Preliminaries:...Accommodation and Plannings

Frans wrote:

13 Oct '09: Yvonne has been checking accommodation and Prague and has come up with this real gem: Castle Steps Hotel in Prague.

Karen and Max check this hotel out in Prague
it is called Castlesteps and it is near the palace and
Charles Bridge only 37 Euro per night I do not know whether
this includes breakfast but karen you may be able to
find that out also it is lovely and clean by the picture. Best
I have seen in my time spent on looking.

Karen if you go into castlesteps.com should get you there
if not go into travelodge prague accommodation and you will
find on the right hand side. let me know your thoughts on this one, what need to keep in mind in bed bugs, which
when I travel europe there were a few hotels that did have
bed bugs but the aboce look absolutely beautiful and the
rate for winter.

If you think ok I will right down in my travel book and book
when we get there..

I will keep looking for our other destinations.

your thoughts

cheers
evonka


When you check it out on the Web : http://www.castlesteps.com/ it really shows what a nice place this is.


Yvonne then really gets into the spirit of things and produces a draft itinerary :

I thought I would put together a bit of an itinerary just so we have some idea of what we can and can't do.

So here goes -

4/11/09 all arrive AMSTERDAM Horayyyyyyy
May as well say the 4th will be gone buy the time we
all get settled etc.,

5/11/09 to the morning of the 8/11/09 - checking out
Amsterdam and Rotterdam and the Hague etc., as Karen and myself have never been there - if that will be ok with you Frans and Maxine.

8/11/09 - Start of our big road trip around Europe.

Make our way to Brussels and stopping off here and there
for a bit of a look around. Let me know if you would
like to spend night in Brussels for time purposes.

Tentatively stay in Brussels O/N 09/11/09 do bit more sight seeing if need to and head of Bruges - check place out and
if we need spend night in Bruges - to be advised.

If we spend night in Brugges 10/11/09

11/11/09 make our way down the coast if we can via Dunkirk, Calasis Tourcoing, Roubaix (these are towns on the way to Lille - overnight in Lille (to be advised if we want
to stay an extra day. If we stay extra day then we travel to next destination.

13/11/09 road trip to Strasbourg over night there

14/11/09 road trip from Strasbourg into switzerland to Lurcerne or Innsbruck and over night. Will have time to
look around when we get there and in the morning.

15.11.09 Road rip to Austria - Salsburg and then Vienna
overnight. Could need two days for this.

17/11/09 from Vienna to Czech - Cesty Krumlov and then
off the Prague - 2 nights in Prague or maybe three depending on what you would like to do. Found a great place to stay I have emailed you the sight for you to looke
at. "Castlesteps" 37euro a night and like a palace, near the palace and the Charles Bridge in the Old Town.

19/11/09 leaving Prague we can either cross over to Poland
or go back into Germany - depending on what you would all like to do. I thought from Poland we can road Trip to top
and maybe get Ferry to Stockholm, keeping in mind we all need to be back in Terwolde on the 27/11/09 which will only
give us 7 days left.

If we go to Stockholm over night there and drive toward
Copenhagen come back through Germany and then returning to the Netherlands I will not give dates for this at this stage.

I will check out some more accommodation. Can I have your thoughts on where you would like to travel to and which we can cut out.

Karen jumps in and states here comments :


My thoughts !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have added my thoughts in Black. Although the klm don’t appear to be “too” much they are calculated without a stop & if we want to see sites/villages in between we will need to take more time & enjoy the ride. I would like to stay a few days in each place so as to get a feel for the place!! I am happy to organise our trip daily but we need to make sure we aren’t under to much pressure each evening (especially when it is wine time) trying to arrange the next days travels & accommodation etc.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

04/11/09 all arrive AMSTERDAM Horayyyyyyy

May as well say the 4th will be gone buy the time we all get settled etc.,

5/11/09 to the morning of the 8/11/09 - checking out Amsterdam and Rotterdam and the Hague etc., as Karen and myself have never been there - if that will be ok with you Frans and Maxine.

[Karen] this gives us 3 days too & fro from Terolde ....Is this long enough? Frans & Maxine will have good input here!

8/11/09 - Start of our big road trip around Europe.

[Karen] Amsterdam to Brussels = 211 km - 3 hours (no stop)… 8th – 10th = 2 days if we stay over night

Make our way to Brussels and stopping off here and there for a bit of a look around. Let me know if you would like to spend night in Brussels for time purposes.

Tentatively stay in Brussels O/N 09/11/09 do bit more sight seeing if need to and head of Bruges - check place out and if we need spend night in Bruges - to be advised.

If we spend night in Bruges 10/11/09

[Karen] Brussels to Lille = 119klm - 2 hours (no stop)… 11th – 12th = 1 day travel & if we don’t stay overnight we wont make it to Strasbourg & be able to look around Lille

Make our way down the coast if we can via Dunkirk, Calasis Tourcoing, Roubaix (these are towns on the way to Lille - overnight in Lille (to be advised if we want to stay an extra day. If we stay extra day then we travel to next destination.

[Karen] Lille to Strasbourg = 551klm 5 hours (no stop)… 13th 14th = 1 day …

13/11/09 road trip to Strasbourg over night there

[Karen] Strasbourg to Innsbruck = 542klm 5 hours drive (no stop)……. will need a few days here if we want to enjoy the drive & stop here & there!!

14/11/09 road trip from Strasbourg into switzerland to Lurcerne or Innsbruck and over night. Will have time to

look around when we get there and in the morning.

[Karen] Innsbruck to Vienna = 480 klm 5 hours drive (no stop) Will need a few days to fit all this in also

15.11.09 Road rip to Austria - Salsburg and then Vienna

overnight. Could need two days for this.

[Karen] Vienna to Prague = 406 klm 4 hours drive (no stop) Definitely need a couple of days to recoup here.

17/11/09 from Vienna to Czech - Cesty Krumlov and then

off the Prague - 2 nights in Prague or maybe three depending on what you would like to do. Found a great place to stay I have emailed you the sight for you to looke

at. "Castlesteps" 37euro a night and like a palace, near the palace and the Charles Bridge in the Old Town]

[Karen] Prague to Budapest = 528 klm – 5 hours (no stop)

[Karen] Prague to Stockholm = 1429 klm 16 hours drive (no stop)

I would love to get over to Budapest but time might be against us.

19/11/09 leaving Prague we can either cross over to Poland or go back into Germany - depending on what you would all like to do. I thought from Poland we can road Trip to top
and maybe get Ferry to Stockholm, keeping in mind we all need to be back in Terwolde on the 27/11/09 which will only give us 7 days left.

[Karen] Stockholm to Copenhagen = 655 klm 7 hours ( no stop)

We will need a few days along the way here also

I still think this could be stressful to try to fit all this in but I am open to suggestion – your thoughts

If we go to Stockholm over night there and drive toward

Copenhagen come back through Germany and then returning to the Netherlands I will not give dates for this at this stage.


[Karen] Copenhagen – Amsterdam = 789 klm 9hours (no stop) Will also need a few days to enjoy the trip


...and the discussion continues with Yvonne's reply :


We will only stay in Brussels and make brugges a day trip from Brussels. We could also go straight to Lille from Brussele and
cut out the ocean road to dunkri and Calsis which will save 2 days
from Lille - also we can give Switzerland miss and go cross germany
into Austria then from austria to czech and then from there either
go into poland or back across to Germany.

Alot of klms to travel and there will be good company good food
and expecially good wind and good conversation.

Karen which hotel were you talking about some hotel done even give
breakfast so put your thinking caps folks and good lick
your thoughts on this.

cheers

Evonka

Becoming a little concerned about locking us into an Itinirary that will be too ridgid I thought I better get amongst it as well considering I've got a good idea what is actually lying ahead of us :


Hi Gang,

Having travelled around a bit, here is my humble opinion.

I fully agree we should have a rough plan of some sort but the beauty of travelling in our own car is that we don't have to stick to a specific schedule. My experience is that you come across nice places where you least expect it and some places where you are convinced that it will be great turn out to be a bit dissapointing?

So, in short, lets get together soon for a BBQ or something because all this planninga nd scheming adds to the excitement and anitcipation and let's make a rough travel plan but let us all agree that we should be flexible, adaptable and most important of all... Lets have fun!

Ajuus

Frans


We all agreed to my short and simple suggestion and Yvonne checked the Euro again :

By the way the Euro has gone down today 61.09