Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Itinerary

Update 11/27/11:
  • This is the final itinerary as it occurred.
This is a work in progress, I'll be updating it as I go and figure out how much time to spend in each place. Color coded to keep the countries straight.

Days off in bold are placeholders and are flexible. My Eurail pass runs out 2 calendar months after my first trip on the Continent on Sept. 23 from London to Paris Sept. 28 from Paris to Amsterdam, so it's good til Nov. 23 28.

Boring change history moved to the bottom of this page.
  1. Sat. Sept. 17: Leave the US, fly to London overnight
  2. Sun. Sept. 18: London (and jet lag), day and night
  3. Mon. Sept. 19: London, day and night
  4. Tue. Sept. 20: Stonehenge + outside London for the day, return to London for the night
  5. Wed. Sept. 21: London, day and night
  6. Thu. Sept. 22: London, day and night
  7. Fri. Sept. 23: Eurostar train to Paris in the morning, then Paris in afternoon and night
  8. Sat. Sept. 24: Paris, day and night
  9. Sun. Sept. 25: Paris, day and night
  10. Mon. Sept. 26: Paris, day and night
  11. Tue. Sept. 27: Paris, day and night
  12. Wed. Sept. 28: Train to Amsterdam in the morning, spend the day and night
  13. Thu. Sept. 29: Amsterdam, day and night
  14. Fri. Sept. 30: Train to Cologne, spend the afternoon, overnight train to Copenhagen
  15. Sat. Oct. 1: Copenhagen, day and night
  16. Sun. Oct. 2: Copenhagen in the day, Malmö Sweden in the evening, overnight train to Berlin
  17. Mon. Oct. 3: Berlin day and night
  18. Tue. Oct. 4: Berlin, day and night
  19. Wed. Oct. 5: Berlin, day and night
  20. Thu. Oct. 6: Train to Prague in the morning, day and night
  21. Fri. Oct. 7: Prague, day and night
  22. Sat. Oct. 8: Prague, day and night
  23. Sun. Oct. 9: Prague, day and night
  24. Mon. Oct. 10: Prague, day and night, overnight train to Vienna
  25. Tue. Oct. 11: Train to Vienna in the morning, day and night
  26. Wed. Oct. 12: Vienna, day and night
  27. Thu. Oct. 13: Train to Danube Valley (Melk) in the morning, night in Krems & Mautern
  28. Fri. Oct. 14: Train to Bad Ischl in the Lake District in the morning, day and night
  29. Sat. Oct. 15: Train to Hallstatt in the morning, day and night
  30. Sun. Oct. 16: Train to Salzburg in the morning, day and night
  31. Mon. Oct. 17: Salzburg, day and night
  32. Tue. Oct. 18: Train to Munich in the morning, day and night
  33. Wed. Oct. 19: Munich, day and night
  34. Thu. Oct. 20: Munich, day and night
  35. Fri. Oct. 21: Munich, day and night
  36. Sat. Oct. 22: Train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the morning, day and night
  37. Sun. Oct. 23: Bus to Fuessen in the morning, day and night
  38. Mon. Oct. 24: Train to Lucerne in the morning, day and night
  39. Tue. Oct. 25: Train to Bern in the morning, day and night
  40. Wed. Oct. 26: Train to Interlaken in the morning, day and night
  41. Thu. Oct. 27: Interlaken, day and night
  42. Fri. Oct. 28: Interlaken, day and night
  43. Sat. Oct. 29: Train to Zermatt in the morning, day and night
  44. Sun. Oct. 30: Glacier Express train to St. Moritz [** hard constraint - last day for train]
  45. Mon. Oct. 31: Train to Milan in the morning, day and night [** hard constraint - meet Dad]
  46. Tue. Nov. 1: Train to Venice in the morning, day and night
  47. Wed. Nov. 2: Venice in the day and evening, overnight train to Naples
  48. Thu. Nov. 3: Naples (Pompeii/Vesuvius), day and night
  49. Fri. Nov. 4: Naples (Amalfi coast), day and night
  50. Sat. Nov. 5: Train to Rome in the morning, day and night
  51. Sun. Nov. 6: Rome, day and night
  52. Mon. Nov. 7: Rome, day and night
  53. Tue. Nov. 8: Rome, day and night
  54. Wed. Nov. 9: Rome, day and night
  55. Thu. Nov. 10: Train to Florence in the morning, day and night
  56. Fri. Nov. 11: Train to Pisa in the morning, stop for dinner in Genova, train to Nice at night
  57. Sat. Nov. 12: Nice in the morning, Monte Carlo in the afternoon, back to Nice for the night
  58. Sun. Nov. 13: Train to Aix-en-Provence in the morning, drive to Avignon for the afternoon/night
  59. Mon. Nov. 14: Drive thru Provence in the day, drive to Aix-en-Provence for the night [** hard constraint - Dad's flight out of Marseilles early 11/15]
  60. Tue. Nov. 15: Train to Barcelona, day and night
  61. Wed. Nov. 16: Barcelona, day and night
  62. Thu. Nov. 17: Barcelona, day and night
  63. Fri. Nov. 18: Train to Madrid, day and night
  64. Sat. Nov. 19: Madrid, day and night
  65. Sun. Nov. 20: Madrid, day and night
  66. Mon. Nov. 21: Train to Algeciras in morning, then bus to Gibraltar in afternoon, bus to Tarifa for the night
  67. Tue. Nov. 22: Ferry to Tangier (Morocco) in morning and back in afternoon, bus back to Algeciras in afternoon, Gibraltar in evening, Algeciras for the night
  68. Wed. Nov. 23: Train to Madrid in morning, afternoon and night
  69. Thu. Nov. 24: Fly to Houston
One other thing - I am allowed one stopover on my trip, meaning I can fly to pretty much to any city in Europe that the Star Alliance flies for "free", spend as much time as I want, and then fly to Houston. Cities under consideration include Reykjavik, Majorca, Las Palmas, Athens, and Istanbul. Of course I'd have to pay for my time there too, but the flight is "free".

Boring change history:

Update 5/29/11:
  • Removed Luxembourg, Brussels, Bruges, and Budapest (to make room for Spain at the end of the trip). 
  • Added placeholder days off every ~7 days 
  • Removed Zurich and redistributed the time in Switzerland
Update 6/12/11:
  • Removed 1 day in Switzerland to be able to make the Glacier Express on 10/30 (last day of availability)
  • Removed 1 day from French Riviera
  • Added 2 days in Florence
Update 7/11/11:
  • Changed my mind and removed Florence (again) to make room for time in Provence
Update 8/3/11:
  • Changed my mind yet again and added 1 day in Florence (again) at the expense of 1 day in Cinque Terre
Update 9/5/11:
  • Removed 1 day from Amsterdam and added it to London, shifted Paris to the right by 1 day 
Update 9/7/11:
  • No overnight train from Malmo or Copenhagen to Berlin on 3rd day there, so return to Copenhagen for the night and fly to Berlin in the morning 
Update 9/8/11:
  • Forget the above, will cut short my stay in Copenhagen and leave for Berlin 1 day early. Took the extra day and added Budapest in between Prague and Vienna (Oct 10).
Update 9/12/11:
  • Cut a day out of Prague, now I've got 2 days in Budapest
Update 10/8/11:
  • Too tired to go to Budapest, so decided to stay those 2 extra days in Prague anyway
Update 10/13/11:
  • Scheduled my free day in the Austrian Lake District (10/15) to be in Hallstatt
Update 10/22/11:
  • Removed one day from Lucerne and added it to Interlaken, moved everything up one day
Update 10/28/11:
  • Due to disastrous flooding in Cinque Terre, had to change my routing to replace it with Naples. Now instead of Venice --> Rome --> Florence --> Pisa --> Cinque Terre --> Nice, it's Venice --> Naples --> Rome --> Florence --> Pisa --> Nice. Also removed one day from Nice/Monte Carlo (formerly 2 days) and added it to Rome.
Update 10/29/11:
  • Will rent a car in Aix-en-Provence and drive around for 2 days instead of taking buses, which allows visits to Avignon, Arles, and various small towns in Provence
Update 11/17/11:
  • Moved up the trip to Gibraltar and Tangier by one day to make the connection back to Madrid easier, now I get back to Madrid and have the afternoon to catch up on anything.

1 comment:

  1. In Copenhagen, "Tivoli" - very old, very cool amusement park. In London, the "London Eye", big ferris wheel - great views. Many other good things there. Indian food is awesome, British food is not too good - fish and chips, yes! Lucerne is a tourist trap in my humble opinion, small towns around there are better. Looks like you will hit the highlights, but miss the true flavor of the countries. Embrace the train! Make sure you go back to the places you really like in the future.

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