October 6-November 7: LONDON! PARIS! AMSTERDAM! Whoo-hoo! We were excited to be heading back to Europe for five weeks of fun. We didn’t intend to visit Amsterdam this year but my sister was traveling with us on her first European adventure and hey – it was just a short, cheap train ride away from Paris, so why not?
The three of us had traveled short term several times before but not long term, so we knew there might be some challenges. I’ll tell you how that worked out at the end, but up front I will say that we all agreed that everyone didn’t have to do everything, everyone should be prepared to learn transit and explore some on his own, if someone wanted a down day it wasn’t a big deal, that even though we would use public transport there would still be a lot of walking/stairs required and better be prepared for it, there would be NO complaining about food/meals, etc.
This isn’t a report of everything we did but the meat of it. My favorite thing about traveling during shoulder season is the lack of huge crowds. The only place we were surrounded by a crowd was when visiting Mona in the Louvre. Oh, and Versailles.
Where we stayed: We rented a 2 bedroom London Connection Apt in London, a 1 bedroom Apt at the Citadines St. Germain in Paris, and our favorite Pied a Terre - Herengracht Apt. in Amsterdam from Kathryn Wentzel.
Background: We had never been to London and only spent two days in Paris when on the 2015 BOE tour so we wanted more time there. This was our third year in Amsterdam and I still found new things to do/places to go, along with some repeats. Hubby and I have only been to Europe twice but both times we have done a lot of walking. I knew we would be riding more this trip due to city sizes and locations of itinerary.
We traveled carry on only. Since we weren’t staying in just one city this year I took one less pant and three fewer shirts than last winter. Next trip I will pare down further to 2 pants (wear one) and 4 shirts (wear one). That gives clothes time to dry and a little variation.
This is what I wore and was in my backpack:
Plane – cuffed jeans, long sleeve tunic top, Teva low boots with special inserts for my trouble feet, knee high compression socks – traveled fine without them on way home so probably won’t use them again.
In my RS Convertible backpack:
2 more jeans – one dark blue, one light blue (one less pair would have been enough)
3 long sleeve shirts
2 quarter sleeve shirts (didn’t need – shoulda/coulda just rolled up long sleeves)
Thermaskin thermal shirt and pants – needed the shirt, not the pants
3 merino socks, 1 merino ankle sock
Fleece lined rain jacket with hood– Now this was lucky. On a whim I decided to throw this in my bag as I was walking out the door. Good decision as I ended up wearing it most of the trip. It is only water resistant but I waterproofed it last fall and I stayed dry with no umbrella during a downpour on the Jack the Ripper walk.
Marmot Precip jacket – only needed once or twice when weather was too warm for the fleece lined raincoat, but did need it – too windy for an umbrella. It would not have been warm enough for me the whole trip.
Fleece vest – wore it once or twice – will not take again. Prefer the fleece lined coat as it keeps my arms warm.
Winter cap and gloves – wore them often. I didn’t take a warm scarf and had to buy one in Paris. What a shame – ha.
Alegria Bree shoes – good for my trouble feet, mostly alternated days with Teva de la Vina boots
Alegria Eliza boots – experimental boots without fully trusting them. They were okay – but I still love my flat soled Teva de la Vina boots for lots of walking and used those the most. I have found though that the Alegria’s provide the high arch support that I need without needing a special insert.
Hubby had similar in his bag.
Still too much stuff!