A European city for 5 days in April

On Sun, 08 Oct 2006 00:53:11 GMT, Zane
wrote:

On Sun, 08 Oct 2006 09:27:45 +1000, Alan S wrote:

(snip)

These days I'm looking more for good food at a good price
when I travel for months on a budget, not a gourmet
extravaganza. Most of my favourite lunches were in
rough-looking diners or, behind the old Iron curtain, in
places that used to be worker's cafeterias. Sometimes it's
easier to point to what you want in a bain-marie than to
decipher Turkish, Slovakian or Czech, particularly when you
have specific dietary needs.

Most of those indecipherable and strange local lunches
turned out to be delightful surprise; some also turned out
to be indigestible:-)

(snip)

So when are you going to post a trip report(s) for your latest
adventures? Or did I miss it somehow?

Zane

I returned in early August. I've only just finished culling
and filing the photos in some sort of order. The problem is
where to start as each time I do I get bogged down into
detail and dry prose. I'm definitely not Bill Bryson. And,
of course, notes were sparse (I went for fun, not as a
journalist) and memories fade. Maybe I should just do it in
chunks, a bit at a time.

I've also just about given up working out how to publish on
a web-page so I may use blogger or similar. Can anyone
recommend a good, simple to use free blogger for publishing
travelogues etc?

It's a bit daunting; this is the rough list of places
visited in sequence:

Brisbane (1 night)
Singapore (2 nights)
Turkey (3 nights)
Spain (3 nights, pick up car)
France, South (5 nights)
Italy, north (4 nights)
Slovenia (1 night)
Hungary (5 nights)
Slovakia (2 nights)
Poland (5 nights)
Germany, East (6 nights)
Czech (9 nights)
Germany, Bavaria and Rhineland (10 nights)
Paris (4 nights, return car)
UK - London, Oxford (7 nights)
Eire (7 nights, car)
NYC (3 nights)
Niagara (2 nights, transit AMTRAK, pick up car Buffalo)
New England (9 nights)
Quebec, Ontario (3 nights, return car)
Chicago (1 night)
LA (1 night)
Honolulu (3 nights)
Sydney (1 night)

And I may blend some bits to be a hybrid, because we
re-visited some places that we saw on our first long trip in
'03 but also saw southern Italy, Greece, Scotland, Wales,
California and the South on that trip. And Fiji and NZ in
between.

*sigh* so much to see, so little time. I have a lot of
travelling-Oz-but-not-much-else years to make up for.

But I'll make a start. Maybe Brisbane to Avignon. Thanks for
the prod:-)

Cheers, Alan, Australia

B Vaughan wrote:

: Historically, pasta was southern Italian..

Historically, noodles came from China, tomatoes from Americas, and
basil from India...of course, the pasta recipes were Italian.

Alan S wrote:

: It's a bit daunting; this is the rough list of places
: visited in sequence:
:
: Brisbane (1 night)
: Singapore (2 nights)
: Turkey (3 nights)
: Spain (3 nights, pick up car)
: France, South (5 nights)
: Italy, north (4 nights)
: Slovenia (1 night)
: Hungary (5 nights)
: Slovakia (2 nights)
: Poland (5 nights)
: Germany, East (6 nights)
: Czech (9 nights)
: Germany, Bavaria and Rhineland (10 nights)
: Paris (4 nights, return car)
: UK - London, Oxford (7 nights)
: Eire (7 nights, car)
: NYC (3 nights)
: Niagara (2 nights, transit AMTRAK, pick up car Buffalo)
: New England (9 nights)
: Quebec, Ontario (3 nights, return car)
: Chicago (1 night)
: LA (1 night)
: Honolulu (3 nights)
: Sydney (1 night)

Seems like a lot of time inside airport shuttles, airports, airplanes,
etc. Upon reflection, do you find such trips worth while or would it be
better to spend more days in each stop even if that meant fewer stops?

On Sun, 08 Oct 2006 02:47:21 GMT, Ajanta
wrote:

Alan S wrote:

: It's a bit daunting; this is the rough list of places
: visited in sequence:
:
: Brisbane (1 night)
: Singapore (2 nights)
: Turkey (3 nights)
: Spain (3 nights, pick up car)
: France, South (5 nights)
: Italy, north (4 nights)
: Slovenia (1 night)
: Hungary (5 nights)
: Slovakia (2 nights)
: Poland (5 nights)
: Germany, East (6 nights)
: Czech (9 nights)
: Germany, Bavaria and Rhineland (10 nights)
: Paris (4 nights, return car)
: UK - London, Oxford (7 nights)
: Eire (7 nights, car)
: NYC (3 nights)
: Niagara (2 nights, transit AMTRAK, pick up car Buffalo)
: New England (9 nights)
: Quebec, Ontario (3 nights, return car)
: Chicago (1 night)
: LA (1 night)
: Honolulu (3 nights)
: Sydney (1 night)

Seems like a lot of time inside airport shuttles, airports, airplanes,
etc. Upon reflection, do you find such trips worth while or would it be
better to spend more days in each stop even if that meant fewer stops?

There is a background and logic behind it all, which I'll go
into when I write it all. Briefly, I don't know how long
I'll be able to keep travelling - factors such as funds (I'm
a SKIer - spending the kid's inheritance), health (I have
interesting blood and my wife hates long flights) and
distance (Oz is a bloody long way from anywhere) come into
it.

For example, my wife has difficulties with long flights and
cannot fly at night. So the entire trip had to be designed
around daylight flights as short as possible. Thus, instead
of flying in 24 hours from Brisbane to Europe with one
transit, and 24 hours New York to Sydney with the same, we
did BNE-SIN-BAH-IST-BCN to get to Europe and
BUF-ORD-LAX-HNL-SYD-BNE to get home. Then I made a benefit
out of that by staying at least overnight in each of those
cities except Bahrein and having a wander around. That also
helped enormously with jet-lag recovery.

If you delete those stops, made for our own reasons which
took up the first six nights and the last six nights, then
there aren't really a lot of departure airports in the rest
of a three-month trip; just CDG, LHR and SNN. You may have
missed the cars involved - I drove 8500km in Europe, about
1000 miles in Eire and 2000 in USA/Canada. I enjoy driving
on the back roads in foreign countries. As to time spent in
a country - we stayed in each place as long as it interested
us, wandered on if we became bored, only pre-booked the
critical places. Places we liked on the first trip, such as
the Riviera, Venice, Florence, Czech and NYC and others - we
revisited this time armed with prior knowledge.

And I never know if I'll be able to go again. Of course,
that's how I convinced her in '03 the first time on the
five-month trip. I think it's wearing thin after the second
one. And she gives me odd looks when I start mumbling about
a "Pyramids" trip to include Easter Island, Macchu Picchu,
Yucatan and Egypt for the next odyssey (at least she's happy
to go to Cairns next year:-)

Cheers, Alan, Australia

On Sun, 08 Oct 2006 04:13:44 GMT, Zane
wrote:


I would look forward to it.

Zane

Which group are you posting from? I'm usually on
rec.travel.europe, rec.travel.australia+nz and
rec.travel.usa-canada.

Still hoping for a few suggestions to compare bloggers:-)

Cheers, Alan, Australia

On Sat, 07 Oct 2006 19:22:18 GMT, "Calif Bill"
wrote:

The Northern Italian food was less tomato based than the Southern food.
Still a lot of olive oil.

I've read otherwise with regard to the olive oil. What is your source?
Risotto, for example, which is a classic northern dish, uses butter,
not olive oil. Polenta is traditionally served with butter and grated
cheese (also mushrooms). Various classic veal dishes use butter.

--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

On Sun, 08 Oct 2006 11:56:35 +1000, Alan S wrote:

[snip]

I've also just about given up working out how to publish on
a web-page so I may use blogger or similar. Can anyone
recommend a good, simple to use free blogger for publishing
travelogues etc?

I also encourage you to post the text part right here on r.t.e, in
chuncks of course. It sure beats a lot of the other stuff on the
group. You say you're no Bill Bryson, but I've always found your posts
enjoyable.
--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

Why don't you think Turkey for your holiday.. I can suggest you such as
little, quite, famous and beautiful town all over the world Dalyan -
Caunos. Still tourists are coming here back to back.. NO FIGHT, NO
VOICES... EVERYTHING IS NORMAL.. if you decide maybe, please contact
me..

On Sun, 08 Oct 2006 08:13:07 +0200, B wrote:

On Sat, 07 Oct 2006 19:22:18 GMT, "Calif Bill"
wrote:

The Northern Italian food was less tomato based than the Southern food.
Still a lot of olive oil.

I've read otherwise with regard to the olive oil. What is your source?
Risotto, for example, which is a classic northern dish, uses butter,
not olive oil. Polenta is traditionally served with butter and grated
cheese (also mushrooms). Various classic veal dishes use butter.

The butter is frequently substituted with olive oil nowadays. You can
see it in the supermakets where they have 2-3 types of butter and 30
types of olive oil!
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

Alan S wrote:

I returned in early August. I've only just finished culling
and filing the photos in some sort of order. The problem is
where to start as each time I do I get bogged down into
detail and dry prose. I'm definitely not Bill Bryson.

You seem to have at least one thing in common with him: you write in a
good-humoured way.

And,
of course, notes were sparse (I went for fun, not as a
journalist) and memories fade.

Until r.t.e. agrees to pay travel expenses, that's the way to do it.

....

And I may blend some bits to be a hybrid, because we
re-visited some places that we saw on our first long trip in
'03 but also saw southern Italy, Greece, Scotland, Wales,
California and the South on that trip. And Fiji and NZ in
between.

Why not? Personally, I consider a simple travel log to be less
enjoyable than a piece of interpretation, which might not fully accord
with what happened on a particular trip, but which reveals a truth
about a place. Truth in writing is not the same as accuracy in
recording.

*sigh* so much to see, so little time. I have a lot of
travelling-Oz-but-not-much-else years to make up for.

But I'll make a start. Maybe Brisbane to Avignon. Thanks for
the prod:-)

I want to read what you have to say. Consider that another prod.

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED
My travel writing: http://www.iol.ie/~draoi/