I don’t recall where I first saw the ad, but it immediately grabbed my interest: Railbookers – Round the World by Rail Journeys. In Fall of 2019, I got a quote for London – Paris – Geneva – Milan – Rome – Venice -Vienna – Prague – Hamburg – Copenhagen – Stockholm – Helsinki – St. Petersburg – Moscow – Ulaanbaatar – Beijing – Hong Kong – Perth – Sydney – Los Angeles – Springdale – Chicago – Boston in 2 months. Traveling across Asia on the Trans-Siberian Railway followed by the train from Mongolia thru China seemed marvelously slow. Crossing Australia by train sounded wonderful and seeing the US by train seemed a perfect way to end my journey. Railbookers would take care of the train reservations, hotel bookings and suggest excursions along the way. All I had to do was to manage my air travel, and I thought I knew how to do that with AirTreks. The quote was a first pass itinerary – too short a time traveling around the world with two day stays here and there (three days is an absolute minimum for me!) but then I did not and do not have any idea of how I would manage being away from home and familiar sights for over a month.
By March of 2020, we all had to learn to deal with COVID-19, then on February 24th 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and suddenly, there was no possibility that I could or would take the Trans-Siberian Railway. I would still like to travel the Trans-Siberian some day. Certainly we in the US know that people often are different from their government! And I would like to see Mongolia and travel thru China, but not this trip – too many political and social issues to worry about. So if the Trans-Siberian is not an option, what should I do? AirTreks was a definite option…Maybe Istanbul then to somewhere in India… I realized that I really wanted to see Turkey, eat the food, ride the ferries etc. An acquaintance, Anthony, had sent a beautiful photograph of the Hagia Sophia to me many years ago. So my thought was maybe not extensively covering Turkey – their government is a bit dicey despite NATO membership – but Istanbul would suffice – So much history there!!! I mean, the events of the Ottoman empire and afterwards shaped the world as we know it in so many ways. So I thought: European cities I’d never seen and then Istanbul. I knew that I wanted to see Perth Australia because it is the nearest city to the antipode of Boston. Once in Australia, I wanted to cross the continent by the Indian Pacific railway to Sydney, then fly to New Zealand and return to the US. OK. I had the beginnings of a trip.