Holiday Plans

My 'little' Brother is getting married in the Summer to a lovely lovely lady who was born in Lithuania.  She has some family living in the UK and also some in Lithuania.  As it is like a tenth of the cost to get married over there they have decided to get married in her home town of Radvilliskis (in the centre of the country just above the word 'Lithuania'):

The nearest airport is in Kaunas (about 2 hours away) which would leave us with the hassle of getting to the Town plus all the dresses, suits etc being flown over as excess baggage & heaven forbid they ended up on the wrong plane or left back in the UK.  Therefore we have decided to drive the 1,500 miles.  It can apparently be done in 2 days according to my Brother.  Well I am certainly not doing it in 2 days!  We are therefore making it a 3 week tour of Europe.

The planned route:

Day 1

Travel Day - Ferry from Dover to Dunkerque, (sailing Midday) drive through France & Belgium

5 hours drive, 2 hours on the ferry then 2 1/2 hours drive

Spend the night in Bruges, Belgium

Day 2

Bruges, Belgium

Day 3

Travel Day - Belgium & Holland

2 hours drive

hoping to see lots of these on the way:

Spend the night in Amsterdam, Holland

Day 4

Amsterdam, Holland

Day 5

Amsterdam, Holland

Day 6

Travel Day - Holland & Germany

5 hours drive

Spend the night in Hamburg, Germany

Day 7

Hamburg, Germany

Day 8

Travel Day - Across Germany to the port of Keil (sailing 4.30pm)

1 1/2 hour drive

Spend the night on the Ferry to Lithuania

Day 9

Travel Day - arrive in Klaipeda, Lithuania & drive to Radvilliskis

3 hour drive

Spend the night in Radvilliskis, Lithuania

Day 10

Radvilliskis, Lithuania

Day 11

Wedding Day

Radvilliskis, Lithuania

Day 12

Radvilliskis, Lithuania

Day 13

Travel Day - across Lithuania to the Capital Vilnius

3 hour drive

Spend the night in Vilnius, Lithuania

Day 14

Vilnius, Lithuania

Day 15

Travel Day - Across Lithuania to Neringa (Coastal town on the Baltic Sea)

3 hour drive

Yes this really is the beach!

Spend the night in Neringa, Lithuania

Day 16

Travel Day - Across Lithuania to the Port of Klaipeda (sailing 8pm)

1 hour drive

Spend the night on the Ferry to Sweden

Day 17

Travel Day - Arrive in Port of Karlshamn, Sweeden & travel to Denmark

2 hour drive

Spend night in Copenhagen, Denmark

Day 18

Copenhagen, Denmark

Day 19

Travel Day - Across Denmark

1 1/2 hour drive

Spend the night in Odense, Denmark

Day 20

Travel Day - Across Denmark 

1 1/2 hour drive

Quick stop here (sadly can't find a hotel here or we would have had an overnight stay):

Spend the night in Garde, Denmark

Day 21

A visit to the place where those little coloured bricks are made and the first theme park!

(However, it is dependant upon 2 little horrors behaving themselves)

30 mins away

Spend the night in Garde, Denmark

Day 22

Travel Day - Across Denmark to Port of Esbjerg (sail at 6.45pm)

1 hour drive

Spend the night on the Ferry to the UK

Day 23

Travel Day - Arrive in Harwich, then home

5 hour drive

Spend the night tucked up in my own little bed

This is the plan at the moment but it all is dependant on getting the ferries we need booked with the main one we may have trouble with being Esbjerg, Denmark to Harwich.  We can't do the trip the other way round as there are no ferries available from Harwich to Esbjerg on the dates we need to travel.

Most days are short drives with the largest being from home to Dover, Harwich to home and Amsterdam to Hamburg.  The first day will be the longest time but in 2009 we went to Bruges and were booked on the Midday ferry and actually got there early enough to travel on the 10am boat and were checking in to the hotel before 3pm UK time.  We plan on booking the Midday ferry this year but try to get the 10am one again.  There may not be spaces on a Summer ferry (we went the beginning of October last time) but we will just have a couple of hours in Dover if we have to wait.  

All the ferries sail early evening (earliest being 4.30 from Keil when we are staying 65 miles away in Hamburg) so there is no need to rush.  There is also plenty of sightseeing stop time available on travel days.  

We have thought about an extra night between Amsterdam and Hamburg but are unsure of where we could stop that has something of interest for 3 generations (kids who will be 8 & 9, my Dad (a grump pensioner) and me).   Any ideas?

Now I just need to save those little pennies up!

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