INTRODUCTION

Introduction

At the beginning of April, I made the decision to leave work and have the longest break since becoming an architect in the late '80's. The reasons are not for this blog but the opportunity to travel was a key part of the decision. 

Initially my thought was to crisscross America; as many do, but experiencing large open spaces was not really what I was wanted to get out of my time travelling. Through work I have visited many European cities but normally by flying in, meeting and flying out without experiencing the 'sense of place' (an architectural euphemism; you may need to get use to these..). 

A journey through a number of countries, experiencing more of what differentiates one country from another seems to have more relevance to my understanding of the political and social cohesion of Europe when considering the change in populist politics occurring generally within Europe. 

Britain is currently racked with political division due to Brexit. I voted to remain but I am also a pragmatic realist. Britain will leave the EU sometime in the future and this trip will probably the last time I will be able to travel through boundaries without checks or, more importantly, being considered 'not one of us'. 

I am travelling through Europe at the exact time of the 75th anniversary of the D Day landings; surely the most potent expression of European and American cohesiveness and collective action to rid the world of radical extremism; in this case National Socialism. 

If this is not a reminder of why countries should join together in resolving current and future world affairs then nothing will.

That said, I only have a couple of months so I have had to limit my journey to the east of Europe. Sadly France, Italy, Spain, Portugal are not on my list of countries to visit, as I know these reasonably well. Neither are the far east countries that the European Song Contest seem to think are in Europe, such as Azerbaijan, Israel, Moldova (oh,and Australia...). 

The countries on the list are (in order):

The Netherlands,

Germany (north)

Denmark

Sweden

Estonia

Latvia

Lithuania

Poland

Slovakia

Hungary

Serbia

Austria

Germany (eastern side)

I wanted to visit Bucharest and Sophia but this was a journey too far; another time. Likewise being so close to St Petersburg when in Estonia and experiencing 'white nights' in June was so tempting but again just out of reach; another time.

In some countries I am staying in cities I have already briefly visited, such as Belgrade, Munich, Vilnius, Riga, Berlin and Stockholm. Other cities and towns I am intending to visit are Budapest, Bratislava, Warsaw and Vienna, Arnhem, Ystad, Bialystok, Krakow, Linz, Nuremberg and Dresden.

I don't pretend that I will return with an in-depth knowledge of each country visited but I hope to be more aware of the 'genius loci' (another euphemism) that defines the culture of places and countries.   

I will upload the proposed travel agenda and hope to meet friends and acquaintances along the way. I expect to write this as a personal log/blog, not assuming that anyone will be hugely interested in my travels. After all there are professional travel writers that do this for a living and are much better at it. 

My first item bought for the trip was naturally a road map. 

Google Maps is great but doesn't really give a sense of how to inter-connect places and physical environments; only snap shots of maps. But my car satnav works so I don't expect to get lost... only sometimes drive the wrong way.......