Feeling quite emotional

Today is very strange. Tony is working all day and I have cleaned the house, done the washing, finished the packing and read the paper. I wonder how Grandpa felt the day before he went?

Of course he was a 21 year old single man setting out for a destination which he would have known little about.

We can Google our route if we want to, we can see from Google Earth the places we will go to and we have guide books which tell us what to expect, how to behave so as not to offend the people whose countries we visit and the advice of many friends who have been to the places we will go.

Grandpa left his parents, brother and friends in Wales and did not have known what to expect. He would have known his route but will probably not have known anyone who had travelled it before. He would not have known when he would see his parents and family again.

He says in his diary that he sent post cards from his trip but later, once he was living in Shanghai, we read in Grannies letters "I think I will send this letter via Russia" She would have read in the North China Herald, for whom she wrote the Lady's Page, the list of ships and the routes they were taking after leaving Shanghai and would have had to decide which one to send her letters on. Or as in the case I have seen decide to send the letters by rail in a route that was the reverse of Grandpas.

We are only going for 7 weeks, we are of course leaving our children and grandchildren and friends and will miss them a lot. However we can email, Skype and if we really want to telephone home.

After all the planning and the discussing with all our long suffering family and friends we are ready to go and can't wait

Shanghai here we come!