We Are Here!!

Thursday 9/29. After first leg of our flight (LAX to Toronto) and finishing up the second leg(Toronto to London), we watched the sun come up from 35,000 feet. No sleep for either of us on the flight as it was too cramped. I sat next to a nice lady from Lebanon who was heading home from Canada. We de-planed around 0900, and caught and underground train from Heathrow to Euston Station (train). We put our bags in lockup and walked to a second station, where we caught the Picadilly train to the Final family home in a small town called Amersham.

We didn't stay long as we had gone virtually 32 hours by that time with no sleep. We headed back to Euston Station and, I'm so proud of Dee, she heard two women across from us on the train who were speaking Italian. She finally spoke to them and ended up having a 1/2 hour conversation with them Just chatted away!! For all her worry, she did GREAT.

Back at Euston Station, we had a light dinner in an American-style diner listening to 60's American music. We still had 5 hours to wait for our sleeper train to Glasgow and it was already 7:00 p.m. A VERY tiring evening. Only thing good was the lounge was air conditioned.

                                                                                                                

Friday 930 - Sleeper train arrived in Glasgow at around 7:25, we de-trained by 7:50. While in Glasgow Central Station, I realized I'd left my boots ON THE SLEEPER TRAIN. The nice ScotRail Duty Manager is tracking them for me and hopefully by the time we hit Glasgow again in two days he will have them. Otherwise I have one pair of shoes for 5 weeks and they are hurting my toes.

Weymss Bay Station

We caught the train from Glasgow Central Station to Weymss (Weems) Bay and then the ferry to the Isle of Bute. It was wonderful seeing the Island come into view and rounding the corner into the Bay that I felt like I knew. 10 years of thinking about it, dreaming and planning and we are here. It's wonderful. We rode a bus to see some of the Island and met Ruthie and Ian who were a wealth of information about the island. Would loved to have spent an hour or two just talking to them. Ian was dressed in green tartan pants, matching tie and some other emblems, pins etc. Very snappy.

Saturday 10/1 Exploring Bute. Writing this while in the local library, after visiting the local museum. This morning we had a really good breakfast in a recommended spot. Tim, the owner is a jazz musician, so we took pics for Kim Davis who is studying Jazz at Sac State.

More later - Becky & Dee

Realtà, ciò che un concetto.... parte due**

Waaaaayyyy back in December, when we were getting ready to turn the calendar page to January and we had to actually committ to the trip by (gasp) buying a plane ticket, I brought up the point in a blog that the fantasy play-planning was easy. And it was, but the real planning has been even more fun. Big decisions (where to fly into), little decisions (the hostel with the cockroaches, or more money for the hotel in the red light district). Little mistakes (meaning a little more money, as in Becky's choice to stay with the MP3 she is used to rather than the smaller LV125 I am taking [oops, did I mention the scooters? Oh, another blog coming, I guess.] vs bigger money mistakes (see prior blogs about Damsterdam). However, overall, we have made very few mistakes on paper, and it will be up to Reality to determine if they were big ones or minor ones.

It brings up the other subject that Rebecca (did I tell you she doesn't want to be "Becky" in Europe?) and I have talked about: Will Reality live up to Fantasy? Well, since it seldom does, I think we are pretty aware that all will not go according to plan. They say one of the ways you can tell something about a person is how they react when they lose their suitcase. Let's hope that doesn't happen, but I really think we could deal with it if it happened. We are realists. We know "life happens" and it is seldom what you expect, or what you want. But I do think we are also both rather fatalistic and look at life with a lemons-to-lemonade attitude, at least by the end of the day.

Packing light has been our goal from the start, and has been a challenge, but an interesting one. We never reached the "toothbrush and an extra pair of knickers" of my friend, Margaret, but I have figured out how to pack seven tops in a tiny little case, how to give things up that we thought we had to have, and how to multi-task other things. We are sharing some things, so we don't have unnecessary duplicates, and yet we each have our own personal items that are important to us (Me: iPod. Rebecca: Sony Reader). We each have places in "our part of the trip" that is something that one person wants to do more than the other, but we have found a way to enjoy the other person's obsession. It has made for an enjoyable process.

We also have most of the trip pre-paid. We paid for the plane tickets, rail pass, ferry, and train reservations out of pocket. We made a pool in our joint savings account where we would put in equal amounts of agreed upon money, and it is from that pool we will pay for anything that is equal cost, such as hotel rooms, taxis, tips, etc. We have estimated the cost of the rooms and put that much in equally. The only things we have left are the regional trains in Italy, and the occasional taxi ride, admission to an attraction, or.... well, food. Each of us will pay for our own food and drink. We are a little short there, and we figure we can live on bread, cheese, and wine (oh, and gelato). If we are really short on money, we will give up bread and cheese, but we recently had a very nice, very unexpected windfall from our brothers and I think we will actually be able to eat our ways across the island and continent without fear.

So what is next? Well, we have taken $100 each and left it in our Scotaly savings account, and that is our seed money for the next trip. We already have some idea of what it is, and when it will be, but time will tell. It will be a lot less expensive than this one, and not as long, but should be fun anyway. And for now, we are in countdown mode, and waiting for the adventure to continue...into the wardrobe, or down the rabbit hole, or through the looking glass, and into another world.

(** Reality, what a concept, part two)

Dee

14-0-48-15

I know it looks like the combination to a lock, but in reality it is the number of days-hours-minutes-seconds until we leave for Scotaly!! Dee very cleverly added a countdown meter to our site. I have enjoyed paying her back for that by popping the current numbers into a chat or e-mail every so often. Kind of makes one's stomach go 'blurp' and flip over. We both have tasks that need to be accomplished before we go. Some are realistic and some are imagined by both of us, and I guess when d-day comes, we will have done what we have done.

Personally, I have been packing and re-packing my backpack. Even though it's not easy to compress 5 weeks of travel stuff into 1 backpack for the trip, we are both convinced that it is the right thing to do. (My packed backpack below - yep, that's it)

We've decided to spend some time at our first destination, the Isle of Bute in Scotland, researching our ancestory. Our goal will be to find the gravesite of our Great, great, great (I think that's all the greats) grandparents that we believe are on the island. We also will be searching for Roslyn Cottage, an ancestral family cottage which we hope still is standing. One of the family cottages, Canada Cottage, IS still standing we know.

Many many adventures coming our way. Stay tuned for updates as we go :)

Becky

Pot, Pastry, and Pasta

Since the last post, (which was started a week ago, but posted yesterday) some things have changed.  We have gone back to our original plan, and although the tickets we had were non-refundable, non-exchangeable, we ran the numbers and decided we would be out about $50 each if we simply tossed the day train to Vienna, cancelled the room at A-Train, and took the night train.  We won't be missing much time in Amsterdam, because we wouldn't have done any sight seeing after dark anyway, this train leaves at 8:00 pm, and we get access to the First Class Lounge in the Amsterdam station while we wait. Plus we don't have to get up early to catch the morning train.  All in all, we are pretty satisfied with our decision, even with the loss of the money.

So, we leave Newcastle the evening of the 11th, and get into Ijmuiden about 0930 on the 12th.

Continuing Becky's itinerary:

Oct 12  Amsterdam to Munich by night train
Oct 13  Connecting train from Munich to Vienna
Oct 13-15 Vienna
Oct 15  Night train to Venice
Oct 16   Arrive Venice early am.  Explore a bit, then train to Padova.
Oct 16-18  Padova/Venice
Oct 19  Padova to Perugia (see November 16, 2010 post)
Oct 19-20 Perugia
Oct 21  Perugia to Lucca
Oct 21-22 Lucca
Oct 23  Lucca to Viareggio (by Vespa :) )
Oct 23-24 Viareggio
Oct 25  Viareggio to Cinque Terre
Oct 25-28  Cinque Terre

After the 28th, I am not sure where we will be.  We may go to Torino to visit a Facebook friend (April 1, 2011) who is seriously ill.  Or we may stay in CT, or go to Bologna, Parma, and Modeno...three places seriously connected with food (no, not "bologna"...balsamic vinegar, prosciutto, cheeses).

In any case:
Oct 30-Nov1  Milan
Nov 1  Milan-->Zurich-->LA

The only regret I have is that because the euro is so bad right now,  we won't get to be as spontaneous as we wanted to be in Italy.  It would be very difficult to find a cheap place on the fly...it has been hard enough to find a cheap place with planning.  In exchange, we will be staying in each of our places for 2-3 days with few planned activities in each place.  Hopefully, this will allow us to be a little spontaneous, even if it means "spontaneously" sitting in a piazza drinking tea and reading a book in the sun. (yeah, I know....Italy in late October may not be sunny, but give us our Tuscan dreams.)

Sleeping Sitting Up...and Other Poor Choices

Our first plan was to take the ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam, explore the city some, and then catch the night train to Vienna by way of Munich.  It was a good plan, and we probably should have kept it.  Instead, I got the wonderful idea that instead of paying $240 or so and sleeping the entire way across, that if we took that same money and put it on a cheap hotel room in Amsterdam, we could have a wonderful day there, spend the night and catch a cheaper train in the morning, and enjoy the scenery along the way.  Right. (see prior post).

So, since I couldn't go back and change our non-refundable, non-transferable, non-exchangeable tickets,  I got to spend about 3 days finding suitable accomadations in an incredibly expensive city.  Going forward, we do have first class tickets on the train, and we can see where we are going.   The schedule looks like this:

Amsterdam            Departs 0704
Franfurt                 Arrives  1034

Frankfurt               Departs 1054
Munich                 Arrives  1433

Munich                 Departs 1527
Vienna                  Arrives  0744

We do get a couple of breaks when we change trains, so that will help to break up a very long train ride.  Plus we get to step foot in two different German cities.  Ok, two different German train stations, but at this point, we are looking for our adventure where we can find it.

Part two to follow..............................

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Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't, or Finding A Room In Damnsterdam.

I can't believe it is almost a month since we have entered anything in the blog.  I guess this is to be expected since we have been busy doing other things....like finalizing stuff.
OK, now I am really panicking.  The panic I was feeling in January when we decided to book our plane tickets...?   Minor.  This is that gut-wrenching "I-haven't done-my-homework-and-I-have-an-oral-presentation-today" sort of panic.  It is because now that it is nearly time to go, in my typical procrastinating fashion, I realize how much I still have to do to be ready.  Or do I?  Are there things I am worrying about that don't really have to be done?  Could I just pick up my backpack and leave?  Perhaps so.  Maybe I don't have to clean my closets. Maybe if the garage is still cluttered, it isn't the end of the world. Maybe I don't have to have a pair of brown pants, and I can get by with the brown skirt I already have.  In any case, we are about out of time.  ARGGGGGGH.

So, what have we really accomplished during this extended period of procrastination?
Following where Becky left off, somewhere in the English Channel between Newcastle and Amsterdam:

Amsterdam. Now known to Becky and I as "Damsterdam".  I am sure it is a great place to vist.  You even have your choice of smoking friendly places.  You realize of course, it isn't nicotine they are friendly toward.  And then, most of the cheaper hostels/hotels are either in or very near the famous Red Light District.  Not that it wouldn't be interesting to see, but I am not sure I want to live there, even for one night, primarily because of the noise levels.  I understand there is a very strong police presence, but I can see between the "coffee shops"(actually places that are licensed to sell pot, and where you are allowed to legally smoke, even on the patio), and the tours to see the ladies of the night in their lit up windows, there could be a fair amount of traffic noise.

I thought somewhere along the line we might have one night in a nice hotel, rather than the low end in which we are staying, but I really didn't think our most expensive stay would be in a hotel in the Red Light district of Amsterdam, right across from the train station.   So why are we not staying in a cheap place, like a hostel?  Well, although we both take reviews with a grain of salt (Becky takes less salt than I do), there is a limit on what is and is not acceptable. 

Acceptable:  cheap, steep stairs, 4th story attic,  no breakfast, share room with 20 other people (male/female/both), shared bathroom (I expect with the same 20 people), no air conditioning/heat, no view, away from town, not pretty...

Not acceptable: cockroaches, bed bugs (I know they can be found even in 5-star hotels, but combined with other wild life, no), rats, mice, black mold, dirty mattresses, drunks, clouds of smoke, noise all night, vomit (see drunks), etc...and those were the €30/night hostels and also included all the lovely things in the above "acceptable" catagory. That is a per person, per night, per bunk €30+ price. $42-43 each.  I think Motel 6 is about $60 per room, and does not come with roomates. Of any kind.  Except maybe bedbugs.

So, we are staying at a place that is considered a 3-star hotel, and has an 85% approval rating from prior guests, and we are paying €129 ($184 for the two of us) for a twin room with bath (I think).  It IS right across from the train station, and considering our train in the morning is at 0700, that is a good thing.  They will also arrange a breakfast for us to take with us, since we miss their breakfast buffet,  and it has a 24 hour check in. 



A-Train Hotel-Amsterdam

 Part two will be from Amsterdam to Vienna...where Becky has to pick it back up.