Trip Planning

I've been getting organized on our upcoming vacation trip for the last few weeks. I started last summer when my wife announced that she wanted to spend at least six weeks in Europe during her sabbatical.

My first reaction was my more or less typical, "we can't afford it," but after a conversation a few days later with a friend whose mother has a stage four cancer I came home and said, basically, "it's only money," and started planning the next day.

A trip this long presents some interesting options, but we are focusing on five areas--Portugal, the Madrid area, Sevilla and Granada, Barcelona, and the area around Arles in France. We'll have a few days in Paris on the far end, and have booked a barge trip on the Canal du Midi. After a brief consultation with one of the Rick Steves people we have been doing most of this on line.

It's fun. We'll be doing some train and some car. There are some limitations on how far ahead that train reservations can be booked and the overnight ones do have to be booked ahead. Cars are pretty easy and a lot cheaper than stateside rentals. What's interesting is deciding on what needs to be done ahead and what can be done on the fly. We really didn't want to book everything tight. The barge trip, accommodations first night in Lisbon, first night in Madrid, the overnight trains, and rooms in Barcelona and Paris which can be a challenge; but that's it. About two thirds of the accommodations we will make on the way. There are some advance tickets that are needed for certain sites, but most of this ip will be an adventure.

We've done it before. Turns out Rick Steves' guidebooks are a great tool. In Italy we were doing an unplanned road trip around the hill towns of Tuscany and rolled into Sienna at sunset. We walked into a small hotel Steves had listed that was just off Il Campo and had a room.

It's kind of a nifty way to travel. Makes me deal with my own stuff about insecurity. I haven't done it often, in Cornwall and Devon during a trip to England, and with my son during our cycling trip through Denmark. You'd think given my history I be a little less nervous about this kind of thing, but it is a stretch. Good to do, to stretch.