Europe 2018
Back in 2014 at the end of my semester in college abroad, we backpacked for 2 weeks before heading home. A group of us did 5 countries and 8 cities in that time. It was the most exhausting and thrilling 14 days. It was a whirlwind and I was in desperate need of a massage when I got home, but the fast-paced short-term lifestyle we lived taught me a lot.
Speed things up to 2018 when my two roommates and I decided to backpack throughout Europe again- this time totally planned by someone else. We went through EF Ultimate Break which had a full itinerary for our two weeks. In 2014, we planned everything on our own- which took a long time to plan and put together. But now, EF made it so easy to look at exactly what you’re doing (plus they have an awesome payment plan set up if you can’t pay all at once!). You can opt in and out of activities and you’re given a Guide to help answer questions and give info while you’re there.
We went from Amsterdam to Venice to Salzburg to Munich to Engelberg (with fun stops in between!). It’s hard to sum up every detail of what all we did in 14 days… or it would just be a really long blog post. So I’ve highlighted the best/most fun things we did in each place below (plus short summaries):
Amsterdam, Netherlands:
Heineken Museum
Van Gogh Museum
Dinner Cruise on the canals
Ate fries from Mannekenpis for dinner (find a good spot in front of the famous row of houses!)
Anne Frank Museum
Venice, Italy (round 2 for me!):
Spritz, spritz, spritz
Gondola Ride
4 course dinner paired with red/white/rosé wine at a local winery
Gelato, duh
Salzburg, Austria (round 2 for me!):
PARAGLIDING!
Sound of Music Bike Tour
Chocolate covered pretzels
Munich, Germany
Pit stop at Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria
Beer! (Literally anywhere you get it here, it’s good)
Day tour of Dachau concentration camp
Engelberg, Switzerland
Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!
Boat ride on Lake Luzern/train ride/cable car up and down the Swiss mountainside
Waking up in a quiet, Swiss village
I recommend taking two kinds of trips in your lifetime. One completely and fully planned on your own and one that has it all done for you. It’s super nice to not worry about or keep track of everything. But planning on your own is so fun and gives you control on what you’d like to do + how long you want to do it. I had Switzerland on my bucket list for so long and I finally did it! I’d love to go back and spend more time there in the future and have the full expectation of gaining a few pounds of the chocolate alone. It’s true what you hear: Switzerland is quite expensive. Come prepared to spend them Francs.
For Germany, it rained almost the entire time. When we arrived the sun was out for maybe 2 hours or so and it poured ever since. Our bike ride through the beer gardens was pretty miserable because of it. I’d still recommend the activity, just have the weather in mind and prepare for an alternative if it doesn’t go the way you think. The warm meals and beer definitely helped.
This was my second time to both Venice and Salzburg so I was comforted in familiarity. Both can fully be done in 1 day. The number one piece of advice for Venice is: wear comfy shoes. You will walk and walk and walk. And eat as much gelato as you want. It’s Italy, after all. The vineyard we ate our 4 course meal in might be one of my favorite nights of my whole life. This family-owned winery quite literally wined and dined us. Vignaluna made us feel like we were having an authentic Italian experience with homemade pasta & pizza all paired with their wines. Salzburg is widely known as the home of the Sound of Music. There are daily tours you can take but the one I’d recommend the most is the Fräulein Maria Bike Tour. Super friendly tour guides and you hit all of the spots where Sound of Music was filmed. Plus there is an inevitable sing-a-long and you really won’t be able to help yourself. I looked into paragliding in Switzerland but as one might expect, it was extremely expensive. Since I had seen Salzburg before, I opted to do it there instead. I can’t say enough about how cool this experience was and how safe I felt the entire time. Highly recommend FlyTandem!
A surprising anecdote about Amsterdam: the sun doesn’t set until 10 p.m. Everyone is walking around, shops are open… it’s incredibly odd and threw our sleep off a little bit. There’s so much history in this city so it wasn’t hard to research or plan a lot for our stay in the Netherlands. So much to see + eat!
“Travel far enough, you meet yourself” -David Mitchell
