I am from the States and I planned a two month trip to Europe starting in Madrid and going to Barcelona, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, then into Switzerland and Venice, Florence and finishing at Rome.
I bought a continuous rail pass, I was planning on using the rails everywhere in Europe. But I am now in Barcelona and can´t leave spain due to the worker´s strike going on in France. The tellers at the train station said no train is permitted to cross the border into France (same for busses).
Unfortunately, getting to other countries from here (Switzerland, Belgium, etc.) requires that the train pass through France. I heard someone tell me they are also striking in Belgium.
So I am not sure what to do. If I buy a direct plane flight from here to Amsterdam, for example, I will likely pay through the nose because I didn´t book my plane tickets in advance.
I hear I can take a ferry from Spain to Italy, but that is less than ideal because my trip ends in Italy, so it will require some degree of backtracking.
Now I can go see other cities in Spain (Seville, Valencia and circle around through portugal and back into Spain , hoping that the strike will end by the time I get back. However, I kind of wanted to see more of Europe than just Spain and portugal. Also, if the strike still continues, I will still have to somehow get to Italy because that is where my return flight is scheduled. So that may wind up only deferring the problem until later.
The last option is to hang out here in Barcelona a few more days and hope it ends soon. If it doesn´t, I´m just wasting my travel time though.
Any suggestions