Traveling can be a slow, planned out, highly organized affair. It might involve an itinerary – “3 days in Paris, 4 days in Italy, 3 days in London” and a roster of flights and transfers meticulously pre-planned.
Or, it can be an all-out runaround.
Our last trip to London went something like this. Hotly immersed in work and work travel, we had little time to devote to our ever-immediate vacation in Europe (which we hate in its catch-all reference but use for lack of another term except maybe, E.U.) There was a dust cloud over Western Europe and an imminent strike by British Airways which blossomed profoundly on our day of travel, negating a set of flights booked in and out of Berlin. Thus we were left with LAX <--> LHR roundtrips and one hotel booked for a night in Berlin but nothing for the remaining week and a half.
It may have been jetlag, or a British candy bar sugar high, or a cocoon of oppressive denial but we weren’t worrying the slightest. “Let’s just book and go.” So we set to the task of booking new Berlin flights, hopping into our hotel and asking ourselves “where next?” Fueled by regional air carriers, a bit of train travel, and the guidance of Tablet, we checked into Straf in Milan, Galeria Del Arte in Florence, and Hazlitt’s in London.
It was off-the-cuff, fast and rushed with no small amount of optimism, but it was our most successful “Europe” trip yet. So the next time your travel plans are thwarted by a dust cloud, a strike, a hurricane, or a petulantly low stamp of fog, we advise: Book and go.