Heading to (mostly) Germany!

We’re deeply involved in our respective packing rituals here. I’ve got tidy piles of color coordinated leggings and shirts, waiting to be rolled into my packing cubes, along with outlet converters, our passports, and a huge stack of pre-booked site entry tickets. Similarly, Ron is getting prepared by watching March Madness and some golf.

We’re setting out for exactly 30 days, which is 2 days longer than our previous “longest” trip, which was too long for Ron, and yet I promise you that he approved this itinerary. For everyone wondering what Ron’s absolute limit might be? Well, I found it!

27 days after I return from this Germany trip, I am turning right back around and heading to Romania and Bulgaria! Really! If you are sitting there thinking she is absolutely nuts, relax – you are in the excellent company of pretty much everyone I know.

Ron has declared this is too much travel and is limiting himself to merely one European trip this spring and so I am rekindling a fantastic tradition from my mom: mother-daughter travel adventures…with Grace heading out to Romania with me! First, though, I guess you want to hear about Germany before I rush home to repack for Romania?

This is a trip designed by me – no group tour component. The focus is World War 2 sites, stained glass, cars, and architecture. Having no interest whatsoever in opera, we will be attending a German opera in Dresden, as it was the only way I could get us into the spectacular opera house.

Here’s how our time is set up, with all travel by train:

• Paris – 5 nights
• Stuttgart – 3 nights
• Munich – 4 nights
• Nuremberg – 4 nights
• Erfurt – 2 nights
• Dresden – 4 nights
• Berlin – 5 nights
• Amsterdam – 3 nights

We’re touring the Mercedes, Porsche and Volkswagen factories. I’m finally seeing the stained glass at the Chartres cathedral. We’re seeing the WW 2 Surrender Museum in Reims, the site of the Nuremberg Trials, Dachau, the Jewish Museum in Berlin, and the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and more.

In a planning/timing blunder that should not surprise anyone at this point, I have placed us into Amsterdam on their Kings’ Day. King’s Day is a city-wide celebration of the birth of Dutch King Willem-Alexander, who must have been a heck of a guy. About a million people descend onto the streets and canals of Amsterdam, all wearing orange, in search of a party:

Someday I will learn to check civic calendars before I book our air tickets but, for this trip, we’re planning to buy a couple of orange t-shirts and we’re wading into the chaos.

We’re seeing a record number of friends and family as we travel around: my sister, my niece, my college buddy, our loyal travel pals, Kris and Jim, two online Rick Steves’ forum friends and more! If you’re out there in Germany this month and you want to cross paths, let me know.

Or if you’re up for a real challenge, meet us in Amsterdam!

I’ll talk with you in a week!