Linda will be taking care of Blossom for us. The studio trashed as it's where we're laying everything out to prep. Okay, it's filled with the medical kit. We seem to have locked our last med kit in the travel trailer & can't find the key. So we're recreating the Betadine-Iodine- 3- way-antibiotic- twelve-types of gauze-5 rolls of tape- medsurge scissors- don't forget the hydrogen peroxide and four types of BandAids First Aid kit.
We fly out Friday night and arrive London about 3am Seattle time (11am London). I stick Dave behind the wheel of a British car & have him drive on the road for 200 or so miles until we get to our first destination, Lacock.
Anyways, our planned itinerary looks complicated, but is actually pretty simple. Hopefully there will be enough time to spare in any one place for hospitalizations (if necessary).
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
My Dear Kadir
I was able to come back. This trip's itinerary is:
Lacock, England, UK
Romania - drive around the southern part
Turkey - the Cappadocia area, then Istanbul
Turns out, it ain't just America which is a big country. Turkey is too. For this trip I've been working with Kadir, a fabulous agent from the Travel Atelier agency. I'm a "worst nightmare" kind of customer. I like everything customized, priced out and I research endlessly. He's been wonderful for suggestions and has really helped me focus on what would be doable for this trip.
One of the biggest considerations I've come to find in travel planning is that while the world out there is infinitely interesting, your time isn't. Dave & I hate, hate, HATE packing up & moving every single frickin' day to go somewhere else. You can never make friends with a waiter. You can never get to know the cheese monger's name. The bellhop will never remember you. People pass in a blur; places, scents, and sounds blend.
Trying to plan for Turkey was really hard. The country is large and has so much to look forward to. Kadir helped me plan the itinerary with travel time in mind. The train & plane infrastructure in Turkey is hub based. I didn't want to fly into Istanbul every third day only to fly out an hour later. So, we've opted for longer periods of time in Cappadocia (3 full days, plus 2 travel) & Istanbul (5 full days, plus 2 travel) at fewer places.
Also, even though Turkey isn't on the Euro, everything is Euro based. Rats. I do so miss the Italian Lira and I had such high hopes for the Turkish Lira against our falling dollar. *sigh* But it was not to be, either that, or I really have gotten snobby about the quality of my mattresses.
So, this post is to thank Kadir for his help in planning this trip.
Lacock, England, UK
Romania - drive around the southern part
Turkey - the Cappadocia area, then Istanbul
Turns out, it ain't just America which is a big country. Turkey is too. For this trip I've been working with Kadir, a fabulous agent from the Travel Atelier agency. I'm a "worst nightmare" kind of customer. I like everything customized, priced out and I research endlessly. He's been wonderful for suggestions and has really helped me focus on what would be doable for this trip.
One of the biggest considerations I've come to find in travel planning is that while the world out there is infinitely interesting, your time isn't. Dave & I hate, hate, HATE packing up & moving every single frickin' day to go somewhere else. You can never make friends with a waiter. You can never get to know the cheese monger's name. The bellhop will never remember you. People pass in a blur; places, scents, and sounds blend.
Trying to plan for Turkey was really hard. The country is large and has so much to look forward to. Kadir helped me plan the itinerary with travel time in mind. The train & plane infrastructure in Turkey is hub based. I didn't want to fly into Istanbul every third day only to fly out an hour later. So, we've opted for longer periods of time in Cappadocia (3 full days, plus 2 travel) & Istanbul (5 full days, plus 2 travel) at fewer places.
Also, even though Turkey isn't on the Euro, everything is Euro based. Rats. I do so miss the Italian Lira and I had such high hopes for the Turkish Lira against our falling dollar. *sigh* But it was not to be, either that, or I really have gotten snobby about the quality of my mattresses.
So, this post is to thank Kadir for his help in planning this trip.
It's about that time to start the travel up again
We leave in about 6 weeks and I haven't even begun to post my preliminary stuff up here. I'll get to it, but that's not what I feel like writing about right now.
This travel blog began as an email I'd send to a distribution list of friends so they could get a postcard from me while I was traveling. Then the distribution list became unwieldy and blogging was simplified. I started this blog with only the promise of a "Hi, how-are-ya'?" but somehow expectations have been set. There must be entertainment value.
ugh.
This time we're traveling with an iPad. Hopefully, that will make updates faster because I'm not too sure how many internet cafes there are in the mountains of southern Romania. The keyboard on the iPad is easier than using a phone, but not full-size like a laptop, so I will be prone to spelling errors. DO NOT POINT THEM OUT TO ME. I recognize & "own" my spelling errors when using the iPad, but I will NOT have the patience to correct them.
So, while I'm Miss Strict about spell-check & the etiquette of good spelling when I've got a keyboard, I'm a hypocrite when it comes to using the iPad. So, I don't want to hear about it. Okay. Now that that's settled...
This trip we'll fly from Seattle to London, Heathrow. I'd originally planned on visiting London, but the cost of hotels there was astounding. Then, when a friend in London began pointing out some of the beautiful outer areas of London, I figured, "in for a pound..." Some of those areas would take us more than an hour to get to. With that in mind, I decided to rent a car & just head out of the city, period.
That's how I came across exploring the area around the city of Bath.
Dave's ready for us to go get some rock this morning. Leaving off now
This travel blog began as an email I'd send to a distribution list of friends so they could get a postcard from me while I was traveling. Then the distribution list became unwieldy and blogging was simplified. I started this blog with only the promise of a "Hi, how-are-ya'?" but somehow expectations have been set. There must be entertainment value.
ugh.
This time we're traveling with an iPad. Hopefully, that will make updates faster because I'm not too sure how many internet cafes there are in the mountains of southern Romania. The keyboard on the iPad is easier than using a phone, but not full-size like a laptop, so I will be prone to spelling errors. DO NOT POINT THEM OUT TO ME. I recognize & "own" my spelling errors when using the iPad, but I will NOT have the patience to correct them.
So, while I'm Miss Strict about spell-check & the etiquette of good spelling when I've got a keyboard, I'm a hypocrite when it comes to using the iPad. So, I don't want to hear about it. Okay. Now that that's settled...
This trip we'll fly from Seattle to London, Heathrow. I'd originally planned on visiting London, but the cost of hotels there was astounding. Then, when a friend in London began pointing out some of the beautiful outer areas of London, I figured, "in for a pound..." Some of those areas would take us more than an hour to get to. With that in mind, I decided to rent a car & just head out of the city, period.
That's how I came across exploring the area around the city of Bath.
Dave's ready for us to go get some rock this morning. Leaving off now
Friday, August 6, 2010
The British Pound bites
86 GBP sounds great, $136 / night sounds expensive. 126 GBP - okay, but for $200 / night I want something other than a pink quilted faux-satin bed cover in a flowered wall-paper room with only an open shower.
Take the amount in GBP & divide by .63. That's your American dollar. At least it's better than the rate in 2006 (I was using a Europe Through the Back Door as a reference) when it was .55. And I'm not comparing us to the Canadian dollar, which we nearly equal these days. I loved traveling to Vancouver & getting a 25% discount on everything!
Take the amount in GBP & divide by .63. That's your American dollar. At least it's better than the rate in 2006 (I was using a Europe Through the Back Door as a reference) when it was .55. And I'm not comparing us to the Canadian dollar, which we nearly equal these days. I loved traveling to Vancouver & getting a 25% discount on everything!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Another What I Learned In School Today
Orbitz Travel Insurance - You have to OPT OUT.
I was filing away my paperwork from the flurry of purchases & planning from last night when I reviewed the policy I received in my email.
The policy didn't match the company I expected, nor did it match the charge. Now, I bought my policy through InsureMyTrip.com and thought they had a database error. No, in fact they don't have that policy at all.
If the email I rec'd when the policy arrived hadn't had actually stated something about orbitz.accessamerica, I would have had no idea what was going on because OF COURSE, Orbitz does not fully summarize all their charges when they send you the freakin' confirmation of your purchase.
It's great they have a low price guarantee, but turns out, the detail of this add'l travel insurance is on my itinerary IF I EXPAND THE FREAKIN - (minus) sign on some Add'l Charges thing. I thought "Taxes", not Travel Insurance.
I sent my complaint in FWIW (which is zilch)
I was filing away my paperwork from the flurry of purchases & planning from last night when I reviewed the policy I received in my email.
The policy didn't match the company I expected, nor did it match the charge. Now, I bought my policy through InsureMyTrip.com and thought they had a database error. No, in fact they don't have that policy at all.
If the email I rec'd when the policy arrived hadn't had actually stated something about orbitz.accessamerica, I would have had no idea what was going on because OF COURSE, Orbitz does not fully summarize all their charges when they send you the freakin' confirmation of your purchase.
It's great they have a low price guarantee, but turns out, the detail of this add'l travel insurance is on my itinerary IF I EXPAND THE FREAKIN - (minus) sign on some Add'l Charges thing. I thought "Taxes", not Travel Insurance.
I sent my complaint in FWIW (which is zilch)
British Air - !$#@@#$$#!@$#
Guess what I learned in School today:
British Air charges for advanced seat selection!
$30 for economy seats on the international flights per person, per seat
$15 for the economy seats on the inter-European flights, per person, per seat
Their policy USED to be (until Sep. 2009) no advanced seating assignment earlier than 24 hours. This is archiac, but at least it didn't leave you with a "taste" in your mouth. EVA air only allowed seat assignments 30 days prior to take-off. Other airlines are like that.
However, in 2009, it appears that BA decided to "allow" customers the "opportunity" to book their seats in advance - for this hefty fee. !@#$% though - the pricing we got for the ticket was good enough that I went ahead & paid the add'l fees to get the two seats in the row assignments in the planes where 3 is the norm. The 9 hour & the 3 hour flights, oh yes, I don't want to be sitting in the middle.
British Air charges for advanced seat selection!
$30 for economy seats on the international flights per person, per seat
$15 for the economy seats on the inter-European flights, per person, per seat
Their policy USED to be (until Sep. 2009) no advanced seating assignment earlier than 24 hours. This is archiac, but at least it didn't leave you with a "taste" in your mouth. EVA air only allowed seat assignments 30 days prior to take-off. Other airlines are like that.
However, in 2009, it appears that BA decided to "allow" customers the "opportunity" to book their seats in advance - for this hefty fee. !@#$% though - the pricing we got for the ticket was good enough that I went ahead & paid the add'l fees to get the two seats in the row assignments in the planes where 3 is the norm. The 9 hour & the 3 hour flights, oh yes, I don't want to be sitting in the middle.
Driving tour
It's looking like it's gonna be an 18 day driving tour through Romania, Bulgaria & the most Western tip of Turkey. Carpathian mountains, painted monastaries, the Valley of Roses, the Black Sea Coast spas which used to be the hang-out of the technocrati of the old Soviet Union, not to mention the Turkish spas with the silk bazaars.
I spent the weekend googling as much as I could to get my hyperlinks together.
This site, motoroads.com, has been the most helpful for car rental information - cross-border - for these E. European countries.
Romania's Tourism website is much better than Bulgaria's. The best train info I found was there.
I'm not setting an agenda yet. I've just been exploring my transportation options. This means learning my geography. I've set up my map for the trip if you're interested in how the itinerary will form up. My 2011 Turkey map.
I spent the weekend googling as much as I could to get my hyperlinks together.
This site, motoroads.com, has been the most helpful for car rental information - cross-border - for these E. European countries.
Romania's Tourism website is much better than Bulgaria's. The best train info I found was there.
I'm not setting an agenda yet. I've just been exploring my transportation options. This means learning my geography. I've set up my map for the trip if you're interested in how the itinerary will form up. My 2011 Turkey map.
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