Where in Europe Photo Quiz
Can you match the picture to where in Europe it was taken? Comment below with how many you got correct and which ones you didn’t know. All photos were taken by me and can be read about in my blog posts 🙂
Tag: germany
Munich and Schwangau, Germany Travel Blog
17 Days Around Europe with Eurail Passes Travel Blog
The first thing you want to do when planning for a EuroTrip is to decide which countries you would like to visit. I wanted to see as much as possible in two weeks. After knowing I had two weeks to travel, I purchased the 15 day continuous global rail pass on eurail.com (interrail.com if you are an EU citizen) and got 2 extra days for free since they were having a sale. https://www.eurail.com/en/eurail-passes/global-pass This pass allows you the freedom to explore all your dream European destinations using the Eurail Global Pass. This convenient train pass gives you access to rail networks in 28 fascinating countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, although be aware that you will have to pay a reservation fee in specific countries or for night trains. Once I knew which cities I wanted to visit, I downloaded the Rail Planner app to see how long it was from each city and which cities would not be direct trains. I took notes beforehand and had a general idea of when I would be traveling but still had the flexibility to plan as I went if I needed more time in a specific location. The great thing about Eurail passes is you don’t have to worry about missing a train. You can hop on whatever train you’d like without a timed ticket. You can download the apps here – IOS, Android. Rail planner shows you all the available times, type of train and possible connections for the city of your choice. The application is done by Eurail and the cool thing about it is that it is available offline! I used the app the entire time during my travels and was fully satisfied with it! There are some cases when you will need to reserve a seat on your trip and pay a reservation fee. This can be done at the train station. For example, it is mandatory to book your seat on a night train. We did this a few times. The average cost of a bed on a night train is around 20-40 Euros. We had time to sleep while traveling, which was awesome to wake up in our next location! One example of when we did this was from Madrid to Lisbon. You will also usually need to book your seat when using a fast train that is marked with an R on the Rail Planner App. This can be as low as 3 Euros or as much as 30 Euros. Sometimes you will have the option to take the same route on a slow-speed train but I think it is worth it to just pay the fee in some instances. High-speed trains are common in France, Italy, and Spain. Additionally, you will need to reserve your seat on popular routes that may not have free seats. Stop 1: Amsterdam https://mandytravelstheworld.news.blog/2016/06/20/amsterdam-netherlands/ Stop 2: Berlin https://mandytravelstheworld.news.blog/2016/06/20/bamberg-germany/ Stop 3: Prague https://mandytravelstheworld.news.blog/2016/06/22/prague-czech-republic/ Stop 4: Vienna https://mandytravelstheworld.news.blog/2016/06/22/vienna-austria/ Stop 5: Bratislava https://mandytravelstheworld.news.blog/2016/06/23/bratislava-slovakia/ Stop 6: Budapest https://mandytravelstheworld.news.blog/2016/06/24/budapest-hungary/ Stop 7: Lake Bled https://mandytravelstheworld.news.blog/2016/06/25/bled-slovenia/ Stop 8: Florence https://mandytravelstheworld.news.blog/2016/06/27/florence-and-pisa-italy/ Stop 9: Nice https://mandytravelstheworld.news.blog/2016/06/30/nice-france/ Stop 10: Marseille https://mandytravelstheworld.news.blog/2016/06/30/marseille-france/ Stop 11: Barcelona https://mandytravelstheworld.news.blog/2016/07/03/barcelona-and-montserrat-spain/ Stop 12: Madrid https://mandytravelstheworld.news.blog/2016/07/01/madrid-spain/ Stop 13: Lisbon https://mandytravelstheworld.news.blog/2016/07/03/lisbon-portugal/ Stop 14: Porto https://mandytravelstheworld.news.blog/2016/07/03/porto-portugal/ Check out the links to each city’s blog for more information on the specific places. If you have any more questions about the Eurail pass or planning a EuroTrip, please comment below!
EuroTrip Video Travel Vlog
Two Week Europe Itinerary: England, France, Belgium, & Germany Travel Blog
The first time my husband (boyfriend before the trip and proposed in Paris) and I travelled to Europe, we visited his twin brother, who was stationed in England, where we are actually now stationed. The planner that I am, made a complete itinerary full of activities for us to do and the destinations I wanted to visit. I will go into more detail on another blog post about the specifics but I will give you the general idea of where we went and a few things to do in each country. We flew round trip from RDU (Raleigh, NC) to LHR (London) round trip for $900 a person from Tuesday, December 17th to Thursday, January 2nd and had a budget of $1,000 per person for additional expenses (we bought all of our Christmas gifts while we were there). This trip can definitely be done for a lot cheaper, but we thought we would never be travelling back to Europe so we splurged a lot! Day 1: Stateside to EnglandTravel Day Day 2: EnglandRelax Day 3: GermanyLeft England and drove to Germany. We planned to stop in Cologne on the way to Frankfurt but I got sick in the car so we decided to drive straight to Frankfurt. It ended up being about an 8 hour drive but we stopped a lot. When we arrived in Frankfurt, we checked into our hotel and ate dinnerHotel Alleenhof in Frankfurt, Germany Day 4: GermanyMain attractions: City Hall, Cathedral of St. Bartholomew, Main Tower, Christmas Markets Day 5: Germany to BelgiumWe checked out of our hotel and drove to Brussels, Belgium. We got to drive on the autobahn! It was definitely a terrifying situation. When we got to Brussels after the 4-hour car ride, we ate dinner and went to the Christmas Markets and walked around the City Centre.Brussels City Centre Apartments Day 6: BelgiumMain attractions: Musee Royal del’armee, Autoworld, Town Hall, Medieval Square Day 7: Belgium to EnglandThe drive from Brussels back to England took about 5 hours and we were able to stop at the Cliffs of Dover on the way back. Day 8: England (Christmas Eve)During the next 3 days, we just spent time visiting with family and friends and exploring the town we were in. Day 9: England (Christmas) Day 10: England – Day in Cambridge Day 11: England to FranceWe took a 3-hour train ride from London St Pancreas to Pairs Gare Du Nord. We got the Paris Pass for the four days we would be there. We went to Montparnasse, Luxembourg Gardens, Pantheon, Latin Quarter, the Love Bridge, and Saint-Chappelle all in this day. It was very easy getting around.De La Vallee Hotel in Paris, France Day 12: FranceMain attractions: Notre Dame, Orsay Museum, Opera, Grand Palais/Petit Palais, Alexander Bridge, Invalides, Rodin Museum.We also had dinner reservations on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower which was magnificent! I highly recommend it. The food was absolutely amazing! Day 13: FranceMain attractions: Palais of Versailles, Eiffel Tower (we wanted to see it during the day), Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, Moulin Rouge Day 14: FranceMain attractions: Le Louvre, Palais Royal, Camps-Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Christmas Market Day 15: France to EnglandTook the train back to London St Pancras and went to Winter Wonderland (open from mid-December to a few days after New Years), London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey.We were right next to Big Ben for the New Year’s Eve fireworks and that is definitely something I will never forget. I plan to go back again! Day 16: EnglandNew Year’s Day Parade, St. Pauls Cathedral, Tower of London, Buckingham PalaceThe Master Robert Hotel in Hounslow, England Day 17: England back to the States This was our first big vacation that taught us a lot about travelling. There are definitely better routes, but because of the holidays, we wanted to be in England for Christmas and New Years. Ask me anything about my trip and check back to see more in-depth travel blogs that will also include Italy, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, as well as the many other countries I plan to go to this year!