Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Trip Planning

If I purchase the tickets ahead of time then I have "made my decision" and thus have no flexibility regarding how I spend my weekend.  Because, as we all know, indecision is the key to flexibility.

However, if I am going to be in Frankfurt from September 20th to October 27th, then that is five weekends where I need to entertain myself.  I need your help.  You know who you are.

September 24th is my first weekend.  Some kind of sound reasoning tells me to stay in Frankfurt this weekend.  Just take it easy and catch up on jet lag.  But that sounds boring.  Maybe I can take a 3 hour train ride to Prague?

I'm taking two vacation days the next week to go to Oktoberfest.  I'll leave Frankfurt September 29th and go to Munich.  I'll be returning on October 3rd.  That's not going to change.

On October 8th, I'm thinking Paris.

On October 15th, I'm leaning towards Brussels.

On October 22nd, I'm thinking Amsterdam or maybe Zurich.

To aid in helping with my decisions: I have been to Vienna before.  I've already spent 5 weeks in Italy this year.  I've been to Amsterdam before, but would like to go again (I don't know if a weekend is enough).  From Frankfurt to all the cities I've mentioned, it's about a three and a half hour train ride.

I can purchase a Euro Select Pass before I go for about $700.  This allows me to travel for 10 days to 4 different countries via the rail system.  Each seat reservation will cost about $15.  If I don't buy the pass then each round trip ticket will cost around $200.  I get quite a bit more flexibility without purchasing the pass.

I mean, it's possible I'll meet someone from Frankfurt who invites me to parties every weekend and then I get to hang with the locals which is guaranteed entertainment without having to travel!  Then I'd have to eat the $700 which would suck.

Sometimes it's hard being flexible.

1 comment:

  1. If you're going to Switzerland, you might as well do it right--Zurich is very, very boring unless you get hooked up with the dirty underbelly. Instead, spend a couple of days in the Lauterbrunnen Valley (check out Wengen). You can take an awesome train ride that is TOTALLY worth the cash to the highest train station in the world, the Jungfraujoch.

    Brussels: beer heaven. Yes, and yes.

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