I think it would be brilliant with kids. Something different like. The night trains are cool.
Budapest is lovely. I can recommend a restaurant thats top notch.
I never thought of that but it sounds amazing,
When we were in Centraal station on Amsterdam I was looking at the departures thinking how cool it was that you could be so many places in les than two hours, no hassles. You’d want to be skimpy enough on the luggage of course
I’ve done Warsaw, Budapest, Vienna, Bratislava, Prague, Berlin by train over the years. Often went to Szczecin by night train to see the inlaws. There used to be coal fires to heat the carriages which often didn’t work.
No idea if she is sporty or not but a day on the bikes along the coast there is epic. Cycle tracks are great, its a mix of cycling along canals, by giant fields of corn and wheat and beUtiful tracks along the mediterranean. Cycle a bit, stop for wine and seafood etc. Cant wait til mine are fully old enough to do it properly.
She is and she’ll love that
I can give a child’s point of view because I did it three times as a child. Germany 1990, France 1991 and Italy 1993, boat and train the whole way. My granny who was an iron woman led it all and paid for most of it, she turned 80 in 1993.
1990 we did Dunleary-Holyhead-London-Brussels-Cologne-Heidelberg-Stuttgart-Munich-Berlin-Hamburg-Amsterdam-London-Dunleary. I’d never been to the continent before this.
1991 we did Dunleary-London-Paris-Bordeaux-Lourdes-Marseille-Nice-Grenoble-Strasbourg-Paris-London-Dunleary.
1993 we did Dunleary-London-Paris-Milan-Venice-Florence-Rome-Naples-Rome-Paris-London-Blackburn (don’t ask)-Dunleary.
Over the course of those we did night trains from Munich to Berlin via Hannover, Grenoble to Strasbourg via Lyon, Paris to Milan and Rome to Paris.
It is hassle, a lot of hassle, especially in those days because we didn’t have accommodation pre-booked arriving in any of those places like you would now, and it is very tiring for the adults much more so than the children, and I think you have to be a particular type of adult with a daredevil spirit to take it on, but it is an incredible education for a child and will provide them with memories they will cherish for the rest of their lives.
At minimum it’s 20 times better than going to one place, especially a sun resort.
Has anyone here done a stopover in Amsterdam? On a junket in November and will have either 6 or 9 hours there before heading off again. Was thinking of the Anne Frank museum or something similar. Other alternative is Paris but I’m sick of that dump.
Thats a belter of a post.
Sounds like a fantastic experience. You’d be shattered from it with kids you’d imagine. She must have been a tough nut
Would kids really differentiate between one cathedral/castle in one European city to another? A bit of proper involvement for kids and activities may keep it interesting and memorable. They’re hardly going to be all out sampling different cuisine in each city unless older
Unbreakable. Survived the blitz in London so traipsing around Europe on trains with kids was nothing her. Lived to 101 and was still full of life until the stroke that eventually took her. The train journeys were a hoot. She’d talk to anyone and win them over even if they didn’t speak English.
You could go to the Rijksmuseeum and the Heineken Experience. Within ten minutes walk of each other.
The best thing kids get out of a holiday is time with their parents
Don’t tell me you actually missed Italia 90? Or the Dublin Meath 4 game saga
Trip sounds unreal in fairness.
They do? We barely saw my 7 year old at Bella italia this year and he had the ‘best holiday ever’
Cc @Juhniallio
Nah. 1990 we left three days after the World Cup final I think, I can recall watching the Alpe d’Huez stage in the Tour (Bugno beat LeMond in a sprint) and we left that evening. Got back the day Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
I would have missed a fifth Dublin-Meath game in '91 had there been one. Missed Dublin playing Kilkenny in the Leinster hurling final alright, we were in Lourdes that night, got talking to some London Irish chap who said he was of Tipp background and was waiting on the result of the Tipperary-Cork game. Saw Annie Maguire in Lourdes. In 1990 we didn’t hear Cork had beaten Tipp until we snuck into an Irish pub in Munich on the Wednesday night to ask if they knew the result.
In '93 I brought a battery short wave radio with me and was walking around Capri like an eejit trying in vain to pick up a commentary on the Tipp-Galway hurling semi-final.
You’d often get talking to other Irish randomly on these trips because I had the jerseys be it Ireland or Dublin or even Down.
Unless you have a specific reason to go to Perpignan I’d recommend going to Montpellier instead. A bit further from Carcassonne alright but it has much more going on. There really isn’t much to Perpignan as juhy said and we got out of there after 2 nights after planning to stay more.
Im going to hire a car now so I can move around handier if needs be, cheers for the pointers