Euro Tour (April 2002)

The two-week Euro Tour was designed to give students an opportunity to try new activities and to visit many different places and cities in various countries.

The trip started off with an overnight drive to Paris where they spent their first two nights in France. Most students took the opportunity to see the famous Paris landmarks and sampled the Parisian nightlife. Our next destination took us to a tiny village in the heart of the Vercors region of France to go walking and rock-climbing.

At the end of their two-day stay in the Vercors, the longest and most tiring road journey of the trip took us through the Alps Maritime and south to the coast near Nice. Here we stayed three nights and visited Monte Carlo, Cannes and Nice. Most students had especially wanted to visit the coast during their two week trip and our accommodation during this section had perfect sea views and a huge balcony - this really was the South of France.

At the halfway point of the trip and another road journey to look forward to, the group said a sad farewell to France before crossing the border into Italy and Tuscany. Destination Florence, and the little town of Fiesole where we stayed for the Easter celebrations. Florence is a beautiful city and the students soon managed to explore both its well-known sights and lesser ones, including market places selling all sorts of fashions and souvenirs. The mini buses were definitely becoming more crowded and every spare seat was taken up with shopping bags of all description.

The drive to Cortina, via Venice for the day, meant an early start of 4am. It was worth it though, as they were able to make the most of the beautiful weather to explore this unique city.

What the group awoke to the following morning, which had been hidden by nightfall when they had eventually arrived in Cortina at midnight, was an array of snow covered mountains in every direction. These were the Dolomites, a section of the Alps that borders Italy and Austria. Here the group hill-walked, skied and snow-boarded as well as slept very well, as by now the long days, good food and sunshine were taking their toll.

Another early start meant we could cross over into Austria and stop in Innsbruck by lunchtime. As the students explored the city the drivers slept, before driving into the early hours and eventually stopping to camp in Germany near the Belgium border.

Soon the trip was over and the statistics of 3687miles of driving and 5 countries visited all added to the stories that are sure to be told by all the students. A fantastic fortnight - a fantastic Euro Tour.