At last, somewhere to stash the cash

After several attempts we’ve finally conned one of the banks in allowing us to stash our cash with them. Much to the Natwest Banking Consultant’s surprise we actually qualified for an ‘Advantage Gold’ account despite being both unemployed and non-UK residents. This may be because our Grandparents also bank with Natwest and the system’s check against the same postcode gave us some much needed favours.

Now this account costs £12.00 per month and comes with various offers of which only a couple are of interest to us. This includes travel insurance for 30 days of our trip and free use of an American Express Travellers Cheque Card. “The convenience of a card and the security of travellers cheques”. The great thing is it’s on a 90 day money-back trial period and there’s a good chance we’ll downgrade to a regular Current Account when we come back. So after a bit of grief with the banks we ended up with a good deal.

Only 11 more days in Bournemouth now before we head off. We think we’ll be away for 60-70 days, depending on how well we can stretch our weak Kiwi dollar, and at the moment the itinerary looks like this:

12-20 Sep – Paris
21-27 Sep – Madrid
28-06 Oct – Lisbon
06-12 Oct – Barcelona
12-18 Oct – Nice
19-23 Oct – Rome
24-25 Oct – Venice
26-01 Nov – Munich
01-?? Nov – Berlin

The dates are not set in stone but allows for about a week in each main city with longer stays in cheaper places such as in Spain or Portugal, and slightly less time Italy which is very dear. We’re also looking at doing day trips and one-night stays in places not far from those cities, like the town of Toledo which is an hour and a half south-west of Madrid.

This morning I went to the doctors to sort out the annoying ring in my ear, known as ‘tinnitus’, which I’ve endured for the past four days. Six quid later I’m on anti-biotics to get rid of it.