John (and others I've travelled with) can attest to the fact that what I consider a great vacation is when I can wake up at 11am (on a good day), have a leisurely lunch. Maybe go see something of interest for a couple of hours (strolling or shopping), have a nice dinner, go for a walk, or a drive, go watch a movie, then go back to the hotel and order room service (apple pie a la mode or NY cheesecake and some tea). Then stay up late watching movies or reading or surfing the internet and then go to bed around 2 - 3am. Some days, if I don't leave the hotel, I'm totally okay with that.
Well, for our trip to Europe, I pretty much squeezed as much as I could into every single minute we had. (Not to say that this is the best way to travel. It comes with a certain level of stress, which is why I avoid it as much as possible.) I think John is still in shock at how much I had him do everyday. One of our longer and harder days was something like this:
5:45am Wake up and pack up
6:30am Check out of hotel in Paris, take metro to Gard du Nord Station
7:00am Arrive at Gard du Nord
7:25am Train to Brussels
8:50am Arrive in Brussels, get to Grande Place
9:30am Breakfast (Belgian Waffles)
10:30am Do Rick Steve's Grande Place walk
11:30am Go buy chocolate
12:00pm Get back to train station, grab a baguet for lunch
12:40pm Train to Amsterdam
3:45pm Arrive in Amsterdam
4:00pm Catch tram to hotel
4:30pm Check in to hotel
5:00pm Walk to find a computer parts store (cuz John's laptop power supply broke)
6:00pm Not finding anything, catch tram to Anne Frank House
6:15pm Tour Anne Frank House
7:30pm Walk around Leidesplein area
8:15pm Have dinner
9:30pm Do another Rick Steve's walk (Chinatown area)
11:00pm Get back to hotel
12:00am Get ready for bed
12:30am Call the kids
1:00am Go to sleep
I think it's the OCD mentality creeping in when I plan days like that. But you know...now if I never go back to Brussels or Amsterdam ever again, I will feel that I've done what I wanted and I'll be okay with it.
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