Paris

Only one day in paris, a quick stop-over, on my way to Monaco to catchup with family.

London, Berlin and Paris

After the USA I went to Berlin, visited the "Berlin Story", saw the wall, went on a tour and visited the Memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe and Hitler's unmarked grave.

Also went to a christmas market, where they had the usual Glühwein and a much more unusual ice slide..

Berlin was fun, I highly recommend the New Berlin free walking tour and their pub crawl after!

Avanti

First stop was Auckland in New Zealand. Mostly raining. Managed to catch my flight to LAX.

Found my first night hotel using a cheap hotel finder: hotwire.com

Met up with very old friends Dave, Cam and Cathy. Cam drove Dave and I to vegas, where we indulged in an excellent cocktail at the star-trek themed "Q Bar" at the Hilton. We shared a "Warp Core" cocktail - a huge 10 shot bowl of booze with dry ice added for effect.



We also went to a very amusing comedy show called spamalot and did some considerable walking about looking at all the "upsized" buildings and architecture.

Two more days to go in the USA, then off to London..

Bon Voyage Tonight - The Grand, Sydney

Drinks tonight for anyone in Sydney who would like to have a quick beer.


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Birthday drinks in London December 12th

If you are in London on December the 12th, it would be great to see you for a beer. Current plans are to meet up at 1920 for a few quiet beverages and some food at around 6ish. Here is a map. It's at 19-20 Great Sutton St, London. See you there!

The first itinerary

Updated: I'm staying in Auckland for a day, but otherwise unchanged.

First attempt at an itinerary, any thoughts? Suggestions? I think I'll stay in NZ for a day or two if I can. I wanted to make it to Mexico or Costa Rica while in North America, but I'm thinking of having a Birthday get-together in London on the 12th of December, so I won't have time.

NZ104	WED 05 DEC	SYDNEY to AUCKLAND	1130	1630	ECONOMY	CONFIRMED
						E-TICKET
NZ006	THU 06 DEC	AUCKLAND to LOS ANGELES	1915	1010	ECONOMY	CONFIRMED
UA930	TUE 11 DEC	LOS ANGELES to LONDON (HEATHROW)	0955	0655	ECONOMY	CONFIRMED
		Arrives WED 12 DEC
LX2807	TUE 15 JAN	GENEVA to ZURICH	1020	1115	ECONOMY	CONFIRMED
LX146	TUE 15 JAN	ZURICH to DELHI	1230	0020	ECONOMY	CONFIRMED
		Arrives WED 16 JAN
TG316	SAT 26 JAN	DELHI to BANGKOK	2200	0330	ECONOMY	CONFIRMED
		Arrives SUN 27 JAN
TG993	FRI 15 FEB	BANGKOK to SYDNEY	1725	0635	ECONOMY	CONFIRMED
		Arrives SAT 16 FEB

This is a Star Alliance mileage based round the world fare. Under 26,000 miles so only $3500 including taxes. One world's round the world fare comes in at $4500, so Star Alliance is better value.

Trailfinders are a great travel agent

Trailfinders were a real find, if you'll pardon the pun.

They were far more helpful than the other travel agent I tried. They were more knowledgeable, more passionate about travel and saved me around $800 in charges as a result. I think it is a case of finding an agent that has done Round the World bookings many times before.