Planning a 2010 European Trip

Easiest solution for souvenirs- mail it home.

As renting an apartment for two weeks in one country... I count 20 days in Europe. That locks you into that location for 14 of your 20 days, giving you only 6 days to see the other four cities scattered throughout the continent. I don't see the advantage.

Finally, you can make your trip more efficient by booking an open-jaw flight. That way, you could include Oxford and London in one end of the trip, rather than circling back at the end.

In France the post office sells boxes, including postage (make sure you get the International ones, not EU or French ones) in various sizes. You can put as much in them as you want, regardless of weight, provided the box closes the way it was designed to do. We found this a great way to send back souvenirs, guide books for places we had already visited, etc.

Planning tips. Read Rick Steves books. They are invaluable - I have no connection with im apart from watching his shows and this site - they really do cover the essentials and on our trips we have used at least half of our accommodation from his recommendations.

Our son rented apartments in Paris and somewhere else, I do not remember where and he found it worked well. We have always used B&B and hotels.

Ask specific questions in this site. There is a wealth of knowledge to tap.

It would be difficult to rent an apt in one country for 2 weeks and still be able to go everywhere you plan to go. I agree with the poster suggesting you fly open-jaw to prevent you from flying into and out of London. If you are flying American, remember that they fly non-stop to Madrid now. You could fly into Madrid to do Madrid, Barcelona, and Rome. Then you could fly from Rome to London to do Oxford & London -- unless your itinerary is etched in stone already.
I'm sure your wife will be thrilled!

I often send at least one package home from Europe. I send it via the slow boat, but it's still not cheap. But it saves me all that lugging. The other thing to do is to plan to buy some souvenirs that you'll start using while you're there. For example, I buy a wool sweater when I go to Scotland and it's one of the layers I count on. I also buy some jewelry when I'm there and don't take any with me. Instead of buying crystal glasses, I bought crystal pendant. You might make it a quest to identify these types of souvenirs. I did buy a painting once and part of the purchase included shipment back to the US because they wanted to keep it in their show for a few more weeks. It sounds like a lovely trip and a very thoughtful present.

Pam