Europe Road Ways. How We Do It. Two on the Loose. Dan with down travels anywhere.: 2006

Links, posts, archives

Links. Recommendations to visit other third-party websites fare in word form. Given the lack of firm guidance on fair use, or transformative use of resource material (see www.bitlaw.com. for example), this is prudent, but a pity. So slow. Must be a better way to provide appropriate protections than hobbling us all.

Posts - These may be presented in a chronological order for the countries; or by topic, here at our nuts and bolts site. We do that by adjusting dates.

Archives - With posting dates used to arrange the information, Archives do not necessarily contain older posts. They may continue a topic, or offer new ones. Do check often.

Oct

Paper Wins - No e-Tickets Alone. Other passport issues.

You may not have a choice any more on e-tickets. Our last trip provided no paper tickets, offered none, said we could not have one. This was to mainstream Europe, however - Scandinavia - and not to other less-touristy places as before, like Romania.

In Copenhagen, with our e-ticketing, we checked in online, printed out the boarding pass at the hotel, from the e-ticketing, got it, took it to the airport, and it would not scan through at the detectors. Back to the airport machines.

Oct

PIN-Up with Credit cards; Gas Stations

Gas station, Europe. HR would be Croatia, but the car wash sign is in English. Still Croatia? We forget.

Gas stations may require a PIN with your credit card. Be sure your credit cards have PIN's before you go.

Also, tell the credit card company when you are leaving, what countries you will be in, and when you will return. Otherwise they may deny use, thinking the card is stolen. They may call your house to check also.

Change your pins when you get back so your old PIN will not work.

Sep

Travel Outside the Turret. Safety tips. Stealth Travel.

Education by Travel

Advantages of independent traveling. If you have any interest in travel on your own, and accept the unexpected, try it. To us right now, tours look like travel in a turret, or a bunker - all protections, and narrow, fixed sightlines. This one, a bunker, is at Omaha Beach, Normandy.

Dan in Turret, Normandy, France

We like the places - and trivia - we find by being on our own. We like the way the interest grows after we get back.

Sep

Queasy? Happens seldom. Relax

Stonehenge Single Stone, England

1. Illness. This Stonehenge fellow illustrates a consequence of hapless indulgences. I have had only two stomach bouts - one near Verdun, France, after sweetbreads, see the offal list at www.frenchfood.about.com/library/weekly/aa082202a; and one in Trujillo, Spain, after a delicious dish of migas, the traditional fried breadcrumb meal that I still recommend highly: See www.blogger.com/%20http://www.tourspain.org/recipes/migas.asp.

Aug

Keep receipts; pay in cash (see currency conversion post here)

Always so good to be home, safe.

Dan and Jon at Homecoming

But no final cheering for a disaster-free trip until you have all the credit card statements. Keep all receipts. In a baggie.

Horror story: We were charged double, for a hotel nearest the airport the night before the flight out of Zagreb. Didn't know until we saw the credit card statement 2 months later. Credit card company straightened it out, but having the receipt was vital.

Jun

Mapping with World Heritage Sites in mind: BBC, travel sites

Dan at Dalmatian Coast

1. UNESCO World Heritage Sites. A map is here: thesalmons.org/lynn/world.heritage.

You can also find all these United Nations-certified fabulous sites, the established ones and the proposals, for all the countries at whc.unesco.org/en/list/. Most guidebooks also show them. For the British Isles, see www.thesalmons.org/lynn/wh-england.. For Romania, see www.thesalmons.org/lynn/wh-romania. These were not on the earlier site list. Don't know why.

Jun

Driving Rules : The Rule of Ears; Passing; International Road Signs

Accidents. I see more accidents while driving in the US than I have seen in Europe. I see skilled drivers there: quick, but following different rules of the road. Learn their rules before driving. See www.ideamerge.com/motoeuropa/roadsigns/. Make a cribsheet of each country's speed limits for each kind of road and place.

Rules. They vary. Here is a site for overall driving tips and customs: europeforvisitors.com/europe/planner/blp_driving.

Jun

The Ferry Rule: If you see one, take it

If you see a ferry, you have to take it

Ferry, Croatia; car-packing

This Rule led us to the Hebrides from Skye, and to the Orkney Islands from the John-o'-Groats area in northern Scotland, just beyond the Highlands. See Scotland Road Ways

It saved us from the wild cloverleaf overpasses-underpasses in Germany at Worms (we just got off and drove toward a river and there a ferry was. It let us off at a lovely country area - we were two cars and a motorcycle on that one.

Jun

Bad hair days: Pinking shears

Travel bad hair days

Skip the curlers and clips. Cut your hair with pinking shears before you go. Hang your head over the sink, part it straight down the back as though for braids, and then comb it all forward over your whole face.

Take pinking shears in a steady hand, peek carefully in the mirror, and cut up from in front of your ears, at the bottom, in a diagonal up to - and here you choose - the bridge of your nose, for bangs; or the end of your nose, for not.