Russia by tour: Moscow and St. Petersburg. Our first tour. No regrets.
Russia by train, air and bus, for two major cities.
See two sites:
1. Russia Road Ways. Moscow; and
2. Russia Road Ways St. Petersburg.
Overview.
Language Crib Sheet for the Wallet
Getting the Idea Across Fast
With this online, we can translate the basics in a flash, go anywhere, and not reinvent the wheel each time. We are heading off to Barcelona, Pyrenees and South of France. French I know, enough. Spanish: need more help.
Flaneurs at Europe Road Ways. The Car-Dan Tour Company flans. The Art of the Flaneur. .
The Great Travel Focus
The Flaneur
How and Where the Most Important Experiences Happen.
Is that so?
Flan, the great key: Flan.
I flan, you flan, he-she-or-it flans,
We flan, you (pl) flan, they flan.
They what? They flan. FLAN. They peruse. Saunter.
Travel in Place. Give the Gift of Travel. Living Without Fear. Can Fear Be Reduced.
Boost Understanding. Start travel at home.
A. Travel: Give travel to Others.
B. Do It In Place for Yourself. Give travel to yourself, locally in unfamiliar neighborhoods.
What can you learn by going for coffee in another's neighborhood.
See How.
A.
Links
EYKVW7HRE5VM
Chain-Saw the Guide Books - Regional Travel
Traveler's Guide to The Axe.
Reduce the Bulk of the Guidebooks
Guidebooks are heavy. Too heavy. Regional travel, going to multiple countries, adds to the carry-on. Solution: The Great Chop. The Axe. And plastic bags with zippers and rubber bands inside..
.
Sasha and Michele - One Parent One Child. Benefits of Travel. No Western White House.
The Value of a Trip with a Child
Benefits of One Parent, One Child Travel
Consider it in the Entire Budget
Here: No Western White House saves taxpayers a bundle
How to justify the expense of taking one child on a trip.
Recurrent thrift in food and lodging. And fraud.
Saving money abroad.
Watching out for fraud.
Condensing Baggage
Travel hazard.
Fraud, and paying necessary and avoiding unnecessary expenses
The Parking Ticket.
Travel for No Return: The Statistical Side of Planning
Prepare for the worst.
What if you don't come back?
Death planning and the Post Mortem Sorters
Did you ever think,
As the....
Imagine the unimaginable. You die. Fuss? No. Plan? Yes. Simply plan what you can for yours, and move on with your other decisions. Death planning. Go ahead. Say it.
2009 Trip Pending. Hand-Span Non-Plans in the Bucket. Guides.
How Much Can You Really Cover
Use your handspan as the measure, on the same all-Europe map each time.
Scoping out a trip II.
Update for 2009 - and Disease Planning.
When Down is Up. Modified Relationship Roles; Table the FUD
Take your child abroad. Your child may surprise you. A zillion plus one abilities! offset by one commonplace disability. Big deal. Disability nuts.
(Zillion Abilities + One Ability)
- One Disability
Zillion Abilities
Down Syndrome.
Now, that is an Upper.
Dan opens doors in every way.
The Budget - How It Can Become Possible. Antidotes to HGTV addiction
Working toward a travel budget
Plan for Leaving the House.
Budgeting.
A PRIMER ON SAVING MONEY FOR A TRIP, AND PLANNING FOR SIMPLICITY OVER THERE.
Why We Do It: After-the-Fact, Spin-Off Interests
The After-Home Rewards. Research at Home
Dan as Samson in Spain, but with Roman Ruins
Our idea from the start was this: Skip the bus. And it works.
Here are some of the areas we explored after getting back:
1. Petr Ginz.
Pictograph T-shirt for the traveler's holiday
Sign Language: Universal Symbols
The Brightest Idea on the Block
We have no connection with this product at all, but if we find one, we'll carry it.
In the glove compartment.
Sometimes you really need a fast answer, or a fast point.
Shopping.
Pay child support before asking for a passport. Pay all bills.
Pay your bills in advance
Make extra payment to tide you over.
Also pay that child support before requesting a passport.
Family in ticket line, Bosnice, Slovakia
.
Pay your bills before you go. Use online to set up payments while you are away, even a flat amount anticipating charges.
The Necessary; the WC. The Way to Go.
Wallet Phrase List
Where is the WC?
When In Need....
We found WC facilities, and even if just in time, at each need-related event. Just learn how to ask for it. WC means "water closet" in most of Europe. Or just say, toiletten, or a variation. Pointing gets you nowhere.
Juggling languages and currencies - Your Own Crib Sheet
Currency Converter Crib Sheet -- Your Own.
Set it up for multiple currencies.
Take baggies.
Slovakia, currency and coin
Money.
1. Crossing several country boundaries in one trip takes some planning, for money changing, emergencies and eating, and directions.
Airport tips; Jet lag; Cash stash; Fares
Surviving the Airport Maze
Locating the Airport
Write Out the Name of your Airport
There can be several near your city
Oops. Wrong airport. Spin that wheel! Go back! Go back!
A. Airports
1. Be sure you have directions to the specific airport you need, and by name.
Mechanics: Cell phones; Travel insurance; GPS
Cell phone optional.
Our system doesn't do reservations anyway.
Travel insurance. Yes.
Take a GPS.
High Tatras, Poland, Slovakia border
Exposure travel. Here we are, in the High Tatras, between Slovakia and Poland.
1. So far, we do not carry cell phones.
Guide to the blog cluster, Europe Road Ways
Outline of Europe Road Ways Blog Cluster
And following people in bronze
See Site indexes now, at Gristmill Sites by Dint
Country road, Poland.
The more years that we take our trips, the more complex our homespun web sites become. Here is the needed road map:
1.
2007: Back from Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia. Our Domesday Book.
A Preparations Inventory
Our Own Domesday Book of Travel tips
Dan and Travel Night Life, in his trusty travel rain jacket;
Everybody needs an inventory sometime. An early one was The Domesday Book, a land and other inventory commissioned by William the Conqueror in England in 1085.
Mapping by Music
Follow songs.
Polka band, Czestochowa, Poland
We had no place songs for Poland, and only heard a few polkas. Still, we sang Roll Out The Barrel. This group was playing for a Polish banquet in Czestochowa.
We map by songs, where we can.
Staying alert: route-timing, theft, credit cards
Don't get caught out after dark
And button up the car every time.
Lukewarm food warnings.
1. Watch the time of day.
Match available daylight with your need to cover mountains and hills. Keep dusk for level ground if you can.
Example: Ireland.
Translating; Self-Scripting
People smile when you try to speak their language. Great start. Go ahead. This Distaff Pilgrimage group to the Black Madonna at Czestochowa, Poland, turned out to be a lark for all of us. We enjoyed meeting them.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Queasy? Happens seldom. Relax
Stonehenge Single Stone, England
1. Illness. This Stonehenge fellow illustrates a consequence of hapless indulgences.
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.
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.
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/.
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.
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.
Wardrobe: One to Wash, One to Wear, One for Spare. Border issues.
What to Pack
One to wash, one to wear, one for spare. That's it for each basic category. We have taken it down from that, and only take one sweater, for example.
In addition: Take one robish-thing in case the WC is down the hall; and opaque nightwear. We used to take three pairs of day-shoes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
