Written by Kim
Thanks to all who met us on our adventure or traveled with us virtually. We had quite the trip.
As you know, Alex and I are both numbers geeks so let me start with some of our stats. Our trip lasted 23 days, where we had 8 stops in 8 beds, 7 countries and 3 different currencies along the way. We walked a whopping 284,000 steps or about 135 miles! Wow!!!!
Flights – we only took 3 flights (Newark to Warsaw, Paris to Lisbon and Lisbon to JFK but they totaled 8,513 miles. Like I said in a previous post we like to fly business class on long flights so we used a company called Business Class Consolidators to get discounted fares and saved about $800 per ticket for our flights.
Trains – we used trains for the majority of our travel. Alex was the expert booking our trains using mostly a Eurorail pass. It wasn’t the easiest to manage because the app was a bit glitchy and you book train tickets and seats in two different transactions. Alex did a lot of research to figure out our 1,800 miles on 13 different trains. The trains in Germany were the best except for the short transfer we had in Frankfurt where we had to run on the platform and jump onto a train a few cars early and hump our luggage through the crowded 2nd class cars to get to our seats. The Belgian trains gave us the most issues with changing platforms or cancelled routes. We used the metro heavily in Paris with a few small challenges like the pickpocketing which got Alex’s wallet when we first arrived and later with me getting my arm and leg caught in the door one night as I was fighting to get on the train. All in all trains went well.
Lodging – we used a mix of hotels (Prague, Munich, Heidelberg, Lisbon) and Air Bnb (Vienna, Antwerp, Paris) but our best stay was with Adam & Dominika in Warsaw. Our hotels were fine – The Santa Justa in Lisbon was the best. We booked BnBs so we could do laundry but will find an alternative for laundry next time in Europe because BnBs are not as good in Europe as in the US. Our locations were great but laundry was difficult. It takes a long time to do laundry in Europe – 2-3 hours for a load of washing then another 3 hours to dry it if you have a dryer. Our BnB in Vienna didn’t have a dryer (but luckily I packed a clothesline), in Antwerp there was no washer (despite it advertising a washer) and in Paris we struggled to get the washer/dryer combo to work (finally we figured it out but I got up in the middle of the night to reset the dryer).
Currencies – we used Zolty in Poland which was an easy conversion about 4:1. The Korana was used in Prague at about 24:1 the toughest conversion. The rest of the countries used Euros at nearly 1:1 (the USD is a littld weak at .95). I only tried to pay in the wrong currency once. I gave a restaurant owner in Paris Zolty by mistake. Lol.
Travel items – our luggage setup worked really well. Alex had a roll aboard, his CpAP and a backpack but I pushed or carried his suitcase on trains, etc because it was a bit smaller than mine. I had a backpack and suitcase. My new Biaggi backpack was perfect
Our Bestek travel adapter worked great. It is perfect in older hotels with limited plugs and really worked well after I left my adapter on a train (duh!)
My new True Earth laundry sheets, laundry bags and clothesline worked well too. I can provide links if anyone is interested
Thanks for following our fantastic European adventure. We don’t have any big trips planned for the remainder of this year. We will visit the kids and spend Christmas in NJ but expect to go to Florida in January because it’s just too cold in SC in January. Until then..
