A wedding, a toddler and a less than simple plan.

[LadyC]

A save the date received in August last year for a friend's wedding on the island of Muhu in Estonia set the planning train in motion. It has resulted in an 8 country itinerary, a few just pit stops whilst others are more extended and relaxed over 4 and 1/2 weeks. This is the first European trip for the gentleman and myself since our honeymoon in 2012 and is also the first European visit for MasterC.

Our journey is as follows:


MEL-SIN-CDG SQ F

CDG-HEL AY J

HEL-TLL Lindaline ferry

TLL-HEL-PRG AY Y and J

PRG-AMS KLM J

AMS-MUC KLM J

MUC-ZRH LH Y

ZRH-SIN SQ F

SIN-MEL SQ F

Our journey commences in a couple of weeks, so any tips or recommendations for our journey are most welcome! I wanted to take the opportunity now to start the report as I know that I will quickly run out of time as our departure date closes in on us.

 

[love_the_life]

Brave lassie but sure it will be a fantastic trip. Looking forward to reading along.

 

[amaroo]

We're in - can't wait! The whole family is looking forward to photos and updates.

The itinerary looks wonderful!

 

[bwhouse]

Looks like an awesome trip, can't wait to read more about it. Enjoy SQ suites!!

 

[kermatu]

Also looking forward to this. Great that you are finishing with SQ F!

 

[VPS]

Sounds wonderful - subscribed - loved Tallinn

 

[Pushka]

You never know we may even cross paths in Tallin. We are off to the Baltics in a couple of weeks also. I would have loved to have read your TR in advance as prep. C'est la vie.
Enjoy!

 

[LadyC]

Brave lassie but sure it will be a fantastic trip. Looking forward to reading along.

We have done a few Asian trips with MasterC but this is a real step up in terms of travel for him. Fingers crossed we get our time zones sorted quickly because I would hate to stay on Melbourne time the whole trip :O

We're in - can't wait! The whole family is looking forward to photos and updates.

The itinerary looks wonderful!

The whole family?! No pressure there I think there might be some interesting accommodation included in this report for you but not so sure about the restaurants.

Also looking forward to this. Great that you are finishing with SQ F!

I know - unfortunately currently on an overnight flight but are waitlisted on the daytime one to maximise enjoyment.

You never know we may even cross paths in Tallin. We are off to the Baltics in a couple of weeks also. I would have loved to have read your TR in advance as prep. C'est la vie.
Enjoy!

I think your cruise ship will be a bit bigger than the ferry we are catching - I will wave to you as we go past. I've got all my tips from Ozmatt's report from last year - lots of great info there.

 

[Major]

Great looking trip ahead for the family...enjoy

 

[LadyC]

The less than simple plan - Part 1

The gentleman and I enjoyed some honeymoon time in Paris so were happy to head back there again. Luckily for us SQ also flies the A380 there so my first task was to lock in award seats for our journey to Europe. This was done last year and unfortunately we were unable to book a straight fly through so have an 8 hour stop over in SIN before we board our connecting flight to CDG.

To ensure we got seats, we booked one-way awards with SQ. With the new Senators lounge having opened in ZRH and availability out of there better than CDG, I booked our flights home from ZRH with a pitstop in SIN for 24 hours. About 4 weeks in Europe in total, with the first 10 days/nights allocated to Paris and Estonia.

I did a bit of research on Paris hotels but came to the conclusion that if I wanted to be able to swing a cat, I would probably need to rent an apartment instead. Friends had recommended an apartment rental service that they had used a few years back and there were plenty of options to choose from. My preference was to be located in the 7eme, with a proper king size bed and air conditioning. So I ended up booking an apartment on Rue Saint Dominique. We will be located close to the gardens and there is supposedly a view of the Eiffel Tower. We also have friends who will be in Paris at the same time, staying very close by and who are also attending the wedding.

 

[amaroo]

I did a bit of research on Paris hotels but came to the conclusion that if I wanted to be able to swing a cat, I would probably need to rent an apartment instead. Friends had recommended an apartment rental service that they had used a few years back and there were plenty of options to choose from. My preference was to be located in the 7eme, with a proper king size bed and air conditioning. So I ended up booking an apartment on Rue Saint Dominique. We will be located close to the gardens and there is supposedly a view of the Eiffel Tower. We also have friends who will be in Paris at the same time, staying very close by and who are also attending the wedding.

Excellent location! 2011 we rented an apartment in the same area - we were on Rue de Grenelle one block from Rue Cler - great memories.

For an excellent local - I can highly recommend Fontaine de Mars La Fontaine de Mars – Restaurant Paris | Un site utilisant WordPress

 

[amaroo]

Just remembered a few more rippers.....

Restaurant Philippe Excoffier Restaurant Philippe Excoffier

Le Florimond LE FLORIMOND

 

[Magpie10]

Just a bit of useless information, wandering around Monte Carlo and walked past Escoffier's home, just love it when you come across gems like this in your travels...there you go a bit of trivia for the day....

 

[Welsh-Kiwi]

Boarding pass stamped!

 

[OZDUCK]

Sounds like a fun trip. Talinn is very nice - we preferred it to Helsinki.

I am sure that you are aware that the Euro Business on Finnair's smaller planes is underwhelming. Ecomomy seats & legroom with an empty middle seat. And if our flight from Dublin 5 days ago is any guide the food is IKEA cafe level. With a De Bortolli red.

 

[LadyC]

Sounds like a fun trip. Talinn is very nice - we preferred it to Helsinki.

I am sure that you are aware that the Euro Business on Finnair's smaller planes is underwhelming. Ecomomy seats & legroom with an empty middle seat. And if our flight from Dublin 5 days ago is any guide the food is IKEA cafe level. With a De Bortolli red.

From my experience, Eurobusiness is generally underwhelming! Not expecting too much - some of the tickets are award seats and others, the business class was only marginally more than the economy fares. I am more interested in it from the perspective of priority check-in, boarding and luggage - although we will see if we get any of that!

 

[LadyC]

The less than simple plan - Part 2

So with the first part of the itinerary planned, we were still left with 2.5 weeks of wandering Europe. We didn't want to lose too much time travelling between locations and we didn't want it to be too hot, so that ruled out Spain and Italy. London was crossed off the list as I have been a number of times and the gentleman is English so he wasn't really interested. We haven't been to anywhere that was considered Eastern Bloc (except for East Germany that I visited as a teenager) and as I have heard and seen plenty about Prague that was interesting to me, Prague was added to the itinerary. Amsterdam is another city that the gentleman and I have never visited before so after a little research I thought there would be enough for us to do over a few days so that city was added to the itinerary.

Originally, I wanted to make sure we had a resort style break where we could stop and relax and just hang out together for a while. All that city visiting is not so fun for toddlers. At one stage, I was eyeing off visiting the Greek islands but it meant we were going to lose too much time flying there and back. In doing some research, I came across a hotel in Germany that seemed like it could be our ‘resort’ break. Multiple restaurants on site, spas and swimming pools, a kids playground and kids club and situated down in the Bavarian mountains so we could spend lots of time outdoors relaxing and running around (for MasterC anyway). So we will spend 1 week in the Bavarian mountains relaxing and possibly day trip across to Innsbruck as well as a local town or two.

 

[LadyC]

The less than simple plan - Part 3

After Bavaria, we will fly out of MUC across to ZRH and overnight at the airport as the flight leaves at 11.45am and we just didn't want to risk missing it if we took a flight from MUC first thing that morning. We arrive in SIN very early in the morning and will spend part of the day doing our usual SIN activities - visiting Banana Leaf Apolo and going on the Singapore Flyer. I thought a SIN stopover may help with the time zone changes - we will see. We fly back home the next day on an evening flight but have waitlisted on the morning flight as I much prefer the day flight but it wasn't available when we booked our award tickets.

So how does HEL fit into this trip? When I booked award flights from CDG-HEL, there no awards from there to TLL. Waiting for further information on the wedding details, I held off booking the flight from HEL-TLL. A month later, when I decided I should move on it, the cheapest flights for the 35 minute flight were approximately $400 AUD pp. So based on that, I decided we could overnight in HEL and catch the ferry across to Tallinn the next day. Less rushed and more opportunities for MasterC to be able to move around and not be stuck in an airplane seat. And another city and country to add to the list – tick!

 

[rogerkambah]

Looking forward to this.

 

[GarrettM]

The less than simple plan - Part 2

I have heard and seen plenty about Prague that was interesting to me, Prague was added to the itinerary. Amsterdam is another city that the gentleman and I have never visited before so after a little research I thought there would be enough for us to do over a few days so that city was added to the itinerary.

Originally, I wanted to make sure we had a resort style break where we could stop and relax and just hang out together for a while. All that city visiting is not so fun for toddlers. At one stage, I was eyeing off visiting the Greek islands but it meant we were going to lose too much time flying there and back. In doing some research, I came across a hotel in Germany that seemed like it could be our ‘resort’ break. Multiple restaurants on site, spas and swimming pools, a kids playground and kids club and situated down in the Bavarian mountains so we could spend lots of time outdoors relaxing and running around (for MasterC anyway). So we will spend 1 week in the Bavarian mountains relaxing and possibly day trip across to Innsbruck as well as a local town or two.

This sounds just about perfect really. Heaps of things to do in and around Amsterdam. Evening dinner cruises are nice. Plenty of museums for the adults, although the Sex Museum may not be your thing. Some parks for kids, although you'll need to be wary of MasterC and the canals. Food is fantastic.

Prague also a lot of fun, and a few days chilling in Bavaria sounds very nice.