GlobeDiva Travels

I've Moved!

2009-12-21T22:38:00.001-06:00

On the off chance than anyone lands here wondering why there are no new posts lately, please go to GlobeDiva Travels (http://globedivatravels.com) and visit my newly, self-hosted blog!

I appreciated your checking-in!

Monica

Budget for Your Vacation--Pt. 4 (Lodging-Agriturismi)

2009-12-15T19:30:00.001-06:00

Continuing my series on How to Budget for your Vacation, we've been discussing all the very different forms of lodging for travelers. We've talked about hostels, bed & breaksfasts, local vs. chain hotels, and today we'll be focusing on Agriturismi.

An agriturismo (the singular ends with an "o" and the plural ends with an "i") by definition is a combination of the words "agriculture" and "tourism" in Italian and is what might be referred to as "farm holidays" or "vacation farms" in other countries. For the sake of simplicity, in this post, I'll be referring to the Italian agriturismo but with the awareness that other countries offer the same, or similar, types of vacations.

The positives and negatives regarding a stay at an agriturismo need to be weighed out as you're planning your vacation. Because this form of lodging is on a farm, it is typically in a somewhat rural location that has to be arrived at by car so if you're planning on using nothing but public transportation for your European vacation, you should take that into consideration. Having said that, there are some agriturismi out there that might be willing to make arrangements to meet you at the local train station upon arrival. However, realize that without a car, if you're planning on seeing some of the local sights, unless you are within walking distance of the nearest village, you will be "stuck" at your agriturismo until it's time to leave. Of course if this leg of your vacation is strictly for rest and relaxation, you've chosen the right place in which to be "stuck"!

Agriturismi offer a wide variety of venues suitable for every type of traveler. Solo travel or family vacations, rustic or luxurious locations, romantic or girlfriend getaways, there are agriturismi for every type of traveler. There are even some hostels set up in family farmhouses or barns in Italy as well as other countries. On the whole, agriturismi are family-owned, family-run businesses that allow the owners to subsidize the income from their farm through the agriturismo thus allowing the traveler, YOU, to experience what life is like in the rural part of the country that you are visiting. This is the perfect way to rejuvenate during your frantic, "have to see everything" European vacation. The whole point of an agriturismo is to slow down and enjoy the surrounding countryside. Drink in the vistas as you drink your wine. Appreciate the sunset as you work your way through a four or five course dinner. Enjoy your morning cappuccino after a swim. You can do that here. You SHOULD do that here!

Most agriturismi offer at least one meal with your lodging and the other meals can be paid for separately. Because most agriturismi are working farms, the meals almost always consist of products grown and/or raised on the farm, and also sometimes found locally. For this reason alone, you will want to have all your meals at your agriturismo. This is your chance to indulge yourself in the local food and wine. This is one of the reasons you came to Italy, no?

Agriturismi sometimes offer specialty vacations for aspiring cooks, wine lovers, and even those who wish to learn the Italian language. These are great second and third vacations when you've traveled to Italy once or twice already and you're ready to just spend some time in the Umbrian or Tuscan countryside.

Personally, I've never spent time in an agriturismo, but the next time I travel to Italy, I plan on spending at least 3-5 days at one. I've got one picked out already and I'm excited at the prospect of enjoying the Italian countryside as I enjoy the local food and sip on a glass of vino.

How to find the right agriturismo for you? There are several websites specializing in agriturismi. I can send you some links if you'd like to drop me a line. Better yet, save yourself some time and energy and hire someone like me to research them for you.

In my next "Weekend Word to the Wise", I'll share with you how I decided on which Agriturismo I'm planning on visiting. It's an easy way for you to get ideas and discover places you might want to visit on your dream vacation as well. On our next post about lodging, I'll be discussing eco-hotels and eco-vacations.

Until then, stop dreaming about your next vacation and let's go!

Blog Lists, Guest Posts, and other Housekeeping Stuff

2009-12-08T20:13:00.001-06:00

I just wanted to take a minute of your time and enlighten you all with a few new things on the blog page and some upcoming changes for the future.

First, if you look to the left of the blog posts, you'll see a section just below the "Subscribe To" section called "My Blog List". This list is comprised of links to other bloggers I'd like you all to take a minute to check into and read whenever you've got some spare time. There is some good information to be found on each and every one of these sites.

They are in no particular order so first on the list is Wandering Off. Wandering Off is another San Antonio blogger writing about family-oriented places to visit and some wonderful pictures of the places she and her family see in their travels.

A View to A Thrill is another awesome travel blog with some solid travel advice for going places "on the cheap" as well as first-hand travel reports from all the places she visits.

Gap Year Escape focuses on travel during what is referred to as the "gap year" in most European countries. "Gap year" is the year between graduation from what we call high school and the first year of University education. European students are encouraged to travel in their gap year and this blog gives those looking for ideas on where to travel alot of great ideas. Look for a guest post from me in the very near future.

The UnRoad Warrior is your resource for how to maximize your airline miles, hotel points, and how to make the most of your loyalty programs. This blog is an awesome resource for anything related to airlines, hotels, and anything else not road related.

Darn Good Digs is a fantastic resource for finding original and inviting small hotels, B&B's, and hostels. If you're looking for a darn good dig under $150.00 a night, this blog is for you!

And finally, Travel Titbits is a fantastic combination feature articles, destination guides for favorite holiday getaways, and travel related news. Look for GlobeDiva's article on "Il Campo di Fiori" in their features section.

All of these blogs are participating in a link exchange with GlobeDiva Travels and I'm happy to be able to exchange links with some other great travel bloggers!

And just a few more housekeeping things before I end this post. A quick disclaimer for this blog and all the other things you see featured on here. With the exception of the links I introduced you to above, you can safely assume that anything else you click on that says "Reserve Now" or "Ads by Google" or "I Recommend" by Amazon, or "Travel Gadgets" or "Create Your Own Package" will lead you to a website or store that is offering me some small remuneration or payment (usually about 5-10% or less) for your clicking on it. When you click on the link for "GlobeDiva Travel Planners" you are taken to my booking site where you can book your own airfare, hotels, rental cars, and other vacation packages. In the near future, I plan on doing some product reviews and when I do them, you can rest assured that I DO NOT and WILL NOT receive any money or remuneration when I offer you my reviews or recommendations.

And finally, in the next month or so, I hope to be moving towards self-hosting. This means that I will be paying a server to host my blog and it will be all my own. Blogspot has been great as I've started out but I need to get a little bigger and need a few more functions so I need to move onward and upward, hopefully, taking you all with me on the way.

Thanks for your patience and your patronage. All of you, my lovely readers, are greatly appreciated!!

Weekend Word to the Wise (Lodging)

2009-11-29T12:26:00.001-06:00

This weekend's word to the wise is related to my recent blog post about local hotels vs. chain hotels.

Even though I advocate booking local hotels during your travels, whether domestic or international, there is a great way to incorporate your chain hotels into your travels.

On my last trip to Europe, I initially flew to Madrid to spend several days with family and then flew to Rome for a couple of weeks. I had rented a room in downtown Rome but had to be out of there the day before my flight back to Madrid and my final flight from Madrid, back home to the U.S.

I did a little research and found that the points I could accumulate on my Hilton Rewards program would be quite a bit more with an international hotel, so I made the decision to stay at a Hilton by the airports in Rome and in Madrid. My logic was that since my both flights out were very early and I was using public transportation, a chain hotel would work better for me than booking a room in the city and waking up super early to catch a cab or take a train to the airport.

The positives of using a chain hotel for me were as follows:

I would be staying in very comfortable rooms with free wi-fi access.
I would have a nice restaurant, a spa & indoor swimming pool within very easy reach.
I would be close to the airport and could utilize the hotel's free shuttle to the airport instead of taking a train or subway in from the city. I would be dropped off directly in front of my terminal.
I could take the day to relax, read, swim, eat and generally, rest up before my flights' and the impending jet-lag.
I would be accumulating extra reward points.

It might not sound like much but I think it's the perfect combination of lodging when traveling, especially when flying.

Yes, you will probably be giving up that last day of potential sight-seeing or souvenir shopping, but for me, the time to rest and relax before having to deal with airports and overcrowded flights is worth the trade.

Believe it or not, my room in Madrid was only $100.00 and the room, as well as the hotel, were wonderful! In Rome, my room was about $110.00 but the hotel spa and pool more than made up for the extra expense. I spent both days swimming, munching, reading, internet surfing, photo organizing and blogging. Those days also ended up being the coldest of my visit so I was more than happy to stay inbound, warm & cozy. I also saved the money I would have used for a taxi or train ride to the airport.

Review your budget and check out the rates before you leave for your trip. If you're flying, that last day of your travels could be the perfect day to get some rest and prepare yourself for the hectic pace of traveling set before you. I prefer to book these types of stays in advance. It is possible that the exchange rate for international destinations will change but I prefer the peace of mind knowing that my room is reserved and ready for me when I arrive. If you prefer not to do your own research or booking, or you don't have time to do the research yourself, contact a travel planner/travel agent (LIKE ME!) to do it for you.

In my humble opinion, this is the best way to incorporate local hotels with chain hotels in your travels.

Budget for Your Vacation--Pt. 4 (Lodging-Hotels: Locals vs. Chains)

2009-11-28T13:59:00.001-06:00

So, let me start by recapping my series on Budgeting for Your Vacation.

In Budgeting for Your Vacation--Pt. 1, we talked about saving for your vacation and I provided you all with some great links that can help you learn to budget your finances with your dream vacation in mind.

In Part 2 of my Budgeting for Your Vacation series, I recommended some good websites to help you start tracking flight costs and we talked about some easy ways to help you start putting aside some money for your vacation.

Part 3 of my Budgeting for Your Vacation series talked about figuring out what type of traveler you are. Figuring out the type of traveler you are will help you to start to budget and will ultimately help you learn how it will impact your overall budget. I also provided you with some fun links to quizzes that might help you figure out your "travel type".

Budgeting for Your Vacation--Part 4 is focused on all the different options for lodging that you will be encountering as you plan your vacation. We've discussed Hostels, Bed & Breakfasts, and in this post I'll be discussing Hotels and the advantages and disadvantages to booking a local hotel versus a chain hotel.

Let's talk about chain hotels first. Most of us have a favorite chain hotel. If you do a lot of local travel for work or are a long getaway weekend person, you probably already stay at one particular chain over the others. You already have an idea of how that hotel chain operates and have had some good experience in the past with that particular chain. If you don't have a favorite chain, you might be more inclined to book according to your budget and you take what you can get unless it's completely unsatisfactory.

At this point, let me just say that if you're booking according to budget and you don't work with a particular chain, you might be doing yourself a disservice. Chain hotels are no longer exclusive to one particular hotel. Each chain is comprised of many different hotels with many different budget ranges and finding something in your budget within that chain is easier than you think. The reason, I say you might be doing yourself a disservice is that when you stick with a particular chain and you sign yourself up with their rewards program, your stays can accumulate points for you and can get you some nice freebies in the long run.

For example, I try to stay in any hotel within the Hilton chain. Hilton's program lets you earn points for your stay, miles for your mileage reward program, or a combination of the two. It's a great program and each individual hotel has its own little set of freebies associated with your level. Admittedly, it's not much at the beginning but a free newspaper, free in-room wi-fi, or a couple of free bottles of water are free and can save you a few dollars a day and that works just fine for me!

In addition to the loyalty programs with larger chain hotels, chain hotel locations are usually excellent, and you are all but guaranteed English speaking staff and some sort of overall familiarity. The downside of staying at a chain hotel is that you might not get a sense of the local ambiance, you'll probably be paying more than at a local hotel, and customer service, although good, might not be of a local flavor.

Locally owned hotels can be large, small, fancy, exclusive, earthy, and bare bones. Do some research before you choose a local hotel. I did quite a bit of research before choosing my local hotels. I've mentioned this website before but JourneyWoman is a GREAT resource for women traveling anywhere in the world. Before I went to England, I read through JourneyWoman's website and found The Cherry Court Hotel. I chose this hotel because other women traveling solo had chosen it as well. There was CCTV at the entrance and lobby area which made me feel safe. It had an awesome location about 1-2 blocks from Victoria Station. It had free wi-fi and provided a simple fruit basket for breakfast every morning. It's been in business for 25 years and other women travelers said they felt safe in the neighborhood and liked the owners. The nice part for me was also price. When I went to London, the British Pound was 2:1 so to be able to stay in central London for less than $100.00 a night was a bargain! Chain hotels would not have been able to match that rate in London.

Another great resource to find local hotels are your guidebooks. I talked about guidebooks in one of my Weekend Words to the Wise posts. Most guidebooks will make recommendations on lodging for all types of budgets. You will RARELY find a chain hotel mentioned in a guidebook. And that is because you aren't traveling to any of these places to remind yourself of America...you're going to experience the country you are visiting!

In Madrid, Spain, I found the hotel we stayed at mentioned in several different guidebooks with excellent reviews anywhere I searched for customer reviews. Hotel Europa in Madrid is centrally located on Plaza del Sol. It is an easy walk to the subway, it has a cafe downstairs with good food for any meal. Wi-fi is available in the lobby and in your room for an extra fee. The staff are friendly and knowedgable. Best of all, it's less than $100.00 a night for an excellent location with clean rooms.

Don't get me wrong. I think there's a place for chain hotels in our travels and in my next Weekend Word to the Wise, I'm going to talk about how to use locals and chains to make your trip an awesome experience.

Just remember that in your travels, whether in the U.S. or Internationally, local hotels can be a safe and economical part of your travels that you shouldn't discount.

Weekend Word to the Wise (Saving)

2009-11-21T21:27:00.000-06:00

Today, my partner told me about an article she read in the November issue of Real Simple magazine.

In the very short article, the writer shared a tip he used to save money so he and his family could go on vacation. He stated that he used cash to pay for everything. When he received his change, if he got a $5 bill returned, he folded the bill differently than the rest of his cash and when he got home, he immediately put the $5 bill into an envelope and when he accumulated $50, he would deposit the money into a special, separate, savings account so he would never be tempted to spend the cash or to transfer the money from savings into his checking account. In a year, he had saved $2000, enough to take his wife and two children on vacation.

Back in September 2009, I wrote a post about Budgeting for Vacation and talked about different methods for saving for your dream vacation. This short article is a perfect example of what I was talking about!

It is possible to put aside enough money to go wherever you want to go. It doesn't matter if it's Europe or Florida. If you want to get there, you CAN do it!

Foodie Break #2 or How to Travel Without Really Traveling

2009-11-19T12:28:00.001-06:00

I've got the travel bug again and that shouldn't be new to anyone who knows me. I seem to get the itch a few months after my last big trip has ended.

But, if you're anything like me, you're not rich and leaving your job to travel for a few weeks isn't always possible so what options do we really have? We could do some nice, little, extended weekend trips in or around where we live (like I did a couple of weeks ago) or we could find some kind of substitute for the actual travel. This blog sort of helps me to do that.

The other thing we can do is eat!

Yes, you heard me, we can EAT! If you can find an authentic, ethnic restaurant in your city that reminds you of that little trattoria down the street from your B&B in Italy, or maybe a pub around the corner from your job that kind of looks like the place you ate at while you were in London, go there and EAT!

Enjoy the food, pretend you're in London or Italy. If you're lucky, the owners might actually be from there and if you're extra lucky, maybe they'll be serving some of the original recipes from their country. Don't go to Olive Garden and pretend it's Italy because they don't even come close! Don't head to Long John Silver's and put vinegar on your fries and pretend it's the same as the fish and chips you bought in London because malt vinegar does not make it British fish and chips! Go as authentic as you can and immerse yourself in the cuisine, the ambiance, and the food. Don't just plow through it all. Examine the decor, sniff the air, and talk to waitstaff or the owner. Find out what prompted them to open this restaurant. Take your time and eat like an Italian or Spaniard or whatever culture you're enjoying. Eat several courses and enjoy each one with some wine. You don't do this all the time so indulge yourself a little!

I have the good fortune of living in a city with some nice alternatives for food, restaurants, and eating.We're also fortunate enough to have several cooking schools as well. We have The Culinary Institute of America-San Antonio which hosts a regular cooking school as well as classes for the cooking enthusiast and we have Central Market Cooking School which brings in some great chefs from all over the world for demonstrations and tastings. We also have smaller, private schools that teach private lessons for all age ranges.

I mention the cooking schools, Central Market in particular, because In my next post, I'm going to write a bit about how I was able to leave San Antonio and visit Tuscany for a few hours and show you how to get away, even if it's just for an evening, and either recapture a recent trip or whet your appetite for the one to come.

Weekend Word to the Wise (Rest & Relaxation)

2009-11-14T09:43:00.001-06:00

Sometimes when we travel, we are in such a hurry to make our arrangements, we do a quick search, find what we think we're looking for and go. It's not uncommon. We're busy people and just squeezing in a few days away is a task in itself. Some of us have children, some of us have pets, weekends are busy and filled with all the things we can't manage to get done during the week. So when we finally make the decision to get away somewhere for a few days, we find the quickest solution and go with it.

But what if we were able to stop, take a breath, and take a minute to think about what our needs might be when we're traveling. Sometimes a hotel is our best option, but what if we could find something for the same price or less that helps us feel more "at home" than a standard hotel room?

I recently took a couple of days off work and my partner and I went to Port Aransas, Texas to spend some time on the beach. I found some very decently priced hotels very close to the beach but none of them accepted pets. (Our dogs don't like kennels and we don't blame them.) I did a search for cabins & bungalows and found some cottages two blocks from the beach. The price range for these cabins in the off season ranged from $69-$120 a night. We chose the medium sized cabin for $89 a night. Our cabin had a queen-sized bed, a small living area, a full kitchen and bathroom. The complex was clean and well lit at night. There were barbecue pits and picnic tables outside for guest use. Pets were welcome with no extra fees. And we were easy blocks to the beach.

Directly across the street from where we stayed was a chain hotel offering a standard room for $99 a night. They accepted pets also but with an extra $10 a night fee and did offer complimentary continental breakfast.

So, for less than the price of a standard room, we found a nice, homey place to spend a few days with our dogs in a cabin that was one of first beach cabins to be built in Port Aransas.

I suppose my whole point is that sometimes in the middle of our hectic attempts to make time for some well deserved rest & relaxation, it's good to take a deep breath, count to 10 and rethink your options. You might find you have more of them than you thought you did!

I'm Still Here!

2009-11-10T19:14:00.000-06:00

I haven't forgotten you all. As a matter of fact, I have lots to blog about but time has been against me lately so my posts have gone on the back burner for a short time.

I spent a wonderful few days at Port Aransas, Texas and did a quick overnight visit to Fredricksburg, Texas and have some photos to prove it! Hopefully, I'll have some time this weekend to give everyone a "Weekend Word to the Wise" and to post a bit about my recent trips.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week.

Weekend Word to the Wise (Travel Guides)

2009-10-24T12:13:00.002-05:00

Guidebooks. They are expensive but indispensable. The fact of the matter is if you plan on doing any travel, whether domestic or international, you would be wise to read up on the area to which you are traveling. A good guidebook can run you anywhere from $15 and up. Guidebooks are written to appeal to a certain genre of travelers and if you've already figured out what type of traveler you are, you will find a guidebook to meet your needs.

My personal favorite is a Rick Steves travel guide. The best one out there for general European travel is Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2010: The Travel Skills Handbook.

In this book, Rick Steves helps you to learn how to plan your itinerary and maximize your time and how to pack light. He has recommendations for where to stay and where to eat, and in general, how to travel to Europe as a local rather than a visitor. His books are great for all types of travelers but especially those of us who want to experience Europe outside of the usual hotel, sight-seeing, restaurant experience. If you're new to international travel and aren't sure where you want to travel to yet, this book is perfect becauseSteves takes you to the major areas of Europe you would probably most want to visit. Once you have a good idea of where you might want to travel, you can buy a guidebook that is written specifically for that area. Besides the fact that I likeSteves ' take on travel, I also know that he personally travels to all the areas he writes about and he goes there annually so his books are up to date for every year that they are written.

Make sure when you buy a travel guide that was published in or around the year you are thinking about traveling. A guidebook purchased at a used book store serves as a great introduction but make sure you buy the updated version when you've made your decision on where to travel.

Here are some other guidebooks I enjoy reading: Lonely Planet (very specific guides for all types of travelers), Eyewitness Travel Guides (I love their Top 10 books for quick insight on the top 10 things to see or do on location), Frommer's (for the budget-minded traveler), Let's Go! (for young, budget-minded travelers), and Rough Guides (also geared toward the younger traveler).

Don't limit yourself to these guidebooks. There are travel guides written for Christians, gay & lesbian travelers, solo travelers, senior citizens...the titles are endless!

Even if you aren't planning on traveling in the very near future, a good guidebook can whet your appetite for travel and fill your head with ideas to create your dream list of places to visit one day!

Weekend Word to the Wise (Packing)

2009-10-17T10:51:00.000-05:00

This is a new addition to my blog. Every weekend, I'm going to put out some of the favorite tips I've either personally tried, or read about, in reference to travelling, packing, planning, and maybe even cooking (if it's related to my favorite type of food: Italian!)

Today's tips are related to packing:

Instead of packing a wash cloth or pouf, I take a package of facial cleansing cloths (like Dove's or Olay's). These are great because I can take them into my shower with me, wash my face with them, then soap them up to use as a wash cloth. When I'm finished, the used cloth goes into the trash! No waiting for it to dry, no re-packing, and it lightens my suitcase as the trip progresses!

Pack all of your electronic or tech gear into one easily identifiable cube or bag for easy retrieval (like this one from Eagle Creek). I am an admitted tech geek. I like, no wait, I NEED, to travel with all my electronic gear. I pack my iTouch, my cell phone, my Nintendo DS, my Mac, my speaker (which I will demo in the near future), and all kinds of other gear, not to mention the transformer and adapters. On my first trip to Italy, my carry-on got pulled out for further inspection because the transformer looked suspicious. I had stuff everywhere and hadn't really employed any specific packing technique. Even though I was nowhere close to flight time, it made me nervous because in Italy, they pulled everything out and checked all of it. If I had all my e-gear in one easy to find bag, they probably would have taken that bag out, scanned it, and I would have been on my way.

I hope these two tips help you as you start to think about that big trip and how you plan on packing for it.

Budget for Your Vacation--Pt. 4 (Lodging-Bed & Breakfasts)

2009-10-12T21:17:00.000-05:00

In my last post, I talked about hostels as a viable form of lodging. In this post, I will be discussing my favorite form of lodging, bed & breakfasts.

The reason that I love bed and breakfasts so much is that I feel that I am part of the community that I am learning about rather than just an outsider visiting. I like the idea of walking into a home rather than a hotel lobby. I enjoy sitting down to breakfast with other people and hearing their thoughts about the places they've visited and sharing my experiences about where to go. I like meeting the owners or hosts and finding out what drove them to open their home up to strangers.

If any of this sounds the least bit appealing to you, then you should stay at a bed and breakfast at least once during your travels.

Bed and breakfasts vary wildly so open your mind up to the different variations and don't go into your search with a definite mindset of what you HAVE to have. Admittedly, most B&B's have a bedroom, with at the very minimum, a double bed available; however, most places offer a queen sized bed and in Europe, many of them are geared for 2-4 people to stay in one room.

Some B&B's have "en suite" rooms which means the room has a toilet, sink, and shower in your room. En suite rooms are usually the highest priced of all the available rooms but if a private bathroom is important to you, the cost will be a necessary one. Some rooms have a sink and shower in your room and the toilet or "water closet" will be down the hall. These rooms are usually less costly than en suite and the sink and shower make them pretty convenient to use if you don't mind walking across or down the hall to use the bathroom. Some rooms have only a sink with the remaining water works, shower and toilet, down the hall. And finally, you have the bare bones room with no bathroom facilities at all in the room. These rooms are the least expensive and if you're traveling on a budget, these rooms are your best bet.

As for breakfast, this varies greatly as well. Some B&B's offer a full breakfast. Often the menu is set with a wide variety of breakfast foods from which to choose but some B&B's may offer you a list of foods to choose from the night before so your particular choices are ready for you in the morning. If your B&B does not advertise a full breakfast, then the standard European breakfast usually consists of cold cereal, fruit, a roll, croissant, or pastry of some kind, and coffee or tea. Europeans aren't big on breakfast so unless your B&B specifically states it serves a full breakfast, don't expect it. Some B&B's have a separate dining area and some have a tray or stand in a common area where all the breakfast supplies are available for you to take back to your room. I stayed in one B&B that actually had a lady who did nothing but make us coffee (in Italy) while we ate our pastries and cereal! If you're not a breakfast person, ask your B&B proprietor if they would consider lowering your room rate then take your savings and have breakfast at the little cafe down the street instead!

Do your research (or pay someone like me to do it for you)! READ, READ, READ every guidebook you can get your hands on. If you can't afford to buy a lot of different guidebooks (they can be expensive at about $15-20 a pop) then go to your local library or used book store and start reading up on recommendations on where to stay. Make copies or take notes of the places that interest you. Talk to people who have traveled to the areas you're planning on visiting. Read blogs, visit websites like Journeywoman (for women travelers) or IndependentTraveler (for solo travelers) and read their recommendations. Join groups like Travelzine (a Yahoo group) and ask other travelers for their recommendations. My point here is someone always has a favorite place to stay and if their reason for staying there is the same or similar to your reason to wanting to stay there, you've found a place to stay!

Look at your budget and keep a number in mind for your lodging and try your best to stick to it but remember that you can juggle the number according to the cities you will be visiting, in other words, your stay in a small city like Orivieto (in Italy) will probably be much less expensive than your stay in Rome. You also need to decide ahead of time what is more important to you, budget or location. Are you willing to pay more for location?

If it's your first trip to Europe, I would recommend that your budget take location into account as better locations usually cost more than out of the way locations; however, remember in larger cities, there are probably several good locations to choose from and you will be able to take that into account.

In the last 5 years of my European travel, I have been able to find B&B's that run as low as 45 euros per night. My own personal number for lodging is 75 euros a night for a B&B for a good, centralized location. If you'd like more specific information regarding the B&B's I stayed in anywhere overseas, drop me a line.

Next on the agenda are local hotels versus chain hotels.

London at Dusk

2009-10-09T09:53:00.000-05:00

I've been at a conference most of this week and haven't had a chance to finish up my next blog post but I will hopefully get it finished this weekend.

In the meantime, I am posting one of my favorite London pics. I took it as dusk was beginning from across the Thames shortly after I rode the London Eye. I'm not sure what it is that strikes me so about this photo except that for me, it seems to encompass everything I thought, and still think, about London. It's a mix of the old and new in ways that some of us the U.S. may never fully understand. It's dusky and romantic. It's hectic and modern. It's London.

Foodie Break #1

2009-09-29T18:29:00.000-05:00

I LOVE PASTA!! One of the things I loved about Italy was being able to walk into almost any restaurant and know that my pasta was probably made right there that very same morning.

I made pasta once before but recently went to a pasta making class and learned some pasta making tips from a real chef. I came home and immediately hit the kitchen to try my hand at my new skills.

These are my results:

Budget for Your Vacation--Pt. 4 (Lodging-Hostels)

2009-09-28T11:40:00.000-05:00

Now that we've had the opportunity to try and figure out what type of traveler you are, we need to talk about the different types of accommodations that are available for you when you travel.

The bulk of your budget is going to be taken up by accommodations and transportation. We've touched a bit on transportation in earlier blogs so today, I'd like to discuss the different types of accommodations available and how your accommodations will affect your budget.

Keep in mind that the type of traveler you are usually dictates the types of places in which you prefer to stay. But don't feel boxed in by your budget or the type of travel you enjoy the most. There are a wide variety of lodging types to choose from when you travel. There are hostels, bed & breakfasts, eco-hotels, agriturismo, campsites or camping cabins, locally owned hotels, hotel chains, convents & monasteries, apartments and even homes. Aside from price, be aware that location is also part of the reason you might be choosing a particular accommodation over another.

I'm going to talk a little bit about each type of lodging and help you see how this type of lodging could fit into your budget. Keep in mind that I don't believe that any of these accommodations are unattainable to the budget traveler. You should feel free to mix and match different types of accommodations throughout your stay. If you feel like treating yourself in one city, adjust your budget for the remainder of your trip. You are your own captain. Don't be afraid to take the helm!

Let's start with hostels. Hostels are everywhere! Hostels were typically associated with young, college-aged, budget travelers who basically needed a place to sleep and didn't mind doing so with several other people in the room. Hostels were, and still are, one of the least expensive types of lodging. The biggest difference now, is that hostels are no longer the accommodation of choice among just the younger crowd. Hostels of all types are available to travelers of all ages.

Different types of rooms are available and you can often choose between private rooms, same sex or mixed sex rooms, en-suite or shared bathrooms, and each accommodation can be for one person up to six people in each room. Most hostels have 24 hour access (they used to have curfews but most of them no longer have curfews in place) and free wi-fi. A lot of hostels have places to eat on-site or have large kitchens that are shared by everyone. Prices for rooms in hostels can vary greatly but most of them remain under $25.00 per night, per bed. Depending on where your travels take you and how the dollar is faring in the economy, you might even find a hostel bed in a dorm setting for under $10.00 a night! Keep in mind that for most travelers, hostels are usually just a place to sleep and grab a shower. If this type of accommodation sounds like it's right up your alley, you can start here at Hostels.com.

If hostels sound a little too cozy for you, then maybe a bed & breakfast is the type of lodging you'd like to try. Different countries have different names for our traditional bed & breakfasts. In France, they may be referred to as Chambre d'Hotes. In Italy, Spain, and some Latin American countries, they are still often referred to as Pensiones. In Germany they may be referred to as Fremdenzimmer. Whatever you choose to call them, they are my favorite type of lodging and in my next post, I'll tell you why.

Wishing I Was in Rome Today

2009-09-19T14:11:00.000-05:00

Budget for Your Vacation--Pt. 3 (What Kind of Traveler Are YOU?)

2009-09-16T17:51:00.000-05:00

So now we've discussed some ways to save for your trip and how to budget for it but there are some other factors you need to take into account before you go much further.

We need to figure out: "What kind of traveler are you?"

In my opinion, it is important to know what kind of traveler you are because how travel defines you and how you define travel will ultimately affect your budget.

There are many different types of travelers and I don't believe that we are all one distinctive type of traveler, rather we are a combination of several types; however, I do believe that there is one defining type that stands out in us more than the others.

Types of travelers? Ask yourself the following questions:

Do you travel for enjoyment or is it something you feel compelled to do?
Do you travel for extended periods of time or are you satisfied with quick weekend getaways?
Do you like domestic travel or international travel?
Do you make a budget and stick to it or are you a free spender when you travel?
Do you enjoy solo travel or are you inclined to travel with a partner or travel buddy?
Do you like to make your own itinerary or do you prefer to buy a tour package that takes care of all the details for you?
Are you a history buff who has to see all the historical sites of the place you're visiting, do you prefer art and museums or maybe none of these?
What about eco-traveling and adventure traveling?
Are you mixing business and pleasure?
Will you be taking some courses during your travel or perhaps making a pilgrimage to a religious site?

All of these things will have an overall impact on your budget and they should all be considered as you sit down to decide how much money you will need to make the trip of a lifetime. Personally, I am a mix of all of the above. I prefer traveling for extended periods of time but I also enjoy a long weekend getaway every now and then. I enjoy travel of all types, whether it's domestic or international, but I prefer international travel. I like to stick to a budget but I may decide to spend freely in one particular location. I enjoy traveling both solo and with company. I prefer to create my own personal itinerary when I travel but I am not opposed to purchasing a tour package if it meets my needs. I'm not a history or art buff but I do enjoy learning about what makes each city I visit unique and most of the time, that does involve history and art.

Do some broad research about the places you want to travel to and don't limit yourself to one location. Read about several places and pay attention to what grabs you the most. Is it the chance to see some long standing historical monument? Is it the idea of roughing it in a bare-bones eco-lodge on the beach? Is your favorite sports team going to be having several home games while you're visiting the area? Is there a particular religious monument you've read about since you were a child that stands out in your vacation dream?

If you started doing broad research into several cities across different countries, you probably have a good idea of which one of them stands out in your mind more than the others. Begin picturing yourself there and think about all the things you want to see and the places you'd want to visit while you're there. Find your dream location on google maps and go to the street view; do you see yourself walking down that street on your way to class or to dinner?

Once you're able to determine what type of traveler you are, you will be able to plan travel much more quickly and will have a much better idea of how to budget for your trip, even if you find yourself purchasing a last minute flight for an awesome price that you weren't anticipating.

Here are some fun little quizzes to try to help you figure out what type of traveler you are:

http://www.bootsnall.com/quiz/traveler/

http://www.nicolewilliams.com/connect/quiz-what-type-of-traveler-are-you

http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/awtqclF/What-Type-of-Traveler-are-You

http://www.davestravelcorner.com/backpackers/quizzes/quiz.php

And lastly, don't forget that no matter what type of traveler we believe we are, in the country to which we are traveling, we're probably just considered "tourists". Be kind. Be generous with yourself. Learn a bit of the language and enjoy yourself!

Roasted Chestnuts in Rome

2009-09-14T21:51:00.003-05:00

Here in South Texas, up until last week, we had been suffering through a drought and temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit almost every day since May.

Last week, the sky became overcast and it's been raining on and off everyday since then. It's still warm, with temperatures in the mid-80's but this weekend, as I was sitting in the den, I turned the thermostat down and sat in house feeling chilly and looking at the gray and overcast sky.

As I sat channeling a cooler fall or spring day, I thought about the Saturday in Rome when I went to visit the Spanish Steps. The day was cold and sunny. I sat for a while and enjoyed some people watching then, as I made my way to the Villa del Corso, I stopped and bought some roasted chestnuts from the vendor on the corner. The cone of chestnuts was hot in my hands and the chestnuts were soft, warm, and delicious.

I can't wait for fall to really get here.

Budget for Your Vacation--Pt. 2

2009-09-10T18:19:00.000-05:00

We've discussed reasons to quit delaying your dream vacation and we've found some great tools to help us budget for our trip. Here are some of my own tried and true methods of saving for that trip of a lifetime.

Use websites like Yapta to help you track airfare to your dream destination. If you've already purchased a ticket for your flight, Yapta will also track the price for that particular flight and that can help you decide if it's worth paying the change fee for the difference when prices drop
Use websites like Airfare Watchdog or Travelzoo for deals on flights originating from your city.

As I mentioned in the post prior to this one, I am not a "saver" by nature. While I was working at my part-time job, one of the benefits I took advantage of was the employee credit union and direct deposit.

I sat down and looked at how much of my part-time check I needed to make all my bills and have a little bit of spending money until the next payday. Anything extra, I allocated towards my new savings account at the employee credit union. You are probably asking why it was so important to do all of this saving at the employee credit union? Why not just open a savings account at my local bank and put the money in there? Here's the deal breaker for me...I CANNOT SAVE. If money falls into my hot, little hands, I spend it. If I open a local account, I have access to that money all the time. I have no willpower in these things. I've tried but I really can't do it. The employee credit union was in Minnesota. The ATM card they sent me was just that, an ATM card. Not a debit/credit card, an ATM card...and I only got one.

So for me, it was necessary to determine how much money I could put away and it was easier for me to have this money automatically taken out of my check to go directly into my savings account. It was better for me to have the bank be very far away so I could not readily access the money. And it was better for me to take that one ATM card, wrap it up in plastic wrap, wrap that up in foil, put a whole bunch of rubber bands around it, and throw it in the back of my freezer. Now the card was never in my possession and if I wanted to use it to take money out of the account, I would have to go home, dig it out of the freezer, remove all the rubber bands, then the foil, then the plastic wrap, then go back out to an ATM machine to get the money. You get the picture. Honestly, by the time I got home, I had usually lost the inclination to go get the money.

I've since then opened an account that is interest bearing and has a debit/credit card associated with it. I still do my trick of never keeping the card on my person and I still work at making it difficult for me to attain the money at a moment's notice. I like this account because it is independent of my local checking account and is no way tethered to my personal accounts so if I lose it, no one has access to my personal accounts. I also like that it has the debit/credit option because with the VISA logo, I know I can use this card pretty much anywhere in the world. I also made sure before I opened this account that there would be no surcharges for using ATM machines out of the country. The only charges I incur when I'm traveling overseas are a 3% charge for converting the currency. (Don't forget to calculate the surcharges into your expenses because if you don't, you might find yourself short of money towards the end of your travels.

This was how I saved and it worked for me. I didn't stop there either. I canceled my cable. I began throwing all my change into jars and I used that money for incidentals I might need for my trip. If you're familiar with Coinstar (these are coin counting stations in stores like Wal-Mart or your local grocery stores), Coinstars allow you to take your change and convert it to pre-paid cards for stores like Amazon, JC Penney, Borders, Cabela's and Eddie Bauer's for no fee! You just take your change to the nearest Coinstar, dump it in, choose which pre-paid card you want and voila!, you have money to purchase some of those neat travel gadgets you've been reading about!

These budget calculators and techniques may not be for everyone. Everyone may not view traveling as something more important than a new car or siding for your home. But if you're willing to make some sacrifices and cut back on some guilty pleasures, then your dream vacation may not be as far out of reach as you once thought it was. Even if you only put $25.00 per paycheck away every month, at the end of the year, you'll have $600.00 and $600.00 may be the price of a flight to your dream destination!

Budget for Your Vacation--Pt. 1

2009-09-10T18:18:00.000-05:00

How do you budget for your vacation? Do you have a savings account specifically for traveling? Do you decide where you'd like to travel to, try to decide what it might cost and save specifically for that destination?

It doesn't really matter which you method you prefer, the important thing is that you decide where you'd like to go and either make sure you have enough money or start saving and be ready when the right fare pops up.

I am sharing with you several links to some of the best budget travel expense online tools (with the exception of one that is an excel spreadsheet) that are geared toward the budget traveler. Most of them calculate basic costs that you have probably already considered but some of them have some line items that you might not have thought of as vacation expenses but that will impact the amount of money you will actually have on hand to spend while you're travelling.

The first budget calculator I'm linking to is from the Independent Traveler website. This site is a great source for independent travelers and it's loaded with information and several useful online tools the any traveler can utilize (see GlobeDiva travels packing hints for a link to independent traveler's interactive packing list). Independent Traveler's travel budget calculator is a basic travel budgeting tool that allows you to calculate the overall potential cost of your trip that you can save, print, or email to your travel buddies. The nice thing about this particular budget calculator is that there are several empty boxes that allow you to put in personalized costs that make your budget unique.

The next budget calculator I like is from Solotravel.org. This website is geared to solo travelers of all ages. It offers tour providers and trips that are solo friendly and their travel budget calculator allows you to estimate a "per day" amount you might need to budget for a specific country. The link to that calculator is here. Begin by entering the country to which you wish to travel. Continue by choosing your preferences for eating, accommodations, alcohol intake, internet usage, extra costs and the number days you will be staying. You are given a total with a rough idea of amount of money you will need per day in the currency related to the country to which you will be travelling. A link for a currency converter is also available.

An easy to use travel expense calculator comes from easy-budget-planner.com. This is NOT a travel website but a website that offers everyone lots of FREE budget planners. The travel expense calculator allows you to calculate whether you have enough money in your savings account for your trip. If you see that your proposed expenses put you in the negative overall, you know it's time to change your travel plans by making some cuts here and there or time to add more money to your savings account.

If you're dream vacation is a cruise, here's an excellent little travel budget planner that focuses on cruises and expenses aligned with them. Get Sunny is the website and although some of the links on the site come back with errors (as of this writing) the link for the budget planner works just fine. This great little calculator has categories for every possible expense related to cruises you can think of and then some! Once you've completed the calculator, you get back a detailed budget with break-downs for cruising, air travel, transportation, accommodations, sightseeing, and other expenses. Once you've got your total, you can even email it to yourself.

Here is an excel spreadsheet from the website Round The World Trip that helps you budget for an "around the world" trip! After you click on the link you will be taken to the web page that has the actual link for the spreadsheet. Once the spreadsheet opens, you will find instructions on how to use it to help you budget for your trip. This spreadsheet focuses more on countries in the Eastern European area, North and South America as well as Africa, but there is virtually no focus on Western Europe. The instructions ask that you not edit the cells so for me, this spreadsheet serves to give me some ideas on how to work make my own spreadsheet that could help me budget for a really long, round the world type trip; however, I'm not really inclined towards using spreadsheets and I have found the other budget calculators mentioned throughout this post serve my purposes just as well, if not better. I'm including this spreadsheet link for those of you that prefer to budget in this manner.

The final website and budget calculator I'm including is not quite like the calculators I presented above. This particular calculator allows you to figure out how much money you waste on little daily habits (like that Starbucks latte you stop for every morning) and how much money you would save if you just cut back, or eliminated, one or two or several, of these habits. Once the amount of savings is calculated, you can click on a link that shows you where you could afford to travel to with the extra money you saved over the year. This calculator is on an awesome website called TravelMuse and it's a bit similar to Tripit in that it allows you to plan your trip, search the web and save information you're interested in, and share with your friends, all in one place. The savings calculator I'm referring to is called Yaycations and it's really eye-opening to see how much you could save for a trip just by cutting back on a few luxuries. You can also utilize TravelMuse to book travel if you're so inclined. I may never book travel from here but I will definitely use it as a resource to compare costs with other search vehicles. The site is very intuitive and easy to use. This is a fun site to play around on and dream of far away places.

Next, look for my own personal techniques that helped me save enough money to make it to Italy in the upcoming post!

Budgeting for Your Dream Vacation

2009-09-08T17:24:00.001-05:00

For those of you who don't know me personally, let me put this right out front for everyone to know. I am not rich. As a matter of fact, I made my very first trip to Europe while I was in the middle of bankruptcy (the kind you repay, not the kind where all your bills are written off).

I share this information with everyone because the most common statements I hear from people when they begin talking about their dream vacation is "I don't make enough money" or "I can't afford that kind of trip right now" or "Maybe when I'm retired".

So I'm asking you...if you can't travel right now, when will you be able to travel? If you can't afford to travel right now, when will you be able to afford to travel? If you aren't making enough money right now, in this economy, what are the chances you will be making a lot more in the years to come?

I ask you all this because I know from experience that for most of us living in the mid to low end of the middle class, these opportunities will probably never materialize. We will probably never get that fantastic paying job making a six-figure salary and as we grow older, our time will probably never be as free as we envision it being in the future. So I ask you, WHY WAIT?

Why wait until you have that job paying 100K a year? Why wait until you retire to take the trip of a lifetime?

I've learned a few things from personal experience that finally sunk in after it seemed everything was falling down around me and I'd like to share these things with you in the spirit of travel and adventure.

There is no time like the present. You hear this saying all the time but do you ever really stop to think about it? My mom and dad had so many dreams for their retirement. They were going to travel throughout the U.S. My mom loves New Mexico and they really wanted to spend a good deal of time there. My dad retired a few years before my mom did so he had some time to bum around and live the carefree life for a bit while mom finished up her last few years of work. In the middle of waiting, my dad suffered a couple of strokes that incapacitated him and eventually led to his death. All their dreams gone in less than 2 years. I learned several things from my parents and from this experience: First, my parents instilled love of travel into me. We always took summer vacations to where ever my aunt happened to be stationed so I got to see a lot of the U.S. and Mexico this way and we always had a free place to stay. Second, life isn't going to stop just because we think we're finally ready to do what we've always wanted to do. If we don't do it now, we may never get to do it.

If you think you'll never have the money to travel, you will never have the money to travel! As I said above at the opening of this post, I'm not rich. I don't have a rich mom or dad or grandmother or aunt or uncle to hand me money whenever I need it. What I make is what I live off of and if I need more, I take on more jobs. A few years ago, I bought a house. Owning a home when you're single isn't always easy but I felt I was up for the challenge. A few years after buying my home, all hell seemed to break loose at one time. The sewer line broke, my roof was leaking torrentially into my home, and all of a sudden, my tightly wrapped budget was coming apart faster than I could pick up the loose ends. I didn't have a contingency savings plan for emergencies. The only way I could do the major repairs on my home was to get behind on my house payments. The bank was about to foreclose so I filed for bankruptcy and went for the option that allowed me to pay my creditors back. The only problem was that the courts, in all their wisdom, garnished OVER HALF of my paycheck. With what was left, I had to make a house payment of over $1,000.00 plus my utilities, food, and gas. There was no way I could make that work so I began seeking part-time employment. The Lord blessed me with a second job and I began working evenings and weekends in addition to the occasional consulting I'd been doing for the last 15 years and my full-time job. It was not easy. I worked anywhere from 80-100 hours a week and was so tired I wasn't sure how I would continue to do it but I pushed myself to work day in and day out. It was in the middle of all of this that I would re-visit my old dream of traveling to Italy. I wasn't sure when I would make it there, my bankruptcy was a 5 year ball & chain and I could barely see myself making it out of my financial predicament anytime soon. But the more I worked, the more I wondered what I was doing all of this work for with nothing to show for it but a house, a car, and some material objects. It was about this time, my thinking began to change. If I was already making some changes in my spending habits, why not make more changes. The time was ripe for it and if I didn't do it now, then when???

These two times in my life were the impetus I needed to push me forward and propel me where I wanted to go...and where I wanted to was ITALIA!

Now that you know a little bit more about me and how I gave myself the opportunity to travel, in my next post, I will share with you some hints and tips that worked for me and helped me move in the direction of my dream vacation.

The Pull of Positano

2009-09-07T21:34:00.001-05:00

The Pull of Positano

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Here's Spidey! (Originally Posted 3/28/09)

2009-09-04T14:14:00.000-05:00

Okay. I couldn't help it. I'm almost embarrassed to post this guy's pic in here but I just can't help myself!!! (I paid him a few euros for the pleasure of taking his photo.)

This guy has got to be the worst example of Spiderman I've ever seen!! I know I'm no "skinny minnie", but then again, I've never claimed to be one, much less, dressed up in a skin-tight suit of any type!!

I first saw him Sunday at Plaza Mayor when we were having lunch in the Plaza and honestly guys, I couldn't stop laughing. I just couldn't imagine him trying to climb up steps, much less the sides of buildings. Then I glanced over at him and he struck a pose like he was flinging web and that was it, I just lost it! I must have had the giggles for over 15 minutes...everytime I looked at him I just died laughing.

So today, I went back to the Plaza so I could share my fanatical laughter with all of you. There's got to be less embarrassing ways to earn money, no???

Domenica a Roma (Originally Posted on 3/28/09)

2009-09-03T22:52:00.000-05:00

Remember last year when I asked everyone how many pictures one could take of Stonehenge without getting tired of it? I present you with the same question about the Coliseum. It was like I couldn't snap enough pictures...and I already have some from my first trip to Rome!!

This time I went ahead and took the tour inside and didn't walk around the Roman Forum. I'm the geek that orders the "audioguide" at every tourist attraction. I can't help it. Anyway, it was a good Sunday in Rome.

First Weekend in Rome (Originally Posted on 3/28/09)

2009-09-03T22:42:00.000-05:00

This is me in front of the Pantheon. Last time JoAnn and I went to Rome, we didn't make it to a few places so I tried to make sure I hit those places this time if I could.

My first Sunday in Rome, I did the big triangle from the Spanish Steps to the Pantheon then to Trevi Fountain. One of the things I noticed this time was that even though there were crowds, there were nowhere near as many tourists as there were the last time I was here (which was June 2004) so I'm inclined to think I got here a great time of the year.

The weather was fabulous, cool but warm in the sunshine and cooler at night. Right outside of the Pantheon, there was a coffee place called Taza do Oro (which translates to Cup of Gold) which is supposed to serve the best cup of coffee in Rome, if not the world. I'm not an espresso drinker but I downed one for JoAnn cuz she got hooked on that stuff when we were here last time.

Speaking of coffee...I'm gonna miss the stuff. Try walking into your local Starbucks and ordering a cappucino (which you don't do in Rome after noon or people look at you like your a "crazy Americano" cuz only Americans drink cappucinos after noon...of course, yours truly didn't care and ordered them anyway) and a pastry and paying less that $1.75 for both items. Hell, try ordering an espresso shot at Starbuck's and give them 85 cents for it and see what they tell you!

Heaven is an Italian coffee bar.

Chocolate y Churros-Finally! (Originally Posted 3/28/09)

2009-09-03T22:34:00.000-05:00

This is hot chocolate, Madrid style. This chocolate is dark, bitter-sweet and as thick as pudding. (Notice how the spoon is actually resting on top of the chocolate.)

I don't think I saw too many people actually drinking it (although you should all know that I did try to drink it) but what you should do is take your churros (they aren't like the ones we get in Texas, dusted with cinnamon and sugar, these are plain) and dunk them in the chocolate and consume with GUSTO.

Even though these are pretty much served everywhere, my nephew took us to the place that's renowned for making this stuff. Everytime we went in there it was packed! You had to wait for a seat and this was all they served. About 3.50 in euros for the order per person.

Just Checking In (Originally Posted 3/18/09)

2009-09-03T22:33:00.000-05:00

Just letting everyone know that I'm still in Rome but still not able to get to an internet connection that I can sit down and get enough time to upload pics. The school has internet connection (I'm typing to you all from there now) but the computers are old and slow and there's not enough time to do much else.

On Saturday I went to the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain. Sunday, I spent the day at the Colisseum and yesterday, I went to visit St. Paul's Basilica. Your fat-assed friend climbed up the very top of the cupola of the Basilica and I almost DIED!!! It was almost 400 steps and in some very tight hallways that made me claustrophobic (and I'm not usually claustrophobic). Can't wait to post the pics!

Internet Connections Have Been Spotty at Best (Originally Posted on 3/14/09

2009-09-03T22:21:00.000-05:00

So unfortunately, my blogging is at a stand still...I still want to post my pics of Chocolate y Churros and will as soon as I get the chance.

Yesterday I made it to Rome. It was a lazy day since I got no sleep the night before and had an early flight and it took a while to find my ride. I spent an hour or so acquainting myself with my new neighborhood and took it easy. I was able to finish a reading whole book yesterday!! It was great.

Today, I ventured out and found my school so I wouldn't feel so lost Monday morning. It's about 8 stops (maybe 15 minutes) and another 15-20 minute walk away from where I'm staying.

After that, I went to the Spanish Steps and relaxed there for a bit. I walked up the Michigan Avenue of Rome, Via dei Condotti. It houses some of the biggest designer stores in Rome: Gucci, Bulgari, Prada, Hermes, Ferragamo, Armani, and Valetino just to name a few. Nothing I could afford and probably wouldn't shop at any of them if I could but it was a nice walk.

I stumbled upon a beautiful church, the church of Sant' Iganzio. Beautiful church with some wonderful frescos I'll try to post tomorrow. Afterwards, I had lunch and then bought some gelato on my way to the Pantheon. After seeing that, I had a cup of espresso at a place called Tazza de Oro, which translates to Cup of Gold and it's supposed to serve the best cup of coffee in all of Rome, if not all the world. I don't usually drink espresso, but I downed one in honor of my friend JoAnn who was here with me last time I was in Italy. She's a glutton for caffeine...(Jo-It was not as good as a capuccino but I drink it for you, Buddy.)

I finally reached the Trevi Fountain and sat there a bit and relaxed watching everyone tossing coins into the fountain. I tossed one too.

From there, I made my way back to my neighborhood stopping along the way to buy some fresh bread, salami, prosciutto, and mozzarella for dinner. I also scored some fresh fruit which was horribly hard to come by in Spain. Then I stopped at the store and bought a few more things to hold me for the week. Lugged it all up the stairs and into the apartment.

I don't know what I'll be doing tomorrow but hopefully, I'll be able to make my way to an internet cafe to get my pictures up for y'all. Hope everyone is doing well and having a good weekend.

Ciao for now.

Indispensable Italy Tips: Beware Bread Baskets And Bare Shoulders || Jaunted

2009-09-03T14:07:00.001-05:00

Indispensable Italy Tips: Beware Bread Baskets And Bare Shoulders || Jaunted

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Make the Most of Your Time...Even While Traveling

2009-09-02T20:14:00.000-05:00

Before I continue with my re-posts, I am going to make an intermediary note here.

Prior to finding out that my cousin would be spending time in Spain, I had made a decision to pursue my certification in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL).

I had done some research previously, trying to find a good school, but was vacillating on whether to do the course online or perhaps find a class that would allow me to do something both online and on-site. I couldn't do the entire course on-site (which was really my preference) because I couldn't take 4-5 full weeks away from work.

When I found out my cousin was going to be in Spain, I decided the time was right to pursue the certification and do the combo class. I found that one of the schools I had researched had responded favorably to my questions and gave me several references from students that had graduated from their program that felt the class was worth the money and some students that had gone on to find full-time work in various other countries.

The school had a class that fell in directly after the week I was going to be in Spain so the timing was perfect! The price I paid for the class would pay for my online portion with one on one tutoring and the two weeks of on-site classes, AND accommodation, while in Rome.

My biggest worry was that accommodations were supposed to be a 45 minute train ride outside the city then another 15 minute metro ride to the school. Normally, I wouldn't mind the idea of staying out of city. I love the smaller villages and towns of Italy. They are so peaceful and have such a wonderful feeling of community, my biggest worry was that classes would begin at 9:00 am and end as late as 9:00 pm. With the commute, my days would be tremendously long and I wasn't too sure about taking the train at night.

Financially speaking, it made perfect sense to mix vacation with school. I was already flying to Europe anyway so a large part of my budget would already be going to the flight. One of the bonuses was that this particular program's price paid for the classes PLUS the accommodations for not much more than I might have paid for accommodations alone for a two week stay in Rome.

If you're looking to mix your vacation with business or school on your travels to Europe, that is the perfect combination to save some money and get more accomplished than you thought you could!

Well...serendipity stepped in at just the right moment!! About two weeks before I was to leave to Spain, I received word from the school that I was the only student doing the combination course so I had the option to stay in the apartment in the village outside Rome by myself (with a long commute to school) or to rent a room from someone who was contracted with the school and who lived in the city center. The only catch was that I would need to pay an extra hundred euros. In my head, that was a no-brainer! I would be staying in city center about 8 stops away from the school with no need to change metros...great news as far as I was concerned!

My tip here is to do your research and to think outside the box when traveling. If you can mix cooking classes or a foreign language class with your vacation, consider it. It might be a great opportunity to ge to know the inner workings of the city you're visiting.

Thursday (and my last day) in Madrid (Originally Posted 3/12/09)

2009-09-02T19:48:00.000-05:00

Well, today was a big walking day and I'm pretty much ready to go on to Rome.

Today, we set off to visit the Prado Museum and Retiro Park. On our way to the Prado Museum, we ran into another protest of some sort! We've run into at least 3 protests of one kind or another in the last 5 days here in Madrid. Very exciting!

We made it to the Prado and I was able to see some art I've only seen in magazines. I wish I could have taken some pictures of some of my favorite pieces but no photos allowed in the museum.

My favorite pieces are by Hieronymous Bosch. His pieces are weird and disturbing but intricate and soul piercing. He was the master of artistic satire. I also enjoyed the Peter Paul Ruben's (sp?) pieces where I got to see a woman the way a woman is supposed to be dammit....RUBENESQUE!

After the Prado, we walked over to Retiro Park, which is one of the pictures you see on this entry. It was a beautiful park and Thomas and Felicia rented a rowboat and rowed around the small lake. It was a beautiful day and a most fitting last day in Madrid.

I'm also going one last time for "chocolate y churros" and I plan on posting something about that tomorrow once I make it to Rome. I have a very early flight and the shuttle will be by around 4am to pick me up. I'm tired already!

Wednesday in Toledo (Originally Posted 3/11/09)

2009-09-01T22:17:00.001-05:00

So today we ventured into Toledo. Toledo is about 70km south of Madrid but with the high speed train we made it there in almost exactly 30 minutes!

Old Toledo sits up on top of hill and is encircled by a wall and the river Tagus. Toledo is known for several things but it is especially known for it's cutlery and swords made from Toledo steel. Toledo is a UNESCO Heritage site and it retains its feel of a medieval city due to its winding, narrow streets that seem to lead you to nowhere until all of a sudden, whatever it was you were looking for is sitting directly in front of you. There's a saying in Toledo that everywhere you need to get to is uphill and after today, I believe that statement is 100% correct! I'm friggin' exhausted and my poor aunt actually just sat and waited for me for the last hour as I tromped around getting lost trying to get good pictures before catching the train. I posted some pictures of the streets (which really aren't streets, they are more like single person alleyways that have street names...but they aren't streets, dammit) I took as I tried to find my way back to the Plaza we started from.

One of the "must-see" attractions in Toledo is the huge cathedral. This is the second largest cathedral in Europe and it was absolutely stunning!!! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside and it is next to impossible to describe just how beautiful this cathedral was. There was also Alcazar, a 1000 year old fort and the Holy Cross Museum (which we didn't get a chance to make it to) which houses several pieces of art by El Greco.

We only spent a few hours there but I feel like we walked a million miles as everything is a maze of sorts and alot of time is spent just trying to find your way from one point to the other (even with a map) but it was a worthy day trip from Madrid and I wish I had had the chance to spend even one night in Toledo. I'm posting my pictures as I write.

Tuesday in Madrid (Originally Posted 3/10/09)

2009-09-01T22:09:00.000-05:00

Well, the kids are off to Paris for today and tomorrow and I'm here in Madrid with my aunt. We're laying low today because her knee has been bothering her.

We got up pretty late so by the time we left the hotel, it was time for lunch. We stopped at a small local restaurante and the food was pretty good.

My aunt can't seem to get used to the fact that bread and butter aren't free with the purchase of the meal! They even charge you for the butter!

Anyway, we walked down some of the major streets and stopped in some of the shops. I've noticed that almost all of the streets not only have street signs on them, there are pictures to describe the signs. Apparently, they were placed on the streets so the illiterates could find there way around. My plan is to take pictures of as many of these signs as I can and make an album of them.

We found a little voo-doo place on one of the streets. I did buy a little saint something or other for my mom. We walked on and back towards the hotel and stopped so I could get some money from the ATM. The lady smoking outside the bank told my aunt and I we should get our money from the ATM inside as there were young boys lurking about (and I had seen a few of them as we walked up to the bank) who were hitting people on the head and running off with their money. We took her advice.

As we were walking towards the Puerta del Sol, another commotion!!! A demonstration against something, we're not sure what but all the news stations were there with tons of police...how exciting!!! We're back at the hotel now so my aunt can rest a bit and tomorrow we plan on traveling to Toledo. Adios a todos mis amigos! Hasta Manana. (Goodbye to all my friends! Until tomorrow.)

Corral De La Moreria! (Originally Posted 3/10/09)

2009-08-31T17:57:00.000-05:00

Above is a picture I shot at the Flamenco show we went to Monday night! Unfortunately, I ended up losing some pictures I took earlier in the evening after an accidental wipe but thank God I had already downloaded all the others I took Sunday and Monday.

I can't do justice to the dancing I saw last night. The venue (Corral de la Moreria) was a world-renowned venue for Flamenco and lots of famous people have been to this place, their pictures are all over the restaurant. This particular restaurant was in the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die and is renowned for the world's best Tablao Flamenco. The dancing is passionate and beautiful and the legs on those women!!! OMG!!!

There are usually two shows per evening with world famous dancers. Tickets can be purchased for a show with or without dinner and can be purchase in advance on their website. This is a definite MUST is you're in Madrid.

Monday in Madrid (Originally Posted 3/10/09)

2009-08-30T10:17:00.000-05:00

Well, my luggage arrived! Thank God for that.

Today, we woke up a bit late and made our way downstairs for breakfast. Before I left the U.S., I had dinner with my mom Thursday night and we went to Cracker Barrel where I proceeded to order a big breakfast for dinner because I figured it would be a while before I would see eggs and bacon or sausage for breakfast. I couldn't have been more wrong.

EGGS. Spaniards eat eggs and lots of them. In Texas, when we say "tortilla" we mean tortillas...flat breads that come in either corn or flour versions that are rolled or hand patted into circular shapes and toasted on a griddle or "comal" on the stovetop. When you say "tortilla" in Spain, you get an omelet with onions and potatoes. Eggs can be eaten at every meal but they are usually fried or sunny side up. Well...I didn't have eggs for breakfast. I had toasted bread and coffe or "cafe con leche" because if you order straight up coffee, you end up with espresso. Butter with your bread is not the norm, you have to order it specifically and pay extra for it.

Anyway, after breakfast, we walked down to the Royal Palace and took a tour of it. The Palace is currently used by the King of Spain for ceremonial events but is not lived in. It took 26 years to build and it has approximately 2800 rooms, of which you can visit about 25 or so when you take the tour. It's impressive and beautiful but unfortunately, no pictures allowed so you all have to content yourselves with pictures of the exterior.

After a visit to the Palace and the neighboring Almudena Cathedrel. Construction began for this church in 1883 and it was finally finished in 1993! Both the Palace and the Cathedral were built on grounds that were originally those of Spain's first mosque, an alcazar that burned down in 1734. Both places were quite beautiful.

After our tours there, we went for lunch at a restaurant named, Restaurante Botin which is reputed to be the oldest restaurant in the world (according to Guiness Book). It was an interesting place and apparently pretty much everyone has dined there at one time or another. There specialty is a "roasted suckling pig" and so, being the adventurer that I am, that's what I ordered for lunch. Let's just say that lunch was very interesting. It started with a course of soup. Not just any kind of soup my friend, a "garlic and egg" soup. (Eggs again!). It was ok. It was brought to the table straight out of the oven in a clay-type bowl and it was bubbling and boiling, it was so hot. It had an egg in the middle of it and I think it also had bread in it. It was an interesting flavor but the texture wasn't really to my liking. The next course was the pig. It wasn't a whole pig but the pieces were straight from a whole pig. Again, interesting food. The skin was crispy and pretty tasty...sort of like pork rinds but with a different sort of smoky, "gamey" flavor. The meat was tender and also "gamey" tasting. The pig came with some oven roasted potatoes. I also got ice cream for dessert and a half-bottle of the house wine. I wouldn't order it again, but it was definitely as experience!!

After lunch, we found our way to a convent where the nuns have no contact with the outside world but they sell "dulces" or candy and confections to the public. It's pretty cool and sort of subversive-feeling to buy cookies here. You have to find the place and it's not really easy to locate. Then you press the buzzer and speak into the speaker, code word "dulces". The nuns buzz you in and you make your way into the convent where you find a "turin" or a huge lazy-susan kind of thing and a sign on the side with the items they sell. As soon as you get into the room, the nun is somewhere behind the turin and asks you what you'd like. You tell her what you want and she puts it into the turin and turns it out for you to collect. You put the money into the turin and she turns it back with your change. Very top secret feeling!

After all that spy work, we made our way back to the hotel for a nap because Thomas, my cousin, surprised us with tickets to a flamenco show. I'll write about the show on my next blog. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that on our way to the Palace, we came across some excitement near the city hall and found ourselves in the middle of the arrival of the President of Serbia! Secret Service types and snipers in the apartment terraces nearby...very exciting!!!

~ Lesson Learned From First Day in Madrid

2009-08-30T09:50:00.000-05:00

For the first two trips I took to Europe, I only took one carry-on bag and another bag that I carried my computer and other travel essential items in, I didn't worry about losing any luggage because nothing was checked. For this trip, because I would be going to school for two weeks in Rome and I wasn't sure exactly what text books I would need, I packed two bags and checked them. I did not follow my own rule and pack extra clothes and toiletry items in each bag and as a result, had to buy some extra stuff I really didn't need for that first night. Lesson--Always pack at least one change of clothes and a toothbrush in your second bag in case your main bag gets lost.

I could have packed less. It's so hard to really predict the weather for the area you'll be traveling to and I thought I packed as light as I possibly could at the time but I probably could have left some of my long sleeved shirts out of the mix and lightened my load a bit. I did use my warmer clothes later while I was in Rome. I was glad I packed my light jacket because I used it quite a bit in Rome also, but I never once had to pull out the jacket or long-sleeves in Madrid. I could have purchased a cheap hoodie in Rome that would have doubled as a souvenir and worked as another layer to keep me warm if the weather turned colder. Lesson--Pack less and consider purchasing a less expensive equivalent to some of the clothing you might need, such as a hooded jacket or long-sleeved t-shirts.

I'm in Madrid! (Originally Posted 3/8/09)

2009-08-30T09:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I got to Madrid this morning only to find my luggage didn´t make it with me! I don´t usually check my luggage but since I´m going to be in Europe for three weeks and had to bring text books along, I needed to pack heavier than usual and I packed two bags.

Stupid me. I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn´t follow one of my own rules and pack an extra change of clothes in each piece of luggage. This means that all of my clothes, as well as my phone and camera chargers and card readers, are in the delayed piece of luggage. I´ve got some great pictures already but I can´t share them until I get my card reader.

Madrid is beautiful and the weather is marvelous!!!! Very warm and sunny (about 70 degrees Fahrenheit) and totally clear skies. Gorgeous!!!! We spent some time at "La Rastra" which is the city-wide, Sunday flea market. Wall-to-wall people milling about looking at everything ranging from t-shirts and jewelery to original art, fans, shawls, and anything else you think you´d find at a flea market.

From there we went to Plaza Mayor for a late lunch. We sat in the Plaza and enjoyed the people watching (remind me to tell y'all about the out of shape Spiderman in the plaza) as we ate. We walked a bit afterwards then went back to the hotel for a nap.

After a short nap, I ventured out to find a toothbrush and something to sleep in and then Thomas (my cousin) and I went out for some ice cream. Later my aunt joined us for an early dinner. I say early because people here don´t eat dinner until 8pm or later but we were hungry and tired so it was dinner at 7pm (gasp!) for us.

Afterwards, we walked to the most well known "Chocolateria" in Madrid. All they serve there is hot chocolate and churros. I´m going to do a separate entry about this later because y'all have to see the hot chocolate to believe what I´m talking about! Good night all and have a pleasant tomorrow!!!

P.S. Everybody keep your fingers crossed (and/or say a prayer) that I get my luggage tomorrow!!!

2009-08-29T22:22:00.001-05:00

Favorite Pizza Recipes--Sundried Tomatoes & Barbecued Pepperoni
Recipes for my two favorite pizzas. Sundried Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basi Pizza and Barbecued Pepperoni Pizza.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/2120725/favorite_pizza_recipessundried_tomatoes.html

How and Why I Ended up In Madrid, Spain

2009-08-29T10:25:00.000-05:00

A few years ago, my cousin Renee and I had discussed traveling to Spain together. She told me she had always wanted to visit Spain. She loved the music of the Gypsy Kings and wanted to visit Spain's coastline. After I told her about how fabulous my trip to Italy was, she and I decided that in a year and a half, we would travel together to Spain. We figured that would be plenty of time for us to save up enough money and for me to do all the research and planning.

I was eager for us to go to Barcelona and maybe the islands off Spain's coastline. I also wanted us to get down to Madrid and some of the surrounding towns in that area. I also thought about us making a trek to Portugal to visit Fatima. But before our plans could fully form or truly get off the ground, Renee passed away unexpectedly. It was a great loss for her husband and our family. It was a great loss for me too but now, I was more inclined than ever to get to Spain and to take the spirit of Renee with me.

Towards the end of 2008, my young cousin Thomas announced that he would be spending his Spring semester in Madrid, Spain. It seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to visit Spain and to visit Thomas at the same time. Thomas told me that during his Spring Break, he would not be able to stay at his host home so that would be the perfect time for him to have some family with him. After further discussion, it was decided that his older sister Felicia, my Aunt Cal (who happens to be in her late 70's) and I would make the trip to Madrid, in honor of Renee.

By the time Thomas got definite word about his approval to spend the semester in Madrid, it was early December and his Spring Break would fall early in March so I immediately began to search for the best flight I could find. I found a great flight on Continental (it cost me approximately $730.00 for the flight to Madrid) and I decided that while I was going to be in Europe already, why not take advantage of that and do something I had been thinking about for some time. In the meantime, I was excited, and a little sad, to finally be making my way to Spain in Renee's honor. It was even better to experience it with family who loved her and treasured her spirit the very same way I did.

A family trip to Europe is not out of the question financially even it you think it might be. The bulk of your costs will be transportation (flights) and lodging.

Begin searching for affordable flights as soon as you know where and when you will be traveling. Take advantage of flight searach sites like Booking Buddy, Kayak or AirFare Watchdog. Use Yapta to track the price of the flight you're interested in and watch for it to go to it's most affordable or if you've already purchased your ticket, use Yapta to monitor the price to see if it goes down enough for you to request a refund for the difference (just be sure to take change fees into account). Once your flight is purchased, begin researching places to stay.

I will go into more detail about lodging in upcoming posts. In the meantime, I will be re-posting the blogs I posted while traveling in Spain and Italy and will also be talking more about how a one week trip to Spain ended up being a three week trip to Europe mixing pleasure and business.

After England 2008

2009-08-27T20:23:00.000-05:00

I'm entering this post approximately one and a half years after my trip to England. I had the opportunity to re-read my posts and blogs as I got ready for my trip and my travelogue as I traveled through England.

Here are a few of my after-comments as I sit back and reflect:

1. Prior to leaving, I did some rough calculations on how many times I thought I'd be riding the train and tried to factor in my potential use to determine whether or not it was worth my money to buy my rail pass in advance or wait and buy point-to-point when I got there. I decided to buy ahead of time and I should have waited to buy point-to-point in England. I REALLY wanted to go to more places than I had the time or inclination to get to and I ended up losing money on transportation. Lesson--Factor in the fact that I might get so doggone tired that I can't drag myself to the train station to make it out of town!

2. I didn't anticipate how crowded Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum would be and I wasted some time in line and I reallly should have decided well in advance if I even wanted to go to this museum. While researching my trip, I thought it would be a nice diversion but once I got there, I realized I didn't really care if I got in or not and wasted time getting there and trying to decide if I wanted to continue to wait. Lesson--Stick with my gut feelings about whether or not I want to visit an attraction, even if all the reviews are positive and everyone tells you to go.

3. I knew there was allot to see and do in London but I really underestimated how many things there were to do and how long it would take to do everything. Lesson--Work hard at overestimating all the things I want to see and pare down according to how much time I plan on spending in the area.

Other than these few things, I've got to say this trip was an awesome experience. It was my first experience traveling overseas alone and even though I got a little homesick, I loved the experience.

Traveling alone makes me feel as though I can do just about anything! If I can get completely lost and find my way back to my hotel, if I can make my way all over London by tube, train, and bus without panic, if I can walk and walk and walk until I think my legs are going to fall off and STILL keep going, if I can do all of these things and more and do them away from my personal safety zone, then I can do anything.

And if I can do it, you can too!

Review-We Will Rock You (London)

2009-08-27T20:14:00.000-05:00

This show is in its fifth season at the Dominion Theatre on London's West End. It is the longest running show in the history of this theatre and it's a blast to watch!

If you weren't a fan of Queen, you should have been. When Bohemian Rhapsody was released, they were told that people would never buy any of their records because their type of music had never really been heard of before and kids just weren't interested in hearing songs that lasted over 3 minutes. The original recording (if I remember correctly) was well over 7 minutes long. Suffice to say it was a smash hit in Britain and in the States.

Of course, Queen was already on the map in the U.K. Queen released their first album "Queen" in 1973. It got great reviews but little mainstream play. In 1975, "A Night At The Opera" was released and the rest was history. Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon were Queen and they were raucous! Everything they put out kicked ass and this musical highlights some of the best music they ever put out. The basic story is told in the future when the Internet controls everything and everyone. Music and musical instruments are banned. Anything remotely related to music and dancing are allowed only if taught and approved by Globalsoft and it's leader "Killer Queen".

It starts in a school where all the young people are brainwashed into life of Globalsoft. Two rebels emerge from the throng of students. The boy's name is "Galileo Figuero" and the girl's name is "Scaramouche" (if you know Queen, you know where these names come from) and their story involves becoming Bohemian and leading the uprising against Globalsoft (or internet ga-ga). There are allot of puns and word plays using Queen music titles and some inside jokes I imagine are British or West End in nature. The story was a bit choppy for my taste but the cast and crew were fabulous and the music is what we're there for anyway. Tons of Queen songs that you can't help but sing along with. Definitely worth the money to see if you ever make it to London's West End!

England, Over and Out (Originally Posted 4/22/08)

2009-08-27T10:56:00.000-05:00

Well...I've been home for a week now and I took a small break from the computer while I got back into the swing of things.

My trip was great! So many things to see and do and so many things left undone. All in all, it was wonderful fun. The history in England is boundless and multi-faceted. My personal preference was for the English countryside. Beautiful, green, serene, and picturesque. There are places in the countryside that still need to be experienced and I wouldn't mind going back to see more of the Cotswalds and central England.

London has so much history and it has incorporated itself neatly in the city of 2008. Everywhere you walk you see buildings and places that have been around for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years. Londoners have a reputation of being a bit snobby or self-absorbed but the people I spoke with were nothing but nice. Friendly and helpful, ready to point a stranger in the right direction. I think the reason they come across as aloof (much like New Yorkers) is because they spend half their lives traveling from point A to point B and they are very intent upon getting there.

Having said all of this, I felt no special pull towards England as I did towards Italy. London was a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there and I'm very glad to be back home with my honey and my kids. Thanks to everyone who made it a point of checking in to read my blogs or check out my pictures and comment or ask questions. You guys were a real lifeline when I needed to feel connected to something familiar. I can't wait to travel with you all again very soon!

Too Much to See! (Originally Posted 4/12/08)

2009-08-27T10:55:00.001-05:00

So my initial plan for Friday and/or Saturday was to take the train to Stratford upon Avon to see Shakespeare's birthplace.

And I want to go, I really do but there's so much left to see here in London that I haven't had the chance to experience yet. Today, I took the tube to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. The line just to buy a ticket was over an hour long then another 45 minutes or so to get in! I asked about purchasing a fast-track ticket (like I did for the London Eye) and one of the employees explained that I could purchase a ticket that would give me a general time to get there but wouldn't guarantee that I wouldn't have to stand in line.

I decided I had better things to do with my time. So I hobbled back downstairs and took the tube to Tottenham Station. This is the station closest to Soho. I've been wanting to see Soho for a while, especially Soho Square. If you don't know about Kirsty MacColl's music, you should get to know it. She was a great song-writer with a wonderfully mellow voice and an acerbic wit. The first song of hers that caught my ear was hers but she didn't sing it. Tracey Ullman had a hit with "They Don't Know" back in the 80's. Kirsty wrote that song and I quickly became a fan of her stuff. Anyway, I don't want to get off track here. The reason I had to find Soho Square is because Kirsty wrote a song called, "Soho Square" and I've always loved that song. I had read somewhere that they dedicated a bench to her in Soho so I went to find it.

After that, I made my back up towards Tottenham and found the Dominion Theatre. This is the theatre that is showing "We Will Rock You". A musical with the music from Queen. I decided to buy a ticket and ended up watching the matinee. It was great (see my review if interested). Afterwards, caught the tube to Piccadilly Circus and wandered around the shops and such there. Walked down to Trafalgar Square then finally caught another tube to make my way back to my motel. Bought some dinner and finally settled in around 8pm or so. I was out all day and still didn't see everything I wanted to see.

Uneventul Friday (Originally Posted 4/12/09)

2009-08-27T10:45:00.000-05:00

Well...sorry I didn't get anything up for y'all yesterday but I got tired.

Woke up a bit early and finally got up and venture out around 11 am or so. Made my way over to Harrod's since my brother requested a couple of t-shirts from there. Got there on the tube and immediately found the store. My gosh, it's HUGE. From what I've read, it's 4.5 acres cram full of stuff! Anything you can imagine is there for the purchasing. My favorite section was the foodie section (I'm sure that surprises none of you). Tons and tons of food. Meats, cheeses, seafood, tea, coffee, chocolate, sushi, dim sum, noodles, ready-to-eat food, take home food, small restaurants, Krispy-Kreme donuts, pasties...I could go on and on. The food was gorgeous! Oh yeah, there was clothes and stuff too.

After wandering around the store for an hour or so, I decided to eat at their little Dim Sum restaurant section. It was good. Worked my way over to the touristy section of the store and found some souvenirs for people. Accidentally came upon the "Diane & Dodi Memorial" fountain thingie. Weird. It's right in the middle of the escalator area surrounded by an egyptian themed room and stuff. Very weird.

After I finished at Harrod's, I was going to go tooling around town some more but I was tired. My feet hurt. My legs hurt. My back hurts. I don't mind the walking but there are stairs every where in this friggin' city! Even the McDonald's has stairs!

The more I walked, the more I hurt, so I decided to head back to the hotel. Bought myself some things to munch on for dinner and tubed it back to my temporary residence where I holed up for the rest of the day. I thought about going down to buy a soda or something later in the evening but the thought of climbing back up those stupid stairs was enough to keep me cloistered.

London is a Roost for Every Bird (Originally Posted 4/10/08)

2009-08-27T10:37:00.000-05:00

A quotation from Benjamin Disraeli, Former British Prime Minister who lived in London from 1804-1881. And from what I've seen, that statement seems to be true today as well. London is a microcosm of the world.

There are so many different nationalities living in London that I would venture it's hard to guess who among the crowd are born and bred Londoners. I see more Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai restaurants than I see pubs and I don't think that it's reserved to any one part of the city for it seems to be like that everywhere I've been today.

And the people...the people have all been wonderfully nice. No one has really commented on my accent, or lack thereof, and I've easily understood most of the people to whom I've been speaking unless it's been a really heavy English accent. Even the lady standing behind me as I tried to refill my public transpo card was politely impatient.

All in all, the people have been great. In Bath, everyone to whom I asked directions of were very helpful and one shop woman actually walked out of her shop with me to point me in the right direction. Several people reminded me to "mind the traffic" (I think they were trying to tell me to not to get run over in front of them).

Today, I met up with an email pal I met through a women's travel network called HerMai l .net. HerMail allows you to write anonymously to women living in the area to which you're traveling and ask them for hints or advice. I wrote, Ann answered. We wrote back and forth a few times and set up a time and day to meet for lunch. It was nice to have a friendly face, good food, and good conversation when you're traveling by yourself.

Last night, while eating dinner at the pub around the corner from where I'm staying, I got to chatting with a couple next to me that were on holiday from Australia. I guess what I'm trying to say is that no matter where we choose to travel, it's nice to know that there are other birds out there willing to show you in which direction to fly.

And Speaking of my Room... (Originally Posted 4/9/08)

2009-08-27T10:28:00.000-05:00

OMG! First of all, I knew it was going to be small. I read the reviews on Trip Advisor. But I am traveling on a budget and 45 pounds a night is a good deal for London.

The average room runs about 100 to 200 pounds a night (that's $200-400 dollars for us poor people). I'm willing to work with what I get...but DAMN it's tiny!!! (Above pic is taken from the bathroom doorway. At the foot of the bed is a tiny bathroom with a standing shower and a teeny-tiny sink. Behind the front door and to the right of the medium packing cube pictured above is a folding chair, which I'm using as a stand to hold my big packing cube and a small shelf stand that holds a hot water pot and my small packing cube with food.) Not only that, when I checked in, the kind proprietor tells me they've given me a very nice room on the third floor. THIRD FLOOR!!! WTF! I'm FAT and out of shape dammit!

Worse, I remembered on my way up the stairs (with that heavy, mother-humping piece of luggage) that in England, what we in the States refer to as the first floor, they refer to as the "ground" floor. Get it? So in England, you have the ground floor (G), 1st floor, 2nd floor, 3rd floor and so on. Are you all catching my drift here? I had to lug my crap up FOUR FLIGHTS OF STAIRS! I need a friggin' vacation from carrying my luggage! It also makes me hesitant to leave lest I decide I need extra exercise to get back to my room. Other than that, it's clean and safe (CCTV on all stairwells and at the front door) and at a wonderful, wonderful location. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for a better place to stay while in London!

One of the Hardest Things About Walking in London... (Originally Posted 4/9/08)

2009-08-27T10:24:00.000-05:00

is forgetting which way to look when crossing the street!

I'm guessing that most of the people reading this (Kris, I'm not sure about what side of the street y'all drive on) drive on the right side of the street. So as pedestrians, when we're crossing the street our natural tendency is to look left, right, then left again before we cross. (Except maybe Senobia who probably just walks out, glares at the oncoming traffic and it all stops for her and lets her cross).

In Bath, I almost got sidelined a couple of times because of my natural tendency to look left first. It's a hard thing to catch onto because for most of us, it's something we do without actively thinking about it. Well, today I'm in London for the rest of my stay and after arriving, going up to my room (which is another story all together!!!!) and unpacking, I decided to go for a walk to get acquainted with my 'hood for the next 6 days.

Lo and behold, as I went to cross a street, I happened to glance down and I guess that Londoners got tired of scraping visiting Yanks of the street because in big, white letters, it says, "LOOK RIGHT" or "LOOK LEFT", thus eliminating the need for thinking when crossing the street.

THANKS Londoners!

How Many Pictures of Stonehenge Do I REALLY Need?? (Originally Posted April 2008)

2009-08-26T23:36:00.000-05:00

Obviously, as many as I can snap without getting tired of the subject. So...yes. I took many, many pictures of Stonehenge. Too many. From many different angles at many different zoom settings. Did I get tired of taking pictures of Stonehenge? Yes. But with all the tourists around snapping pic after pic, I felt decidedly alone if I just walked along the path surrounding this monolith just listening to the recorded information...so I snapped. Literally. I think it had to do with the fact that you can't get any near the formation itself. I heard that they used to let people walk around but of course, idiots that we are, people started hacking away at the stones or writing stupid love notes and hearts on them so now we see it from afar. It was somewhat awesome as we drove up to it...to see it in the distance and know that to date, no one has ever figured out why it was created. Wouldn't it be funny if we found out that it had no meaning to it whatsoever? Just a piece of very, very primitive art.

After Stonehenge, we traveled to Avebury. There were very few people there even though it was free to see and you could walk all over the grounds. In all honesty, this was much larger than Stonehenge and you're allowed to walk right up to the stones to get a feel for how large they really are...the disappointing part is that lots of the stones are missing or fell or were used for stone to build nearby buildings and they were replaced with markers signifying where the large stones were supposed to be. The problem with this site (and I believe this is why Stonehenge is much, much more popular) is that the Avebury Henge is about a mile in circumference. It's huge! That is the size of the outer circle and the inner circle is smaller but still pretty large overall. So the rub is that you can't fit it all into one picture. It's not photogenic at all (see above pic). Humans, simple creatures that we are, want to have everything fit into a nice, neat little package and Avebury just doesn't do it for us.

Did I tell you I took lots of pictures of Stonehenge?

The London Tube (Originally Posted 4/13/08)

2009-08-26T23:26:00.000-05:00

Honestly, when I looked at a map of the tube back at home, I have to admit, I was a little concerned about how I was going to get around London. It looked so complicated...tons of little colored lines intersecting and squiggling all over the place, and even though I have a great sense of direction, I have to say it intimidated me. We had no problem with Rome’s metro as there were only two lines, one running north-south, and the other running east-west. This was an entirely different animal.

I can, without a doubt, tell you that it really is much easier than it looks. Yes, there are over 11 lines to worry about and yes it looks confusing on the map, but overall, I have to say it’s been fairly easy.

I am staying down the block from a huge terminal called Victoria Station. This particular station is a railway, bus, and tube station. Most stations are for tube only but there are a few that encompass everything.

I make it a point to study my own tube map before I leave Victoria station. Once I’m there, I find the right track for the connection or destination I want to go on. All stations have maps everywhere and once you get to the platforms, they always have huge posters with all the stops listed for each direction. Find your destination on those posters and go to the platform on that same side to catch your tube.

The nice thing about the tube is that it’s very forgiving. If you end up going the wrong way, it’s very easy to get off on the next stop and catch the tube going in the opposite direction.

Yesterday, one of the main routes was down for repair and it was a very organized chaos. There were alot of people like me trying to find a substitute route and the nice thing was that there were plenty of transit personnel out to direct us to the right train and tell us which route to take to get where we wanted to be. Even with the closures, it was easy to get to where I wanted to go.

The tubes are clean, free of graffiti, and non-smoking. People are generally polite and not pushy at all. I’m using an Oyster card (a pay as you go travel card) to pay for my local travel rather than buying an individual ticket each time I want to use the tube. It’s easier and faster, in my opinion. When you get to the entrance, you insert your ticket or press your Oyster and the stalls allow you to enter. You do the same when you are ready to exit your station. Another reason it’s easier to use the Oyster card is that sometimes you buy your tube ticket to go to one particular place and maybe at the last minute decide to go somewhere else. Since you are charged according to the zone you travel in, if you go outside the zone you originally purchased a ticket for, you might not be able to exit the station without finding someone to help you pay extra for traveling outside the zone for which your original ticket was purchased. With the Oyster, you’re free to go to any zone you wish and the amount is deducted from your pre-paid card.

All in all, the tube has been an overall pleasant experience. The only negatives I can think to say about them are so many stairs!!! Ugh...no wonder there are no fat Brits walking around! They burn calories just going to and from work every day!!!

~ Women Traveling the World! (Originally Posted 4/10/09)

2009-08-26T23:21:00.000-05:00

In a recent survey of 500 women, 68% of the women in the survey said they had traveled alone at least once in the last 3 years.

Luckily for us, there are resources now that make traveling for women safer and more convenient. While most of us knowingly travel alone, it doesn’t mean we don’t want someone to chat with or meet up with during our journey. There are tons of resources for women who travel.

One of my favorite ones is Journey Woman. This website is chock full of resources for women travelers! They even offer a free monthly newsletter if you’re interested in one. One of the great links they have is to Hermail.net. Hermail is a safe way to find at least 2 contacts in the city to which you are traveling and anonymously exchange email with them.

This is a wonderful, FREE service available to any woman that might be traveling to somewhere she’s never been and would like to know more from someone who is in the know. In my case, I exchanged e-mails with Ann who offered some wonderful suggestions about where to eat and some things to do. In the course of our email exchange, we agreed to meet for lunch.

It is a great thing to meet new people and to know that during your travels you will encounter a friendly face that can also direct you to see things and visit places in a way no guidebook can match. Thanks to Hermail.net and thank you Ann for your insight and advice.

Arrival in England (Originally Posted 4/8/08)

2009-08-26T23:11:00.000-05:00

After tons of hours on a plane, we landed in London and guess what I saw upon leaving the airport. Yep, that’s snow. Lots and lots of it. Check out the short clip of how hard it was falling as I waited for my train to London. Took the train to London and caught another to Bath Spa. Arrived yesterday, settled in and then hit the pavement.

I was bone-tired but did not succumb to the temptation to sleep. Instead, I walked up the hill (ugh!) to the Crescent Gardens and caught the hop on hop off bus and tried to get my bearings.

I took a 90 minute tour of the historic Roman Baths, then walked a bit until I decided to hop back on the bus to go back to the B&B.

Today, I ventured back out towards the gardens and made my way to Bath Centre. Along the way, I checked out the Jane Austen exhibit and visited some shops. Afterwards, I headed back to the B&B for a rest and some tea. Later on, I headed back into the Bath Centre and spent a couple of well earned hours in the mineral baths...aaahhhhh....sheer heaven, that was!!!

After my dip, I met up with other gluttons for punishment for a 90 minute comedy walk in the very cold weather. My feet and legs are going to punish me for all the walking I’ve been doing but it’s all good. Tomorrow, I’m off to Stonehenge and the Cotswalds. Will post more tomorrow evening. Ta-ta for now.

A Weekend in London (Originally Posted 3/31/08)

2009-08-26T23:09:00.000-05:00

I’m planning on being pretty flexible for the last weekend I’m in England. Most of what I decide to do will depend on the weather and how much I really want to do. One of the things I learned from watching Rick Steve’s is that he encourages you to believe that you will be back. You can’t see everything. I know I won’t see everything I really want to see so I plan on coming back.

With that in mind, I know I want to visit Stratford upon Avon and to visit Ann Hathaway’s House and I really want to visit Oxford University. So, either Friday or Saturday, I’ll catch the train and make a day trip to visit both places.

On Sunday, I’m planning on catching the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and I am definitely going on the Jack the Ripper Walk! I am so excited about the Ripper walk!!! I have been reading about that for years now. The company that does the walks also offers tons of other types of walks but the Ripper walk is led by several guides but the main guide is the world’s foremost authority on Jack the Ripper, Donald Rumbelow! He guides the walks on Sunday nights. I am so there!

My Monday is wide open for whatever I want to see that I might not have seen already and for packing to leave on Tuesday.

~ It Pays to Check in Advance (Originally Posted 3/31/08)

2009-08-26T23:03:00.000-05:00

In my last entry, I mentioned I would probably go out to see the changing of the guard the morning after I arrived in London. I decided to check the web and read what I could about Buckingham Palace and it’s a good thing I did because I found out that in April, the changing of the guard is only happening every other day and I would have been sorely disappointed upon arriving at the palace and seeing NADA! Save time and check as much as you can ahead of time!!! Remember, your time is valuable, spend it wisely!

The other thing I’m checking now that my trip is coming up is the weather! I had already planned on a rain jacket of some type but seeing the weather trends lately (and chatting with a friend who lives across the pond) I’ve discovered their weather has been a bit colder than usual so I added more long sleeve shirts, a quilted vest, gloves, and a scarf to my packing list. My original plan included a hoodie which I will wear on the plane. Speaking of packing lists, check out my packing video on an earlier entry.

So, I’ve changed my plans a bit and decided that I’m going to try for a Duck Tour. It sounds like fun, cold fun, but fun.

Thursday will be spend exploring London. I already have friends and family that have placed orders for souvenirs so I have stuff to buy! I’ve already reserved my ride on the London Eye and a cruise on the Thames. It should all be fun!

Getting to Know London (Originally Posted 3/24/08)

2009-08-26T22:59:00.001-05:00

I know it’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to write a bit. I’ve been working extra consulting jobs for the trip so I got a bit sidetracked but for a very good reason...MONEY!

So, where were we??? Ah yes. Our first day in London! I’ve decided that I will be as flexible as possible while in London. I’ve got 5 full days to see as much as possible (and try to fit in some rest as well) but I don’t want to stress myself out so for me, flexibility will be the key. I will be arriving by train from Bath. My plan is to leave Bath around noon so I can arrive in London and check in by 3pm or so. I’m staying at the Cherry Court Hotel.

I found this location in my Rick Steves guidebook. I checked out the web page and as a single woman traveling alone, decided that it was in a safe location, near the tube, and the hotel has closed-circuit television monitoring the entrances and lobby. I felt better knowing if I arrived after dark, the doors were being monitored. I booked a single room and reserved it at the posted rate of 48 pounds a night. Breakfast is a fruit bowl, biscuits, cereal and coffee/tea and that’s plenty for me to start my day.

After checking in I don’t plan on doing too much besides getting to know my way around my new neighborhood and maybe do a hop-on/hop-off bus tour around the city. Depending on how tired I am, I might spend the evening in my room relaxing or just hanging around the area. The next day, I plan to walk around London and catch as much as I can by foot. I will try to visit Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. I’m hoping that this will be a good day to miss crowds as a Thursday morning isn’t usually the tourist time. After the change, I plan on visiting London Bridge, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum and the London Dungeon (which sounds a bit like Disney’s Tower of Terror) ride.

Afterwards, I have already booked myself a Thames River Cruise (a circular river cruise that lasts about 40 minutes) that should take me by all the major sites in and around the Thames River. Afterwards, I have also reserved and paid for a fast-track ticket to the London Eye (see pictures above). By purchasing in advance, I’ve saved 10% and have something akin to a reserved time to ride the pod on the Eye and see London at night instead of waiting in line (which I’ve heard can get very lengthy at times) to ride.

My suggestion to all of you is if you can book a ticket or make a reservation on-line before you arrive at your destination, it will probably save you money and time (which is sometimes as valuable, if not more valuable than money). I saved 10% on each ticket and have definite plans for my evening so I don’t waste any of my precious time in London wondering what I’m going to do next. After my pod ride, I’ll catch the tube back to my B&B for the rest of the evening.

~ Transportation--The Final Word (Originally Posted 3/2/08)

2009-08-26T22:50:00.000-05:00

Ok...I suppose by now you think I’ve beat a dead horse but I haven’t really. Aside from the money for your lodging, the money you spend on transportation will probably be your next largest expense so you need to make sure that your spending it wisely, no? I suppose if you aren’t a budget traveler like I am it might not be that big a deal but if you travel on a tight budget like I do, you’ll want to know exactly where your money is going and what you can do to save a bit if you can.

If you go back a couple of entries and read my first blog about transportation, you’ll see I mentioned that I traveled exclusively by rail when I went to Italy (minus the one coach trip). I basically tallied ahead of time the number of trips I would have to take using Rick Steve’s rail-friendly map and determined it would probably be cheaper to purchase my tickets for travel while I was in Italy and on the day of travel.

For the England trip, though, I’ve used the actual website for train travel in the UK (National Rail) and using it, determined that it would probably save me more money to purchase my rail pass now rather than wait.

You can purchase your rail passes through several websites as I pointed out in one of my earlier blogs, I used Rick Steves’ website and got 20% off some travel gear I wanted to order as well.

Whatever you decide to do, make sure you do your research, (or hire me to do it for you) plan in advance and you’ll be fine.

~ Transportation Pt. 2 (Originally Posted 2/25/08)

2009-08-26T22:46:00.000-05:00

In my last blog entry, we discussed why using the rails as your main form of transportation while traveling overseas was a good idea. To recap, it’s fast, clean, reliable and a reasonably priced alternative to renting a car.

If you remember, I briefly mentioned in my last entry that when we traveled in Italy, we used the train to travel to all of our destinations except for only one time.

Bus travel, or “coach” as it’s commonly referred to in Europe, is another wonderful alternative to renting a car to travel within the country you’re visiting.

Even though we chose to use the train the majority of the time, I had done my research (reading guide book after guide book) and in one of my favorite guidebooks, specifically, Rick Steves’ Italy, he made mention that sometimes train engineers go on strike and that sometimes those strikes last for a few hours up to a few days. When we made our way to the train station in Orvieto to purchase our tickets to go to Siena, we were told that the trains were not running due to a strike. Rather than going into panic-mode, we calmly asked about when the coach was running and found that it was due to leave within the hour and the cost was even more reasonable than the train! Bonus!!!

The coach was clean and convenient. It delivered us to our destination a bit later than we had planned but the drive made its way down winding roads through gorgeous countryside that we might not have seen had we taken the train.

Now, my personal preference is for the train. Not because of money or time but because I have a tendency to get carsick and eventually, bus rides make me feel ill. However, for me, it was just fine in a pinch.

If you’re on a tight budget and you have ample time between destinations, a coach would be a wonderful alternative to the train. And speaking of alternative modes of transportation, if you get the chance to use them you should. One of my more memorable modes of transport as we traveled from Naples to Sorrento was via hydrofoil! We spent a beautiful afternoon eating luch at the docks in Napoli as we waited for our hydrofoil to take us to Sorrento. It was a great trip (even if I got a little seasick) and one I’ll never forget!

We’re not done talking about transportation yet! There’s more to discuss and more hints and tips coming up on the next blog entry. Stay tuned!!

~ Transportation Pt. 1 (Originally Posted 2/16/08)

2009-08-26T22:40:00.000-05:00

One of the things I haven’t spent a lot of time talking about yet is my main method of transportation...TRAINS!

Europe is connected by railway and it’s fast, safe, convenient, and can be a bargain if you’re traveling as a couple or solo!

If you are intent on driving, there are some things you should take care of before you go: First, reserve your rental car while you’re still in the U.S. so you can lock your rate in U.S. dollars. It’s not a necessary evil but it might save you some money in the long run. Next, check in at AAA to get your international driving permit. I’ve read about lots of people that drive in Europe with nothing more than their U.S. license and have had no issue with it but I guess for me, I’d rather be safe than sorry and get my international permit. I’m a little, ahem...let’s just say I’m a little “obsessive” about details so I’d rather have one than not. Third and most important (in my humble opinion), keep an eye on petrol prices. For example, if gas was priced at 1.33 euros per litre, that calculates to $1.89 per litre and don’t forget that a litre is approximately a bit more than a quarter gallon so you’re paying roughly just over $7.00 a gallon for gasoline for your vehicle.

Using that bit of information, if you’re traveling solo, a good chunk of your budget will be eaten up by relying on the convenience of driving.

Be smart, be brave, and most of all, put your fears behind you and go for the adventure!!! After all, isn’t that why you travel??

During my Italy trip, we relied solely on the rail for transportation with only one exception and I’ll talk more about that in a second. There are many websites that supply information on Eurail and how to purchase passes. Try RailEurope and Rick Steve’s website for more detailed information on using Eurail to get around.

If you’re staying in one country, consider single country passes and if you’re intent on driving you can even combine your rail travel with driving by purchasing a Rail n’ Drive pass.

During my trip to Italy, I did a rough calculation to determine how much I thought I might spend on rail travel and decided to wait until I was in the country to purchase my train tickets. For trip to England, I decided instead to purchase a BritRail pass prior to arriving in England because my rough calculations of what I might spend ended up being more if I purchased tickets separately than if I purchased a regional pass.

Overall, each trip will probably be different. Read, research, calculate to decide which method will be most cost effective for you and make the most of it!

A Full Day in Bath, England (Originally Posted 2/10/08)

2009-08-25T20:27:00.000-05:00

Well...so if I decided I was too tired to do the Stonehenge Tour on my second full day in Bath, I plan to see the city sites the right proper way!

I mentioned that the city of Bath offers free walking tours. They last about 2 hours and are led by volunteers so this would probably be the day I would take advantage of that freebie. Hopefully, the guide will mention extra-ordinary city sites that I should not miss and I will get to see them all.

The main thing I am interested in seeing of course, are the Roman Baths (pictured above) and on some of the photos from my earlier entries.

In all honesty, I do want to take a look around this fascinating city and take advantage of all the historical sites and such but what I’m REALLY interested in doing is this: I’m going to sit around in the Spa doggone it! The Thermae Bath Spa is Bath’s original and only natural thermal spa. My plan is to buy the 4 hour spa session. They also have a cafe & restaurant and a visitor center.

There is a great deal of history in the water and there are some archival films and photos available for viewing if you click on the link above. I have read that the water that is generated in these spas is anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 years old! Can you wrap your brain around that??? I’m having a hard time doing that myself!

Oh well, who cares if I can wrap my brain around it or not?! The fact of the matter is the main reason for my stay in Bath is rest & relaxation before I hit the bustling city of London and this is where I’m gonna get it!!!

Stonehenge & Avebury (Originally Posted 2/4/08)

2009-08-25T20:20:00.000-05:00

Could anyone travel to this area of the world and not want to visit Stonehenge? It is estimated that Stonehenge was built in 3100 B.C. and nobody really knows what it was built for but the most common guesses are human sacrifice, astronomy, and solar/lunar worship. The problem is that you have to pay to get in but, except for special occasions, you’re not allowed to walk amongst the stones. What’s a curious, die-hard traveler to do???

Visit Avebury! It’s bigger than Stonehenge! It’s older than Stonehenge! It’s free! Seriously though, this henge is about 25 miles north of Stonehenge and apparently carries different theme than Stonehenge. If you’d like to read more about Stonehenge and Avebury, click on this link.

So, there I am without a car needing to get around the English Countryside. Well, I’ve done a good bit of research and unless I find something better, I’m going with Mad Max Tours. I’m not sure which day yet...it will all depend on how tired I am but if I’m not too tired, I’m going to try to do this on Monday. If I’m not up for it on Monday, no sweat, I’ll do it on Tuesday. I plan to keep my itinerary as flexible as possible. The tour is an all-day tour to Stonehenge, Avebury, Lacock, and Castle Combe. Lacock is a village that was filmed during some of the Harry Potter movies and in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. It’s about an 8 hour day but I’m going to get to see some of the beautiful English Countryside without having to get behind a wheel myself.

This is a great way to keep your travel independent and still get a chance to meet some people that have very similar interests. There are several groups that offer tours of this type from Bath, as well as London, so do your research. Read testimonials and find out if they are mentioned in any guide or travel books. Talk to the people at your hotel (fellow travelers, not concierge’s who may be getting a kickback for referrals) or join groups like TravelZine (a Yahoo group) so fellow traveler’s can give you referrals. Do your homework (or hire a travel planner like me to do it for you) and enjoy the sights!

Packing for Enland (Originally Posted in February 2008)

2009-08-25T15:27:00.000-05:00

~ Packing Hints & Tips (Originally Published 2/3/08)

2009-08-23T18:02:00.000-05:00

I am devoting this particular entry to the chore of packing.
Packing for any trip can be exciting but we tend to over-pack and take along every incidental we can think of, don’t we?

My personal travel guru is Rick Steves. If you haven’t ever caught any of his travel shows, they air only on Public Television but you can get tons of hints and tips on everything related to travel on his website. His series “Europe Through the Back Door” was instrumental in turning me on to overseas travel and I’ve been a fan of his ever since. I could go on and on about all of his shows and everything I’ve learned from reading his books but suffice to say you need to check out his stuff on your own whenever you’ve got the time.

Rick’s mantra regarding packing is this: Pack light. You’ll hear him say it over and over again; you’ll never be lugging a couple of suitcases up a hill while you’re running to catch a train and thinking, “Gee, I wish I’d packed more stuff.” I took what he said to heart on my first overseas trip and plan to do so again on this one. I packed one suitcase/bag that could fit into the overhead compartment and carried a backpack on the plane with my necessary flight stuff. That was it. It was hard to do and even with that, I think I packed too much, but live and learn, eh? I have found (and used) all of these websites and then whittled down all the information to make my own packing list. Find one you like and do the same. I guarantee, you’ll travel better if you do.

The first one is, of course, Rick’s packing list. Keep in mind that he is a man and women must make adjustments but the fundamentals are there. His website also has recommendations for what women should pack.

The second site is fun and informative. It’s called OneBag.com, The Art & Science of Packing Light. It’s a great website that offers tons of tips on what to pack and how to pack it. The author also provides bits of science and information on the how’s and why’s of packing. All in all, a wonderful site you’ll probably bookmark it and use over and over again.

(*Note to readers. As of this re-posting, the site for the universal packing list appears to be down at this time. If you wish to try again in the future, http://upl.codeq.com) The Universal Packing List is an interactive list that lets you input information about how you’re traveling, what the weather will be like, what you want to take and the type of place you’re staying at and then generates a list of the items you should pack based on the information you feed into it. It generates a pretty lengthy list but it might clue you in on something you didn’t think about AND it lets you email that list to yourself and/or your traveling buddies for further review.

The last site I love to use is The Independent Traveler’s Interactive Packing List. This is a great resource because it also allows you to input your own information by checking off the box next to over 100 listed items (and there’s even some space for you to add your own personal stuff) then when you’re done checking off, you click the button and the list is generated for you already categorized by heading. All that’s left for you to do is print it and/or email to yourself and use it!

Don’t forget to check with the airlines and the national transportation websites to update yourself on what items can be carried onto a plane legally because you know that stuff is always changing. Also, if you’re planning a trip outside of the country, make sure you know their rules about carry-ons also. For example, in the UK, (until last week, this was relevant for all airports but was recently lifted for London-Heathrow) carry-ons were limited to one bag only. That means that when I get ready to leave the UK, if my laptop is in a bag or backpack, that’s my carry-on limit and all other bags must be checked. Although I don’t necessarily like checking my baggage, I’m more inclined to feel better about doing it on my way home than on my way out because at least at home, I know I’ll have extra clothes.

Anyway, I hope these websites come in handy for you and as it gets closer to my travel date, I’ll let you all take a peek at the bag that I’ll be taking with me!

First Day Plans for Bath (Originally Published 2/2/08)

2009-08-23T17:56:00.000-05:00

If all goes as planned, I plan on catching the train to Bath and getting there by 1:00 p.m. I’ll check into the Elgin Villas and my first inclination after unpacking will be to take a nap, but experience dictates that a nap would not be the best thing to do.

My eyes will be seeing daylight and reading the time on my watch as afternoon time but my body will be saying, “Hey! What the heck is wrong with you waking up at 1:00 a.m. and not going back to bed?!” My job will be to make sure that my mind and my body begin to operate in sync and sleeping would be the worst thing to do. So my plan after unpacking will be to head out on the town and get my bearings. I could take a walking tour. Bath offers free walking tours. The tours are about two hours long and are led by volunteers. It sounds good and it is on my agenda but that might be a bit too much, too soon.

Nope, my plan is to take the bus tour. Hop-on, hop-off tours of Bath run about 4 times an hour and there are several spots all over the city where I can catch the bus. Perfect opportunity to grab a sandwich, get a good view of the sites, and listen to recorded information about what I’m seeing. There are 2 tours, one in-city and one around-city. I’m planning on taking the in-city one first. The ticket is about 10 pounds and is good for a 24 hour period so I could take the around-city tour later or the next day. I think after the tour, I’ll feel better about letting myself take a small nap. No more than an hour. Wake up and have dinner at a good restaurant then head to my room to relax the rest of the evening.

Let's Start in Bath! (Originally Posted 2/1/08)

2009-08-23T17:40:00.000-05:00

I’ll be arriving at London, Gatwick. Once I get through customs, I plan on catching the train to Bath.

Bath is considered a World Heritage City with a population of about 85,000. It is best known for the hot springs that are credited with ended infertility for Queen Mary, who became pregnant after bathing in the Spa.

Supposedly, the Romans traveled there extensively also to use the springs so much so that the town was called “Aquae Sulis” which later was shortened to “Bath”. The city of Bath logs about 2 million visitors a year!

The town is also known for the 5 years that Jane Austen lived there (circa 1800) and how Bath influenced her writing, but we’ll talk more about that later. There seems to be quite a bit to do in Bath and the surrounding country. I chose to go to Bath upon my arrival in England because it sounded like just the right place to be to recuperate from my jet lag. I will be staying at the Elgin Villa-Bed & Breakfast. It looks lovely and the proprietor, Anna Rutherford, sounds like she’s going to be a wonderful and helpful host. Here’s a link to the Elgin Villa so you can see where I’ll be staying.

Photo: Elgin Villas Bed & Breakfast

~ So Much Info!! (Originally Published 1/31/08)

2009-08-23T17:37:00.000-05:00

People have been so kind and generous with information on where to eat, what to see, and what to do while I’m in London & Bath. I have so much information and so many links to click on, I’ll be busy all weekend long just visiting sites of places I need to read about to decide whether or not to put them on my itinerary.

Speaking of itineraries...the first place I went to after I purchased my flight was this website http://www.tripit.com

This is one of the best free, yes that’s right, I said, “FREE” websites for keeping track of your trips, no matter where you’re planning to go, out there.

With a few simple clicks, you can create an account that keeps track of all your flight info, hotel reservations, transportation reservations, tour info, and just about anything else you need for your trip. It even automatically adds maps and weather for your destination! There are so many ways to use the site I’m not even covering half of them!

It’s the best way to create an itinerary. You can print it out and take it with you or pull it up on the web and use it from there.

Don’t take a trip without it!

I'm Getting Ready (Originally published 1/30/08)

2009-08-23T17:31:00.000-05:00

I’m guessing that alot of you probably think it’s too early to be getting ready for a trip that isn’t going to happen until April but I’m a bit over-anxious and excited. I want to know about everything that I could possibly do, see, eat, ride, and watch before I set foot on British soil. Once I’m there, I’ll whittle down my must-see list to something that is hopefully manageable with a few days of plain rest and relaxation thrown in for good measure.

As I find things to do or see, I’ll put the links and pics in here so you can do a little discovery of your own. Sound good? BTW, when you see a blog entry with this symbol (~) before the entry title, you will know that that particular blog entry contains information that is relevant to travel in general and not specific to my upcoming trip. Also, I just want everyone to know that if I’m mentioning a website or a product, it is based strictly upon my own experience with that website or that product. I have no ties to any company or business out there in web-land and I don’t get paid or compensated in any way to endorse anything. So...are you ready to get in on the planning of this trip with me? Lets go...

Re-Post Information

2009-08-23T17:22:00.000-05:00

Well...I've finally got the logistics all figured out on how to mesh this blog with my old one; however, my old GlobeDiva Travels site is no longer functioning. I don't want to lose my old entries and I know I had some followers out there (hope some of you are still out there!) so I've decided to go ahead and re-post my old blog entries of when I was getting ready to travel to England.

Most of these were originally published in early 2008 as I was getting ready to travel to England and some were published while I was in England. I will attempt to post these as close to how they were published originally.

I hope that all my new readers enjoy the entries and that my older readers enjoy the familiarity of the entries.

Thanks for reading!

Hey, Good Job Kid, Way to Stick WIth It!

2009-08-20T19:06:00.000-05:00

I spent the last couple of days with my God daughter, Savannah. She went to work with me then after work we piddled around running errands, replacing her busted Crocs, getting her a game for her DS for her birthday, and of course, eating.

She's 10 years old and going into 5th grade this year and soon middle school then, OMG...high school. She's grown up so fast and she's such a good kid. It really got me to thinking about kids in general.

We always hear about the kids that shoot up schools, kids that steal, kids that get pregnant, kids that kill their parents, kids in gangs. We only hear about the good kids when they do something really worth writing about, like having a bake sale and raising $3000.00 to open a school in Vietnam or something like that.

Not to take away anything from those kids, but what about the kids like Savannah? What about the kids that remember to say "thank you for the shoes", "yes please", or "thanks for lunch". What about the kids that do what their parents ask them to do? What about the kids that stay in school and graduate? What about the kids that never drive drunk or experiment with drugs? How about those kids that do great on their tests and don't have to be reminded to do their homework or take out the trash. Who writes about them? Besides their parents, who pulls them aside and says, "Hey, good job kid. Way to stick with it!"

Well, today I decided to write about it. Savannah doesn't have a computer because her grandma hasn't been able to afford one just yet but I'm going to make sure she reads this and knows that she is a good kid. She's trying to be a better person all the time. She does her home work without her grandma pushing her. She likes science. She's adjusted to all the ups and downs that life has thrown at her in the last 10 years and has come out the better for it.

Savannah, you need to know you're doing a great job with life right now. You are moving in the right direction and I can't wait to see the type of young lady you're going to grow up to be. You make me feel like we're the lucky ones because when we get old and gray, you're going to be out there with other kids that are strong and motivated like you and you'll be running this country and we're all going to be the better for it.

Love you, Savannah.

My So-Called Life

2009-08-19T21:16:00.000-05:00

I took this picture in Orvieto, Italy on my first visit to Europe in 2004. This picture epitomizes my love of Italy and the reason I am so drawn to this region of the world.

Even in Rome, amongst millions of people, there is an underlying sense of calm and camaraderie amongst the people there that I often find lacking here in the states.

I love my country but I personally find it hard to focus on the simplicity of life when I'm so busy concentrating on work and savings and errands and schedules and on and on and on.

I'm also not trying to fool myself into believing that all of that would disappear if I just moved to another country. It's just that I think a move like that would adjust my focus. I'm sure I would still have to work but I don't imagine it would be at such a frenzied pace. I would find myself assimilating to the Italian norm of family, friends, and food...and I could live with that!

I WANT to stroll through the market with my pick of fresh fruits and vegetables. I WANT to walk into the neighborhood bakery and buy fresh bread to go with my dinner. I WANT to walk into the corner store and order a coffee that I stop and drink out of a real cup and saucer and I want to take a minute or two to appreciate the flavor of the coffee as it fills my mouth instead of driving through a McDonald's and drinking my coffee out of a paper cup as I drive to work. I am longing for a pizza on a thin crust with fresh mozzarella and squash blossoms.

I'm so ready to move to Italy and I'm honestly not sure that I'll ever get there because my girlfriend really has no inclination to move there. If she did move there, it would just be to make me happy and I really don't want that either.

I'm bummed.

Eh.

2009-08-19T11:52:00.001-05:00

That's how I've been feeling lately. Eh. Sort of like, "Would you like fish or chicken for dinner tonight?" My reply, "Eh".

I don't seem to have the gumption for much of anything. Work is work and it's been busy but I don't want to immerse myself in it.

Home is home but my partner seems to be having the same lacksidasical attitude I've been having.

Maybe it's this intense Texas heat. We've been hitting over 100 degrees Fahrenheit everyday for several months now and no rain in sight. Over the last couple of weekends, I've been out to some lakeside areas not too far from San Antonio and they are so low you can see the humps and ridges of the exposed land in the middle of the lakes. There are islands where there never were before. It's all bad. And the heat is draining.

I hope the weather changes soon and we get some rain sometime in the near future. Maybe it would help my feelings of lethargy too.

Then again, maybe not. Eh.

2009-08-05T20:35:00.001-05:00

Forgotten Flames
A recurring dream leads to hidden memories of the past.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/2027960/forgotten_flames.html

2009-07-30T19:35:00.001-05:00

Travels to Spain & Italy in 2009
I spent about a week in Spain and 2 weeks in Rome, Italy for vacation and studies. I had never been to Spain and even though I'd been to Rome, it was only for a couple of days so this time, I played the ultimate tourist.
http://www.associatedcontent.comslideshow/24362/travels_to_spain_italy_in_2009.html

2009-07-23T19:13:00.001-05:00

Free Things to See & Do in San Antonio, Texas
Here are several suggestions for places to visit and things to see and do that won't cost you a dime when you come and visit San Antonio, Texas. Maximize your fun without breaking open your wallet. Some great ideas for "stay-cations" too!
http://www.associatedcontent.com

2009-05-05T18:34:00.001-05:00

Review ofThe Shack: No Mysteries Here
My review of the number one best selling book, The Shack by William P. Young.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1697005/review_ofthe_shack_no_mysteries_here.html

2009-04-23T13:29:00.001-05:00

Courage and Heart, More Important Than Talent
Why I believe Susan Boyle's audition for "Britain's Got Talent" has become such a viral story and why the woman herself has affected us so strongly.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1656317/courage_and_heart_more_important_than.html

2009-04-23T09:44:00.001-05:00

Easy Mediterranean Recipes for the Home Cook
Add sunny Mediterranean flavor to your cooking.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1000878/easy_mediterranean_recipes_for_the.html

Gone But Not Forgotten

2008-07-29T19:30:00.000-05:00

Well...I finally got rid of my old Pontiac Aztek.

I loved that car, I really did. It was a nice pickle green and it was really comfy. As much as I cursed it when it was over-heating and as much as it embarrassed me when it stopped dead in the center lane of Loop 410 in the middle of rush hour, I'll always remember it as the car that I owned when I met DJ and the car that took my mother, my brother and myself all the way to Nebraska to be with my cousin Renee when she passed.

All that aside, it was time. The starter started grinding about a year after I bought it. Thank God it never went out but I always lived with the fear that one morning, when I most needed to be at work or someplace important, I'd turn the key and get nothing.

The a/c went out about two years after I bought it. I drove around with no a/c for about two and a half years while I saved up enough money to replace the condenser or the compressor or something like that. Finally replaced it and it worked great for about 6 months or so. Thank the good Lord it was working when DJ came down to meet me or she probably never would have come back to Texas to be with me. About two weeks after DJ went back to North Carolina, my cousin Renee got sick and while she was there checking with her specialists in Nebraska, she became fatally ill and passed away. This car drove me and my family straight through to Omaha even though the damned "check engine" light kept blinking on and off the entire way up and back, it got us there.

Shortly after DJ moved to San Antonio, the a/c went out again. I paid out the rear to get the cooling system repaired only to have it go out again about 6 months later. I didn't attempt to fix it again.

My Aztek took me all over South and Central Texas while I was working as a Private Investigator. It was always comfortable to drive long distances. It was my mobile office. It was my living room as I drove between all my jobs. It was a mobile campsite. It was my world and the car I owned the longest of any car I've ever had.

I'm really going to miss it.

The Latest Victims of Circumstance

2008-07-21T21:52:00.000-05:00

Why is it that we tend to gloss over issues that pertain to our soldiers' and the world they face when they return from their service?

I'm not old enough to remember anything about the Vietnam war but I know from material I've read and shows I've seen that when soldiers came back from this war, they were pretty much dismissed. They were dismissed by people who were against the war and dismissed by the government that sent them there.

Flash forward to 2008 and we find, thank goodness, that some things have changed. We have a large number of people in the U.S. that were against the war but learned not to blame the men and women that went to Iraq to do what they were ordered to do. That's a huge step forward for the American people. We've finally learned that the men and women doing the hard work of attempting to bring peace to an area far from the U.S. aren't to blame for what's happening in that particular country (with a few exceptions, of course).

So, if hundreds of thousands of people can bring themselves to shift their personal beliefs and be able to denounce the war while supporting the troops, then why is it so damned hard for the government to learn to do right by the personnel that do the dirty work for them?

Today, I read an article about a soldier who was hailed as a hero shortly after the Iraq war started. He was a reluctant hero. He wasn't in it for the accolades. In reality, he went to the front to do a favor for a friend who was hesitant to leave her kids when she was called. He went, he did his job, he came home.

How come no one bothers to check these guys when they are discharged? See if they're ok to go home and start life over again? Hell, not that it would make a difference, I'm guessing nobody would have cared anyway. This poor guy served his country and was pushed into the limelight when he didn't want to be there. He started falling apart when he got back. Started seeing things. He began suffering from PTSD. Started hearing things. He's got friends who are trying to help but it's not enough. A once good and caring man is reduced to a shell of man who dies lying in his own urine and feces. Where is the government's responsibility in all of this?

Some of our men are dying in the field. Yes, the enemies might be responsible for pulling the actual trigger and firing the gun that killed them, but how much responsibility does the U.S. government take in sending in men that are not fit, mentally or physically, for duty? Last week, I read this article about a young man who probably was not fit to serve in our armed forces. Are we so desperate that we'll put people in harm's way that have no business being there? "The Army was under a lot of pressure to graduate scouts at the time, and even now...no matter how competent or incompetent," Berg says. So it's come to this. We slam the enemy for strapping bombs onto the bodies of people with Down Syndrome but we are not so different.

What about the discharged veteran waiting for a disability check? Well, wait on brothers and sisters because that check might be a long time coming. This is just ONE article of several I've read on the subject of disabled veterans waiting over a year for their disability checks to kick in. Just what are these guys supposed to do until that check comes in??? How are they supposed to live??

I guess I'm just ranting about this stuff but it just pisses me off that our government is letting all these wonderful men and women fall between the cracks. If we're going to send them off to fight our wars we should be taking care of them when they return, damn it.