Post by inoue on Mar 12, 2011 8:48:06 GMT -5
My husband and I went for a 2-month Europe expedition last year (June-August 2010). We are happy that we finally came back home safely with lots of unforgettable memories and experience.
In the 2-months time, we have been to 10 countries and around 30 cities. We started our journey in London-England, then Paris-France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland and finally Italy. Travelling in Europe was so easy by railway. We did a lot of research (from travel forums and websites) beforehand. We booked air tickets, accommodations and railway passes in advance especially since it was summer. Surprisingly we followed our plans without fail except there were some rainy days during our visit to certain cities that we couldn’t do 1-day tours.
We love photography. My husband and I took a lot of photos during the trip. We also brought along a small laptop to store our photos/video clips and also to get online to search for useful info as well as keeping in touch with our family during our trip.
Europe is quite hot in the summer, especially in Germany and Italy. However it was raining when we were at Austria (Salzburg, Innsbruck), Switzerland and Germany (Munich & Rothenburg ob der Tauber). And we were very lucky because the rain stopped for some few hours and we could still manage to see blue skies and walk about. The places that we liked most were Hallstatt (Austria), Gimmelwald (Switzerland) and Cinque Terre (Italy). These places were quite far from the main cities but still could be reached easily by railway.
I got to know Hallstatt from one of the Korean dramas a few years back, namely Spring Waltz. Most of the scenes in the film were shot there. Ever since, I have decided that I must pay a visit to this place one day. We departed from Budapest early in the morning by train and reached Hallstatt only in the evening. It was quite a long ride. We had to stop by a very small train station and then take a ferry across the lake. The moment I stepped onto Hallstatt, I wished I had planned to spend more days here. Surrounded by mountains, swans swimming on the beautiful lake and pastel-hued houses, the scenery was breathtaking!
A lot of people on travel forums recommend Gimmelwald as a must go. We spent 2 days in Gimmelwald and it was Swiss national day on 1st August. The weather on the day we arrived was hot with clear blue sky during the day. While at night it started to get cloudy and started to rain. We could hardly see the fireworks just in front of our hostel window. We went up to the Schilthorn the second day, a 10,000-foot peak. But the weather was too cloudy and rained heavily that we only got to see some of the peak of Swiss Alps.
Cinque Terre is another amazing place that we feel is a must go. It has the one of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Of course we did the hiking from 1st village, Riomaggiore to the last village, Monterosso. It took almost 9 hours to finish the hike. It was very tiring but well worth it!
We want to say thank you to guideforeurope.com because we found plenty useful information and advice here.
Also Hostelworld.com is a reliable website. We didn’t find any problem with the accommodations during our trip. There are a few hostels/apartments that we want to give credit to for the good price and services: Dei Cavalieri B&B, Pisa, Italy; Pal's Hostel, Budapest, Hungary; Black Sheep Hostel, Cologne, Germany; Hotel Van Belle, Brussels, Belgium and Locanda Pitti, Florence, Italy.
In the 2-months time, we have been to 10 countries and around 30 cities. We started our journey in London-England, then Paris-France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland and finally Italy. Travelling in Europe was so easy by railway. We did a lot of research (from travel forums and websites) beforehand. We booked air tickets, accommodations and railway passes in advance especially since it was summer. Surprisingly we followed our plans without fail except there were some rainy days during our visit to certain cities that we couldn’t do 1-day tours.
We love photography. My husband and I took a lot of photos during the trip. We also brought along a small laptop to store our photos/video clips and also to get online to search for useful info as well as keeping in touch with our family during our trip.
Europe is quite hot in the summer, especially in Germany and Italy. However it was raining when we were at Austria (Salzburg, Innsbruck), Switzerland and Germany (Munich & Rothenburg ob der Tauber). And we were very lucky because the rain stopped for some few hours and we could still manage to see blue skies and walk about. The places that we liked most were Hallstatt (Austria), Gimmelwald (Switzerland) and Cinque Terre (Italy). These places were quite far from the main cities but still could be reached easily by railway.
I got to know Hallstatt from one of the Korean dramas a few years back, namely Spring Waltz. Most of the scenes in the film were shot there. Ever since, I have decided that I must pay a visit to this place one day. We departed from Budapest early in the morning by train and reached Hallstatt only in the evening. It was quite a long ride. We had to stop by a very small train station and then take a ferry across the lake. The moment I stepped onto Hallstatt, I wished I had planned to spend more days here. Surrounded by mountains, swans swimming on the beautiful lake and pastel-hued houses, the scenery was breathtaking!
A lot of people on travel forums recommend Gimmelwald as a must go. We spent 2 days in Gimmelwald and it was Swiss national day on 1st August. The weather on the day we arrived was hot with clear blue sky during the day. While at night it started to get cloudy and started to rain. We could hardly see the fireworks just in front of our hostel window. We went up to the Schilthorn the second day, a 10,000-foot peak. But the weather was too cloudy and rained heavily that we only got to see some of the peak of Swiss Alps.
Cinque Terre is another amazing place that we feel is a must go. It has the one of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Of course we did the hiking from 1st village, Riomaggiore to the last village, Monterosso. It took almost 9 hours to finish the hike. It was very tiring but well worth it!
We want to say thank you to guideforeurope.com because we found plenty useful information and advice here.
Also Hostelworld.com is a reliable website. We didn’t find any problem with the accommodations during our trip. There are a few hostels/apartments that we want to give credit to for the good price and services: Dei Cavalieri B&B, Pisa, Italy; Pal's Hostel, Budapest, Hungary; Black Sheep Hostel, Cologne, Germany; Hotel Van Belle, Brussels, Belgium and Locanda Pitti, Florence, Italy.
