A little background on this trip. We’ve always said if we’re going to “do” Europe, we wanted to really devote some time to it. We’re not getting any younger, we don’t have children, and we have somewhat flexible jobs, so it felt like this was the right time to take on this adventure. 

The first hurdle: Brandon didn’t want to fly over the ocean. After a lot (a lot) of research and the help of Chelax Adventures, we found a transatlantic cruise that would take us from Miami to Barcelona – A 2 week journey. The ports of call included Funchal, Malaga, and Valencia. What a dream. 

From there, we had to figure out transportation. We knew we wanted to drive, but realized pretty quickly that not only would a rental car cost a fortune, it would definitely restrict the number of countries we could visit. We considered buying a car and selling it before we left, but ultimately what I found was that if you are not a European citizen that’s basically impossible. (If anyone knows otherwise please feel free to let me know for future reference!) Thankfully, with the help of a “Traveling in Europe” Facebook group, I found the option of leasing a car. The program was exactly what we wanted, and included almost every country we wanted to visit. It did not include Turkey, but we’ll get to that… We arranged to pick up the car in Calais, France. 

So, the itinerary started to come together. After disembarking in Barcelona and spending a few days there, I took a quick detour and flew to Norway to celebrate a friend’s birthday with a hiking and kayaking trip. Brandon wanted to check out another city in Spain, so he took a train to Seville. We met back up in London to regroup and spend some time with family there. The logistics of getting from London to Calais were some of the most challenging to figure out, but from then on we’d have our own transportation. 

After picking up the car in Calais, we’d drive right to Bruges and spend two nights there. The rest of the itinerary: