I had some takeaways from this trip, as I do with every trip I take someplace. Of course, the more you travel the fewer things you learn about how you travel since you have learned most things on previous trips and you use that knowledge every trip since.

On this trip there were a few new things I tried. Some were good, some were bad. With the bad, however, comes the knowledge of “been there, done that”; you try new things and some work while some don’t. Overall, it was a great time and I had a lot of fun.

Here are a few things I learned on this trip:

• Never EVER fly a long flight (I’d say 4+ hours) on a narrow-body plane. It is way too cramped and you cannot do laps to keep the blood flowing. Book only on a wide-body or jumbo jet.
• Along with that, I will try to get morning flights. I cannot sleep on a plane anyhoo so I can leave early morning and get to Europe in the evening. It’s just a long day.
• Let’s face it – flying intercontinental out of Kansas City is a big pain in the ass. I would suggest that you book a ticket complete from the Midwest. I bought tickets out of Boston (got a good price) but I had to fill in the blanks from KC. I found getting flights to match up to maximize time and minimize sitting around was a real challenge, leading to what amounted to was three extra days we spent commuting instead of seeing and doing. But, we got to see two extra countries (almost three but Oslo layover was cancelled) plus had an overnight layover in Copenhagen.
• The night train was challenging yet fun, but experience now tells me to book a sleeper berth next time.
• I am a “wing it” traveler. I just like to end up where I go and have freedom to change my trip. Planning and paying for the entire trip worked out good…except when it didn’t. When we had the train strike to deal with we found a good solution, but I think there is also such a thing as too much planning; you may not have many good options sometimes to save your trip if fully planned.
• Slow down even more. We crammed a lot in but we were not rushed, and we had lots of downtime, but I have been to cities more than once and still have not seen some things on my bucket list. Being in Europe twice before I have had busy trips and still saw things, but each trip has been a bit slower paced either by staying put more or not going as far. Some cities I have been to before I don’t need to visit again for a while and I will go see new places. It is now time to pick a few major areas to visit over a 2-3 week period to explore and see more of the surrounding areas. I have seen many places so I know where I want to focus my adventures.
• Hiking in a National Park in Ireland was incredible. I will start doing more of those hikes along with my countless hours and miles spent enjoying walking in the cities.
• Renting a car in Ireland is the best way to get around on the island and it is not that difficult. I do like the trains, but I think I will start renting more cars elsewhere while traveling so I can get out to see the towns and villages more.

Our total miles spent walking was 84.35 miles over the whole trip, and the hike in Killarney NP was nearly 11 miles on its own. We averaged somewhere around 6 miles per day every day. I cannot recall the exact number, but we drove the rental car several hundred miles in a big loop around Ireland. Three different airlines, 11 different flights, ten different airports.

This was a big trip but it was easily manageable. Lots of different things to see, foods to try, experiences to have. It was a fun trip.

That’s it for this post.

Shawn