Archive for November, 2009
Home Repair Projects – A Journey of Survival
Posted by: | CommentsThe lovely wife and I recently embarked on a different type of journey, one for which we are completely unprepared. The skills we acquire when we travel to foreign lands are proving useless. Our experience, so beneficial to past explorations, is worthless.
For this trip, we didn’t pack the typical items or buy the usual guide book. Instead we have filled our bags with a healthy dose of patience, long-forgotten tools, bravado and false confidence. An instruction manual is guiding our trek.
The road upon which we trudge is long and onerous. It is ripe with expensive mistakes and hardware store side trips. It tests our creativity and the strength of our bond. Where its twists and turns will lead us, we have yet to determine. There’s no end in sight.
Thus far we’ve seen highs and lows. We have scaled the heights to the top rung of the ladder, we have stooped to the depths of the baseboards. We have failed. We have triumphed. We have relied on the kindness of friends. (Thanks Kelly and Randy.) We have smiled and we have frowned.
We have wanted to quit.
Instead we hoist our home repair dreams upon our aching backs and make yet another trip to the hardware store forgetting to consult our map, thus adding to the frustration and costs of this most-intolerable journey.
Thanksgiving Travel Blessings – A Top 5 List
Posted by: | CommentsSince this is a day of reflecting on the things for which we are thankful, I’ve put together my top 5 list of travel-related blessings.
5. Frequent Flier Miles – Business class upgrades. Enough said.
4. Digital Camera - Our photo dreams are limited only by our imagination, battery power and the size of our digital storage.
3. Diversity – If every place were just like home, why go anywhere?
2. Internet – Information at your fingertips. The greatest travel guide ever invented.
1. Travel Buddy – Hands down the greatest thing about traveling to a new place is being there with my wonderful, beautiful, intelligent wife. (I hope she reads this)
Spread It, Spray It, Spill It – Airline Travel Liquid Rules
Posted by: | CommentsI’m always amazed at the number of people at the airport security line who can’t seem to understand the TSA rule for liquids in their carry-on bags. 3-1-1 seems like a simple way to remember three ounce container, one quart-size bag, one bag per flier. But some folks just don’t get it.
I grinned when I read the following quote in the Saturday edition of The Oklahoman newspaper.
“If you can pour it, pump it, squeeze it, spread it, smear it, spray it or spill it, then it’s a liquid, gel or aerosol,” TSA customer service representative Kim Wagner told The Oklahoman in a Nov. 21 article.
Good advice to keep in mind before you travel to the airport.
Travel to Copenhagen: Don’t Miss & Dismiss
Posted by: | CommentsToday’s post is the inaugural installment of Don’t Miss & Dismiss, a series of travel guide posts about the best (Don’t Miss) and worst (Dismiss) tourist sites in cities all over the world.
Of Scandinavia’s capital cities, I think Copenhagen is by far the hippest, especially if you schedule your travel trip during the city’s wonderful jazz festival. Here are my Copenhagen highlights and low lights.
Don’t Miss: The Nyhavn Canal
The city’s coolest hangout, the Nyhavn Canal is Copenhagen at its most picturesque. Traditional wooden boats add authenticity to the old sailors’ quarter, and the brightly painted buildings now house trendy restaurants and clubs instead of bars and brothels.
Dismiss: The Little Mermaid
Okay, I know Hans Christian Andersen and Disney made her famous, but she’s just a tiny statue sitting on a rock.
Don’t Miss: Museum of Danish Resistance
Telling the story of the underground fight against Nazi occupation, this small museum weaves an interesting tale of espionage and sabotage.
Dismiss: Christiania
Copenhagen’s counter-culture hippie haven, Christiania was founded in the early 1970s as an alternative to formal Danish society. The main drag is called Pusher Street. As I wrote in an article published in Edmond Life and Leisure, “While a peace-and-love, flower-power child of the 1960s might see this hippie haven as a trip (pun intended) down memory lane, Christiania was not my bag, baby.”
Don’t Miss: Our Savior’s Church spire
It’s not its height that makes Our Savior’s spire so cool, it’s the way you get to the top. What starts out like any other
church tower climb gets much more interesting as the last 150 stairs twist around the outside of the 350-year-old oak spire.
Sitting at the Feet of the Travel Master
Posted by: | Comments
I fulfilled a travel dream today. I met travel guide guru Rick Steves while attending a talk he was giving about budget travel.
Galway Gab: House Hotel Highly Heralded
Posted by: | CommentsFriends and fellow travelers Jeff and Lee Lavender recently returned from a travel trip to the Emerald Isle. They raved about a little accommodation, The House Hotel, in Galway, Ireland, and have kindly agreed to share the details of their find. Jeff’s review is below:
The House Hotel in Galway was a breath of fresh air. As soon as we walked through the front door, we were greeted by the concierge who called us by name and made us comfortable as she checked us in. As the concierge visited with Lee about Galway’s tourist highlights, I noticed a whimsical decor and an interesting cat motif. A sign pointing to the room was decorated with a picture of a sleeping cat. The restaurant’s sign had an eating cat and you can only imagine what the cat on the bathroom sign was doing.
Our “mack daddy” suite was large, nicely furnished and included internet access on a large flat screen TV. The suite’s bathroom was fully equipped and very nice.
Although the rooms and common areas were very nice, the true gem of this hotel was the attention to service. The staff were always willing to act as travel guide and help us plan our day, often taking it upon themselves to make our travel arrangements personally. To top it off, they absolutely refused my attempts to slip them some green for their special attention. They would not accept a thing.
Needless to say, we highly recommend the House Hotel and will stay here the next time we travel to Galway.
Frequent voyagers, Jeff and Lee travel to destinations both far and near. Expect to hear from them often.
Veteran’s Day – Remembering My Grandfathers
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s only appropriate that every year on Veteran’s Day our country pauses to remember the sacrifice of the soldiers, sailors and Marines who serve, or have served, in uniform. I personally think of my grandfathers who served our country in WWII and I believe their brave and selfless actions helped save the world.
The ultimate sacrifice is never more evident than when we travel to a somber site like the American Military Cemetery and Memorial in Luxembourg. The final resting place for more than 5,000 American soldiers, many who died in the Battle of the Bulge, the cemetery is one of only 14 WWII US military cemeteries on foreign soil. The burial place of General George S. Patton, the tranquil grounds also hold the graves of more than 100 unknown soldiers whose identities are “known but to God.”
The thousands of white marble headstones serve as a vivid reminder of the costs of war and the true price of freedom.
Today I say thank you to my grandfathers and all the men and women who serve our country.
Shanghai Airport Maglev Monorail a Real Trip
Posted by: | CommentsLike many people, I get frustrated when I travel to a new destination and face a long ride from the airport to the city center. I’ve faced this aggravation on more than one travel trip, but not when I travel to Shanghai.
When I land at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport I take a high-speed ride on the Maglev train, the world’s first commercial magnetic levitation line. Reaching speeds of 267 mph, the Maglev train connects the airport with the Longyang Road Metro Station almost 19 miles away in only eight minutes.
I’m probably not the only passenger flipping my attention between the blurry landscape outside the window and the speedometer display as the numbers climb ever higher before topping out at almost 270 mph.
It’s fast, kinda fun and sure beats riding a city bus.
Seattle Travel Food – Mac/Cheese at the Icon Grill
Posted by: | CommentsI have discovered what may be the world’s best mac and cheese at the Icon Grill in Seattle, Washington.
Made with four cheeses, the Icon Grill’s Ultimate Macaroni and Cheese is a gooey, crusty-topped bowl of tasty goodness. The culinary masterpiece arrived at our table steaming hot and topped with finely chopped tomatoes, but what happened next really sent me over the edge. Our waiter, who told us that the dish was the restaurant’s top-selling item for about a decade, poured a huge glob of melted cheese right on top.
This is what I call good-nasty. Grab a fork and call the paramedics.
A Travel Trip to Tangier with Travel Guide Aziz
Posted by: | CommentsThe wife and I typically shun the idea of hiring a tour guide when we travel to a new city, but we made an exception on a recent travel trip to Tangier, Morocco.
Recommended in our Rick Steves book, travel guide Aziz Begdouri was an excellent choice. We spent a fun day traveling Tangier with Aziz and highly recommend his services. Our tour included all the main tourist stops, including the Kasbah, Grand and Petit Soccos, Anglican Church, Medina and markets. Aziz seems to know everyone in town and made our visit enjoyable.
The only negative I can report was an unrequested stop at a carpet store where we sat through a sales pitch. We weren’t interested in buying a carpet, but it was a short stop and more of a nuisance than anything else.
At only 15 Euros per person for a five-hour tour, hiring Aziz was a cheap travel deal.
You can contact Aziz at aziztour@hotmail.com.
It’s easy to reach Tangier from the south of Spain, especially Tarifa. While there’s not really any other reason to go to Tarifa, it’s only about 30 minutes by ferry to Africa so the Spanish city makes a handy departure point. Watch for more on Tarifa restaurants and accommodations in an upcoming post.
