...I feel the obligation to have adventures to chronicle. Traveling throughout Europe while I'm here kills two birds with one stone. So let's research our options...
The German Rail Pass. This pass basically allows you either 5 or 10 days travel, via rail, throughout all of Germany for 180 or 280 euro, respectively. This pass would effectively allow me to travel to the various German cities people have pulled my coat to for the last several months. Places like Munich, Berlin or Hamburg are a given. But, unless you're talking to a person in the military or at least somewhat versed in the German landscape, you wouldn't know about cities like Heidelberg, Dusseldorf or Koln (pronounced "Cologne"). Well, I want to check them all out, and here's the thing...travel on the rail pass doesn't have to be for consecutive days. So, in essence, for the next month I can use the next 5 weekends (seeing that I start work on Monday) to travel. Seeing that I don't forsee myself traveling each of the 5 upcoming weekends (within Germany, that is ;-), thereby equating to 10 one-way trips, I bought the 5-day travel ticket. First stop...well you'll see in the upcoming blogs.
Renting a Car. I haven't done much research on this, but I hear its not too expensive. What I'm thinking is that I'll use this option for some of the smaller, yet picturesque, nearby German cities (like Koln and Heidelberg). Prolly make a day trip out of it and come back with some desktop masterpieces.
The Eurail Pass. Basically, this pass allows you to do the same thing as the German Rail Pass, only throughout one or more countries. You can check out the site yourself (www.eurail.com), but basically there are four sub-options: National Pass (one country); Regional Pass (2 pre-set countries); Select Pass (3 to 5 bordering countries...they didn't tell me the whole "bordering" thing when I went to Frankfurt Main Station and talked with the ticket counter people, so I don't know how true the "bordering" thing is when you don't go online to purchase tickets); and Global Pass (unlimited train travel in the following 18 European countries: Austria (including Liechtenstein), Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France (including Monaco), Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). Only the Global Pass has unlimited travel time periods of 15 days, 21 days, 1 month, 2 months and 3 months. The remaining options only allow for a number of travel days within a 2 month period. Again, go to the site if you want to see pricing for each and every one of these options. Outside of Germany, the cities I have been told to visit (and want to visit myself) are Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich, Rome and Barcelona. Given their distances from Frankfurt, the two latter cities are reserved for option #3 (see below). However, the three former cities (given Frankfurt's central location) fit nicely into the 4-country Eurail Select Pass (which works out to $519--the 6 day travel option). Since, the German Rail Pass only lasts a month from today, I'm thinking Amsterdam for Thanksgiving (yummy), Zurich sometime in early/mid-December (cop myself a Swiss watch for Chirstmas) and...you know it...Paris for Christmas (shout to Kadija).
Copping a flight. I haven't done any research on this as well because I've been spending the last almost 2 hours writing this blog and I'm not sure if I want to drop anymore airplane fare than I have to. Besides, I've been told Barcelona and Rome are better in the spring/summer than in the dead of winter. We'll see though. Besides, we haven't even tackled New Year's yet--I told Ming about Goa in India, but he suggested Thailand. Aside of the fact its crazy out there around that time (in a good way, I believe), you can get better quality custom-made dress shirts there than from China (I've seen Ming's closet, and its quite the collection). That'd be a nice way to end this European soirée of mine (in Asia, right ;-).
We'll see how everything goes...but again, I want to thank all the viewers at home. For if it wasn't for you all, I'd probably just now be waking up to get a burger from Yours Sports Bar (unshowered mind you ;-).
The German Rail Pass. This pass basically allows you either 5 or 10 days travel, via rail, throughout all of Germany for 180 or 280 euro, respectively. This pass would effectively allow me to travel to the various German cities people have pulled my coat to for the last several months. Places like Munich, Berlin or Hamburg are a given. But, unless you're talking to a person in the military or at least somewhat versed in the German landscape, you wouldn't know about cities like Heidelberg, Dusseldorf or Koln (pronounced "Cologne"). Well, I want to check them all out, and here's the thing...travel on the rail pass doesn't have to be for consecutive days. So, in essence, for the next month I can use the next 5 weekends (seeing that I start work on Monday) to travel. Seeing that I don't forsee myself traveling each of the 5 upcoming weekends (within Germany, that is ;-), thereby equating to 10 one-way trips, I bought the 5-day travel ticket. First stop...well you'll see in the upcoming blogs.
Renting a Car. I haven't done much research on this, but I hear its not too expensive. What I'm thinking is that I'll use this option for some of the smaller, yet picturesque, nearby German cities (like Koln and Heidelberg). Prolly make a day trip out of it and come back with some desktop masterpieces.
The Eurail Pass. Basically, this pass allows you to do the same thing as the German Rail Pass, only throughout one or more countries. You can check out the site yourself (www.eurail.com), but basically there are four sub-options: National Pass (one country); Regional Pass (2 pre-set countries); Select Pass (3 to 5 bordering countries...they didn't tell me the whole "bordering" thing when I went to Frankfurt Main Station and talked with the ticket counter people, so I don't know how true the "bordering" thing is when you don't go online to purchase tickets); and Global Pass (unlimited train travel in the following 18 European countries: Austria (including Liechtenstein), Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France (including Monaco), Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). Only the Global Pass has unlimited travel time periods of 15 days, 21 days, 1 month, 2 months and 3 months. The remaining options only allow for a number of travel days within a 2 month period. Again, go to the site if you want to see pricing for each and every one of these options. Outside of Germany, the cities I have been told to visit (and want to visit myself) are Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich, Rome and Barcelona. Given their distances from Frankfurt, the two latter cities are reserved for option #3 (see below). However, the three former cities (given Frankfurt's central location) fit nicely into the 4-country Eurail Select Pass (which works out to $519--the 6 day travel option). Since, the German Rail Pass only lasts a month from today, I'm thinking Amsterdam for Thanksgiving (yummy), Zurich sometime in early/mid-December (cop myself a Swiss watch for Chirstmas) and...you know it...Paris for Christmas (shout to Kadija).
Copping a flight. I haven't done any research on this as well because I've been spending the last almost 2 hours writing this blog and I'm not sure if I want to drop anymore airplane fare than I have to. Besides, I've been told Barcelona and Rome are better in the spring/summer than in the dead of winter. We'll see though. Besides, we haven't even tackled New Year's yet--I told Ming about Goa in India, but he suggested Thailand. Aside of the fact its crazy out there around that time (in a good way, I believe), you can get better quality custom-made dress shirts there than from China (I've seen Ming's closet, and its quite the collection). That'd be a nice way to end this European soirée of mine (in Asia, right ;-).
We'll see how everything goes...but again, I want to thank all the viewers at home. For if it wasn't for you all, I'd probably just now be waking up to get a burger from Yours Sports Bar (unshowered mind you ;-).
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1 comment:
Thanks for the shout out, I felt like I was in class for most of that but its cool, at least I'll have some options while you and Ming are being tailored in Thailand...if that's what they are calling it these days!
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