Madrid

Madrid, Spain

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In mid-July 2023, Monica met Peter in Madrid, Spain after her Portugal volunteer service ended.  We stayed three nights each Madrid, Seville and Barcelona. We chose various levels of hotels – from the most luxurious to the most local. We toured big castles and palaces, and we walked around small quaint […]

Seville

Seville, Spain

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On July 13, 2023, we took a three-hour, high-speed train ride from Madrid to Seville. We’d never seen anything like Madrid’s new train station. There’s a huge tropical garden in its center! Hotel Casa 1800 We chose to stay at Hotel Casa 1800 because of the location and reviews. It’s […]

Barcelona

Barcelona, Spain

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And then there was Barcelona.  We took a 7 hour train ride from Seville to Barcelona on ____.   Planning our Barcelona stay was a conundrum.  We got LOTS of advice from friends, but each person’s advice conflicted the other.   So we decided to go with the flow and see what […]

Taranto

Taranto, Italy

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Neither of us knew much about Taranto other than it being the homeland of one of our friends in NYC.  While in Taranto, we decided to do the same thing we did in Sicily – just walk around the town and see the sights. It was a long walk from […]

Montenegro

Kotor, Montenegro

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Both of us were looking forward to Montenegro, and it didn’t disappoint.  Kotor is a small coastal town built on the Adriatic coast at the base of gorgeous mountains.   Pete hung out at a café, while Monica explored the 1,000-year-old Cathedral. of Sant Tryphon Before we left, we walked along the […]

Croatia

Split, Croatia

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We’d heard so much about Croatia (especially Dubrovnik and Split) that we decided to take a private electric car tour of the city instead of walking around on our own.  The tour was very, very expensive, but it took us to viewpoints we would never go to on our own, […]

Venice

Venice, Italy

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Our cruise around Italy, Montenegro, and Croatia ended in Ravenna, Italy on Sept 4.  After we said our goodbyes to the ship and its people, we started the “rail” portion of our trip by taking a two-hour train ride to Venice, Italy.  While we didn’t initially plan to go to Venice, we changed our […]

Vienna

Vienna, Austria

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After three days in Venice, we took a seven-hour train ride to Vienna, Austria.  We stayed in Vienna for five days.  Vienna is magical.  Monica thinks if she had visited Vienna when she was in her 20s, she would have moved there.  The Hollman-Beletage Hotel Our Vienna hotel was, without a doubt, […]

Budapest

Budapest, Hungary

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After leaving Vienna, we took a 3-hour train ride to Budapest, Hungary where we stayed from Sept. 10-14, 2023.  During our rail trips, each of us traveled with a big suitcase and a backpack. While we were prepared for a lot of lugging, we didn’t expect we’d have to store our big bags […]

Krakow

Krakow, Poland

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After a 9-hour train ride from Budapest, we arrived in Krakow, Poland on Sept. 14.  We were ambivalent about going to Krakow because seeing Holocaust locations would be very sad. We learned very quickly that Krakow has not forgotten its history. The Hotel Pod Roza We chose the Hotel Pod […]

Prague

Prague, Czech Republic

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After our emotional experience in Krakow, we took a seven-hour train to Prague.  Prague is beautiful. In fact, it’s been ranked as the most beautiful city in the world.   The Clementin Hotel We stayed at The Clementin Hotel, the narrowest building in Prague.  It got great reviews online and […]

Berlin

Berlin, Germany

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By the time we took the six-hour train from Prague to Berlin, we had become pros at Eurrail train travel.  The train rides, even the long ones, had become enjoyable.  They gave us time to relax before the next country’s adventure. Berlin was our respite.  We’d each spent time in […]

Amsterdam

Amsterdam, Netherlands

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We left Berlin the morning of September 26, 2023 and planned to take a direct, 6.5-hour train ride to Amsterdam, but our train was cancelled. At the train station, we rebooked twice, and those were cancelled too. In fact, all trains from Berlin to Amsterdam were cancelled for the rest […]

Paris

Paris, France

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Ooh la la, By the time we got to Paris on October 8, 2023, Peter was still weak, but he was no longer contagious. The City of Lights always has a healing effect on us, and Peter was ready to enjoy our favorite city in Europe!  We’d been to Paris […]