Ten Years Later

Ten years later, I'm reading what I wrote at the moment on Facebook and the pictures I posted, plus the blog posts here. For the fifth anniversary of the trip in 2016, I wrote up a weekly list of highlights and lessons, and figured I should post them here for anyone who wants to read them (and for me to find later).

 

Updates

So...

1. A friend of mine is getting married on Friday Sept. 16, so that pushes my leave date to no earlier than Saturday Sept. 17th, and my return date into mid November, possibly as late as Thanksgiving.

2. I've finally realized that I have too much on my plate. I'd like to plan it so that I use up my 2-month rail pass. Since England isn't on that rail pass, it would start the day I leave London for Paris (day 6). I also want to have about 10 days of buffer in my itinerary to account for days off, side trips, relaxing, etc. so that I'm not constantly on the go. So that leaves me about 50 days of travel once I hit the continent. However, I've tracked through roughly day 47 just getting into Venice, with all of Italy, the French Riviera, Spain, Gibraltar, and Portugal left, so that's not going to work.

3. Thus, my newly revised itinerary: subtract 5 days for England, skip Belgium/Luxembourg, skip Budapest, skip most of Italy (save it for the next trip). That makes just 36 days since leaving England, with 15 left (they count by months, not days, so I get 61 days by virtue of Oct 31st) to hit 51 days, with 10 remaining as a buffer. From Venice, I plan to do Rome (3 days), Pisa (1/2 day), Cinque Terre (2-1/2 days), Monte Carlo (1 day), Andorra (pass thru), Barcelona (3 days), Madrid (3 days), and maybe Gibraltar/Tangiers.

4. My frequent flier pass allows me one stopover anywhere, as long as it's allowable for the same number of miles. That means pretty much anywhere in Europe, tacked on to the end of my trip. I've already confirmed that Istanbul and Athens are available. What other places should I look into? And if I want to spend a little more money (less than $200), I can buy some miles and go off to the Far East somewhere, maybe even turn this into an around-the-world trip.

Thoughts on Italy

I like old stuff. I like old books, old buildings, old paintings. I even took a Roman Medieval History class in college because it sounded interesting, and it wasn't even a requirement or elective. So I know that going into Italy, I'm going to want to stay and see everything. Which, of course, isn't going to be possible on this trip, but I don't want to minimize my time, either.

Departure date

So it appears that the week prior to the date I was originally planning to leave is actually more open than
I thought for frequent flier tickets. Houston to London in the fall is not exactly high season.

Thoughts about Germany

Looking through the Germany guidebook, which I didn't earlier, some things have occurred to me, one of which could seriously reroute much of my trip: do I need to be in Munich for Oktoberfest?

An epiphany

In talking with my friends and work and online about my trip planning, something finally sunk in and I had an epiphany of sorts about this trip. Without a specific reason or a deadline to come home, I don't have to limit myself. That's such a radical departure from how I have always taken vacations - I have a set amount of time and I fill up that time with whatever I can.

On this trip I can stay an extra day or leave early. I can take a long scenic trainride that shows me the countryside and allows me to stop in small towns along the way, or I can take a faster (more expensive) train that gets me there sooner so I see more at my destination. I can take a day off when I'm feeling burned out.

A friend at work suggested that rather than book hotels far in advance, either book online a couple days in advance if I know when I'm going to be somewhere or have a list of a few hotels/motels/hostels that I can try when I get to my destination. My style of independent travel is to read what the guidebooks have to say and their suggested itineraries, pick and choose what I want to see and put them in a rough order, and then be flexible. That worked out pretty well in Australia & Hawaii in 2002 and China/Korea in 2009, and yeah, I missed some things because I was doing something else but that's what happens sightseeing in a new place.

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.

Let's see what's out there

Long story short: I'm getting laid off this summer and while I don't have a new job lined up yet, I have the luxury of a year's worth of salary to fall back on. So I figured that without a job to worry about, I have a unique opportunity to travel and not have to worry about taking time off work or what I'm going to have to deal with when I get back.

I started by looking at a map and figuring out where I want to go, and I've decided to do as many cities as I can rather than pick a few and spend more time there. I want to go and be a tourist and do and see all the things that tourists do and see, cliches or not. I want to see the important stuff, whether it's a museum, a monument, a castle, a marketplace, a pub, whatever.

For years I've wanted to travel Europe by rail, so my plan (at least for now) is to fly into one city, spend a couple days there, then hop the train (or bus/plane/ferry as appropriate based on time and cost) to the next place, overnight if possible on longer trips so that I'm ready to go in the morning. I'm thinking no more than 3 days/2 nights in any city, with some places just passing through. I'd probably leave in early September because that's the earliest I can use my frequent flier miles to get there and back, though I'm not sure how bad the weather would be as the month goes on.

This is my rough itinerary, stopping at all the places on my list - though I probably have too many places now, so if you've been there and have some advice about how long to stay (or even whether to go), or someplace else I should go, please chime in. I've only been to Europe twice, London in 1984 and Paris in 1988. If I go to every place on my list, this looks like 4-6 weeks easy. One reason for the order of these cities is that I'd rather end up in southern Europe come late September.