Whilst four and a half months may sound like a long time, it's nowhere near long enough to get round the whole of Europe, let alone the (currently) safely navigable bits of North Africa, comfortably.  So we'll try to spend more of our time in places we wouldn't ordinarily go on holiday (Algeria and the Balkans, for instance) and less time in the places which are more suited to a two-week summer jaunt. Sounds great in theory, it'll probably work out completely different... it doesn't really matter.

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We probably won't get as far as both Istanbul and Krakow; we could just as easily end up spending six weeks in a handful of small Balkan countries.  We're not trying to tick off a bucket-list of sights and tourist attractions, and there certainly won't be any time wasted spent Instagram-pouting in front of famous monuments.  Rather, we're hoping (like with our last trip) that once we're on the road, the adventure will take care of itself, and we'll naturally find ourselves in places where we can really appreciate and understand the peoples, the cultures, the history and the terrains that link these diverse countries and continents together.  And of course the food...