Plans!

We are busy making plans for our Inter-Rail holiday, which starts in three weeks' time!  Wonderful - except that it means that I shall be 60!  I am very lucky that both my parents are alive, relatively well, and totally of sound mind.

We set off on the morning of my birthday, the 14th, but only go as far as Liège - we have bought tickets to "Any Belgian station", which means we don't have to use up a "travelling day". 

From Liege we are heading to Munich, probably going via Frankfurt-am-Main as most of the trains we could take are Thalys, and they are the one train you can't take with an Inter-Rail - well, you can, but you have to pay a supplement of about €36, so we aren't going to!  So we take a train in the morning to Frankfurt, then almost immediately get on another train to Munich, were we are spending the first Sunday - we have friends there, and it will be great to see them. 

On the Monday morning - the 17th, I think - we head of on a Railjet train to Linz, where we break our journey for a few hours, and then head up to České Budějovice (Budweis), for three nights.  We plan to spend one day going to Český Krumlov, which I gather is well worth seeing (this can be done on local buses), and the other day we will look round České Budějovice itself in the morning, and in the afternoon we will go to a little village called Baranov to visit Cestina's "Small Worlds" museum which will be properly open by then. 

On the Thursday we set off again, this time to Mariánské Lázně (Marianbad), this time spending the day in Plzeň (Pilsen).  Friday will be spent in Mariánské Lázně, and then we will be off again, probably to Dresden via Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad). 

And that is basically as far as we have got.  I haven't booked anywhere in Dresden yet.  I know the basic idea of Inter-Railing is that one can go as the Spirit moves one, but the Swan Whisperer will, I think, be a lot happier if we plan everything in advance. 

I am thinking that from Dresden we will probably go to Berlin, or even further, depending on train times, to the far North of Germany, and we also want to visit Lübeck, Hameln, maybe Hannover, maybe Hamburg, and end up at the Belgian border on the final day! 

Should be fun....