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When planning your trip — both the whole trip and the daily schedule —
make sure to leave room for downtime, changing plans, and spontaneity:
- Make time for relaxation. For every 10 to 15 days of rigorous sightseeing,
plan at least 2 days for doing little or nothing.
- Mentally prepare yourself for those inevitable changes in your
plans. You never know when circumstances will cause you to miss
a train, for example. Try to rethink your unlucky situation in order
to make the most of your new circumstances.
- Be spontaneous. Take advantage of unexpected opportunities,
such as daytrips or festivals, and don’t be scared to spend more
or less time in a place after you get to know it.
Often, travelers who return to Europe for the second or third visit discover
that they can see many sights outside of the major cities by renting
cars and staying in villas. They can go hill-town-hopping and explore
one tiny corner of Europe at a time, enabling them to travel at a leisurely
pace away from the crowds and pressures of the big cities. But on your
first visit, you may want to visit as many major cities and sights as possible,
and nothing is wrong with that.
The whirlwind tour is still the best way to sample all of Europe’s offerings
during your first trip. You can get the “required” sights out of the
way, so when you come back (and you will return), you can concentrate
on lesser-known attractions or explore an area in depth.
Seeing it all without going nuts
The idea of planning a large-scale trip can seem overwhelming — so
much history and culture, so little time! Here are six ways to maximize
your time and still see as much as possible:
- Don’t duplicate types of sights. You know that many sights in
Europe are unique and worth seeing in their own right. But let’s
face it: Visit some royal palaces or famous Gothic cathedrals, and
they all start to look the same. Pick one or two examples of each
and move on.
- Stay centrally located. Use your limited time to see as much of
Europe as you can, rather than taking days to travel to a peripheral
corner, especially on your first trip. Think about skipping some of
the more geographically remote countries, such as Scandinavia,
Portugal, Spain, and especially Greece, because — unless you take
advantage of no-frills airlines — traveling to them takes forever. See
Parts III through V to help you choose destinations that keep this
idea in mind.
- Select side trips prudently. I highly recommend daytrips because
they ordinarily add variety. But pick your excursions wisely, and
make sure these trips don’t take time away from the major city
you’re visiting. If you’re in Florence for just one day, don’t plan to
see Pisa, because you’ll end up seeing neither. Reserve a full day
to see any destination that’s more than a city-bus ride away.
- Go your separate ways. If you plan six days in London to accommodate
the sightseeing wishes of each member of the family, you’re
wasting time unnecessarily. You don’t have to tour Europe as Siamese
triplets. Your partner can spend a few more hours in the British
Museum and your kids can take a tour out to Windsor Castle while
you check out Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. That way you all spend
a single afternoon doing what otherwise would have taken one and
a half days.
- Practice extreme time-saving techniques. No matter how pretty
the countryside en route is, you can save a lot of precious vacation
time by taking night trains between major cities so as not to use a
whole day just getting from Point A to Point B, even though this
may not be the most comfortable way to spend the night. Because
you arrive at your destination so early, this strategy also allows you
to visit a museum before the crowds arrive; you can always take a
siesta later.
- Know that you’ll probably come back. Assume it. Europe still has
a lot left to see, no matter how much you pack in. Europe will wait
for you.
Staying sane on the museum trail
Europe has generated quite an output of history and art over the past
millennium, and you may feel like you’ve seen it all by the time your
vacation is over. These hints can help you get the most out of your visits
to the great museums without overloading your brain:
- Plan to go to big museums twice. Spread the visit over several
days, if you have the time and inclination, because some museums
are just too big to get through in one day. Consider this strategy for
the Louvre, Museo del Prado, Vatican Museums, British Museum,
Uffizi, and the National Gallery (London).
- Split up. Nothing is as subjective as taste in art. You and your companions
don’t have to stick together in museums and spend all
your time looking at the same paintings. You can each go through
at your own pace and peruse your own pleasures if you part ways
at the front door and set a time to meet. This strategy also gives
you and your companions some time apart. (Even the closest of
friends and family can get on each other’s nerves.)
- Try out the audio tour. Audio tours in museums have become
quite sophisticated. You no longer have to deal with those barely
understandable cassette audio guides that make everyone go in a
big group from one masterpiece to the next. Now, most audio tours
are digital, and you go at your own pace. The exhibited works have
numbers next to them, which you just punch into the wand’s keypad.
It then gives you the facts and background of the work, artist, era,
and so on. You can just press Stop when you want to and continue
on to the next painting. That way, you get the lowdown on just the
works that intrigue you.
- Do the guided-tour thing. Most museum tours are led by certified
experts who explain the background and significance of the most
important works and can answer all your questions.
- Do your homework. When you’ve informed yourself as to what
you’re looking at, the art can be much more engaging and interesting.
Whether you skim your guidebook for the information or take a
class in art history before your trip, a little brushing up on European
artists and movements can enrich any museum-going experience.
- Create your own story. Look for humorous details the artist
included, and try imagining dialogue next to the figures on the
canvas. Any large canvas of a courtly scene or a banquet usually
features details like two servants getting frisky with each other in
the background, or a monkey and dog eyeing each other warily
under the table. Most people get a little punchy after too many
hours spent soberly contemplating creative genius. Feel free to
make up stories to go with the scenes.
- Keep the museum hours in mind. In the later hours, museums
empty out, especially the big museums that may stay open until
7 or 8 p.m. In summer, some museums may stay open as late as
10 p.m. or even midnight. If you’re a fan of museum books and
postcards and plan to stay until closing, check to see when the gift
shop closes. Gift shops often close 30 minutes before the museum
itself closes.
- Spend your time on the masterpieces. Even a moderate-size
museum can overwhelm you if you don’t pace yourself. Don’t feel
obligated to see it all. Many museums include a list of the masterpieces
on their floor plans, and you can skip whole wings that you
don’t feel like going through.
Dealing with cultural overload
The French writer Stendhal, while visiting Florence, was so overwhelmed
by the aesthetic beauty of the Renaissance — and so exhausted by trying
to see absolutely everything — that he collapsed. Stendhal’s case is an
extreme one, perhaps, but he’s not the last one to break down from too
much Europe.
Even if you don’t faint in the piazza, after a few days or weeks of fullsteam-
ahead sightseeing, you may become irritable and tired, catch a
cold, or just stop caring whether you see another Giotto fresco in that
church. When the idea of visiting the Louvre makes you merely groan
and want to take a nap, it’s time to recharge your mental batteries.
Check out these hints for remedying traveler’s burnout:
- Just because something is famous, don’t feel obligated to do or
see it. If you’re going to wear yourself out, do it on the stuff you
like. Feel free to skip what doesn’t interest you and go see what
really floats your boat.
- Pace yourself. Go a little bit at a time in soaking up the variety of
Europe’s cultural offerings. Schedule rest periods. I say again what
is worth repeating: Leave room to picnic, to breathe, and to stop
and smell the cappuccino. Do not pack too much into either your
trip itinerary or your daily sightseeing agenda.
- Put variety into your sightseeing. Visit a church, ruin, or park, or
relax in a cafe in between sights. Don’t hit one big museum after
another. Give other areas of your brain a workout for a while. Your
whole trip doesn’t then blur into one large, colorful mirage of Gothic
cathedrals and old masters from which your memory can’t distinguish
where Prague left off and Paris began.
- Do the siesta thing. In Mediterranean countries, almost all businesses
are closed in the early afternoon anyway, so why not do as
the Europeans do: Take a nap! A nap in the middle of the day can
do you a world of good, both physically and mentally. You can take
a riposo along with the Italians, and you’ll not only appreciate the
culture more, but also be able to finish the sightseeing in Florence
that Stendhal started.
- Take a break when the sightseeing starts getting to you. Whatever
it takes to bring your cultural appreciation back from the brink, do
it. Take a day to get off the beaten path. Go shopping. Go to a soccer
match. But stop trying to rack up sightseeing points. Sit down and
write postcards. Chances are you’ll get psyched to get back on the
sightseeing wagon after describing to your friends back home the
once-in-a-lifetime experiences you’ve had.
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