Our Europe Trip
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Just finished planning our Europe leg of our journey and thought I would share our plans with you.
As you know, Jason, Jesse and I have been travelling for just over a couple of years now and we feel like we have barely started! We got to see much of New Zealand that we had not seen before, a fair bit of Australia including a large chunk of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and the bottom of Queensland, we had a good look around Honolulu, Hawaii and have seen most of the East of the USA from New York City to Florida and inland a bit. We still have Washington DC and some of the South to explore before we leave for London and Europe end of October.
Allthough I have enjoyed our trip so far immensly, the Europe part of it is the one I have been waiting for. It has been one of my long time dreams to explore the amazing history, art, geography and architecture of this great continent.
We will fly into London first and spend a week with a long time friend there, exploring the Great British city and experiencing the life my forebears once knew (well maybe not quite). We hope to catch a play at the Globe Theatre, visit Portabello Road Market, see the London Bridge and Big Ben, take a ride on the London Eye, visit a few museums and palaces, Trafalga Square and Westminster Abbey look interesting and Hyde Park deserves a walk through and I know I will lose Jason and Jesse for a day while they emerse themselves in the original Virgin Records Store. No matter, looking forward to some long lunches, shopping and dinner at Hells Kitchen with our friend.
We then pick up a camper and make our way through the channel to Calais then follow the coast SE to Caen where the battle of Normandy took place. Jason has always been interested in the wars from a technical and historical standpoint. Then we are off to Paris! Although London and Paris are extremely touristy which we try to avoid, these cities are definately worth the time to see some of the most famous attractions that we are made aware of through school and media. High on our list is The Eiffel Tower, Les Louvre, Champs Elysees, Theatre du Chatelet, Pantheon, Chateau de Chambord, The Catacombs, Basilica of the Sacre Coeur, The Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Versailles and because one of our favourite movies is Moulin Rouge we want to visit the Montmarte district and also a couple of the famous cemetaries to view the final resting place of Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt and Chopin along with the amazing sculptures and art pieces that these places are famous for.
We will then make our way to Bordeaux, wine country, then on to Nice through Toulouse, Montpellier and Aix-en-Provence. This area has reputed beautiful countryside, beaches, historical towns, wonderful markets and quaint food places to see and experience.
Next is Rome! Jesse is fascinated by the roman way of life before so we will spend a bit of time exploring the ruins of the Colosseum and the Pantheon, see the Vatican, the Capitoline Museums where Michelangelo’s Art is housed along with many other breathtaking examples of art, the famous Vittoriano, St Peters Basilica and the trevi Fountain and a few of the many Piazzas here after visiting Genoa and Pisa (leaning tower) on the way. From Rome we drive to Naples and on to Bari where we catch a ferry over to Durres in Albania then it is a bit of a drive to Athens.
Athens is one of my must sees in Europe as well because I was obsessed with Greek culture in my teens and it would be lovely to see all the places and myths I studied. Of course all the temples, museums and ruins are on the plan along with the Panathenaic Stadium and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and whatever else takes our fancy. We then take the east coast line up to Igoumenitsa and catch the ferry back to Italy and head up to Venice. My mother told me when she visited Europe many years ago that Venice was a dirty town but the romantic in me still wants to experience it.
Germany is next, so over the border into Austria (with a stop in Liechtenstein because it sounds cool ) through to Munich. There is an amazing array of Museums and castles and historical buildings to visit as well as cool brewerys and pubs and lots of places with sausage! Our main focus in Germany is Berlin so we will travel up to there and stop where we see fit along the way. Berlin is another place that is ripe with history of war which Jason wants to see. Not sure if we are game enough to go to a concentration camp site yet but we definately want to see what remains of the Wall, see the museums and beer tasting is right up on the list of priorities as well )
We have family in Holland so we will stop in Amsterdam and then Tilberg, sample the dutch cuisine and hopefully see a windmill or two before heading to Bruges in Belgium. Jason and I came across Bruges in a movie we watched called In Bruges and we fell in love with it so we have to go there. From Bruges it is back to Calais and the end of our Europe tour for now, over to London to drop the camper off and catch our flight home to New Zealand just in time for Christmas!
The great thing about taking a camper through Europe is that we can stop anywhere we want for as long as we want and we can go anywhere. If we decide to go off our plan, we can, if we want to stay longer in some places and have less time in others, we can. I love the idea of travelling with our beds and kitchen with us rather than relying on hotels and public transport and if we are tired, well we can just have a power nap anywhere!! We will most likely stick to camping grounds for safety and use public transport to move around the cities and walk where we can too.
We are avid music fans so we will be looking out for any concerts that may be on while we are there too. I am very excited about this trip to Europe, it will span about five weeks. )
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