Rhonda Bracey: At Random

This is the first in a series of blog posts about a month-long trip to Europe. I’ve now returned, but need to process photos and write up each day, so I’ll post each day’s adventures when I can.

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My sister and I travelled in Europe together for a month, from late May to late June 2025. We hadn’t shared a living space for any length of time since we were in our late teens, which was an awfully long time ago, but I didn’t think we’d have any issues living in the same space for a month. We’ve become much closer since Dad died (May 2023) and since Mum was diagnosed with a glioblastoma in her occipital lobe and died some 8 weeks later, in May 2024.

Mum and Dad had LOVED cruising, so I planted the seed some time back with my sister about going on a cruise together to honour Mum and Dad. She’d never been on one, and I’d only been on two (one to the Caribbean in 2014, and one to NZ with Mum in early 2024). I’d never been to mainland Europe, whereas she’d spent her 18 months of her late teens/early twenties there, as well as numerous trips since. What started as an idea to do a Mediterranean cruise (less likelihood of rough seas), became a full-blown 4-week long trip to Europe for us both, plus an extra week for her. Our travel agent (a family friend we’ve known forever) said that June wouldn’t be too hot where we were going, typically about 25 to 30 C most days. She lied!!! 🙂 It was stinking hot for much of the trip! Despite living in Australia for most of my life, I don’t do heat very well, but I coped because there was no other choice.

From Perth, there are very few direct flights to Europe (one daily one to London, and a seasonal one to Rome that starts in late June, well after we wanted to go). If you opt to not go direct to London, then you have to have at least one—often lengthy—stopover in either Abu Dhabi (Etihad), Doha (Qatar), Dubai (Emirates), Singapore (Singapore Airlines), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysian Airlines), or Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific). All will take you on to Europe, and all will have several hours’ layover at the hub airport. We priced the options, checked the total number of hours each way, the cities they fly into, and the affiliation with our existing frequent flyer programs and decided to fly Cathay to Hong Kong, have a 7-hour layover, then fly from Hong Kong direct to Zurich. Coming home would also be on Cathay, direct from Rome, with a long layover in Hong Kong before the final flight to Perth.

The outward bound flight was perfect—it left around 9am and arrived in Hong Kong around 5pm (same time zone as Perth), then the next flight left at midnight, arriving in Zurich at 7am, 13 hours later, meaning our body clock would be wanting to sleep around the time we normally slept.

The first flight was uneventful. There was WiFi on the plane for the entire journey, even over the Indian Ocean and other large bodies of water (Starlink??). Landing in Hong Kong was equally uneventful—we had a long walk to the transit area, more security checks, and then we ensconced ourselves in Cathay’s Pier Business Lounge for the next 7 hours. Some seating areas in the lounge (one of several that Cathay has at Hong Kong airport) have a clever way to manage charging points—instead of making you hunt all sorts of nooks and crannies looking for somewhere to charge your devices, this Cathay lounge has them inside a small drawer in the table between two lounge chairs.

The flight to Zurich was pretty bumpy for the first 8 hours, so I only catnapped at best.

A large quokka said goodbye to us at the generic lounge at Perth International (Cathay doesn’t have a lounge here)

Power outlets and USB charging points are hidden inside a desk drawer at the table between two chairs in Cathay’s Pier Business lounge

Our flight path took us north of the Himalayas and avoided the Middle East and Ukraine