Thursday, February 27, 2003

Kaiserslautern, Germany

I'm now well into the throes of European rail pass options. With over 5000 different combinations of passes, prices, add-ons, etc. it's quite a job to figure out which one will serve me best without precious rail days going to waste. At present I'm fairly sold on a Eurail 15-day Flexipass (this would cover up to 15 days of unlimited travel in 17 countries; Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). I'd supplement that with an East Europe 5-day Flexipass (covering 5 days of travel in a 1 month period in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia). This would cover the leg of my trip to Prague and Poland (to tour the concentration camps) as well as give me an extra rail day or two for Austria and Hungary.
I'm considering also supplementing with a Eurolines bus pass for some of the shorter legs but I haven't decided on that yet.
At present, the main route I'm considering seems to be a big circle: Amsterdam - Paris - Barcelona - Bolonga - Venice - Rome - Greece (Corfu & Athens) - Florence - Vienna - Salzburg - Prague - Oswiecim: Auschwitz - Buddapest - Munich - Berlin - Copenhagen - Amsterdam.
We'll see how much my actual route ends up following that plan. I would guess not even close. But you never know.
I'm probably going to leave the last week of March or the first week of April. Wow, I just realized I might be in Barcelona for my birthday, that would probably be pretty fun. I understand it isn't hard to find a party in Barcelona.