When we first started to talk about where we might first travel to, Hayley had spotted the Tulip Festival at the Keukenhof Gardens in the Netherlands. The time was right so we started Planning Our First Trip. With the festival taking place on the third weekend of the month, it would give us enough time to settle into our flat before embarking on our first excursion.
There was one step that we needed to take early on to ensure that our two dogs (Chevy & Sterling) would be cared for while we were away; find a house sitter. After some research, we decided to sign up with Trusted House Sitters. This is a membership that puts you in touch with others looking for a place to stay in return for caring for your pets and home.
We signed up, paid our annual membership and put up our first listing.
It took a couple of weeks, but we did find a match! After some messaging we connected on a video call and hit it off. Tanya was the perfect person to stay and care of the boys while we were away. Now that we had a sitter, it was time to start planning!
One of the biggest take aways from our first European trip in 2019 was planning the places we would stay around the train stations we would arrive at. We ended up doing a fair amount of extra commuting the first time (and by commuting, I mean walking). So we planned accordingly this time.
We first planned the flights and next the order of the cities we wanted to see.
Organizing so we got to spend more time in a city and less time on a train. Using searches on every one of our devices; laptop, iPad and both phones, we narrowed down our choices. hotels.com was the website we decided to use. There are so many to choose from. But we wanted to take advantage of their one free night for every 10 stays, so we scoured reviews and booked the rooms.
It was hard not to get caught up in the reviews.
The last two years have made it very hard to get accurate recounts of guests stays. They were mostly people angry that they had to cancel a trip, without having paid extra for cancelation insurance, then holding the hotel responsible for it.
However, we did the best that we could and tried to make the right choices. With all the nights booked, we used an app to book all the trains that would move us between cities. We had our entire trip planned and booked in a single day.
Now that the trip was planned and booked, we needed to prepare.
Amazon was used to order our travel supplies; EU chargers for our devices, hair dryer and toiletries. We had used only carry-on luggage during our last trip in 2019.
The only change was swapping our Pacsafe roller bags for backpacks. Yes, you have to carry a bag on your back, but it’s better than dragging a roller bag down two hundred plus years old cobblestone streets. We had a plan and now we had the gear.
A week before we were to leave, we met Tanya.
She came to Sheffield and spent a few hours with us and the dogs to learn a bit about them and the area we live in. It was apparent immediately that she wouldn’t have any worries with the boys; they loved her! We went for a walk and had some lunch out. We got to know each other better and we felt very sure that our dogs and flat were in very good hands.
Everything was set and our first adventure outside of the U.K. was just days away! We were ready for the Netherlands and Belgium!