World Travellers

Hurry up and take the train with me as we are not going to get delayed!! Ryanair as always will be the cheapest airline to fly to anywhere within Europe, flying to Paris will be always the easiest thing to do and you can reach the city from Spain, Italy, Germany, UK, Ireland and Sweden.

In case you come from abroad, check any route that guides you to any of the mentioned countries above. After that, for 20 euros you will be able to make the round trip to Paris with Ryanair. If you come from the US, remember that the airline that flies cheaper from Florida is Alitalia. It lands in Milan and then you can take a flight to Paris. If you jump from New York, remember about the existence of Zoom Airlines that will bring you to London for about 350 euros round trip everything included. After that you will need to find an alternative airline to Paris as Ryanair does not cover this route.

The route is going to make a circle around the zone, so if you come from a zone that is very near to one of the intermediate points, you can of course begin and end at that point, it does not need to be Paris.

Paris, Paris… The city of love they say, romance is in the air, beautiful avenues, and the Eiffel tower that you can see from nearly everywhere in the city. Few buildings have gained the prestige that Eiffel has, and certainly it needs quite a crazy head and a loosen imagination to create such a structure.

There we go, and after turning from Eiffel tower, we should take a look at the Louvre Museum. Many part of our history is there, don’t miss any details inside. The cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris, will be difficult to ever forget. Is not only a very important point in the history of a country, but also a reference for art and culture.

A complete different style will be encountered at the Montmartre, an architectural design with some kind of Eastern look. It is basically a church, and you can see it also from everywhere in the city.

Also you need to walk under the Arc de Triomphe, walk along the river Seine, visit de Orsay Museum, admire the castle of Versailles and take your loved ones for a walk at Champs Elysées, as they say it is the most romantic avenue in the world. Judge by yourself!

Thousands of things to do in Paris, even a quick visit (from the outside!) to Moulin Rouge to remember about the film… In any case, after spending at least 2 days in Paris, let’s move forward in our route, a bit more quickly after the first impressions with the capital. From Paris we will take a train to Rennes, visiting La Place de la Mairie, while passing by Granville on the route.

After Rennes, head in direction to St Malo. This old city offers specially the Intra-Muros, the old remainings of the walled city. Picturesque, full of narrow streets typical of any European old medium size city. It is also an obligation a visit to Saint Vincent’s Cathedral and the Mont Saint Michel.

Let’s get back then to Rennes, do another train excursion to Saint Michel, Pontorson and Caen, and finally get back to Paris to point now to the Benelux region. For the travelers with less time, this is the opportunity to take the flight back home. For the rest, let’s go on.

From Paris, we should head this time to Lille. As a tourism destination it has gained some good reputation, offering a very good selection of restaurants and hotels. To go sightseeing, the Place du General de Gaulle and Vielle Bourse are two main points to take a look at. The Palace of Arts should be a must and the several churches that you can encounter will surely impress you.

Time to enter Belgium now, heading to Brugge. Of course, the cathedral is not something you can avoid. Even if you don’t want to see it, it simply will be there waiting for you. The Belfry Tower can be a good sightseeing opportunity and, of course, enjoy all the canals and bridges: they are simply unique.

Now you should take the train to Gent. Visit the Cathedral, walk by the Canal and take a look at the Castle of Counts. Following with the route, now we end up at the capital, Brussels. I highly encourage you to walk the city with your eyes very open as it offers many of its better opportunities simply by crossing streets here and there. Beautiful city by itself, the Grand Palace should take a bit of your time, as well as the Atomium and the Heyzel area in general. Manneken Pis is also very famous. Make a choice of museums, and take special attention to parks and gardens. Sincerely, some of the best in Europe.

After 1 or 2 days in the capital of Belgium, we should move back to Gent and take a train straight on to the other capital, Amsterdam, in Holland. Anne Frank House is a must, look again at the Canals, Bridges and Houseboats (impressive to see this last ones), the Rijksmuseum will also impress, and Red Light District (don’t bring the kids there!) for all the barely legal activities.

After this beautiful canals city (that one day will be underwater, by the way), I would head back to Brussels. If you have the time you could visit Haarlme but you won’t get killed if you don’t. Passing by Brussels, take now the train to Luxemburg, one of the smallest countries in Europe, where the only thing you will visit is the city under the same name, Luxemburg.

The Notre Dame Cathedral and the Grand Ducal Palace are two of the main hot spots. In any case, small but not less important, Luxemburg is considered an interesting city to visit. Take a close look to the bridges and it also offers some good museums.

From Luxemburg to Metz Ville, and from there to Strasbourg, again in France. Don’t miss the impressive Cathedral! Finally, a quick ride to Narbonne, and then to Perpignan. Move on to Toulousse, where a visit to Agustins Museum and Jacobins Church is high priority. Now it is time to take the final trains heading to Paris, going first to Poitiers, from Poitiers to Tours, with impressive churches and castles, and from Tours back to Paris.

End of the trip!

By: Dani Alonso

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