Europe Road Ways. How We Do It. Two on the Loose. Dan with down travels anywhere.: 2005

Currency conversion gimmick

Currency Conversion Made Easy

Go on Excel and list dollars in one column

And each needed currency beside, in another column-

And with reasonable increments

Cut off the extra.

Fold it so you can pull it out sideways from your wallet,

Quietly, just let it peek out to show the foreign amount,

Then slide it a little more to see the US,

To see what the cost really is, each time.

...............................................

For one trip, we needed five columns:

For Bosnia; Slovenia; Croatia; Serbia

And Montenegro, none of which were reliably

On the Euro.

I ended up cutting and stacking the columns

So I could flip to where we needed to be.

Mar

Travel by the Shape of the Country - Summary of Loops

It doesn't matter where you start or where you go. You will see signs for the big stuff anyway. Do them as you see them. When in doubt, head for a coast and just go clockwise. As you see signs for forays inland, go. If you are lost, pick a direction.

Feb

The occasional day bus tour

If you are in a big city,

Tired,

Then take a double-decker bus tour

And hop on, hop off.

Switzerland, Vega-Tour bus. Vegetable tour?

Best on Mondays when many countries close things. Museums shut.

Perfect for getting the mobile overview.

Bus tours? Sometimes. But rarely.

Feb

Precautions: Safekeeping your documents, luggage

Travel precautions. Look behind you once in a while.

Dan is demonstrating that travel principle at the annual Bojnice Castle play, Slovakia.

1. In pocket: For each traveler, carry an ID and where the current hotel is.

Put copy of passport also

In wallet with USA contact phone number.

2. In waist pocketbelt - tickets, passports, traveler's checks, extra cash. Keep different currencies separate in their own baggies.

3. In any parking lot - do not hurry.

Feb

Car rentals, insurance, parking Lost

Dan with rental car

Size matters. Keep it small. If the rental company tries to get you to upgrade, don't.

1. Cars: Compact size. No bigger. Roads are too narrow and twisty in many places.

Standard shift is cheaper and gives better control.

Insurance: Check carefully your own coverage. Duplicate any doubtful insurance. Contract for medical evac. If you are going from country to country, see that you are covered for each.

Feb

Buying: We don't

Shopping. Who Needs It.

Budget plus weight equals nuisance

Skip it. Too much time away from seeing what we want to see.

We do photos, postcards, maps and local guidebooks.

Feb

Museums - One Big per City, rest Small

Swiss Museum find, Yverdon les Bains.

Don't skip all the museums. You may learn something, like a 19th Century Swiss spa using mummy bone grindings for health.

We do one big museum per big city,

Then choose

Out-of-the-way, topical museums

Like the one for the Brothers Grimm

In Kassel, Germany.

Or the wayside mineral

Or early pagan artifact

And customs museums

In backroads Ireland

Where the wells

May still have ribbons

Placed on twigs nearby.

Sto to find out what they are.

Feb

Packing Suggest Takes- minimal. And baggies baggies.

Le Luggage

Shopping plastic bags for airport inspection, finding what you need

1. Pack everything in supermarket plastic bags.

2. Easy to unload for inspections, finding things.

3. Main categories: One to wash, one to wear, one for spare

4. Two basic dumb colors, with one brighter thing

5. Two daily pairs of shoes, one to get wet. Then a third light-weight pair to double as slippers to get to the bath down the hall, and wear for dinner.

Feb

Email - Provide general pending routes from internet cafes

Email beats phoning.

We don't know where we are going next. We email home whenever we see an internet cafe and say where we are, and what the non-plan next is. We phone seldom. Even dedicated phone cards are inconvenient, and may not work in all phones in the country - multiple systems. Postcards are difficult because then you have to find a post office to buy the stamps.

Put your personal information somewhere coded (remember the code) so you can access numbers etc.

Feb

Language issues: Dictionaries, not grammar books

In my next life, I will do a good country dictionary for travelers. It will contain nothing but the actual single words you really need, and not in the grammar form in the guidebooks or usual travel dictionaries. I will go heavy on menus, road words, and words you need for lodging and car care.

You may want to duplicate a great taste at home, like Croatian ajvar, but do that at home. Don't haul big books of phrases around. Order at random, if you like it, note it.