21 April 2007

Parallel Planning 2

It's never a good idea to cling too tightly to some things. My Scandavian Spin has been converted, through my planning, to a Scandanavian Whistle Stop tour. Same route, with the addition of Bremen, but by train.

I'm fortunate to work with a guy who is half LA/half Swedish. Which means we relate on the refried bean front AND that he can give advice on touring Scandanavia.

Over the course of a few cigarette breaks, the message I took home was: the drives between the cities I want to see are boring.

With visions of sunbeams pulsating between kilometres and kilometres of pine trees, with nothing else to entice the eye, I chose to give up the "dartability" of driving on my own for the tranquility of long train trides, good books, a bar car, and the opportunity to admire the scenery without worrying about plowing into a line of traffic-jammed Volvos and SAABs.

With this logic top-of-mind, I have also planned the August trip. Easternish Europe: Warsaw, Kracow, Budapest, Bratislava, Prague (again, but necessary to keep the day's train ride from turning into 14 hours.)

For those who haven't checked out all the other eastern European countries on a map...they're FAR AWAY! I was surprised, honestly. So I made it a smaller loop, with a promise to myself to go back later.

Then I land in Berlin for final preparations before taking the Mini south, through Dijon, Lyons, and on to...hmm...haven't decided between Nice and Montpellier yet. Montpellier is leading in the polls.

Not critical path, just yet.

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