As promised - here's the itinerary. It will become evident why I titled this blog "Throw Mama From the Train" - we'll be riding trains a LOT. After 9 weeks, I might be ready to throw myself from the train to get away from the boys.
Day One: Depart San Diego, Fly by way of Chicago and Rome, to Catania. One night lost in transit. Take the regional train up to Riposto.
Day 2-9: Seven nights Riposto.
Afternoon of Day 9: Board intercitynotte train at Giarre/Riposto - take it to Milan. Arrive next morning.
Day 10: change trains in Milan to Frecciargento (high speed) to Bologna. Arrive in Bologna late morning. Check in to apartment.
Day 10, 11 in Bologna.
Day 12 - noon train, frecciargento, to Venice. Purchase Vapporetto passes and take vapporetto to apartment.
Day 12 (Mon) - Day 17 (Sat) - Venice
Day 17 evening - board overnight train to Vienna.
Day 18 - arrive in Vienna... spend a few hours... then board train to Prague.
Day 18-20 (Sun-Tue)- Prague
Day 21 - leave Prague and take train to Berlin
Day 21 - 23 - Berlin.
Day 24 (Saturday) - Leave Berlin by train. Train routes through Dusseldorf due to planned rail construction. Then on to Amsterdam
From this point on - everything is 1 week stays - Saturday to Saturday.
Day 24-31 - Amsterdam.
Day 32-38 - London - Eurostar via chunnel.
Day 39-45 - Paris - Eurostar again.
Day 46-52 - Nice. TVG high speed train. Plan to take local trains too Monaco, etc. as day trips
Day 53-59 - Aix-en-Provence. We'll pick up a rental car at the TVG station. Our apartment is near the local train station - but the TVG station is 10 miles out of town. Our apartment comes with parking.
Day 60-66 - Barcelona by way of the TVG.
Fly home on Day 66.
Total trip: 6 weeks and 2 days.
Not counting overnight trains and plane, we stay in 11 cities in 7 countries. Mostly slow travel (defined as 1 week in a spot.)
A family adventure of travelling for 2 months through Europe, by train.
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Inaugural Post - less than a month out.
Well... After years of dreaming, months and months of planning, we're now less than a month out from departure on our big adventure in Europe.
The plan: The four of us will leave 3 days after school gets out. I'll post the itinerary in the next post. But, basically, we're doing a big loop of Western Europe... Starting in Sicily, ending in Barcelona, with northern stops in Prague, Berlin, and Amsterdam.
All travel will be by train and public transit - with the exception of the week in Aix-en-Provence... too many things to see that are not train-convenient, and I don't enjoy tour buses.
This will be a BUDGET trip. We'll be eating locally. My goal is to only eat one meal (and some snacks) in a restaurant per day... We'll have kitchens, laundry and wifi at every apartment we're renting. We'll shop local, drink local, and hopefully that will help the budget. Our budget is $300/day - INCLUDING TRAIN AND LODGING. (excluding airfare.) That sounds like a lot till you realize it's for a family of 4... so it's only $75/person/day.
I'll be posting here with pictures and highlights. Stay tuned.
The plan: The four of us will leave 3 days after school gets out. I'll post the itinerary in the next post. But, basically, we're doing a big loop of Western Europe... Starting in Sicily, ending in Barcelona, with northern stops in Prague, Berlin, and Amsterdam.
All travel will be by train and public transit - with the exception of the week in Aix-en-Provence... too many things to see that are not train-convenient, and I don't enjoy tour buses.
This will be a BUDGET trip. We'll be eating locally. My goal is to only eat one meal (and some snacks) in a restaurant per day... We'll have kitchens, laundry and wifi at every apartment we're renting. We'll shop local, drink local, and hopefully that will help the budget. Our budget is $300/day - INCLUDING TRAIN AND LODGING. (excluding airfare.) That sounds like a lot till you realize it's for a family of 4... so it's only $75/person/day.
I'll be posting here with pictures and highlights. Stay tuned.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)