The decision was made back in the spring this year. We would follow Grandpa's route from Barry in Wales to Shanghai using his diary as a guide. And we would do it 100 years to the day after he did the trip. The more I think about this the more exciting it is!
We googled the Trans Siberian railway, we looked in our huge world atlas and we spoke to Sonia and Ray our friends who had just come back from China and we got very excited.
We also spoke to Sonia and Ray and to Charlie and Michelle (my son and his wife) who had just returned from a big trip to Australia. Without telling them what we were up to we wanted to get some clue about how much this would all cost. I don't think they were taken in, as, once we told them of our plans they did not seem too surprised that we were going to China. They were surprised, as I continue to be, at the adventure we are setting out on next year! Fortunately we concluded that the budget we set could be met.
We also spoke to friends who take "tailor made" trips to various places in the world and having spoken to two or three companies that they recommended and who might be able to help us we chose Audleys and put our proposal to them.
When I first spoke to Chris Moore from Audleys I am not sure that he fully understood what we wanted. However giving him a list of the cities from Grandpa's diary set him off and he quickly got the bit between his teeth and gave us a draft itinerary.
I told Chris that we did not want five star travel but that we did not want to eat sandwiches all the way. He seems to have got that right too judging from the places he is suggesting that we stay. Keep following our blog and we will tell you when we get there.
Audleys don't do Europe so Chris's plans started in Moscow. (More of the bit from Barry to Moscow later) He proposed three nights in Moscow followed by four nights on the Trans Siberian Express and a stop off in Irkutsk for a couple of days. Here we can visit Lake Baikal which is the biggest fresh water lake in the world and sounds amazing. Apparently it is said that you can see it from space and, incidentally, that you cannot see the Great Wall of China.
More overnights trains and a proposal that we go to Shanghai via Beijing. From Grandpas diary we could see that he did not do this. It seems that in 1913 you could not go via that route. Grandpa went to a town called Dalian and from there took a three day boat trip to Shanghai. We can't find a boat for this bit of the trip but will take the train to Dalian and then on to Shanghai.
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