issue we've always had is that I love to travel and she hates to travel. We've been able to compromise on a few trips but I could never pull off anything like this with her. Nor my son. He seems to be a homebody like his mommy.

I still hold out hope for my daughter though. Maybe she'll be my travel buddy.

Gerard Saylor said...

My son's tenth birthday on Friday involved cake and LEGOs.

Unknown said...

Superb! Generally I never read whole articles but the way you wrote online shopping sites, suits for women, cheap wedding dresses this information is simply amazing and this kept my interest in reading and I enjoyed it.