Favorites, Lessons Learned, Costs & What's Next

I thought I'd start off with some pictures of us along the way, but a few others crept into the mix.

Iceland from the air. Lava and steam plumes on the landscape.

Icelandic ponies.

Vestmannaeyjar.

Trout gets on the tour bus.

Blue Lagoon.

Lo cools off outside of the building and the water.

Trout in the lava and moss.

Typical laundry trip, this time in Koblenz, Germany.

Trout coming off track at the Nurburgring.

Trout and Opel street car.

Trout and Theo.

Trout with giant beer and pretzel at Augustiner-Keller Biergarten, Munich.

Lo at first place she ate in Nuremberg, Germany in 1982.

Lo's apartment building in Nuremberg.

Trout copies Dionysius at the Vatican Museum in Rome.

Lo has her favorite pizza in Rome.

Trout in jail at the Colosseum in Rome.

Giant Nutella containers at an artisan gelato place near the Vatican.

Lo in the shadows at the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

Ramona driving us in Sicily.

Trout at the restaurant I hated in Sorrento.

Trout on the train through Monaco.

300 km/h didn't seem all that fast on the way from Barcelona to Madrid.

Little girl and her rabbit in Sevilla, Spain.

Lo and puppy at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain.

Trout and Phillippe in the Dordogne Valley near Sarlat in France.

Lo in Bayeux, France.

Trout and a buddy at a bar on one of the Normandy beaches.

Parade to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

One of my favorite signs in England.

One of my favorite sculptures in London.

Muiredach high cross at Monasterboice in Ireland.

That's it for the pictures for the rest of this posting, but be sure to click on the links. Some of them have been updated since I put them in past entries and some are brand new.

These are my favorites. Trout may have different ones. Let's start at the base of Maslow's Hierarchy.

Hotels: A hotel can be a favorite for lots of reasons, but besides the Pension Steele, my favorite hotels were the Lindner at the Nurburgring and El Rey Moro in Sevilla. They are totally different and both very special -- especially considering how reasonably priced they were.

Breakfasts: Almost all the places we stayed provided breakfast with the room. The Lindner at the Nurburgring had the largest and most extravagant fruehstueck buffet, the Hotel Lope de Vega in Madrid had great Spanish desayuno options and the Hotel Eber Mars in Paris had the best typically French petite dejeuner.

Drinks: I had good coffee in many places, but hands down the best coffee I had was at the Modern Hotel in Antibes. I wrote them asking what kind it was, but it was just a dark French roasted commercial brand. France also produced the favorite soft drink of the trip, Schweppes Agrum -- a divine citrus (tasted mostly like grapefruit) soft drink that we only found in France. When we got to England, Trout discovered Kopparberg ciders. He tried apple first but became addicted to the pear. So far we have not been able to find any way to buy any of these three items here in the States. More's the pity. Visiting the Kopparberg Brewery in Sweden might just be important enough for a trip to Scandinavia (see below).

Meals: Picking just 3 favorites was impossible for this category. Although we were full, we had to get some schaufele at Barfusser in Nuremberg. Trout agreed that it was delicious and way better than what he ordered. Trout pointed out that I ate a lot of pizza on the trip. My favorite was the Pizza Napoli at La Gallina Bianca in Rome. It had anchovies cooked in, of course. Even he had to admit that the 4-cheese pizza we got at the Hotel Reine Mathilde where we stayed in Bayeux was extraordinary due to the fact that they used French cheeses. The ribs I had at Le Jardin in Antibes, were amazing and nothing like you would find in the US. Another culinary surprise was the cassoulet at Le Trouvere in Carcassonne. Who knew beans could be so good? And I have to say that the salmon I had at the Redcliffe Hotel Restaurant in Inverness was the best I've ever had. So out of 56 days in Europe, I came up with 5 exceptional meals. I'm sure there were more, but these really stood out to me.

Desserts: There were great ice cream desserts everywhere and gelato in Italy and the south of France, but I was able to pick 3 exceptional dessert experiences. Back to La Gallina Bianca in Rome for the best tiramisu I have ever eaten. I'm not a tiramisu fan, but it was touted as excellent and it didn't disappoint. A delightful surprise was the home made green apple gelato at Brandshatch Place. Finally, something was tart enough for us. Then back to the Redcliffe in Inverness for the sticky toffee pudding. No wonder the Brits have such bad teeth.

Moving a little higher on the Hierarchy, it is difficult for me to class what we did, saw, heard into categories. Most of the things we saw and did were better than I expected. These are my favorites.

Vehicular Experiences: In spite of the miserable weather and the outrageous cost, I loved taking the vaporetto (public water bus) through Venice. As scary as it was, I thoroughly enjoyed the public bus ride from Salerno to Sorrento along the Amalfi Coast. The YouTube video I linked to is going the same way we did only in a car. Don't get dizzy, now! Riding in the passenger seat of the car that Theo of Rent Race Car drove on the Nurburgring was more fun than I expected, but once was enough for me.

More Relaxing Experiences: How can you top the Blue Lagoon? So far as I know, there is no place else like it in the world. Don't go to or through Iceland without trying it! The major reason we went to Sevilla was Flamenco. Two nights of it were not enough. And what's not to love about seeing a musical about American pop singers in London? Jersey Boys was fabulous.

Major Sites: I originally planned to see these places, knew a lot about them, and they still were jaw-dropping sites for me. The Villa Romana del Casale that Ramona took us to in Sicily was just one WOW after another. Lascaux, even the reconstructed cave, was so magnificent that I hardly realized that I was underground in tight quarters. Or maybe that was because only good was there? The Guggenheim at Bilbao was such a work of art itself that we didn't even go in the galleries. Pompeii was worth a full day and a tour guide, but we didn't have either of those. It will always be fascinating to me.

Breathtakingly Special Places and Art: I knew the Mezquita in Cordoba would be amazing, but I didn't expect to "feel" anything there. It was one of the few places that I sensed something unique about the location. I needed to sit to truly take in Picasso's Guernica, but unfortunately, like so many famous works of art, it's in a room designed to move people through, not allowing much time for contemplation. The Bayeux Tapestry spoke to me not only as art, but also as history presented in a highly accessible form for the time. I really wanted to be awestruck by Notre Dame in Paris, but it just didn't happen. Where it happened was at Westminster Abbey in London. I guess I'm showing my disgustingly Anglo heritage. Finally, the high crosses at Monasterboice really got to me. This was another place I would like to have had time to sit and soak it all in.

Major Surprises: The Hofbrauhaus in Munich gets all the press, but I liked the Augustiner-Keller Biergarten much better. It seemed much less touristy, more authentic and reminded me of places I went to in Texas growing up. The Basilica San Clemente was recommended to us by our tour guide in Rome, Ron. This was one of the other places on the trip that I "felt" all the way down to the Roman temple for Mithras. It wasn't even on my radar until Ron told me about it. Like many people, I have little appreciation for things until I learn something about them. Chagall is an artist who had never impressed me until we went to the Chagall Museum in Nice. It was something to see those large, religious paintings all in one place. As a kid, I loved making little tents and houses for myself, mostly outside under trees. So when Phllippe, our Sarlat tour guide, suggested seeing the Maison Forte de Reignac which is built into a cave in the Dordogne Valley, I was intrigued. It turned out to be a major good surprise for me. Stumbling on to the daily recognition of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris was a moving and delightful surprise. Finally I was very surprised at how much I wanted to wander around the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Lessons Learned

1. Although I tried my best with the itinerary, we couldn't avoid arriving in some locations at the end of a long day of travelling, partly due to the aggressive scheduling, but mostly due to the inevitable delays of public transportation. We would be tired and hungry and cranky and anxious to get settled in for the night -- especially when we arrived well after dark.

2. Even the best of travel writers don't always get it right. I thought all our hotels were fine. We chose them primarily for the location and the reasonable (comparatively) cost. We were not so lucky with restaurant recommendations. In fact, our most expensive meal was in a highly touted and beautiful place in Sorrento. Trout's meal was good but mine was mediocre at best and the service left a lot to be desired. I would never go there again. So take travel gurus' suggestions with a grain of salt and be sure to check as many services as you can online for reviews of good places to eat.

3. The best hotel deals are not always through AAA, AARP or any of the online options. They usually are provided by direct contact with the hotel. We only got stung once. I booked our room in Genoa, Italy through AARP only to discover much later than we could have gotten it for $40 less by going directly to the hotel itself.

4. We were somewhat hesitant to rent cars and did so only when it seemed the most efficient way to get around. We also thought renting a car would be too expensive and too exhausting. Trout got used to driving very easily (must've been the Opels). I still think it's best to use public transportation in the cities and trains (or planes) for the very long stretches where a lot of ground is covered, but I'm not sure it's cheaper or the best way to do things anymore. It did allow Trout to read a lot and me to see a lot of scenery.

Trip Costs

I'm glad I tasked myself with a specific day to do this last entry on the Europe trip. That forced me to finally add up the costs of the trip and do some analysis, so let's get it over with. I'm sure that I left some costs out and double-counted some others, so this is probably only about 95% accurate. Close enough. If the exchange rate had been more in our favor it would've been cheaper. If pigs had wings...

The total cost of the trip was $24,600. If we count only the days we were in Europe, but include the animal and pre-trip prep costs (see below), the daily cost for both of us was $440. I personally think those costs should be included. However, people can disagree on that, so without the animal and pre-trip costs, the total was $22,427 and the daily average was $400. In either case, we spent about $100 - $150 per day more than I'd hoped we would. Rick Steves says the average daily cost per person not counting airfare, staying in middle of the road hotels and eating only one sit-down meal a day should be $185 or for the two of us, $370. So I guess we did pretty well after all -- especially since we usually had 2 sit-down meals per day.

This is where the money went.

Animals -- $1285. If we had left both Guido and Cisco in the kennel, it would have cost $1600. Before I added it all up, I thought the total was actually going to be more than that. It includes travel to and from Albuquerque, food and lodging, round trip airport shuttle to Santa Fe, etc., etc., etc. Priceless is the hospitalization of Trout that lead to the discovery of his kidney tumor and saved his life.

Pre-Trip Preparations -- $890. This includes travel books, luggage, trip insurance and clothing.

Transportation -- $5414. I thought this was going to be our biggest expense, but it wasn't. That's only because I had enough points with my BECU Visa Rewards to cover round trip airfare for both of us. If I hadn't, this would truly have been our largest expense. Overall, our transportation cost was $97 per day for the 56 days we were in Europe. Iceland was the most expensive at $185 (big spaces, little public transportation, had to rent a car due to tight schedule) per day and the United Kingdom was the cheapest at $62 per day (got special senior rates). Here is the detailed breakdown in order from the most expensive per day to the least with the country total followed by the daily cost there: Iceland $370/$185, Spain $966/$120, Germany $703/$117, Italy $1377/$98, Ireland $393/$98, France $856/$86, UK $747/$62. To get these numbers I divided the EurailPass costs by the number of days it could be used in the countries where we could use it and added that amount to the other costs for those countries. The United Kingdom and Iceland were not covered by the EurailPass.

Lodging -- $6933. This turned out to be our biggest expense. We didn't stay in any fancy places. We slept in moderate to cheap hotels and B&Bs. They are just a lot more expensive than in the US. We averaged $124 per night. Ireland was the most expensive at $175 per night (except for the Nurburgring, this was the nicest place we stayed) and Italy was the cheapest at $86 per night (because I included the $0 days with Ramona). Here's the lodging breakdown: Ireland $699/$175, UK $1712/$143, Spain $1090/$136, France $1329/$133, Germany $702/$117, Iceland $200/$100, Italy $1200/$86.

Food -- $5523. This is an area where we could have saved quite a bit of money by picnicking more often, but we just didn't do that as much as we could have. Next time, especially if we rent an apartment (see below) for a week, we will definitely eat more at home and play like we live there. Our daily average cost for food for both of us was $99. Iceland was the most expensive at $163 and Italy (thanks again, Ramona) was the cheapest at $74. Here's the food breakdown: Iceland $327/$163, France $1295/$129, Germany $712/$119, Spain $775/$97, UK $1055/$88, Ireland $318/$78, Italy $1042/$74.

Entertainment -- $2538. This included tours, admissions to sites and museums, concerts and performances and tips. Our daily average was $45. Iceland was the most expensive at $155 and Spain was the cheapest at $22. Here's the entertainment breakdown: Iceland $311/$155, France $732/$73, Germany $392/$65, Italy $513/$37, Ireland $140/$35, UK $279/$23, Spain $173/$22.

Sundries -- $1039. This category and the next one often trip up people's travel budgets. We averaged about $19 per day on laundry and gifts and books and more toothpaste, you get the idea. For us, this category also includes a proration of the finance charges I got on my VISA because I couldn't be confident in having it paid off each month as I normally do. Doing laundry was shockingly expensive by comparison to here. The most expensive place for Sundries was Iceland at $52 per day. The cheapest was France at $11 per day. This is the breakdown: Iceland $104/$52, Spain $270/$34, UK $243/$20, Germany $87/$15, Italy $178/$13, Ireland $47/$12, France $110/$11.

Communication -- $967. This group includes post cards, stamps, phone calls and the cost of having our mail held and forwarded for 2 months to our friends, Don & Patsy. I prorated out the mail holding charges and the extra Verizon costs. Did you know that you can't have your mail held for longer than a month without making special arrangements? We averaged $17 per day on communication. Most expensive at $60 per day was Iceland and cheapest per day was the UK at $9. Here's the breakdown: Iceland $120/$60, Ireland $110/$28, Germany $142/$24, Italy $228/$16, France $146/$15, Spain $110/$13, UK $110/$9.

So where next, how and when?

We will debate the where, I'm sure, and maybe some of the how. But we know we will go for a shorter time period (like only a month) and in the Spring shoulder season (like April or May). It sounds like a good anniversary option to me. Trout would like to rent a car and drive through the Alps. That means Germany, Switzerland, France and Northern Italy to me, but to him it means going all the way to Albania or maybe over to Hungary! I'm not so hot for that part. I could go for flying to Monaco, renting a car and driving the entire Mediterranean coast from there to Gibralter. Of course we could always decide to go to Greece or Scandinavia -- just because he hasn't been there.

I would love to rent an apartment somewhere and just stay there for a week or so. That's more appropriate for big cities with lots of sights and resort areas for lots of downtime. I found 2 very cool options online and I hope we get to try one or the other or both sometime. The first is PARIStay -- obviously just for Paris. The other is Vacation Rentals by Owner and it's all over the world.

If we were to go back to the same countries, what would we do? We've already talked about car rentals and time limits. We don't often think of European country size in terms of states of the US, but some places are bigger than you might expect and some are a lot smaller.

Iceland -- Rent a car and drive, drive, drive. Two days was too short. One week to ten days might be just about right to drive around as much as we'd like and go to the Blue Lagoon one more time.

Germany -- Spend a week in Berlin. Rent a car and drive to Nuremberg. Spend a week there with day trips to surrounding towns. Trout would probably want to drive the Nurburgring again. This sounds like 3 weeks to me. All of Germany is only about the size of North and South Dakota combined and there is the autobahn.

Italy -- Spend a full week in Rome and a full week in Florence. Rent a car and drive on a spaghetti route including Siena, Ravenna, Lake Como, etc. A month, easy, even though Italy is only about as big as Florida and Georgia combined.

France -- Copy the people we met from Ballard. Rent a car and drive all over but spend at least one week on the Mediterranean and one in Paris. France is a bit smaller than Texas. It would take 4-6 weeks to drive all over and drink as much Agrum as we want.

Spain -- Spain is about the same size as France. We could also spend 4 - 6 weeks there, especially if we included Portugal. I could see driving along the ocean all the way from Barcelona around Gibralter to Faro then north Lisbon, Santiago de Compostela and then back to Madrid for a week before heading home.

United Kingdom -- England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all add up to being slightly larger than Idaho, but there is so much to see. A week in London to see what we missed and go to at least one play at the Globe, then drive around the countryside and take the ferry to Belfast (again). I'm thinking 3 without NI, 4 with.

Ireland -- It's only about the size of Indiana and all advice says to get out of Dublin and drive. Still, we could use a bit more time in Dublin than we had before, but probably not a whole week, so 3 weeks would be adequate without NI, 4 with.

So that's it. The final installment of Trout and Lo's big 2009 adventure. Time to start planning for the Spring 2011 version.

Ancient Ruins and High Crosses Near Tara

Trout and I both have ancestors that came from Ireland, so on our last day there, we scheduled a visit to one of the most ancient sites in the country as well as to the famous high cross with his mother's maiden name. Both of these sites are north of Dublin, but very close. They are west of Drogheda and near the Hill of Tara.

We made reservations for a tour that would take us to both sites when we first got to Dublin. The tour was scheduled for Friday, October 30th. As most of you know, Trout woke up that morning with a fever of 102 and feeling like crap. Nevertheless, he soldiered on for the whole miserable rainy and cold day.

We checked out of our hotel and took our luggage to the place where the tour bus would pick us up. We stowed it on the bus during the tour. That turned out to be pretty convenient, but it was a somewhat complicated transportation day. More about that later.

We drove past the Hill of Tara and made our first stop at Newgrange. Newgrange is a passage tomb mound dating from about 3000 BC. Being about 5000 years old, it predates Stonehenge by about 1000 years and the Pyramid of Giza by about 500. The pictures at Knowth are way better than mine.

You arrive at the Bru' na Boinne Visitors Centre. You must go there and have a guided tour to see the tomb. They have a good exhibit of life in the area 5000 years ago and a good cafeteria. We had plenty of time to eat before the tour, but unfortunately, Trout was too sick to eat anything.

This is just one hint at the exhibits inside.

We walked across the River Boyne to a shuttle stop. The shuttle took us to the entrance to the mound.

It is located in the middle of farm fields with lots of sheep and horses. You can tell how great the weather was.

You can see another mound from Newgrange.

The reconstruction of the entrance to the mound has changed many times over the years. Each change was based on new research indicating the way it would have looked at the time it was built. I managed to delete this picture accidentally, so you can't click on it to make it bigger.

These rocks frame the entrance.

This is around the back side with more kerbstones.

Now we're back to the entrance with a close up of the carved kerbstone.

This an even closer look some other carved stones.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, not that I could have anyway. The tour guide told us that there was usually one in every group, so that if we had issues with tight spaces, we might want to come in last. I had no problems with the caves in France, so I didn't really anticipate any here, but boy was I wrong. Thank goodness we hung to the back because I simply had to leave.

This happened to me about 22 years ago when I tried to go into a pyramid in Yucatan. I got about 20 feet inside the door and had to get out. Here, I made it all the way to the center (check the links for the plan) but couldn't stay, so we left and walked around the area instead. When the incident happened in Yucatan, I thought I was getting claustrophobic. Having had no problem in France and then having a very bad reaction here, I decided that it may be more than close spaces that are affecting me in those 2 places. Anyway, there are some good winter solstice pictures on the main web link if you want to see inside.

From Newgrange we went on to Monasterboice. Be sure to go down to the bottom of the linked page to see the isolated location. Our total reason for going to this ruin of a former monastery was to see the high crosses, especially Muiredach's High Cross. It can't be an accident that Trout's mother's maiden name was Murdock. The name, in all its spelling variations, is both Scottish and Irish.

This site dates from the 9th or 10th century AD. This is a medieval sun dial.

This is a view of the crosses with Muiredach's in the center. That isn't snow, although it seemed cold enough. It's lichen. You can see how much moisture is in the air by the mist.

These are some details which are well labeled and explained in the links above.

It was a small tour and that was a good thing.

Our tour guide is the woman in the parka on the left.

Trout really didn't spend much time looking around here. He felt too awful. But we did get this picture of him with the west side of the cross.

The weather was getting worse (if that's possible) and it was getting dark, so the tour headed back to Dublin. We were dropped off where we got on in the morning and walked about 20 yards down the street to the bus stop for the airport. We had to wait a bit for the bus, but it took us right there. Then we took our hotel's shuttle to the hotel and tucked in for the night.

You may remember that we stayed at a hotel close to the airport in Albuquerque before we left the States. Due to the early flight time the next morning, I had already decided to do the same coming back from Dublin. When Trout got sick, I was even happier that we made that decision.

We checked in, he went straight to bed, I futzed around the room for a bit and then went down to dinner at their restaurant by myself. It was a relatively early dinner, but it had been dark a long time by then and it had been a very long day.

The next morning we checked out and took the hotel shuttle to the airport to catch our flight back to Albuquerque via Chicago. Trout popped pills to bring his fever down and make the trip somewhat tolerable. He still wasn't eating -- a very bad sign.

The flight pattern took a route to the far north. I think we passed over the tip of Greenland and then came in over northern Canada. We could track the trip on screens at our seats and during part of it the winds were so ferocious that the plane actually shimmied. I didn't like that.

We got to Albuquerque pretty late on Halloween and Trout went straight to bed again without any Trick or Treating. The next morning (Sunday, November 1st) he was still sick, so we got the hotel shuttle to take us to the emergency room at the University of New Mexico.

While he was being processed in, I took the hotel shuttle to the airport and an airport shuttle up to Santa Fe to get our car at my friend's house. It was in her garage with a battery tender hooked up to it, but the gizmo didn't pay enough attention to the battery and it was dead. So I called AAA to come give me a jump, locked up her place and drove back to the hospital. By this time it was about 9:00 at night. Trout was still being manipulated by the medical folks and I was exhausted, so I went back to the room.

The next day (Monday, November 2nd) he was still being tested, so I met my friend at the place in Albuquerque where she stores her RV. The reason we flew out of there was that she was taking care of our dog, Cisco, while we were gone. I picked up Cisco, did some errands and by the time I was done with that, Trout was ready to check out of the hospital.

They figured out what was wrong, treated him accordingly and let him go. We spent one more night at our hotel and drove home to Tucson the next day (Tuesday, November 3rd). By then Trout was feeling great and did all the driving.

Just about at Truth or Consequences, we got a call on his cell phone from the radiologist at the hospital who had read his scans to see what was happening in his gut. This very alert and wonderful guy saw the tumor in Trout's kidney and made sure to call our GP's attention to it when he sent the information on Trout to her. He was also nice enough to call us about it. By Thursday, Trout was seeing our doc and on the way to sorting out what was going on.

This may sound like a bummer of an end to a great trip, but in fact if he had not gotten sick in Dublin, if we had not taken him to UNMMC, if that radiologist hadn't noticed the tumor and reported it to our GP and us, if our GP hadn't gotten Trout in right away, if the urologist hadn't gotten him in right away, if, if... we would never have known about the tumor until Trout started showing symptoms and by then it would've been too late. So his future would have been very bleak if all those ifs hadn't happened the way they did.

So that's how our big European trip ended. I'm going to do one more blog entry to summarize it all, list bests and worsts, talk about lessons learned and hint at some plans for the next time.