European Holiday

Some months ago (back at the end of May, in fact), we booked a trip to Europe for the fall. We'd been planning this trip for a couple of months, ever since my sister-in-law L. and her husband M. moved to Luxembourg City earlier this year to take up new jobs in banking law. It has been four long years since I've been back to Europe, and a return is long overdue.

We have planned a two-week trip from 21 September - 5 October, flying with Condor (Lufthansa's charter wing) from Halifax to Frankfurt, direct! (Luckily for us, an awful lot of Germans seem to enjoy holidaying in Nova Scotia.) We arrive in Frankfurt very early on 22 September, and from there will take the TGV straight to Paris. I have never been on a high-speed train before, so that should be interesting. Our routing is direct, and will take us from the main station in Frankfurt to the Gare de l'Est in central Paris in under four hours.

In gay Paree, we have rented this apartment in the 4th arrondissement (a snip at 700 euro for the week!). As this will be my third trip there (and A.'s second), and we have already seen and done the big touristic sites, we are planning a very leisurely week of toodling about, sitting in cafes, strolling the boulevards, and doing whatever takes our fancy. For the last two nights, we will be joined by L. and M. (hence the rental of a slightly bigger apartment, with a pullout couch for them!). We'll all have a little time in Paris together, before heading up to Luxembourg City on 29 September. We'll stay with L. and M. for the following week. We don't have too many specific plans for this part of the trip - luckily, L. and M. have a car, so we will do some sightseeing around Luxembourg and probably in Belgium and Germany too, since they are so close by.

This will be my first trip to Europe in the autumn (I've always done springtime before - as a student, travelling anytime after the start of September was obviously a no-go). Happily, it is of course wine harvest time, and the Moselle Valley of Luxembourg is scattered with fine wineries where one may stop in for a tour and une petite dégustation. Unhappily, I can't enjoy a single drop, since I am with child. However, I've decided that I may instead just have to master the "swish'n'spit" method of wine tasting. Just because I can't drink the wine, doesn't mean I can't taste the wine, right?

This is shaping up to be an awfully good trip, I must say. However, I am all too aware that it is, of course, dependent on my good health and there being no major problems with my pregnancy before departure. Have an appointment with my GP in mid-September, so I guess I will know then for sure if I am truly able to get on that plane or not. Crossing my fingers - and have booked trip cancellation insurance, just in case the axe falls!