European Events 2010

European Capitals of Culture 2010

Here, from Eurail's website, are lists of some major events across Europe in 2010.

Three European Cities have been designated as "Capitals of Culture" for 2010, and will will host a year of music, theatre, dance, film, literature, and more.

• Essen, Germany - Click for more about Essen / Ruhr, Germany's Capital of Culture Celebration
• Pécs, Hungary - Click for more on Pecs Capital of Culture Celebration
• Istanbul, Turkey - Click for more about Istanbul's Capital of Culture 2010

Rough Guide lists some major European Events

• Carnevale, Venice, Italy (February - March)
• St Patrick's Day, Dublin, Ireland (March)
• Las Fallas, Valencia, Spain (March) More online
• Cooper's Hill Cheese Roll, Brockworth, England (May)
• Notting Hill Carnival, London, England (August)
• Montreux Jazz Festival, Geneva, Switzerland (July)
• Il Palio, Siena, Italy (July - August)
• Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland (August)
• Running of the Bulls, Pamplona, Spain (July)
• La Tomatina, Buñol, Spain (August)
• Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany (September - October)

European Music festivals (note there are MANY more than this! )

• Pinkpop, The Netherlands (28 - 30 May)
• Roskilde, Denmark (1-4 July)
• Rock Werchter, Belgium (1-4 July)
• Exit, Serbia (8 - 11 July)
• Dour, Belgium (15 - 18 July)
• Sziget, Hungary (9 -16 August)

Booking Hotels in Paris

With thousands of hotels and rooms for rent, you'd think booking Paris would be easy, and it would be if money and quality were no object, but of course they always are.

I'm finding almost *too many* resources for this part of the trip planning, but here are some of the more helpful:

Paris Info - this is the official Paris Tourism Website and has a lot of information. In the 'Bed and Breakfast" section I think many people will find exactly the type of accommodation they are looking for in an unfamiliar place - a room in a home with a host who knows Paris.

Parisinfo.com (this is English Version, though note that the Google page translator with chrome is now so good you can surf in many languages. Thanks Google! )

For those who don't want the social interaction of a B and B, there are many hotels to choose from. The usual US consolidators Kayak, Expedia, Hotwire, and Hotels.com seem to have far less options that Venere.com, the European version of those booking services, though even Venere seems to miss the many private residence and B and Bs which are throughout Paris and may offer the best quality for the money.

As a family it's much harder to find the right room, but it would be easy for a couple to find a wonderful room in the heart of Paris *with breakfast* for $100-150 using the following services, all members of the Paris Visitors and Convention Bureau which appear to enforce a set of regulations that govern the quality of the Bed and Breakfast homes on these lists:

2binparis.com

bed-and-breakfast-in-paris.com

www.bedbreak.com

www.fleursdesoleil.fr

www.francelodge.fr

www.goodmorningparis.fr

www.meetingthefrench.com

www.chambre-ville.com

Chur, Switzerland - the Beautiful Alpine Bottleneck

Planning the Europe trip has involved a lot of itinerary work, especially for our trains in and out of Switzerland. The current plan has us travelling from Paris to Chur, Switzerland, one of the oldest inhabited areas in the country and historically a strategic location.

The Bernina Express runs north to south through the alps from Chur to Tirano, Italy.

Booking Trains in Europe

Travelling around Europe on a Eurail Pass is definitely cool, but it also requires more than a little planning if you want to maintain any sort of schedule. With the family of four on the trip I want to have reservations for trains and lodging along the way, but this creates some flexibility challenges since we are fixing a lot of dates.

Very helpful in determining specific train times and schedules is the magnificent German train website Bahn.com . Another site with Europe-wide schedules is Austrian Rail. However even with these powerful tools it's tricky to match up the more frequent trains in and out of Chur and Lugano with with the Alps magnificent Bernina Express, which itself is not a simple single line but basically goes between Chur / Davos / or St Moritz Switzerland to Tirano, Italy and then on in summer by bus to Lugano, Italy. Confused? Here's the Bernina Express site. This is one of the world's great train rides and it's included in the Eurail Pass.

Note: Eurail Pass has helped to sponsor of our European family blogging adventure. Thanks Eurail Pass!

Bernina Express, Switzerland

Switzerland's Bernina Express is one of the world's great train adventures, and we'll be riding these rails in mid June on the family's European Rail Adventure. I'm very excited about this part of our trip as the Bernina Express is one of the world's great train trips. Photo Credit Viator.com

The "express" does not refer to speed, rather to the fact you have the same seat for a fairly long trip through the Alps, traversing them north to south or south to north from Switzerland to Italy. Two lines on this Bernina express route are a designated World Heritage Site.

Wikipedia's Bernina Express page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernina_Express

Summer 2010 Eurail pass Instructions from the Rhätische Bahn, which runs the Bernina Express and other train lines in Switzerland:

Can purchase tickets and reservations for Bernina Express and Bus at http://www.rhb.ch/reservation .

You will be given a "dossier number". With the dossier number you can pick up the travel documents at any train station in Switzerland.

Note: If you do not pick up the tickets/ reservations your total fee will be charged.
General terms of contract are onine here a the Rhätische Bahn website www.rhb.ch/GTC

The Bus from Tirano to Lugano is included in the Eurail pass but you must make a reservation in advance.
You can make reservation for Bus and train in advance without holding the Eurail pass.

One can change the reservation dates (not clear if there is a fee for this or not). Rhätische Bahn said the most important thing is always to inform them of the travel plans and changes to avoid problems.

Rhätische Bahn: http://www.rhb.ch

International Travelers: http://www.swisstravelsystem.ch/

100 years of the Bernina Line www.mybernina.ch

Please note: Eurail Pass is a sponsor of our great European Train Adventure.

Thanks, Rick Steves!

Seattle's Rick Steves has been touring Europe for decades, and his PBS shows, books, and personal tours to Europe have captivated many of us over the years. The Rick Steves website is one of the web's best Travel resources with maps and extensive travel tips and participation.

It's really a "must see website" if you are considering or planning a trip to Europe.

Although I am not a fan of the group tour approach I'm finding that the itineraries are a great way to discover new cities and attractions, and most importantly get a quick feel for the landscape, travel times, etc.

We're planning the big family tour of Europe now (thanks Eurail.com ! ) and I'm finding that Eurail and Rick Steves are two of the best sites for planning this complicated trip.

Rick's on Twitter now @RickSteves and I'm hoping he'll actively participate there, as it's a great way to project your views to many very fast. He's also blogging about the politics of travel, offering some really interesting and provocative perspectives on what he feels is a commercialized and narrow view from the American media. Steves' believes that travel is the best way to experience cultures and countries and people so we fully come to understand them, and hopefully come closer to reducing the many conflicts in our complex world. Keep up the great blogging Steve!

History Channel Presents "America - The Story of Us"

The History Channel debuts a new series that will chronicle some prehistory and the entire history of the USA , spanning about 400 years. The first two episodes will be about the English settlements in "the new world".

Rebels In 1607, a small group of English adventurers lands in Jamestown. Thirteen years later the Pilgrims settle in Plymouth, New England. These men and women are all driven by the promise of a new life, and all face huge dangers from disease, starvation and conflict...

Obviously a challenge to a complete treatment of the history of the Americas is the fact that *most* of the history of this continent happened before records were kept, and many would argue historians have always given short shrift to the rich native American cultures, economies, and tribal conflicts that defined American history for thousands of years. However it's also true that this history was in many ways "simpler" as the existing evidence suggests that native populations were small and cultures were fairly stable for much of the time preceding the arrival of Europeans.

In any case, "America - The History of Us" promises new insight into the rise of what has arguably been the most successful economic and cultural experiment in all of history ... the United States of America.