As I wrote in my previous article (I’m currently on a leave of absence, but don’t worry), I happened to have a chance to travel to Europe for the first time in a long time ✈️. I had an acquaintance who was going to be in the Netherlands for a few months on business, and although the Corona situation was still smoldering and there were signs of unrest over the Ukraine issue, I decided to take the plunge and plan a trip to visit the Netherlands and other countries in the area.
After all, in the midst of the Corona Disaster, our country has been in a state of semi-isolation for the past few years, and I myself have not been abroad since my trip to New Zealand🇳🇿 during the 2018 holiday season and Taiwan🇹🇼 in spring 2019 This will be my first tour. However, since this opportunity came along, I wanted to make the most of it as much as possible. Since this would be my first long-haul trip in a while, I thought that a flight via Dubai on Emirates Airline would be convenient considering the round-trip flight time, transit points, and other conditions, and considering the continuous flight time. Therefore, before deciding on the details of the itinerary, we decided on the round-trip flights and a total schedule of 21 days, departing on Thursday, June 23 and returning on Wednesday, July 13.
As I wrote in another article (my first overseas tour as a student), I had traveled to Europe for almost a month during my last summer vacation as a dental student, but it had been almost half a century since I was a young man in my 20s, and there was a risk that I might not enjoy the trip itself if I physically pushed myself too hard. Therefore, I chose business class because the flight time to and from Dubai, the transit point between Kansai International Airport Dubai and Amsterdam, was less than 10 hours, and although somewhat extravagant, I still considered maintaining my physical condition first and foremost.
First, we entered The Hague, the Netherlands, where an acquaintance of mine is stationed, and stayed there for three nights. I boldly planned a five-night stay in Paris, the city of flowers. From there, we got even greedier and planned three nights in Geneva, Switzerland🇨🇭, three nights in Lyon in the south of France, and then back to the Netherlands for two nights around Amsterdam, where our flight home was departing, for a total of 18 nights.
However, while I intend to report on the details later in this article, the first half of this trip was really a series of unbelievable happenings and troubles. After five nights in Paris, my tank of motivation to explore new destinations in Switzerland and the south of France had completely bottomed out, and I decided that I should avoid any further exertion.
So we hastily canceled our hotels in Geneva and Lyon, and after leaving Paris, we decided to return to The Hague in the Netherlands, near where our return flight departed and where our acquaintance was staying, and spend the rest of the day in the surrounding area.
However, even on the local bullet train (Thalys) from Paris to Rotterdam, I was caught in an unexpected incident that made me nervous.
So, my first long-term trip to Europe in a long time was a real series of episodes, due to the situation at home and abroad, the fact that I personally had been away from overseas travel for a while, and also due to multiple coincidences of happenings, all of which, when confronted, seemed to be stuck and even unsolvable. However, it was a series of tightrope-walking situations that we managed to get through due to a series of coincidences and encounters that seemed almost miraculous.
Despite the turmoil, however, I was able to see what I needed to see in each of the places I visited, and I think I was able to visit places that were worth visiting. Perhaps one of the reasons is that we had more time in our itinerary this time than in any of our previous overseas tours.
In the midst of all this commotion, we have managed to complete our entire schedule and are about to embark on our final night in Europe.
I will summarize the individual episodes and happenings in a bit.
