The Sisyphus Comments

What I Learned On My Summer Vacation

My wife, Wanda, and I just completed our 25th wedding anniversary tour of Europe and, although we didn’t bring home a bunch of souvenirs, we did bring home memories that will last a lifetime. However, don’t get the impression that I’m some kind of a world traveler. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I took a vacation that lasted more than 3 or 4 days so I wasn’t initially really that enthused about going to Europe.

I am a typical American and I firmly believe that we have the greatest county in the world so I questioned the benefit of going through the hassles of flying to Europe. However, after 25 years of putting up with me, my bride had definitely earned 10 days in the destination of her choice. In the end, I was happy that we went and I had the opportunity to visit places and see things that are truly unique to the European continent. You really get a different perspective on time when you visit Europe. While we are in the process of celebrating the 400th anniversary of the landing at Jamestown, they have 600 year old castles that they refer to as the “new” castles. However, I am not going to drone on about the castles, monuments and mountains but I did want to give you a couple of travel tips that your travel agent will probably not mention when you book your European dream vacation. So here we go:

1. Expect things to go wrong and don’t sweat it!
   • A few years ago I got conned into going to Disney World . . . two years in a row! I am not a big fan of crowds and, make no mistake, there were large crowds, or so I thought until we landed in London. I have never seen so many people on vacation at one time in my life and it seemed like they all spoke a different language. What really sucks is they could talk about us and we had no idea what they were saying but we couldn’t reciprocate since most of them also understood English. It took us over an hour to clear immigration at Heathrow Airport and then we waited another 90 minutes for our bus to arrive. It seems that we were fortunate enought to land at the same time as thousands of Boy Scouts from around the world who were in London for the World Scout Jamboree so buses were running a little short. Our bus eventually arrived but, as luck would have it, our hotel was at the end of the line.
   • By now it was close to 0900 hours and I had been up for over 24 hours so I was looking forward to a short nap before we ventured out. However, the desk clerk informed us that our room would not be ready until after 1400 hours. Fortunately, we found a sympathetic ear with the concierge, who found us a room but he very concerned about whether we would be offended by the art work on the walls. He actually walked us to the room so we could see the portrait of a little girl holding a dog before we accepted the room. The only thing I wanted to look at was the back of my eyelids so we happily accepted the room – which was actually an upgrade. All is well that ends well.
2. Wear comfortable shoes.
   • We were very daring and, after a lot of shopping, settled on wearing Chaco Z2 sandals. Now I realize that some of you may have no idea what Chacos look like and, once you see them, you will be saying “no way” but they worked great for us (Go ahead and click on the link to see the Chacos – I’ll wait on you). We probably walked 5 or 6 miles on some days and the Chacos were great. They were also easy to remove when we went through airport security, which by the way, we only had to do in the United States. The airports in London and Paris did not make travelers remove their shoes during the security screening. However, if sandals don’t do it for you, take a comfortable pair of running or walking shoes. We also took our running shoes along but we never wore them.
3. Take a wash cloth.
   • That’s right, if you use a wash cloth when you shower, take one with you. About half of the hotels we stayed at did not provide wash cloths, although one hotel did bring us a couple when we requested them. Apparently, in many European countries they use a sponge to shower and they take it with them when they travel. Bar soap was not guaranteed either so if you don’t care for shower gels, bring your own soap.

4. Take a variety of clothes.
   • We researched the average temperature for the areas that we planned to visit before we left and packed accordingly. I took four pairs of walking shorts and, due to the unseasonably low temperatures, they were just barely comfortable, particularly in the evening. You have to be prepared for fairly rapid temperature and weather fluctuations. We went on a two hour walk along the River Thames in London and the temperature went from hot to cool and we experienced sunshine, clouds, misty rain and heavy rain. We took along a lightweight, hooded Marmot rain shell and it worked well. However, in the future I would also take along a lightweight Northface fleece pullover jacket. The fleece is warm, wisks away moisture, packs well and doesn’t wrinkle and looks good with a variety of clothes.

5. Take a neck collar pad.
   • The flight from Washington, DC to London took nearly 8 hours and we flew at night. If you are fortunate, you will get a window seat so you can lean against the side of the plane to sleep. Unfortunately, the odds are you will be in a center or aisle seat so you will be trying to sleep while sitting in a semi-reclined position. I had a lot of difficulty sleeping in this position on both the airplane and on the tour bus. I notice several people (more seasoned travelers than I) were using cushioned neck collars that prevented that whiplash effect when your head drops off to the side. I never did buy one and I ended up with a stiff neck almost every time I took a nap while in transit.

6. Take some non-prescription medications.
   • There is nothing worse than having a headache and not having any medication to take. Make sure you have some ibuprofen or acetaminophen in your carry-on bag. I also caught a cold just before I left and it got worse over the first few days of our trip. I needed some cough medicine and we got lucky in Heidelberg, Germany where we found a pharmacy and a pharmacist who spoke great English. When we visited another pharmacy in Lucerne, Switzerland to buy a decongestant, I wasn’t nearly as confident that we had communicated effectively. For all I know I could have been taking birth control pills for the next few days. The moral of the story is make sure you pack some non-prescription medicine in your luggage in case you develop a cold or cough while on the trip. Apparently, it is not uncommon to contract a cold while on the airplane or bus where the air is a bit stagnant. I’m guessing I probably passed my bug on to a few people during the first few days.

7. Exchange some money before you leave.
   • The adoption of the Euro as the standard form of currency in most of Europe has made travel a little easier but England and Switzerland are not part of the European Union. If you plan your trip well in advance, start watching the exchange rates for the dollar. The rate fluctuates significantly so you can save a good deal of money by exchanging money at your bank before you leave. We used our Capital One credit card for most of our purchases and they automatically handle the exchange at no additional fee. However, we were told that many credit card companies charge a fee to for this service. It is also nice to have some local money when you arrive in a new country so that you can tip for the initial services that you receive. We were never able to locate the concierge who helped us out in London to give him a tip once we exchanged our money. By the way, the Swiss accepted almost any type money. Their motto is “money is money.” Try to avoid using ATM machines to get money since they assess a heavy fee for the service. The worst we heard about was a $10 dollar fee for a the equivalent of $10 dollar withdraw.

8. Take an iPod.
   • I took my 30 gig iPod loaded with my calendar, address book, podcasts, music and several audiobooks. It was nice to be able to put the ear phones on and block out the noise on the airplane and bus.

9. Take electrical converters.
   • Most of Europe uses 220 volt electrical outlets so you will need a converter to plug in your electrical appliances to charge your iPod, camera etc. Every country that we visited had a different outlet so you will need to take a complete set. We got our set at Walmart and they worked in every country.

10. Leave your cell phone and computer at home.
    • You need a world cell phone to make calls in Europe and they are expensive. We used a phone card to check in with our son one time. Other than that, we had no need for a telephone. I didn’t take my computer and I was glad I hadn’t since that would have been one more thing to worry about being stolen. Although, it would have been nice to be able to download our pictures, I just bought a second 2 gb memory card for my camera but I only used one.

11. No good deed goes unpunished.
    • After traveling to several countries, I have come to the conclusion that we should stick with freedom fries. Of all the countries we visited, France was the most unfriendly to English speaking people. They also get kind of peeved when you don’t want to drink wine with your meal. We enjoyed Paris and the sights but we found the Parisians to be the least accommodating hosts of all the countries we visited. i guess all those monuments to England and the US were erected at a time when the French were appreciative of the American lives that were lost to liberate them during world war II. Just a thought.

12. Get a passport now.
    • If you think you will ever travel outside of the United States, apply for your passport now. You even need a passport to visit Canada now. There were reports that the process in taking nearly 10 months now due to the increased demand. A passport is good for 10 years and you can use it as long as it has 6 months or more left before it expires. You can download the application from the U.S. State Department website. Once you have completed the application, contact your local post office to make an appointment to have your picture taken and complete the application process. Take about $100 with you to cover the part of the fee that they will not let you charge.

These are just a few tips from a neophyte traveler so you can take them or leave them. Although I would never have scheduled this trip on my own, I am very happy that I had the opportunity to experience Europe at least once in my life. I just wish I could have done it while I was still in school so that I would have had something to write when my English teacher asked me to write an essay about what I had done on my summer vacation. Baling hay and shoveling manure never seemed to impress them.