Apparently, in Maine they have a saying, “You can’t get there from here,” said when giving directions as an indication of the impossibility of traveling a direct route between certain places. Well you can’t circle the globe and not travel some direct routes, but this time around we are making a few more meanders.
This old Nat Geo map shows our approximate route and you might notice that the map, like the two of us, has a few wrinkles. On this trip, we are taking a different approach than we did last time. On the first RTW we reserved and bought all our tickets in advance. Having the tickets in hand was convenient and gave us a certain peace of mind, but this locked us into a schedule and any changes were expensive and a real hassle. For this trip we are buying tickets as we go. This creates more work to do on the road and adds some financial uncertainties, but it makes for maximum flexibility. Invariably, you visit what sounded like a cool place that turns out to be not so good, then you stumble on a place and end up staying two weeks.
Our plan is to visit some of our old favorite cities (Barcelona, Florence, Athens, Bali, and Chiang Mai) as well as a number of new countries (Iceland, Croatia, Slovenia, Jordan, Laos, Cambodia). We are starting our trip in Europe and working our way east to SE Asia, and possibly Australia and New Zealand. Our first stop is Reykjavik, Iceland which should solve that hot weather problem. Some of our geek readers may want a few details so I can tell you that the circumference of the earth at the equator is 24,901 miles, and if we complete this trip as planned, we will have traveled approximately 37,000 miles. Now that’s a few meanders!
So that’s the plan now, and we’ll see how it goes.
Happy Trails,
James
GALLIVANCE 
Lucky you….
N.
Thanks for dropping by the blog Nina. We’ve done a couple of RTWs, and both were totally different and each wonderful in their own way. If you can swing it, it’s the way to go. ~James