Ambitious

I am finally planning my "grand tour" around Europe! I had been putting it off, waiting to see if my grandmother's health would stabilize (or not) and since it now appears she is stable for the moment, I have decided to go ahead with my plans. After all, she is partly the motivation for me doing this, because it is her 1956 travel itinerary I am attempting to replicate for this trip. It's all part of the research for the book I want to write.

So far, my own itinerary is looking pretty ambitious. Not only am I trying to hit as many of the places as my grandmother (plus grandfather and father) saw when they did their trip nearly 51 years ago, but I'm taking a few of my own detours as well. I figure if I'm going to do it, I might as well see as much as I can. It won't be the kind of in-depth travel I normally prefer but it will give me the chance to see a little of everything, and I can always come back if I fall in love with a particular place. But the "Europe Lite" style of travel was how they did things in '56 and that's how I'm doing it in '07.

There is one difference between their trip and my own. They rented a car, chauffeured by my father who was then 23 and stationed in Verdun with the U.S. Army. I have wisely decided NOT to drive a car alone through all of Europe. Instead, I'm going with the infamous Eurail Pass which will cover about 90% of my transportation needs. There will be times when I will switch to local buses -- for instance, to get from Switzerland to Milan, I want to go over the Simplon Pass by road because my family had a memorable and fairly terrifying experience driving down from the Alpes when the brakes failed on the rental car. My dad had to get the car down from the mountains using the hand brake, which fortunately held out. I want to see for myself what it might have been like, and I can't do that if I go by train all the way, so my plan is to take the Swiss "PostBus" between Brig and a town north of Milan, and then get back on the train the rest of the way.

Here's the general agenda (still working out the finer points):

• Day 1: Paris TGV to Vallorbe, Switzerland to Le Solliat - where I will stay a night (maybe two), visiting a long-time client and friend, and her husband, enjoying being up in the mountains in a small town, before continuing on by train to...
• Day 2: Geneva! My grandmother liked Geneva and went on and on about a big lakeside fountain. Then on to...
• Day 3: Traveling through Montreux and Brig, Switzerland, by train. At Brig, switch to the PostBus, over the Simplon Pass and into Domodossola, Italy. Get back on the train into...
• Day 4: Milan. See Leonardo's The Last Supper (of course) and whatever else I can manage to see before hopping back on the train across Italy to a place I have always wanted to visit...
• Day 5 & 6: Venice! My family for some reason skipped Venice entirely even though they drove through nearby Brescia before heading due north into Austria. I guess there were just some things they had to sacrifice on a short 2-3 week journey, but they really missed out on something by not seeing it. So I plan to spend two whole nights in one place to soak up as much of it as I can in such a short time. Then it's back on the rails to...
• Day 7: Innsbruck, Austria. Site of a past Olympics, this should be a lovely place to spend a day.
• Day 8 and 9: Salzburg and Oberndorf, Austria. Salzburg is definitely a place I want to visit, and I plan to do my own little "Sound of Music" tour because much of that movie was filmed on location in Salzburg. Oberndorf is a small village about 20km north, right on the border with Germany, and its claim to fame is that "Silent Night" was composed and performed there for the first time. This was very meaningful for my grandmother, as that is her favorite Christmas carol and she used to sing it in church every year as the soloist. Every time I tell her I'm going there, she gets very happy remembering her own experience there. So Oberndorf deserves a little day trip by bus. After that, it's onward to...
• Day 10: Munich and King Ludwig's Castle! My family did not see the famous castle, but I plan to make time for it. I'll probably go there immediately on arrival in Munich after dropping my luggage somewhere; then spend the night and the next day in Munich seeing that Bavarian city. Next on the agenda is...
• Day 11: Stuttgart and Heidelberg. The German part of my family's trip involved a lot of driving and stopping for short periods in different towns. I've already been to Frankfurt and Weisbaden while visiting on a business trip in 1998. So I'm still considering what I'd like to see in this part of the country.
• Day 12: This will either be a hop into Luxembourg, which is what my family did (but which is not included in my Eurail Pass program) OR I will detour to Strasbourg, France which is a place I've always wanted to see anyway. I'm leaning toward the latter, in which case I can always do a mini-break to Luxembourg at some point in the future.
• Day 13: Verdun. Many reasons to go here. The historical significance of the many battles fought here and where many Americans died. Plus my family did visit here as my dad was stationed in wherever the American troops used to be. They also visited the Argonne and Metz.
• Day 14: Reims, France. Time to visit the famed cathedral. I had thought to perhaps do this as a day trip from Paris but my family did go here as the last leg of their journey on the continent before flying to England. So it seems fitting to wrap up my own trip here.
• Day 15: Back to Paris. Voila! Making the most of the 15-day 5-country EurailPass. Return to apartment and collapse in an exhausted but happy heap.

After returning to Paris, my family took in Versailles before heading to London. There they spent three entire days, before renting another car and driving up through Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare country!), Bath, Salisbury and finally to Southampton, all in just two more days. At that point, the journey ended. My grandparents, who had flown to Paris, sailed home on the Mauritania II on rough seas -- but they proved to be excellent sailors. They had an adventure on board, too: a freighter put out a distress call because it was taking on water, so the Mauritania II had to turn around and wait there "in case". Fortunately help arrived in the form of some other ships to rescue the stranded crew and captain, before the ship did, in fact, sink. It added an extra day to their journey home, where they arrived in New York harbor, sailing right past that tall French woman in the green dress with the big torch and funky spiked hat.

I will be doing the British part of the trip in the fall. In light of the recent flooding in England, I'm glad I hadn't planned to be there just now, because in England I am planning to rent a car and drive the entire "loop". Of course, my trip won't end with a nice fancy cruise on the Queen Mary II (although I did think about it -- until I saw what it costs) -- instead I'll drive back to London with a little side trip thrown in, to visit Jane Austen's home, now a museum, and pay homage to one of the world's most beloved female writers. It seems fitting to get Jane's blessing, as I'm doing this entire trip as part of writing a book.

After seeing his parents off at the Southampton docks, my father went back to France to finish his active military duty. A year or so later, he returned to the States and met my mother. After that first trip to Europe in 1956, my grandmother took a job working at an export company. By 1960 or so, they had started sending her on trips to Europe to network with distributors or suppliers there; in fact, when I was born in 1961, she was actually in Paris. She asked my mother what she should bring back as a baby gift, and my mother said "a christening gown". And that's how I got my first Paris dress!  My little sister got to wear it, too, in 1963 when she made her début.

And that's how I'm planning to spend my summer holidays this year... seeing flashes of five countries over two weeks, my own 2007 version of "Europe Lite". I've got a copy of "Europe on a Shoestring" to help me locate cheap but respectable hotels along the way. I'm doing research online every day to figure out train connections and where I might need to reserve something in advance vs. just "winging it". I won't be backpacking, exactly (not my thing), but I will be traveling light except for one thing: I do plan to bring my laptop although I expect Internet/blogging access will be spotty.

If you've got any great hotel suggestions in any of the places I've mentioned, or any "must see" recommendations -- or any "words to the travel-wise", please comment or email me me as I'd love to hear your ideas.

More to follow as I get nearer the time, which right now is tentatively scheduled for an August 19th or 20th departure. As that is very close, I have a LOT to do and very little time in which to do it.