European Trip Planning (1 Viewer)

[Senor Schmutzig]

Sounds wonderful…

Only things of note for me: I prefer Lucerne to Zurich

Prefer the northern lakes over Milan

Have a great time

Both those overnights are due to train routes versus actual locations to stay. The stayover in Zurich is due to my wanting to take the Bernina Express that ends in Milan. Means to an end I guess. Although my wife and son are excited about being able to go to their favorite Chinese dumpling place in the Milano Centrale.

 

[Drunken knight]

Sounds wonderful…

Only things of note for me: I prefer Lucerne to Zurich

Prefer the northern lakes over Milan

Have a great time

Both those overnights are due to train routes versus actual locations to stay. The stayover in Zurich is due to my wanting to take the Bernina Express that ends in Milan. Means to an end I guess. Although my wife and son are excited about being able to go to their favorite Chinese dumpling place in the Milano Centrale.

so... my father has been in the hospital/icu/rehab since march. coming home today, so i am in san francisco helping mom prepare the house...grabbed some of my favorite dim sum from a place on 3rd and clement. i never say no to dumplings!

 

[titusbramble]

Getting ready to head out next week. Here is the final itinerary

So how did the trip go, and is there anything you'd advise us all to (not) do? Apologies if you made a new trip report thread and I missed it

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

Getting ready to head out next week. Here is the final itinerary

So how did the trip go, and is there anything you'd advise us all to (not) do? Apologies if you made a new trip report thread and I missed it

Let me spend some time writing up the report and I'll post it in a bit. Will be a good recap for me...

It was a great trip. Definitely some highlights without a lot of lowlights.

Please hold....

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

I'll probably end up writing this in chunks as it may get a little wordy. Or maybe not. We'll see how it goes.

Here was the final itinerary so I'll start with the London leg and go from there.

Fly into London, stay for 3 nights
Take train to Zurich via Brussels for an overnight
Take Bernina Express through the Alps, stay overnight in Milan
Take train from Milan to Rome, stay for 5 nights
Take train from Rome to Sorrento, stay for 4 nights
Take train from Sorrento to Paris via Naples/Milan, stay for 3 nights
Fly home

TL;DR - Flew from Miami to London. Stayed in a Marriott in Shoreditch. Walked around. Ate British food, drank British beer. Saw the King. Saw old buildings. Walked more. Went to bed.

This trip came together in about 6 weeks starting at the end of March when I decided that we needed to take a nice long trip as my son was graduating high school and I was still unemployed (but riding the severance and bonus double-dip train). We were gone 19 days and it cost right around $20k all-in.

Fly into London, stay for 3 nights
It started out with a flight on American Airlines to LGA and then a taxi to JFK for the JFK-LHR leg in Premium Economy on British Airways. I mentioned it earlier in the thread but I'll repeat myself here in case you missed it. I ended up purchasing our air about 6 weeks out, basically due to the fact that we are procrastinators. I used miles for the outbound on AA/BA for 40k each. Considering it was peak season, I thought that was pretty good, although I just looked, and you can get that same deal through September of next year.

Caught the Heathrow Express to Central London and made our way to the Old Street Underground Station. About a 3-minute walk later, we were at the Montcalm East Hotel, part of the Marriott Autograph Collection. We are a Marriott family through and through and although prices were high during our entire trip, this hotel was both high quality and decently priced. It's a very modern style but quite comfortable for the three of us.

I had never spent much time in this part of London (Shoreditch area) but in retrospect, we all quite liked it. It wasn't too touristy, very close to the Underground and plenty of pubs and restaurants around. It seems to be a somewhat newly gentrified area, and from what I read, there are quite a few tech companies around so a lot of millennials milling around in the coffee shops and pubs. You're not going to get a lot of ancient history in this area as much of it has been torn down and replaced. it worked for us. It's tough NOT to find history in London so we knew there was plenty of it to be had later in the trip.

After dropping our bags at the hotel, we decided to start walking. This was the first trip to London for my 18 yo son so we wanted to see some of the main tourist sights. I can't remember if we walked straight through to Buckingham Palace or took the Tube but somehow we got there. We wandered through Green Park first, made it to the Palace for a couple of pictures and then decided to stick around for a bit a we noticed that people were standing near the entrance waiting for something. After about 20 minutes of nothing, we started to walk up the Mall when all of a sudden, King Charles came driving out of the Palace (well he was sitting in the back), in his maroon Rolls Royce for his 2-minute drive to Clarence House. So that was cool.

While we were continuing our walk, I started chatting with an older English gentleman who was super excited that he got to see the King. That was the first time he had ever seen him in person and he was thrilled. Talked to him for a few minutes and he recommended 5th View located on the top floor of Waterstones flagship bookstore in Picadilly for fish and chips so that's where we headed after wandering past Big Ben and through St. James Park. Turns out they had just stopped serving food so we decided to have a couple of beers and find food somewhere else.

Ended up at St. James Tavern in Piccadilly. There has been a pub in that same location since 1733, so there was our instant dose of history, complete with some fish and chips and creamy chicken and bacon pie. The area is definitely in the more touristy part of London, but by this time, we just needed to get some food in us (and a couple more pints). Overall, the food was pretty good. Would recommend it if you're in the area and want to be a part of something much older than yourself.

After that, we walked through Leicester Square and Covent Gardens area in an attempt to remember my old stomping grounds. It was fun to reminisce but by that time my wife and son were pretty much over hearing about it from me. For some dumb reason, we decided that it would be best to walk back to the hotel (another 45 minutes) despite it being after 8p and none of us really getting much sleep the night before. We made it back to the hotel and pretty much passed out.

Wow....that was more than I anticipated for day one. I think I may just hit the highlights for the rest of the trip otherwise I'll just peter out halfway through the trip report. LOL.

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

Continuation of London---

The next day we started at the Borough Market. For the life of me, I don't understand why I never knew about this place when I was living here or on my many trips to London afterward. I also mentioned it to my parents who lived outside of London for a couple of years and they didn't know about it either. Oh well, it's always fun to find new places in old haunts. My family travels by our stomachs, so we are constantly on the lookout for good food. This market has an abundance of it.

I started with a sausage roll from The Ginger Pig - Awesome
We continued with a steak sandwich and a Quilmes from Porteña. - More Awesome
We finished with "The Best One" from The Black Pig - The Most Awesome. Like crazy, nutso awesome.

I'm not lying when I tell you that you must try that last sandwich from the Black Pig if you are ever anywhere close to the British Isles. Slow roast pork shoulder, honey truffle mayo, salsa verde, peperoncini s'ott olio, fennel apple slaw, and 30-month-old parmesan. It was so good my eyes were crossed after eating it. I want another one right now.

After all of the food, it was time to walk. We wandered along the Thames until we hit the London Eye. Again, very touristy but my son wanted to do it and it gave us a good perspective of London that I hadn't seen before. I would definitely encourage you to buy the Fast Pass or whatever it's called there. We breezed right on at our allotted time. Considering it was pretty hot that day, it was nice to be able to jump into the air-conditioned pod and start our revolution. Yes it's expensive and there are other options to get a bird's eye view of London (London Sky Garden and/or The Shard) but this is the one we went with.

After that, we took the Underground to the Tower of London for a little walk around. I think we got there around closing time so we didn't go in, but I did get a couple from Maryland to take a picture of the three of us at the exact same location my family (sans my mom who was taking the picture) had a picture taken when we were all living there 35 years ago. That was kind of cool.

For dinner, I wanted to try and find an Indian place that I had frequented while traveling there on business over the years but found out that they had closed. We substituted another Indian restaurant, Bengal Tiger that we found near our hotel. It was good, but I'm sure you can find better Indian in a city that is known for excellent Indian cuisine.

The next day we took the train from London to Grantham, about an hour north of the city. My first year of university was at Harlaxton College, just outside of Grantham but I had not been back there in 35 years. Living in England, going to school there, and having the ability to travel around Europe on my own during the summers when I was 18 and 19 years old was truly life-changing for me. It gave me a world-view that I didn't have quite yet despite being relatively well-traveled domestically (my dad worked for the airlines growing up so we traveled a lot but it was mostly Hawaii, California, and Colorado to see family...I know, tough, right?)

It was a great trip for me to again re-live some of those early college moments but after an hour or two, my wife and son were at the eye-rolling stage because they had heard those stories dozens of times. After taking a tour of the manor and the grounds, we walked down the mile-long drive (also known as The Naked Mile by the university kids for reasons I will leave alone for now) leading back to the highway and stopped at The Gregory Arms for a snack and a pint. I recall many pints there back in the day with the old English guys who just loved taking money from the stupid, ignorant American college kids each semester who thought they were good at darts (Cricket) and snooker. LOL. I did get better at darts and was pretty much unbeatable at the school, but once I hit the pub, I was humbled on many occasions.

After taking the train back to London, we had dinner at Bone Daddies as we were all hungry for some sort of ramen. I had the Black Bone Ramen and it was excellent. Bone Daddies is kind of like Chipotle for ramen. Good, high-quality ingredients in a casual fast food type of environment. I would definitely recommend it if you're in the mood for a quick ramen meal while you're in London.

The next morning we were off to Zurich so that's where I'm going with my next installment...

 

[Soulfly3]

Getting ready to head out next week. Here is the final itinerary

So how did the trip go, and is there anything you'd advise us all to (not) do? Apologies if you made a new trip report thread and I missed it

Let me spend some time writing up the report and I'll post it in a bit. Will be a good recap for me...

It was a great trip. Definitely some highlights without a lot of lowlights.

Please hold....

As someone who was in Naples just 2 weeks ago, can I assume that IT was one of your lowlights?

What a dump it has become... and the amount of tourists (of which i am included) is absolute insanity. could barely move and it was a solid 40+ degrees. A local told us that in just under 10yrs or so, they went from 3M tourists annually to 12M.

Good food, good prices.... But never again. It's nothing like it was 15 or so yrs ago when I went. Wife did not enjoy the trip half as much as she expected to

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

Getting ready to head out next week. Here is the final itinerary

So how did the trip go, and is there anything you'd advise us all to (not) do? Apologies if you made a new trip report thread and I missed it

Let me spend some time writing up the report and I'll post it in a bit. Will be a good recap for me...

It was a great trip. Definitely some highlights without a lot of lowlights.

Please hold....

As someone who was in Naples just 2 weeks ago, can I assume that IT was one of your lowlights?

What a dump it has become... and the amount of tourists (of which i am included) is absolute insanity. could barely move and it was a solid 40+ degrees. A local told us that in just under 10yrs or so, they went from 3M tourists annually to 12M.

Good food, good prices.... But never again. It's nothing like it was 15 or so yrs ago when I went. Wife did not enjoy the trip half as much as she expected to

We were only in Naples for a couple of hours in between trains to Sorrento, so it won't be covered in detail other than stopping at L'antica Pizzeria da Michele, one of the oldest pizzarias in Naples, dating from 1870 to try their pizza. Review coming up in a later installment.

My son also bought a fake Goorin Brothers hat from one of the many vendors that were lined up along the street. I think he got it for 5 Euros.

Regarding the tourists, I think we went at the exact right time. We were there in the beginning/mid-June, before the huge rush. It was busy everywhere but by no means crazy like I think July and August became. Plus the temperatures weren't bad. Rome was a little warmer than the rest of Europe but coming from Miami, we are used to hot and humid so it wasn't that much of an issue.

 

[waiver wire]

33 yesterday and 34 today in Paris, way to hot for me.
Off to Vilshofen tomorrow for 2 nights before a danube river cruise with Amawaterways

 

[Ilov80s]

Just booked my flight for June. Doing Rome, Tuscany and Venice.

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

33 yesterday and 34 today in Paris, way to hot for me.
Off to Vilshofen tomorrow for 2 nights before a danube river cruise with Amawaterways

Nice. I love me some European river cruises.

Enjoy.

 

[Orange&Blue]

33 yesterday and 34 today in Paris, way to hot for me.
Off to Vilshofen tomorrow for 2 nights before a danube river cruise with Amawaterways

my parents have been on 5 of their cruises with 3 more booked. they love them and proudly state ama is going to take all of my inheritance

 

[Orange&Blue]

Just booked my flight for June. Doing Rome, Tuscany and Venice.

how much are plane tickets doing multiple cities?

 

[Ilov80s]

Just booked my flight for June. Doing Rome, Tuscany and Venice.

how much are plane tickets doing multiple cities?

We are flying into and then back out of Rome. Nonstop both ways. I think $2400 but we had a lot lot lot of miles.

 

[Chemical X]

Getting ready to head out next week. Here is the final itinerary

So how did the trip go, and is there anything you'd advise us all to (not) do? Apologies if you made a new trip report thread and I missed it

Let me spend some time writing up the report and I'll post it in a bit. Will be a good recap for me...

It was a great trip. Definitely some highlights without a lot of lowlights.

Please hold....

As someone who was in Naples just 2 weeks ago, can I assume that IT was one of your lowlights?

What a dump it has become... and the amount of tourists (of which i am included) is absolute insanity. could barely move and it was a solid 40+ degrees. A local told us that in just under 10yrs or so, they went from 3M tourists annually to 12M.

Good food, good prices.... But never again. It's nothing like it was 15 or so yrs ago when I went. Wife did not enjoy the trip half as much as she expected to

are you talking IT or just naples? naples is a complete hole. crowded, dirty, dodgy at night.

 

[Soulfly3]

Getting ready to head out next week. Here is the final itinerary

So how did the trip go, and is there anything you'd advise us all to (not) do? Apologies if you made a new trip report thread and I missed it

Let me spend some time writing up the report and I'll post it in a bit. Will be a good recap for me...

It was a great trip. Definitely some highlights without a lot of lowlights.

Please hold....

As someone who was in Naples just 2 weeks ago, can I assume that IT was one of your lowlights?

What a dump it has become... and the amount of tourists (of which i am included) is absolute insanity. could barely move and it was a solid 40+ degrees. A local told us that in just under 10yrs or so, they went from 3M tourists annually to 12M.

Good food, good prices.... But never again. It's nothing like it was 15 or so yrs ago when I went. Wife did not enjoy the trip half as much as she expected to

are you talking IT or just naples? naples is a complete hole. crowded, dirty, dodgy at night.

no, I love italy as a whole... though it can can crowded everywhere in the summer w tourists.

naples i will never return to. twice is enough. once was nice, the next was a letdown.

 

[McBokonon]

Going to Amsterdam in November - rather be cold than in the height of tourist season. Staying Saturday though Wednesday on a houseboat, then taking a train to Ghent for a few days before going back to Amsterdam to fly home. Plan on a lot of day trips out of the city if anyone has suggestions.

 

[Phil Elliott]

We are leaving tomorrow for Munich. Just got upgraded to 1st/business on AUS-CLT and CLT-MUC. Primary focus is business conference next Thu/Fri. Have Oktoberfest table reserved for opening day next Sat and Mon. Found my lederhosen outfit at store in Fredericksburg,TX that has imported German clothing.
Tue: arrive 7:00 am ( booked hotel for tonight so no wait for checkin). Check out "old town"/Marienplatz.
Wed: day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle. Tour with up to 22 people in bus previously used by FC Bayern, with half the seats removed for more room.
Thu-Fri: conference
Sat: Oktoberfest
Sun: spend day with colleague that lives in Munich
Mon: Oktoberfest (small group tour including breakfast in Old Town).
Tue: day trip "Hitlers Eagle Nest" small group tour.
Wed: open
Thur: fly home.
Subway and tram stops at hotel.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

The next day we started at the Borough Market. For the life of me, I don't understand why I never knew about this place when I was living here or on my many trips to London afterward. I also mentioned it to my parents who lived outside of London for a couple of years and they didn't know about it either.

I doubt it existed in the current format when you lived there. It has recently been revamped as a destination. It was a foramer's market before, and not necessarily in good repair.

I'm enjoying the travelogue. I envy you the sausage rolls.

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

The next day we started at the Borough Market. For the life of me, I don't understand why I never knew about this place when I was living here or on my many trips to London afterward. I also mentioned it to my parents who lived outside of London for a couple of years and they didn't know about it either.

I doubt it existed in the current format when you lived there. It has recently been revamped as a destination. It was a foramer's market before, and not necessarily in good repair.

I'm enjoying the travelogue. I envy you the sausage rolls.

Appreciate the comment and information. I’ll keep it going then!

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

We are leaving tomorrow for Munich. Just got upgraded to 1st/business on AUS-CLT and CLT-MUC. Primary focus is business conference next Thu/Fri. Have Oktoberfest table reserved for opening day next Sat and Mon. Found my lederhosen outfit at store in Fredericksburg,TX that has imported German clothing.
Tue: arrive 7:00 am ( booked hotel for tonight so no wait for checkin). Check out "old town"/Marienplatz.
Wed: day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle. Tour with up to 22 people in bus previously used by FC Bayern, with half the seats removed for more room.
Thu-Fri: conference
Sat: Oktoberfest
Sun: spend day with colleague that lives in Munich
Mon: Oktoberfest (small group tour including breakfast in Old Town).
Tue: day trip "Hitlers Eagle Nest" small group tour.
Wed: open
Thur: fly home.
Subway and tram stops at hotel.

Always wanted to see Neuschwanstein. Should have fit it in on this trip but it didn’t make the cut.

Sounds like a great visit. I do enjoy traveling to Germany. Probably partly due to my heritage and the fact that I can semi-speak the language. Also can’t complain with beer, pretzels and sausage being staples of the diet.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Neuschwanstein is bonkers. Recommended.

 

[⚡DEADHEAD⚡]

Oberammergau too if you can swing it. One of the most beautiful places in the world.

 

[Phil Elliott]

Oberammergau too if you can swing it. One of the most beautiful places in the world.

Included in our day trip.

 

[Phil Elliott]

We are leaving tomorrow for Munich. Just got upgraded to 1st/business on AUS-CLT and CLT-MUC. Primary focus is business conference next Thu/Fri. Have Oktoberfest table reserved for opening day next Sat and Mon. Found my lederhosen outfit at store in Fredericksburg,TX that has imported German clothing.
Tue: arrive 7:00 am ( booked hotel for tonight so no wait for checkin). Check out "old town"/Marienplatz.
Wed: day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle. Tour with up to 22 people in bus previously used by FC Bayern, with half the seats removed for more room.
Thu-Fri: conference
Sat: Oktoberfest
Sun: spend day with colleague that lives in Munich
Mon: Oktoberfest (small group tour including breakfast in Old Town).
Tue: day trip "Hitlers Eagle Nest" small group tour.
Wed: open
Thur: fly home.
Subway and tram stops at hotel.

Always wanted to see Neuschwanstein. Should have fit it in on this trip but it didn’t make the cut.

Sounds like a great visit. I do enjoy traveling to Germany. Probably partly due to my heritage and the fact that I can semi-speak the language. Also can’t complain with beer, pretzels and sausage being staples of the diet.

Been to Düsseldorf and Cologne (and wine trip to Ahr Valley for Pinot Noir). I speak a little German from my high school days. 25% German in the dna from northern Germany. We did day trip to Salzburg (from Vienna) about four years ago but it was "Sound of Music" focused but we loved it.

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

Next leg of the journey: Take the train to Zurich via Brussels for an overnight

I'm a big fan of train travel and love to do it while I'm in Europe even with the understanding that it may be more expensive and could take longer. But alas, in this case, the journey was part of the adventure, not just the destination.

We took an early morning. 7:04a Eurostar 9110 train from London St. Pancras to Brussels ($130/each) and had about 20 minutes to change trains to Frankfurt. Being an avid airplane traveler for years and years, I still get anxious about any connection, regardless of how long it may be. That anxiety started creeping in a little bit, knowing that we only had 20 minutes to get from one platform to the next once we got to Brussels Midi station. In hindsight, I should have known better because air travel ≠ train travel in Europe. I understand that delays still happen on the railways but you're not having to go from one extremely large terminal at an airport to the next when you're at a train station. You don't have to worry about weather delays or mechanical delays (as much). My anxiety was tempered quickly once we pulled into Brussels Midi and had a short, 5-minute walk to hop onto the next train, Deutsche Bahn ICE 15 ($160 each), from Brussels Midi to Frankfurt Main HbF. Easy peasy.

I want to shout out to my go-to travel site for train travel in Europe. Seat 61 has a large volume of travel information if you want to get anywhere in Europe via train. Which train to take, the various options, the costs, pictures of the insides and outsides of the carriages, explanation of the different classes, pictures and videos of the scenery, best seating options, how to book, etc. Everything you would want or need if you want clarification on how to get between two points. Simply amazing. I discovered this site many years ago and go back to it constantly whenever I travel to Europe to ensure I get the best information on the how/when/where/how much. I also have Seat61 to thank for making me aware of the Bernina Express, which is the whole reason we are taking this slightly longer, and scenic to our ultimate destination on this leg, Sorrento, Italy. The Bernina Express was definitely worth it, highly encouraged, and provided a little more excitement than we expected, but I'll get into more of that during the next installment.

I also utilized a variety of booking methods for my train travel including trainline.com, Eurostar.com, DeutscheBahn.com and SBB.com (Swiss Federal Railway). I can't remember the exact reason why I didn't book it all on Trainline.com but it may be due to the additional functionality that I could get (e.g. detailed train information & individual seat booking) by booking direct. Regardless, it was pretty easy to keep everything straight by making sure I had the apps loaded on my phone. Paper isn't used much anymore, so just bring up the QR code on the appropriate app and have it scanned by the conductor. It was pretty easy.

We made it to Zurich around 6:00p and took a short, 5-minute walk to the Ibis Styles City Center ($308/night). This was a hotel booked out of convenience, not necessarily any sort of luxury. It is a fairly common, tourist-grade hotel but that's all we really needed because we were just staying one night and it was close the the Bahnhof. I had originally booked one room that could accommodate the three of us but when we checked in, the front desk agent indicated that they didn't have any rooms available for three people and ended up giving us two rooms right next to each other. It wasn't an issue for us, and I think my son actually liked having his own room. I was also a little concerned when I heard the people in front of us at the front desk complaining that their room was too hot and the AC wasn't working. Granted, it was warmer than usual in Zurich for this time of year and many European hotels just weren't built with central air like we Americans take for granted. Despite my concern, it didn't end up being an issue and we were fine.

I also want to point out that other than London (booked directly with Marriott) and Paris (booked using points through Chase Travel), I used Booking.com for the rest of our accommodations. Being a little late in the booking season for summer meant that we didn't have quite as many options, or get any really good deals. On average, our hotels averaged $350/night all in (room rate, taxes, fees), and this was for what I consider to be mid-range options. Not luxury (except for the last few nights in Paris I will explain later) but also not budget accommodations either. When I first started looking at hotel options in Europe, I did realize that I was going to have to adjust my budget a little bit to make sure I had reasonable expectations for what was needed to make sure we were comfortable and staying in decent locations. I had originally assumed $250/night would work until I started looking. That's when I adjusted to $350/night.

I do have an affinity for the Germanic countries of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria and their alpine regions. There's just something about them that I enjoy. Also, a reason why I like the Pacific Northwest of the US/Canada and the Rocky Mountains. Growing up in the Midwest and now being in Miami, having mountains around is just comforting to me as it's not anything I live around in my daily life. That being said, despite being stupid expensive, I do enjoy Zurich immensely and could spend more time there exploring the mountains, trails, and small towns all around the country. Maybe on our next trip.

As we tend to do, we decided to walk around and check out the city. We dropped our stuff in the room and decided to head out and find some dinner. I was looking for something traditional and local and found the Rheinfelder Bierhalle. It was perfect. It was a 10-15 minute walk from our hotel, and despite being somewhat touristy, the food hit the spot. We started with a local sausage and cheese salad that was recommended by the locals who were sitting next to us. I didn't get a picture of it but it was a good start to the meal. I ordered the Schweinsbratwurst an Zwiebelsauce mit Rösti /Pork sausage with onion gravy and hashbrowns (sorry, I had to include the German/Swiss name just because), my wife had the Oberländer Rösti (mit Speck, Spiegelei und Alpkäse) /Rösti with bacon, melted cheese and a fried egg and my son had Kalbs-Cordon bleu mit Pommes frites und Gemüse / Veal Cordon Bleu with french fries and vegetables. As you can see, my son enjoyed the Cordon-Bleu but was also enjoying the fact that the drinking age is 18 in Europe and he just got a kick out of ordering (and drinking) a couple of beers with dinner. Beer choice: Quöllfrisch Naturtrüb

After dinner, we walked around picturesque downtown Zurich and called it a night.

The next day, we would board the Bernina Express, which would take us through the Swiss and Italian Alps and eventually get us to Milan, Italy.

 

[titusbramble]

We are leaving tomorrow for Munich

Best bierhalle/huge garden place in my experience is the Augustiner place just a five minute walk west of the Hbf, if you are looking for somewhere outside of the Oktoberfest to have a drink. Edelstoff out of wooden casks is elite beer

 

[Phil Elliott]

We are leaving tomorrow for Munich

Best bierhalle/huge garden place in my experience is the Augustiner place just a five minute walk west of the Hbf, if you are looking for somewhere outside of the Oktoberfest to have a drink. Edelstoff out of wooden casks is elite beer

Thx-As a homebrewer I can't wait! Augustiner is on are list.

 

[Phil Elliott]

We were leery of the trains when we visited Italy about 5 years ago. We did several high speed trains and bumped to "first class" for like $15 extra for a total of <$50/person/leg.

 

[Phil Elliott]

Trip starting with some small issues. In business class and just had a marginal pasta meal. But had an excellent ice cream sundae, except last bite was a 1" square piece of glass! WTF! Flight crew is aware of it now. Wine is flowing...watching a Bollywood movie

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

Next installment: Take Bernina Express through the Alps, stay overnight in Milan

As mentioned previously in this thread, the highlight of today was going to be the Bernina Express. As described by The Man in Seat 61:

"The fabulous Bernina Express is a narrow gauge train with panoramic sightseeing cars run by the Rhätische Bahn between Chur in Switzerland and Tirano in northern Italy, See the route map here. It's perhaps the most scenic Alpine train ride train of all - although the Glacier Express competes for the title - and one of the most scenic train rides in the world, a personal favorite. It forms part of an alternative slow scenic route between Zurich & Milan, and on this page I'll explain how to use the Bernina Express as part of a scenic overland journey from London, Paris or Zurich to Milan, Florence, Venice or Rome. You can ride it all year round, a completely different experience through Alpine snows in winter and through sunny green meadows in summer. So you should probably ride it more than once!"

Since the train station was only a few minutes walk away from the hotel, we got there early for a quick sandwich and coffee at the cafe. Also bought some snacks and drinks for the train ride. As a frequent traveler for business, I am ALWAYS prepared for a delay so having an extra Snickers bar or bottle of water is always worth the extra weight even if you get stuck somewhere once in a blue moon.

The link above has a lot of great pictures and explanations on how to arrange your own travel so I will just add some detail on our own experiences.

Since we were going from Zurich to Milan, this was the southbound route. I followed Seat 61's advice and bought the tickets in advance ($236 total), along with the seat reservations. While going from Zurich to Milan is a multi-leg journey traveling along this route, it really wasn't that difficult as most people in your train cars are doing the same. From Zurich, you take a Swiss Inter-city train to Chur and then switch train cars from Chur to Tirano. There would be another train change in Tirano to get to Milan. At least that's how it's supposed to work (explained later).

The Zurich-Chur leg was pretty uneventful. As expected for a Swiss train, it left Zurich at exactly 12:07p and arrived into Chur exactly at 1:22p.

One point I will make is to spend the extra coin for first-class on the Bernina Express portion. While this section is a regularly scheduled train, there are special panoramic Bernina Express cars for the tourists and regular train cars for the locals. Since most of the people in the panoramic cars are tourists, they are bringing all of their luggage with them. And since these are panoramic cars, they don't have the overhead storage of a normal European train car. Thus, I would try and be one of the first ones on the train once you get the Chur even if you have a reservation, to make sure that you have a place to stow your luggage. If you're one of the last on, it's going to be a challenge to find a place to put your stuff. There is considerably more space in the 1st class cars versus 2nd class, so that's the route I would go next time. I guess I was just trying to save a few dollars here for some reason.

Once we got settled on the train in Chur, the conductor passed around a card that showed how to connect to the wifi so you can follow along via your phone and hear interesting dialogue about the journey, individual stops and the scenery along the way. I was aware that due to a landslide that had taken place on the rail line between Tirano and Milan, we would have to get off the train at some point, hop on a bus, go around the landslide, hop back on the train for the rest of the journey to Milan. Okay, no problem. As long as my expectations are managed, we can figure the rest of it out along the way.

The train starts rolling and we are enjoying the awesome alpine views along the way. The panoramic train cars were a great way to see pretty much everything coming and going. 2nd suggestion, reserve a seat in the middle of the car so you can look forward and back. Not required I guess, but that's where we had seats and I thought they were pretty good. About halfway to Tirano, I hear the conductor talking on the speaker. It was a little broken English so it was tough to decipher exactly what was said. The part that I got was something about an unexpected train change that would be taking place later in the journey. Since I had already read about the landslide between Tirano and Milan, I just figured that was the announcement and kind of forgot about it. About 10 minutes later, there was another announcement that sounded a little more urgent and specifically mentioned having to get off the train at the next stop. That didn't exactly jive with my own self-navigating since we were only a little halfway to Tirano. I could hear a little chatter amongst the rest of the guests and they all seemed as confused as I was on what the next steps were going to be. I ended up talking to a guy about my age who was also traveling with his family and speaking English so I figured we would compare notes. From what we could piece together, there was a derailment further up the track somewhere and we would have to get off the train at the next stop. Unfortunately, it was still unclear what would happen after that. We agreed to "work together" and try and figure out the plan of attack so we could at least ensure that we were both in the know and wouldn't get stuck somewhere.

Wow, that's a lot of typing - I just realized that each post has a 10,000 character limit which is why I had to break it up into two parts.

I am enjoying re-living the trip myself so if anything, at least I have a travelogue that I can go back to if I want to reminisce again.

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

I can't remember the exact stop it was, maybe Pontresina, right near St. Moritz, when the conductor came into the carriage that we were in and said in his broken English "Everyone needs to get off. You have to get off here!". Well, that wasn't exactly the plan but since we knew that there was some sort of detour happening, we got off the train, schlepping all of our luggage with the rest of the people and just kind of looked around, trying to figure out what to do next. I tried to nose in on some of the conversations that people were having in small groups while standing on the platform. After hearing some comments alluding to a bus picking us up, I decided that it may be a good idea to start heading toward the parking lot. I compared notes with my newfound friend and we proceeded to start dragging our luggage to the stairs heading down. Quite a few other people had the same idea right about the same time, so it quickly became a case of the lemmings following each other off the cliff. Well, not exactly, but once we got to the parking lot and saw one bus sitting there, I quickly told my wife and son that we HAD to get on that bus because I had no idea when or if there would be a second one. I did proceed to have a slight disagreement with one pissed-off and impatient guy who was urgently trying to get more information from the previously mentioned, English-challenged conductor/tour guide who was standing at the front of the bus as it was quickly filling up. Hey guy, screaming at a guy in English who clearly isn't able to comprehend what you are telling him isn't going to help the matter. Apparently, he didn't like it when I told him that but then proceeded to start speaking to the tour guide in my broken German. I didn't get a lot of information from him but got enough to know that we had to be on THAT bus, right now because it was leaving as soon as it was full. There wasn't any place to sit so we had to get on with our luggage and ended up standing for the 90-minute drive to the next, post-derailment train station. My new friend and his family were the last to pack on the bus and had to also stand but at least we all made it. As you can see from the picture, we were packed in pretty tight between people and luggage. Oh well. Make the best of it as it's usually experiences like these that turn into the stories that you eventually tell on a fantasy-football forum. LOL.

Alright, after all that, we ended up getting to the next train station where the northbound, Bernina Express was waiting for us. There are two trips/day during the summer so apparently the train we met up with had unloaded it's passengers to the bus that took them to the spot where we got off so they could resume their northbound journey. Since the bus couldn't accommodate everyone that was on our original train (probably only 30-40% were able to get on the first bus), I figured that the seat reservations we had on the previous train were no longer necessary and decided to take the risk of sitting in the first-class car. That plan worked out so we were able to enjoy a little more space on the remaining journey to Tirano.

Once we got to Tirano, we were able to find the bus that was going to take us around the landslide so we could resume the journey via train to Milano. By the time we got to Sondrio via the bus, it was pouring rain and about 3 hours later than originally scheduled. The regularly scheduled train to Milan ($55 total) wasn't leaving for 30 minutes so thankfully I talked my son into running out of the train station to find us a couple of beers and some snacks (my backup Snickers and water were long gone). After a further uneventful two hours, we finally made it to Milan.

Despite the challenges, I would still highly suggest taking the Bernina Express. The views were stunning for pretty much the entire trip. I would probably do it again, only heading South to North the next time. Or maybe during the winter. I think that would be cool also.

Our stay in Milan was short as it was just another overnight before heading to Rome the following day. One quick shout out to the Mercato Centrale at the Milan train station. It's like a large food hall with tons of different food options. One place that we HAD to stop at was the Asian dumpling place, right near the entrance. My wife and son had been to Italy last summer with some friends and they had an obsession with this place. I think they went there three times despite not even staying in Milan (once when they got to Milan and transferred trains and two more times when they took a day trip to Lake Como). I have to say, after a long day of traveling, the dumplings really hit the spot.

It was a quick 5-minute walk to the 43 Station Hotel ($314) from the Milan Station and we were in for the night. Again, this hotel was chosen simply due to its proximity to the train station knowing that we would be only staying for one night and heading to Rome in the morning. Nothing fancy, but it was functional and close. Would recommend if you need a place near Milano Centrale.

Next installment - our journey to Rome.

 

[Ilov80s]

Anyone have suggestions on what are the best areas in Rome to stay? Doing some sightseeing but also want to chill, eat and drink.

 

[Phil Elliott]

Late on the Munich trip report...(sorry for the length of the post but this was a great trip);
1. Munich is a very nice city. Spent most free time in Old Town/pedestrian shopping street
2. Highly recommend Limoni for excellent Italian/Mediterranean meal/great wine. Located just a mile ot two north of Old Town near English Gardens.
3. English Gardens is a wonderful park-larger than Central Park. There is a fast flowing stream that is "famous" for surfers: https://www.munich.travel/en/pois/sports-leisure/eisbachwelle that we stopped at to watch.
4. Oktoberfest - we went twice and it was a riot. Think "state fair" with midway, arcades, food but the focus is the "beer gardens"! Huge tents holding 2k-9k people. Don't worry about having a table reservation. You can usually get into the tents, sometimes a line. Just find a community table and ask if you can sit and join. It it like a giant sing-a-long of songs like mamma Mia, take me home country roads, Fernando, 99 red balloons, etc...people standing on the benches, clanking 1 liter "fest beer" glasses (usually a 'helles' style beer of 6% so people tend to sip it. 15 euro/1 liter glass. The bar maids bring out 10 glasses at a time (a table typically is 10 people). Tip well the first round to keep her attention. Definitely dress up in genuine lederhosen! The first day we had a business group reservation-rather low key. When our reservation time was expired (about 4 hours) we randomly picked a community table and the guy across from us was a professor at Univ Chi Booth Business School (and his family) where our daughter graduated with an an exec MBA last year.
It's free to get in the grounds the tents and the tables. Just need to pay for beer and food (typically a toasted half of chicken but other food available).
The second day we went was a "Viator" small group tour. Started with traditional Munich breakfast of white brats (don't eat the skin), a pretzel and Weiss's beer. This was at Augustiner in Old Town. Then grabbed the metro for two stops to Oktoberfest. There is a wine tent for those that don't like beer. All the tents have a band. Every tent seems to have a different culture.and decor.
5. Three trips into the Alps:
Neuschwanstein - top tourist site in Germany. Castle that Walt Disney used as model for Disney castles. Lessor known, there is a huge painting in the castle that was used as the "model" for the first in the movie Bambi. Highly recommend taking the tram up. Go to the bridge before the castle for great photo opportunity. Walking down is fine, although it started raining. Many steps in the castle. Great history around the building of the castle. The very young King Ludwig ll was described as crazy (von hapsburg family inbreeding?), introverted, would not kill any animal, but very engineering smart. The rest of the story is for you to learn. We stopped at Oberammergau. It was kind of rainy and the guide was hurriedly walking us thru the town showing us various building facade paintings with 3-d effects. Village is very nice and focus on wood carvings and a very popular passion play that is held every 10 years. The guide emphasized that almost all the revenue in the town was from tourism, yet we didn't get to do any shopping.
"Hitlers Nest" - built for Hitler as a birthday present. Amazing location on the top of a mountain ridge above the town of Berchtesgaden. Literally 30 feet either way and you are looking down hundreds of feet. Altitude is 6,000 ft. Could see Saltzburg. Have to walk thru a 500 ft tunnel to get to an elevator that takes you up 500 ft. Hitler ironically was afraid of heights and only visited it about a dozen times. Some key war strategy meetings held here.
The third visit to the Alps was with a colleague I knew that lived in Munich. We took a cable car up Berchtesgaden Mountain. On top did some hiking and had a couple beers on a deck overlooking the Alps. Germans, at least in Bavaria love to hike, commonly referred to wandering. I had the song "The Happy Wanderer" that I learned as a kid, in my head this day.
Ended up at my colleagues house for dinner with one of his sons and his son's friend. His wife was visiting her brother in Spain. Electricity is about 3x the cost in the US. He had solar panels. We were out on the patio and turned the lights on every time we went inside (basically restroom breaks).
6. The beers of Munich are very good. As a home brewer I was looking forward to Augustiner (drawn from wooden kegs). For those that may not be aware, Germany has a "purity" law that requires beer to only contain water, malt, hops and yeast. Only the six beers brewed in Munich are allowed in Oktoberfest.
7. Basically tip 10%. All wait staff were unbelievably nice. We were there for 10 days.
8. Transportation was easy. One ticket will cover the the S-Bahn, U-bahn, bus and tram systems. A ticket cost under 10 Euro for the day. We stayed a block from the U-Bahn at Westin Grand Munich. Uber is very pervasive also and we used it several times. Although the taxis say they accept CC, every time I try using CC the "internet is down" in the taxi.
9. Went to the Hoftbrau Haus in Old Town Its a popular beer hall/restaurant. It was hot inside so recommend grabbing a seats at the community tables in the outdoor court in the middle if the building.
10. 75% of the cars were BMW, Audi or Mercedes.
11.The Olympic Park area is a popular tourist site. We didn't go as I remember the terrorist attacks of the '72 Olympics and didn't care to visit it.
12. The FC Bayern Munich team was staying at the hotel Infinity (where the conference I was attending was held). There was a big line of fans waiting to meet the team on their way to the game that night. https://allianz-arena.com/en looks like an amazing stadium. We drove by it a couple times.
13. And of course cuckoo clocks are popular. We looked at many and have one we are going to order. Don't get the cheap ones as the cuckoo sound is much inferior. The one we are looking at is made by Hones from the Black Gorest and has some moving parts/dancers. Get an 8-day vs 1 -day "wind" or you are pulling the weight chains every day and one you can silence at night. Of course after a week I guess most people end up just turning it off anyway.
14. Pretzels are served at every meal.

Truly amazing trip that exceeded all our expectations.

 

[FarFromHome]

I had the pleasure of being stationed in Heidelberg Germany for 3 years. Outside of war it was a wonderful time. My top 3 favorite cities:

Barcelona. Watched the battle of the bulls at the La Monumental. Had to fight three protesters and riot police to enter the place. Such a wonderful city.

Venice. Ahhhh. Venice. Cruise down the canals. The vibe on Venice is 2nd to none.

Berlin. So underrated when it comes to European cities. It's WWII history and still damaged buildings.from bombing. Great night life. Just a fun city.

Bonus:

Amsterdam. We used to take the train over and drink beer the entire ride. By the time we got there we where hammered and just kept rolling. It was always the same for me in Amsterdam. Utter debauchery. So many years ago and at my age now wouldnt be as fun, but my was it fun then.

 

[Lehigh98]

I started working my way through all the great info in this thread but also going to post my questions so maybe I'll have some input by the time I catch up to current. We're a family of four with two teenage boys (18, 16). Kids have never been to Europe. I've only been to London on a couple of short trips. My wife has been to a few other places, but it's been a long time. We're looking to try a family Euro trip this summer just to give the kids a new experience (usually just go to beaches) before my older son leaves for college.

The trip will most likely be about 10 days in the range of late July / early August to fit around work / school requirements. Since this is a first Europe / cultural trip and we've got British / English blood (and only speak English), we figured London should be one of the stops. A natural second stop would be Paris but unfortunately there will be a little event called the Olympics going on that we'd prefer to avoid. Because of this, we're looking for what would be a good second, and maybe third location to visit. One we're currently thinking of is taking a train to Amsterdam.

We had been looking at a Costco package that was London / Edinburgh / Dublin, but that would also be the time of the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh which sounds cool but makes the hotel options there around $1,000 per room per night in that package. ($4k for 2 room for 2 nights is 2 much for us) So, we switched gears to look into going elsewhere while avoiding Paris.

So, any general thoughts on other good stops for us if we're including London as one of them? Amsterdam? Others? We were originally thinking of more stops / fewer days to see more but based on the feedback I've seen in the thread it seems like fewer stops may be the way to go. If we did London / Amsterdam, would ~3-4 days in each with a day for a local day trip to a smaller town seem good? Or try and hit another place in addition to London & Amsterdam? (Belgium? Germany? Save Spain / Italy for a different trip with more time of try and check one out for a couple days?)

We're really not sure where to start so any advice / direction would be appreciated!

 

[titusbramble]

The trip will most likely be about 10 days in the range of late July / early August to fit around work / school requirements. Since this is a first Europe / cultural trip and we've got British / English blood (and only speak English), we figured London should be one of the stops. A natural second stop would be Paris but unfortunately there will be a little event called the Olympics going on that we'd prefer to avoid. Because of this, we're looking for what would be a good second, and maybe third location to visit. One we're currently thinking of is taking a train to Amsterdam.

If you do end up going with Amsterdam, then while the Eurostar is good (albeit becoming excessively expensive if you're not booking way, way out), you might also want to consider taking the overnight ferry over. The obvious pros to this is that you're saving one night's hotel at either expensive end, not killing half a day travelling (you can roll into Amsterdam at around half 10 theoretically), and you can roll up the transfer from London > Harwich, ferry travel and overnight cabin into one purchase. Not quite as good as when NS (Dutch railways) threw in a ticket to any Dutch station so you need to buy that bit to get up to Amsterdam, but still a decent alternative

 

[Lehigh98]

The trip will most likely be about 10 days in the range of late July / early August to fit around work / school requirements. Since this is a first Europe / cultural trip and we've got British / English blood (and only speak English), we figured London should be one of the stops. A natural second stop would be Paris but unfortunately there will be a little event called the Olympics going on that we'd prefer to avoid. Because of this, we're looking for what would be a good second, and maybe third location to visit. One we're currently thinking of is taking a train to Amsterdam.

If you do end up going with Amsterdam, then while the Eurostar is good (albeit becoming excessively expensive if you're not booking way, way out), you might also want to consider taking the overnight ferry over. The obvious pros to this is that you're saving one night's hotel at either expensive end, not killing half a day travelling (you can roll into Amsterdam at around half 10 theoretically), and you can roll up the transfer from London > Harwich, ferry travel and overnight cabin into one purchase. Not quite as good as when NS (Dutch railways) threw in a ticket to any Dutch station so you need to buy that bit to get up to Amsterdam, but still a decent alternative

So funny, sitting next to my wife and mention this ferry and she's initially like "no way". I find the link and send and 15 mins later she's showing me the cabin option she's thinking of staying in. Very cool option, like I said, we know nothing so please keep any ideas coming even if they seem obvious to regular international travelers. Thanks!

 

[Lehigh98]

If we'd be staying longer in a couple of home bases, I like the Airbnb option from what I've seen some people saying but we really haven't used it before. Any advice for specific areas of London and/or Amsterdam or other locations to look for an Airbnb? Any specific advice when looking for one or booking one? TIA!

 

[titusbramble]

The trip will most likely be about 10 days in the range of late July / early August to fit around work / school requirements. Since this is a first Europe / cultural trip and we've got British / English blood (and only speak English), we figured London should be one of the stops. A natural second stop would be Paris but unfortunately there will be a little event called the Olympics going on that we'd prefer to avoid. Because of this, we're looking for what would be a good second, and maybe third location to visit. One we're currently thinking of is taking a train to Amsterdam.

If you do end up going with Amsterdam, then while the Eurostar is good (albeit becoming excessively expensive if you're not booking way, way out), you might also want to consider taking the overnight ferry over. The obvious pros to this is that you're saving one night's hotel at either expensive end, not killing half a day travelling (you can roll into Amsterdam at around half 10 theoretically), and you can roll up the transfer from London > Harwich, ferry travel and overnight cabin into one purchase. Not quite as good as when NS (Dutch railways) threw in a ticket to any Dutch station so you need to buy that bit to get up to Amsterdam, but still a decent alternative

So funny, sitting next to my wife and mention this ferry and she's initially like "no way". I find the link and send and 15 mins later she's showing me the cabin option she's thinking of staying in. Very cool option, like I said, we know nothing so please keep any ideas coming even if they seem obvious to regular international travelers. Thanks!

An obvious day trip from Amsterdam would be Brussels - within a couple of hours on train, book enough in advance and it's fairly reasonably priced

 

[Drunken knight]

bruges?

 

[massraider]

If we'd be staying longer in a couple of home bases, I like the Airbnb option from what I've seen some people saying but we really haven't used it before. Any advice for specific areas of London and/or Amsterdam or other locations to look for an Airbnb? Any specific advice when looking for one or booking one? TIA!

I haven't been in a few years, but I preferred hotels to AirBnb in London. There's sooooo many hotels there that I think it keeps the prices down. NYC and Boston are much, much more expensive. But, that's only if money is the main consideration. If you prefer to stay in a residential area, I think that's a great idea. I just would not expect to save money. Unless the two kids get their own room? In which case, AirBnb over several days will defintely be cheaper.

If I was placing a family of four in London, assuming they wanted to see the sights and have the most travel/restaurant options:

When you pull up the AirBnb map, use Mayfair/Marleybone/Soho as the center. That is the area that has the most trains/restaurants/shopping. Shepherd's Bush, Maida Vale, Notting Hill, Kensington, Chelsea, Fitzrovia, Hyde Park, Paddington. All these are safe and walkable, and have trains that get you to the center of the city.

Book with hosts that have been on there for a while, and only handle payments through the app. Everything through the app. Check the fees/cleaning fees etc. This place has a nice location, but $380 in extras.

 

[jb1020]

Wife and I just booked a last minute trip to Amsterdam. We've never been. Kind of a random moment. She was looking for a quick Mexico All Inclusive trip and close to booking, and luckily I started looking up places too. Mexico was like $5k. We were on Costco Travel. I pulled up the Europe section and plugged in the dates and we booked it on the spot....4 nights at a 5 star hotel right on Dam Square, airfare included, $2900.

I went to London over 20 years ago on a college trip, but the wife has never been to Europe. We're both so excited, I hope this is the start of more regular trips like this. We leave Feb 8th.

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

Wife and I just booked a last minute trip to Amsterdam. We've never been. Kind of a random moment. She was looking for a quick Mexico All Inclusive trip and close to booking, and luckily I started looking up places too. Mexico was like $5k. We were on Costco Travel. I pulled up the Europe section and plugged in the dates and we booked it on the spot....4 nights at a 5 star hotel right on Dam Square, airfare included, $2900.

I went to London over 20 years ago on a college trip, but the wife has never been to Europe. We're both so excited, I hope this is the start of more regular trips like this. We leave Feb 8th.

I love Amsterdam. Rent bikes, enjoy the cafes, go to the museums, try an Indonesian rijsttafel, walk the canals, take a train to the country (tulip farms if in season). Tons do do there.

 

[Nick Vermeil]

Dot

 

[jb1020]

Wife and I just booked a last minute trip to Amsterdam. We've never been. Kind of a random moment. She was looking for a quick Mexico All Inclusive trip and close to booking, and luckily I started looking up places too. Mexico was like $5k. We were on Costco Travel. I pulled up the Europe section and plugged in the dates and we booked it on the spot....4 nights at a 5 star hotel right on Dam Square, airfare included, $2900.

I went to London over 20 years ago on a college trip, but the wife has never been to Europe. We're both so excited, I hope this is the start of more regular trips like this. We leave Feb 8th.

I love Amsterdam. Rent bikes, enjoy the cafes, go to the museums, try an Indonesian rijsttafel, walk the canals, take a train to the country (tulip farms if in season). Tons do do there.

We leave next Thursday. Only 4 days.

We have a basic schedule laid out, but we're very much "go with the flow" type people.

Get in Friday Morning. We have a spot booked for the Anne Frank house that afternoon. Nothing scheduled passed that. Hotel is on Dam Square, so we'll just putz around. Probably red Light District, shop, have a pizza spot picked out. I figure we'll be tired that day.

Saturday - Vondelpark area. Van Gogh, Rijksmuseum, Moco Museum. There's a Michelin Star restaurant at out Hotel we have plans to go to that night. Never done that either.

Sunday - Got us tickets to futbol game! FC Volendam? I know very little about European soccer, I enjoy it, but couldn't tell you a thing about the Dutch League. But the Stadium looks like fun and it pretty easy to get too. Just plan on getting to the town early and seeing what all the buzz is about.

Monday - Head to Zaanse Schans. Windmills, cheese and clogs and what not.

I think thats a full enough schedule to give us plenty of free time, but enough to do to not miss out on too much.

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

Wife and I just booked a last minute trip to Amsterdam. We've never been. Kind of a random moment. She was looking for a quick Mexico All Inclusive trip and close to booking, and luckily I started looking up places too. Mexico was like $5k. We were on Costco Travel. I pulled up the Europe section and plugged in the dates and we booked it on the spot....4 nights at a 5 star hotel right on Dam Square, airfare included, $2900.

I went to London over 20 years ago on a college trip, but the wife has never been to Europe. We're both so excited, I hope this is the start of more regular trips like this. We leave Feb 8th.

I love Amsterdam. Rent bikes, enjoy the cafes, go to the museums, try an Indonesian rijsttafel, walk the canals, take a train to the country (tulip farms if in season). Tons do do there.

We leave next Thursday. Only 4 days.

We have a basic schedule laid out, but we're very much "go with the flow" type people.

Get in Friday Morning. We have a spot booked for the Anne Frank house that afternoon. Nothing scheduled passed that. Hotel is on Dam Square, so we'll just putz around. Probably red Light District, shop, have a pizza spot picked out. I figure we'll be tired that day.

Saturday - Vondelpark area. Van Gogh, Rijksmuseum, Moco Museum. There's a Michelin Star restaurant at out Hotel we have plans to go to that night. Never done that either.

Sunday - Got us tickets to futbol game! FC Volendam? I know very little about European soccer, I enjoy it, but couldn't tell you a thing about the Dutch League. But the Stadium looks like fun and it pretty easy to get too. Just plan on getting to the town early and seeing what all the buzz is about.

Monday - Head to Zaanse Schans. Windmills, cheese and clogs and what not.

I think thats a full enough schedule to give us plenty of free time, but enough to do to not miss out on too much.

Looks like you have it covered. We are never overscheduled for our trips like this and just like to make adjustments along the way. Sounds like that's your plan also.

 

[titusbramble]

Sunday - Got us tickets to futbol game! FC Volendam? I know very little about European soccer, I enjoy it, but couldn't tell you a thing about the Dutch League. But the Stadium looks like fun and it pretty easy to get too. Just plan on getting to the town early and seeing what all the buzz is about.

They appear to be in the relegation places, and playing PSV who've won all but one game this season, so this might be just a tad one sided...

 

[jb1020]

Sunday - Got us tickets to futbol game! FC Volendam? I know very little about European soccer, I enjoy it, but couldn't tell you a thing about the Dutch League. But the Stadium looks like fun and it pretty easy to get too. Just plan on getting to the town early and seeing what all the buzz is about.

They appear to be in the relegation places, and playing PSV who've won all but one game this season, so this might be just a tad one sided...

My wife just wants to yell "wanker" at the players like they do on Ted Lasso. I told her that should be fine, but we'll asses the situation first. Might take some mushrooms too just to make it really interesting.

 

[titusbramble]

Sunday - Got us tickets to futbol game! FC Volendam? I know very little about European soccer, I enjoy it, but couldn't tell you a thing about the Dutch League. But the Stadium looks like fun and it pretty easy to get too. Just plan on getting to the town early and seeing what all the buzz is about.

They appear to be in the relegation places, and playing PSV who've won all but one game this season, so this might be just a tad one sided...

My wife just wants to yell "wanker" at the players like they do on Ted Lasso. I told her that should be fine, but we'll asses the situation first. Might take some mushrooms too just to make it really interesting.

The Dutch stadium experience, as I've seen it, is a weird mix of the English and German cultures, in that they will support their own team solidly like the Germans do, but will also be a bit more spontaneous and take the piss out of the opposition like we do. That, however, was at the two biggest clubs (Ajax, Feyenoord) as opposed to at a smaller club like Volendam are