We had an amazing opportunity to take an extended, one-way road trip through Europe. We were on the on the road for a month and cut through a large swath of Europe - from Belgium towards the south east (through Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Austria, and Slovenia) with a book end in Croatia, and then heading south west to cut through Italy, France, Andorra, Spain and finishing up in the Algarve, Portugal.

As a family, we learned many lessons in culture, geography, history and a thing or two about how we like to travel.

We also reconfirmed that the packing cubes are a thing of glory when traveling for an extended period of time. Instead of packing and repacking our backpacks every few nights, we put them in the back of the trunk and would take just the relevant packing cubes for each stay.

Culture & Food

We loved exploring various cities and smaller towns! Along the way, we met interesting people and tried as many local products as we could get our hands on.

Some of our favorite meals were delicious local cheeses with a loaf of fresh bread. We would add a local sweet here and there and sample the local seasonal fruits and vegetables.

In some locations, English was much better than other locations, but we generally had no issues despite any language barriers. We pre-downloaded dictionaries on Google Translate to figure out items at the cafes or in grocery stores. English in Croatia and Slovenia was fantastic, though was more difficult in parts of Italy and France were more difficult.

We felt the warmth and openness of Italians - several times people went out of their way to share their picnic or offer a piece of fruit for kids.

They say the ideal travel is to live as closely as a local without being too touristy; we certainly found this to be true. Over time, we became extremely weary of locations with giant tour buses - usually the throngs of tourists snapping selfies and posing in front of random sculptures were rude and overwhelming. No thank you!

Geography & Borders

Along the trip, we passed through several natural borders: mountain ranges and rivers separate much of Italy, France, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and Spain. We encountered many ramparts, forts and castles just inside of these various access points, a testament to Europe’s long history of wars and fluid borders.

Not only do these natural borders separate many modern country boundaries, but they also create a natural separation for culture. And it makes sense: prior to the last century, people didn’t travel great distances in a lifetime. So we could see how it would be tough for French language to cross over the Alps and into Italy - unless accompanied by one of Napoleon's expansionary wars for example.

We visited a few interesting places created as “quirks of history", such as Andorra and Lichtenstein. For one historical reason or another, these “principalities” were negotiated between aristocrats centuries ago and remain to this day as independent states. We liked both but preferred the vibe (and prices!) of Andorra.

Where to Return

Along the trip, we identified places that we’d like to return at some point in the future for a longer period of time. While we enjoyed our time in other locations along the trip, we can easily imagine spending a month or two in Northern Italy, Tirol (Austria), Slovenia, Germany/Black Forest, and Provence. We also can’t get enough of Spain, but we would prefer not to be there in the hot summer :) Also, we only had one day to explore Madrid, but we thought it was a beautiful city where we could spend a longer period of time in the spring or fall!

Song of the Road Trip

When we rented cars in the Nordics, we discovered radio stations that played obscure, 80’s era music in English. But these weren’t always your favorite songs, they would be random things and always created a chuckle (or a change of station).

But for our long road trip, Annelies downloaded a bunch of songs on Amazon Music - a few top 40 playlists and then songs from our favorite bands. By far our favorite song was the Old Town Road remix (featuring Lil Nas and Billy Ray Cyrus). When this song came on, we would crank it up and the whole family would sing along! It was also hilarious to watch the girls sing the last verse, word for word, while we were strolling about some old castle walls. Definitely brings a smile to my face :)