What things should I see and do in Europe?

The high Aussie dollar makes travelling in Europe far cheaper now than it has been for many years.

Six months long service leave gave us the opportunity to travel to London and catch the vibe of the Olympics before setting off around England and Wales, flying to France and using our Eurail Pass to travel around Italy, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic before returning to England and flying home.

Armed with a return ticket to London and a Eurail Pass, we set off not knowing if we’d be able to afford to travel for six months as we had planned but we managed to see much more than we had hoped by learning some savvy tricks for saving money along the way.

First, we rented our house – which generated enough rent to pay the domestic bills at home – allowing us to travel using our wages and not needing to dip into savings or maxing out the credit card.

My following hubs will provide practical advice for travellers going to Europe – how to get there, what to see, how to save money on everything from air and rail tickets to food and accommodation.

Six months of continuous travel is a rare privilege and allowed us to learn a lot about how to travel well and cheaply, getting to know many local people and living in places rather than always feeling like tourists.

We visited Liverpool, Manchester, the Lakes District, Bath, Wales and the Island of Jersey in the Channel Islands.

A highlight in Liverpool was the Beatles museum where an old dock warehouse building that has been remodelled into an extensive museum telling the story of the four boys from Liverpool who took the world by storm with their music in the 1960s.

In Manchester we visited the BBCs new Broadcasting Centre at Salford and the War Memorial – tracing not only the first and second World Wars but also the wars which have continued in various countries until the present day.

The museum has military and social history displays and is very moving. It inspired my husband to compose a seven movement choral work over the following few months, using poems written by soldiers on the battlefields.

The Lakes District is justifiably famous as a holiday destination. Friends who took us there have been returning every year for forty years to drink in the spectacular scenery, climb the fells, shop at the boutique craft shops and relax at the many historic pubs.

The heritage-listed city of Bath is a treasure-trove of history, from its Roman baths and Pump Room to the spectacular Bath Abbey.

From Bath, easy day trips can be taken to ride on the canals, drive to Worcester, (including Elgar’s birthplace at Broadheath), Hereford, Tintern Abbey, Wells, Dyrham Park, Corsham, Lacock (where the town was used for filming Cranford and the local Abbey was used for filming the Harry Potter films), and many other places.

In Wales we hired a car and drove ourselves to see castles, villages and to walk the beautiful coastal paths with their captivating scenery.

See my other hubs for articles on these adventures as well as our travels in France, Italy, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.