Travel Planning
Dec 7th, 2006
Let the planning commence
So last night I received not one, not two, but three, three new books on France. One, Let’s Go France 2007, from the fine folks at Amazon and two from my connection at Rick Steves. Those would be the Paris 2007 and the Provence 2007.
Now I can dive into the meat of the planning process, which I have actually all ready started.
For instance I discovered that we can fly from Nice to Paris for around $23 on EasyJet. Which means no long train trip eating up most of a day towards the end of our trip. We can actually fly to de Gaulle the morning of our return and make it there in plenty of time to catch our outbound flight.
This will make planning a bit easier as we no longer have to worry about making our route more circular.
Très Bien!
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Nov 27th, 2006
The Pain Of Booking Awards Travel
Last night I spent about an hour and half on the phone with Alaska Airlines booking tickets for our trip to France next year. And although the customer service woman was very friendly and helpful, it was still far more complicated than I was expecting. Eventually, plans had to change in order for us to get tickets at all.
Originally I wanted us to fly in to Amsterdam and then out of Nice. Not possible. And so after going through every possible iteration of date change and arrival/departure city change we finally settled on flying into and out of Paris (not ideal, but we’ll live with it), pushing departure back a week and taking on an additional day at the end.
The net result of all the changes is that we have decided to skip Amsterdam this time and concentrate exclusively on France. This is not entirely a bad thing, I think. After our last hectic trip (to five countries in 18 days) it will be nice to take things at a (slightly) more relaxed pace. Well, at least as relaxed as any vacation I’m planning can be.
I will update the rest of the site to reflect these changes in our plans. Now that we have our departure firmly settled, I’m really looking forward to diving in to the meat of the planning, including booking an apartment for our week in Paris.
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Nov 13th, 2006
On Mexico
To date my experience with Mexico has been confined to a trip to Cancun with my family when I was young, and a few border crossings to places like Juarez and Nogales. This is unfortunate because Mexico has long been a place that I would like to explore, but for some reason it’s never at the top of the list when it comes time to plan a trip. What I really needed was an excuse, and now I have one.
Our friends J and W recently decided that in celebration of 10 years together they would tie the knot in Mexico. In Tulu, on the Yucatan Peninsula to be exact. I’m very excited about this even if it is more than a year away (January ’08).
And while a year is a long time, it’s never too early to start planning, I say. And so to that end I have set up a Mexico resource page that I will be updating and expanding as plans progress.
Also, I ordered Moon Handbooks Yucatan guide.
We will most likely only have 10 days, so we won’t be able to see everything and I’ve got a lot of reading to do to see how our limited time can be best spent. If anybody has any suggestions or recommendations please pass them along.
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Sep 15th, 2006
Masters Of American Comics
There is a very exciting exhibit going on at The Jewish Museum on the Jewish comic artists. We will most definitely be making an effort to see this one.
It will feature such great talents as:
- Will Eisner
- Jack Kirby
- Harvey Kurtzman
- R. Crumb
- Gary Panter
- Chris Ware
Can’t wait!
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Jun 30th, 2006
Parisian tips
Here are some great tips for travelers visiting Paris. As well as some restaurant suggestions.
An example:
Talking vs. Shouting
Americans talk LOUDLY. (As do people in several other countries). If you don’t believe it, watch cable television "news" for a few minutes! It’s gotten so that restaurant reviews in the United States now include ‘sound’ ratings to denote the volume in restaurants. Many of us are used to speaking loudly, especially when we get into groups. If you’ve ever tried to have a peaceful dinner next to a table celebrating their annual office party, you know what I’m talking about. In Paris, people will modulate their voices so as not to disturb other diners.
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