How to get around Europe?

Europe is a “big place” – certainly as far as size of continent goes it isn’t the biggest place on earth, however there are a fair number of countries squeezed in there.  So when we started to think about where we wanted to go, we realised quickly that our dream list of cities are spread across a reasonable distance.

Quick plug here for Google Maps – super easy to create a map of destinations, and the capacity to add layers to your map means you can create a base map, add driving directions, sites of interest etc.  The ability to share and collaborate is a great feature.

We are in Europe for two months, but we don’t want to be spending time unnecessarily traveling to and from each location, but neither do we want to have to go through airport customs and check in times to just travel a couple of hours max in any direction.  After much research, we chose to utilise a Eurail pass, with us selecting the option for full flexibility of unlimited travel into over 26 countries for the two months.  One of the sites that was particularly useful in helping make the decision was the blog The Man in Seat 61.  It was from here, and not the Eurail site, that we found out that we HAD to buy first class tickets, as second class tickets are only available for this travellers under 26.  Certainly his website will be one we visit a number of times now and again in Europe for certain.

We purchased our passes via the Eurail website and got a fantastic deal with their 20% off promotion, and the fact that we were traveling together at all times gave us another 15% off!  Bargain!!  We were provided the option to have the cards activated on line, meaning that when we arrive in Europe they are good to go (if we chose to activate ourselves, we would need to go to one of the specific stations to activate it).  We received the passes via FedEx three days after ordering.  So far, I have no complaints at all on the service we have received.

With the arrival of the Eurail pass and the picking up travel documents along with some Itinerary inspiration made today a great day! Starting to get pumped!!!!!!!!