First up for summer, 2001 is Europe. We drove to NYC on 19th of May with a one-way rental price of $82. We stayed at the Soldiers & Sailors home at $90 per night, with bath down the hall. On May 23rd, we flew to London on Air India at $307 per ticket. Lots of room, but lots of crying babies. We paid more than our budget for a place near London-$700 per week rather than $400. But, it is a 2-bedroom townhouse and should be nice for two weeks. Also, we are eating out a lot.We are cultured-out, 2 dances, 2 plays and one music event in one week in NYC and London. Average cost per ticket in NYC $22 and $12 in London. The internet has been OK. We paid $18 per hour in NYC, but the NYC library was free. The library in England has been free and the commercial service is $4 per hour. You can use it from 2am to 7am for $1.50. The bill paying service we set up on the computer is working and our internet banking also is working, but the library internet will not allow us access to these accounts. In France, Spain and Portugal, we have found Internet Cafes along the way. The cost is about $5 per hour. The service is best in the morning here, as it is after midnight in the US.
On the 7th of June, we took the Chunnel train to Lille, France. We got a special price of $84 per person. We picked up the car for 87 days of touring. We leased a Peugeot diesel through a travel company in Australia, Eliza Travel. We paid $1,356.07 and we think we saved about $300.We drove down to Provence and stopped at a tourist office. We found a cottage in the country and stayed for a week. Dogs, sheep, horses, 2-bedrooms, up-down, about $425 per week. Eating good at about $20 each per meal. We agree that if ELVIS had come and stayed and eaten here for 2 weeks, he would still be alive! Spent a day driving along the French Riviera-Monoco, Caan, St. Tropez, Marsailles. So beautiful and it reminds us of California. Left and went to Montpellier and stayed at a $45 hotel. Nice clean place, like in Toronto. Fine for study or living, but not avery exciting city. Moved on to a Loges de France hotel in the mountains for $110 with breakfast and supper included. Then through Andorra and into Spain. Stayed in a Parador in Spain (state owned hotel), with breakfast and supper for $130. Next day on to Barcelona. Could not find a room and drove out of town after a quick afternoon tour. We finally found a room about one hour out of town-paid $100. We drove back to town for the OPERA. Got there on the dot. The ticket place was closed and they would not let us in.
Next day we headed to Valencia. For lunch, we were down on a river delta and had real PAELLA. The rice was grown on the delta and the seafood was caught in the bay. Cost $25. On to Valencia, where we stayed in a fleabag for two nights for $30, with bath down the hall. No AC and "chiming clock" outside the window.Then, Granada for one night for $55. We ate TAPAS for the last 3 nights. Standing up in crowded restaurants, hectic, but delicious.Tonight, 6-22-01, we are in Seville, Spain. Tapas again.We had planned to stay in Spain longer, but the HEAT is killing us. Today was about 110 degrees. Of course, being cheap, we have no AC in the car. I had read that the Europeans do not use AC-NOT TRUE. Stay out of Spain after MAY.By the way, in ANDORRA, we went to $18 public baths. Hot, cold, Roman, hot tubs, sauna and MORE. Everyone had their bathing suits on. BUT, in France, we went to the public pool. ABout half were topless...in the pool for a minute, NANCY WENT TOPLESS, but no one noticed except me! We have been swimming in public or hotel pools about every day.
Over into Portugal, WE WUZ ROBBED. Stopped for lunch in FARO without looking at the Michelin book before picking a restaurant. The waiter suggested the house special and showed us the menu. We had not learned the Portuguese money system yet. The meal came and it was a huge platter of every imaginable kind of seafood you would want. It was delicious, but the bill was $90! Around by SAGRES, we found a POSADA (state owned hotel). The cost was $70 with breakfast and if you wanted a light supper, add $40. We stayed two days. We were running out of clothes. Could not find a laundromat, so we ended up using a dry cleaners for $35.27-06-01. On to LISBON, which we really liked. Good food and the movies are in English. Also, plenty of radio songs in English. The government believes in showing the movies and playing the music V.O. (version original). Many people in Portugal speak English because of this. Also, a lot of the people work out of the country and return. It reminds me of Mexico. By the way, the room was only $33, but Doug has little red bites all over his body!This weekend we are on the coast north of PORTO and the cost of lodging is $40. Last night was the patron saint day celebration for this town we are in. Last night in the Bull Arena, just below our hotel window, we had the battle of the neighborhoods! Every seat was taken and we stood. It was as tight as Times Square on New Years Eve. The neighborhood bands and the people sang and waved banners. We sang with BARRIO SUL. We soon left with our ears ringing and saw the rest of the show from our hotel balcony. Afterwards, we saw the fireworks, almost over our heads. Stayed for a 2nd night. We liked a restaurant there so good we ate there both nights. One night the meal was a form of Paella and GREEN wine!
On Sunday, we drove out of Portugal and into the mountains of Spain. Stayed at a Parador for $100 with Suite, but no AC.Next day, we drove to Madrid, even though it was hot as HELL. Found a room in Madrid for $45 and stayed for 2 nights.Of course, we are doing the Museums and other stuff in every town we visit. Last night we went to the Berlin Symphony in Madrid. We had to wear long pants and no sandals. These folks are more formal than us. It is OK, but we prefer our way! Check out www.pradaatope.es to see a good restaurant where we ate tapas in Madrid.After Madrid, we drove to the Guggenheim in Bilboa-very nice, but very crowded and Doug thought it was like Disneyland at the Guggenheim. Liked the town of Bilboa-very arty!
After Bilboa, we traveled through beautiful mountains in northern Spain, along the coast where the pines and cliffs meet the Atlantic Ocean.
Traveled into France and visited a chocolate museum where we got to sample the chocolate!Stayed in several beach towns on the Southwest French coast and then headed inland and stayed in a small village called Rocquefort. We attended a bull event in nearby Justin (French Basque Country) where young folks get into a bull ring with a raging bull and play games like Soccor-very scary, but fun. Attended a festival and parade in the evening where they had the battle of the bands.
Traveled on to Albi, where we visited the Toulouse Latrec museum, which was wonderful. Drove through the Dordogne valley in Bordeaux, where there are lots of chateaus. Had a $50 lunch at a chateau. Headed back to the coast and stayed in St. Jean DuLuce. Attended a performance circus with acrobats and trapeze right about our heads in a small tent-so nice! Next, moved on to LaRochelle and drove West to the coast and stayed at a campground on an island on the Atlantic ocean. We stayed in a trailer and had a great time. Fixed racollette cheese and potatoes and drank $5 gallon wine, along with "roasted chicken a-go-go." We stayed for two days, it was so nice! Also, ate paella and danced with the French at a dance held at the campground. Traveled on to another island called Ile Dè Ray which has beautiful flowers and trees.
We are now in Brittany on the coast and headed north to Normandy and the Netherlands. France is so fascinating as it has six distinct regions and we have visited several of them. It is now cooler than Spain and the weather is pleasant. Lodging has been averaging $35-50 per night the last several days. If you wonder what happened to Dianna Ross and Julio Iglqsious-they are appearing in small casinos in Spain and Portugal! Also, Cindy Crawford is advertising toasters and microwaves in Spanish magazines. And, Cher is singing songs in French on the radio!No new plans from now to the 1st of September, except to keep on traveling around by car. We have an apartment in Paris for 2 weeks at $450 per week, then back to London. Return flight on 25th September.
SOME OBSERVATIONS:FOOD: England is about 50% higher than NYC for cheap meals. France is about 50% higher for good meals. We brought and are using the Michelin Red book. We bought the Red book for Spain & Portugal and it works well too.POCKET MONEY: $100 per person per week seems to be enough-same as NYC and Beulaville.In England, there are fuses in the extension electrical cords. Also, it is hard going from 100 channels to 5 channels on the Telly. The inside walls are like trailer houses. Our townhouse outside London was a 20 year old townhouse. The doors are rimmed by the framing making a tighter fit. Everything is small and low-showers, bedrooms, chairs. Also, people in London walk very fast and we got a lot of good exercise walking around, so maybe we will get smaller too! In Spain, we had trouble getting our meal time right. Meals are served in restaurants from 12-2 pm for lunch and AFTER 8 pm for supper. Last night, 6-21, we wanted to go to a dance program at midnight. We could not finish supper in time to go! Such is Spain. Even small children and families are out walking around in the city at 11:00 p.m.!
This is the second leg of our trip. We drove along the Brittany beaches in France. We noticed wild horses on the beach and discovered they were having a horse race on the beach. We attended and Doug won $10 betting on a winning horse. Also, we stayed in a beautiful town in Brittany called Cameret and watched fireworks over the harbor-so beautiful! We traveled on to Normandy and visited the Normandy beaches and WWII memorials last week. This was after leaving some beautiful resort beaches in Brittany.It was sad to see over 9,000 graves of American soldiers buried at Normandy and to see the beaches where all the battles occurred. We also visited the monument at Waterloo where Napoleon was defeated. Also, we saw German bunkers and guns used in the war. We traveled on to Lille, France where we had picked up the car two months ago and then on to Brussels, Belgium.
Brussels is a nice city, but we didn't spend too much time there. Saw their wonderful Fine Arts Museum with famous European artists represented. It rained very hard all day. We traveled to Gent, Belgium where they were having a 10-day fesival with lots of dancing and drinking of beer in the streets. We enjoyed mingling with the locals and drinking good Belgium beer. Went to Brugges, Belgium where lace-making is an art. A tourist town, but very nice! We ate some lamb stew cooked in a mixture using 21 different beers-so good!We left Belgium and headed to the Netherlands on a cobblestone road and stopped for home made ice cream on a farm.
Once in NL, we took a ferry to Middleton, NL, where another street fesitval was being held. We stayed the night and enjoyed the town. Hotels and meals are a bit more expensive in Belgium and NL-average room is $60, while meals average $40 and not as much food as in France! Doug's biggest challenge is getting his coffee served with dessert. In France, coffee is a separate course. Also, getting American coffee is difficult as coffee is very strong in most of Europe.We are now in Rotterdam. Visited the local museum where we saw an art exhibit of Peter Bruegel's work, a Dutch artist. The exhibit will appear at the MET in NYC next fall. So, we will have seen it before the NYC folks see it!
We are headed to The Hague and Amsterdam next. Great art museums in both cities and other sites to see as well. The language in Belgium is Flemish and Dutch in NL. Needless to say, it is hard to understand and even harder to read using our maps. We get lost frequently. Well, onward!22-07-01. NKO will be back on with the sites, but I wanted to tell that we went to the infamous Amsterdam "red light" district. The ladies stand in windows and show off their wares. There were hundreds of windows, but we were there too early. Just a few "thong" shots. One lady even pointed to Nancy as if she preferred her!25-7-01. We are in Goteborg, Sweden after taking a ferry from Denmark. We are enjoying very beautiful scenery in Scandinavia. We attended a opera in the park this evening in Goteborg. This morning,we visited a Viking graveyard in Aalborg, Denmark.27-7-01. We drove to Oslo, Norway and on to the beautiful Fjords of Norway, way up north. The most beautiful, rugged country we have seen, even more breathtaking than the Alps. Reminded us of Alaska with tall, rocky craters coming out of the land with crystal, clear water all around them. A very special part of the world! Scandinavia, especially Sweden, is a very friendly place and most folks speak English, which is good as it would be most difficult for us to speak Swedish. They have words that look like "tkujwyrbte." Just pick any letters of the alphabet, put them together, and you have Swedish! Gorgeous people, most are blonde and blue-eyed, and thin! We are now headed to Stockholm for the weekend.THE BLACK CAT STORYWell, we made it up to the Norway Fjord country. Past OSLO and toward the biggest Fjord in the country, no towns. As a matter of fact, we had to drive through an 18 mile tunnel-so long they pumped a radio station signal in so you did not get too bored!Along the way, two black cats ran out in front of the car. The first one got past the car, but the second one was hit and went under the car. We traveled on, feeling somewhat sad, not knowing that the black cat woould get his or her revenge. Later, after seeing the beautiful Fjords, we were taking the last ferry about 7 p.m. on a Thursday night. Doug noticed some fluid under the car. The radiator was busted! What to do? No car dealers in the area, all shop and parts dealers closed, about 400 miles back to Oslo. We knew we were stuck for at least the weekend. So, we decided to get back past the last ferry. Doug bought a gallon of drinking water and we had a gallon of wine left from FRANCE. So, DOUG CHANGED THE WINE INTO WATER and we took off. After 20 KM, we checked and added a quart of water and so we went on. All through the night we drove, stopping every 40 KM or 25 miles to add water. We did this all the way back to Oslo (400 miles) and arrived at 3am.We napped in a rest area in the car until dawn. We decided to be stuck in STOCKHOLM to get the car fixed, another 400 miles away, and we drove on. About 100 miles from Stockholm, we saw a Peugeot dealer in Orebro, Sweden and stopped. Of course, they could not get the part and fix it until Monday morning at a cost of $220. So, we left the car and took a train to Stockholm for the weekend and got the car on Monday and continued on our adventure. If we had not driven all night and kept the radiator full of water, we would have been stuck in the Fjords for a week! Instead, we got to enjoy beautiful Stockholm and the gorgeous scenery of the Fjords as we drove through the night with the busted radiator. 29-7-01.
We spent a beautiful weekend in Stockholm. We ate a real Swedish smorgasbord, including herring, eel, and reindeer meat. We met a Swedish hot dog vendor who plays professional poker in Las Vegas in the winter. Visited a museum which houses a ship, THE VASA, which sank 400 years ago, but was salvaged from the Stockholm harbor almost intact in 1960. We are staying in Orebro, Sweden, a charming small town two hours from Stockholm. We are headed toward Copenhagen, Denmark tomorrow.Visited Copenhagen and spent the night. We went to Tivoli Gardens, which is kind of honky-tonk, but romantic in a strange sort of way. Also, saw the "Little Mermaid," a famous sculpture down by the docks in Copenhagen. Went to the museums in Copenhagen and headed out.05-08-01.
We are now in Vienna, Austria. We enjoyed the museums in Copenhagen, then took a ferry to Roscoff, Germany and drove to Berlin. Berlin is vibrant and alive, considering it was Communist only 12 years ago. We visited a lot of museums. We stayed 5 minutes from the Berlin Wall site, which was torn down in 1989. Saw "Checkpoint Charlie," which is a tourist trap! We had some very good German food-dumplings, schnitzel. Drove to Dresden in East Germany-beautiful forests nearby. We walked to Poland across the German border for a brief visit. We went swimming at a lake along the road in Germany and it was real nice and refreshing.We drove on to Prague in Czech Republic. It is a wonderful city. We attended a Mozart concert. Drove to Bratislava, capital of Slovania. It was very quiet and kind of scary so we drove on to Vienna, Austria, where we are staying for a few days in a rented apartment.We had a wonderful German meal last night, accompanied by traditional accordion music. We were caught in the rainstorm of the century (or so it seemed) while driving to Slovania yesterday, but we survived! Prices in the Czech Republic were cheap, but Austria is pricey! Also, we were caught in the traffic jam of the century on an interstate yesterday. We got off at a rest stop and took a bike path (with the car) and made it to civilization and our destination. Wonder what happened to Tom Jones? He is appearing in Prague!
We are enjoying the backroads of Europe and seeing a lot of the various countries, even though it might seem we are moving very quickly. We have visited numerous museums and attended wonderful concerts in many of the cities we have visited. People in the Czech Republic spoke a little English, but not much. Even so, they were very friendly and nice. In the traffic jam, we were parked next to a guy from Chicago who grew up in Czech-the world is indeed small! The biggest challenge today is to find a place to wash our clothes (on a Sunday), which is most difficult. We are headed to Salzburg, Austria and southern Germany next (Munich, Bavaria). Then, Switzerland and eventually Paris.16-08-01. We are in Paris, but have had quite a few adventures since Vienna. We had the original Sacher Torte, a wonderful chocolate dessert in Vienna, at the Sacher Hotel. Also, visited Prater Park where "The Third Man" was filmed in the 1940's with Orson Welles. Went to Salzburg, but not very exciting so we drove on through Austria to Switzerland. Drove through southern Austria, near the Italian and Slovenian border, where the mountain scenry is spectacular! Went to Berchesgaarden and Hitler's tearoom and hideaway in a mountain.We took a bus way up the mountain to the hideaway, 6,800 ft., and walked down 4 1/2 miles at a 15 percent grade. The bus ride down was too scary for us! Needless to say, we got our exercise that day. Drove into Munich, Germany for a few beers at the Hofbrau House beer garden and we stayed in Munnich to visit the art museum. Finally found a place to wash clothes in Munnich-so nice to get clean clothes! Drove on to Zurich, Switzerland and spent the night. Drove through the mountains of France and stayed at Chamonix, a great ski resort that Nancy skied at 25 years ago. There is still a lot of snow in the mountains in August and glaciers too! Enjoyed a wonderful dinner of racolette at the chalet we stayed at in Chamonix. As you might deduct, Austria, Italy, France and Switzerland all come together in the Alps. So, we had lunch in Italy, dinner in Austria, and we slept in Switzerland-all in the same day and without driving very far.
Next, we visited Lyon, France. After Lyon, we drove to Nancy, France where Nancy spent her birthday on August 13. We visited several WWI and WWII memorial sites. Also, visited Dacou outside Munnich while there. So sad to see a Jewish concentration camp and be reminded of the horror of Hitler and WWII. Drove along the French/Belgium border as we head to Paris. Very beautiful countryside, as well as through Champagne vineyards close to Paris. We stayed in Disneyland-Paris last night and ate dinner at Billy Bob's, just like in Ft. Worth, TX. They have one at Disneyland-Paris. Shopped at a huge mall near Disneyland yesterday and you would not know you were in Paris-just like any mall in the US-big and crowded with many US stores. We had our hair cut side-by-side at the mall. We both really needed a haircut. Clean clothes and a hair cut-life is good! We are staying in Paris for a few weeks and then on to England (and maybe Ireland) before coming home.31-08-01.
This is the exciting conclusion of our trip. After staying in Paris and Disneyland-Paris for a few days, we drove to Giverney to Claude Monet's house, where he painted beautiful flowers about 100 years ago. We also visited Barbizon outside of Fountainbleu where Millet painted, another famous French painter. Monet's gardens are still kept up, including the lovely lillie ponds he painted.We left Paris beacause all the Parisians are on vacation in August, almost all the good restaurants are closed, and there are no concerts/theater going on. We went to see the movie Jurassic Park II, that is how boring it was there!After leaving Paris, we also visited the Palace at Versailles, a huge place with lots of water fountains. We then drove to Calais, France where we turned in our little Peugeot car and took the ferry to Dover, England. We saw the "white cliffs" of Dover. After taking the train to London, we rented a car and decided to drive around the south of England. I need to mention the folks at Europecar, especially Lola and Kim, were most helpful in getting us a nice VW Golf.We drove to Hastings and Rye on Monday, August 20 where the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066. Also, went to Brighton Beach. By now, Doug was getting frustrated with driving on the left hand side of the road so we called to see if we could get a flight home. Air India accomodated us and we flew back to the good old USA on Wednesday, August 22, 2001. We had seen everything in Europe and drove aproximately 18,000 miles. There was nothing left to see! A wonderful trip!!
Average costs per day for the 90 day trip:
Lodging $66 (next time we can cut this to $10)
Admissions $8 (mainly museums)
Transport $44 (about $15 for car rental and $5 for airplane per day)
Restaurants, Grocery & ATM cash $86
Total costs per Day $204
This was about 15% less than we had planned.
Is this a little or a lot?Depends on your lifestyle!
