Europe Tour: The Journey Begins

From Japan to our Europe trip, we had a good amount of time (5 months) to plan, prepare, and become familiar with each area that we visited. The thing with low fare flights is the many layovers that are on the way to and from your actual destination. Of course living in Hawaii, we have to take long flights and equally as long layovers. To actually get to Barcelona, we had to first stop in Washington D.C. For an 8 hour layover, then head to Munich, Germany for about 3 hours, then finally land in Barcelona. All accumulating to about 2 days worth of travel. We didn’t know when the next time we would visit any of those places so we decided to utilize the most of our time and see all that we could. A hint for long flights: Because we sat through two 10 hour flights in a row, in order to overcome jet lag, do not lull around, that will make you more tired. Go out immediately and see what you'd like. We felt more aware of what's going on and its better to see things than waiting forever at the airport for the next flight. Washington D.C., home of the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and more. We planned to see the White House and we were given the start time of 9am. We decided to rent a car because Public Transportation would take too long and we would possibly miss the tour. We landed at the Dulles Airport in Virginia. We rented the car and drove out to Washington D.C., a mistake we made was not asking about tolls and fees and had to pay $5.50 to enter and exit them. Hawaii doesn't have anything like that so it would be beneficial to research toll fees before anted to travel from one mainland state to the other. Finding parking near the White House on your own is near impossible to do. I searched online and found a site called Parkwhiz.com which shows areas that have public parking for a fee. The fees we found ranged from $7-$15 for an allotted amount of time, about 4-5 hours at a time. The parking we settled for was about a 15 minute walk to the White House. Here's something to understand about parkwhiz, some parking places are hotel lots and even though these certain hotels honor parkwhiz recipients, some won't necessarily have a ticket machine specifically for them. You must notify those working Parking Detail. They know about parkwhiz and will answer any questions you may have. We needed to know what to do after our White House Tour. You have to get a parking ticket and hold onto it. When you return to your vehicle, you have to write your parkwhiz confirmation number on the ticket. Especially because you paid for the parking spot, you shouldn't have to pay anything extra. Upon writing the confirmation number on the ticket, give it to whoever is working the Parking and you'll be set to go. The White House Tour is free but you must reserve online at least 3 months prior to your visit. Those in charge of the Tour will send you emails throughout the process to give you a specific time that the tour will start as well as how long to report before the tour begins, which is usually around 30 minutes. You need to be present 30 minutes prior to start time because of screening your items and your confirmation tickets. We landed at 7am and needed to hurry, get the car, and be at the White House by 830am. Renting the car took a little longer than we expected and by the time we arrived at the city center to look for our parking spot, traffic was crazy! Of course, we had a hard time finding it because we are not familiar with the area. When we finally parked, we had about 20 minutes to get to the White House. It was cold for sure, but we needed to make that tour and so we ran! We made it just in time to check in. If you end up at the front of the White House, you have go to the left and walk along the street to find the entrance which will actually be the back of the White House. Whether you are a fan of President Trump or not, if you live in America, there's no denying that you should go visit the White House at least once. The Tour is actually self guided so you can walk at your own pace and take pictures. I liked knowing that many great people walked through those halls. It is a special place, I think. Definitely heavily guarded but my advice is to act natural and don't give any kind of hints that you mean harm. We don't need that in this world today. With so many things going on right now, at least enjoy your time there. A lot of detail was put into this place and that we should all respect at the very least. 

MUNICH Upon departing from Dulles, we took another 10 hour flight to Munich, Germany. Our layover there was 3 hours so we didn’t get to travel to the city center, but that didn’t stop us from going out to see something since we were in a different country. We found a nearby town called Freising which is a 20 minute bus ride. Fairly cheap, €2.80 one way. Unfortunately, it was raining so when we arrived in Freising, we stayed at the train station and had some really good pastries and authentic German sausages. We definitely wanted to try any and all authentic foods that each country has to offer.