We will be hitting the road again come Sept. 11, 2012. This time we’re heading for Europe. Our new passports and luggage for me have arrived. It really feels like we are going to go somewhere.
I am spending my evenings before bed looking at travel books, websites and maps plotting our course. This is the first time I am using Google Maps to plan the routes instead of traditional paper ones.
It feels a bit strange, but I really do like being able to add and subtract from the maps and get some idea of mileage. I have an app on my phone and iPad that will let me store my maps locally. Just hoping it all works as planned.
This adventure is really different for us. We’ll be meeting some online friends for the first time in real life. It’s kind of like back in the old school days, old fashion pen pal friends, but with a twist.
I will do my best to keep up with the blog. We found it pretty hard last time, took a lot of effort to keep putting entries in for 7 days straight.
We will be traveling for 15 days and in transit for 2 days and 1 overnight flight, with total days away being 18.
I never count the days traveling as vacation, because they are not vacation. Vacation doesn’t start until you hit the road at your destination start point and it ends when you board your plane to return home from your vacation.
- Basic plan is fly in and out Frankfurt Germany. I am not 100% sure in our order of visitation yet. But over all this is the skeletal plan.
- We will have a car and travel to see friends in the Netherlands & Belgium.
- Cover parts of Germany, the Rhine, some of Bavaria and the Alps. Taking in a few cities with lots of history and architecture.
- We will also visit Austria’s Alps and a few cities.
- More friends to meet Hungary, and a day trip to Slovakia if all the stars align and times tables match.
- We will try, if we can swing it, to hit a few other countries and cities along the way. But I think I am stretching it as it is.
And for a mental image of the size of these places. United Germany is about the size of Montana, Netherlands about the size of Maryland, Austria is a tad bit smaller than Maine, Hungary is about the size of Indiana. Luxembourg is a little more than 1/2 the size of Rhode Island.
Well that is it for now. Will post more as we get closer to leaving or I test features for the blog.