Now I'm not sure where I was going with this and how I intended to circle it back the point of this post. I guess it's to say that my answer to the above question for the past month is quite different. How's that for a confusing and mind-bending intro?
As I've mentioned before, traveling was very high on my list of goal list in our time here. Same for Annie. It really is so easy to get to Paris, London, Prague, Rome, Berlin and so many other beautiful parts of Europe once you're here. Cheap too. Three months ago Annie came up with the idea of going to Berlin, a country she lived in for a year during her college days, home of her best friend Ryan, and one or our favorite cities, albeit for different reasons. A normal person would suggest flying there (since, as I just mentioned, it's mighty cheap and convenient). Not Annie "What Line?" Kersch. Her idea was to rent a car and drive to Berlin with the dogs. To put the trip in perspective for you US folks, it's equivalent to driving from Houston to New York and back. In stark contrast to our first road trip, we had the return trip to think about.
So that's what we did. 26 days, more than 6,200 km (4,000 miles), 11 countries, a two-door M-series white BMW, two dogs, camping and skiing gear, an iPhone, 15 tennis balls, a camera, and two adventuresome souls. There are really too many stories to put into a blog post...so I'll spare you. I like pictures much better than words so I'm going to take you through our last month using, what else, a photo montage.
The Map
Here is the map of our full trip complete with Google Maps goodness. To keep you on the right track, we started up through France and came back around through Austria and Italy.
Spain (Nov 9-10)
We left Madrid much later in the day than we wanted to, and, after a stop at a boarding place we plan on leaving the dogs at over Christmas, we were off. We camped in Roses the first night, a small city very near Barcelona and often quoted as the home city of El Bulli, one of the most famous restaurants in the world. One story. We reached the urban-esque camp ground, set up our tent, unpacked, felt all sorts of wildernessy and outdoorsy. Even though there were restaurants all around, we wanted our camping experience to be authentic. So I pulled out our butane stove to heat up some food we packed only to realize that I forgot the lighter or any matches. N00b!
France (Nov 10-11)
France turned out to be merely a stop-over on our journey to Holland. We once again camped and our second night was spent in a private, oddly situated campground just west of Lyon where the owner didn't speak a lick of English or Spanish and had to resort to crazy hand gestures to communicate. Before going to bed, we went to the nearest small town (Craponne, not a joke) to grab a bite to eat. We took the dogs and found that the restaurant was ok having them inside. This was the first of many such experiences that allowed us to be with our pups much more than we would have ever thought possible...definitely enriching the entire trip.
Luxembourg and Belgium (Nov 11-12)
The third night was spent in a Luxembourg trailer park. On the drive to Steinfort, we learned that Luxembourg is the richest per-capita country in the world. Yes, a trailer park. This would be our last night camping with the frigid weather hitting us pretty hard. A near choking spell by yours truly, a trailer park rave, the first signs of the famous European Christmas Markets in Belgium, and the dogs once again being allowed inside a restaurant were our highlights.
Holland (Nov 12-17)
We spent nearly a week a Holland. Over my years at Shell, I fell in love with the country, it's people, and their way of life. Annie really wanted to spend some time in Amsterdam and there were a few friends of ours we wanted to visit. The first night was in Leur, near Breda. My good friend Arjan lived nearby and we made a stop here to spend time with him and his family. It was perfect timing as Sinterklaus was making his way through Leur that Sunday and had with him a decked out boat and plenty of Swarte Piets. Three nights in Amsterdam and one in Nijmegen completed our trip. A Dr. Pepper sighting, Occupy Amsterdam, SRG pigging out on brat, famous Dutch frites, and another Christmas market in Nijmegen were but a small list of highlights.
Germany (Nov 17-27)
The original destination idea for this trip was Berlin to see Annie's best friend Ryan. We were finally, after more than a week, driving into Germany. We stopped for one night in Bad Harzburg, a small town outside of Goslar, a city Ryan recommended for their markets. In Berlin, we were able to celebrate Ryan's birthday with him, also a factor in our planning, but also do an American-style Thanksgiving with him too. Annie did a spectacular job spending the whole day working on a crazy dinner menu. For Ryan's birthday, we took him to his favorite Italian restaurant where Annie was nearly drooling and falling over herself for one particular item they had on the menu (we forget the name but it was fresh pasta tossed a huge Parmesan bowl with a bunch of truffle slices covering it). We did the Glühwein thing, ran around a truely amazing Christmas market, stuffed our faces with Curryworst, and spent time with another of Annie's college friends, the other Ryan.
Czech Republic (Nov 27-29)
Prague is one of the few cities that most people recommend when talking about Europe, at least to me. I'd thrown it out a bunch of times to Annie and so we decided to do two nights there instead of one. In terms of the sights and views, it was certainly at the top of the list of everything we had or would see. As for the vibe of the city, it was near the bottom. Not sure why. We staying near what seemed like an erotic zone of the city with sex shops all around. It was a bit seedy and that could have lent to my feelings. The other part that I've thus far failed to mention was a lack of any suitable WiFi connection. I know, I know, we're in ancient European cities, we shouldn't be clamoring to stay connected. Enjoy! Regardless, the total lack of WiFi was a theme or our trip and, although most hotels claimed they had it free, none delivered.
Austria (Nov 29-30)
We made a short stop in Innsbruck before heading on to see my Aunt in Switzerland. After a short power-nap, we were ready to hit what turned out to be an eerily quiet town with not much going on. We were already talking about how nice it would be to be back home...not a good sign. Innsbruck hosted two Winter Olympics in the later 90's and it's home to some great skiing if you're in the area.
Italy and Switzerland (Nov 30-Dec 1)
My mom's cousin lives in Lugano, Switzerland and I wanted to make a point of seeing her either on the way to or back from Berlin. The latter worked out and Mary hosted us to a wonderful cheese fondue dinner and a chance to catch up with them. We stayed in a seedy hotel on the other side of the border with Italy, starting to get excited about our skiing plans. The orange fruit is a perfect persimmon...oh god it was good.
Andorra (Dec 1-4)
I thought we did a good job getting out of our funk for skiing. We drove nearly 12 hours from Switzerland to Andorra in one day in order to more fully enjoy skiing. After some confusion as to when the lifts opened and hanging out in the hotel an entire day, we were able to do two good sessions on the mostly closed Valnord mountain. We stayed in a small town named Ansalonga outside of Ordino. Pretty cool that we got to spend some time in Andorra, a country few people know exists on the border between Spain and France.
The last day of our road trip, Dec 4, turned out to be as long as any we had in the last month. After skiing for 4 hours, we drove another 8 to get to Madrid, stopping along the way to stock up on groceries in Zaragoza (our place was devoid of food), and getting in at around midnight.
We're finally back to calm and nearly have all of our clothes washed.
All in all, an amazing experience filled with so many stories and memories we'll cherish for our entire lives.
"Baby, remember when we took the dogs on a month-long road trip through Europe?"
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