As you know, I typically go through our trips either chronologically or topically or some combination of both and the last entry tells how much it all cost. This year I'm starting with the cost and this first post has just a few selected photos.
We did well this year. Our total cost was about $9260 or $160 per person per day. Both the trips in 2012 and 2011 were more expensive than that, $10650 (about $184 pppd) and $10840 (about $194 pppd) respectively. It's a good thing we saved money this year because we will certainly spend more in Scandinavia next summer. It will definitely be a splurge. I'm sure it will cost more than the typical $180-$200 per person per day we normally spend.
Part of the savings was due to a better dollar to Euro exchange rate. Most was due to staying primarily in apartments and cooking for ourselves. We did that much more this time. So even though we ended up paying more than double for lodging on a couple of nights (we missed the flight to Amsterdam and had to spend the night in Atlanta on the way, Trout got sick and we had to stay in Arnhem at our hotel an extra day because he couldn't drive) we still came out cheaper this time.
Here's the tally. I'm not saying final because anything else may come up, but it's close enough to publish.
Lodging $4560 -- includes, apartments, hotels, B&Bs, along with breakfasts and parking when that was part of the bill.
Food $2220 -- includes food out, food purchased in groceries and other supermarket items like toilet paper, shampoo, etc.
Transportation $1170 -- includes car rental, parking, gas, tolls, trolley passes, Tucson parking.
Entertainment $415 -- always our lowest cost due to our usual purchase of passes and taking advantage of senior prices.
Sundries $895 -- includes gifts, dog boarding and anything I couldn't put somewhere else.
Here are some sample pictures to get started. I'm too preoccupied with the psychological and physical prep for a colonoscopy on Tuesday to do much more now.
The best part of our apartment in Zandvoort -- this sunset one night. These pictures are cropped but not enhanced in any way. We faced west.
Shot through a dead plant on the patio.
That's the North Sea the sun is falling into.
After the sun was down. This didn't last long.
I made this picture my wallpaper for the year. It's on the deck of the only windmill you can really explore in the Netherlands. It's in Leiden. People take the train from Amsterdam just to see it.
Trout's reason for being in Zandvoort. The racetrack in the dunes.
We commonly saw these farmhouses as we drove north of Zandvoort. This is the only one I got a decent picture of. The traditional thatch is underlayed with more practical tile.
Yeah, there's a little water around. We went over it on many bridges and under it through many tunnels.
At the Kroller-Muller near Arnhem.
We traded picture taking with another couple. It was convenient. We both had the same Panasonic camera. This is in the courtyard of a women's housing and religious area in Bruges. You'll learn more about that later.
I was surprised to see this Texas flag flying while riding around on a boat through the canals of Bruges.
This is a pretty good picture of hyacinth fields near Keukenhof because I opened the window to catch the scent.
You will later see a series of pictures about this drive home from Keukenhof. Trout really wanted me to get pictures of this situation where there are bike paths on both sides of the road and the road is 2-way. Cars have to drive partly on the bike path to pass each other. Fun.
So that's it for a few days. I'll get myself organized and catch up in the next few weeks.
