DAY 101: FAREWELL EUROPE

WE knew this day would come. Day 101 of 101 days.

And it came and went without fanfare.

No sightseeing. No expensive dinners, final tourist attractions or glitzy hotels. 

Just a comfortable night's sleep opposite Clapham Common before breakfast and a walk around nearby Colliers Wood - the new stomping ground of our eldest son who has moved to London.

We couldn't think of anywhere else we'd rather be or anything else we would rather be doing.

We only hope our flu won't be our parting gift to him and his beautiful partner.

It's been a wild ride and I hope you've enjoyed living vicariously through our adventures on our first European vacation - our introduction to 16 amazing countries (not counting Dubai and Singapore) that put on their best faces for us - only two rainy days (in Paris while visiting the Palace and Gardens of Versailles, and in Munich while visiting Mad King Ludwig's Castles, ironically in tribute to Versailles) and a couple of showery ones.

Apart from the Paris pickpocketing episode, everything went according to plan but with plenty of pleasant surprises along the way.

Here's how we see the wash-up (but not in any particular order) ...

Favourite rooms/friendliest hotels: Hotel Rebenhof, Baden-Baden, Germany; Hotel Splendid, Lake Maggiore, Italy; AForAthens, Athens, Greece; Elisabetta Rooms, Vernazza, Italy; The Old Mill, Salisbury, England; Base2Stay, Liverpool, England; Park Inn by Radisson, Berlin, Germany; Zurich alten Brucke, Schiltach, Germany; Best Western Hotel Goldener Adler, Innsbruck, Austria; AllYouNeed Hotel, Salzburg, Austria; Hotel Eder, Munich.

Hotels in best locations: Hotel Oceania, Saint-Malo, France; Riviera Marriott La Porte de Monaco, Monaco; All'Angelo, Venice, Italy; Hotel Pickwick, Lucern, Switzerland; Regyn's, Montmartre, France; Hotel Saint-Michel, Brussels, Belgium; Hotel Oberkirch, Freiburg, Germany.

Best attractions/value-for-money excursions and tours: Eagles Nest, Germany (out of Salzburg with Panorama Tours); Original Sound of Music Tour (out of Salzburg with Panorama Tours); Moulin Rouge, Paris; Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, London; Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, London; Innsbruck Card for free entry and transport to all attractions); Paris Pass (though we could have made even more use of this!); Anfield (Liverpool FC) Stadium tour; Michael Faherty's Aran Islands Tour, Ireland; Old Storehouse Guinness Factory tour, Dublin; the Louvre, Paris; Arc De Triomphe, Paris; the  Oberbayern Royal Castles Tour (Mad King Ludwig) from Munich; Mozart Dinner Concert, Salzburg; Hop On, Hop Off buses; Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland; Jungfraujoch Highest Railway in Europe and surrounding valley rail/cableway pass to Murren out of Interlaken; Schoenbrunn Palace, Vienna; Atomium, Brussels.

Favourite free activities: picnicking in the park at the Eiffel Tower on sunset; walking around any major city or village to get a feel for the place; wandering around any ancient ruins in Rome or Athens especially; the Best of Lake Lucerne (free with Eurail Global Rail Pass); walking around any city parks and gardens; strolling around St Andrews golf courses.

Cities we enjoyed the most: Dublin; Interlarken; Rome; Prague; Edinburgh; Bruges; Paris; Venice; London; Inbsbruck; Salzburg; Cinque Terre.

We have unfinished business and would have liked to have spent more time in: Biarritz, southern France; Positano, Amalfi Coast, Italy; Dublin, Ireland; the Scottish Highlands; York, England; Bath, the Cotswalds, England; Liverpool, England; Prague, Czech Republic; Bundoran, Northern Ireland; St Andrews, Scotland (birthplace of golf); Cologne, Germany; Munich, Germany; San Gimignano, Italy; Carcasonne, France; Bordeaux, France; Turin, Italy; Siena, Italy; Florence, Italy; Lake Maggiore, Italy; Pompeii, Italy; Burano Island, Italy; Dubrovnik, Croatia; the Greek Islands; London, England.

Best scenic drives: Amalfi Coast; Slea Head Peninsula, Dingle, Ireland; Ring of Kerry, Ireland; Eze, Monaco; the Black Forest, Germany; the Scottish Highlands, Loch Lomond and Loch Ness, Scotland; the Cotswalds, England; Aran Islands and Connemara, Ireland.

What we wished we could fit in: shopping in Harrod's, London; Corfu and Mykonos (also due to bad sailing weather), Greece; Hampton Court Palace (home of Henry VIII); Chester, south of Liverpool; Isle of Skye, Scotland; Orkney Islands, Scotland; Whitby, Lake District and Oxford in England; a cooking class in Tuscany.

I couldn't speak more highly of our Globus La France and Italian Mosaic tours, our Star Clipper 10-night Mediterranean cruise (of which we were a media guest), Eurail and the various national railways, British Airways (Athens to London) and Emirates (Brisbane-London and London-Brisbane). These companies all exceeded our expectations and delivered us safely home or to our next leg of the trip.

*Thanks for reading and being part of my little project, Europe 101. I've learnt a lot and I hope you have, too - whether you are a student of the world like me or a seasoned travel "professor".

If you'd like to see the itinerary in full, please contact me on Facebook or email shirleysinclair62@hotmail.com