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As a French person I feel like it's my duty to explain strikes to you. - AdrienIer |
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Europe in November/December
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So I will have 3 weeks straight of PTO from 11/16 to 12/6. My thought was go to Europe and do stuff. Some friends are telling me I'm crazy because the weather will suck. I don't really mind cold, although cold+rain sucks. What say ye that live in Europe, good idea or bad idea?
Darrell 
Skip Britain. The weather sucks, and right now you don't actually get an amazing exchange rate, it's gone down for the Dollar over the past month.
Not a European, but...
(October 2nd, 2017, 10:06)darrelljs Wrote: So I will have 3 weeks straight of PTO from 11/16 to 12/6. My thought was go to Europe and do stuff. Some friends are telling me I'm crazy because the weather will suck. I don't really mind cold, although cold+rain sucks. What say ye that live in Europe, good idea or bad idea? (October 2nd, 2017, 10:14)Krill Wrote: Skip Britain. The weather sucks, and right now you don't actually get an amazing exchange rate, it's gone down for the Dollar over the past month. Sounds like Krill just doesn't want to see you. All the more reason to do it.
Be fair, I was in Florida last year helping family! I didn't even get to Florida except to fly out of it this year.
It sucks, because it gives you an excuse other than I didn't want to see you. In more serious matters, if you do come to the UK you really do need a reason, because if you don't have any interest in seeing stuff and no one specific to see Europeans have this thing called.culture you probably want to search for. You might not find it, but if you look in Belgium somewhere you can take breaks in pubs that serve some good beers.
Not European, but I did spend 6 months traveling Europe a year ago, so I have some advice. Mainly being, take the bus instead of the train. Especially the further east/south you go. I was mostly in Eastern Europe, so perhaps this doesn't really apply, but I found the buses to be cheaper, quicker, and nicer than the trains. And certainly a lot nicer than the buses in Canada or the UK.
But considering where in Europe you're going, all I can really say is don't skip Brussels. It's quite a nice city, and has some interesting museums: http://www.mim.be/en Although apparently something is wrong with their audio guide system, which is actually kinda essential.
How long do you want to spend in every city ? Because spending 2-3 weeks in Paris is about the amount of time I recommend if you want to see all the cool things. For a good mix of nice weather and having a great time I suggest Italy (Florence and Rome mostly). Greece is great too but a lot further.
(October 2nd, 2017, 10:06)darrelljs Wrote: So I will have 3 weeks straight of PTO from 11/16 to 12/6. My thought was go to Europe and do stuff. Some friends are telling me I'm crazy because the weather will suck. I don't really mind cold, although cold+rain sucks. What say ye that live in Europe, good idea or bad idea? (October 2nd, 2017, 10:25)darrelljs Wrote: He was in Florida and didn't visit! Ha, you arrive in my hometown Amsterdam firstly. Well, about weather in Netherlands... In November it is mostly above average in terms of coldness, rain and wind but November rarely stands out in terms of extreme weather. However you shouldn't expect many sunny hours, instead expect some foggy or windy days. Tough it may deliver a surprises sometimes, sometimes surprising warm days where you can walk around without jacket (with current global warming ongoing), and sometimes freezing temperatures (winter arrives earlier than normal) and in 2013 there was one whole week with only heavy fog and no sun or rain etc. Between Amsterdam and Paris there is a high speed line which you can use to reach Paris in 3 hours and 15 minutes from Amsterdam, it also do stop in Brussels which is suggested by Mr.Cairo. Or also as suggested by Cairo take a bus which is surely cheaper but longer travel time. Any high speed trains requires a reservation, but domestic trains don't need a reservation in Netherlands. In Amsterdam there are many places you can go, for example museums or other attractions. But since Netherlands has a rail network that connects almost every average sized places within 2:30 hours of Amsterdam, you can opt to visit other places in Netherlands besides Amsterdam for example Den Haag (The Hague), Rotterdam, Delft, Leiden, Utrecht, Haarlem and many other places. Or maybe you can think about visiting Germany, there are some cities directly connected from Amsterdam for example Berlin (6:30 hours travel time which is bit far and you need to return to Paris eventually all the way) or more closer as Cologne (Köln) which is 3 hours from Amsterdam and also there is a direct high speed train link from Cologne to Paris. You are staying in Europe in period that cities in Germany just set up their Christmas markets (Weihnachtsmarkt), maybe visit a one? And between Netherlands and France there is Belgium and Luxembourg, also plenty optional places to visit. From Brussels there is a train to London if you want say Krill hello and from London you take train to Paris directly. And one final thing, you coming from USA might suffer a culture shock in period that you are visiting Netherlands from 11/16 till 12/6 since it roughly falls in same period that we in Netherlands are celebrating Sinterklaas (patron saint of children, also primary source of Santa Claus).The issue is that those who are portraying Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), the helper of Sinterklaas typically put up blackface make up which often shocks any tourists (mainly from USA since racism is very sensitive issue there). Recently there was some discussion in Netherlands due racist nature of Black Pete and in Amsterdam Black Pete recently has been replaced by "Chimney Pete", just some soot marks on face instead full blackface. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Piet |
