We flew from Dover to Mildenhall, and although England was not our original destination it got us over the ocean. We then took a commercial flight to Frankfort. We had a long tern rental out of Ramstein (that was suppose to be our original starting point) and so we rented a car from Frankfort to Ramstein to pick it up. We then picked our son up who flew commercial from Chicago to Berlin and the drove to Paris. We used Airbnb for anywhere we were staying more than a night as there were four adults and it gave us greater flexability for private bedrooms. If we were staying just a night or two we used booking.com or any of the other sites like that. We wanted one that would allow us to change our reservation without a lot of hastle if we needed to alter our plans. Our son ran with the bulls in Pamplona and we rented a house outside of the town. You do not want to be in town with children except during the day in Plamplona during the San Fermin festival! We then traveled to the south of France and stayed in Cannes and took day trips out to see other things from there. Try to get to the Verdun Gorge, you will not regret it! From there we drove to Rome, and again another Airbnb apartment. Then to Tuscany, Airbnb again, then to Czech Republic Then on to Poland and back into Berlin. Our son flew home at that point and we continued on to Cuxhaven where my grandmother was from and then to austria for a few days and then back to Ramstein. Tips: If you are driving, the autobahn DOES have a speed limit and they will give you a ticket if you violate it! LOl. Have plent of money for tolls as many of the roads in countries other than germany have tolls unless you take backroads. If the rental agency offers you the GPS option for your car take it! I though I could just use my phones GPS and it ended up costing us more that if we’d paid for theirs. Get the collision damage Insurance as you may be a safe driver but they drive drazy over there. Park your car in Rome and leave it parked and take public transprotation, it’s much easier and Florence, Paris and Rome are walking cities anyway. Gas is more expensive than here allow for that. There are several sites that can give you fuel prices for every country online. Have fun and feel free to ask any questions. My apologies to the community for the length of this post.
Ellen Green Andrews Trip to Europe – Summer 2015
