The below blog can be more detailed in referring to Blog #1 by scrolling down beyond my 27 Europe blogs in my website of https://bhlifestyles.travel.blog for this amazing tour. My website has this recent Blog #28 first. My life mantra is to always make a positive difference/ improvement to whoever I meet & a slight twist to a Pericles quote (Died 429BC). “What you leave behind is not what is engraved on your headstone, but what is engraved into the minds & lives of others”
My initial passport was obtained in March 2016 at 60yrs old … yes, a late starter. Since then, in the last 10yrs I have been in 9 countries, such as, USA, Japan, Sth Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile & New Zealand whilst also travelling through my own country of Australia.
Europe is one region I thought was well beyond my means & capability, plus the currency killer however, it is time to be selfish & take time out from my ongoing extended family renovations & repairs assistance I’ve been providing over the years in my so-called retirement. LOL!! As I’ve aged, I had realised it is not the amount of moments that I breathe .. but the amount of moments my breath is taken away & that, as you will read on is how this Europe tour unfolded.
I am an ‘owner’ in Wyndham Resorts & through my credit level I can use their in-house Travel Club for assistance in compiling my tour proposal. I was blessed to have Nilli help me out where she organised my Sth America trip years prior & she remembered me too. I first compiled a list of my ex-backpacker friends I wanted to see over there in various countries & checked their availability for timing. Looks like 1st October 2025 to start my trip. From this list I was able to source the expected route & see what I can achieve to link up with everyone. This was quite a challenge to be practical & make it all work. Nili was impressed with my Excel spreadsheet & information provided & made her role much easier she said.
My friends live in Nuremberg, Munich, Amsterdam & Bristol UK. Drawing this out on a Europe map & checking the major places & sights I’d like to experience near to this route, plus keep my mum & youngest brother’s (both dec’d) wishes of places they never got to see. From this, I had to work out how many days I would need to use in each place of stay & to analyze what activities & tours to undertake to fully activate each day. Easy .. sarcasm. One could never do enough research, for there is so much to see & do.
From the above paragraph my tour now included Rome (1st stop), Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Paris, Amiens (brother for WW1 experience), Barcelona (my wish), Lisbon, Dublin, Bristol & London (mine & Mum’s wishes). These places were my most wished places to visit & the transport was relatively easy to address. I had to obtain entry requirements with the new ETA for England at £16 (2yr approval) & took 7mins to gain their approval, plus the upcoming 12th Oct 2025 new EES for the Schengen area entry.
With all this compiled information, Nilli set into action & also gained the best travel insurance which isn’t cheap at my age + still have the COVID part covered due to remaining world uncertainty. She made a few adjustments & upon my approval booked all the flights & most hotels stays & left me to do the train ticket purchases & a couple of accommodations where she couldn’t have access to. From my hometown to Europe & back will entail 44days in total, starting from Brisbane & leaving on 1st October 2025. If you review the calendar photo you can see most of my itinerary.
Europe, for me was always in the too-hard basket & when you throw all the current events we are fed on our media & travel alerts stemming from mass immigration to Germany, France & Italy to name a few then the anxiety steps in & for me I’ll be on my own even though I had done most of my travelling on my own over these past 10years.
My flight out from Brisbane entailed a 14hrs 50mins 1st leg to Doha & that is stretching my flight endurance limit & with a 3.5hr layover left a 5hr flight to Rome, arriving at 7.25am on 2nd Oct. I had obtained an eSIM with Saily within 30days of my departure & they had an excellent plan & with a set VPN too which activated the moment I landed in Rome, albeit my flight mode on my phone kept interacting after landing which knocked me out of internet until I had it sorted, via WiFi later in the day. As you can see, I managed to do 28blogs for my Europe tour so keep scrolling down on my website to get the full itinerary tour & massive volume of photos to view.
From my blogs you will notice I never took a bus in cities to do the sightseeing like a Hop on Hop Off bus as it never suited me & I was watching my AUD to Euros (2 for 1) comparison, noting my pensioner status. Overall, I managed to travel 47,474klms through 8 countries, by 9 plane trips & 7 train trips using my Polarsteps App (you can follow my trips through this free app too). I highly recommend Polarsteps for travelling where people can trace where you are in real time plus you can write up your blogs & whatever photos you wish & when the trip is over you can get a deal to review & change your entries into a high-quality bound tour book at a set rate. In this 44day tour I walked 609,651 steps which was compiled by my Samsung Health in my phone that equals 475.23klms so that’s a lot of walking. I endeavoured to undertake a city walking tour wherever I can but sometimes the timing doesn’t work out so it’s back to my research & city walking. Hope you like this summary & please refer to my blogs for even more information, facts & statistics.
Rome – Italy
Rome was beyond amazing & you could spend countless days there & still not see everything. I would return to Rome in a heartbeat. That is the major thing to overcome; to realise you can’t see everything. The next thing is to assign a good travel time. I fluked October, being into Autumn mode where it is far cooler at around 20°C, less people but still packed in certain sights whereas in Summer, June to August is really hot in Rome for the pavements are black basalt paving everywhere & the streets & lanes are slightly narrow with the added tourist numbers. The Piazzas (plazas) offer open spaces but are packed with tourists, especially, The Pantheon & Trevi Fountain. Always best to see these in early morning or late afternoon including the Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palantine Hill due to potential crowd crush & high temps.
There is an underground train station adjacent to the Colosseum & that should be looked at, for it’s also an underground museum which I didn’t know at the time. Same for The Pantheon in having an underground museum. The original street level of Rome is some 7m below the current street levels.
The Vatican is always busy & don’t sit at a table for coffee along the streets getting there as you could be slugged the table fee of some €20 for the pleasure. Take notice of the local laws for some fines are hefty including any train trips to validate your ticket, etc & don’t get confused with economy or 1st class trains. I got stung with an economy ticket on a 1st class train & was conned by the platform lady guiding me to the 1st Class train. Felt like a planned tourist trap. This was the train from the airport to the CBD Termini Station. They have since installed a ticket verification system & with substantial fines so be very diligent.
I spent a full day (13hrs) undertaking a bus guide tour to Positano (Amalfi Coast) & Pompeii which was amazing & on Blog #4. Most of my activity & access tours were through Viator, City Wonders, Get Your Guide, & Crown Tours. To repeat, Rome I would go back in a heartbeat.
Nuremberg – Germany
I was staying for 6nights with a young friend, AJ (privacy) who I helped tour New Zealand back in 2017 when she was backpacking & her & her family were keen to spend time with me seeing I had looked after her so well. I flew into Munich, then caught a 1hr train to Nuremberg. AJ took me to Tegernsee (South of Munich, a perfect getaway resort area) via a quick tour of the Audi Production Factory prior. We spent half a day in Munich & more time in Nuremberg which is a city that is amazing & so much history. Later I spent a night at AJ’s parents’ home NW of Nuremberg in the wine region & it was fantastic to enjoy a loving family’s home & cooking (lots of it!!) & to see such great countryside & very cute villages. Thoroughly enjoyed this friend week & hope to see AJ again soon for she really looked after this old man.
Amsterdam – Netherlands
I was able to fly direct via Nuremberg airport which was a bonus & getting through a tiny airport for a change. Airport train from Schiphol Airport was a breeze to Centraal Station (correct spelling). This city takes a while to get your bearings seeing it is a canal city so be patient. Amsterdam has a very expensive City Tax to pay when you check in to your hotel. My 5night stay & value of hotel rate plus a coefficient in a formula calculates a €128 fee. OUCH!!
Amsterdam is a tram & bike city, so I booked a bike tour & while riding a bike is simple you have the added pressure of avoiding people, cyclists & above all, the dreaded tram lines. Trust me, I saved a woman from getting hit by a tram she didn’t hear or see & most likely saved her life. It was a good way of covering a good distance & to see sights relatively easily. You can hire bikes, but I chose the foot walking mode for flexibility & ultimately safety. This city of freedom is so relaxed & at times I was quite ‘happy’ returning to my hotel for I could not avoid the constant fumes of weed throughout the day where it is legal in public, taverns, etc. You can’t avoid it.
I was so blessed to have my dear friends; Ayla & Renske who could meet with me over 2 separate days. It was like yesterday to seeing them again. 2 lovely women I met back in my hometown when they were backpacking. They both have children now but of course they were all in school. Both these 2 days I never wished to end. Such a great time to see them again & both are so gorgeous & haven’t really changed at all. Amsterdam is so unique & well worth a visit in seeing a city built on top of a forest of trees (tree piles) with slanting houses & buildings. To see Ann Frank’s house, you must book well in advance & I challenge you to handle the maze of the Rembrandt Museum.
Paris – France
I caught a regional train from Centraal Station – Amsterdam to Gare du Nord (Northern station of Paris) 3.5hrs & not a bullet train. The train was good, but Gare du Nord is one of the worst & complicated stations in Europe & I really found that out. It is HUGE & has 5 Halls (Sections of platforms). You have to get a cab, bus or another suburban interstop train to get to the Eifel Tower & main city area. I eventually got a ticket (4 RER B Sud) for €6.30 to Saint -Michel- Notre Dame Station & then changed to Champ de Mars Station, being the closest to the Eifel Tower & my Mercure Hotel. The City Tax was far cheaper at €25.35.
I only wanted to see the Eifel Tower, The Louvre, Notre Dame, Champs Elysees & Arc de Triomphe. If you read my relevant blog on Paris, you will note I was at The Louvre the morning it was robbed so I missed out on that plus the associated Seine River cruise & with the thousands awaiting to see inside Notre Dame I missed that too, but I got my outside photos at least & a good blog & life story. I found Paris to be rather dirty & slightly unkept of appearance, lots of Somalian market vendors selling Eifel trinkets, etc & would only return to see those missed internal landmarks mentioned above, possibly an overnight stay. My blog of the Eifel Tower shows the incredible history & statistics for this wonder of construction.
Amiens – France
I took a dreaded taxi to Gare Du Nord for the early set train departure. I was totally ripped off by an extremely rude French driver. I left by stating we (Australia) saved you (France) twice in 2 world wars & this is the shit we receive. I should have dropped the fare into the gutter for him to pick up. I was thankful my train was in Hall 1 (Ground Floor upon entry).
Travelling to & staying at Amiens is firstly for the train runs through it, has more accommodation available & is a bigger city than the village of Villers-Bretonneux (closer to the war section I am preferring to see). For my accommodation I selected La Pléiade Dorée from my Booking.com provider at my Genius Level rate. Travelling to the war locations I wanted to see involves a bit of hardship + hiring a car is a bit risky for me & to firstly obtain one, so I booked the best war tour available through Tripadvisor for a full day. It wasn’t cheap but goes for 8hrs & includes a private vehicle with a guide.
My WW1 Tour is an extra special day thought about long ago. It is about a ‘promise’ I secretly made to myself to visit the war area surrounding Villers-Bretonneux & The General Sir John Monash War Memorial just out of town. The promise came about when I was trying to organise a trip in 2017 for the 2018 opening of the underground War Museum at The General Sir John Monash War Memorial with my youngest brother, Rod but I won’t go into why he couldn’t agree to go, but it wasn’t his decision not to. Not long after my first planning of this trip & discussing it with him Rod suddenly passed away (at only 54). Rod was an avid reader of books on WW1 & knew a lot more than I on the subject. After he passed away, I made that promise to myself to take him with me .. much like I’ve done on every trip since 2017.
Our greatest ever Australian, General Sir John Monash who landed on Day 1 at Gallipoli 25th April 1915 & through his efforts & strategies saved countless lives & later ensured the safest retreat from the bloodbath of Gallipoli & in 1918 took control of the whole alliance armed forces of countries (England, USA, Canada, NZ & other countries) in an orchestrated front to defeat the German army. He was the only one to ever achieve that chief honour of such a combined force. Only cruel politics & jealousy kept him from being rightly called Field Marshall, for he was born in Melbourne of German Jew parents & as he grew always called Australia his country despite his heritage. He designed & constructed several rail bridges & the electricity network & brought concrete to Australia. A very famous Australian & forever remembered.
I am forever grateful for having the full day with my guide, Bridgitt on a Tripadvisor 8hr tour – Australian Battlefields Tour. She totally looked after me & spoke wonderful English & had supreme knowledge of the war & more recent history of the region. Totally blessed. The tour was well worth the money plus I added a good tip of €s too for driving me all the way back to my apartment.
Barcelona – Spain
My timetable & the rail timetable had me forced to stay overnight in Paris, back at Garde du Nord & then onto a hotel (Tim Hotel) near my departure point of Garde de Lyon for an early 3.5hr bullet train to Barcelona.
Almost every day my breath has been taken away in seeing such amazing sights but to see the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia is beyond any senses & imagination. I was just in awe of its magnificence & to know just one genius Antoni Gaudi at 31yrs old of age designed & engineered this amazing structure before my eyes. Beyond words & comprehension. I bought a booklet in their museum to grasp the many details, etc in this basilica.
How can anyone design the engineering, physics & still get the construction right when it comes to geological construction. If this is not the paramount of human design/ construction on earth I don’t know what is (forget the pyramids, Great Wall of China, etc). I hope you can get a grasp of this basilica, inside & out. The stats are beyond comprehension; there will be 20 towers when completed & with the central tower (under construction will reach 172.5m high, named Tower of Jesus Christ) & the 2nd highest tower, St Mary’s Tower at 138.5m high. 12 of the towers will represent the 12 apostles. I was able to take the tower lift option located within St Mary’s Tower & that is high!!! For a great city viewing & you are welcomed to exit by taking the spiral stone staircase all the way down, to which I did gracefully & carefully. June 2026 this basilica will be completed, making it the tallest church in the world & an observation platform showing 360 for the public within the Tower of Jesus Cross, recently installed.
Gaudi was killed by a tram in 1926 after leaving the basilica where he spent most of his life on-site. His funeral was massive & is body buried next the main altar in The Crypt below the main floor. Through other architects, engineers & sculptors he commissioned & trained carried on his innovative project. The Tower of Jesus with its upper arm of the 56-ft-tall four-armed cross, installed in late March 2026, making it the tallest church in the world & providing a full 360° view of Barcelona city. The cross was built in Germany using white enameled ceramic tiles, stone interior and glass that were made in the Spanish region of Catalonia. It was then transported in parts back to Barcelona by ferry and trucks and finally assembled at the church with precision crane work.
The outside of the basilica is fully biblical, with statues, symbols, nature & about everything else whereas the internal of the basilica is dedicated to light & peace & the stone columns representing trees of life. The colours of life (blue, yellow & green, etc) occur through the glass windows every morning & then changes to red/ orange for the setting sun. Every night, since the Cross installation the basilica has an amazing light show.
Barcelona is a must-see city & there is a lot to see but the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia totally did it for me. Blogs 14 & 15.
Lisbon – Portugal
I had a short flight into Lisbon from Barcelona & took a city bus into the Restauradores (CBD of the historic area). Not a great deal to see in this city however taking a full day bus tour to Sintra, Pena, Regaleira, Cabo Roca Coast & Cascais plus the additional Full Pena Palace and Regaleira really made this stay worthwhile. I was really surprised of what this day uncovered & was well worth the expenditure. Blog #18
Dublin – Ireland
A 3hr flight from beautiful sunny & mild Autumn of Portugal to the usual Dublin windy, rainy 11°C was not fun. Best to get the Dublin Express bus that takes you into the city for 30mins trip at €10. I did a very average walking city tour the next morning for 2hrs, but I’m sure there must be better ones so do your research. The Guinness Brewery Tour for ($52AUD) was well worth the long afternoon tour. Once you find the entrance, the facility is a great experience venturing up to the 7th Floor Guinness Gravity Bar for your free Guinness pint & mingling with a hundred or so thirsty drinkers & a great view of the city of the weather is fine. The history & statistics will blow your mind. 4hrs of free roaming can be over in just ‘minutes’.
The next day was my Walking Pub Tour & I wished I had done this before the city walking tour. Kevin Adams was an amazing guide with so much knowledge & he also does food tours http://www.walkingfoodtours.ie. There are 798 pubs in Dublin alone. He told us The Brazen Head on Liffeyside Bridge St is Dublin’s oldest pub where it started beer moonshining in 1198 & now on the same site the pub was built in 1754. Smithwick’s (Irish Red Ale) is traced back to 1710 as the first official beer produced in Dublin by John Smithwick’s Brewery at St Francis Abbey (Kilkenny) adding on to the same beer produced by the then monks. Pls read my respective blog of this tour to learn some old sayings of drinking & how they came about. So funny & forever in my memory. Blogs 20 & 21.
Bristol – UK
Leaving Dublin was easy for me being close to the River Liffey where I walked over in the dark to the Custom House bus stop (800m) for the Dublin Express to Dublin T2 (€10, booked online for 4.05am) for 06.35am – 07.55 BA (British Airways) on Aer Lingus flight to Bristol Airport, UK (1.5hrs) to stay with my married friends my eldest son & I met doing the Machu Picchu 4day Trek in Peru in 2019. This is where my ETA came into play (new entry tax for Britain).
David picked me up at this small airport & for the next few days, saw lots of Bristol & Bath which were quite surprising & enjoyable & had lots of Roman buildings & infrastructure plus the famous Roman Baths. Sue really looked after me & David at times had soccer commitments. I finally got to inspect the last operational Concorde aircraft jet where my last opportunity was missed back in 1986. Despite staying with great friends my blogs had plenty of info & photos. Sue managed to get me to my train after a 4day stay for London too which was amazing & so thoughtful. Such treasured memories with great friends.
London – UK
The train trip was such a breeze from Bristol (1hr 40mins) to Paddington Station (a very busy station) & it was just a simple 15mins walk to my Thistle Hyde Park Kensington Hotel on Bayswater Rd aligned with Hyde Park. The walk had a mixture of shops, apartments, pubs & basically everything else of a busy suburb. A great location.
Hyde Park is a fantastic green space & HUGE!!!! Kensington is a great suburb & rather close to most of Westminster CBD landmarks & then onto London CBD. Quite a few blogs on this major world city & our birthplace of Australia. Lots of photos & of course I was aligned to not seeing everything. No use writing more as you need to read my blogs. London was brilliant but had to watch the British Pounds against my poor AUD. So much history & architecture.
Home – Australia
I took an iconic taxicab to Paddington Station. The driver was a pleasant surprise to experience a real taxi driver & cab. Without a hassle I caught the 4.30am direct train to Heathrow Airport T2/ T3 platform. At this terminal stop I must disembark but stay on this platform as per the platform announcement & digital signage for the next train in 5mins that took me to my required Terminal 4. So easy.
After my 5day stay in London I was back onto the long-haul flights back to Brisbane & then more travelling to my birthplace of Grafton, then to my new home of Yamba (40mins bus). All in all, my travelling time getting home was in total (allowing for layovers, hotel stay & waiting times) at 44hrs 20mins. 37hrs directly associated with travel & all of a sudden, it hit me … I had just completed Europe Stage 1 & saw so many things I thought were out of my reach in life. At some point I’ll be focussing on doing Europe Stage 2 asap. I quickly reviewed my Polarsteps App of all my Europe blogs & ordered 2 large volumes of my blogs & photos (high volume of writing & photos) & they arrived quickly & are such a blessing to review them to prove I did this tour.
I’ll finish this summary blog now, so please stay safe, happy & healthy & my usual quote I used to put at my endings follows.
Eckart Tolle – “If I am not the hero in my life .. who the hell could it be”? Ciao for now. Stay safe, happy & healthy.
BH Life Travels 