European Vacation - Itinerary and Good News About It

12:10 AM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

Just got back from my Chronic Pain doctor and I got plenty of good news. I am still in pain. Lots and lots of terrible pain, BUT as my doctor puts it, I am on less than half the medications I was on when I was in the same (ok maybe less) amount of pain so that is an achievement. So they say. Because I am on less meds I will be able to....drum roll please....drink! Hooray! I MAKE wine for a living and I have not had a drop of alcohol in half of a year. This trip has been planned for over a year. I booked the tickets before I became so disabled I had to stop working. With this news, THE TRIP IS ON. I mean, it was on before because I already have the plane tickets and all the hotel reservations. I wanted to drink so much, it was almost making or breaking the amount of fun I would have on the trip. I have a dream of stepping off the plane in Munich (checking into hotel blah blah) and immediately marching over to the Hofbrauhaus and having a beer. Now, I know I can do it and it makes me oh so happy!

I basically planned three trips. One where I could spend most of the time either in a car or a hotel room/hotel deck and still enjoy myself with amazing hotels and incredible views from the room. One where I would be able to get out and about but always had the car or a sitting activity nearby. I could walk a promenade but there are park benches if I get tired and I could hike down a hill or have the option to take a funicular. The third trip would be probably more action than I could take if I were the healthiest person ever. I made this one to cover all bases of action to keep my boyfriend from being bored...ever. It's our first time together on a trip to Europe and his first ever altogether. I want to make sure I share all the things I love most about Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France but also allow him to see things that he would love because he isn't me. I want to have new experiences as well.

So to share with you the first little bit of our trip I will let you know the first few days of what we have planned. We are flying non-stop to Munich. I am lucky enough to have gotten tickets on miles so we are quite fortunate to have gotten a non-stop. When I land after a long flight I am always completely knackered. This is why I like to fly into a city that I want to stay in for a couple days. I have this trip planned so I fly in Munich and out Geneva. I don't particularly want to stay in Geneva hence the trip going from East to West rather than the other way around.

To begin my trip planning I took a map of all of Europe. I circled the towns I want to go to the most. I then knocked off the outlying circles and focused on where most of the markings were. That is how I decided that I was going to be in Southern Germany, Western Austria, Switzerland and a brush with France. Once I narrowed down the trip to a general area, I had to calculate driving times and the time I have off of work. I managed to work the two together so I could get to most of the places I wanted with only driving a maximum of three hours, most days 1 to 2 hours, all in 16 days. I normally would go in 14 days but this is the most special trip I have ever gone on so I sneaked in two "travel days" I called them. This trip is so important to me because I want/need my boyfriend to love Europe as much as I do. It is also the first time I have been with someone I loved. I am sad to say I have gone with a man before but we were inches away from a divorce so it was AWKWARD to say the least. So this trip I am taking him to places I have been to where I stood and wished I was with someone I loved. I already have about 35 places I know I want to kiss him.

So following these rules I am in Munich for the first three days. My first day is just unwinding by walking around the hotel area which includes the Marienplatz and leads us to the world famous Hofbrauhaus. After a super relaxing beer, or two (I mean, I must have both the light and the dunkel) I will be sleepy enough to stroll to the hotel and get a good first night's sleep.

Every hotel I booked, but one, has breakfast included in the cost. Breakfast is one of my favorite things about traveling in Europe. It is a little different in each country. The staples are a selection of breads, jams, butter, cheeses and meats. I make huge sandwiches and eat enough to last me past lunch. Aren't I clever? It saves me money that way and it is so delicious! I usually get hungry again around 3 or 4pm so what I do is find a cute little outdoor cafe and order either an ice cream or an eiskaffe. The Eiskaffe is coffee poured over some vanilla ice cream. I am not so great with caffeine so I often get hot chocolate in lieu of coffee. The ice cream isn't like anything one can get here in the US. You get a whole picture menu full of a huge variety of crazy stuff with wild straws and sparklers.

After breakfast we will head to the Deutsches Museum for a half of a day of museuming. I have been there before and I wasn't able to get to it all. It is a really fun type of museum. I look forward to seeing Sciences section because the bf is a bit of a science junky and I...well, I am a scientist. Then there is a whole music section, a transportation area which is massive and covers all possible modes of transport. This will be a good portion of our day. We will be tired after that so we are going to take a break in the Englishergarten. We'll find a good beer garden and have a beer and a sausage, or whatever the non-alcoholic/vegetarian version of that the bf can have.
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