Some days things just seem to go right - today was such a day. It began with the mail bringing three items of benefit to the Europe Trip. The first was our Income Tax Rebate, which will help finance this journey of ours. The second was some ECM CDs which I purchased used through eBay, and gives me some new music to listen to on the trip (including one by another Norwegian pianist - Ketil Bjørnstad, an interesting album called "Water Stories"). But the most significant item that arrived in the mail today was our new VISA cards. Since we had the trouble with the Italian Train website not accepting our MasterCard we decided to order a VISA card. We figured it wouldn't hurt to have two different types of credit cards in Europe, in case we were in a place that didn't accept our primary card.
As soon as I activated the VISA card I had to try it out, and specifically I had to see if it would make a difference with the Italian train website. So with my fingers crossed I went through the whole process, input all the data for Beth's tickets and then entered the credit card info. Without too much delay I was notified that the purchased had been approved. It finally went through! So I am relieved to know that Beth will be able to travel with me to Milan and back to Rome. Even though more than three weeks have passed since I booked my train tickets I was able to get Beth a seat right beside me on the one leg of the journey, and just a few away on the return trip (I'm hoping we'll be able to trade seats with someone once we actually get on the train - so that we can sit together). The other bonus of the VISA card arriving today is that I was still able to get the 66% discount (at least on the one leg of the journey, but even with the other leg I still managed to get a 33% discount). So in the end everything worked out pretty decently - though perhaps I have a few more grey hairs than before.
Another thing that arrived in the mail yesterday was an used book by the Danish author Isak Dinesen, which includes the story Babette's Feast. But I'll write more about that in another post which I hope to put together soon. Everything seems to being speeding up now, with just a little over four weeks until we leave. While much of the trip is in place there are still a few things to book, and a few details to work out. I anticipate that much will be happening in the next week or so. Stay tuned.
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