Our Phone #

44-7525-300313

Please distribute it to your families, just in case :)

Dream or Premonition?

I hope that my dream last night wasn't a premonition. We were on the flight to Europe and when we got there we had no plans. None of us were prepared and we had no idea where to go or how to get there. We were attempting to look it up on the spot but we didn't have all of our resources and we couldn't communicate with the people around us. :( Let's not allow that to be the case. 

travel phone and book

i just ordered a travel cell phone to bring on the trip. no contract, no activation fees, no monthly charges, only pay for the minutes you use. plus you get a phone number (UK #) that is permanently yours.

http://www.mobal.com/

i just got Europe by Eurail 2009 which has detailed info about the trains, destinations reachable by train, tips, maps, reference info, language snippets, etc

Yes

Now that we have concrete dates for each city we should pick out our hostels. I would like to suggest Hostels close to the train station or close our main interests. We can also look into train times to see what's available. However, I don't think you can look up the times for the actual dates (I think they only do 3 months in advance). But I have a feeling the general availability wont change much.

Bravo to Claire for getting her passport papers mailed. Is everyone else good with the paperwork?

I have also managed to save enough christmas dough for the train ticket purchase and would like to buy it before... i squander my cash on stupid stuff... like school...

Love, 

Lisa

Information I need...

Does anyone have any ideas on which hostels we're staying in? because I would really like to have the addresses for those hostels so I can start looking at transportation routes to and from the hostel and whatever attractions I look at.

(Audrey, i'm looking at you...) ;)

<3

My stab at a time table

21st: Arrive in Frankfurt (11:15am)
22nd: Early train to Amsterdam
23rd: Amsterdam
24th: Amsterdam
25th: Early train to Paris
26th: Paris
27th: Paris
28th: Paris
29th: Overnight train to Madrid (arrive am)
30th: Madrid
31st: Madrid
1st: Train to Barcelona
2nd: Barcelona
3rd: Train to Switzerland
4th: Swiss chill day
5th: Train to Rome
6th: Rome
7th: Rome
8th: Rome
9th: Evening train to Frankfurt
10th: Depart Frankfurt at 830am

Since we lost Venice, I wasn't of a mind to add another city... I figured we'd do better with more time in less places. No need to spread ourselves too thinly...

Time Table Format

Proposed Time Table for Europe (+new time blanks?):



-21 days-

1:Frankfurt
1
3: Early train to Amsterdam, explore Amsterdam
4
4: Early train to Paris, explore Paris and visit Versailles
8
2: Overnight train, Enjoy Madrid
10
1: Barcelona (It would be a Sunday. Do we want to stay longer?)
11
1: Down day in Switzerland
12
4: Overnight train to Rome, explore and visit Pompeii


Total: 16 days

New slack: 4 days (-1 day for return trip)

Please comment!

NO WAY!

Big news guys! Apparently the dates we had were wrong for the Venice Biennale. It opens to the press when we would have been there. The day we leave is the day it opens to the public!! This changes a lot in the schedule. So guys we gotta figure out where we want to spend that extra time.

Options:
More time in-

Paris
Madrid
Eastern Spanish Coast
Rome


Or visit-

Southern Germany
Southern France
Northern Spain (Guggenheim museum)

Or we could split up our time in different places (a day here a day there).

What do you think? Options, ideas?

<3 Audrey

I got a travel guide for Amsterdam. Karla gave it to me for christmas. What other cities do we have books for as a group? I also have a map of Germany.