Di manche, 15/11

Sunday, Day 1

:: the trip truly started at 7:05 a.m., when the plane landed at LGW (London-Gatwick) airport. We flew through border check (almost literally - I spent more time waiting in line for the ladies room after that 8-hour flight than we waited for customs), and we made our way to the ticket window for the express train to Saint Pancras Station, where we would connect to the Eurostar train to travel the Chunnel to Paris.




{our gatwick express tickets}

:: We arrived a couple hours prior to our train (we had built in a lot of time to our schedule for customs that turned out to be unnecessary), so we stopped at a cafe in St Pancras Station for breakfast. I had eggs and toast and an iced cappucino, and Casey had pain au choclat and choclat chaude. Mine was delicious, but his was prettier, so we just photographed his.




{breakfast, day 1}

:: After breakfast, we made our way through border control to the Eurostar. The comfort cabin was wonderful, Casey and I shared 2 seats facing each other with a table between us, and the table across the aisle from us was occupied by Eurostar employees, who after food service sat and relaxed and gossiped in French. I have no idea what they were talking about, but it was definitely gossip. It's the international language. My vegetarin meal was pumpkin-stuffed ravioli in a pesto-polenta, and Casey got Shepard's pie - both came with salad, bread, dessert, and wine or other beverage. Of course, I selected wine.

:: Upon arrival at Gare du Nord station in Paris, we purchased 3-day Metro passes to connect to our hotel. Despite each of our bags feeling 10-pounds heavier than when we left the states (I blame the metric conversion), we made it to the hotel, where the attendant spoke English, and directed us to our tiny, but clean room.




{The metro tickets are so tiny and easy to lose, they put them in a credit card-size sleeve for carrying. But the sleeve is so difficult to manuver, it would've been preferrable if they'd just made the tickets that size}

:: Wanting to explore the city, we dropped our bags and started walking aimlessly. We stumbled upon the Centre Pompidou (Pompidou Center - the city's modern art museum), and spent a couple hours exploring that.



{entry ticket and museum map for the Centre Pompidou}

:: Now ravenous, (since it was now almost 10 p.m.), we walked seeking a restaurant that could accommodate a vegetarian and was - most importantly - still open. We walked back to the Latin Quarter, and discovered Aux Trois Mailletz (http://www.lestroismailletz.fr), a piano bar whose host was very nice and spoke English well.



{Aux Trois Mailletz's card, so we can call on them next time we visit}

:: Dinner was fantastic. We chose to sit just outside the front door - with the cold outside air, but a bit of heat radiating from inside, the temperature was wonderful. After a few minutes, a man stood up and started singing, and it was genuinely like a setting from a movie - a slightly vaudeville voice, songs like "Puttin' on the Ritz," a dance that was a little tap, a little shuffle. It was the perfect Parisian supper.

:: I had a salad with warm goat cheese and a gin fizz, which were both argueably the best of each I've ever had. I can't say objectively, becasue the atmosphere certainly colored the taste of everything a bit brighter. Casey had rolls of Salmon stuffed with goat cheese over a salad of lettuce, and agreed his meal was equally fantastic.

:: le premier jour: delicieux! ::

Google Docs - Gone Wild

Case introduced me to Google Docs. He created one to help track the inter-city travel costs (Train from PAR to AMD, ferry from AMD to LDN, etc) which made me happy. Previously I'd just been keeping track of costs on random sheets of paper and cocktail napkins.

Of course, poor Casey had no idea that I am a spreadsheet fiend. One list including details and prices for inter-city travel exploded into separate sheets for hotels, for intra-city travel, and for cost totals.

Really, Google Docs could be referred to as a glorifed MS Office.

Until I found one little equation that changed everything, and made life so much easier:

=Index(ImportHTML("http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=EURUSD=X","table",1),8,2)

With this equation, Google Docs will automatically calculate the exchange rate - however it may fluctuate - within a few minutes of accuracy.

The link above calculates Euros to Dollars. For our London expenditures, all I have to do is change the 3-letter abbreviation to the appropriate currency. For example, to calculate Pounds in Dollars, I'd just use:

=Index(ImportHTML("http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=GBPUSD=X","table",1),8,2)

I understand how this could seem exceedingly lazy and unnecessary. Must people have widgets on their computers with the current exchange rate, and can just type in the rate x charge and get the answer quickly.

But when dealing in hundreds of dollars, a fluctuation of 1.41 to 1.47 can significantly shift costs, and throw off the accuracy of a spreadsheet. And I hate inaccuracy.

But Google Docs? Google Docs I love.

Booked! Like the Dewey Decimal System

Flights = booked.

Virgin Atlantic. Direct.
Orlando > London.

As much as I hate Microsoft, Bing.com totally hooked us up by finding the fare for $100 less via Vayama.com

Hotels in Amsterdam and London reserved via booking.com and expedia.com.

Parisian hotel will be booked pending my translator, Fred, getting back into town from a birthday trip to Orlando.

Ahh, butterflies! It's real now!

Holla for a Dolla

After going dark for a brief period, the planning is back ON. With one minor revision. Casey is joining Dave and I on our adventure to Europe.

YAYA

Flights and Amsterdam (and maybe London) hotel to be booked tonight. Paris hotel to be booked before the end of the week by way of Fred, our French-speaking Canadian godsend of a booking agent. Additional travel (Eurorail to Paris and Amsterdam, Stenaline to London) to be booked in the coming weeks, as well.

You know you trust your friends when you offer to put 3 plane tickets on your credit card and let them pay you back (within 24 hours).

I kinda hope Dave just brings me several hundred $1 bills. Then I can throw them in the air like a rap star! Holla!

Fawlty Towers

Oh, London.

You are such a tease.

You have tons of hotels in my price range. You have tons of hotels in my price range in the most central areas of the city.

And all of them are universally panned on TripAdvisor.

Dear London, please stop teasing. Please give me a no-frills, but nice hotel, in a neighborhood worth visiting. You should be more like your friends Paris and Amsterdam, who provide reasonable lodging with reasonable reviews.

Please, let Fawlty Towers just be a television show, and not an undoing reputation.

Love, J.

Un endroit au repos (A place to rest)

Some of the trip planning has been put on hold over the past week. The trip is not on hold (conversely, it's one of the few things that keep me going after a week like last), but the planning had to take a back-seat after the loss of a coworker meant much much more for me to do at work.

But one of the few things I have accomplished during the past week is confirming availability and deciding on our Paris hotel.

Hotel Henri IV is a tiny hotel right in the heart of Paris. It only has a 64% TripAdvisor rating, but most of that seems related to the irritable manager. And let's face it, we're going to have to deal with some rude French people. So why not take advantage of an AMAZING location while we're at it?

No, seriously. Look it up on the map. It's the hotel icon right in the perfect center of the city. You know, the one on the island in the Seine called Ile de la Cite - the one Notre Dame is located on? Right next to Saint-Chappelle, known as the most beautiful church in Paris.

And yeah, it's just across the river from the Louvre (which I keep wanting the spell Lourve, because I know I will Lourve it).

At 78E/night, it's just barely outside of our goal rate for a twin room (we're aiming for all out hotels to be less than $100/night, which averages out to about 71E/night), but it does include breakfast - and just think of the metro fare we'll save being within walking distance of so many things!

Reservations will be made this week. One unfortunate thing: they do not accept online booking. BUT, my savior Fred (that crazy Canadian), has volunteered to be my translator (in exchange for food, nom nom nom) - PLUS, his phone service through Vonage allows free calling to several international countries, including France! So, for the cost of groceries, I get international calling + translation.

Because I'm not confident my "Bonjour" "Sil vouz plais" and "Au revoir" is enough to get me through an a conversation with a short-tempered French woman.

But at least I'm trying, right?

She works hard for the money

I don't think nearly enough credit is given to travel agents.

Now, with all the access people have to practically everything, everyone is DIYing their vacations. Which is, of course, what we're doing. When you're trying to plan a week-and-a-half long vacation to Europe for less than $3K, you can't afford to splurge 5% on having someone make the arrangements for you.

But with all the resources of the world right here, at my fingertips, comes a conundrum: the paradox of choice.

Thousands of hotels. Hundreds of city blocks. Hotels that, within a single price range, vary widely from no-frills but clean to unlivable.

Yes, the Metro connects all areas of the city, so even the far out locations are quick - but really, after entire days of drinking, who wants to worry about catching the rail, or if the service slows at night?

What trumps? Location? price? Or rating? Or amenities?

Tens - soon to be hundreds - of hours of research has gone into this trip, and I feel I've hardly scratched the surface.

On the plus side, reading all the foreign street names on the map has me very slowly becoming more comfortable/acquainted with the area.

très bien!

Type-A presents: Map-A

Click to view the Google Map

Planning this trip with another person is interesting. I'm all about value - bang for the buck. So, if you get exponentially more bang for marginally more buck, I'll go for that. Dave is very cost-conscious. He's all about the lo-rent, cheapest possible scenario. This means a certain amount of compromise on both our parts.

I kinda demanded we fly direct instead of having any layovers. I'll admit it, it was a bitch move.

But my motivations are pure: When returning from Italy 2 weeks ago, my Creative Director was delayed. And re-routed. And delayed. And kept overnight. To the point where his 14 hour travel time exploded into 60 hours of planes and airports to return home.

And really, insisting on flying direct is Me saving Dave from himself. I dislike airports, and I don't think anyone wants to deal with me when irritated in one.

So now I get to compromise big on the hotels. Which I'm totally fine with! I've lived/stayed in dorms, so I don't mind sharing a bathroom... as long as I'm not sharing the bathroom with rats. This is where TripAdvisor comes in.

I've plotted a handful of places to visit/things to do on the map (note: Museums are indicated as suns, because there was no arts icon, and the sun might look like a palette in a warped universe). Then, I plotted 3 highly rated hotels in Amsterdam, all available for $100/night or less.

Again, with my focus on value, I want the cheapest possible hotel with an amazing location. I'm recommending we go with Hotel Aspen, located in the Jordaan District (and the hotel that's Northernmost on the map). It has a walkability factor with the Anne Frank House and Westerkirk just a block away, and the Jordaan itself is known as the Greenwich Village of Amsetrdam, with lots of shops and cafes and such. Aspen also has the highest "recommend to a friend" factor on TripAdvisor of the three.

The other two hotels I've found that meet the criteria of good ratings+under $100 include Hotel Bema and Townhouse Hotel, but their locations seem slightly less desirable (I like that Bema is so close to Museumplein, but am concerned about its distance from the recommended bars and nightlife I've found so far).

Comments or recommendations? I'd like to get the map as populated with things to do/see as possible, so when we're there we can cull down our options based on how the mood suits us.

What happens when your travel planner is a designer

Your itinery notes have icons indicating type of travel.

My brain is converting to mush.

The dollar isn't nearly as bad as it used to be.

But that doesn't mean it's good. Or that I can do simple math in my head to convert funds, in anticipation of this trip. There's a reason I went into design, and not mathematics.

But more than just the exchange rate, I'm suddenly discovering all sorts of fees and ways banks and credit cards can totally snake your cash while on a European vacay.

Visa/Mastercard always charge 1% on international purchases. But on top of that conversion fee, many banks will charge a fee of their own, so your purchase on a Citibank Mastercard or Bank of America Visa is suddenly 3% more than the purchase.

Which sounds nominal, until you realize 9 nights hotel at $100/night, plus museum admission, plus souvenirs, etc... and this 3% charge starts adding up to be a couple of dinners or a pair of shoes! WTF!

HOWEVER, I have found a few great ways around paying super-high exchange rates (at currency counters and hotels, etc).

1 :: Book everything foreseeable in advance on .com websites, to avoid the international charge fee, but still reap the benefits of credit card protections (Trip cancellation/trip interruption coverage, Lost luggage coverage, $0 liability for unauthorized purchases, etc)

2 :: Pull out cash, and use it, from in-network ATMs. Bank of America charges a $5 flat exchange fee for out-of-network debit card withdrawals from international ATMs. The good news is, they consider all ATMs by Barclays (United Kingdom), BNP Paribas (France) in-network, so pulling out local cash from them avoids all conversion fees altogether.

Which is nice. because I have a limited budget, and increasing my wine consumption by 3% sounds fantastic.

An amusing thought.

I've seen a lot of concerts.

During college, if I liked a band enough to own their album, I liked them enough to go see them on concert. Sometimes, multiple times.

But all that experience jaded me. I haven't been to a show in years (with the exception of a couple free invitations here and there), and I really don't have many bands I actually care enough about to go see, much less pay to see.

Except Muse.

They are so wonderful. Over-the-top, driving rock, that's strung together in a way that's almost operatic. Hardly known in the states, but in Europe they have to play multiple stadium shows in a single city because they sell out so quickly. They're the only band I score 100% singing vocals on Rock Band.

And they're playing in Paris in November.

The tickets are expensive - a couple dinners, or a nice outfit - but, wow. Watching the live videos on YouTube, I think I'm more impressed by the insane crowd than the band's theatrics.



This will be an interesting decision to make.

"Canal Street" isn't so much a name, as an adjective

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm not ashamed.

I don't know much about Europe as a whole. In school, they taught us history, not current culture and events. So really, all I know about Amsterdam is the stereotypical information about pot and the red light district. And being one of the rare minorities who has no interest in pot, I never took the time to research a trip to Amsterdam.

Until now.

And now, I really want to visit.

The coolest thing (so far) that I want to do: St. Nicolaas Boat Club. I'm such a sucker for local little non-profits, rather than big touristy places, and what better way to wander aroudn a city of canals, than on some rickity boat drinking and eating? (and given Amsterdam's average high in November is 49F, I will be drinking something HOT)

Amputation!

A bit of background:

This trip originated over drinks. Lots of drinks.

I was bitching about having an un-used passport, and my friend said, "Ok! Let's go!" He then said, "And I know people in Vienna, so we can stay with them! Let's do London/Paris/Vienna." And it was agreed. We had a map. Now, we had to create an itinerary.

Flash forward to today.

(A little more background: I suck at Geography. No, really, that's why my trivia team never gets first place, always second or third.)

Vienna is a long freakin' trip from London and Paris. And the only way to reach it by train is to run through Germany or Switzerland. And the overnight rail costs 3/4 the cost of our round-trip Trans-Atlantic flight. Let me map it out for you:



I am totally panicked. It's going to cost x3 what I thought, just for travel. And all the travel time will cut into our touristing time! And why does it cost $200 more to fly one-way on Virgin Atlantic than round-trip?! This whole thing is turning into a complete mess, and I just don't know what I am going to do.

And then, iChat comes into play. And my friend types the glorious words, "Well, worst case we can always cut that leg out and just try to spend a couple of days extra in paris and the surrounds too." This may be the best thing my friend has ever said to me.

So now, the trip is slightly altered. By the end of this weekend, we'll have a new map in play, something more regional to the channel. I'm thinking London/Paris/Amsterdam. Or maybe just longer stays in London and France.

All I know is the trip in ON like Donkey Kong, and I'm excited to do even more research now.

In the beginning

There was Pangea.

And then the land masses separated, and made it that much more expensive to travel. WTF.

This will chronicle my first (!) ever trip to Europe, including the 3.5 months of planning prior. This passport has been burning a hole in my pocket for a year now. And whether my wallet is ready or not, I'm going to make it happen.

There's not a lot set in stone yet. So really, you're getting in on the ground-level of my Type-A planning neurosis. Congrats! Here are the details thus far:

:: 2 travelers (myself and my friend Dave)
:: 10-ish day trip
:: London, Paris, Vienna [update] Amsterdam
:: Approx. 3 days per city
:: November

How we're going to get around within the cities, how we're going to get from city to city, and where we're going to stay is all a little... ambiguous right now.

Oh, and how I'm going to learn at least 2 languages in the next 3.5 months? Yeah, not sure about that, either.

I feel a bit like a fish out of vodka water.