Pretend Trips

I love to travel. It is my hobby, my passion, what have you, and nothing really gets the juices flowing as when I get to choose a vacation destination and plan the itinerary.

Not all of these trips come to pass. Some (Prague-Vienna-Budapest) were chosen too soon..meaning that we had other places to see first.
Some (Italy) get pushed back a year here, divided into two trips there, and get re-worked every couple of months. I've got a Northern Italy week, a Southern Italy week, and a Tuscany week all planned and ready to go. Oh, a week in Rome as well.
I just need to book a flight and hotel and I'm set.


The latest pretend trip:
Amsterdam-Cologne-Antwerp-Brussels
Short version...we might go to Europe in the fall. We love Amsterdam, never been to Cologne, need to buy a diamond in Antwerp (and see it again), and fly out of Brussels.

I've planned 10 nights. That's about as long as we can take being away from home.

1:Arrive in Amsterdam, late morning, early afternoon. Jet Lag day. Visit a Coffeeshop, Red Light district, wander the old city. Stay awake until normal sleep time.

2:Relaxing day.
Amsterdam Historical Museum/Bejinhof--2 hours
Wander along the canals, pancake house for lunch.
Leidseplein, Jordaan...
Van Gogh Museum
Indonesian dinner

3: Day trip day.
The Hague-Mauritshaus, Panorama, knights Hall, Peace Palace
Delft-wander and dinner


4:Amsterdam free day
The wife will get some say on this day.

5:Amsterdam to Cologne train. 3 hours
Explore city center, cathedral, Roman museum

6:Cologne. Rhine river cruise to koblenz, train back (or train TO koblenz, Rhine cruise downriver back to cologne)

7: Cologne to Antwerp
Explore old town center, waffles, frites, mussels.
8: Diamond shopping in Antwerp. Stay in old town.

9: Day trip to Brugges, stop off in Ghent for 1 hour, along the way.
Do the Brugge thing: canals, churches, lace, wander...
Back in Antwerp at night.

10th and final day and night:
Antwerp-Train to Brussels. The plan is to stay at the airport Sheraton.
Get in around noon...head into town. Play in Brussels all day.

Fly home in the morning.

This is a tentative plan. When dates get finalized, I'll be able to fine tune and shuffle activities as needed...museums are closed on certain days, etc...
Since we've already been to Antwerp, Brussels and Amsterdam, some of the major sites have been kept off of the itinerary.
I'll also gather a list of restaurants that I want to hit, and we'll probably get to half of them. That's usually how that works out.

So there you have it. A fake-planned trip. We have plenty of free time on this journey and we won't suffer any burn-out on the museum/cathedral sightseeing.