Guest Blogger: Travel Etiquette Faux-Pas that Make for a Bitchy Traveler

30 March 2012 by 4 Comments

Ilivetotravel Note:  I saw this post on a friend’s Facebook page and thought it was a perfect reflection on what we, the very-frequent flyers, put up with in the less glamourous type of travel called “business travel”.  Enjoy and thanks to Ashley (@mybookfetish) for a great post!

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That’s me. I’m a bitchy traveler. I admit it. I’m bitchy because I’ve traveled enough over the years that I have learned what I call airport and airplane etiquette and it irks me when people who should know and practice it, don’t.

I’m not talking about the frazzled parents trying to get through security with children and all their paraphernalia. Although, I will offer a word of advice. If you have children, especially small ones, and can avoid it, don’t fly on Monday mornings or Thursday and Friday late afternoons/early evenings. Those flights are lots of single-minded business people, some of whom are really grumpy because the last place they want to be is on a plane. Again. If you can fly on a Tuesday at ten, you’ll find, I believe, a much friendlier group of travel companions.

I’m also not talking about people like my mother who fly maybe once every ten years. But I do coach her when she flies on what to do and what to avoid.

I’m really talking about people who should know better. Below, I present eight travel etiquette rules that have served me well over the last several years.

1. It’s not all about you. Or me. As much as I would like it to be, the airport and that plane are not all about me. Or you. We’re going to be cramped together for some portion of time and the least we can do is be polite and civil. We’re all hot/cold/tired/hungry/anxious to be at our destination.

2. Be kind to the people behind you in the security line. Don’t be like the fellow business traveler I was behind yesterday. The one who held up the conveyor belt of scanned carry on items so that he could reassemble his laptop bag and put back on his shoes and belt before removing a single item from the belt. He could have easily swooped up his belongings and moved to one of the empty benches to regroup. Instead, he let something like six bins and three people pile up behind him and try to maneuver their own gear out of the way.

3. If you approach gate agents, baggage claim workers, and ticket agents with a smile and good manners, you’re much more likely to get what you want if it is in their power to give it to you. Granted, that is not true of all these people. Some have had a really long day. Some just don’t care. But most I have encountered just want to serve their customers and make them happy. Much like we heard when we were children, “please” and “thank you” go a long way.

4.Remember, unless you’re the last to board the plane, someone is boarding behind you.  Don’t stand in the aisle and rustle through your luggage, causing a traffic jam in the aisle behind you. And while we’re on the subject of luggage… unless you’re so tall that you need copious amounts of the leg room under the seat in front of you, use that space for your smaller carry on item.  Especially  if you’re going to be digging into them in the flight, and especially if you have more than one carry on. Give that person who has to board late in the process a chance to store their bag, too. And note to the guy in 15E – you stow your bag under the seat in front of you, not under the seat you are occupying.

5. Don’t be an armrest hog. Yes, it’s more comfortable to have both of them. But make sure your seat mate can use one if needed. I have a tendency to be guilty of this one, which I hate. I make a conscientious effort to remind myself to share. And 15 E? I’m talking to you, again.

6. Stand up and recline carefully. If you absolutely must grab onto the seat in front of you to hoist yourself to your feet for any reason, please, please be aware that the person in said seat can feel you do this. It’s annoying. Also, be careful that you don’t pull the hair of the person in the seat. Please. If you must recline (and who doesn’t like to, at least a little?) please do it carefully. There’s no need to slam back at full force. In fact, do you really need to recline the whole way? Really? Because it can seriously encroach on the comfort of the person behind you, setting off a chain reaction of fully reclined seats where no one is really comfortable. I’m all for reclining a bit, but do it slowly. You don’t know what the person behind you has on their tray table.

7. Be nice to the flight crew. Like the gate agents, a “please” and “thank you” can go a long way with the flight crew. So can giving them the magazine(s) you finished on the flight. Back and forth on planes all day, they must get a little bored. Unless they were on that Jet Blue flight the other day.

8. Good manners apply to deplaning, as well. We all want off the plane. Don’t be an ass while disembarking. It’s that simple.

I’m sure there are tons of etiquette tips I’m forgetting here, so please feel free to add your own, or share your own rude traveler story in the comments.

=== About Our Guest Blogger:  Ashley ===

The Bitchy Traveler is better known as The Book Fetish, a voracious reader and book blogger. When she’s not masquerading as a software implementation manager, she occasionally blogs about something other than what she’s reading.  You can learn more at http://thebookfetishblog.com/, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/thebookfetishblog, or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/mybookfetish

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Ski Gear – from Hell?

26 March 2012 by Leave a Comment

Imagine… 10,000 years from now.  Civilization has disappeared.  Climate change eliminate snowfall.  And some visitors come to the planet to find many items humans had used.  Many will make sense, others will only make sense if they see videos/pictures, and yet others will never, ever, make sense to them.

I just used some of those items that may never, ever, make sense.  I went skiing.

Oh, skiing is an awesome thrill:  the challenge, the scenery, the speed, the almost-falls, the feeling of the air in the face, etc.  I LOVE skiing.  But I HATE ski gear.  I don’t hate it when I look at it at a store.  I don’t hate it when I see others wearing it.  I hate it when I have to deal with my own.

Which psycopath determined that one ought to compress one’s calves into a piece of hard plastic (or whatever boots are made of!)?  Or made the boots so incomprehensibly difficult to put on?  Or made those snap locks so painfully hard to snap?  And what tyrant designed the first ski park such that you have to walk carrying a sh–load of gear across steps and areas with lots of people to watch one stumble or struggle?  Who was the brilliant engineer who designed skis to be so long that a small turn of the body as you carry them can destroy a small building or knock out an innocent?

Yes, I love skiing.  I REALLY do.  But I do suffer through dealing with all that gear.  As my friend and skiing guardian angel said, maybe there ought to be the equivalent of a pool-boy/girl or personal butler for skiing, carrying your gear, putting it on for you, and carrying you to the actual lift?  Just a thought…

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First Experiences in Tanzania – Arrival in Dar es Salaam and Heading to Work

27 February 2012 by Leave a Comment

Before the days of this blog, I would send periodic emails to family and friends about my travel. At first it was report that I’d made it to wherever and then I started adding some of the things I was seeing for no real reason other than I wanted to tell someone about anything interesting I saw from the trivial to the significant. What follows is the email I sent soon after arriving in Tanzania in 2007… Enjoy!

Hello, hope everyone is well. I have been now about 4 days in Tanzania for my work trip. After the long journey here, it is nice to be “settled” into a normal day-to-day living schedule though the first few days I kept waking up way too early for sanity (4 AM, 5 AM, etc.). Today, I slept past the desired wake up time. I think that is a good thing.

So what is my workday like? I start with a FULL breakfast at the hotel since lunch will not be until 1 PM, at the earliest, and since we start at the office at 8 AM. There is nothing in the vicinity of the office where you can buy any snack or other food, so I must load up at the hotel before coming over. No vending machines either. I fear hunger almost as much as I fear critters so I am proactive 🙂

The work location is what looks like an old house, big for the standards of Tanzania but smaller than the McMansions in Atlanta. Being an old house, rooms are small and I imagine some rooms where broken up into offices at some point too. Each little office has its own window A/C unit to keep people cooled. I was actually surprised they had these in every office but I am VERY glad for many reasons. I sit with the IT manager who has technical equipment in her office so her A/C unit works especially well to keep everything cool. I will miss her next week when she will not be at work since her office has to be kept locked due to the equipment and I will not be able to enter it…

Lunch is cooked on site by some ladies they hire to cook lunch for the office. Apparently everyone chips in like a subscription type of scheme because there is nowhere to eat around here. Visitors pay 2,000 shillings for lunch which sounds like a lot but it is less than $2. A bargain for a full plate of rice, a couple of small pieces of meat, beans or vegetables, and some fresh fruit. Around 530 PM we go back to the hotel. We are able to go out if we want but it means a taxi ride as there is nothing near the hotel (it is not near the city center).

Tanzania, unlike other countries where we do work, is quite safe so we are not required to stay in the hotel for our safety. I have heard stories of other countries where once you get to the hotel you must stay in per security standards. Transportation to and from work is provided by the local office, so we don’t have to worry about catching a cab, etc. That is a nice thing.

In the hotel I can get free wireless Internet access, unlike the US where we are squeezed to pay for that in most hotels. However, some nights the Internet connection is down which may have nothing to do with the hotel. That may not be atypical in many of the countries we work in from what I hear. Infrastructure (power, water, etc.) can be rather fragile. I have not experienced power outages in the hotel which is nice because it keeps the A/C on! (I am, I have to say, a little needy that way though I would survive without it if I had no choice which may happen when I travel outside of the big city.)

Alright, this has become quite a long email so I will begin to wrap up. My plans for the next few days are to travel to a town called Mwanza in the NW of the country to visit the field work Saturday and Monday (here is a link to my hotel there http://64.91.230.207/accomdation.html). From there, I get a small break on Sunday to visit the Serengeti National Park (hopefully) (this is where I may stay outside of the park http://www.spekebay.com/). I will return to Dar on Tuesday and probably head out to visit the field in Zanzibar.

Finally, I return to Dar and visit some of the field work done in the urban area here. We do a lot of work here related to health, education and national resource management (I was ignorant about this last area and now I am very curious to see the work we do; there is a strong correlation with national resource development like mining, forestry, etc. and poverty; the former when not managed tends to impact those who live in those areas rather strongly and negatively).

OK, now I will stop.

Filed Under: Africa, Tanzania Tagged With: , ,

My First Landing in Europe – Spain via Amsterdam

21 January 2012 by 2 Comments

Back in early 1992, a couple of friends and I had the flash thought that we needed to go to the Olympics in Barcelona that summer.  Why not, right?  As we started reading about Spain we decided we needed to check out a few places besides Barcelona which was bound to be zoo-like during the Games.  I, having studied high school in a Latin country, knew a lot more than my peers about the historical cities and buildings in Spain (El Alhambra in Granada; la Mezquita de Córdoba; and the importance of Sevilla in the discovery and colonization of the New World by Spain).  I recall one afternoon setting out a large map of Spain on the floor of one of my friend’s apartment and with a book of Spain at hand, set out to plan an itinerary of sorts.  Our third friend wasn’t there but he would be fine with whatever we decided.

Planning the trip

OK, that was the extent of our planning.  Those days being pre-Internet, expensive international long distance and 3 of us very busy guys, we did not further planning than our route and the car rental (if memory serves me right on that last bit).  No hotels, no tickets to events, nothing.  We got our tickets but I was to fly a day earlier and from JFK given where I was at the time.  The two of them would fly in together the next day on a direct flight from Atlanta (I was connecting through Amsterdam for a cheaper flight – important back then as I think I ended up paying on the cheaper flight about $900!).

Crossing the Pond

This was my first time in Europe but not my first time abroad.  I had already been to Panama, Mexico, Chile, and Argentina.  Leaving out of JFK was then, as it still is today, an experience.  What a zoo.  Right after our KLM 747 pulled away from the gate, a TWA plane taking off had to abort the takeoff and crashed (no one died mericfully; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_843).  A sort of benefit from this event is that I now can remember the day I flew to Spain for the first time! (July 30th, 1992).

Anyway, on with the story…  This event resulted in planes not taking off for a few hrs but JFK airport being JFK, people and flights kept piling on so we were not taken back to the gate.  Instead, we sat on the tarmac for about 4 hrs.  The crew decided to go ahead and serve dinner during the period.  The plane was hot and this Norwegian woman around me kept talking non-stop.  I was not a happy camper…  Mercifully, after the dinner service, the plane’s doors were open and staffed by flight attendants (so no one would jump off, I suppose).  This helped make the plane a tad less warm and likely prevented someone from slapping the Norwegian silly.

Of course, this meant I would miss my connection to Madrid in Amsterdam.  I didn’t miss it by much and that probably irritated me more.  But I have to say the travel gods were smiling upon me.  Can you imagine if my first landing in Europe with a missed connection had been in CDG??  That would have been a dreadful experience and I am glad I was at beautiful and efficient Schiphol!

In Madrid – Olé

KLM properly took care of putting me on another flight to my destination so I boarded an Iberia flight a couple of hours later to get to Madrid.  Of course I was jetlagged but the excitement of being in Europe carried me through.  I don’t recall at this point how much I may have slept on the trans-Atlantic flight (I am not a big plane sleeper) but I remember dozing off on the way to Madrid.  I had done some research on how to get to town and had ended up booking a hostal for my first night in Madrid (we were to leave Madrid the next day after my friends landed).

An easy bus ride from the airport to Plaza Colón dropped me, off for little money, a few blocks from my hostal.  I don’t know if it was technically a hostal but it was like a massive apartment (or several) that an older couple ran (Hostal Principado, near the Thyssen Museum).  The room was small but clean and efficient.  However, it got loud outside late at night and I learned my first lesson on bringing along earplugs!

I used the rest of the day to walk around and explore.  Thanks to trip notes I took at the time, I remember that I walked around the Parque del Retiro then headed to the Puerta del Sol and ended up having tapas at the Cervecería Alemana, back then recommended by my guide book.

Parque del Retiro

The next day, I took the same bus back to pick up my friends at the airport.  These not being the days of international ATM’ing, we headed to the American Express office to exchange currency prior to heading to the Chamartín train station to book our train tickets for the overnight ride to Barcelona.  One of my friends didn’t speak anything but English and the other, son of Colombian parents raised in the U.S., understood some but couldn’t speak Spanish much which meant I did a lot of the talking – which was fine by me!  By the way, we did all this carrying our bags with us (shoulder bag for me)!

We explored some of Madrid that day to keep everyone awake and since we had no accommodations in Madrid as I had checked out of the hostal.  (Thinking back, why didn’t I ask them if I could leave my bags and my friends’ bags during that day???)  We went to the Palacio Real, Madrid’s awesome Plaza Mayor, and walked to the Gran Vía (a main avenue in Madrid; a great bakery in Puerto Rico which sourced many a birthday cake in our family!).  We walked back to the Paseo del Prado (the road where the Prado museum is located) and we decided to just head to the train station from there.

We got lucky that we got a 6-bed compartment (two bunks of 3 beds) just for the 3 of us so we could spread out.  Not having been in a real train before, much less overnight, I didn’t sleep soundly but well enough for the purpose.

Our Olympic adventure in Barcelona, subject of my next entry, was about to start!

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Steve Jobs, Technology and Travel

6 October 2011 by Leave a Comment

Steve Jobs’ passing should come as no surprise.  We are all going to die someday.  What seems is so different about his is that it is about someone who in the span of sort of 30-35 years brought about a revolution in how technology fits into our lives.  Or better said, of how our lives are enabled by the technology around us.

Let’s not overstate it (e.g., he didn’t invent microwaves, cable TV, remote controls, cell phone technology).  Yet, nothing in technology has become so ubiquitous and so TRANSFORMATIVE as the personal computer and the derivative devices that made him so iconic (iPad, iPod, iPhone).  Yes, the microwave transformed a potential kitchen slave into a cooking-slacker.  No small contribution there and this writer is especially thankful.

Yet, the technology that we now live with and cannot live without – and which a generation ALREADY ALIVE will not understand how the world operated without it – was brought forth by innovation and a wave of creativity that Steve Jobs helped unleash.

The power of technology to transform our lives is evident to all of us and we can all think about how it has made our lives easier.   I think about how travel has been made so much easier because of how technology has revolutionized just about every aspect of our lives…

Back in 1991 I was sent to Chile to work for a few months.  Some of the ways I had to operate and live were so much harder due to being abroad.

  • Back then ATMs existed but the international network either did not exist or did not exist in Chile.  I could not withdraw money for my daily life as I would use in the U.S.  Now security and communications technology make this a no-brainer.  In fact, sometimes I may not need cash or a credit card but could use my device!
  • To call the U.S. and speak with family was prohibitively expensive, at the tune of $2/min.  Forget about calling friends.  I remember one of the most expensive calls was calling my grandmother in Miami.  We talked for about an hour.  Looking back it was money very well spent as it would be one of the last times I ever talked to her.  Now?  Goodness, first, international LD is not that expensive; callback schemes make it even cheaper.  Skype has made it even free if you have the right connection!  And, let’s not forget – I can be walking around town and talk to someone.  Back then maybe a cordless phone in the apartment was the extent of the freedom (we forget even these small details!).
  • Expensive phone calls took care of staying in touch via live voice but surely a quick mass email, no?  No.  It was snail mail or nothing.  I did write a few letters – I had to keep in touch with my Mom, sister, grandmother, Father, relatives, etc.  But who wants to sit down and write a letter on paper?  Back then I was used to it as I wrote to my grandmother usually once or twice a month but when I was in another country, making new friends, exploring in my early 20s, who wanted to sit down and write a letter by hand??  Use MS Word you say?  It did not exist in our work PCs (in Chile OR in the US).  Now we can SMS from our phones, email from any Internet kiosk or handheld, tweet every thought anywhere as we move about, etc.
  • I explored a bit of Chile and loved Santiago.  Sharing that with friends?  Mailing post cards to my closest friends was the extent of it and some did not arrive.  No posting tweets about the sight I am currently looking at, nor blogging about the discoveries I was making.  Much less anyone clicking Like or leaving a comment to let me know they got it, they liked it, and that I was not forgotten!
  • As I explored, I loved taking pictures of everything and anything that struck my fancy.  That meant buying film, developing it, throwing away many pix, realizing some pix did not turn out how I wanted & regretting the lost chance, and then I had to carry TONS of pix back to the States when I returned.  My family and friends, if they ever saw them, had to wait until I saw them in person to see my pix.  And how many sessions of show-and-tell did I really want to do anyway?  My friends in Chile (which included other expats from the U.S. and Argentina) also took a lot of pix and we all wanted copies of each others’ pix.  I remember a session we had one night at my apt where everyone brought their pix and negatives and every marked which pix they wanted a copy of so then they could be made.  And everyone paid for their copies.  Think of the logistics!  Today?  God, so simple:  the moment you take the pic you know if you have what you want; load them in Flickr, Facebook, whatever, and your family and friends can see what you are exploring; having them uploaded, other friends who traveled with you can get their own copies made and no work for you.  SO SIMPLE!
  • Even how we research, book, and manage our travel is so much easier and user-friendly.  First, we have the Internet to do research with whether it’d be travel sites, Twitter, etc.  Before it was just books.  Second, we can price shop from the comfort of our couch and do it at our pace, etc without being forced to go to a travel agency.  Third, we can book/modify/cancel at the click of a mouse.  Fourth, we can use tools like TripIt and Kayak’s MyTrips to keep track of it all!  Before, it was once you get the paper ticket, hold on to it carefully, put it all in one place, and maybe write down by hand the specifics of your itinerary.
  • In a new town and all of a sudden out of ideas of where to eat or what are good places?  Before, you were limited to the local info or the travel book which could be dated.  Today?  Jump on TripAdvisor and check out the latest reviews and contribute your own.  Not sure where the restaurant is?  Click on the address and find it on a map that is telling you exactly where you are as well.

I am glad I have been alive to see these improvements which have greatly enabled me to enjoy my travels even more!

So Steve Jobs (or his company) may not have invented all these things but he was a catalyst for bringing computing power and technology into the consumer’s hands – literally.  His influence has shaped our world and helped improved how we live.  He and other innovators and creators have transformed the world during my lifetime through technology.  He was the most visible of these and, as the icon of this technology revolution, he will be missed.  RIP.

 

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Photo of the Week – Grapes of Bordeaux

5 September 2011 by Leave a Comment

Visiting Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou in St. Julien was a neat experience since we got a private tour.  But, of course, my eyes go to the grapes and the vines.  Thinking how these little round things will produce a wonderful liquid for us humans to enjoy…  This picture is to not me about perfection in photographic technique but about the grapes, full of color, full of pulp, and ready to be taken…

grapes, vine, Bordeaux, France

 

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Photos of the Week – Sights of Chile

13 August 2011 by Leave a Comment

I loved Chile from a 3-month stint there 20 yrs ago before I went back in Dec 2009.  I have written about what I saw, did and felt in other entries in my blog so I won’t repeat myself, but I continue to long to go back even after spending all of 2010 in Chile…  Why?  Well, take a look below and read my other entries about Chile (https://ilivetotravel.me/tag/chile/)

Lagunas Altiplánicas in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile

Near the Lagunas Altiplánicas

Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile

Tourists REALLY enjoying the Torres del Paine scenery

Punta Arenas

In Punta Arenas

North of Puerto Natales in Chile's Patagonia

North of Puerto Natales in Chile’s Patagonia

Near the Salar de Atacama in Chile

Near the Salar de Atacama in the Atacama desert

Fonicular and stairs in Valparaiso, Chile

The hills of Valparaiso! Steps and foniculars!

Skiing in Valle Nevado outside of Santiago, Chile

Skiing in Valle Nevado right outside Santiago

Great summary of the juxtaposition of old and new in Santiago: the Cathedral and a building across the street

Great summary of the juxtaposition of old and new in Santiago: the Cathedral and a building across the street

Scenery from the Cueva del Milodón in the Chilean Patagonia

Scenery from the Cueva del Milodón in the Chilean Patagonia

Saving the best for last... What I really miss is seeing this just about every day I was in Santiago...

Saving the best for last… What I really miss is seeing this just about every day I was in Santiago…

Filed Under: Chile, South America Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chandeliers of The Hermitage

16 July 2011 by 1 Comment

While I am not obsessed with chandeliers and the like, I noticed after getting home from visiting St. Pete (as I call it), how many pictures of chandeliers I took at The Hermitage (and of the ceilings).  They are definitely elegant but their designs were not too stuffy.  Not being a connoisseur, but still having opinions, I would say they were made to be interesting not over-bearing.  (Click on the picture to see a larger version.)

Any experts out there who can enrich the readers??

 

 

Filed Under: Europe, Russia, Special Photos Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Exploring Some of Copenhagen, Denmark

26 June 2011 by Leave a Comment

My trip to Copenhagen involved 9 people from three different starting points.  My aunt and uncle from Miami drove to Tampa to meet the rest of the group (minus me) there.  Then the group was flying from Tampa to Atlanta to then connect with me at Hartsfield to catch the flight to Copenhagen.  Needless to say, everyone was excited and eager to get the show on the road a few months after the trip was first conceived.

The flight over to CPH was mercifully very smooth.  Not so the reception by the Danish immigration official who, for some strange reason, threw my 68-yr old Mom’s passport back at her so that it went all the way to the edge of the counter and fell to the floor (she had not said anything to him so he could not have taken issue with her on anything she said).  That must have satisfied some power trip or, we hoped not, given us a first glimpse how we would be treated in Denmark.  Fortunately, the latter did not seem to be the answer.  But, Denmark, those first impressions count…  In any case, after some initial confusion for some family members as to currency conversion and the ATM machine, we proceeded to load 9 of us in 3 taxis and head to the hotel – the Copenhagen Marriott where my points took care of the rooms (!!).

The hotel is beautiful and has a good location along the canal which gives it great views over to Christianhavn and, on the opposite side, to the city.  The area where the hotel is does not have restaurants or shops right there, though they are a 10 min walk away which is not too bad.

The red “M” is the location of the Marriott

After settling in and a quick break from all the traveling, we opted to do a Hop-On/Hop-Off (the yellow route)  the first day to orient ourselves and take it relatively easy for my parents, aunt, and uncle (less walking).  It was a great way to get our bearings as well as see some of the city.  As we got off the bus after having completed a loop, the green route bus was about to leave on its last run of the day so we jumped on it to get to see other parts of town like Christiania and Christianhavn.  The ticket for the bus was valid for 2 days which was perfect as we then took it the next day as a way to move between the attractions that were furthest from each other.  I normally would walk everywhere but given the group, it made tons of sense to use the bus to our advantage.

One of our first stops was the Little Mermaid.  I personally do not quite see it as something worth all the attention – there are so many statues in most cities – but because it is so famous, I agreed we had to see it.  I expected to be further from land that it was.  Mercifully, the bus made a 15-min stop there since there is not much else to do right there and saved us standing waiting for the next bus…  Our next stop was to see the Anglican Church , the Resistance Museum (http://www.copenhagenet.dk/CPH-Map/CPH-Resistance.asp), and the Gefion Fountain .  All this was next to the Kastellet or citadel dating from 1662 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kastellet,_Copenhagen) which we did not get to explore to my chagrin. The Resistance Museum was free, as were other museums in the city, and was very well laid out to present the story of Denmark during WW II.  I enjoyed learning about WW II from the perspective of a country other than the big ones (Germany, France, the US, the US, and the USSR) and to learn about the courage of those who tried to resist and fight.

Copenhagen does have a few current and former palaces all in relative close proximity.  Amalienborg is the one where the current monarch resides.  It is one of 4 buildings placed around a plaza that is open to the public.  Another of the 4 buildings is where the crown prince lives.  We got there, by coincidence, when the change of guard was taking place.  It was unique in that there are guards at each of the 4 buildings so the change of guards was longer than I am used to.

Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark

Amalienborg Palace

After walking around Nyhavn, a canal lined with colorful and beautiful buildings (though maybe too crowded), we walked down the Stroget, the pedestrian shopping street in the city center.  As it turned out, Carnival was being celebrated (though it was June!) so the walk became much more interesting than originally expected!

Parade in Copenhagen, Denmark

Our most memorable meal in Copenhagen was a small place called Restaurant & Cafe Nytorv, sort of hidden away in the middle of things, fairly close to the Stroget.  I had a fried pork place that was delicious.  And the decor felt more like a smalltown eatery than a restaurant in a European capital, which was exactly what I was hoping for so big thumbs up.

It is worth noting that exploring the opposite side of the Stroget from Nytorv gets you to where a church and a university are.  The residential streets in that area are worth walking around as they give a different feel for the place.

Other key sights were the City Hall Square, the Tivoli Gardens (which we actually did not visit), the Danish Museum, Rosenborg Palace, and Christianborg Palace.  Lots to see in this city and, unfortunately, not enough time…

Filed Under: Denmark, Europe Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Where Have I Been? My Countries Visited Map

23 June 2011 by Leave a Comment

So here is my countries-visited map as of today…  Filling out a part of the map seems a possible criteria to determine my next set of destinations.  Well, I would not pick probably based on that but it sure is tempting!

For example, Ireland and Portugal would close up a good part of Europe.  Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica would close up Central America – and so close to home!  South America looks more daunting with the 3 “Guianas/Guyanas” and Venezuela being part of what is left…  Africa, well filling out a part of the map quickly would not be possible.  But the map shows that perhaps I need to put some red in western Africa…  I also see a big pocket in southern Asia where I need to paint red…

I seem to have been hitting the Balkan area in the last 2 years by serendipity really:  a wedding in Bulgaria, a wedding party in Greece, hopping from Italy to nearby Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Montenegro, and -soon- a hike in Romania for an orphanage.  I think God wants me to cover the Balkans so I may add Serbia or Moldova when I head to Romania!  (I realize I am stretching the definition of the Balkan peninsula!)

In the end, it will boil down to when I can travel, the local season (for example, Greenland in January would not be my choice), cost, possibility of traveling with someone, etc.  I love the uncertainty because all options are open!

As of May 2012 :  (added Caribbean islands and Balkan countries)

As of June 2011 :

Filed Under: Travel Stories Tagged With: ,

Photo of the Week – Suitcase of the Past

23 June 2011 by Leave a Comment

I, for one, am glad luggage has evolved since the days when this was what you had to lug around an airport and through security.  OK, those were not the things of the time but this trunk still had to be moved around!  (From a small museum in Madison, GA)

Filed Under: Travel Stories Tagged With: , , ,

Photo of the Week – New for the Blog!

6 June 2011 by Leave a Comment

A new add-on to the blog… I have so many pictures from the places I have been to… since pictures sometimes say more than 1,000 words (or “1K” words to be more modern…), I’d thought I’d share them.  No use just having them on my laptop!  Though I will not be able to post the next couple of weeks (I may post a second one this week to make up for it), no sense waiting to kick it off!

This is from a trip in 1998 when we took a felucca down the Nile for a 24-hr voyage.  We slept on the felucca, outdoors (a first for me).  It was cold in the evening and we had blankets that probably dated to the 1950s when they were last washed.  But they were heavenly given how cold it was…  Waking up to this in such a unique place in the world was a great experience and one of my best memories.

Filed Under: Africa, Egypt Tagged With: , , , ,
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