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A Grand European Tour Experience
Paris to Pisa: A fortnight-long planned package tour of Europe with my family
On 20th May 2024, our most awaited day was here. It was the first day of our fortnight-long planned package tour of Europe. We covered the following countries- Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Italy, Slovenia, Vatican, and Germany for a span of two weeks.
A flashback…..
This trip was a result of three months of extensive planning and preparation. There were massive discussions and contradictions within our family on which travel agency should we choose, which itinerary, the budget, VISA appointment, purchasing and much more.
We consulted many relatives, friends, family friends, those who have been on a European trip, and much more. At last, we booked our travel with Soman’s Leisure Tours, Kochi. On 30th April, we had our VISA appointment.
On the 10th we had an online meeting with the tour company explaining the guidelines for the trip. They instructed us about currency, international SIM and much more.
18th, Saturday was the day when we started to put together things. Despite that, we could not have successful progress on that. On the 19th we had to go to our ancestral place hence, it was indeed a tight day for us. Similarly, we also had some last-minute shopping to do.
We have a habit of keeping things for the last moment. Hence, we had a lot of packing and preparations to do. I felt tired that day. Hence, I decided to get some rest at night while my parents stayed awake and did all the packing.
20th May
At 3:30 AM, I woke up and saw that my parents had perfectly completed the bags and were ready to go. After a hot bed-coffee on a rainy morning, we got ready to go for our best trip yet. I was feeling much better now. With a mix of excitement and anxiety, I was ready to start.
Our taxi driver whom we had pre-booked had arrived early in the morning. By 4:45 AM sharp we started from home. We had to take a longer route due to maintenance on the highway. By 5:15 we arrived at CIAL Airport D8 gate. Nervously, I took the trolly bags and proceeded towards our tour group. We met the…
