6 months to go!

Today is the "6 months to go" mark and I can hardly contain my excitement! I've really got the ball rolling on quite a few plans this week.

Since we have started planning our trip, Danny has made it his weekly duty to read the travel section in the Sunday paper.  His diligence has paid off! About a month ago he read an article on biking in the Netherlands. We knew we were going to go to the Netherlands (I am Dutch after all) but we really weren't sure on what to do! Well, this article explained the terrain in the Netherlands is very flat and therefore very easy to bike. Most of the residents in Holland ride bikes rather than drive to work and other daily activities. And believe it or not, there are more bikes than there are cars and more bike paths than roads! Danny and I love the outdoors so it seemed like a biking tour of Holland would be perfect for us. I did some research to find the most reputable company and decided to go with http://www.tulipcycling.com/. They were able to send us a customized itinerary for a self-guided tour and make our hotel reservations at our stopping points. We'll be biking about 40 miles/day and will get to see the Dutch countryside, windmills, and waterways. Before we leave for the bike trip we will spend a day in Amsterdam where I am hoping to stop by the home of Anne Frank.

I also made progress on our plans in Ireland. Our flight from the US is directly to Dublin and before we leave for the Netherlands we will spend a couple days exploring there. While I am excited to see Dublin, I am even more excited for our last stop before return to the United States in Westport, Ireland. After visiting all our other stops we will come back to Ireland and head to Westport. My good friend Jessica has an aunt and uncle there and she has been kind enough to loan them to me so we can experience another side of Ireland. Westport is on the western seaboard and from googling it looks to be the perfect, quaint place to experience the true Irish culture. Jessica's uncle, Olcan, is a folk musician as well as a tour guide for photographers (can you say PERFECT?). I have been e-mailing with his wife, Shari, and can already feel their Irish hospitality! I think this will be the perfect close to our European adventure!

With these details starting to fall into place it was clearly time to stop using random scraps of paper and really get organized. Danny and I have created a spreadsheet to help us track where we'll be and when, and how we are getting there. We still have to book all of our hotels (minus the ones included in the Netherlands bike trip) as well as most of our flights. I am using tripadvisor to read up on hotels and also doing a lot of research on the different public transportation options throughout Europe. If anyone has any tips... please feel free to let me know!!