A Driving Vacation Through Europe

I've never been big on driving vacations. It seemed such a time consuming and un-fun way to spend precious vacation time. Hanging out in one place and soaking it in was more my style, unless you're cruising, of course.

And then, during Arik's senior trip, we decided to drive all the way from Paris to Florence using the old Route National, i.e. NOT the highway. Imagine my surprise when I realized that we can cover the entire distance comfortably in FOUR days, driving 3 hours most days, stopping for lunch at a Michelin-starred restaurant in some remote industrial town, and truly taking our time. I was shocked.

Europe is so much smaller than we think. You can drive through it in a jiffy, which, of course, is not the point. You can also drive through it leisurely, enjoying the beautiful scenery and wonderful food, and have a fantastic old time. Everything is less crowded than the cities, even in the summer, and most everything is dramatically less expensive than in the big metropolis.

The real discovery is, Europe is small! You can get from here to there easily. There is also minimal stress driving in these foreign lands if you have a GPS. We rented a Skoda, a Russian car, when we drove through France last month. We called our GPS lady Svetlana, and she saved us from ourselves many times. In addition, we armed ourselves with Mapquest printouts of all our routes and trip legs, day by day, just in case Svetlana missed the point, which she did on rare occasions. What used to be a contentious drive (me going 100+ miles an hour and Dick not telling me where to turn in a timely fashion) became a stress-free, measured drive. I'm still going 100+ miles per hour (it's not fun otherwise) but Dick is armed with the Mapquest printouts and his outstanding sense of direction, plus Svetlana gives us ample early warning for every turn, not to mention the double chime when a turn is about to take place. She also said "NOW" at every turn, which eliminated any interpretation.

This recent trip showed me that times have changed. European driving is no longer stressful, the roads are better, and, should you get lost or make a wrong turn, Svetlana or any of her sisters (we had Maude in England, for example), is at the ready to help get you back on track.

SO... we are going to Slovenia, a place that Dick had a yen for (for inexplicable reasons). We'll drive through this state and were a bit concerned about time until we realized that the distance between one important town and another is 20 miles. It's SMALL, as I mentioned. For me the clincher was when I measured the driving distance between Ljubljana, the capital, and Bad Ischl, Austria, where my all-time favorite pastry shop resides. It's a three hour drive by Mapquest (i.e. 2.5 hours the way I drive for several Napoleons and those divine chocolate mousse concoctions called Pariz-schpitz. I'm psyched!

I hope this article gives you heart to take to the road in Europe. It can be a fabulous, fun, economical and delicious discovery. Go for it!