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Week #15 ~ Recap
1119 miles, 4 countries, 7 cities, 1 airplane, 2 rental cars, 3 UNESCO sites, and $117.02 OVER budget. Whew! No wonder we’re tired! Budget overages were due to $160 on gas and about $1200 on lodging. After 4 days rest in Scotland, we flew to Ireland and have started a whirlwind driving tour around the…
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There shall be rest….and Whisky
Sometimes you need a vacation from your vacation. Water, the desire for a rural landscape after all of the cities we’ve been in and a chance to cook for ourselves several days in a row led us to rent an Airbnb in Invergordon Scotland. We got off the boat from Amsterdam at Newcastle on Tyne,…
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Week #14 ~ Recap
792 miles, 3 countries, 3 cities, 1 overnight ferry, 1 panicked incident, 2 hotels, 1 Airbnb, $14.41 UNDER budget. We originally planned to leave Amsterdam on October 2nd, but extended our stay for a day when Marla left her bag on the tram on the way to the ferry to NewCastle, England that held her…
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They should have gone to Amsterdam
I don’t really know how it happened, but Amsterdam became our favorite stop so far. The place is built on sand with pilings for support, and some of the buildings have an obvious lean to them. Bicycles are literally everywhere, canals also. I admire the Dutch for their pragmatic handling of the sex trade and…
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Angels on our shoulders….
“Where’s your gray bag?” I felt a panic start at the top of my head that settled into my gut as I realized in an instant that I had left my bag with my PASSPORT, our iPad, 2 debit cards and my Amex on the tram. I had left that bag behind when exiting the…
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Week #13 ~ Recap
831 miles, 2 countries, 2 cities, 1 concentration camp, 2 walking tours, 1 gigantic beer festival, 2 hotels, walking an average of 11,300 steps per day, and $129.45 UNDER budget. From Munich to Amsterdam ~ from a city with a historic glockenspiel and a palace modeled after Versailles, to a city with some of the…
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Village of a Million People
Traveling from Northern Germany, (Berlin), to Southern Germany, (Munich), was much like moving between Toronto Canada and Montreal Canada…..part of the same country but a completely different vibe. One of Munich’s nicknames is Millionendorf, meaning “village of a million people”. I don’t know Berlin’s nickname but it I wouldn’t say it had a “village” feel.…
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Show Me the Money: Part 1
Food was undoubtedly our biggest expense. Dining out is clearly much more expensive than cooking for yourself. However, when you’re at a campsite or AirBnb, you can’t fall back on a well-stocked supply of pantry staples so you have to work with what you have available. This meant a lot of the meals that I…
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Berlin, Vergangenheit und Gegenwart.
Berlin, a city where vergangenheit (past) and gegenwart (present) exist side by side in mindful redevelopment projects that reflect the need for renewal alongside preservation Our 4 nights in Berlin were a study in past and present and the opposing forces of deep sorrow vs joyful celebration of the power of the human spirit. Memorials…
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Week #12 ~ Recap
273 miles, 2 countries, 2 cities, 2 trains, 1 bike rental, 1 haircut, 12,000 steps per day, 1 palace, 1 church, 1 cathedral, 3 museums, 2 hostels, $129.55 UNDER budget—yay!!! To both our surprise and delight, we have discovered that our experience in Western Europe has been less expensive than we expected mostly due to…
