Three years ago this week, my hubby and I were in Europe. We had always wanted to do a “big trip” together, and so, we decided to go to Europe – specifically Germany, Austria, The Netherlands and Belgium. We had the greatest time, and we definitely want to go back. When Claire is a little older, she may have to stay for a couple weeks with Granny and Grandpa while Momma and Daddy take off across Europe again (he really wants to do Scandinavia next, and I want to do Italy next). We both want to see both places (in addition to many, many other locales), it will just be a matter of where we go first, and really, I’m a pushover when it comes to decisions like these, so I have no problem seeing Scandinavia next. Or, if so inclined, we may take Claire with us. Time will tell. I want her to be old enough to enjoy and remember a trip, and we may not want to wait that long. We’ll see…
Anyway…when we got back from Europe three years ago, I posted a lot of our pictures from the trip on a free website (that no longer exists, although I have html copies) and we made a DVD. We tortured all our friends and family with our DVD, and it was so much fun watching it.
We took approximately 4368 pictures, give or take a couple. It was hard narrowing down the shots for the DVD, and the website. I’ve been feeling the urge to relive our Europe Trip, so I want to post some recaps on the blog. My hubby has not authorized the electronic reproduction or public display of his image, so I had to sort through and find the ones that don’t have us in them. Thankfully, I was able to find some, and actually, it’s really hard to decide. All of the pictures bring back such awesome memories, yet they really don’t show the full grandeur of the trip or the experiences we had. That being said, I’ve tried to pick and choose. Surely WordPress has a limit on how many pictures I can upload? Maybe not? Where’s the fine print when you need it…
Anyway, my hubby and I learned that we travel really well together. I mean, we’ve gone on countless road-trips throughout the United States, but we’d never done a “big trip” in a country where neither of us speaks the language. In college, I studied and traveled through Mexico and Spain, but I knew the language.
I have some background and experience in travel planning, so I put together the basic itinerary. We bought a Eurail pass, and we discovered that it is *the* way to see Europe. We designed the trip so that we had ample time in each city to explore without being rushed. Because of the beauty of the Internet, I was able to secure lodging from here and some of the hotels emailed instructions on how to get to the property.
We flew in and out of Brussels, Belgium. We then traveled right away to Munich, Germany. Next stop on the list was Salzburg, Austria. We then made our way to Vienna, Austria and then back to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. Next stop on our list was Amsterdam, The Netherlands before ending the trip in Brussels, Belgium.
We were gone for 15 days, and it was an incredible experience. We left before dawn on September 18, 2004 and arrived back in the United States late on October 1, 2004. Our trip coincided with Oktoberfest in Munich, and that wasn’t the purpose of the timing of our trip, but it was an added bonus.
You’re never sure how well you’ll travel with someone else until you do it. As we discovered, we were the perfect match. With my language background, I was able to pick up on signage really quickly and could speak with the people around me. (I know how to speak clearly and slowly, and I don’t have the urge to yell loudly when someone doesn’t understand. We’re foreigners, and they’re not deaf.) This came in handy in restaurants and when asking people for directions. And, my hubby is an expert at figuring out how to get places. He could look at the train schedule and map and determine where we needed to be and when with incredible accuracy. So, from early on in the trip we realized that he could get us on the right train, and I could ensure that we didn’t starve. With those two skills, we were set!
So…over the next few days, I’ll be posting recaps of our Europe Trip 2004 and longing for the day to return. 
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