European whirl

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would ever do any serious overseas travelling. There was never enough money to consider such an extravagance, so I never gave much thought to the possibility.
Then we received an inheritance, and instead of sensibly saving it for my retirement, I went to New York with my girls for ten of the most incredible days of my life.
After that, it was just a matter of time before I embarked on another adventure - the travel bug had bitten.
The tentative plan was a trip to Europe at the end of this year or early 2014. This changed in the middle of last year when C texted me out of the blue one day to say that she wanted to be in Europe for her birthday (in March 2013) and would I come with her? She even sweetened the deal by offering to pay for my flight!
Well, as my family knows, it takes me a long time to make decisions, but after much contemplation, and with everyone's encouragement, I said yes to this amazing suggestion.
Originally the plan was to go just to London and Paris, but C longed to see Italy as well, so the trip has evolved into a whirlwind tour which includes 5 days in London, 12 days travelling through Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France, and then 6 days in Paris. Our reasoning is, if we're going all that way, we may as well see as much as we can, even though I think our heads will be spinning trying to take it all in!
I have to pinch myself every time I think about this trip of a lifetime because it just seems like a dream. I really can't get my head around the fact that it's actually happening and that we are leaving next week!