Join us in Europe!

www.TravelandHistory.com

From Norway to Italy we'll be blogging our 18 day rail trip across Europe. Join us.

Thanks Eurail Pass for helping to sponsor the trip!

Blogging Europe starts next week at TravelandHistory.com

The rumors are true, "TravelandHistory.com" is a new blog about ... travel and history.

Follow my blogging family as we travel Europe by rail starting next month (June 2010) "TravelandHistory.com"

There's so much Travel and History to cover that we've added another blog.

US History will continue here where our Online Highways Travel blog will feature posts from the US and Europe including travel and history all over the world.


Here at US History we'll continue to cover mostly US History themes.

Vernazza (Cinque Terre - Italy)

Vernazza (Cinque Terre - Italy)
Originally uploaded by fede0253

Vernazza is one of the five seaside cities of the Cinque Terre, one of Italy's most popular travel destinations.

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!