What to do?
OK, so here's a problem I'm sure most people wouldn't mind having. I've got a few weeks of vacation to use before I go home, and it's a use-it-or-lose-it situation so I don't want to leave any of it unused. We'll probably use some at the end and maybe some around the time of the move, but that still leaves at least one week for a last trip.
Our initial thinking had been a decadent blowout somewhere warm like the Maldives, but in addition to being ridiculously expensive, our recent experience with Baby in Arosa made a 10-hour flight with jet lag sound much less relaxing.
So now we're thinking something closer to home (i.e., direct flight from Basel or Zurich). I'm even leaning towards trying to do two cities in a week, although Gretchen isn't so sure (it's our division of labor...Gretchen reminding me it's not always easy with Baby since she does 99.999% of the work, and me trying to push us to do as much as we can). Gretchen, in turn, is thinking an easy drive somewhere might be best. The key thing is that wherever we go, we want (1) easy travels from point A to point B; and (2) to stay in a nice enough place that we're comfortable hanging out when Baby's sleeping, we can order room service when she goes to bed early, and the walls are thick enough that her crying won't wake the entire hotel. It would be late February or early March, so the weather will probably not be great anywhere, but worse some places than others.
Anyway, I'm starting my research but here are the current options (in no particular order)...thoughts from those who have been to any of them about pluses/minuses?
BERLIN: The only one we've both been to, but Gretchen hasn't been in over 5 years. Could take a day trip to Dresden. Love the energy. Weather would probably suck. Lots of luxury hotels to choose from.
EDINBURGH: Neither of us have been to Scotland. One of our admin assistants at work (not to mention the famous Ms Mac) is Scottish and I never tire of hearing "wee" in a non-humorous way. There are no direct flights, which could be a problem.
ATHENS: Neither of us has been to Greece. Charter flights to the Greek Isles haven't started yet, so Athens is basically our only option and we don't really know anything at all about it--is it basically just a stopping-off point on the way to better places where you don't want to be hauling a baby around, or is it a don't-miss? (It's all Greek to me! Oh, I kill myself sometimes...)
ISTANBUL: I was there briefly a year ago, Gretchen has never been. Something about it was really fascinating, but Gretchen's not totally sold on it (I think in part because of concerns about the possible need to breastfeed in public in a Muslim country where that might be frowned upon). There are some really nice luxury hotels.
LISBON: Neither of us have been there. Don't know much about it other than that friends who have been to Portugal really liked it. It's not really close to the other places we're looking at so the two cities thing probably wouldn't be an option.
STOCKHOLM: We've never been. The group I work with has 13 member countries, and Sweden is the only one I've never been to. I've heard people really rave about Stockholm, but I'm not sure that was after a visit in February/March--the potential for bad weather is definitely high.
HELSINKI: Another place we've never been. The language could be a source of endless laughs and bewilderment (sorry, TBF). We both hate saunas. We could go to Tallinn, Estonia, which is someplace I've wanted to see. The weather might even be worse than Stockholm.
Gretchen has also raised the possibility of driving to Northern Italy...it's no secret that we love love love Italy, but I dunno...seems like it might be kind of a drab time to be visiting the lakes.
Then there's the possibility of combining two cities. Stockholm-Helsinki? Athens-Istanbul? Berlin-Istanbul? Berlin-Stockholm?
So much to think about, but frankly it's a welcome change from thinking about the move...
Our initial thinking had been a decadent blowout somewhere warm like the Maldives, but in addition to being ridiculously expensive, our recent experience with Baby in Arosa made a 10-hour flight with jet lag sound much less relaxing.
So now we're thinking something closer to home (i.e., direct flight from Basel or Zurich). I'm even leaning towards trying to do two cities in a week, although Gretchen isn't so sure (it's our division of labor...Gretchen reminding me it's not always easy with Baby since she does 99.999% of the work, and me trying to push us to do as much as we can). Gretchen, in turn, is thinking an easy drive somewhere might be best. The key thing is that wherever we go, we want (1) easy travels from point A to point B; and (2) to stay in a nice enough place that we're comfortable hanging out when Baby's sleeping, we can order room service when she goes to bed early, and the walls are thick enough that her crying won't wake the entire hotel. It would be late February or early March, so the weather will probably not be great anywhere, but worse some places than others.
Anyway, I'm starting my research but here are the current options (in no particular order)...thoughts from those who have been to any of them about pluses/minuses?
BERLIN: The only one we've both been to, but Gretchen hasn't been in over 5 years. Could take a day trip to Dresden. Love the energy. Weather would probably suck. Lots of luxury hotels to choose from.
EDINBURGH: Neither of us have been to Scotland. One of our admin assistants at work (not to mention the famous Ms Mac) is Scottish and I never tire of hearing "wee" in a non-humorous way. There are no direct flights, which could be a problem.
ATHENS: Neither of us has been to Greece. Charter flights to the Greek Isles haven't started yet, so Athens is basically our only option and we don't really know anything at all about it--is it basically just a stopping-off point on the way to better places where you don't want to be hauling a baby around, or is it a don't-miss? (It's all Greek to me! Oh, I kill myself sometimes...)
ISTANBUL: I was there briefly a year ago, Gretchen has never been. Something about it was really fascinating, but Gretchen's not totally sold on it (I think in part because of concerns about the possible need to breastfeed in public in a Muslim country where that might be frowned upon). There are some really nice luxury hotels.
LISBON: Neither of us have been there. Don't know much about it other than that friends who have been to Portugal really liked it. It's not really close to the other places we're looking at so the two cities thing probably wouldn't be an option.
STOCKHOLM: We've never been. The group I work with has 13 member countries, and Sweden is the only one I've never been to. I've heard people really rave about Stockholm, but I'm not sure that was after a visit in February/March--the potential for bad weather is definitely high.
HELSINKI: Another place we've never been. The language could be a source of endless laughs and bewilderment (sorry, TBF). We both hate saunas. We could go to Tallinn, Estonia, which is someplace I've wanted to see. The weather might even be worse than Stockholm.
Gretchen has also raised the possibility of driving to Northern Italy...it's no secret that we love love love Italy, but I dunno...seems like it might be kind of a drab time to be visiting the lakes.
Then there's the possibility of combining two cities. Stockholm-Helsinki? Athens-Istanbul? Berlin-Istanbul? Berlin-Stockholm?
So much to think about, but frankly it's a welcome change from thinking about the move...
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