Grand European tour

[Jonney]

we are expecting number 2 kiddy in a couple of weeks and are planning on taking advantage of the new shared maternity leave by talking 2 months off next year from mid April to mid June. 2 adults, an 8 month old, 2 year old and dog.

The rough plan is:
Sail to Bilbao
Drive across to Barcelona
Ferry from Barcelona to Sardinia
Ferry Sardinia to Italy/Sicily
Ferry Sicily to Greece
Drive Greece to Croatia to Austria, Germany then home

I am looking for book suggestions to read to prep for the journey or on the journey that will help get into the places we are going. I'm not looking for guidebooks (they are really dry) but for fiction or non fiction where you can get a really good feel for a place..... It's a bit difficult to explain....but does anyone have any ideas?

 

[Ajspicer]

Wow, that sounds exciting, we are thinking of something similar as we have a three year old and one on the way in September. Polly will be off for a year on maternity leave for a year and my work offers unpaid leave which presents options.

 

[Californiaman]

We did a similar route a few years ago but on a motorcycle so a completely different experience (and in only two weeks) if doing it in the California, I would aim to spend more time in the mountainous regions and less in the flat bits!

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[bvddobb]

I am looking for book suggestions to read to prep for the journey or on the journey that will help get into the places we are going. I'm not looking for guidebooks (they are really dry) but for fiction or non fiction where you can get a really good feel for a place..... It's a bit difficult to explain....but does anyone have any ideas?

I like that... That's how I prepare as well for longer, bigger trips!

Just from the top of my mind, some ideas:

• Bilbao to Barcelona: read up anything on the Spanish Civil War. Why not Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls"? Or the famous trilogy by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
• Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, Greece: immediately Lord Byron and Garibaldi spring to mind. Read up on them. You could have the various 'lieux de memoire' of their travels as a rough guideline for your route.
• Croatia, Italy, Austria: you could read up on WW1 for those areas. Again Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms), or Ippolito Nievo (Le Confessioni d'un Italiano). If you come to the Venezia area: the comics of Corto maltese, or the Donna Leon thrillers.
• For Germany: watch the Heimat and Die Zweite Heimat film series by Edgar Reitz.

Have fun!