Pre-Trip by Trains

While everyone is stressing over tests and the last two weeks of school, all I can think about is that our trip through Europe starts in exactly one month! On the 18th of May, Mark, Anne, and I are all going to get on a flight from XNA to Chicago. Then from Chicago we will arrive in Dusseldorf on the 19th and we will fly from Dusseldorf to Munich. A whole day of flying and a seven hour time difference! We will be begin our pre-trip in Munich for three days and we have roughly planned out some things we want to see such as the Neuwachstein castle (about 2 euros for a ticket), the Dachau Concentration Camp (free), and a famous market called Viktualienmarkt. We will probably do a lot more exploring too. I think German food is going to be really good! Next we will take a train from Munich to Salzburg, Vienna. This is the birthplace of Mozart and I've heard it is gorgeous. We are planning on going to a Mozart museum and possibly going to see an old fortress called Hohensalzburg. We will be there for two days and one night. Then we will take another train from Salzburg to Vienna, Austria. This is going to be my favorite! We are going to see the famous Spanish Riding School which is home to the Lipizzaner stallions which perform amazing tricks.  We will be here for three days and two nights and will probably take lots of walks around the town and see the gorgeous mountains. This is also the city where they filmed the Sound of Music. From Vienna we will take our longest day of train travel to Venice, Italy. We will probably only get to see Venice for about a day but I've heard you mostly just walk around, eat delicious food, and get lost. So that will be an adventure in "the city of water". We will definitely go see Saint Mark's Square and the Grande Canal. Then we will take a train to Verona and spend the night there. We would like to see place that is said to be Juliet's balcony from Romeo and Juliet. After ten days, on the 28th we will take a train from Verona, through Milan, to Rome where we will meet our study abroad group and move into our apartments for our month of study! It is going to be a lot of traveling and sitting on trains but I know it is going to be gorgeous. I would rather get to see the amazing views by train than take small flights to each city. I even had a dream about the train rides last night. I have been on one other train from Monaco to Cannes in France and it was beautiful. On a side note, we bought Eurail passes to get through three countries by train for a total of five travel days and it was about 300 euros for each student pass.

I have also been thinking about how I am going to pack for this seven week long trip and it has been difficult. I'm going to have to take one suitcase, a backpack as my carry on (with my laptop and purse), and my personal item will be my camera bag. It's going to be interesting traveling with all this stuff but it is difficult to avoid it. Fortunately, it will be summer so I will pack shorts and shirts that can be washed easily. I found a nice packing list on this site: www.herpackinglist.com. If you go to it and find the country you are traveling to, she has some really good and concise advice. I remembered that since I will be living there for a month it will be important to blend in, so I need to throw out anything with English words on it or American brand names. I'm going to try to pack light colored solids that will mix and match. In Rome as well, I will have to pack scarves and long pants to wear in churches.

Lots of things to think about but it's getting closer!
Ciao!