Our European Travel Tips

After spending a month in Europe visiting eleven different countries, we made a list of things that are different on the other side of the pond. The following is a list of our observations and tips (accompanied with some of our favorite pictures):

We found much more cigarette smoking all over Europe than we are accustomed to in the United States. People can light up a cigarette right beside you in a restaurant, and they often do. We were glad to find some non-smoking cars on trains. But you can expect to be surrounded by passengers smoking one last cigarette at the station as you wait for your train to arrive. We talked with a group of college girls who had lots of questions about life in the U.S.A, and one of them was, "Is it true that no one smokes in America?" They thought that would be the best part of living in the United States!

We found that food in grocery stores in Europe was cheaper than we are experiencing here in the U.S. We like to buy fresh fruit for snacks, and we often bought food for eating breakfast on a train ride. One morning we bought 500 grams (over one pound) of grapes, 500 grams of plums, 2 bananas, and two good size yogurts for 3.38 Euro (about $3.54). You won't get a bargain like that in our local grocery store after the inflation we have enjoyed in the last several years. We have always enjoyed grocery shopping in foreign countries, as it is another cultural experience while traveling. We fumbled our way through buying loaves of bread at the local bakery, and getting chunks of cheese from the deli. One of our favorite treats were found at the grocery stores that had fresh orange juice machines.

If traveling via trains, we always tried to take food with us. It's a good use of travel time to eat a meal, and everyone does it. That gave us more time to explore the sites instead of finding a place to eat when our train arrived at our next destination. We traveled on the first-class train cars during the first part of our trip, but our Eurail pass used during the second half of our trip was only good for the second-class cars. We can report that the first-class cars are quieter, cleaner, and less crowded. They also include a snack box and bottled water. We think we caught our flu bug on one of those crowded second-class train rides. 

Announcements are made on the train and at the stations in the local language. It's a little unsettling when something is important enough to be announced, but we have no idea what was said. Most Europeans know more than one language, and English is the most common second language. We found many locals that loved to help us with their language. In the case of countries like Switzerland, they have four official languages; but English is not one of those four. So the Swiss have to learn to speak English so they can communicate with their fellow-countrymen.

Trains can take a tourist literally everywhere. In fact, school children ride them as a substitute for our school buses. We rode everything from the high-speed trains that race across the country-side at 180 miles per hour, to the regional trains that never get up to high speed because they stop at every little village and town. Many of the high-speed trains require a reservation, and that is an extra expense and a real pain for inexperienced travelers. Reservations guarantee an assigned seat. We rode on several trains that didn't require reservations and we sometimes struggled to find an open seat. Using the Eurail pass is much more complicated than it was twenty years ago. On our first trip to Europe two decades ago we could hop on and off any train with our pass. Now travelers must file a trip plan to use the pass, taking away the spontaneity we loved with a Eurail pass two decades ago.

When people ask where we are from, years ago we quit calling ourselves "Americans." That's because when we were traveling in Canada, they would correct us since they were also (North) Americans. But in Europe, if we said we were from "the United States" or "U.S.A." that seemed to be confusing to them. After some pause, most Europeans would finally say, "Oh! You're American!" As Americans, we always felt very welcomed and very safe.

The average European motel room is smaller than the average U.S. motel room. The bedding is also very different. Most of our rooms had twin mattresses that were scooted together. While they had a fitted sheet over each twin mattress, we never had a top sheet. The only piece of bedding was a thick duvet--usually in white. We also never saw a wash cloth in any of those hotel rooms.

When in a group of people that are all speaking non-English languages, we noticed that the hum and cadence is different for different languages. We also noticed that people from different countries even seemed to laugh with different accents. Denisa's favorite language to listen to was French. Even though she can't understand it at all, it is a beautiful language. She also determined that a toddler speaking French is just adorable!

We crossed many different country borders while visiting eleven different countries. But most of those countries were part of the European Union where the currency is the same and a border crossing is seamless. The only time we had to show our passport was when we entered and departed the country of Montenegro.

We didn't see any big cars or RVs on the road in Europe. Roads are narrower, and parking places are smaller--especially in the historic centers of towns. If locals drive a car, it's usually a small one. In many parts of Europe, more people ride bicycles than cars. Amsterdam even had parking garages for bicycles! We saw a number of RV campgrounds, filled with smaller Class B or Class C motor homes. Our big diesel Class A motor home couldn't fit on the roads or the campgrounds in Europe.

We enjoy the cultural experience of learning how to shop for groceries in different countries. Even if we couldn't read the labels, we used the pictures on the packages to help us make our selections. Isn't it funny that when buying salad dressing in a grocery store in Italy, we found assorted options like Bleu cheese and French, but no Italian dressing? Ordering at a restaurant was always interesting when the menu was in a foreign language. We also learned that food costs more if you eat it at the restaurant. Some places will add around 1.50 Euro to each meal or pastry if you sit and eat it on the premises.

America is called the "land of the free" and we are used to getting many things for free that travelers to Europe will have to pay for. Visiting a bathroom costs .50 to 1 Euro, and finding a public "water closet" is often difficult. We got used to watching for "WC" signs to point the way to the hard-to-find bathrooms. We learned to keep Euro coins in our pockets for bathroom stops, because few will take a bill or a credit card. We learned to never leave the train without going to the bathroom--er, water closet--because your ticket to ride also includes a ticket to potty. We developed a rating system for the bathrooms in Europe, giving points for cleanliness, low cost, ambience, location, availability of soap, towels, and toilet paper. Let's just say that we only found one 10-point bathroom in a month.

While we loved the old historic buildings that are everywhere in Europe, we also found that graffiti is everywhere as well. Most of it is well-done, but in some parts of Europe it would be hard to find a concrete surface that hadn't been spray-painted.

Flexibility is needed when traveling, and especially when using public transportation in Europe. We endured a train strike, metro strike, bus strike, and a taxi strike. All those changed our well-made plans and caused us to scramble to get where we needed to go. Another time we were on a train that came to a complete stop in the middle of no where. We finally found out that another train had a malfunction, and that caused several trains to be backed up behind it with no idea when we would be moving again. Another day we were on a train and one of the passenger doors wouldn't close. Again, we were stuck with no idea when we would be underway. When the train tracks just outside of our little village were closed for maintenance, all of our transportation plans had to change. Whew! 

Having access to google made a huge difference in our ability to change plans. Mark had an Orange Travel E-Sim in his phone that gave him a plan that included 100 GB data, 120 minutes in calling, and 1,000 free texts world-wide (with unlimited calling and texts within Europe). It was good for 28 days and cost around $50, but it was priceless! 

Traveling in June and July, we only booked lodging with air-conditioning. That meant that we didn't get to enjoy the cozy Mom-and-Pop places with great ambience that we have enjoyed on spring trips. As it worked out, July was refreshingly cool in France, Germany, and Benelux (that's a short way to say Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg). The foliage in those countries was also green from the abundance of rain. We didn't need those air-conditioned rooms in those countries. But it was summer hot in Croatia, Montenegro, Italy, and Malta and air-conditioning was a necessity.

We made several short airplane hops while we were in Europe. We found that the allowable carry-on luggage size in Europe is smaller than in the United States. We bought new rolling carry-ons before the trip, with that smaller size in mind. That made it even harder to fit clothes for a month into our luggage, so we obviously had to do laundry--many times. We saw some tourists with huge suitcases struggling to get on trains and buses. Our small bags were definitely the way to go!

We were touring during the height of tourist season, and we were part of the crowds that come with summer travel. The good news is that everything is open and the touring days are long with the most hours of daylight in the summer. We used those long hours to walk many miles through some of the most beautiful places in Europe. We never felt unsafe, and we enjoyed another trip of a lifetime--wandering His wonders!