Ideas for the trip

We've saved enough to be travelling around Europe for about 12 months, depending on the current exchange rate with the euro. This type of journey has many interpretations, the Grand Tour, a search for the sun, spiritual journeys etc: We hope to find our own way, now and then overlapping with the journeys of others.

During the year we want to spend most of our time in the warmer parts of Europe and get to see some of the beautiful places Europe has to offer; so we'll be concentrating on National Parks and other protected areas. We hope this will give us a chance to see how different countries manage their valued landscapes and how the population use these spaces, as well as providing us with opportunities to see some exceptional wildlife and plants.

While we are away we also have other plans for self-improvement: Anthony wants to improve his skills on the harmonica: Carol would like to improve her plant identification skills and will record observations of the trip in a field notebook; a genre familiar to any Geography student.

Although we are fairly self-sufficient, it would be lovely to meet some nice people on the way too and we have a pile of novels that have been on our to be read pile for some time that we hope to finish.