On the road (3) A (hopefully) sunny September road trip to Spain COMPLETED - Page 51 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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So sad this TR is coming to an end. Glad you made it around the AdT circle. I don't know if I would have tried that (and I'm from New Jersey, one of the worst places for circles). I remeber visiting Paris and was very thankful they had the underground walkways for the pedestrians as there is NO WAY you could cross that roadway on foot. Your description reminds me of European Vacation when the Griswalds get stuck in London, "Big Ben, Parliment".
I remeber visiting Paris and was very thankful they had the underground walways for the pedistrians as there is NO WAY you could cross that roadway on foot.
You are so right! There's no way we'd ever attempt to cross that road... :nO:
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As this is part three of the three various road trips we’ve taken this year, I decided to do things a bit differently this time. Rather than do a wrap-up of each individual trip, I thought I’d do my final thoughts once we’d finished our explorations of Europe, as all three trips were similar, in that we were driving through various parts of Europe. Of course, each was very different as well.
Between them, these trips have allowed to visit a total of seven European countries, all for varying lengths of time:
Austria
Belgium
France
Germany
Holland
Spain
Switzerland
Not bad at all! Of those, I’d never been to Austria in my life before and, although we only passed through for half an hour, at least now I can say that I’ve been there. With Switzerland, I’d only been as a baby, so I had no recollection at all of it. The last time we were in Holland was for our second wedding anniversary in 2001 when we went to Amsterdam for the day, while our previous visit to Germany had really consisted of a weekend in Berlin and a school exchange I did as a teenager, but that doesn’t really count, as I can’t even remember where we went.
We had of course visited France and Spain before, but hadn’t travelled much in either, considering the size of them and how near to the UK they are. By the end of the three trips, all of which involved at least a couple of days in France, according to my DK guidebook (and they are, after all, my travel bibles outside of PassPorter ), we had visited 13 of France’s 15 regions – at least the regions they divide the country up into anyway. Before this year, we’d only visited four regions in total, which gives you an idea of how much of the country we saw.
It really is a vast country and with so many wonderful places to see. I have no doubt that we’ll be returning to many of the places we saw, most notably:
Bordeaux, which was such a beautiful city
The Loire Valley, as there are many more chateaux to explore yet
Normandy, to see more of its Second World War history
Carcassonne, as I could happily call in there on any trip to dine and enjoy the scenery
The Dordogne Valley, as there are more beautiful towns and amazing caves to see there.
Versailles, as heck, we’ve got to see the fountains properly one day
The bits that I feel we’ve done justice to and don’t need to see again are pretty much Lyon, which we didn’t feel the love for, and Grenoble, where my interest was mainly the teleferique, which is now complete.
As for Spain, again using the DK system of regions in Spain, before this latest trip, we’d only visited two areas, focusing on just the south eastern coast of the country. Following this trip, we could add in another four regions, Madrid, the Basque Country, Castilla y Leon and Castilla-La Mancha, so we’d certainly seen a lot more of the country. We were pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the Basque Country and its resemblance to the hills we’d seen in Switzerland. It was truly beautiful, although the guidebooks surprisingly didn’t focus on it more. We’d love to go back to Burgos and see it properly and could easily spend more time in Madrid.
Of course, we’ll return to Mark’s parents’ villa, although when is a moot point right now, with a Disney trip in the works for April 2011 and plans for a three week vacation, including the Alaskan cruise with Disney in fall 2011. Even with our generous holiday allowance and our week’s vacation to Egypt, we don’t have a lot of vacation left. Maybe just a quick weekend there at some point....
Harking back to the earlier vacation, where we also visited Germany and Switzerland, looking first at the larger of the two – Germany.
Again, using my tried and trusted method of assessing countries in terms of my beloved DK guidebooks, before this trip, we’d only visited one region of the country, but the road trip added in another three regions. It may not sound like much, but my goodness, the regions in this country are absolutely huge. At least now we can say that we’ve explored Western Germany anyway! We saw some beautiful cities on the way, including Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Koln and, of those, the latter was our favourite – not all because of the Lindt chocolate factory and its wonderful mint chocolate liquor, but that’s part of the attraction. Spending time with Sabine and Manuel in their country was great fun and it was lovely to see them both again.
I have to finish with Switzerland, as this was, to both of us, the revelation of all the countries we visited during the three trips. Don’t get me wrong, we saw some amazing places in France, Germany and Spain, but Switzerland absolutely stole our hearts.
We made it through every region and city mentioned in the DK guidebook, which was pretty impressive. We’re already looking at a return journey back there, perhaps in fall 2012, as we loved it so much and there’s so much we still didn’t see. Highlights for us were:
Geneva, a beautiful city and one we’d like to see without the rain
Zurich, so much to see and so little time
Lucerne, much more beautiful than we could have imagined
Interlaken and its surrounding countryside, with its beautiful lakes and amazing, winding roads
Montreux, this was the true gem for us, a stunning, stunning lakeside resort, capped off by the sight of the snow-capped mountains all around it
Talking of weather, we really lucked out with weather throughout our trip, with the notable exception of some of our stay at Disneyland Paris, although we’ve learnt over the years that cold and rain seems to follow every trip we take there. Having said that, we did see some good weather there. We experienced a lot more heat than we’d have expected at pretty much every stop. Normandy was blazing hot on the first day of that trip, while we certainly got the high temperatures in Bordeaux and at the villa. And as for Switzerland, who’d have thought we’d have got temperatures well into the 70s there in March, with snow still on top of the mountains?
With a road trip, you’re visiting cities that, in our case certainly, we’d never visited before and that presented a challenge when it came to booking hotels. Wherever we could, we booked either Hilton or Holiday Inn group hotels, as we’re loyalty members of both and we stayed at some wonderful hotels from both groups, with the upgraded room at the Crowne Plaza in Toulouse, the executive level room at the Hilton at Madrid Airport, the Hilton in Frankfurt and, of course, the Triannon Palace in Versailles springing instantly to mind.
For a lot of our travels though, we struggled to find places to stay, as the Hilton group don’t have many hotels in France or Spain and often the reviews weren’t that great for Holiday Inn options, so Trip Advisor became my best friend in planning these vacations, as we headed for towns, cities and villages, where I hadn’t got a clue where to stay. In the main, with only one exception (our stay in Rocamadour ), we found some real winners. Some places were quirky (Montreux in Switzerland springs to mind), some were great finds (the chateau we stayed in near Chenonceau), some were great value (Altos in France and Onda in Spain), while others were very plush and for not too much money (Bordeaux in France). All in all, I’d thoroughly recommend this as a way to find hotels in places you’re not familiar with. I am now a firm fan of this site!
As we went through the trips, we learnt a lot. We were fairly well equipped in terms of what we needed to drive abroad, but we quickly learnt what else we needed to take. DVDs came on later trips for the hotels that didn’t have English channels or for when we got bored of non-stop news channels. We also learnt to take lots of water and snacks with us and, from the first trip, where the budget was dramatically overspent, thanks to lots of (admittedly very good!) meals at hotel restaurants, a bit more research went into trying to find restaurants outside hotels that would generally be cheaper. We also learnt our lesson from that fateful day in June when we struggled to find a restaurant that was open on a Sunday in France and ensured that the hotel we’d be staying at on our next trip had a restaurant that would be open that day.
The programming of all of the trips worked out pretty well, with me learning as we went, as to how much time to allow for each place we visited and how much driving to do each day. Although we had long journeys, I think they were broken up fine and Mark seemed to agree with that. I did feel bad leaving all the driving to him, but before you feel bad for him, remember that was the deal before we started any of these and he loves driving. He is also the world’s worst passenger in a car!
I guess it’ll be a long time before we plan anymore road trips, although there will certainly be an element of that in the fall 2011 trip that’s in the works... All in all, they’ve been great fun and a real eye opener, giving us a great opportunity to see a lot more of the continent we live in. I’m ashamed that, until a few months ago, we’d seen so little of Europe, but this year, we’ve certainly put that right and it’s been a great experience.
The next great experience will be a real must-do for both of us and something we’ve wanted to do for a long time, visiting the pyramids and more in Egypt! We can’t wait and it’ll take us on our first joint visit into a new continent, Africa, and of course there’ll be a trip report on that in due course... until then, it’s time to get off the road...
Great finish, Cheryl! You have certainly given me a wonderful tour of places I will probably never see, but have heard of my whole life, some of which are important in my heritage.
If Brenda and I were to do a road trip, or three, of that magnitude, I would probably do all the driving as well, as I like to drive. As a "professional" driver, I commend Mark for his driving abilities and I would co-drive with him anytime!
Thanks for sharing all the photos and histories of the many places you visited, it was so interesting and educational at the same time. I will miss the nightly "chezp" updates!
Great wrap up Cheryl. I enjoyed reading all your trip eports this year and getting a tour of Europe. All of the pictures were beautiful and I got to see what other places look like.
Liz
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Great wrap up Cheryl. I loved all the reports - don't forget the Florida road trip last year too. I'm really looking forward to hearing all about Egypt and nice to hear you will be Stateside again in 2011. Until next report - take care
Thanks for yet another wonderful trip report full of wonderful detail and photos! I hope that I'll have a chance to see some of what you've seen, but until then, I'm thoroughly enjoying seeing things through your eyes (and Mark's!).
I'm always curious about the sights in and around your home. Someday I would love to see a mini trip report of you just "hanging out" in your own town. It may seem day-to-day to you, but I'm sure that there's way more history in and around your home town than I see in mine (Southern California, where anything more than 50 years is OLD!)!
Thanks again! I'm already looking forward to your 2011 trips!
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There's no way we'd ever attempt to cross that road... :nO:
Of those, I’d never been to Austria in my life before and, although we only passed through for half an hour, at least now I can say that I’ve been there. 
All in all, they’ve been great fun and a real eye opener, giving us a great opportunity to see a lot more of the continent we live in. I’m ashamed that, until a few months ago, we’d seen so little of Europe, but this year, we’ve certainly put that right and it’s been a great experience. 
We can’t wait and it’ll take us on our first joint visit into a new continent, Africa, and of course there’ll be a trip report on that in due course... until then, it’s time to get off the road... 
Thanks for taking us along for the ride! 
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