1-Week Countdown
I’m a big fan of summer. I’m also a big fan of vacation. One might even say that I am a fan of summer vacation. Thus, I am seriously fired up about our forthcoming trip to Germany, Austria, and North Italy. Since “blogging” is what the cool kids do these days, I thought it might be fun to keep a small travel log (travelogue as I will henceforth refer to it in, inter alia, this blog) throughout our trip. (Dru will call it a moblog). Equipped with Natalie’s ibook, and yet-uncertain levels of wireless broadband access, we hope to keep this travelogue up to date with fun facts, pictures, poetry, invoices, and stories from this trip in quasi-real time.Details
This trip was originally intended to be an extension of a work-related trip to Bonn, but has ended up being purely vacation (far out!). My Subaru Legacy has seen me through nearly 190k miles of US roads. From Maryland to Miami, and from Virginia to Wisconsin, this vehicle has served me well. All good things must come to an end, however, so we’re going to replace it with a spankin’ new 3-series sedan from Bayerische Motoren Werke. BMW has a sweet European Delivery program where you pick up your car in the Vaterland, drive it around for a while, and then ship it back. All the details (insurance, shipping, permits, etc) are included in the purchase price of the car, which is actually sold at a nice discount to stateside prices.
It should be a pretty wild experience driving this thing through the Alps, and the various towns. The picture below is a pretty good approximation of the car we’re picking up (Sparkling Graphite, Sport Package). It has the strength of a grizzly, the reflexes of a puma, and the wisdom of a man.
Tentative ItineraryThursday, July 7 Depart IAD for MUC Friday, July 8 Pick up the car, stay the night in Munich. Saturday, July 9 Drive to Venice in the AM Sunday, July 10 Venice Monday, July 11 Drive to the Lake Como / Bellagio area Tuesday, July 12 Day trip to Milan Wednesday, July 13 More time at the lakes Thursday, July 14 TBD (candidates include Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Innsbruck, and Salzburg) Friday, July 15 Return to Munich and drop off the car Saturday, July 16 Munich, etc Sunday, July 17 Depart MUC for IAD
Route Map