The European Tour: Belgium, England, France, Italy, Spain

The travel plans are 99% nailed down, and they look like this:

The last time I was in Europe I made some mistakes.  I flew in, went to my hotel and slept, spoke for eight hours the next day, went to dinner (a couple of hours away – not a good idea after speaking for a full day), then went back to my hotel, slept, and then went to the airport to fly home.  I got to see a little bit of Istanbul, but I really should have planned that better.

This time, I’m planning it better!  I’m taking a couple of my kids, arriving near the city I’m speaking almost a week early, and staying in Europe for a month.  Take that, jet lag!!

While there, I want to “do it all.”  I am creating lists of things to do in each country we’ll be in, and want to soak up the sights/sites, the food, the language, and the culture. I’ll spend about 5 days in each city I’ll be in, and hope that will give me enough time to experience a bit of that culture. I’m super excited.

From what I hear, there aren’t traditional job clubs or job ministries, but I will be contacting a few schools to see if I can speak to their business and MBA students. If you know of any places I could speak, and can make introductions, I’d appreciate it.

I’ve learned there is balance for trips like this.  I have to balance work with downtime. I typically have that very out-of-balance (like the time I was in Minneapolis and spoke 14 times in 3 days… or was it 13 times in 4 days?  Either way, it was really intense).  This time, though, I’ll have my kids, and I want to make sure that we make memories together.  So, I’ll guard my time carefully and not over do it.

This trip will be mid-May to mid-June.  Have any advice, tips, pointers, or contacts?  Would love to hear them and get intros!