Just got back from 21 days in Europe. Just could not force myself into going to a theme park while there. To many interesting historical things to see. Plus I spent 7 days hiking the alps. No roller coaster can beat that experience.
When you have what will be a 16 and 15 year old and a dad that loves theme parks, that will not happen with us. The Mom keeps it from becoming a TPR type trip.
There will be plenty of "other" this trip. In fact, I spent all of last night researching a couple of WW1 sites into it. They have been to KC, now for them to actually walk a trench. I consider this a K-tel 4 album greatest hits of Europe collection. It will hopefully introduce my kids to foriegn travel and inspire them to do so on their own as adults and a scouting mission for my wife and I for future trips. We want to do the Alps but it be a trip that concentrated on that region from the Franco/Swiss border to Austria along with Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania.
BTW, I'm completely interested in what you did and suggestions l. I have wife that isn't 'into" hiking other than simple stuff 1 to 2 mile stuff.
Well most of my hikes were a lot longer than that. But One in particular could be easily doable with the right shoes. From Grindenwald Switzerland take the BOB train to Kleine Scheidegg. There you transfer to the Jung Frau railroad that takes you to the top of Europe on the Jungfrau. Take this train to the top and allow a couple hours to take in the glaciers and ice caves at the top. The train actually travel through the interior of the mountain for about 4 kilometers. It makes a couple picture stops in front of windows carved out of the north face of the Monch. on your way down get off at the Eigergletscher station and it is a 3 hour hike down to the Alpiglen station to catch the train back to Grindelwald. Keep in mind the mountain railways in Switzerland are not covered by a Eurorail pass. They are all private railways but well worth the money.
Another place I would not miss is Rothenburg ob der Tauber. A old mid evil town in Bavaria that is still surrounded by 11th and 12th century walls. The night tour by the Nightwatchman is a must.
I could go on and on but these are defiantly highlights.
Rothenberg ob der Tauber is already part of the plan. I have also been told it's Christmas Market is one of the best as well.
Going to be doing this in segments:
Italy:
3 days/4 nites in Rome, one Vatican day, one Collosium area Day one day trip to Pompeii day.
Florence for the day via high speed train while going to Milan
2 nites/1 day in Milan
Lake Garda/Gardaland for the day via high speed train while going to Venice
2 or 3 nites/2 full days in Venice.
There's a possible 5 Day Spain quick hit, 3 days Barcelona/ 2 Madrid.
There's the France/Holland/Western Germany segment. Paris/ Oradour Ser Glane/Limoges, Puy du Fou, Mont St. Michel, Normandy, Holland/Amsterdam, Germany
Hop across the channel for 4 days in London.
After this trip, we'll start planning hard for Japan/ China trip for the 2020/2021 timeframe.
We really want to try and plan an oversea adventure every three years starting with this Europe trip.
That China trip has a couple of tentative hiking days including a day long one on an unimproved part of the wall and at the Haungshan and Zhangjiajie National Parks. Zhangjiajie is the original "avatar" mountians.
Hainan Air has started flying from Chicago.and you can get R/Ts for around 500 to 600 to Beijing.
