Plucky Survivors See Europe: One Week and Counting
I swear I’m going to stop changing things on my itinerary at some point but I’m blaming most of what has happened in the last few days on an app.
I planned everything using a Google Sheet, which still exists, but felt lacking in terms of its usefulness while actually traveling. It has over 1,000 rows! So, I did some research and found a website and app called Wanderlog. It allows you to put in flights, car rental, hotels, sights, and daily itineraries that are much easier to access and, most importantly, everything is available offline in case I can’t get a signal or Wi-Fi. It’s not perfect, but I think it’s going to be very handy for the trip.
As I was inputting things, I ran up against some harsh realities that made me change directions on a few things.
The biggest one involved cutting an entire country. My plan was to fly back from London, retrieve PluckyMobile from the Paris airport garage, and then drive to Luxembourg. However, to get there with enough time to actually see Luxembourg, I was taking a 7:00am flight, which would mean having to get up around 3:00am the day after having done the big music festival with Duran Duran.
Common sense made a rare appearance and so I swapped the flight for a later one, which means that I would get to Luxembourg until very late and then would have to leave very early the next day to get to the big urban art festival in Volklingen, Germany before heading on to Stuttgart. Basically, I was going to be driving about 100 miles out of my way to sleep, so Luxembourg is out and I’m going to spend the night in Volklingen instead.
As I was putting parking information into the app, I realized that a few of the hotels I had chosen were going to be very inconvenient since they don’t have their own parking and there isn’t any nearby. I now have new hotels in Dijon, Salzburg, Lisbon, and Brussels.
I also did some more entertainment research and added a few more shows.
In Vienna, I’m seeing “Ring a Bell,” an immersive show that promises to “transport guests to a glamorous hotel in 1930s Hollywood” with dinner, music, dance, and acrobatics.
In Venice, I’m seeing going to a solo acoustic performance overlooking St. Mark’s Square by Jewel. Yes, the “Who Will Save Your Soul” singer. She has an art installation in Venice and is doing a one-night only concert while I’m there so why not?
In Paris, I’m going to Moulin Rouge just to say I did.
In London, I added a show at the Lost Estate, another immersive dinner/variety show.
In Munich, I’m going to see a table magic show from Alexander Krist, who is renowned as one of the best in the business.
And finally, in Torremolinos, or rather in nearby Malaga, I am going to the Chamber of Secrets, another dinner/cabaret/variety show.
I also spent a lot of time setting up a full list of everything I need to do when I get PluckyMobile that I can’t do until I know the make, model, and tag info. This includes setting up vignettes (toll passes) for Czechia, Austria, Switzerland, France, and Portugal; arranging environmental passes for France, Brussels, and Barcelona; and pre-booking parking spaces in Berlin, Venice, Florence, Paris, the Paris airport, Stuttgart, Lisbon, and Bilbao.
The rest of this week is about cleaning and organizing my place before I leave, getting my HVAC and water heater serviced, getting my car serviced, getting my dry cleaning done, and learning how to say “I’m sorry, I don’t speak <insert language> well. Do you speak English?” in seven different languages.
Es tut mir leid. Ich spreche Deutsch nicht gut. Sprechen sie Englisch?
Are we there yet?