Weddingbee Blog

Mr. Biscuit and I have yet to book our honeymoon. I know, I know, we have less than three months and we should get on that. I assure you, we’re working on it. We’ve had some trouble with the itinerary.

I’ve done some traveling in my 24 years, and I have a firm knowledge of what I like and what I don’t like in a vacation. I’m one of those people who loves Disney World or even—gasp!—cruises. There’s always something going on and something to do. I really don’t like laying around on a beach all day and have a hard time justifying paying thousands of dollars to vacation on an exotic beach.

I’ve also been to a few tropical-ish places. Hawaii? Check. The Caribbean? Check, multiple times. They were nice, but they just weren’t places I’d want to spend a huge chunk of money on for a nice vacation.

Mr. Biscuit didn’t really have any input in the matter (as per usual), so all the decision making was up to me. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to get Mr. B out of the time zone, because, well, he’s never been out of the time zone. Never. He has traversed up and down the EST, but really, those lines are like asymptotes for him. He can approach CST, but never reach it.

Mr. B put me in charge of the honeymoon because of how much I traveled, which is kind of laughable.

He’s seen about 1% of the world, and I’ve seen MAYBE 2%. So, logically, it would make sense to put me in the pilot seat for planning, but really, neither of us are exactly jet setters.

We eventually decided we wanted to go to Europe. Mr. B has 2 weeks he can take off of work, and our wedding is right at the beginning of my 4 week summer vacation, so really, I’ve got nothing but time after our day. And how fun would it be for Mr. B to be totally immersed in a new culture and a new time zone all at once?

Now comes the tough part, though. Where do we go in Europe? Originally, we found this awesome cruise for an incredibly fair price that started in Barcelona and took us to France, Monaco, and Italy. But then I thought about how much extra traveling we’d have to do to see anything. And I also thought about all of the extra cost we’d incur. On one cruise, I decided I wanted a daiquiri in a monkey. I ordered it, and I’m pretty sure it was non-alcoholic because I’m sure the cruise guy thought I was five, and I drank the whole thing quickly and felt nothing. How much was the non-alcoholic monkey? Sixteen bucks. Ouch.

super expensive monkey

I had thought about possible retracing steps from a vacation I took a few years ago in Italy, and throwing in some hiking in the Dolomites, but I knew Mr. B was excited to eat tapas in Spain. I still really wanted to go back to Italy, though, because I thought the food there was amaze-balls (a technical term).

me want food (in Rome)!

But Spain and Italy are rather far away, and I didn’t want to spend my honeymoon chilling on the Eurail or in an airport.

I was about to throw in the towel and book a trip to Disney World where we could see the whole darned world in an hour, when my very generous grandmother insisted on buying us first class Eurail passes, so that we could take night trains in style.

So, while our itinerary isn’t booked yet, I do have an idea of what I want now. We aren’t going to spend much time in any one place, but we will definitely glaze over the continent of Europe, and it will be awesome.

Here’s the Biscuit Whirlwind Tour (or, around part of Europe in 13 days):

1) Fly into Rome. Stay for two nights (since I know my way around Rome, I know how to see most of it in a short amount of time–or at least, what to skip).

2) Train to Florence. Stay for 3 nights–side trips to good wine tasting. I want good food and wine on this trip. The end.

3) Night train to Paris (via Milan). Stay in Paris one or two nights–because it’s wicked expensive. Possibly take side trip to England or Belgium and extend stay.

4) If we don’t go to England/Belgium, we’ll head to Nice for a few days to get our beach in.

5) If we do go to England or Belgium, we’ll go back to Paris and night train it to Barcelona. We’ll spend the rest of our time there (hopefully with day trips to hike some).

6) Fly out of Barcelona and laugh when Mr. Biscuit is jet-lagged for work on Monday since he is SURE that he won’t be. Sigh. Boys.

I know this trip is kind of crazy, but we’re young and we like things fast paced. We’re hoping to cut overnight costs with our night trains, but we don’t need to stay anywhere particularly nice. Our only caveat is that we must have a private bathroom wherever we stay. As for flights, we’ll get at least one for free because of the points my parents have accumulated (thanks Mom and Dad!).

Anyone else take a whirlwind tour for their honeymoon? Anyone have some suggestions about where to go and what to see?