Hey guys, iCeD and I had this idea for an interncontinental meeting.

It's probably going to be the first of it's kind so we want to make it something special. We don't have an exact date but it'll be around the Netherlands, Germany and France during the summer of 2011.

I'll make sure to have some transportation by then and I'm sure some of you will have their drivers license and be able to rent a car. I just wanted to make this THE big one before all of us move on and forget about eachother.

It'll pretty much go like this, everyone has a whole year to save money, they book a ticket over to Amsterdam airport (Schiphol) we'll get a hostel in various different places (Europe isn't as big as you think it is, It's about a four hour drive to Paris from where I live so we can go crazy and stay in hostels everywhere.)

If there's any interest in this, just drop a line in this topic.


Peace.

who are allowed to come? if i had a year to save money for this, i'd be interested :P

Everyone who is in the community and speaks English and is old enough to travel without parental units.

Summer 2011? sounds interesting, my English is not that perfect but i don't think its that big problem, I have my own car and enough money to drive with it some km...

Sounds interesting! I'll keep it in mind over the course of the year.

*starts saving*

*Spends all saved money on new hardware*

Sounds like a great idea, I may consider coming should I have managed to somehow scrape enough money together by then.

I'll be there if I'm not off on a volcano somewhere.

Probably not interested in joining, but always up for a beer in one of the stops of the trip

Hello guys, a little update because I am trying to come up with a plan and I wanted to share with you a few ideas I had regarding location and the things we can do. So anyway, Europe. There's three countries I am trying to focus on now. iCeD still has to figure out in which month he'll be here exactly, so I don't really have any dates either. But we've got an entire year to prepare for this.


Over the following few posts I will set up a list of locations and things we can do/see there. (Beginning with my favorit one.)


Paris:

When in Paris there are several things we can do:

- Go to O Chateau for wine tasting.

It's located near the louvre and they offer wine tasting sessions and tours of a vinyard. You get to taste a select assortment of French wines and champagnes and get to hear about the process of wine making.
I know that some of you enjoy visiting museums and what not and I figured I'd include this for you. Of course, I made sure it's an educational trip all of us can enjoy.


- Take an authentic French cooking class.

Same as the above, the lessons range from 1 to 3 hours in length and you get a chance to prepare some interesting things and gain a little bit of knowledge about the French kitchen and the ingredients used.


- A bike tour of Paris.

You can rent bikes and get a map and drive around the city when the sun is setting and the lights around town come on. We can see different monuments and take a few stops here and there to enjoy a good wine or some food.


-Visit the Louvre.

The Musée du Louvre houses 35,000 works of art drawn from eight departments, displayed in over 60,000 square meters of exhibition space dedicated to the permanent collections. Among these works are the Mona Lisa by Da Vinci, The Rosetta stone, the Venus the Milo, Madonna of the rocks and many more classics.


- Notre Dame cathedral.

Free of charge and absolutely stunning, located in the heart of Paris. Popular from Victor Hugo's 'Hunchback of the Notre dame' and adorned with many decorations. If you go in through the exit you don't even have to wait in line.
(I hope that still works anyway.)


- Opera national de Paris.

Hosts English language tours twice daily, popular from "The phantom of the opera." and an absolutely gorgeous building both inside and out. If we feel like a bit of culture we could even visit a show here.


- Monuments.

I actually wanted to describe them all in detail, but there are too many gorgeous things to mention.

Here's a select few anyway:
- The Eiffle tower.
- Napoleons mausoleum.
- Arc de Triomphe.
- Sainte-Chapelle
- Jardin du Luxembourg.


- Versailles.

Louis the 14th palace with amazing gardens. It's been preserved very well and you get a good feel of life in the old days. Group discounts are pretty nice as well.


- Quarter Latin.

Brilliant to hang around after a long day. Filled with bistros, bars and there's a great atmosphere. Many different nationalities and we can come here whenever clubbing is on the menu... which will be every night, mind you.


- Moulin Rouge.

It's probably just the guys who will enjoy this idea. Good atmosphere and apparently the shows are really good and sausy. Live cabaret every day and a buffet. Could be a little on the expensive side though.


- Euro Disney.

Hey, it's a possiblity. It's a nice theme park, and from experience I know that theme parks are usually a great way to bond. (Than again, so are stripclubs.)





Additional information:

A hispeed railticket from the Netherlands to Paris will set you back 110 Euro's.
Even though I'm still not sure if we'll even end up in the Netherlands, it all depends on what people like and what the plan will end up looking like.

Hostels in Paris are not too expensive either if you book in advance and are always at least 10 euro's cheaper when you share the room. (Which we'll be doing anyway.) The price will be between 15 and 25 euro's per night.

If we book tours or need tickets for museums we can get substantial group discounts and I think we'll be able to arrange something similar if we go clubbing. I will get back to you on this.

Amsterdam

When in Amsterdam there are several things we can do:


- Take a canal cruise.

The Amsterdam canals recently made it on Unescos list. It gives you a good view of the city from the water.


- Visit the cities musea.

We've got the Rijksmuseum which stores paintings by several Dutch masters such as van Rijn, Vermeer, Steen and Escher to name a few.

We've also got the Vincent van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank museum (Which is situated in her former house.)


- Go clubbing.

If there is one thing we're good at, it's partying. Clubs are massive and are open until very early in the morning. There's lounge bars, pubs, nightclubs and what not. You can pretty much party for 24 hours straight if you know where to go.


- Concert hall.

Gorgeous building and the concerts are not too expensive to visit.
Free concerts on Wednesdays.


- The Albert Cuijp market.

An open air market where you can buy all kinds of gadgets and trinkets and pets. It's pretty big and would be nice to walk around for an afternoon.


- Replica of the Amsterdam.

Old VOC ship that lies in the harbour of Amsterdam. I'm not sure if it's open to public, but we'll just fight our way in if we have to.



Additional information:


The public transportation is really, really good over here so we can visit surrounding places like Volendam (Authentic, Dutch village.)
I'm sure Frank wouldn't mind adding a few things to do in Amsterdam.

I think hostels are a lot more expensive over here in comparison to most major cities, so that works out rather well.

It's a very dynamic and international city, great gay scene as well for those of you who are into that.

Of course there's many more places we can visit, but I'm growing bored now so I'll just make a quick summary and maybe iCeD wants to describe Germany a little bit.


There's Berlin, Munich, Lyons, Normandy, all pretty convenient if there's people coming over who can rent a car, we can even bring a couple of tents and just sleep around the French/German countryside.


When more information becomes avaiable to me about dates and what not, I will add to this information. Just figured I'd wet your appetites and create some general interest.

Woo!

How long are you thinking of making this? I'll have to be there for at least part of it.

Also, can I add a vote for Versailles? I've wanted to go there for about 10 years, but never seem to get the opportunity.

I'm thinking one or two weeks, but it depends on how much transatlantic tickets will cost and on how many people are actually interested. I guess the transatlantic flights aren't a big deal to us Europeans so they might want to stay longer.

Although it does sound like fun I can't say yes or no at this particular moment. However its in a year so I close nothing out.

Alister, I've been thinking that all of us should get a 10 day interrail pass. It means we can travel around Europe at our leisure throughout any different country for ten days in a row. Which means we'll get to see a few different cities. Granted it be at breakneck speed, but I think it'll be an amazing experience.

It'll be 359 for 10 days of travel, here's a map of the railways in Europe:

http://www.interrailnet.com/download...urope-2010.pdf


I'll wait until at least October 9th for everyone to reply and make a decision and get a feel of how many of you are interested. I do not care wheter it is a select group or a large group, just as long as there is some form of security. (If not, I can still plan on doing something else.)

Originally Posted by The SlaYeR

I'm thinking one or two weeks, but it depends on how much transatlantic tickets will cost and on how many people are actually interested. I guess the transatlantic flights aren't a big deal to us Europeans so they might want to stay longer.

Trans-Atlantic flights cost about the same regardless of how long you stay ;-p. They're expensive no matter what, so from my point of view it makes sense to stay as long as possible.

Originally Posted by The SlaYeR

It'll be 359 for 10 days of travel, here's a map of the railways in Europe:

http://www.interrailnet.com/download...urope-2010.pdf


I'll wait until at least October 9th for everyone to reply and make a decision and get a feel of how many of you are interested. I do not care wheter it is a select group or a large group, just as long as there is some form of security. (If not, I can still plan on doing something else.)

I like trains as much as anyone else, but for a large group of people traveling together renting vehicles and splitting the cost would be more economical.

E.g. rental of a 5-passenger van from Budget for 10 days could be $560 (~€423). Five 10-day rail passes on the other hand would be €1795. Even factoring in gas/tolls/parking/etc. I think driving would still be cheaper.

This actually looks kind of interesting. Still planning to go on with this? Can't really decide if I'd come until I see a more specific date, but it looks like it could be fun.

Yeah, I'd like some concrete dates before I make any decisions.

I, for one, would prefer to travel by train. It's smoother, quieter, and more comfortable; there's a toilet; and nobody has to drive. It's also generally faster, assuming we only visit stuff in cities. That said, there could be a substantial saving if we rented a car, depending on fuel consumption.

Sorry I haven't replied in a while, but I will be moving out of the country in a few days, so I'm going to have to see how all of that works out before deciding on a date.

Maybe we should all write down a preference for a date and see which ones correspond?

Amsterdam? Could do a tour there, I'm there every day

Does this mean i could bring some drugs along and we can smoke a few spliffs!!! an get wrecked !!! lol XD

Originally Posted by Crazy

Does this mean i could bring some drugs along and we can smoke a few spliffs!!! an get wrecked !!! lol XD

possible, but not for me tho

lol i was joking :P
but im sure once your drunk u wont know what your doing :P

Omfg neg rep when i was clearly making a fucking joke.. omg as if i would even TRY to carry drugs along with me..... MAYBE U SHOULD LEARN TO USE UR BRAIN..

Originally Posted by Crazy

Omfg neg rep when i was clearly making a fucking joke.. omg as if i would even TRY to carry drugs along with me..... MAYBE U SHOULD LEARN TO USE UR BRAIN..

agreed.

Originally Posted by Dermo

agreed.

Tanks ,I'm not that stupid to carry drug's around .
Anyway why would i want to travel and sleep in "hostels" With self righteous Jcf members.. *this doesn't include everyone*


Looks to me as this post as touched some raw nerves,

but im sure once your drunk u wont know what your doing :P

Eh, i've been drunk quite some times.. I'm always aware

just travel in the first week of august and come (as final station) to Wacken 2011 from the 4th to the 6th august in Germany
would be awesome to meet you there (i got my ticket a week ago, i will be there for sure)

i dunno if i could be there am gonna work at a festival in netherlands the flevofestival


gonna help building it enjoying music and then break it down

Good blessings! Maybe I could afford a trip across the Atlantic

From when theese trips are?
And I think(I am 100% sure, that I can't go) that the summer is already here