travel contemplations

[jay]

Next September I'm planning to cross the Atlantic for some field work -- helping ground-truth drilling at the anaerobic Mars analog site at Rio Tinto, in Andalusia, Spain. And a stop in Madrid. Okay, good, I haven't been to Spain and the site's of great scientific interest... lots of archaea, rivers with pH <1.0, etc.

(contemplates minnaleigh's tribulations, lately)

Anyway, I'm also a co-author on a vehicle health management paper that's been accepted to the International Astronautical Congress, which will be 29 Sept - 3 Oct in Bremen, Germany. The following week, as it happens, so I'm going to try to combine them into one trip.

Nice! Paella and linzertorte in one trip. But... how to get from Madrid to Bremen? It's about 1400 miles... I'd have a rental car, and could drive it in two or three days. Perhaps Madrid-Andorra Friday, to Paris Saturday, Amsterdam Sunday and to Bremen by Monday afternoon. The paper isn't until Tuesday afternoon.

I could fly instead, or possibly get a rail pass... but I like road trips, and if I have anyone else with me, they can share my car for free (but would have to buy their own rail/air tickets otherwise). And in Germany I could drive 200 kph again... hmm. The easy thing would be to fly Madrid - Hamburg, but I'm still tempted to drive it over the weekend. Has anyone out there tried a similar drive across Europe? Is 20 hours total driving time reasonable?

Comments

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Oh I love Bremen.. used to spend ages there on day trips when I lived for a year in Wilhelmshaven, its only about an hour and a half by train so it was a good shopping place; lovely architecture, gorgeous cobbled streets, a great cd shop and my favourite ice cream stall. Yep, Bremen is cool :) Forest & I want to honeymoon in Germany next year and Bremen is high on the list of places to show him.
I mainly travelled by train round Europe that year, but I think the drive you're proposing sounds a bit too ambitious, especially the leg between Amsterdam and Bremen, I've (been) driven at least some of that and the motorways are dull dull DULL, seriously tedious scenery, just flat roads and flat scenery. Not good. Were it me I'd compromise, spend time in Madrid, get a flight to somewhere like Dusseldorf and then drive from there to Bremen, so you get to do the German driving but its nice scenery and you can take a bit more time. And have chance to enjoy Bremen properly... But I'm sure other people have more experience of driving such a route.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Wilhelmshaven... looks like it is only 50 km or so away, not far with a rental car. I'll ask you later about the whereabouts of that stall ;-)

I'd have a week in Bremen... possibly joined there by patgreene if I can find childcare. I've visited Germany before, but mostly from Frankfurt-Berlin southward into Bavaria, never to the Baltic regions. And driving west from Amsterdam is dull, agreed!

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Ohmigosh, I lived in Andalucia for four years and LOVED it. Yes, try paella, but also get pinchitos and churros from roadside stands, and eat gazpacho, and see castles, and go to Jerez (pronounced "her-ETH") for wine and/or olives, and and and... *envy*

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Don't bother with Wilhelmshaven though, its a dump. Got bombed all to hell in the war and rebuilt rather hastily, lots of very ugly 1950s architecture. Some lovely parks mind you, but not a patch on many other places in Germany.

Ice cream stall in Bremen... lets see, the main shopping centre, if you walk up the main road with the trams from the cathedral, its on your right, ice cream place is in through the doors, ground floor, the big waffle cones are the best bet :> And JVC is a great place for music cds, or used ot be ten years ago which is when I was last there! lol

Hope she can join you, there's lots of nice places to explore in the nearby area - Hannover is only a couple of hours drive and is one of my favourite cities, and its not far from teh Hartz mountains, a good place for scenery (though not as impressive as the Bavarian regions, obvioulsy). Northern Germany has a lot to offer :)

::sigh:: making myself homesick now... I lived a whole year out there, and some of that time was very miserable but I have lots of good memories too.

[geekchick]

You'll be amused to note that my supervisor in my review today recommended that I take a trip to Spain. ;) No, really! I'll get you the exact wording on Monday when I'm near my copy of his comments again. *laugh*