Research: Where to Stay in Europe

You can greatly enhance your experience with good choices for where to stay in Europe. My husband and I have differing views. His view is that where he sleeps is less important and he would rather save some money to spend on other aspects of a trip. I don’t totally disagree with this view. However, I believe that there are…

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Intro to France: How Everything Went Wrong

My introduction to France did not go well. It came as part of the five countries in ten days trip that Dave and I undertook with his son who was interning in Germany at the time. We had already driven up the Rhine and spent time in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg before heading into the Alsace-Lorraine region of…

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European Logistics: How to Pack Smart

If you pack smart, your European vacation will be more enjoyable. We all know people who bring everything but the kitchen sink for a weekend getaway. This is fine if you are traveling domestically and by car. It doesn’t work so well when you are flying across the ocean, may be traveling by public transportation during your trip, and may…

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Doing Laundry in Italy: How Dave Lost His Shirt

Dave used our bathroom sink to do his laundry in Italy with surprising consequences! The penthouse room in Monterosso was lovely with views overlooking the bell tower and the sea on one side and the town on the other side. The breakfast terrace was just one floor beneath our room and covered with a tin roof just outside our windows…

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Italy: Why Packing Smart Matters

We spent two solid weeks in Italy. Our plan was to use public transportation for most of the trip as we didn’t want to drive in Rome and wouldn’t be able to drive in Venice or the Cinque Terre. Having been to Italy before, I was also well aware that Italy is old and treasures its traditions and old buildings.…

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Ireland: How We Found Dori (after losing her 3 times)

We traveled to Ireland with Dave’s youngest sister Dori and promptly lost her and found her, and lost her again and found her, and lost her yet again but finally found her for good. This tangled tale was the result of us being cheap on two fronts – (1) we did not spring for GPS, and (2) we chose not…

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Research: Public Transportation in Europe

It’s a good idea to fully understand your options for transportation in Europe. While driving gives you the ultimate flexibility for getting around in Europe, it can also be a giant hassle. Gas is expensive, many countries have expensive tolls, navigation can be a challenge, parking can be problematic, and the driver has to concentrate on that so misses out…

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Research: Is Driving in Europe the Best Option for You?

How are you going to get around once you are in Europe? There are options. Your choices depend largely on the level of flexibility you require. Driving in Europe is more economical if you have more people in your travel party. But, if you are nervous about driving in a strange country (and in the U.K., concerned about driving on…

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Highlights from Our Trip to Germany

We just returned home from our 17 day trip to Germany. We are exhausted but thrilled that our trip was not only a lot of fun but went off without a hitch! All the planning worked out quite well. Future posts will contain detailed tales but thought I would drop a note with a quick summary of some of the…

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Pleasant Surprises and Misadventures in Germany

My second trip to Europe was probably the craziest so far. Dave and I were pretty early in our relationship and his son, Ben, was interning in Mannheim, Germany for eight months. The goals of the trip were to see how Ben was doing, for Ben and me to get to know each other, and for Dave and me to…

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