Spending the Holidays in Europe

So...it is Christmas, 2005, and me, Ryan, and Will have just gotten back to the States after spending a whirlwind two weeks traveling across Europe. They met me in London on Friday, 9 December, where I had just finished working a three month internship in British Parliament, and we spent the next two weeks trekking across Europe, beginning in London and ending in Rome, with stops at Paris, Geneva, Zurich, Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Venice, and Florence in between. An absolutely ridiculous pace, but we were young and poor and wanted to see as much as absolutely possible, for we did not know when we would return.

But we had such an amazing time that not long after returning home (like 5 hours maybe), we were already plotting our next trip over. Though Ryan does not seem to recall his moment of inspiration, it was he who suggested that not only should we definitely do it again, we should also bring our families along with us. It would be a bit of a chore for the three of us to bring our families over with us the next time as opposed to just doing something for the three of us and doing it our own way, but it stemmed from a desire to sort of coerce our families into traveling to Europe and having the same, amazing experience we had. If left to their own devices, they would probably never take the initiative to board that plane bound for the Old World, so we were happy to give them that nudge out the door.

For the longest time, it was just talk, but finally around Christmas, 2006, all of our families began to meet and discuss where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. We met a number of times over the next 12 months as we ironed out the details of the trip. We had to book plane tickets, hotel reservations, train tickets, etc., though in reality, it was really Will who did most, if not just about all of this. We just gave him credit card numbers and knew everything would be taken care of. Better than a travel agent he is.

After months of deliberation, our trip was set for Christmas, 2007. We would fly out of Atlanta the afternoon of 20 December, arriving in Paris around 8 local time the next morning. From there we would head to Geneva, Interlaken, Munich, Como, Florence, and Rome, flying home from the Eternal City on 3 January. There would be 12 of us in all. It would be me, Beth (my sister), Ed (my dad), Becky (my mom), Will, Christine (Will's mom), Kevin (Will's brother), Ryan, Lisa (Ryan's mom), Danny (Ryan's dad), Susan (Ryan's aunt), and Alex (Ryan's cousin).

Obviously, this blog about our trip is being done post hoc, but we were not really able to keep up with a computer on our travels, ergo I am now putting down a record of our journey for anyone who wishes to see it, though in all honesty I presume no one other than us and our family and friends will want to view this. None the less, I wanted to put down into words the experiences of our two weeks in Europe.

This is our story...