Itinerary

So I was off to Europe and had lots to plan.

I began to create a wish-list of countries to visit.  Italy, Croatia and Czech Republic were top of my list.  Sophie was keen to see the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa and it made sense to take the Eurostar train from London to Paris to begin our journey.

I decided to do a loop, beginning in France and ending in Belgium, also using the Eurostar to return to London from Brussels.

I booked flights to London.  We planned to travel in Europe for the months of May and June.  Then spend July, August and half of September in England, catching up with friends and family spread all over the country and seeing some of our favourite places along the way, as well as discovering some new ones.

It was really important to me that I had my itinerary mapped out, with transport and accommodation booked before we set off.  If I had been travelling alone I would have been happier to 'wing it' along the way, but with a small child in tow, I didn't think that was the responsible option.  I didn't feel comfortable arriving to a strange city and having to start searching for somewhere too sleep. I also didn't want to be arriving in the dark to places, so this factor also affected my choice of trains to book.

My father in law had bought a new car, so I bought his old one, which would work out a lot cheaper than car hire, and would give us the freedom to travel in the UK.  I considered driving through Europe, but discounted the idea, mainly because I didn't like the thought of driving on the right (wrong!) side of the road.  I also thought travelling by train would be more relaxing and make it easier to entertain my travelling companion, and enjoy the scenery.

I finalised my list of where we would go and began to book trains and places to stay.

The list was as follows:  France, Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.