elvira

YeeeHaaaa (Arizona Territory for woo hoo - usually accompanied by firing matching pair of pearl-handled six-shooters into the air)....leave for London/Paris/Florence in less than four months, if I'm not in jail for homicide (my travel companions are getting on the one nerve I have left). <BR> <BR>Sounds like fun, Kavey! I'm really trying to think of a stupid question to ask so you slap your forehead "oh those silly Americans", but, sadly, I have no idea where Botswana is, so no way to make up a question.

chris

<BR>First trip to Europe !! <BR>We leave in 3 weeks !! <BR>...but first, 4 days in Mexico City visiting friends, then on to: <BR> <BR>Paris, Florence, Murren, Brugges, Amsterdam <BR> <BR>Each hotel we booked was directly a result of recommendations on this board. <BR>Thanks for all the help.. <BR>

Christie

I'm going to Ireland May 2-12, 2002 for my dream trip: horseback riding around Counties Galway and Clare, which are my ancestral homeland! I'm already excited!

lisa

Kavey -- I am so excited for you -- Botswana is on my short list of places that I want to go in the next several years & I'm saving up my frequent flier miles with that goal in mind. I hope you will post a trip report when you get back & look forward to reading it & living vicariously through you... <BR> <BR>As for my own plans, BOO HOO for my trip to Paris & Bruges being over (although looking at the photos makes me Woo Hoo all over again!). <BR> <BR>WOO HOO -- going to Italy at the end of August (Tuscany, Amalfi coast & Rome -- can't wait!)!

ALW

Woo hoo! If all goes well, I'm off to Malta in Feb. 2002! Can't wait to see the Kelb al Fenechin action in its native land <BR> <BR>PS -- don't know if you were serious or not, but Botswana is in Africa (http://www.newafrica.com/travelguide...sp?CountryID=7)

Diane

Woo Hoo Woo Hoo! I am 2/3s finished putting pictures from our 3-week vacation in Italy in an album. I need to buy another album for the rest...34 rolls of film cost a lot to develop but it was WORTH EVERY PENNY! Even shots that didn't make the "cut" for the album are pretty wonderful.

Kavey

Wow!!! <BR>I hadnt expected this to become such a lively thread... its so great to share the excitement... and I want to wish all of you happy travels too... <BR> <BR>I will def report back on the safari on my return, I have already purchased a diary/ note book to record my usual anal impressions as well as my more poetic thoughts (if I have any). <BR> <BR>Elvira, as for those stoopid questions, I am suuuuure I have asked a number in my time here... like the Gomer Pyle one, above... bet you Americans are all slapping foreheads at me right now thinking "How can she not know who/ what Gomer Pyle is???" <BR> <BR>Am just about to go home... doing 9 - 6 for a couple of days this week so I can do 9 - 3 on Friday without using more leave and get going to the airport... <BR> <BR>Tonight is the Packing. <BR>Tomorrow is the Panicking (and more Woo Hooing) <BR> <BR>Friday is the GOING!!!! <BR> <BR>Martha, as for the whole thing about almost looking forward to getting back to plan the next one, even at the same time as being excited about the upcoming one, I am RIGHT THERE WITH YOU!!! <BR> <BR>x x x <BR> <BR>Kavey

kk

Wooohoooo, Kavey. Your thread has made me feel very good about this collection of traveling fodorites, and sometimes we need to remember we are so great, when we are busy being great to ourselves. <BR> <BR>As for my woohoo travel plans, I am trying hard to make it to Germany at Christmastime but it's not a done deal yet, so please keep your fingers (toes and eyes and whatever else you can cross) crossed for me so I can get back over there.

carolyn

Woo Hoo for me, Kavey; 48 days to retirement and 87 days to my four-week trip to England, Scotland, Wales, and N. and S. Ireland. My husband said last night that he would like more trips in North America, but it is my mission in life to broaden his horizons. Happy Safari! Good thread.

Kavey

Thanks to everyone for sharing... and it's been great to remember what a diverse group this is, not only geographically but in terms of where we are in life... <BR> <BR>Carolyn, hope the retirement goes well, my mum retired last day of May and is currently in US, about to go meet my sister in Galapagos Islands... she will make the most of retirement as I am sure you will. <BR> <BR>But wont anyone tell me who Gomer Pyle is????? <BR> <BR>Kavey

elvira

ok, no one will admit they know who Gomer Pyle is, but I will: <BR> <BR>Jim Nabors played this character on the Andy Griffith Show, then a spinoff evolved called "Gomer Pyle, MC" about this dufus in the USMC. Here's a website so you can really get the feel for it: <BR>http://timvp.com/gomer.html <BR>

Ariel

Kavey - no idea who Gomer Pyle is, but I did want to do a big YAH EH! (Canadian for Woo Hoo!) I leave in 81/2 days for Turkey to go get my daughter, who has just turned 2 (without us)! She has been in Turkey with her grandparents for 2 months. I am having a REALLY hard time waiting. <BR> <BR>Plus I get to spend a week on the Med in my in-laws' summer house - life will be hard, given that wine over there is now $2 CND a bottle (thats mere pennies in U.S. dollars!) My grandmotherand my mother are joingin me - 4 generations of women on holiday together??!!

Kavey

Elvira, now you have me scared... is it just that web site that makes that series look soooo bad or is it sooo bad! <BR> <BR>It looks like a bad remake of Bilcoe and that was bad enough at times... (though I admit to occasional giggles in occasional episodes!!!) <BR> <BR>Kavey <BR> <BR>PS Ariel 4 generations together is great... We had fun in India in 1998 when my gran organised a huge family festival to commemorate her husband, my grandfather, who had died 25 years previous, and there were 4 generations of Guptas there. <BR> <BR>Pete, having never been to India before, let alone surrounded by mad babbling relatives who all expected him to remember who they were, was somewhat bemused by the whole thing. <BR> <BR>That and the fact that my family were on average 5 foot 6 inches tall, including the men, give or take an inch or two, and Pete is 6 foot 6 inches and ginger!!!!

stacey

Wicked woo hooo from Central Mass. 4 weeks from tomorrow I'm on my way back to Germany,18 days in Heidelberg. I'll be there for work, but three weekends are ALL mine. Just call me day-tripper...... <BR> <BR>I'm on my own this time.... anyone want to join me? <BR> <BR>Now, if I can just get back on the A6 with no mishaps, I'll be just fine......

John

WooHoo department: Getting close to dropping the old new pence on a mid-winter (northern hemisphere, summer in the Antipodes) freighter cruise from Papeete through the Marquesas for a couple of weeks, then down to New Zealand for a couple more. Had originally planned to go on a cruise from Italy down through the Suez Canal to Reunion, Mauritius and other Indian Ocean islands, ending in Madagascar or Kenya, but was reminded that that’s when the weather’s the hottest, rainiest and most humid, also high frequency of cyclones, which would make three weeks on a freighter even more interesting that it already would be. Later, babe. <BR> <BR>BooHoo department: Our meager summer holidays (Sacramento for a family event, not much of a woohoo at all) just got snuffed by a must-do business meeting, transforming a blessed week away from work into a 24 hour “seagull” trip on the weekend. (Swoop, sit, squawk, s**t, fly away again.) Good news alternative: Edinburgh friends coming this way in Sept./Oct., with their party hats on, ready for Seattle’s first baseball World Series. San Shin! <BR>

Linda

Kavey: Gomer Pyle is the reason I go to Europe on vacation instead of visiting my relatives. He actually makes them look pretty bright. Ha, see you learn something new every day. When you come in S.F. we will teach you about other popular American sitcoms like the one with the talking car and the talking horse. In the words of the immortal Yakoff Smirnov: "What a country!"

Amy

Just plain "whoooooo" about last week's <BR>"vacation"--a week in the Outer Banks with 14 under-13's and just two other adults! Beautiful weather, "horsies", and sunset views, but a really big whoo-hooo for two weeks in Sintra, Portugal, in July ALL BY MYSELF! <BR>Thanks, Kavey, for a great thread!

Judy

Just found out this afternoo: going to Iceland next Monday.

Jim

A BIG yeah haw (I'm Southern) to just returning from almost a month in Italy with a weekend in Malta thrown in. The trip began in Sicily with a bicycling trip with Ciclismo Classico to Sicily and the Aeolian Isles - fantastic! <BR> The weekend on a motorbike in Malta was hair-raising and very interesting. I even had some "Maltese Moonshine" from a farmer selling from a cart. <BR> The Cinque Terre with Santa Margherita and Portovenere thrown in was absolutely fabulous. <BR> A short jaunt to Venice topped it all off. <BR> I just decided on a bike trip in Nova Scotia for next month; followed by leading a bicycle ride of the 469 mile Blue Ridge Parkway Sept.24 - Oct 2. Anyone interested in joining the ride, please e-mail me directly. <BR> Thinking of South Africa for next year.

Lara

WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!!! <BR> <BR>I am HONEYMOONING in Rome, Florence and Paris in October, and can hardly stand the wait!!! <BR> <BR>WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO <BR>WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO <BR>and <BR>WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!