End Thoughts

In conclusion of our Euro Travels during the month of July 2012, we thought we'd share some categorized reflections of our trip...


The pros and cons of the Cosmos tour


PROS:

•       Take care of portering your luggage to and from the bus to your hotel rooms at every start

•       History narrated by region on bus

•       Regularity and consistency in having the same bus, tour director, driver, and travel "family" for two weeks. You get to form relationships!

•       Not much navigation or time spent in planning daily logistics--lodging, transportation, etc.

•       You know where you're going next 

•       Minimal time spent waiting in lines. Group tours have privileged entrance

•       Privacy to local guides and audio tour sets

•       Rotating seats on the bus was a fair system to ensure everyone had their turn and fair share of various views

•       Set program, with some flexibility to choose optional exuraions and deviate to do your own independent agenda apart from the group's planned activities

CONS:

•       Stuck with the same people--potentially annoying fellow travelers and guide (if you don't like him/her for any reason)

•       Fast paced (someone's no time for flexibility getting out on your own)

•       Lots of bus travel (hello, swelling!)

•       Preselected hotels can also mean cramped quarters or other uncomfortable situations and predicaments (ie noisy neighbors, city noises, bad plumbing, no Aircon, etc. 

•       Pay for additional excursions not included in the tour (the pro is that you don't have to participate in all of them, but if you do, you have to fork out the dough)

Cosmos Tour bus and driver, Francesco (on right, leaning on bus)

Final/Top ABCs, in summary of the trip (not necessarily previously mentioned in blog)

•       Awesome moments (in no particular order):

o   The Vatican: the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, all the Roman statues, the ruins such as the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, etc. We were there. With millennium-old history. Crazy.

o   The Leaning Tower of Pisa

o   The Mediterranean in Barcelona

o   Mt. Stanserhorn (in Switzerland)—the cable car, the funicular, the view

o   Swimming in the Olympic pool in Barcelona (Susan)

•       Bloopers:

o   Susan habitually referred to the bidet as the duvet

o   Getting chewed out by the Luxembourgian bathroom attendant (Susan)

o   Also, not packing umbrellas was pretty dumb. We knew we were coming to London. Duh!

BIDET.

•       Cheapest pleasures:

o   Airplane blanket (free)—used by Lara every day on bus, train, and plane.

o   Adjustable mini camera tripod ($2, making self timer pics super easy and nighttime photog real steady)

o   Having luggage taken care of for us (by a porter) during the Cosmos tour, hauled to and from the bus at every stop (included in tour costs).

Blanket doubles as extra jacket in Luxembourg's freezing wind.

Summary of countries and passport stamps for each country

10 countries, two states, and 5 stamps

Because the of the European Union, when you pass in between country borders by bus, it is not mandatory to stamp passports of non-residents (which was convenient for Lara’s nearly-full passport, even before the trip started!). In fact, in some countries, you even have to pay to receive a stamp!

1. U.K. (Great Britain): stamp
2. Belgium: no stamp
3. Luxembourg: stamp
4. Switzerland: no stamp
5. Liechtenstein: stamp
6. Austria: no stamp
7. Italy: no stamp
8. (The Vatican—world’s smallest state)
9. France: stamp
10. (Monaco—world’s second smallest state)
11. Spain: no stamp
12. Portugal: stamp

European countries visited.

IN SUMMARY...

•       Number of hotels: 13.

1.    London, Great Britain, U.K. (2 nights)

2.    Brussels, Belgium

3.    Lucerne, Switzerland

4.    Innsbruck (Igles), Austria

5.    Venice, Italy

6.    Rome, Italy (2 nights)

7.    Montecatini, Italy

8.    Nice/Cannes area, France

9.    Lyon, France

10.Paris, France (2 nights)

11.Barcelona, Spain (2 different hotels, 3 nights total)

12.Matasinhos/Porto, Portugal (2 nights)

13.Lisbon, Portugal

 •       Total time spent packing and unpacking at every stop along our trip: 13.

o   That's 6.5 hours per person (averaging 1/2 hour per morning when we were leaving hotels). 

•       Packed items that were never used/could've done without:

o   Too many long sleeved shirts and pants (Susan, constantly hot)

o   Surprisingly, Lara never used her headlamp! (which is normally a packing-list must)

•       Most valuable item packed (other than our toothbrushes):

o   That airline blanket!

o   Lara wore a pair shoes to smithereens. Well tread. Well used. A $15 well spent, we’d say.

o   Our new fuchsia sneakers 

o   Sunscreen

Reflection: Number one rule about traveling (next to situational awareness and taking general safety precautions): ask questions. Know what questions you want to ask, know basic vocabulary and phrases in each language, be open to making the best out of making mistakes, and ok with relying on others to help you out. Ask questions! In turn, be receptive to answers, a good listener, and you'll meet a lot of people, learn and share good stories, and have a good time!

Thanks for your readership over the last month! Please check back in the coming days for updates on previous blog posts, to see pictures that were unable to be posted at the time.