European Travel Journal (5 weeks)

Safe travels and have a fantastic trip!

Looking forward to your posts, safe travels

That's so great! I look forward to reading about your adventure.

I write a travel blog that's mainly for sharing my experiences as I am on the go. It can be challenging after full days of sightseeing and other activities to find the energy to write. If you're bringing a laptop, consider taking it to restaurants or cafes with you, rather than waiting until the end of the day. If your hotels include breakfast, use your breakfast time to write about the previous day. Also good to write in airports or train stations or on planes and trains.

The main thing, though, is have a great trip!!!

Enjoy. When I retire, in 10 years, I plan on doing a 5 - 8 week trip in Europe as well.

Whatever you do don't bring a laptop to a restaurant.

I look forward to it!
I also write my travel stories , but just for friends on fb.
However, I did win a prize for one trip story on another travel site a few years ago!
I won a private guided tour of Rome, and it just so happened that two groups of us would be there at the same time, so we all got to go on the tour!

Have a great trip ... looking forward to reading the journal so I can get some pointers when I take my 5-6 week retirement trip next April/May.

OK WOW where to begin. It’s been a couple of days so I have loads to report. We flew in first thing in the morning from our red eye flight and hit the ground running. We saw the British Museum (dream come true but I have to say…the crowds made the smaller sections a real drag to get through, let alone see the stuff), we saw Abbey Road, all the monuments (from the outside) on the Thames, Buckingham Palace, and we even did our own self guided night-tour of White Chapel to see some Jack the Ripper sights.

This was all JUST the first day. The most valuable thing I learned though, was how to properly navigate the underground tube. When I say this means of getting around is a life saver, I’m not exaggerating.

Since then, we have gone inside of and enjoyed the Tower of London and St. Paul’s Cathedral. St. Paul’s is GORGEOUS and I almost skipped it in favor of just taking some outside photos.

Tomorrow we are seeing Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath… and the following day, I think I’m gonna make my way to Liverpool for a pilgrimage of sorts (can you guess my favorite band?).

Wow, good use of time on day one! :-)

Congratulations on making your European adventure happen! I remember your many, many questions in planning. You are going to have a great trip! It sounds like you are packing the days. I'm looking forward to reading more about your adventures.

I’ll be following closely as we just booked our hotels for London for April.

Ok we did the popular (and for some, infamous) tour of Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath today. I actually really enjoyed it. It didn’t seem rushed and it was super informative. Of course, there are loads of tours like these from London so it’s hit or miss which ones are worth taking. We took our tour through Golden Tours and I would highly recommend this to anyone curious about some amazing sights outside of London.

Stonehenge: Might have been the most uneventful stop because it’s basically just the sight itself (surreal to see in person) and a visitor center, but still totally worth it.

Windsor Castle: MY personal favorite stop of the day. It was so cool to walk around this beautiful castle/palace, and you don’t actually need a lot of time to see the grounds and inside. Also important to note that we didn’t feel rushed at any point.

Bath: This one actually surprised me. Initially for me, Bath was just that third place that was included so it was a neat little extra. HOWEVER, we found out just how beautiful this city was once we arrived. This might have been the only place where we could have spent more time but that’s mostly just out of curiosity. We walked the gorgeous streets, saw the Roman baths, and had some amazing ice cream (dairy farms all around this region of England).

Everyone is entitled to their opinions based on personal experiences but for me, I 100% cast my vote for this tour, or at least the specific one we took through Golden Tours.

I’m glad you enjoyed your tour today! By the way, you don’t have to apologize for what you do… who cares what others think as long as you are enjoying yourself!

Maybe in your next post you can give us a couple of sentences about yourself (age, solo traveler or traveling with someone?) to give your readers some context of the eyes through which we are viewing all this. As I recall, you are in your 20’s?

Windsor Castle is a definite for our trip next April. Did you plan on going to Bletchley Park? It’s on my list.

Commenting as a reminder to follow this post. Your enthusiasm is infectious.

Ah you guys are so nice :)

When I started saving and waiting, I was 24 and now I’m 29. I’m with one friend and we have been splitting the cost of air bnbs during our trips (we were in Mexico and Peru a few weeks ago and now we are here in Europe). So far we’ve only been to 3 countries so we are still a little wet behind the ears, but we are getting it as we keep going :)

Haha no, we didn’t even know about Bletchley Park until just now but it looks so cool! Unfortunately, we didn’t book anything for it and it’s our last day here in London. Guess you have to go and tell us all about it :)

Today was pretty uneventful as we were pretty tired from the pub crawl we decided to do the night before (which also means the very long Liverpool day trip definitely didn’t happen). We DID however make time to go inside Westminster Abbey. The historic graves were easily my favorite part, but it’s absolutely a beautiful church.

I think I shot myself in the foot by not taking full advantage of my day because I would really like to see National Archives’ treasures room, which have things like the Magna Carta and the Dear Boss Letter (Jack the Ripper). Apparently it opens at 9 am and my train doesn’t leave for Paris til 12:31.

I considered leaving my bag at my air bnb, go over right at opening and come back to collect my bag, but check out is at 10…making it very unlikely I’ll be back in time. The National Archive security checks all of your bags that are with you and recommend that you only bring what you need to help the process. Problem here is that my “bag” is a backpack with all of my belongings that I’m taking across Europe with.

Could I bring my backpack and just store it in a locker after it’s checked…or is the whole process of security checking it make this idea completely unfeasible? The treasures room shouldn’t take too long, especially if I’ll be there right before it opens anyways…but my backpack isn’t exactly a purse either.

I’ll be following closely as we just booked our hotels for London for April

Barbara, I'm following the reports closely as well hoping for some tips as we'll be in London next April 8 - 17 after 6 days in the Cotswolds ... haven't booked hotel yet (hoping to squeeze a few more $$$ savings as the £ keeps dropping, currently barely above 1.17) ... but the plan is 99% ready.

Windsor Castle is a definite for our trip next April. Did you plan on going to Bletchley Park? It’s on my list.

Both on my list also, would be happy to share my itinerary if interested. BTW, I'm originally from Flushing, went to high school for 1 year at Brooklyn Prep (currently Medgar Evers College) before it closed.

OK! We are on the Chunnel train to Paris as I write this. London was amazing, and I absolutely need to come again and again to really flesh out all of the opportunities here. Unfortunately, I never made it to the archives, but that simply means I have another thing to look forward to if I can ever make it back here.

Few notes for my fellow newbies…

1. As I stated before, LEARN THE TUBE SYSTEM. It’s a god send and super easy to learn. London is a beautiful city to walk around but after a while, the only thing you will be looking at as you walk are your aching feet. London is a large city. Also, we used contactless payment from our cell phones to go in and out of the stations, which was super convenient and quick.
2. I only ever planned to go inside the Tower of London, which is why I opted to buy just the Tower ticket vs the London Pass. However, I ended up going inside both Westminster and St. Paul’s Cathedral (both gorgeous, both 21 British pounds) so if you plan to be as ambitious as we just were, definitely think about the savings potential you get with the pass.
3. As clean as this city is, I have no clue what London has against trash cans. If you walk around with a purse or day bag, maybe also bring a plastic bag for the trash that you accumulate throughout the day.
4. As I learned the “hard way”, this city is too huge and it’s history is too rich to try and do all in one trip. I definitely know that I didn’t want to hear “plan to come back” when I was planning this trip, but it’s absolutely true. Best way I can describe it is that it was a “bummer” but not a “disappointment.”
5. For my fellow Tower of London enthusiasts, arrive as early as you can and go STRAIGHT to the Crown Jewels. They are the most popular attraction on the grounds, the line fills up fast, and space inside doesn’t leave a lot of room for everyone.

Those are just a few that came to mind. If I think of more, I’ll obviously post them but for the most part, the city is super easy to explore. I’ll post more when we get to Paris :)

As clean as this city is, I have no clue what London has against trash cans.

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-few-trash-cans-in-london-2016-4

Oh hey thanks for providing a link :)

DQ - my daughter lives in Flushing, small world. We are booked for London from April 24-May 4. We’ll be coming from Paris. My none enthusiast travel friends ask why so long in London. I answer, why not, then start rattling off things to do and see. It’s reading posts like this that get me even more excited and add to my list. Have to research the National Archives treasure room now. At our age, 65, and a list of places we still want to see, we figure if we stay a little longer and we never get back we won’t be disappointed.

EuroStar, please, not “Chunnel train.”

Wishing you continued amazement. A first trip like this will supply a lifetime of memories and travel plans.

I'm very much enjoying your reports! Thanks for sharing.

For the crown jewels, I have vague memory of being put on a conveyor belt that moved me past them. Is my memory correct?

Thank you for taking us along on your fun trip! You are sure covering a lot of ground and sights and good for you. I’m glad to hear all is going so well! One piece of travel advice I remind myself to follow myself is to always save something to come back for! Wishing you and your friend continued fun and amazement!

As before, I waited a few days so I could have a more substantive post. We arrived in Paris and just like in London, we wasted no time exploring. We got our tube situation figured out (also super important here) and started with the Arc de Triomph and made our way to the Louvre (just the outside for some night photos) by way of the Champs Elysees. For those who want that iconic photo of the Louvre pyramid lit up at night, keep in mind there are tons of wedding groups who will kind of linger at the best photo spots.

Throughout the rest of the days that we have been here so far, we have gone to see the Rodin Museum, Orangerie Museum (Monet’s Water Lillies), Sacre Coeur, Moulin Rogue (just outside), Eiffel Tower (from every angle, distance, and time of the day imaginable hahaha), Palace of Versailles (amazing but you need a whole day here, especially since the grounds are like 10% palace and 90% gardens), and we finally got to see the Louvre today (absolutely AMAZING).

We are waiting at this point to see the Catacombs later tonight, and tomorrow we will be seeing the Notre Dame (outside at least :( ), Saint Chapelle, and the Shakespeare & Company Book store.

We have been playing tourist but we are taking time for breaks and stopping to take this beautiful city in. We have had about 20 different picnics and this city is full of spots to stop, eat, and chillax from the sight-seeing. The streets and boulevards are so much wider than in London so even though there are tons of people here, at no point have we felt crowded (minus the line to see the Mona Lisa hahaha).

I’ll report some more as we finish up Paris. We may even take a Seine River Cruise tomorrow after our Île de Cité visit.

P.S: In regards to the conveyer belt question inside the Crown Jewels area (Tower of London), it is indeed still there, but there are other parts inside that don’t have it, so consequently there are huge crowds of people in front of the displays.

Thanks for another nice entry. Paris is great. I'm glad you are getting to see so much stuff. Thanks for answering the crown jewels question, too.

fghlik, I'm really enjoying reading about your trip so far. It sounds like you are making a dream come true every day.

I have one complaint though: you aren't telling us anything about the foods you've been eating. Trying new foods is one of the joys of traveling. I hope you're being adventurous!

I'm arriving in Istanbul two weeks from today, but I don't think we will overlap.

OK so we are at the Orly airport here in Paris so I have a moment to write some stuff about the past couple of days. We ended up going to the Catacombs after my last post and it was AWESOME. Super cool and not as creepy as one would expect. I definitely got a more historical vibe than say a “Halloween” vibe (this goes without saying but these arent decorations but the remains of actual people and therefore should be treated with the same respect as any other cemetery), and it’s absolutely worth a visit. It’s only about an hour but you can take your time and let people pass you if you choose to stay a little longer.

The following day, we went and saw the Notre Dame, and it was a mixed bag of emotions for us. On one hand we were like “hey there it is, one of the icons of Paris that we have heard about since we were children” and on the other hand, it was super sad to see, given recent events. It’s still beautiful, even from a distance and absolutely worth the stop over.

Five minutes from the church is the Saint Chapelle. When I say that this was the most beautiful thing I saw here in Paris, I’m fully considering all of the other amazing things I saw in the days leading up to this. If any of you have seen the Disney movie Hunchback of Notre Dame (yes I know, different church), the song “Heaven’s Light” immediately came to mind. It’s such a shame that most people I know either skip this place or don’t even realize that it’s there. I challenge anyone (with my limited travel experience) to find a better example of medieval stained glass anywhere.

Finally, we stopped over at the Shakespeare & Company bookstore, which basically faces the Notre Dame but isn’t itself on the Île de Cité. For any of you who love history surrounding the “Lost Generation” this is a must see, even if it isn’t the original started by Gertrude Stein.

This has been an amazing first glimpse at Paris and I can not wait to come back again and again.

In regards to the food, we weren’t too adventurous BUT but will say that I came to this city thinking I wasn’t a fan of mussels and am now leaving a fan. We of course ate our body weight in bread (baguette sandwiches, croissants, pastries) but for the most part, we tried to keep our food expenses down and waited for one or two larger meals (like the mussels couples with some delicious white wine). Sorry I couldn’t be a better reporter on the food here. I fully intend to eat my fill in Italy though.

Off to Venice! :)

I visited the Catacombs on my trip to Paris a few years ago. By the end of the tour, I had had my fill of seeing skeletons. Glad you enjoyed it, though!

Happily, I got to see Notre Dame before it was damaged -- 2018, I think. I also saw it in its current form in April. It was definitely sad! But much of it is still gorgeous.

I agree that Saint Chapelle is pretty amazing. There is so much to see in the stained glass. The Conciergerie is a door or two over -- a medieval palace that was later turned into a courthouse and then a prison. Most famous prisoner? Marie Antoinette. In April, its gift shop had one of the most peculiar gift shop items I have encountered -- headless Marie Antoinette dolls (head popped off a royally-dressed doll).

Shakespeare & Co was on my visit list, too, in 2018. I usually pick out one small souvenir per trip. For the 2018 trip, it was a copy of the Hunchback of Notre Dame purchased at Shakespeare & Co. They stamped the book with the Shakespeare & Co stamp for me.

Enjoy Venice!

We just boarded our train for Florence and are just now waiting to leave the station. Our time here in Venice was brief (2 days, 3 nights) but absolutely worth the visit. If Paris was the prettiest city we’ve been to so far on this trip, then Venice is certainly the most charming. The canals and alleyways are something out of a dream.

It may shock some, but St. Marks Square was probably our least favorite part about this city. Don’t get me wrong, it was extremely beautiful and a must see for anyone visiting (including us), but there’s very little to no shade and everyone moving through it are all going at a snail’s pace, forcing you to slowly roast in the sun (keep in mind that we are here in September, not the dead of summer).

That was our ONLY negative about this city. Once we took our iconic “must see” photos, we spent the other 98% of our time going down all of the alleyways and walking the canals. This is truly where this city shines. Plenty of shade (due to how narrow the alleys are and how tall the building are), loads of beautiful shops (buy some Venetian glass!) and more food than you could possibly eat. This was only our first stop in Italy and I think I already gained a couple of pounds. What’s even better is that if at any point you feel like there are too many people, you can take a random turn and be completely alone in the middle of the day, allowing you to soak up this city’s charm without the crowds of people taking selfies.

Pizza, cannolis, sandwiches, SO MUCH gelato. The only thing that was stopping us was our stomach limits. I never wanted so much to be like a cow and have multiple stomachs. Also, the food here is CHEAP, a stark contrast to Paris (beautiful city but very expensive). Every meal we had seemed to come to around only 10 € or less. Of course, this is also a city where you can spend as much as you want, but you have the option to gorge yourself on the cheap as well.

It’s also worth noting that we didn’t actually book anything for our stay here in terms of museums/attractions (Doge’s Palace, Bell Tower, etc.). We wanted this place to be a break from our time in London and Paris before our journey continued onward to Florence. Having now completed our time in Venice, I stand by this decision. However I would probably book these places the next time I visit, just out of curiosity. WE DID go to the Liberia Agua Alta and it was definitely the most unique book store we’ve ever been in. It’s also free for the budget traveler :)

I wish I had more to report but as I said before, our stay was brief and served more as a break than a main destination (still super happy that we came). We our now in route to Florence and our museum hopping will then start up again. I’m truly sad to leave this city, but even more excited for what the rest of Italy has in store for us!

Thanks for another excellent update. Venice definitely is a unique city and a great place to wander. After your break-neck pace in London and Paris, it‘s probably good that you had a more relaxed schedule in Venice.

Thanks for sharing your updates. I'm looking forward to Liberia Agua Alta when I go next year 🙂

Ok wow it’s been a while since my last entry. Since my last time on the forum, I have been to Florence, Rome, and Santorini, and I’m currently on my 7 hour ferry to Athens.

I’ll do my best to consolidate my stops as best as I can but if I leave anything out, just ask me to clarify something :)

Starting with Florence, what a dream of a city. Everything was so beautiful and the food was absolutely incredible. For anyone looking for suggestions for food, definitely try All’antico Vinaio. It is this sandwich place (super touristy but super worth it) with these delicious, giant sandwiches costing between 7-11 euros depending on your choice of the menu.

In regards to the sights themselves, we of course made our way to the Accademia and the Uffizi. The Accademia was worth the visit but doesn’t take too terribly long to see, whereas the Uffizi could take you hours. One thing I recommend (that we didn’t actually do) is getting a guided tour of the Uffizi. As beautiful as the collections were, we didn’t have much context for most of the paintings and sculptures, but it was still totally worth seeing.

Our favorite stop however, was easily the Palazzo Vecchio. The art, sculptures, and hall of 500 were all absolutely breathtaking. The best part was the bell tower climb, where you get to see the best views of the Duomo and city (we liked it more than our views from the Piazza Michelangelo). We of course walked across the Ponte Vecchio which was also super neat to see, given how unique this particular bridge is with all of the gold and jewelry shops.

We also were able to do a day trip to Pisa and the Cinque Terre. As beautiful as these places are, I probably wouldn’t go again. Don’t get me wrong, if you haven’t seen them, they’re 100% worth your time, but we ended up liking Florence more than both places. The photos you take however, will be absolutely beautiful (especially Manarola).

Moving on to Rome, this was easily our favorite stop so far in Europe. We saw all of the must sees of course. The Colosseum, Forum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Castel de Angelo, and even a full day at the Vatican. We DID take a guided tour of the Vatican and wow was that a great idea. Not only was the crazy foot traffic at the museums more manageable, we were also afforded a great view at the top of St. Peter’s Basilica. This just furthered my attitude that we should have taken a tour at the Uffizi. It’s absolutely surreal looking up and seeing the Sistine Chapel for the first time ever. A good food recommendation for Rome is the cacio e pepe. All it is, is pasta with cheese, black pepper, and olive oil. It sounds super basic but it’s super good and super famous in Rome. I must have had this meal at least once every day during our week in the city.

We ended up taking a guided tour of Pompeii from the city with an included hike up to the top of Mt. Vesuvius. Many people told me that the transit to Pompeii was long but it seemed to breeze by for us. We were on an air conditioned coach and we felt super refreshed when we arrived at the sights and when we arrived back in Rome. This is another tour that I would recommend to anyone.

Finally we flew to Santorini and as beautiful as this island is, AND IT IS beautiful, this might have been my least favorite stop of our trip. The sound track of this island seemed to be “vroom vroom” as every second of the day was filled with the sounds of ATVs. We stayed just outside of Fira and even at 3 o clock in the morning, the tourists were going strong. There were also Disneyland sized lines of people for any of the “famous photo spots” that you saw in Firostefani and Oīa. We of course got the same photos, but we decided NOT to be rude and hold up the line by taking 200 selfies at each place.

That sounds super negative and I don’t mean to sound rude or jaded, and I honestly did enjoy my time here, but once was probably enough for me.

I’ll report more when we’re in Athens. Cheers :)

Another thing I forgot to mention for Rome is the AMAZING Aqueduct Park. It is nowhere near the city center and we chose to walk (super long day for us) but it’s is absolutely incredible standing next to these ancient structures. If anyone wants to get off the beaten path, I highly recommend going (although maybe use public transportation).

There was absolutely ZERO tourists, and very few locals. It was the most quiet and peaceful time we had in Rome by far.

Thanks for keeping us updated on your trip. I am enjoying seeing Europe through your eyes.

Aqueduct Park... Yes! That place is great! I have been to Rome once (2015) and this was one of our stops. My friend and I took the Metro there. I can't imagine walking there. It was really nice to walk in a non-touristy part of the city, past a local gelato shop, past a school, and into the park. My experience was the same... almost no one there... the two of us pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Pompeii and Vesuvius... to me, hard not to see them when anywhere near them in Italy.

Thanks agains for the updates!

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Athens and Istanbul. I have been to neither but contemplating Istanbul for 2023.

Great trip report! Hope you don't base too much of your opinion of Greece or Greek Islands on Santorini. Greece is my favorite country in Europe but I have no interest in visiting because of how incredibly touristy it is.

I'm writing this from my island paradise of Agistri, just 55 minutes from Athens. If you have enough time/want a beach day, it's a great day trip and will give you a sense of what a "hidden gem" a small island can be. The weather is going to be a lot nicer this week, too.

If you liked Rome I think you'll love Athens as well. It's such an underrated city, every time I'm there I wonder why I don't just book a trip for Athens alone. Enjoy!

Istanbul is a place everyone should visit. Most of Europe, if you take away the bigger attractions could be any major big city but the feeling in Istanbul is like no other and a good way to dip your tow into visiting more "exotic" locals. I'm not really a pet person so I was a little afraid of the stories of stray dogs and cats but they really are the most tame creatures and it was a hoot to go by the parks in the morning and seeing dozens of dogs just napping in the sun.

The only time that the animals bugged me was whenever I sat in the courtyard of a mosque. I must be a cat magnet as immediately 10 cats were meowing around me. Or maybe they just felt safer because I wasn't manhandling them. Actually saw tourist try to pick up the cats and pose with them for selfies! Please don't manhandle the cats for Instagram!

You might also fall in love with Lokum/ the Turkish candy. I thought it would taste like the British candy bar. Luckily it tastes like manna from heaven. My family must have consumed about a pound each and brought home boxes of the stuff. We have an Middle Eastern store here that sells it, but it's not as good.