The Logistics

April 30 – May 15, 2026

Growing up in a world before the internet, and way before ancestral DNA tracking websites, I knew a good portion of my heritage was German. My great-great-great-grandma was born in Germany, and while that’s a big generational gap, her daughter lived until 103 years old, which means I do have a few vague memories of visiting her in a nursing home when I was a child. Adult me wishes I had asked her questions about her family and growing up as the child of immigrants, but of course as a kid, all I cared about was getting a kick out of the giant font on her alarm clock, and the fact that she wore pants Monday through Saturday and a dress on Sunday so she could keep track of the days of the week.

My small Michigan hometown was full of elderly German immigrants, so much so that my church had German hymnals, and I remember singing “Stille Nacht” at Christmastime as a congregation. So naturally, when 8th grade rolled around and we got to choose between German, Spanish, or French as a foreign language class, I chose German. I ended up continuing it through 9th and 10th grade, and then again several years later in my final semester of college. Twenty years after that, on a random night when I couldn’t sleep, I signed up for Duolingo and started lessons all over again. That was last year, and I’ve kept up a steady streak.

For at least the past 30 years, since that very first German lesson, I’ve wanted to visit Germany. I’ve had my fair share of domestic and international travels over the years, so I’m not sure why it took so long to get there. My trip to Greece with my friends last fall was my first trip to a non-English speaking country where I was the adult (as opposed to chaperoned trips in high school and college), and after dipping my toes in that pool, I came home and knew Germany would be my next big trip.

While I’ve always been interested in this side of my family history, I’ve never cared enough to dig into the actual ancestry research part of it. However, my dad has done extensive research (again, even in the pre-internet days), and along the way he learned that our German ancestors actually got their start in France. I’ll get more into that history later, but my dad also discovered my great-great-great-grandpa was born in Poznań, Poland (though of course it was all Prussia at the time). I knew that if the purpose of my trip was to see the places my ancestors lived, I needed to include both France and Poland on my trip to Germany.

Having a deep sense of wanderlust, when looking at the map and trying to route my trip, I wanted to go everywhere that borders these three countries. While that’s not feasible, I realized I could squeeze in a quick trip to Belgium and Luxembourg along the way. I went back and forth on how I could route the trip: fly into Munich and make a circle, fly into Poland and make my way down to France, or the reverse – which is what I ended up doing as the flights were significantly cheaper that way.

I also knew I wanted this to be a solo trip, something that I had never done before (not even domestically), but now would encourage everyone, especially women, to do at least once in their lifetime. I’ve wanted to take a solo trip at some point in my life, if only to prove to myself that I could, and I figured this would be the best chance to do it. While I have a great group of travel buddies, I knew that some of these tiny villages I wanted to visit wouldn’t be their first pick for vacation, and that squeezing in all of these locations would be harder with a group.

I figured either way I sliced it, I’d end up with multiple trips. Option A: Go slow, take my time in one or two countries, then go back for a second trip to the other countries another time. Or, Option B: Make a highlight reel visit to the major cities and consider it a sampler platter, while making mental notes of where I’d want to come back to spend more time on another trip. I chose Option B.

Before booking my flights, I made myself a rough itinerary using Google Maps and Google Sheets. I knew I’d need a rental car for part of the trip, as some of the villages I wanted to see are too small for public transportation. (Fellow traveler, beware: while it is possible to rent a car from one country and return it in another, this ended up being the biggest expense of my trip, including the flight.) I listed out the places I wanted to see, wrote down the sunrise and sunset times on the approximate days I’d be there so I knew how much daylight I was working with, and mapped how long it took to drive between places. Once I nailed down how many days the trip would take, I played around with specific dates until I found the right combination for the cheapest flight possible.

With group trips, my friends and I all have our strengths when it comes to planning, but one side of it that I tend to leave to the group is picking out the hotels. As long as it’s clean and safe, I’m neither picky nor brand loyal, while some friends have status and points thanks to their work travel. I know many solo travelers opt for hostels, but even with private rooms and private restrooms available, I felt more comfortable sticking with traditional hotels. I narrowed down my lodging by finding what was in the middle of the “Centrally Located + Has Parking + Is Affordable + Has Good Reviews” Venn diagram – shout out to Trip Advisor, Google Reviews, and the Girls Love Travel Facebook group for help with this.

Once my flights, lodging, rental car, and long-distance trains were all booked, the last planning step was the fun part: figuring out all the sights to see and places to eat. I used the Wanderlog app to keep track of everything, and I don’t know what I would have done without it (and I say that as a spreadsheet girlie). I used a combination of Trip Advisor, Atlas Obscura, Google Reviews, Google Maps, Yelp, Girls Love Travel, Reddit, and the MVP of European travel, Rick Steves to come up with my list.

I know some people get overwhelmed with the planning stages, but to me, it’s half the fun of the trip. It’s one of those things where I can sit down with my computer at 9am on a Saturday morning, reach flow state, and “only one hour” later it’s actually 5pm and I don’t know where the day went.

With everything planned in advance, all I had to do was wait for the day to arrive and step onto the plane.

To be continued…