Almost done in Coimbra and plans for the summer

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Hi all! Well, our time here in Portugal is quickly coming to an end (just a few days now), but luckily we don’t have to go back and face reality quite yet, as we’re planning to travel around Europe for six or seven weeks before going back at the end of July. We thought it would be fun to let everyone know what our itinerary is, and also to let you know that we are planning to update our blog a lot more frequently while we’re on the road, so check back often! Now, without further ado, here are the destinations on the agenda for this summer…

Istanbul
Budapest
Bratislava, Slovakia
Vienna
Austria - 7 days with a car, this part’s still a little foggy but may include some of Italy and Switzerland, too (suggestions, anyone?)
Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
Prague
Berlin
Tallinn, Estonia
Helsinki
Cologne, Germany
Germany - 5 days with a car, this part’s also not really set yet
Munich
Bruges, Belgium
One night in Dublin (actually just 9 hours between flights, overnight - we will either sleep in the airport or get a hotel… depending on the status of the funds)
Back to US

So, I’m pretty sure we won’t be bored. We tried to find a balance between wanting to see everything and not wanting to wear ourselves out (learned that lesson the hard way on our Italy trip last fall). Some of the places on our list we’ll only be in for a day or two, but most of our stops are for at least 3-4 nights, so we’re hoping it won’t feel like we’ve spent all summer in train stations and airports.

We’ve booked a lot of stuff ahead of time, and we started planning in January or February, which meant we got some great deals on budget flights and have almost always been able to get a room at our first choice hotel/hostel. We’ll mostly be staying in hostels, but we’ll always have private rooms and sometimes we’ll even have our own bathroom. We are losing some of the spontaneity of traveling without reservations, but we’re a little picky because I need to have wireless internet every day for work and we really wanted to find places in central locations without spending too much. Plus the vision of us dragging our luggage through some random city late at night trying to find a place to sleep is not overly appealing. The two parts of the trip where we’ll have a car (Austria and Germany) we have not booked anything for yet, and if I can get someone to cover me for work, we may leave those a little more open.

One thing that’s funny about the way we’re traveling (and different than it would have been just a few years ago) is how much we’re flying. People used to just buy a rail pass and travel everywhere that way, but with all of the budget airlines now it is often cheaper to fly. For example: in the middle of our time in Germany we are flying up to Tallinn and Helsinki for a week. Because we got such good flight deals, it will actually cost us about the same to fly Berlin-Tallinn, take a ferry to Helsinki, and then fly Helsinki-Cologne, as it would have cost to take a train directly from Berlin to Cologne. Ha! It makes me feel like I’m cheating the system.

So, these are the plans. Right now we’re just finishing up in Coimbra, saying goodbye to friends, packing up our stuff, and trying to get our fill of cheap coffees, pastries, and wine before we head to “the expensive part” of Europe!

- Lindsay

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Photos

Europe map
So you can see where we're going