PinBud

Five weeks left until our summer 2012 trip to Europe (as of May 25). This post is intended to be a trip report, starting with listing set itinerary and general plans made so far, continuing with last details preparations, and finally writing a daily report of movements, activities, travel impressions, hotel & restaurant reviews, and so on.

Clarifications: 1. We love driving. 2. We've been to Europe many times before and we already visited some of our destinations. 3. We'll be back to those places that we like and cannot cover in-depth this time around. and 4. We travel on a moderate budget

So, here is the plan:

July 3 afternoon - Dad and Daughter leave Calgary on a direct flight to Germany
July 4 - get to Frankfurt airport, pick up car from Renault Euro-lease, 2 hour drive to Luxembourg city
July 5 - visit Luxembourg city
July 6 - 2 hr drive to Reims, tour a couple of champagne houses
July 7 - drive to Paris, take a short Seine cruise, then drive to Thaon, Normandy in the evening
July 8 - visit Bayeux and invasion beaches, especially the Canadian memorial at Juno
July 9 - 5 hr drive to Dinant, Belgium and spend the evening there
July 10 - 4 hr drive to Frankfurt, stop along the way
July 11 - 7 am pick up Mom from the airport, 2 hr drive to Rothenburg, spend the day and night there
July 12 - 1.5 hr drive to Nuremberg
July 13 - spend day in Nuremberg (beer & sausage day)
July 14 - 4 hrs drive to Bad Gastein, Austria, meet Cousin & his family from Romania
July 15 - 20 - spend a week in & around Bad Gastein, lots of biking & hiking
July 21 - Dad & Mom drive to Heidelberg (Cousin & Daughter drive to Romania)
July 22 - drive to Frankfurt airport, Mom goes back to Canada, Dad continues to Prague
July 23, 24 - spend 2 days in Prague
July 25 - 4 hrs drive to Vienna
July 26, 27 - spend 2 days in Vienna
July 28 - 2 hrs drive to Graz
July 29 - visit Graz
July 30 - 4 hrs drive to Budapest
July 31 - spend day in Budapest
Aug 1 - 10 hrs drive to Bucharest
Aug 2 - spend day in Bucharest
Aug 3 & 4 - Dad, Daughter, Cousin & family drive to Corfu, Greece. Overnight in Salonic.
Aug 5-10 - spend a week in Corfu. Beach stuff.
Aug 11 - Dad and Daughter hop on an overnight ferry to Italy (Cousin goes back to Romania)
Aug 12 - get to Bari in the am, 5 hrs drive to Rome airport, pick up Mom
Aug 13-15 - 3 days visit Rome
Aug 16 - 3 hrs drive to Florence
Aug 17-20 - spend 4 days in Florence/Tuscany
Aug 21 - 2 hrs drive to Monterosso
Aug 22, 23 - spend 2 days in Cinque Terre
Aug 24 - 5 hrs drive to Fiumicino
Aug 25 - drop off Mom at Rome airport, then visit Pompeii, then go to Sorrento
Aug 26 - spend day in Sorrento/Amalfi area
Aug 27 - visit Capri
Aug 28 - 12 hrs drive to Colmar
Aug 29 - visit Colmar then 1 hr drive to Strasbourg
Aug 30 - visit Strasbourg
Aug 31 - 2.5 hrs drive to Frankfurt
Sep 1 - Dad & Daughter fly back to Canada.

Dayle

Wow Pinbud,

Since you have been to Europe many times, you surely must like this pace and style of travel. You must also really love driving in Europe. You really lost me with the 12 hour drive between Sorrento/Colmar. Why? You aren't taking time to see anything along the way. But I guess the car lease requires pick up and return to the same city, so there you go.

I'm kind of stumped at the back and forth with Mom, but there must be a very good reason for it.

All I can say is have a wonderful time!

progol

Ditto about that pace! You must really like driving, because you are doing alot of it!

I'm still stuck in that first week-- that week seems almost non-stop, with little time to really see anything. I couldn't imagine driving in and out of Paris in a day with 2 relatively long drives sanfdwiching the visit....then visiting Bayeux and the beaches in one long day... Only to take another 5 hour drive the nrext day, followed by another 4 hour drive the next day....

It's one thing to like driving, but you'll barely have a chance to see anything except the car and the highway at that pace.

I know you've been there before so I guess you've considered this, but unless you are committed to this itinerary, I might consider tweaking it a bit. But I also wish you a wonderful trip! How great that you and your family enjoy traveling together like that!

PinBud

Thanks, Dayle.

Unfortunatelly Mom can't take the whole two months vacation. Plus she needs to be back at work on certain days of the month. That's why she will fly twice to Europe for the Austrian then the Italian portions of the trip.

I agree, the long 12 hr drive Sorrento/Colmar is not the best vacation day but it's required so we get back to Frankfurt area.

PinBud

Folks, I appreciate your concerns about the fast pace and the amount of driving and I agree it's not the usual Europe trip (4-5 days each in 3 major cities), but I'm really happy with this plan. Once I start the actual daily trip report I hope it makes more sense for the reader.

PinBud

To give you an idea how much I like driving, I just drove over 6000 kms in 9 days through Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado, and Utah, a couple of weeks ago. It didn't feel rushed at all, I stopped and had time to visit in a lot of places, including a full day of hiking in the Arches National Park and a Roger Waters concert in Denver.

Becky_Weber

we've done the whirlwind driving tour of Europe...12 countries in 34 days, and also of the US- 28 states in 42 days. I think that your Bari to Rome leg might be very interesting...I remember driving from Ravenna through extremely windy and twisty Italian roads with Ferraris up my tailpipe the entire way!! I think that your Fiumicino to Pompeii, to Sorrento is a bit ambitious. Pompeii deserves a fair bit of time, it's so remarkable. And so does Sorrento/Amalfi. We ended up with a week there, doing Capri and Positano from our home base in Sant'Agnello.

PinBud

Well, I'm 13 countries in 60 days, I believe, and that's counting Slovenia and Bulgaria as I'm passing through them

PinBud

and Switzerland! Also passing through.
But I did visit Switzerland properly for about two weeks a few years ago.

tower

My head is spinning enough to get a nauseous case of vertigo. You've given a perfect example of "to each his own"..so enjoy your two months and wave mightily at the 2,000 sites you will only see as you rapidly whiz through. And as an aside, Why all that way for one day in Budapest and one day in Bucharest? Beyond me, and I've driven in every last country in continental Europe, excepting Russia (the old SSR), Ukraine and Belarus(where I eschewed any driving but enjoyed the visits).

I would guess that your moderate budget will bleed from the nose when you add up your stratospheric petrol costs, which may require a second mortgage.

Somehow, it doesn't appear that you are seeking advice..but have a very "enjoyable" trip, Calgarians..we'll wait to read your report.

PinBud

Tower, nice sarcasm! To each his own indeed.

I was born in Bucharest and spent there many years. As for Budapest, I visited that city about five times already. Maybe I'm just stopping to buy my favorite tobacco? Yes, it will all be revealed in my report.

And petrol? It's a diesel. Total estimated cost for fuel is 700 euros.

tower

<i>Buna ziua</i>, PinBud..."to each his own" is not sarcasm..merely recognizing the fact that no two people travel the same way. But, really, what advice are you seeking? It's not clear to me, or perhaps to other posters. It appears that you just want our approval for the plan.

During Ceaucescu's regime I spent "too much" time in Romania (and Bucharest)...driving. My most recent visit was 2005 while escorting 16 of my readers on a "footsteps" visit all over the country. The only reminder of "Czar Nicolae" was his cute little palace. The country has come a long way since those days, when finding petrol and food was a daily adventure. And Budapest is one of my favorite cities in that part of the continent. Are you talking pipe tobacco?

PinBud, I wished you well before and I repeat..have a great, long trip.
<i>La revedere, drum bun!</i>
stu

PinBud

Multumesc Stu

Like I stated in the beginning, this particular post is intended to be a trip report; when I start my trip I will make some daily notes as I go. So it's not really to seek approval or advice regarding my itinerary, which is already set. However, I would of course appreciate ideas or recommendations for particular restaurants or activities in the places I'm going to visit.

I did seek advice in other specific posts, see my topics for the day in Paris and my day trip to Capri. I didn't know the best way to approach those things but now I do thanks to this forum's participants.

Thank you all very much and stay tuned ... "I'll be back".

Dayle

Pinbud,

We will certainly look forward to your driving blog. No, yours is definitely not the "normal" trip. But you have your goals, you have visited many times before and seem to know what you are doing. Seems you have plenty of money to spend to do this trip too. All is well. Keep us posted.

One of my favorite bumper stickers is "Why be Normal?"

Buon viaggio!

tower

PinBud..I learned a few years ago that Calgary had a large Romanian expat population. Couldn't pick a nicer city, one of my Canadian favorites. An acquaintance in Iasi (Yash) was thinking of emigrating there in 2005...don't know if he ever did..name Mihai Polinou.

When I was last in Bucharesht in 2005, the city was still a long way from completing infrastructure repairs...and many highways and byways were still iffy. At least no more shortages or what I dubbed as RRB's..Romanian Roadblocks, that were prevalent during Nicky's reign.

If you need a hotel in Buch, we were impressed by the boutique Hotel Opera where I put up the touring group I mentioned. In earlier times(70's and 80's), we never came across Americans, and only a few Westerners of any sort, anywhere in the country. Border crossing into Romania back then was an anxious experience.

Hope you anjoy your return, PB..

stu

tower

"enjoy"

Trophywife007

I wish my dad could go with you; it's right up his alley!

Have a great trip -- I look forward to your report.

PinBud

Yes, there's many Romanians in Calgary. At least a few thousand came after 2005 so maybe Mihai is among them.
It's also my favorite city in Canada, maybe not as cultural as Montreal but dynamic, modern, clean and with strong economy and job growth (oil & gas, eh...) I hope it stays that way and socialism doesn't take over in Alberta too.
Negatives are long winters and longer distances to reach some travel destinations. Anyway I travel a lot but mostly to Europe and USA.

Romania is getting better for sure and it's worth a visit or two. Before WW2 it was one of the most advanced countries in Central and Eastern Europe but 50 years of communism and insanity threw it back 100 years in time.
Ceausescu may be gone now (BTW I was there in the middle of the "revolution" in Dec 89) but there's still a lot of corruption in politics and even in the day to day life. For example, the country could really use a modern and fast highway system but billions of euros dissapeared and only few kms were completed in the last 20 years or so. Now the EU changed its strategy and pays for infrastructure projects in phases as milestones are achieved, so most works stalled since it is harder to steal

I know Hotel Opera, I even stayed there one night for a wedding.

rushngal

Pinbud, i have finally met someone who is just as crazy as myself and my husband or possibly even crazier about road trips and doing a crash course thru europe. And i say this in the nicest possible way. No malice intended in any way. Read on, and you will understand why i said that.

Hubby and I are Australians and are doing an 8 week road trip of europe and america. 4 weeks in europe and 4 weeks in america starting on the 14th june. In europe, we are going to Greece, Germany, Czech republic and Austria only. (we have done france spain and italy on another trip as well as england scotland and ireland) Sometimes i think we are crazy for the amount we are doing and some of our friends think the same but actually this trip will be the most leisurely of our 3 trips to europe. Lots of 2, 3 and 4 night stays. Sometimes i get a headache when i think of what we will be doing but have to remind myself that when we are in the moment it will be different. It will be taken step by step.

My husband is like yourself and loves driving. "Just give me the the keys and the car, I cant wait to get out on the open road" he always says.

You have made me feel relieved now about our trip because i dont think that we are not so crazy now because i have found someone who is doing a lot more than us and for that i thank you.

I will look forward to reading your report.

Have a great trip!!

kerouac

I know lots of people who like long road trips, and I like them myself from time to time.

However, I never really make a plan for the number of hours driving from place to place (it's more a case of "planning to sleep in that city at the end of the day -- but the end of the day can be 3pm, 6pm or 9pm, for example). Therefore I will be particularly interested to read about how well you manage to stick to your timings -- or if you get voluntarily sidetracked or involuntarily detoured from time to time.