A Tale of Two Tempos

Three years ago, when Beth and I travelled to Europe the first time, it was a fast paced affair.  In most places we stayed no more than one or two days - most of our schedule was planned in advance, so much so that I created a detailed calendar to keep track of our daily movements.  The benefit of such an approach was that we saw many, many different places in the span of those six weeks. The disadvantage was that we seldom had more than a quick taste of each particular place, and our vacation was far from relaxing.

Beth said, even as we were touring about Europe last time, that if we ever made it back here we would do our trip differently - hence a very different feeling at the beginning of our adventure this time. This time we have very little planned in advance - in fact the only thing we booked prior to our arriving was our accommodations, beyond that the schedule is a blank slate.  Also the shortest time we will be spending in any one place is five days (not counting some day trips we will likely take).  It is our hope that this will give us a more in-depth experience of each place, and that it will be more relaxed (and less stressful) of an trip overall.

One of the strategies for this trip was to book an apartment (or since we're in England right now, a flat) in each of the four primary places we are staying (London, Oxford, Paris and Prague).  Such an approach is beneficial in many ways, three significant ways are:
1) we would be able to settle in somewhat in each place, less feeling like we are living out of suitcases.  Once in a location we could simply take the things we needed for each excursion, rather than lugging our luggage everywhere.
2) this is a more economical approach. If we had to rely on hotels at each location we would be booking a minimum of 2 rooms to fit our family of five. The accommodations Beth was able to find over the internet are not only more economical, they are ultimately more spacious as well.
3) we will need to eat out less often. By booking places with kitchens we do not need to rely on restaurants (which not only is more costly, but also means you are at the mercy of the menu).  While we certainly plan on enjoying some of the local cuisine in each location we can be more selective in how that happens.

So that's the plan, and now that we've arrived and settled in to our flat in London - let the adventure begin in earnest (but at a relaxed tempo)!