Melbourne -> Utrecht

All good things come to an end and worse still: you sometimes need to plan that end. I figured I might as well make that end as interesting as possible, so here we go!

Maps can be very deceiving so I included some Google Earth imagery to show that I am indeed traveling in a reasonably straight line.
First, I will fly from Melbourne to Adelaide (the short green line on the far right of image). I’ve already been there so I will go straight for the train station and jump on board the Indian Pacific for a 39 hour trip across Australia to Perth. That track, the red line,  includes the world’s longest straight stretch of railway track (478 kilometres).

Less than two days later, it’s time to catch a plane to Singapore, where I will spend a day or two before I catch a train to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. That trip is the little red line in the middle.
After a few days there, I’m catching a plane to New Delhi in India (left of the top image, or a bit to the right on the bottom image). I will probably have an opportunity to witness one of the – now eight, or whatever – world wonders: the Taj Mahal. I planned a whopping five full days (six nights) in India 🙂
It turns out that by far the cheapest way to go from New Delhi to Amsterdam is trough Helsinki, at least at the moment. At almost no extra cost, they even allow you to stay there a bit longer. So I’ve planned an impressive 30 hours of sightseeing in Helsinki.

From Helsinki it’s a short flight to Amsterdam and from there it’s a short train ride to Utrecht where I will arrive. If all goes well – or even if a lot of things go wrong but not the last flight – I should be at Schiphol  on April 2nd at 21:40. Next stop: Biton.
I’m not happy to leave Melbourne, but I’m really looking forward to these two and a half action packed weeks and of course to seeing my Dutch friends and family again!