Summary of my Europe Trip

High-speed train and plane trips in Europe have nothing on touring the region by road. By the numbers, 8 countries in 6 days and over 3000km traveled. It was also a major bucket list item of mine that I was able to cross off and in the process, I learned quite a bit about western Europe that even a European-born, self-confessed Europhile like myself didn't already know. From crawling at snail's pace through the streets of Luxembourg City's old town to hitting speeds of up to 160km/h on the A6 leading to Paris (the speed limit, i.e. slowest speed - insert smirk - was 130 km/h, so don't judge, s'il vous plait), traversing the glorious 30-plus kilometers on the Grand St.Bernard overpass/"open" tunnel that links Italy and Switzerland through a stunning tour of the Alps, driving through the Italian and French rivieras, it was a trip that promised much and delivered on its pleasures.

Euro Road Trip Day 5 - Paris to Amsterdam

My amazing road trip was coming to an end, but there was so much more to look forward to with a weekend in one of the most exciting cities in the world - Amsterdam. Driving from Paris to Amsterdam therefore paled in comparison to the potential of the coming weekend, however it was a lot of fun - especially driving through lesser traveled towns that were, nonetheless, famous during the World Wars. An example of this was Arras, a small town just south of Lens, where 240 French Resistance members were executed by the Gestapo during World War II. Another was Antwerp, which as a major Belgian port, was a strategic control point for both Allied and Axis troops during World War II. Being in the presence of that history was amazing - sometimes better than the sanitized view one gets in museums and history books.



The Van Gogh Museum



Euro Road Trip Day 4 - Monaco to Paris

I didn't think it would take me a couple of weeks to continue recounting my Euro road trip, but c'est la vie. Monaco to Paris was the longest driving stretch of the trip. Almost 9 hours of pure driving, with added time for gas/rest stops - not to mention a side detour into the French town of Viviers, where I managed to pretend I was a native French speaker until the lady at the gas station got excited and let forth a steady stream of unintelligible French. Let's just say that she was disappointed with my patchy response...

I think the natural topography of Europe is what I like about driving there - never a sedate drive like through most of North America (which is comparatively flat), other than the Allegheny mountains in Pennsylvania, which may explain why I always enjoy driving to Washington, DC. The pictures below show some of that...

Euro Road Trip Day 3 - Lausanne to Monaco

This was probably - no, definitely - the best drive I've ever taken. It was the sort of the drive where you literally missed something if you blinked. At the start of the trip, I wasn't sure if my route would take me through the Alps, or as a lot of modern highways do, route around them for a quicker journey. Looks like the Swiss have no qualms about constructing fast-moving highways and tunnels - all 100+ of them that I drove through - up, over and under the Alps. It makes for a stunning drive, but one that's at relatively high speed, so I had to watch those corners!

Euro Road Trip Day 2 - Luxembourg to Lausanne

One of the reasons why I picked Luxembourg as a destination on this trip was its relative lack of popularity. This isn't because it's not a fun place - on the contrary, it's phenomenally underrated - but because it's not filled with the tourist traps of London, Barcelona, Rome and yes, Amsterdam. 

It was for largely the same reasons that I picked Lausanne, Switzerland as my second pit stop. Long in the shadow of Zurich, Geneva, Berne and Basel; I was curious to see this jewel on Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) and she didn't disappoint me.

Euro Road Trip Day 1 - Amsterdam to Luxembourg

I flew into Schipol Airport via Frankfurt, Lufthansa being my airline of choice these days. Technically, I didn't hit the ground in Germany - being in transit only - but as the first Schengen country I entered, my passport was stamped there, so I've added it to the list of countries visited. A small cheat, but who's counting? :-)

The funniest thing that happened was the German immigration officer looking at my Canadian passport and asking if I lived in Italy (I was born in Milano). Seriously, dude...if I lived in Italy, wouldn't I have flashed an Italian passport and wouldn't I have been in the line for Schengen citizens? 

Flying into Amsterdam was short and brisk, other than having to check in my second piece of hand luggage because the flight was "full". That completely defeated the purpose of my taking carry-on luggage only and forced me to wait an extra half hour at Schipol. Oh well - I was too excited about the trip to care about something that trivial.

I picked up this gorgeous Fiat 500 at Schipol. I didn't name "Claudia" until I hit a moment of inspiration while journeying through the Alps later that week, but she does look like a "Claudia", doesn't she? :-)

How my random, spontaneous Euro Road Trip came about

May has been quite the interesting month for me - filled with non-stop action, multi-time zones and an absolute ton of things to see and do. In retrospect, I'd do it all again - except for Air Canada canceling my flight from Fort McMurray to Toronto.

It started with work - formally met the boss's boss late in April and got some great feedback from both himself and my boss, which naturally has led to even more responsibilities at work: leading a rapid results project team, as well as being the designate for the boss when he's away; all this in addition to my normal duties as the Plant Engineer for the oldest primary upgrading unit in the world. Extremely busy and challenging, but as Nigerians are wont to say in such times "We thank God". Some have food but cannot eat, etc...(if you don't know the tune, don't worry).

Given the foregoing, you can understand why I needed a break, which the opportunity of my sister's wedding provided - technically, two weddings as is common in Nigeria: a traditional wedding on the 12th and the church wedding on the 14th. Shortly before the wedding, I also came up with the idea of a road trip through Europe. The stage was set for chaos, adrenalin and yes, fun.