The plan

We leave Fairbanks on the afternoon of July 24. We are flying Condor over the arctic to Frankfurt, Germany, which is a direct flight from Fairbanks. The tickets were dirt cheap, relatively, though right now dirt is probably worth about as much as the US dollar (more on this later). From Frankfurt, we have five days to travel through France to get to Barcelona.

The other day, we booked our hotels and some of the trains.

We are taking trains because buses make Rowan nauseous, and I've never been on a train before.

We're staying in hotels because I'm getting on the high side of the hostel age, and it's about the same price since there are two of us. Also, I like the idea of not having to sleep in a room with other people. I've never seen the movie Hostel, so that had nothing to do with the decision.

I've been freaking out about the weak dollar. We went to Barnes & Noble the other day to look at travel guides, and one of them listed the price range for what it called an "inexpensive" restaurant at $21-35.

I have a feeling we'll be living on bread. At least baguettes in France are cheap, and they are also good since they are governed by food laws.

Apparently "bread" in France can only contain water, yeast, flour, and salt. Any other ingredients and it has to be called something else. These laws led to some irony recently when a British baker won a contract to provide baguettes for the French rail system; since the Brits can add fat to the bread, it lasts longer.

So on the trains, we'll be eating Brit bread, and French bread elsewhere.

But enough about food. (I just went and ate a snack, so now I can focus.)

Here is our current itinerary for the trip through France:

Our first night, we will be in Strasbourg, staying at the Victoria Garden Apart'Hotel. Strasbourg is the capital of the European Union and has a cultural mix that is part German and part French. It is also the head of the "Wine Road." We may also check out one of the local beer breweries.

From there, we will head to Arles, home of much Roman architecture. It is also where Vincent VanGogh completed most of his paintings.

We won't be spending the night there, but will be taking a short train ride to Nimes, where we will be staying at the Hotel de Provence. The town is also noted for its Roman architecture.

Our last stop before Barcelona is Montpellier, where we will be staying at the Abasun Hotel. It is a one-star hotel. I have no idea what this means or what to expect.

I also have no idea what we will do in Montpellier. I'm sure that Rowan has mentioned something, but I've already forgotten, probably because I wasn't listening that closely. Nostradamus did spend part of his life there, so maybe we can check out some of his haunts, and use the powers of his spirit to predict our futures.

From Montpellier we head to Barcelona, where we will dive headfirst into comprehensive study of our own language while I talk to the locals in horribly broken Spanish.

Our adventure starts in 23 days.