Eurotrip Itinerary

Here is the infamous backpacking trip itinerary!  I owe this all to Joe's extensive and fervent research. He has spent months on this trip planning it right down to the tea and crumpets.  He is a walking "google" and holds a vast knowledge of every country and site will we see.   I couldn't image going with anyone else!  It will be an amazing learning experience for the both of us. As with anything you plan, there will always be glitches and that's part of the adventure.  We will miss a train, lose something, get lost, or something will go awry but those will be the stories to tell for years to come.

Day#     Location                 Notes 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

1                   Athens                                                                                                             

2                   Athens                         Sight Seeing                                                             

3                   Athens                         Sight Seeing

4                   Athens                         Full Day Ancient Delphi and Thermopylae           

5                   Santorini                      Ferry From Piraeus to Santorini 9am                       

6                   Santorini                      Sight See Black Beach

7                   Santorini                      Sight See Red Beach

8                   Rome                           Ferry From Santorini and Flight To Rome

9                   Rome                           Sight Seeing

10                 Rome                           Sight Seeing

11                 Rome                           Day Trip To Pompeii

12                 Florence                       Train From Rome                                

13                 Florence                       Sight Seeing

14                 Florence                       Rent Scooters for Tour Of Country Side

15                 Pisa                              Scooter to Pisa

16                 Cinque Terre                Train From Florence-Hike Portovenere-Riomaggiore

17                 Cinque Terre                Hike Riomaggiore-Manarola-Corniglia                   

18                 Cinque Terre                Hike Corniglia-Vernazza-Monterosso    

19                  Italian Riviera               Hike Monterosso-Levanto-Deiva Marina                                

20                  Italian Riviera               Hike Santa Margherita-Genoa                                      

21                  Venice                          Genoa-Train To Venice

22                  Venice                          Canal Ride to Marks Square and Dinner

23                  Chamonix                     Train From Venice To Chamonix

24                  Chamonix                     Sight Seeing and Pack For Hike 

25-37             Hike Alps                     Walkers Haute Route Chamonix to Zermatt

38                  Zermatt                         Recover Day

39                  Zermatt                         Train to Milan                                                                               

40                  Milan                            Shopping   (Hell Yeah)                                                                          

41                  Nice                              Relax on Beach                                                                            

42                  Barcelona                      Flight To Barcelona                                                               

43                  Barcelona                      Meeting up with our closest friends that decided to be crazy enough to fly into Spain and join us for a week.   Love you guys for doing this with us.  And thanks in advance for muling our stuff.                           

44                  Montserrat                     Touring with Friends      

45                  French Riviera               Hike or Drive the Cost (come on Shelly, you can hike it)                                         

46                  French Rivieia               Drive the cost and be in Pamplona By Dinner Time

47                  Pamplona                       Running wtih the Bulls Drive to San Sebastian                                                                                                                                                                                                

48                  Amsterdam                     indulge in the local cuisine and accouterments                                                                                        

49                  Amsterdam                     Bike Tour

50                  Amsterdam                     Sight Seeing Country Side                                                 

51                  Paris                               Train to Paris                                                                            

52                  Paris                               Bike Tour

53                  Paris                               Sight Seeing Country Side                                                                                     

xx                                                        Extra Time Built in as needed

                                                                                          

Example's of what we will see and possible "tighty whitie sightings...

                                                                       

Greece, Santorini

Cinque Terre - Italian Riviera

King Leonidas

Paris

Tuscany

Venice

                                                                                          

Pisa, Italy

Paris

Amsterdam

Running with the Bulls

Swiss Alps

National Archaeological Museum - Athens

Acropolis

Red Beach

Aphrodite and Pan

A Stroll Through the Swiss & French Alps ( sneak peek )

The Haute Route - One of the Top 10 Hikes in the WORLD

This is the segment of the trip I am MOST excited about. It starts at Mont Blanc (Chamonix, France) to Matterhorn (Zermatt Switzerland). We are starting out early in the season, so we will be forced to cross a few glaciers and hope to god for decent weather.  Yeah, that's right....I said "GLACIERS".  I’m freaked out over it too. Hard to imagine, I"ll be strolling through grassy knolls, wildflowers, cute little cows (moooo) and BOOM a fucking glacier in my way. Do I need to pack an ice pick? Do we rope ourselves together so we can both fall to our death in the same crevasse? I dunno...I’m just as confused as you are. I will certainly blog on this once we get up there and I’m sliding my ass down a glacier yodeling all kinds of curse words. 

Mont Blanc - The highest peak in Europe (15,781ft) START 

Matterhorrn, the most beautiful peak in the Alps END POINT

112 Miles Long

Crosses 11 passes, gains more than 12,000m elevation

some cows along the way...Moooooo

I Can't Wait to Take My Own Pictures and Video

Mont Blanc ( I doubt it's going to look this "dreamy" but great picture nonetheless)

French Alps - Hiking

Mont Blanc

Moooo ( I love to say moo)

Swiss Alps, Switzerland

Swiss Alps

Mont Blanc- Cannonball

Hostels (See nothing like the movie) (They really could have picked a better name tho)

Mountain Hut

Sleeping with Strangers is just going to be effen weird!

See, Old People Can Do it Too

Glacier

Stairway to Heaven? 

Look How Cute the Moo's Are...Mooooooooooooooo

You Guessed it...Baaaaaaahhh

Matterhorn, Zermatt Switzerland
The end of the Hike
I wonder if there's a Taco Bell down there?

 (We won't be climbing to the top like this crazy MF)

Two Week Notice

There I was Monday morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with my two week notice in hand, when the phone rang.  It was my manager calling me for the third time.  She had heard that I was giving my notice before I even reached the building door that day.  The cat was out of the bag...meeeooow. 

The week before I took an unconventional route in quitting my job and sat down with my 6 coworkers first and informed them of the event to come.   It was going to affect them the most and I wanted to make it clear I made all attempts to take a leave of absence in lieu of my resignation.  We were already short-staffed and the work load was unbearable as it was - hence why I was able to stock-pile on my overtime #cha-ching  After barely getting through my spill and fighting the tears, I looked up and didn't expect the reaction I got.   They all truly and honestly cared.  And here I thought my co-workers secretly hated me and images of confetti, yodeling in celebration of my leave and them carrying me out of the building to throw me on my ass, was how I imaged this was all going to go down. But I was left with concerned eyes gazing upon me.  But what happens next is where the story begins....

"Hello?"  My manager, "Hi Geri, I heard you were giving your notice and wanted to ask if you could wait until I looked into a few things?"  Me, " of course. I will talk to you when I get there."  After hanging up the phone, I was shocked.  Heretofore, I had it set in my mind for months that I was quitting my job with no hope of saving it. I  promised myself I wasn't getting my hopes up.  Is this what I really wanted anyway..... Because my mind was still planning things well past Europe.  I was going to keep going until my funds ran out or I was kidnapped and sold into slave trade.

I got into work that day and a swirling vortex of rumors had begun. Over the weekend another supervisor had sent an email out to the rest of management supporting me in my leave of absence and not wanting me to resign  My co-workers voice their concerns and backed me up 100%. The Medical Director swooped me into his office and told me he was going to do what he could to save my job. And in the same breath he picked up the phone to HR and demanded they give me a leave of absence.  It was one of the most overwhelmingly acts of kindness  I have ever experienced.  This wasn't what I expected at all.  I was waiting for the printed T-Shirts to be passed around that said "Save Geri's Job" and a small little picket line in the lunch room. #overdoing it.    I guess after 7 years, you grow on people.  You never know how your co-workers really feel about you until you put in your notice.

As it sits today, my request is pending in HR and goes in front of a review board.  Regardless of the outcome, nothing is going to stop me from following a life long dream.  Not even you XYZ Job 

Cha-Ching

First things first!  Money! I needed to save every dollar and dime I could get my hands on- especially if I were going to be unemployed when I got back.  So I amped-up my hours at work, volunteered for my co-worker's Saturdays, got a 2nd job and cut a few things out in life.  My car being the biggest sacrifice and the largest cost savings opportunity.  As crazy as it sounds, I still needed transportation so I bought myself a Vespa.  Yep, with  80 miles-per-gallon cost savings....  I was going to save my sweet little Italian scooter ass off.

It was all fun and games until it rained or I had to pick up a bag of dog food, pizza or get an animal to the Vet. I drove that thing in the cold, rain, monsoons, sweltering heat and through large bug masses.  Even a few encounters with coyotes. I was saving hell or high water for this trip.  I did get help from my family too.  My Mom and Dad let me use their car on occasions, so without them, my experiences would have been more ominous than stated above.  Thanks Mom and Dad :).  I was just bummed I didn't have any cassette tapes to play in the car while I drove in luxury.  Joe was amazing too and picked up the slack in the household.  He was the mastermind in the details of the trip and worked diligently behind the scene while I turned tricks on the corner to earn a dollar  #garage sale.

My dedication, lost time with my beau, family and missed cocktail hours with friends paid off.  I managed to save well past my target goal and I was ready to start the next step in conquering a life long dream.