How to Build a Great Last-minute Weekend Vacay in Europe

Monday: Decide to spend your upcoming 3 day weekend on the road- but where? First choice: Vienna. Second choice: Istanbul. Begin searching online for plane tickets using ryanair.com and germanwings.com. Find nothing cheap and give up for the night.

Tuesday: Begin the 10-minute Flying Faceoff. Each person fires up a computer and gets ten minutes to find the best airline ticket prices with reasonable times. Best deal wins.

Late Tuesday: Absolutely no remotely cheap plane tickets to be had. After persuasive argument, Hubs agrees to go with germanwings blind booking. You pick a group of cities (ie: Metropolis Western Europe, which includes Berlin, Barcelona, Vienna, etc.) and for 20 E/pp you book a ticket. You exclude cities you're not interested in for a small fee, enter your credit card and traveller info, press book...and discover where you're headed and when. You're going to Berlin, for 100 E total.

Wednesday before work: Begin hotel search on New York Times website. Search your city and click on all reviews (36 hours in .... is an especially good starting point) from readers. Send inquiries to modern-looking hotels in the former East Germany.

Wednesday at work: Check tripadvisor.com for the best hotels and other lodging (B & Bs, pensions, lofts). Email more places directly to inquire about booking.

Wednesday after work: Book at miniloft.com, a great place built by independent architects just a few years ago. Score.

Thursday on lunch break: Get travel books from library and plan trip. You get to decide where to go and what to do because Hubs is too busy to do much research himself.

Friday afternoon: You're off to Berlin!

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: Go go go go go!

Monday morning, 2 am: Return to your home and crash into bed, not looking forward to work in six hours.

Monday, 3 pm: Total crash, but so worth it.