shoulda posted this in the British Armed Forces thread so they could start mobilizing

congrats

George Warson my bestest buddy
Europe is vast, its at least slightly bigger than Australia. So vast, in fact, that you cannot see it all in 5 weeks. But you can certainly try!

I think the planning of plane tickets, train tickets, and coach/bus routes for this is massive! Pouring over maps, timetables and assessing costs.
I might suggest that you arrive in England on 22 or 23 December. But see a bit of Europe first. Frankfurt and Amsterdam (also Paris) are major air hubs. So you could start with Amsterdam, Bruges, and Brussels, before Eurostaring up to London. This gets you do to 9 or 10 days in the UK. Travel this time of year will be at a premium and I believe your family is South Coast [nr Brighton]? So getting anywhere will be a nightmare. I am sure your family can take you to Canterbury or Salisbury.

From London either train to Paris, or fly to Rome.
[I would love to suggest Prague or Budapest, but time is of the essence]. From Rome you are heading to Spain. By now you are 3 weeks into the 5. I do not know train routes but think this will be slow... maybe a budget airline from Rome to southern France will make better sense, and then train from France to Spain.
In your final few days, you should go from Spain to Paris for 2 nights... and then from Paris go back to Amsterdam/Frankfurt to fly home.

Fly back to Australia via Khartoum and I will boil you up some rice and slaughter my sheep.

hey hey warsie

first of all, congratulations on getting engaged!

also, you are more than welcome to come over to leuven, and meet up with the people here (i'm thinking about syeknom, amok, TU, eltara, me, etc.) the only problem is that the first two weeks of january usually are exams here...
if it isn't in the middle of our exams, i am pretty sure i can even offer you a discrete place to sleep, with a lock on the door to prevent nightly syeknom visits.

Thanks for that

We've booked flights and now going through the fun process of planning, and then editing out bits according to how much money we don't have.

Will try and be in Belgium between xmas and new years for a few days.  It is the next couple of weeks that is proving more difficult to plan.
Primo, I'll email you at some point in the next 6 months when we've finalised plans and booked some more things.

Mace!
We're going through Dubai, so your sheep will have to wait for another day.

If you're making the trip all the way I would definitely try to be in Edinburgh for new years (or hogmanay as the scots inexplicably call it). Book accomodation early!