Our two week journey started in Valletta, Malta, then had us on to Zurich, Switzerland, Vaduz in Liechtenstein, Innsbruck and Salzburg in Austria, back to Budapest in Hungary, Bratislava in Slovakia, and finally a short stay in Vienna, Austria before flying back to Japan.
It has been about four years since we’ve made a trip to Europe, mainly because of the impact of COVID on international travel. In 2020 we had tickets to Moldova, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Bulgaria – all of which were cancelled due to the pandemic. It was a matter of years before we got our money back – some as cash and some as credit, and so we have been really looking forward to another attempt. Obviously Ukraine was out (this time) and so I cooked up an idea for a trip that would take us to some smaller countries that we’ve been wanting to see, that would keep us in the Swiss and Austrian alps to avoid the summer heat, give us a chance to see our friends in Zurich, and also finally get to Slovakia.
We expected that there would be lots of changes after three years of pandemic, but in the end things were much the same as they were before COVID, and in some ways it was even easier to travel in the age of eSIMs and cashless payments. There were no head injuries this time, and the biggest troubles we had were dealing with a very hot summer and my own personal struggles to understand tipping customs in each city.
We’ve never had a bad visit to Europe and this one was a lot of fun – we were tired out but full of great memories and stories. The purpose of what you’re reading here is to keep those memories alive for us down the road.
So following (from oldest below to newest at the top) are the travel events and our thoughts from each day of the two week trip. Happy reading!
