Munich was a fun stopping point from Fuessen on our way to Prague. Pablo had been there before and we really didn’t have anything on our list as must-see’s, just walked around the city a bit. The metro tickets in Munich were pricy! We arrived on a Saturday night and weren’t leaving until lunch time the next day so we had a bit of time to explore. We headed to Marienplatz first to check out the Glockenspiel. Unfortunately we weren’t able to be there when it chimed but the building was large and impressive. There were a lot of people milling about and we went in search of some street food. We had to walk a few streets away to find some options but it wasn’t too difficult. Pablo had told me about Spaghetti Eis and it was my mission to find it! Ice cream that looks like pasta? Yes please! It was fun, vanilla soft serve that looked like spaghetti, strawberry sauce on top and white chocolate shavings to look like parmesan cheese. Pablo got yet another kebab 🙂
Spaghetti Eis and Kebabs
We sat on a bench in a park doing some people watching for a while and decided to call it an early evening overall due to our lack of sleep the night before. The next morning we headed to Königsplatz where the Nazis used to hold rallies in Munich. We had stopped to grab some bread, cheese and fruit and enjoyed a nice brunch on a bench on one of the greens. There were couples walking by and playing with their dogs and it was a nice relaxing morning.
Konigsplatz
There were also some strange art sculptures made out of colored plastic straws. We’re not really sure what they were there for, but they looked neat! After hanging out in the square for a bit we headed back to the train station to head to Prague. The Munich train station is awesome with lots of food options. We had some Chinese food for lunch here, something we had both been craving the whole trip! We also had some delicious puffy round donut type things rolled in sugar! I’m not sure what they were called but they were awesome.
Chinese food and posing at the Konigsplatz
Then panic set in as we learned that the bus we were catching to Prague was not in fact located at the train station, or anywhere near it! When we purchased our tickets, we found the bus was cheaper than a train reservation and would get us to Prague quicker as well. In hindsight, I think we would’ve been fine without a reservation on the train and just depending on our Eurail Pass. But we were still recovering from the hours we had spent standing/on the floor on Friday so we didn’t want to take the chance. The ticket salesman made it sound like the buses were really close to the train station but this was definitely NOT the case. It took us 20 minutes to get there walking really fast and running at the end! We barely made our bus but thankfully were the last ones to board and made it safe and sound. It was a double decker bus and we had picked seats for the top which seemed fun! But it was a lot smaller than I was expecting so if you’re claustrophic I would recommend the bottom floor. I also don’t know whether they had a bathroom on board or not. We were told they did but I didn’t see one anywhere and didn’t feel like going around downstairs to find it. It was only around 5 hours so it was ok.
We couldn’t wait to meet Tom at the train station in Prague!
Our poor couchsurfing host in Fuessen. We changed our arrival time on him multiple times do to late trains during the day, missing connections and then missing the stop near his little village! One couchsurfing tip: Be willing to search for hosts right outside the area you’re looking for. This gentleman and his family lived about 15 minutes outside Fuessen and welcomed us to their home when I had been unable to find anyone at all in Fuessen who could host us. Those in the main cities receive a lot more requests from travelers so sometimes you have better luck expanding your search.
First View of Hohenschwangau Castle
He ended up picking us up really late at night in some sort of vehicle that was similar to a tuk tuk perhaps. He drove us through the countryside to his home about 10 minutes away and it smelled like we were back in Nebraska- lots of cows! The only difference was there were also mountains in the distance. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The hills were a rich green color and the water was a dazzling bright blue. I could’ve stayed there a long time.
View looking down from Neuschwanstein
We had a long night trying to fall asleep that evening. His home was adorable, but definitely a country home with open windows which include lots of flies in the house buzzing around our heads while we tried to sleep. I wasn’t used to that and didn’t sleep a whole lot which made for a very tired day the next morning. But off we went prepared with directions to the nearest bus stop that our host had given us. We found it without any trouble and soon were on our way to Fuessen and seeing the castles.
This was one of my favorite sights in all of our European trip. Neuschwanstein Castle does not disappoint. We left our backpacks in the lockers at the Fuessen train station and caught a bus up to the castles. It took about 30 minutes to get there and then we walked through the little town up to the castle itself. Buy your tickets ahead of time online!!!!! We got there early in the morning as you purchase a ticket for a specified entrance time, and the line was already huge. I don’t know how we would’ve made it to see the castle that day if we had to wait in that line. There are three different ticket options: you can walk up to the castle, take a bus up or take a carriage. We chose the bus for a one way trip up and then would walk back down. We arrived at this decision after multiple blogs I’d read where visitors waited for a really long time to get a carriage. Or ended up waiting a really long time to catch a bus back down after they were done- the same amount of time they could’ve walked down. Carriages are pricier than the bus so in the end we decided to take the bus up instead of hiking uphill the whole way and then walk back down. We were happy with our decision and even happier we listened to the staff who told us to get in line for the bus WAY ahead of our booked tour time in the castle. Good advice as we were waiting for a long time and getting worried we would miss our tour! There’s not refunds if you miss it and there were a lot of stressed tourists in line with us. Fortunately we all made it with about 10 minutes to spare.
Beautiful German Countryside
Photography is not allowed in the castle but it was spectacular! Definitely different than Versailles and most other castle tours. This one looked like Disney World on the inside, color everywhere! Instead of diamonds, there were colored jewels. The walls and ceilings were bursting with color and paintings of fairy tales. It struck me as similar to old churches who’s walls are covered in murals of Bible stories- however instead of a church and Bible stories, this was a castle and fairy tales. The tour is only about 30 minutes long and I was glad we did it. There are beautiful views of the mountains around the castle as well.
Neuschwanstein Castle
When we finished our tour and headed outside it had started raining again- surprise surprise. The bus had dropped us off right near the Marienbrücke (Mary’s Bridge) which it the classic photo spot. But we hadn’t had time to snap photos due to the long lines waiting for the bus. So when we were done with the castle we hiked back up to towards there to head out to the bridge (about a 15 minute hike up from the castle). It was very cold and windy but we got awesome photos and I loved it!
Classic photo from Mary’s Bridge
There were food options on the way walking down, but we decided to see if prices in the town were better (they weren’t). We should’ve just eaten at the midway point, but once we went down we didn’t want to walk all the way back up. We splurged and decided to choose a nice restaurant for our meal since there were downpours outside and we had not come prepared- our umbrella and my rain jacket were in our backpacks at the Fuessen Train Station! Our meal ended and we wanted to still see Hohenschwangau Castle but the rain was still streaming down and it was COLD. I gave up and bought a rain poncho while Pablo insisted he was fine with getting soaked. I’m just a chicken when it comes to being wet and cold so I was grumpy by this point but we decided to walk up to Hohenschwangau Castle, a much shorter hike than to Neuschwanstein. We hadn’t bought tickets to tour this one so we just walked around the outside a bit. There’s no real good spot for a photo and we were both cold and wet so we didn’t stay long. On the hike back down we stopped by the lake which was another beautiful shade of blue. You can rent paddle boats and explore it, but it was empty given the weather.
Be sure to check bus schedules when you arrive so you know what time to catch one back to Fuessen! We were able to time it right and make it back without having to wait too long. But they only came once an hour I believe so just take a quick look at the schedule when you arrive.
Grumpy, tired, cold and wet
Back in Fuessen we walked around the streets a bit and walked out to the river. It was Saturday and the tourist office was closed so that was a bummer. But it was nice just walking around and checking things out, Fuessen is also really small similar to Bruges. We were still cold and tired at this point though thankfully the rain had stopped. So we decided to head back to the station and catch an earlier train to our next destination about 2 hours away- Munich!
Luxembourg is a tiny little country, but the photos looked pretty and we talked to other friends of ours who said it was cute. We knew we only needed a couple hours there, and it was a perfect stop between Bruges and Fuessen so that’s where we headed from Belgium.
Old part of Luxembourg
My mom has an old friend who actually lives there and welcomed us into her home. It was beautiful!!! She and her family actually couldn’t be there when we were visiting but she arranged to have a friend pick us up from the train station and take us to her apartment. She had thought of everything, including maps of the city for us, bus information and a wonderfully made up room. It was a heavenly break from roughing it through couchsurfing the first few days. We had space to ourselves and could take a really nice long shower without rushing. It was perfect 🙂
Le Chemin de la Corniche- Most Beautiful Balcony in the World
Our train the next day left around 1:00 so we had the morning to explore. We headed to Le Chemin de La Corniche, the “most beautiful balcony in the world”. It was actually a lot trickier to find than I thought it would be! We easily found the signs pointing towards it but as we got closer it wasn’t so clear which way to go on the pathway. We wandered around quite a bit and never actually found a sign that proclaimed we were at the balcony. But I think we made it!
View from the Balcony
It was a pretty view, but nothing I found spectacular. Plus I was still on a high from the beauty of Bruges the day before. Still, it was quiet in Luxembourg and that was a nice chance to relax. After snapping some photos and enjoying the view from the balcony, we decided to explore the Bock Casemates. Entrance fee was only 3 Euros and we spent around an hour or so walking through them. I’d avoid the really steep and narrow staircases if you’re claustrophobic- there were a few that went down for FOREVER and started even making me feel a little nervous. Plus they were extremely steep and long, which made for a long trek back up each time.
Exploring the Bock Casemates
It was interesting to see how the city had been fortified and defended many years ago. But again, maybe I’m really picky, I didn’t find it extremely fascinating. From there, we easily followed signs back to the center of town where the buses were. We were hungry and stopped a sidewalk café along the way back to get some food and try some pastries. I had the best éclair I’ve ever tasted here! Who would’ve thought? This also was the start of Pablo’s many, many kebabs he ate the rest of the trip and loved every one.
Lunch and kebabs for Pablo- Luxembourg is pricy like Paris!
We had to run for our bus on this trip, just cause we were nervous about being late to the train station. We ended up being ok and had time to make a few purchases at the grocery store next to the station as well. From there we started our very long day of travel to Fuessen. This was our longest day with around 7 or 8 hours of travel planned to get to Germany. Not to mention almost all our trains were late and we missed connections along the way! We were very glad to finally arrive that night, even if it was a couple hours later than we expected.
Pretty side street in Luxembourg. We don’t know the umbrellas were covering it but they looked cool!
My final recommendation on Luxembourg: Cute stop if it’s convenient and you have time. But not necessary to go out of the way to hit it.
Bruges is beautiful. This was a destination not originally on my itinerary until speaking with a few friends who all highly recommended we include it. I’m so glad we did, it was my favorite stop of the whole trip!
The Venice of the North
Bruges is a beautiful little town in Belgium. While most people visit Brussels, we opted for Bruges instead. The town is so small, we literally were able to walk from one end of it to the other in about 45ish minutes. It truly feels like you’re living in medieval times! The buildings are all old, but people actually live in them and work in them. The whole town just has an ancient feel to it and is absolutely darling.
Markt Square
Our coushurfing host lived outside of Bruges itself so we arrive from Paris via train and then caught a bus out to his house. The next morning he brought us into town when he was going to work and let use leave our backpacks in his office for the day, which saved us some money! We headed into the main square (Markt Square) area around 9:15ish and it was deserted. Europeans are not early risers and we had the entire place to ourselves. All around were little cafes and the Belfort was right there as well. We wanted to climb the stairs to the top (not advised if you are claustrophobic). So we looked around a bit and then headed over to it. I believe it opened at 9am, and only 70 people are allowed in at a time. There’s just not enough room on the stairs! We waited in line for about 30 minutes and found out we were visitor number 90 and 91. So close, but that meant we had to wait for visitors to come out before going in. Since we’d already been there so long, we decided to give it 10 more minutes and then leave if the line wasn’t moving by then- I was anticipating us being there another hour!
Climbing a million stairs in the Belfort
Surprisingly the line went quickly and we were able to make it. Many sights in Europe offer discounts to anyone under age 26, and the Belfort was one such place. We purchased our tickets and headed up. There were breaks every 60 stairs or so with floors and rooms full of old objects. We explored and then continued on. The bell at the top chimes every 15 minutes, so you’ll definitely be able to hear it while there! I’d say our total time spent actually climbing and exploring was no more than an hour tops. Next time I’d aim to get there right at 9am to be able to get in sooner- but definitely arrive early. When we left the line was WAY longer than when we’d arrived.
View from the top of the Belfort
We decided to head to another square and grab some Belgian Waffles along the way. Although I’m told these are just for the tourists and not true authentic food from Belgium, you HAVE to have some while there. They were incredible, the best waffles I’ve ever had. I’m trying to find a recipe to use here because it’s not waffle batter they use, but instead an actual dough. The waffles were much more dense, but absolutely delicious with strawberries and whipped cream on top- or nutella for Pablo.
Best waffles ever!
We walked on to the Burg Square which wasn’t too exciting and then headed to the Rozenhoedkaai, the top photo spot in Bruges. We sat here and finished our waffles along with snapping a few photos. It was a little tough to find the spot at first, but once we spotted the flock of tourists we knew we had it.
Rozenhoedkaai – famous photo op in Bruges
After seeing “Monuments Men” earlier in the year, Pablo wanted to see Michelangelo’s famous “Madonna and Child” statue. So we stopped by the Church of Our Lady. The church was actually undergoing some major renovations and there was a large section we couldn’t visit, but this didn’t hinder our views of the statue! Plus it made entrance cheaper, I think it was 2-3 Euros each. We spent around 30-45 minutes here before moving on.
Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child
We walked on from there to see the Begijnhof neighborhood where a group of religious women had chosen to live. It was a quiet area and everyone spoke in reverent whispers. We didn’t see any of the women, but their homes were there and the trees all looked a bit strange. Honestly, not a super exciting stop.
Begijnhof
However the neighborhood is only a 30 second detour to the side of the Minnewater (Lake of Love). There are lots of swans and ducks wandering around and many boats offering to give you a tour of the city via the canals and waterways. It was fun walking around and exploring this area, lots of pretty spots to sit. This is also the closest end of the city to the train station, which was only about a 15 minute walk from the lake.
Minnewater Lake of Love
Unforunately our friend and his office were on the opposite end, so we trekked back, grabbed our bags and then headed through the whole town again to get to the train station. It took maybe around 30-40ish minutes walking at a brisk pace to get back out to the train station. There is one bus stop in town where you can grab buses out there, but it doesn’t save a whole lot of time by the time you walk there, find a bus, wait for it and then ride it to the train station. If you’re able to walk it, it’ll save you some money and it’s enjoyable spending the extra time in the quaint little town!
We did learn that the train from Bruges to Brussels is PACKED. It’s only an hour ride, thank goodness, but there were no seats for us and not even any space to sit on the floor. We had to stand the whole way. This is where we learned that if you use a Eurail Pass and don’t pay extra for a reservation on each train, you aren’t guaranteed a seat. On most trains we were able to get a seat, but there were a few where we rode on the floor. It can get frustrating when you’re settled into one seat just to have someone come and tell you they have it reserved and ask you to move. I started getting anxious every time the train made a stop, wondering if we’d have to pack up and move! Mercifully, our other trains had room for us to sit on our journey from Bruges as we headed on to Luxemborg next.
Our second day in Paris was the first of how the rest of the trip would go: full of rain. Versailles was on our list of places to see and we opted to visit there on Wednesday rather than Tuesday. Tuesdays at Versailles include a musical water show in the gardens which sounded super cool! But I’d also heard that Versailles is extremely crowded, even more so on Tuesdays. So we decided to skip the music and go on another day instead. I think that was a good move because even on Wednesday it was packed. I mean, literally moving like a school of fish throughout the palace without any hope of speeding up at your own pace.
Waiting in the rain for an hour to get in.
Versailles is about a 40 minute train ride outside of Paris. At the bottom I provide a file to a map of the train route to get there. You have to buy a special train ticket to head to Versailles. From the train station it’s about a 15 minute walk (turn right out the station and just walk until you see a giant palace in the distance on your left hand side. Turn there). The palace opens at 9:00am so we planned to be there right at 9:00. Well due to our lack of sleep for the past 3 nights, I did not feel well at all that morning and we were slow going getting there as I needed to sit and rest to prevent getting sick ( I don’t do well with continual nights of getting up at strange hours and then only sleeping 5 hours on top of that). Thankfully Pablo is very patient with me and we made it to the gates with him carrying BOTH our backpacks right at 9:00am.
We didn’t pack an umbrella for the trip!
Even with arriving RIGHT at 9:00, we still waited in line, in the cold, cold rain for an hour. I’d advise getting there sooner if you can, but definitely come early. Within 30 minutes the line was over twice as long as it had been when we arrived. Some people were waiting multiple hours to get in! You can buy your tickets online ahead of time which saves a little time in that you don’t need to go to the ticket counter. But after that it’s just first come first serve. Eventually we made it in and were thankful they have an attendant who checks bags for you and held on to our big backpacks.
In Versailles
We probably spent a couple of hours going through the palace and it was pretty cool! The ornate details were spectacular, but it was also incredible to see so much wealth in one place when history tells us the country was starving and in poverty. The Hall of Mirrors was my favorite.
Hall of Mirrors
Eat lunch early! That would be my other piece of advice to visitors. There is a full restaurant (pricy so we skipped it) and a cafe available as well. We had planned to buy food from a grocery store for lunch but 1) couldn’t find hardly any grocery stores and 2) found out they close very early and don’t open in the morning until late. So we had run out of time to get food and decided to hit the cafe. I’m glad we went when we did because we found a table to sat at without any problem. But when we went back later to use the restroom before leaving, the place was packed. People were sitting on the floor everywhere eating their lunch because there just wasn’t enough space. However, that does bring another good point of advice: There are constant crowds at Versailles and limited restrooms. We waited to use the main ones for a little bit but the extremely long line was not moving at all. We remembered seeing a bathroom down the hallway past the cafe so headed back there to use that instead and there was no line at all. Score!
More Gorgeous Gardens
The gardens were the thing I was most excited to see at Versailles. But given the rain, we didn’t stay long. We were freezing from being outside in the cold and wet for an hour already anyway so we looked around the gardens a bit (and they did not disappoint!) but we cut the time short. We probably headed out around 1:00 or 2:00pm to catch a train back to Paris. Our next train to Bruges was leaving that evening around 6:00pm so it still gave us a few more hours to kill. We stopped at Gare du Nord to shed our backpacks at a locker for a few hours and then decided to head to Sacre Couer. Lockers are another piece I highly recommend using when backpacking Europe. It quickly gets exhausting hauling them around while sightseeing so we always left them in lockers at the train stations. Some are much more expensive than others (Paris for instance was quite pricy while Fuessen in Germany was not) but typically they’ll hold it for 24 hours. We found it was definitely worth the cost.
Sacre Couer
Sacre Couer was cool, but I have to admit not as exciting after Notre Dame. I think there’s a funicular that will take you up, but we took the steps and it really was not that bad. It was a little tricky to find it from the train station, but we found signs and made our way up eventually. Entering Sacre Couer is free but if you want to go up in the dome or the crypts, you have to pay- which we opted not to do. Again, just not as stunning as Notre Dame.
View from the top of Sacre Couer
In the streets around the base of Sacre Couer there were plenty of food options so we grabbed some dinner there too.We had arrived amidst a turrential downpour so finally gave in and bought an umbrella from a street vendor for 5 Euros. 1 minute later the rain completely stopped. I was not happy that we had just wasted money on it for no reason, but it actually gave us a lot of use over the next few weeks so in the end it was very worth it. Lesson learned: even if traveling in August, pack an umbrella!
Baguette!
Sacre Couer doesn’t look like it’s too far away from the train station, in fact I looked it up ahead of time and it said it was only 20 minutes. But we wandered around trying to figure out the streets for a while yet again with no luck. With the rain on top of that, we took the metro. Maybe if we go back again for an extended period of time I may try the biking or walking, but Paris was tough! I think one more day there would’ve been perfect, but we had our train to catch that evening to take us on to our next stop: Bruges, about 2 1/2 hours away.
We spent 2 days in the city of love and crammed a whole bunch into it! It started off to an exciting adventure by traveling on the Eurostar through the Chunnel from London. Tickets for this are available around 3 months in advance and I’d advise you book as early as possible! We saved a lot of money by doing this. We were excited to book our first train tickets so chose seats at a table in one of the train cars. I would not recommend this as it was very squished with two other people sitting very close across from. We would have been much more comfortable in just the regular train seats. Still it was fun, our ears plugged and popped a lot along the way as traveled underwater and at really high speeds. We were so jetlagged we slept a lot through it! Be sure to get there early since you actually have to go through security to board in London! We even got our passports stamped and everything. For every other train we just walked right up to the platform, but for this trip, plan ahead about 30 minutes. Also side note- we did not take advantage of this but your Eurostar ticket does get you entitle you to a “Buy one get one free” pass to the Musee d’Orsay. If that’s on your list, save your ticket!
The gardens outside the Museum of Natural History
Our couchsurfing host, Mayte, met us at the train station which was very helpful. Paris Nord is HUGE! She helped us buy our metro tickets, which you can purchase in a package of 10 tickets to make it cheaper. We went to her apartment to drop off our backpacks (which made walking much better than in London!) and then she took us to lunch at a very fancy restaurant. We weren’t expecting to eat at such a pricy place and promptly blew ALL of our money for food that day in one meal that I didn’t even really enjoy. I had some traditional French food that is like mashed potatoes that is 20% potato and 805 cheese which I didn’t love and Pablo got some sort of meat that we decided we did NOT want to ask any further questions about.
Walking along the river to Notre Dame
Our budget wasn’t off to the best start in Paris, but it was nice getting to know Mayte and she was so excited to take us there for lunch so didn’t want to turn her down. After that she took us around her neighborhood a bit pointing things out for us to see. In the end she led us towards the Seine River and pointed us in the direction of Notre Dame. This was one of the few days of our trip that it didn’t rain and it was HOT. But we had a nice walk (though very long) along the river getting towards more of the center of Paris. We stopped and sat in the grass along the way for a bit since we were still pretty tired and jet lagged. Our first lesson we learned from cousurfing was that Europeans stay up LATE. We hadn’t gone to bed til around midnight the night before and had gotten up around 5:00am for our train. That combined with the fact that we hadn’t really slept on the flight over meant I REALLY needed some sleep.
Notre Dame in the background
We stopped by some fountain that I don’t remember the name of now, and saw Pont de Neuf (Love Lock Bridge). Thanks to my Aunt Paula, we had a lock to add to it so of course stopped to do that and snap a few photos. That bridge is packed full of locks, it’s not hard to see how it collapsed in certain areas. And the replaced areas are already filling with more locks again! If you do forget to buy a lock there are many merchants on the streets more than willing to sell one to you. Notre Dame is right there as well so we crossed the bridge and went to see the church.
Notre Dame
The line looked huge when we arrived, wrapping around the whole square. We weren’t sure if we wanted to spend a lot of time standing in line waiting to get in, but we decided to join the line and see how it went. Suprisingly it moved very quickly and we made it inside in no time. It was neat to see, and reminded me a bit of the National Cathedral in D.C. There were a lot of details on the outside and the amount of time and energy it took to create each and every figure was incredible. We stayed for a bit (maybe around 45 minutes total in the church) and then were on to our next stop: The Louvre.
The Louvre
The Louvre was in walking distance, though it did take a bit of time to reach. We went on a Tuesday when it’s closed since we didn’t plan on going inside and I figured there would be fewer people walking around outside then. The building is ginormous. I mean, really, really ginormous. While I’ve seen sky scrapers before which the Louvre is not, I had never before seen a building that literally just stretched on and on and on. I’d like to go back someday and walk the inside of it! Though I don’t know if you’re actually supposed to, the best part was stopping to cool off our feet in the three pools around the glass dome. It was so refreshing from the heat. We grabbed some more photos and continued our walk on through the Tuilerie Gardens.
The gardens were pretty and had lot of benches and chairs available to sit. I couldn’t believe the number of people who were sunbathing! We looked only for some that we could pull into the shade, but pickings were slim as there were a lot of people. We stopped so I could use a bathroom at the end of the gardens (you have to pay for these everywhere!!!!) which is also in the plaza near the Luxor Obelisk. We bought some crepes from a cart and snacked on those while looking around. It’s interesting actually from the Louvre you can look through the gardens and see the Obelisk and the Arc de Triomphe beyond that, all in a line. We could also see the Eiffel Tower from there as well.
Crepes are so good!
We wanted to go to both the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe but at this point we had walked a LOT and were tired. We decided to grab the metro instead for a break. This introduced our first transportation dilemma of the day: how to find the metro? While London had wonderful signs that stood out and pointed us to the locations, Paris did not. In fact, the signs were tiny, indiscreet and in some cases non-existent! I think I’m generally a pretty good traveler, but who knows, maybe it was a personal problem. Regardless, we spent a lot of time looking for metro signs.
Trying to navigate Paris is tough
In the end we finally located one and took it over to the Eiffel Tower. It was huge! I had thought about going up it and taking the stairs the save money and time waiting in line. But when I saw how many stairs that would include, we quickly changed our minds. We decided not to go to the top as the lines were just way too long. You may be able to book tickets to this ahead of time, I can’t remember. But regardless we had fun looking around and sitting in the grassy area around it for a while. A lot of cities in Europe have really good deals on public bikes you can use for transportation. And I mean really good deals, like 1 Euro per day! I thought this would be both fun and affordable for us so we found a Velib bike parking station near the Eiffel Tower and decided to hop on and head over to the Arc de Triomphe.
Our short-lived adventure with Velib
Only we never made it. Paris is full of confusing signs and even more confusing streets. I had a couple of small maps that we were trying to use but couldn’t seem to get streets to match up for us, especially when going through round-abouts with 6 different exits! Maybe if we’d had a gps system that could guide us along it would’ve been better. But after biking around for an hour and ending up LITERALLY in the exact same place where we had started, we gave up. It was fun riding the bikes around but I was pretty frustrated and fed up after that :-). We decided instead to take the metro across the city to the Montparnasse Observation Tower. We had used points to buy tickets up to the 56th floor for views of the city and wanted to do this at night so we could see the Eiffel Tower all lit up.
Water Fountain?
We had a little time to kill with some dinner and found some more crepes to enjoy 🙂 Crepes are all over in Paris and we stuck to the cheap ones you could buy off the street. They have both sweet and savory options and we got some churros to go along with them as well. The pastries in Europe were so great 🙂 Another thing we quickly learned walking around Paris- there are not many water fountains available! I really don’t like spending money buying water, but that’s what we had to do. We happened to walk by one statue where I saw some people filling water bottles so I quickly grabbed ours and jumped in line- but you can see from the photo below I never would have known it was a drinking fountain otherwise!
Seeing Paris at night was cool and we saw the Eiffel Tower light up which was fun. I think I would’ve liked to be close by the Eiffel Tower when it was lit up, rather than see it from far away next time. The side of the observation deck with the Eiffel Tower was packed with people, but we squished our way through to get some shots. It was cool to see all the areas we had walked that day as well, I hadn’t realized how much it was!
From there we decided to call it a night and head back to grab some sleep. The next morning we were off to Versailles!
See below for some helpful resources I used in my planning:
Paris Walking Tour ticket: We didn’t end up doing this as our lunch ran too late, but it is an option for a Free tour around Paris. Here’s the website:
We flew into London Heathrow via Chicago-Dublin-London and it was our first stop in Europe. I was very happy that AerLingus didn’t make us check our backpacks at all but let us take them as carry-ons for our flights. This meant we didn’t have to wait for our luggage! Our flight landed at 12:30pm and we were off. Click here for our basic itinerary overview of London and details on transportation. Some things didn’t work out and some did.
Our plan to conquer London
From Heathrow Airport, we took the tube to Paddington Station. Of all the metro systems in Europe that we rode (trust me, it was a lot) we found London’s to be one of the easiest to navigate. There are three options from the airport to get to central London, Heathrow Express (20 mins, 21-26 pounds/person), London Underground (1 hr, 5.30 pounds/person) and Heathrow connect (30 mins, 9.90 pounds/person). We opted for the Heathrow Connect as it was much cheaper than the Express. But I’m glad I learned about it ahead of time because we didn’t see any signs for it at the station! We had to ask someone where to catch it and found it it was at the same platform at the Heathrow Express. We bought our tickets at the kiosk no problem, but JUST missed the train and had to wait 30 minutes for the next one. Sigh. But it was ok, we spent the time studying the Metro Map so we’d know what where to go and what we were looking for. Once we made it to Paddington, we bought an Oyster Card to use for the metro. Read about all that in the link to the document above at the top of this post.
Fountain in Trafalgar Square
We went to Picadiliy Circus first, but I didn’t like it. Way too crowded, so we just grabbed some food at a grocery store since we were starving and kept walking on to Trafalgar Square (about a 15 minute walk). I was disappointed we didn’t get to go to a theater show while in London and Picadiliy Square had all kinds of tickets for shows. I know there’s some really cheap last minute deals you can get as well but didn’t research that and how to go about it. London has little tourist stands set up all over with volunteers manning them to help tourists with any questions they have. They were so friendly and helpful and even gave us free maps to use! They’re literally all over the place so shouldn’t be too hard to find.
National Gallery- free!
Trafalgar Square was nice, we sat down at one of the fountains to eat our lunch. It’s right in front of the National Gallery Museum which, like most museums in London, is free so that was our next stop! The square is full of street performers, but no street food. There was one small cafe but it looked expensive. After we finished our meal, we headed into the Museum only to be told we couldn’t bring our backpacks in and had to use the entrance to the left where they had free luggage storage. Took us a little while to find the entrance, but after asking some people we were headed in the right direction. If we’d been smart we would’ve left our giant backpacks there all day until the museum closed since it’s free! But instead we collected them when we were done touring and dragged them all over London with us. Now we know for next time.
The museum was HUGE but I’m not a big museum person so we only spent an hour or so there. Saw some really famous paintings which was cool to say we’ve done it, but not thrilling for me. Not to mention how PACKED it was. After collecting our bags we asked the ever friendly volunteers outside to point us towards Westminster Abbey and they told us it was only a 10 minute walk. They must be power walkers because it definitely took us at least a good 20 minutes to get there and by the end of it our backpacks were feeling extremely heavy. After that, we pretty much took a bus or metro everywhere else. We passed double-decker buses along the way (I was excited to ride it until I realized it’s slower than the metro, more packed, more confusing, and WAY more hot. That was the end of that) and of course took a photo with a photo booth.
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey was closed (disappointing) the day we were there but Big Ben is right there as well so we walked towards the bridge to check it out. Saw the London Eye from there as well. All the major sights were so close to each other! But we didn’t actually go all the way to the Eye because I’d heard lines are really long and it takes about 45 minutes to do the full ride. I didn’t want to sit on the Ferris Wheel for that long.
London Eye and Big Ben
Decided to check out Buckingham Palace which was not very thrilling since the Changing of the Guard happens at 11:30am and we weren’t able to catch it. The guards don’t move at all, it’s true! They only marched back and forth about 20 feet and then would resume their same position. I don’t think I could handle being stared at through a gate every day by hundreds of tourists while doing nothing at all- Pablo and I both agreed it would be a very boring job.
Buckingham Palace
We headed to Regents Park from there which hadn’t been on our original list, but a lot of things were closing down now that it was evening time so there weren’t a whole lot of indoor options left after 5:00pm. Regents Park was BEAUTIFUL. I’d highly recommend it. There are a lot of parks in London to visit and this was the one we chose, we were quite happy with it. We were feeling very jet lagged by this time and I was sick and tired of lugging my huge backpack around all day. The park is really big but we were too tired to walk through the whole thing so we sat on a bench and enjoyed it for a while. Pablo actually fell asleep for a few minutes before I woke him up to continue on :-). It definitely did not feel as crowded here either which was nice. Again though, we were hungry and the cafe we checked was already closed (so early!).
Regents Park
Big Ben
Our last stop was Tower Bridge which was a bit of a hike from the metro stop. We did walk by the London Tower on the way and seeing all the red poppies growing around it was cool. I would’ve liked to go inside but it was closed already and expensive anyway. The bridge wasn’t thrilling, though it was a bluish color which surprised me. We bought some yummy nuts roasted in cinnamon and sugar from some guy selling them on the street and that was good to snack on while we walked.
Tower of London and Tower Bridge
It was close to 9:00pm now and we were tired and needed to find out couchsurfer for the evening. So that was the end of our London touring! It was a nice place to start and felt good to know the local language. The next morning we’d take the Eurostar on to Paris.
We’ve had many people ask us about our budget for Europe and how we were able to afford such a big trip (check out our itinerary here). When I was going through the planning process for us, one of the things I found most helpful was budgets posted by other travelers for how much they had spent. So here is ours below and hopefully someone else will find it useful as well. Click here to see the nice pretty version: Final Budget
Total Costs for Europe
Category
Description
Dollars Spent
Rewards Points
Food, Local Transportation and Other
Food
$ 142.76
Local Transportation
$ 248.43
ATM Withdrawls for food, transport and activities paid in cash including:Bruges Church of Our Lady (6 Euros)Luxemborg Casemates (6 Euros)Vintar Gorge (8 Euros)
$ 958.56
Category Total
$ 1,401.85
Activities
Vienna Ferris Wheel
$ 24.10
Fuessen Castles
$ 32.24
Bruges Belfort
$ 16.07
Versailles
$ 40.93
Salzburg Card
7,400
Budapest Spa
5,200
Montparnasse Tower Paris
3,800
Category Total
$ 113.34
16,400
Pharmacy
Category Total
$ 28.25
Lodging
2 Hiltons (Venice and Florence)
$ 18.20
50,000
4 Hotels/Hostels (Budapest, Salzburg, Munich, Pisa)
$ 104.61
11,652
Category Total
$ 184.75
61.652
Flights
Roundtrip flights to Europe
$ 1,763.26
58,076
Vueling Flight Rome to Barcelona
$ 215.96
Return flight Chicago to Omaha
13,022
Category Total
$ 1,979.22
71,098
Trains
15 Day Eurail Pass
$ 1,072.00
Chunnel London to Paris
$ 141.00
Paris-Bruges Thalys Train
$ 82.57
Other train reservations in Italy
$ 51.61
Category Total
$ 3,326.40
GRAND TOTAL
$ 5,002.49
149,150
I’m pretty proud of it actually and how well we did staying with our spending. We had budgeted $5,000 for the trip which was a little tight but I really wanted to see if we could do it. Only going over budget by $2.49 definitely counts as a success to me! We saved for well over a year for this trip and skipped spending on many other areas in order to make it happen. It took some hard work but we were able to do it. A few pointers on how we got here:
We ate a lot of meals with food from the grocery store: Bread, cheese, yogurt, fruit, pastries, etc. We did this for pretty much every breakfast then usually bought some street food for lunch.
Book your chunnel tickets early!! We saved well over $100 by watching the calendar and booking them as soon as they were open (3-4 months ahead of time).
Of course use rewards when possible. We used our Ultimate Rewards points for some of the activities we did. We also had a really old credit card with some points saved that I didn’t even realize and were able to find some great activities with them! Though I waited too long to book a cooking class in Italy with them so we didn’t end up getting to do that.
Most trains in Italy require a reservation. You can look these up online, but some of them won’t let you book online if you aren’t an Italian resident. But there are Trenitalia kiosks at the train stations where you can make the reservation yourself. When we arrived at night to the station, we would make our reservation for whichever train we wanted the next day. We never had a problem with it being sold out but that can happen.
The Salzburg card is an EXCELLENT value, highly recommended.
Local transportation is more expensive than you realize and it adds up quickly. I was thinking we’d walk or bike a lot, but backpacking already requires a lot of walking and we were tired! On top of that we didn’t have a lot of time in each city so we ended up using the metro to save our legs and time.
Buy your Eurail passes online and keep an eye out for deals. When I was buying ours they had a special going on where you’d get two extra days for free added to your pass! We didn’t need the extra days but it’s something to keep in mind if your timetables don’t match up exactly.
RMNP definitely is at a high altitude which can be tough coming from Nebraska. For this reason, we opted to have our first day spent hiking some simple lakes- which was a good plan. The next day we planned on tackling Flattop Mountain and possibly Hallett if we were still feeling up to it. Keep in mind that we are a bit out of shape from spending every waking moment studying or working, but this was a tough hike for us! So rewarding at the end though 🙂
Sunrise at Sprague Lake
Thunderstorms in the early afternoon are very common in the park. So if you’re planning on taking on a big hike, be sure to get an early start. We wanted to get some sunrise photos over Sprague Lake anyway, so we decided to start with those and then head up the mountain after that. The timing worked out perfectly! The sunrise over Sprague was quite pretty and we even saw two elk crossing the lake in the mist! From there we headed to Bear Trail Trailhead. The parking lot at this trail head fills up quite quickly each morning and we were there by 6:30am with plenty of spaces.
Hiking amidst the tree line
It was chilly in the morning but once we started our hiking we warmed up very quickly. Just dress in layers and you’ll be good because once you hit the summit it gets chilly once again. We started our hike just before 7:00am and the trail was easy to follow and not too crowded at all since we were hiking so early. The first half of the hike is below the tree line and mostly shaded. It was neat to pass by the lakes we had hiked the day before, but this time we were looking down at them. The trail is very steep the whole way and we were tired pretty quickly from the angle and the altitude.
Views along the way
The second half is past the tree line where it got windier and sunnier. Lots of pretty views for the rest of the way! The trail takes a bunch of switchbacks and towards the end there was a large portion of snow we went through as well. Even in July there were still patches of snow throughout the entire route. We packed winter hats with us, but just light jackets. Light gloves could also be helpful, mostly to project against the wind. It was not unbearably cold at any point, and I was comfortable the whole way.
Views past the tree line
When we reached the top of Flattop Mountain, it was a little disappointing, not going to lie. It honestly is just what the name implies- a mountain with a really big flat top. There was no real “peak” and the views all around were panoramic, but a little tough to see since the flat part of the mountain extended for a while in all directions. However, it was still an exciting accomplishment to reach the top, and we made it in a little over 3 hours.
View from Flattop Mountain
After eating lunch we debated whether or not to continue on to Hallett. It was so close! But we were pretty exhausted already. We talked with a few other hikers passing by and they estimated it would only take us about 30 more minutes to reach the top of Hallett, so we decided to go for it. And I’m so glad we did!
Group summit photo
It really was not a whole lot farther to get to Hallett which we could clearly see on our left. It was lot more scrambling up rocks than true hiking to get to the top, but nothing nerve wracking. About 5 minutes from the top I got major altitude sickness. It truly came out of nowhere as I felt fine one moment and then ready to puke the next. I don’t remember a whole lot from the top of the mountain other than going to sit by myself and telling everyone not to follow me because I was going to throw up :-). Thankfully I didn’t actually get sick, but after sitting for about 15 minutes and still not feeling better I knew I needed to head back down as that’s really the only way to cure altitude sickness. We took a quick photo at the top and then started down. It was slow going for me but once I hit the area we had eaten lunch on top of Flattop, I sat for about 5 minutes and felt fine again. It’s crazy how quickly it comes and goes like that! The top of Flattop is at 12, 324 feet and Hallett Peak is 12, 713- who knew those last few hundred feet would make such a difference for me.
View from the summit of Hallett Peak
From there we started our descent back to the Bear Lake Trailhead. It took a lot longer to get down than I was expecting, mostly because we were just so exhausted. It got hot by the end as well, so starting early was a really good idea. The entire trip took us 8 hours including a bunch of rests and it was 10.3 miles round trip. The views from the Top of Hallett Peak were way better than Flattop Mountaing, so I’d really advise you to do the whole thing if you go!
Bear Lake Sunrise
By the end of it all, we could barely walk and limped through the grocery store later that day as we bought the soy milk that I had forgotten to pack. But by the next morning (and honestly just a few hours later after resting made a big difference) we were sore but definitely mobile. We spent our last morning watching the sunrise at Bear Lake and then headed home.
I’m continually learning new things about this free travel game and discovered an awesome surprise this weekend! One of my least favorite parts of travel is waiting in line for rental cars. Seriously, if I’m traveling for business I have to build in at least 1-2 extra hours when planning client meetings, just for getting my rental car! The lines can be soooo long and the whole process is often just soooo slow. I love when I travel with colleagues of mine who already have a status in place so can walk right past the line and pick up whichever rental car they want.
Now a member of National’s Emerald Club
Alas, I knew this would most likely not happen for me. I easily obtained gold status at Hiltons with my Hilton card, and have status on American Airlines with Aadvantage credit card, but didn’t see me ever renting enough cars in one year to hit a status with a rental car agency. Until I stumbled upon an article that explained that many Elite World MasterCards automatically give you such a status! And I just happen to hold the Barclay World Arrival Elite Mastercard 🙂
And Avis Preferred as well.
I quickly registered my information (it needs to be completed by December 31st of this year) and was immediately sent an email with my status details. I’m not a member of Avis Preferred and the National Emerald Club. Too good to be true? Seems that way right now, but I’m hoping it is. I don’t plan on renting any cars any time soon, but can’t wait to see if this will work when I do. I’ve hit many surprises along the way of learning about free travel and though I’m always skeptical, I have yet to be disappointed. Stay tuned for more information in the future regarding my rental car situation!
For the original blog information that revealed this wonderful secret to me, and to find the links to register yourself, click here.
Fire Round the World 