plan for 35 days in europe

[lebsam11]

Ive actually been doing a lot of reading this past week. You guys are right that Rick Steves without question seems to offer a great and different perspective. Ive been going to Barnes and Noble at night and looking through several of his guidebooks, along with most of the others (I like Lets Go). Ive even tried listening to one of his old radio shows online. I dont watch public television so I had no idea what a cult following he has and hes based in edmonds wa, not far from olympia where i live. I know I definately want a good mixture of basic city tourist as well as backdoor experiences. I think I would like to avoid the cost and hassle of flying between destinations. I also see a certain level of romanticism in just roughing it on the railroad. I do wish that certain rail passes covered more though. I would love to explore by Jewish Heritige in Eastern Europe, particularly Poland and my family's homeland of Lithuania where most were brutally murdered by the Nazis, but I feel this should probably be a second trip altogether. Travel in eastern europe seems cheaper but less comfortable and convinient. Anyway thank you all for your comments.

[Eagle]

lebsam11, glad the info was of some help to you. I can't remember from earlier posts if you mentioned exactly when you would be travelling? Since you live in Olympia, here's a bit more information that might help you in planning.

Rick Steves provides free use of his library in Edmonds to assist those planning trips to Europe. I believe this includes not only access to the most current Guidebooks, but also access to DVD's of his shows so that the traveller can actually see the areas they might want to visit. In addition, he holds all-day Travel Festivals twice a year (usually spring and fall), with Seminars (usually two hours each) on various topics (Rail Travel, Country specific talks, Packing, etc.). These are all free but require pre-registration so that they have an idea on how many people will be attending each one (the facilities he uses have occupancy limits, so this is the limiting factor). Be forewarned however, that the Seminars usually contain not-so-subtle advertising for the RS tours, Guidebooks, Travel gear, etc. (I don't find that a problem as I just ignore anything that I'm not interested in). Also, much of the stuff in his shop is discounted 20% on that day. I've attended two of these Festivals and found the information provided was quite informative and valuable in helping me to plan my trips, and helped to "fill in some of the blanks".

The Fall Travel Festival will be held on Nov. 11th, but unfortunately there's only one lecture that has space left, "The Value of Travel". That particular lecture is not specifically related to travel, so might not be of much value to you in your planning. The Spring Festival is larger (from what I've seen), so you might want to wait for that if you wanted to attend one of them. The date for that will probably be listed on the web site in a month or so.

BTW, if you're going to be using a Rail Pass, you can purchase that from the link on this site. Hostel reservations are also possible from the main page on this site.

Using information from our well-travelled group here at GFE as well as good Guidebooks, you should be able to put together a fantastic vacation in Europe! Hope this helps.

Happy travels!!!