Well, somee things have come up since my last post on my planned Euro trip. Life has a plenty of obstacles for even the best laid plans. Our Son was diagnosed with ITP which is basically a very low blood platelet count. We were extremely worried that it was Lukemia at first, he had a bone marrow biospy and that did not show anything. They started hin on Prednisone steriods and he had an initial positive response but his numbers have fallen again. So, we are to start Rituxan IV treatment this coming week. 4 treatments spaced out over 4 weeks. Hopefully this will do it otherwise we are looking at removing his spleen and getting refered to Arkansas Childrens. Needless to say, it was a good thing I took out insurance on this thing. We are still operating under the assumption this will still happen. The Dr. Seems to think we can work around this. There have been some tweeks.
Sat-XNA-ORD-LHT. Booked! We have a very long layover 8am to 9:30 pm. We'll hit up a pizza place in Chicago for lunch go up one of the towers and catch the Cubs/Reds game at Wrigley at 1:05pm before getting back to ORD at 6 to 6:30pm.
Sun- We touch down at 11:30am. There is an arrival lounge we can take in and grab a snack and a drink before we head to the Heathrow Express to Paddington. There it is a very short walk/taxi ride to our 2br apt rental. We have nothing planned. We don't know how we'll feel or how much sleep we'll get on the redeye. If we are overcome by excitement, we'll head out into London to do something.
Mon and Tues- objectives are the same, Changing if the Guards, Tower of London, Churchill War Rooms, V&A , British Museum. Anything else is extra.
Wed, we don't know what we'll do just yet. It will either be a theme park between London and Salisbury/Bath or touring the country side and stay in and around Salisbury/Bath or we will book it to Alton Towers for the day and come back toward Salisbury and hit up a B&B in the Cotswolds for the night. Either way, we'll be leaving London.
Thur- Salisbury/Bath area a mid afternoon visit to the Stonehenge Visitor Center leave for Dinner and be back before 8PM for our Inner Circle tour. Stayong at a very nearby Holiday Inn so we can get to bed afterwards.
Friday will be busy as we'll end up at Efteling that night. We'll get up eay grab some Breakfast and head toward London. We'll have time for a couple of things. I'm thinking maybe Legoland Windsor before we have to be at St. Pancreas station for our Eurostar Chunnel train trip to Brussels. We might hit up the RAF museum. It depends on what we do on Wed. It would be much cheaper to fly but the Wife and Kids are facinated with the Chunnel train.
(The thought is to get a Merlin UK pass that allows us to visit any Merlin attraction in the UK. That includes the London Eye, Sealife and The Dungeon there in London,. On Wed and Fri, we can choose Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Legoland, Windsor Castle, ect, ect ect, going to and leaving Stonehenge.
Fri, Sat, Sun- staying at Efteling. We'll do the park either Sat or Sun depending on weather, the other day will be an Amsterdam day trip with the objectives on Anne Frank House, Rijksmuseum and a canal cruise.
Mon-Leave Efteling pretty early and head to Phantasialand. We'll do Phantasialand on Monday and stay on site at Hotel Matamba that night.
Tues- either stay at Phantasialand for the day before heading back to Brussels or explore Aachen and Colonge before heading to Brussels. I would like to hit up the Bastonge area, we'll see. Only thing set i stone is a hotel stay in Brussels.
Wed- flight to Barcelona, Tibidabo Amusement park in late afternoon to Sunseta, Tapas late night.
Thurs- Our Guadi Day, visits to major Guadi places like La Familia Segura, Parc Guell, Casa Batlo. More tapas that evening.
Fri- leave early for PortAventura, drop off our bags at the new Hotel Colorado River. They'll take them to the room when it is ready. Room comes with tickets to PortAventura/Ferrari Land with express pass wristbands and breakfast buffet. It consists of a double bed and two twins. So a new room in a deluxe hotel, 4 tickets to the themeparks with express passes, four buffets breakfast meals for a hair under $400. We we able to book it with my Chase Points so it also basically had a 25% discount. Compare to a night on resort at Disneyland Paris with tickets, this is a steal.
Sat- Cruise departure day, we'll check out and hit up the Roman Ruins in Tarragona, there is a great section of an aquaduct and amp in the area. We'll drive along the coast to Barcelona, I'll drop off the others and luggage at the port and then drop off the car nearby and take the metro to meet back up. We'll board around 2pm. I'm not one of those must get on as soon as you can types.
Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur,- cruise days and port excursions.
Visit Eze, Cinque Terre, Pisa/Lucca or other Tuscan village and Pompeii.
Fri off at Rome. Have an apt rental near the Vatican , either a night visit to the Sistine and St. Peters or early Sat morning for a more involved tour.
Sat- Rome sites like Trevi, Spainish Steps, Borghese
Sun- Florence day trip by high speed, late night tour of Colosseum
Mon- early train to Venice, night tour of St Marks.
Tues, early visit to Doge Palace and then an early afternoon train to Munich. Stay near the Central station and hit up Hofbrau for the night.
Wed, either take the early train to Strasbourg or rent a car and drive to Fussen to see the Snow White Castle and back and then train to Strasbourg. Either way we'll be staying at the new Rulantica hotel at Europa till Sat. So sad the water park will not be done, it looks awesome.
It has crossed our mind to cancel the first night a Europa and stay along the way after Fussen and get there in Thurs. I found the one way car rentals from Italy to Germany astronomically high but point to point in Germany is much more manageable. However, cross over to Strasbourg and it becomes much more expensive again though nothin like the Italy to German charge.(nearly 1k for the one way fee alone)
If we skip the Fussen day trip from Munich, we'll daytrip one day to Rhine Falls and some nearby Castles.
On Sat, we'll train to Nantes and wind up at Puy du Fou that night for the big show This would a high speed/direct train, about 6hr.
Sun- Puy du Fou
Mon- Puy to Mont St. Michel to Bayeux
Tue- D-Day sites
Wed- Bayuex Tapistry to Giverny(Monet's Garden) to Paris (Disneyland)
Thur- Disneyland w/Studios with the add on fast pass tickets
Fri- Paris proper, Louvre, d'Orsay, Catacombs
Sat- More Paris am. Afternoon at Versailles with the night fireworks show.
Mon- here is where this trip currently ends. We'll hold off and see how my Son responds to his treatment before going farther but the ideal is to to go to Copenhagen and then to Stockholm or back to Spain to hit Madrid instead, or Dublin/Ireland. It will depend on award flight availibilty as well. If that is the case, we may come back to the States and do Boston/ NY but this will be the week of the 4th so it will be slamed.
That is pretry much the final rough draft. Most hotel stays and tours have been booked, even the Versailles fireworks show.
We decided to train as much as possible on high speed lines so as to not worry so much about baggages fees over flights.
That said, sometimes the flights are srupid cheap, we are flying Brussels to Barcelona for 20 per person but it'll be 200 by the time we add a couple of check ins and seat assignments. We may change the plan and stay in Venice all day of that Tue and take the night train to Munich but I think a train ride through the Alps in daylight might be nice.