Invitation to Germany Appendix
Useful Information
DRIVING IN EUROPE
If someone says, “Let’s play a game,” the first thing you do is find out which game; chess, checkers, baseball, or football. Once you recognize the game, you now know the rules.
Same thing with driving in Europe. Once you determine if you will be driving on a German Autobahn, around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, through the heart of Rome, in the hills of Yugoslavia, on the “wrong” side of the road in England, or on Route 1 in Greece, you know each has its own rules, and you drive accordingly. If you drive in any of these locations employing the driving style you use in the US, you could have a problem.
If we watch the drivers in France, Germany, or Italy, we can see how their Army acted and reacted during WW II. The German drives as if the highway is his, and the law says this lane goes here, and that stop-sign means they will always stop, so he pays little attention to the needs of others, he just follows orders and plows ahead.
We have seen traffic jams in Paris where, if one driver backed up a little, and the other driver turned a little, the jam would disappear. But when the French driver arrives at, or causes a traffic blockage, he will not employ any initiative to solve the gridlock, he just sits there with a pained expression on his face, waiting for someone to help him out of the mess.
The Italian drives as if there are no rules, and when there is a traffic jam or some other problem, he just gives up, throws his arms in the air, smiles as if to say, “No big deal, I wasn’t going anywhere anyway.” It’s amazing. We remember the Italian soldiers we talked to at McDonald’s in Rome. They assured us, “There are no Italian soldiers, only Italian uniforms.”
In Italy, instead of traffic laws and regulations, they have traffic “hints and suggestions.” Three guesses what a red light means, or a left turn lane, or a two lane road, or a Do Not Enter sign, and … … !
When you near the top of a mountain in Yugoslavia, you know that just around the next curve there will be a little old lady in the middle of the road herding two goats. Drive as if you expect that, and neither of you will be surprised.
JET - LAG
We have tried a number of things to overcome jet-lag. On one trip we spent our first night in the Sheraton Hotel at the Frankfurt, Germany airport, but even that didn’t help too much; we are just overcome by this travelers’ malady each trip. It seems the long airplane ride lowers our resistance, and the change from the California desert climate is so abrupt, we sometimes catch a bad cold within a few days of arrival.
In 1995 we tried the highly advertised pill, Melatonin. As you might imagine, while Emmy said they helped, Jim was just as sure they did nothing of value for him. One would think that by now we would have learned something, somehow, sometime, someway, somewhere that would help, but we haven’t. The lessons about diet, liquids, and exercise have been heeded, but still our jet-lag problems persist.
EXCHANGE RATE
It’s been said that, when he prepares to travel, the experienced traveler will take with him twice the money and half the clothes he had planned to take.
The relative value of money, the exchange rate, or the amount of “foreign” money a dollar will buy, changes constantly, but usually rather slowly. Unless you are going to spend an awful lot of money, or take a very long trip, the daily variation in the exchange rate, won’t have much influence on the cost of your trip. During the twenty-five years between 1970 and 1995 we received four German D-Marks for a dollar one year, between two and three per dollar in other years, and as low as 1.45 D-Marks per dollar another time.
Variations in currency in other countries were similar. We have heard complaints some years that the dollar is too “high” and in other years it is too “low,” but we have never been told it was “just right.”
Travel Planning
If you are able to get in your car, or take a bus, train or plane, and visit the US on your own, there is no good reason why you can’t do the same in Europe. If you speak the language, you will still have difficulties at times, and if you don’t speak the language it can be more confusing, but that’s part of the fun. Just make allowances for what you don’t know, and look for a place to stay before it gets too late in the afternoon. Remember, after a good night’s sleep you can put up with most anything the next day. Check your map and the tourist brochures; sometimes it’s a good idea to find a central location and take day-trips, returning to the same hotel for several nights.
Whether you travel by RV, car, or train, you must be aware of where you are and where you might be by nightfall. In travels in the US or in Europe, if it can be avoided, don’t make the first visit to a town you know nothing about if you must arrive late at night. Jim can remember unavoidably flying into Fort Wayne, Indiana at 10:00 PM one rainy Friday night. It was the rental car agent’s first night on the job. She didn’t know what Route 30 was, let alone where it was, and she couldn’t find a map anywhere. The fact that Jim could speak the language only increased the frustration. For visits to Ireland and to Yugoslavia, ferry boat schedules gave us no choice but to arrive after dark, but we survived.
Usually when we start out in the morning we have no idea where we are going to be that night, but we do look at the map by early afternoon to determine our options long before it gets too late. Don’t plan your vacation in detail, maybe not even a plan for tomorrow, but do look a few hours ahead.
TRAVEL GUIDE BOOKS
Our book is in no way intended to be a travel guide. You will need a lot of information, especially on your first trip, and the place to get it is from one or more of the famous travel guides, and your travel agent. Fielding’s and Fodor’s both publish European travel guides that are crammed full of information that will make your planning easier. They help you get the necessary passports and visas; they tell you how to take care of your money; how to find hotel rooms, and how to get and use the Eurailpass. You can find reams of information that will be useful for trip planning. After you arrive in Europe, those guide books will tell you about many of the things you will want to see, and their information about hotels and restaurants will prove invaluable.
The Michelin Green Guide (published by the tire company) is filled with sightseeing information, and the Michelin Red Guide will provide more than enough information about hotels and restaurants throughout Europe.
This is not the place to save a few dollars — a good guidebook will pay for itself over and over again. Visit your local library to read and sample travel guides to see which one seems to suit you best. You’ll find that Fodor’s and Fielding’s are written in a very readable style, while Michelin’s guide is full of facts presented in concise detail. When we arrive at a location described at length in the guidebook, we tear out the appropriate pages for the day. (Or you can Xerox those pages before you leave home.) Those few pages take a lot less space in pocket or purse, and the publishers will be happy to sell you another copy when you get home, if you want to keep a complete book with your memoirs.
LANGUAGE
Most people we meet are extremely interested in the US, and are eager to exchange information. The frustrating language barrier makes that difficult at times, but we could not possibly learn to speak the languages of all the countries we have visited. Many people speak English but often it’s necessary to communicate with pantomime and pointing. We try always to have an English/German (or whatever) dictionary with us. It’s amazing how many words we can learn during a few days in a country, but it seems we must re-learn them each time we return. Thank goodness most of the instructions on traffic signs look familiar, and can easily be understood in context.
Have you heard about the tourist, visiting Germany, who thought the name with the largest letters on the direction sign, indicated the largest town? He followed the signs to “UMLEITUNG” for half an hour, before he discovered that Umleitung means “detour” in German.
TOURIST INFORMATION OFFICE
Almost every town, except the very small, has a tourist office. Without fail they will have a listing of the hotels in their immediate area, and for a nominal charge they will often be happy to help you book a room for the night. Smaller offices may only have information about their own town, but most offices can provide brochures and maps describing a larger area.
Tourist literature is often printed in English, but don’t refuse the information printed in other languages. The pictures will help you decide if you want to visit a particular location, and the words on the brochure will correspond to the name of the attraction and the words you will see on road signs. When you must ask for directions, pointing to a picture or a word on the brochure will usually result in all the help you need.
In every tourist office the people behind the desk and other tourists in the room, will be happy to provide you with information. We don’t remember any tourist office where the workers and customers were not helpful and polite. They were delighted that we were enjoying their beautiful country.
CAR, RV, OR TRAIN
The length of your trip will help determine your mode of travel. For a two-week vacation it wouldn’t make sense to buy a car or RV, unless you plan to have it shipped to the US at the end of your vacation. Cars and RV’s are available for rent or lease throughout Europe, but do make the arrangements in the US before you leave home, at least the first time. Familiar US auto rental agencies often have special rates, a lot lower than the cost of renting the same vehicle after you arrive in Europe. The Eurailpass provides unlimited train travel and is available for periods from two weeks to several months. Since the Eurailpass is for tourists only, it must be bought in the US. See your travel agent for more information.
RV TRAVEL
If RV travel looks interesting to you, please don’t make your first long RV trip in Europe — take trips close to home to make sure it’s your “cup of tea.” One time we met people who were making their first-ever RV trip, planning to spend a year in Europe. We met them again on their way home after only a few weeks in their Van. They had been sick and tired of camping before their first month was over. Could you and your travel partner spend six weeks or six months in a space half the size of your dining room? For Jim that is just no problem at all, for Emmy … … . ?
AMERICANS CAMPING IN EUROPE
Campsites are readily available in Europe. Obviously, those parts of the country where few tourist sights are found will not have many campsites. We can recall only two or three nights when we had a problem locating a place to stay, and that was because of overcrowding. Even then we found a spot after inquiring at other places within a few miles.
For years we carried a large Campsite catalog, but found we used it maybe a half-dozen times. Road-side signs and brochures from local Tourist Information Offices have supplied all of the campsite information we have needed.
Municipal campsites are available at low cost in many towns. Usually they charge extra for electricity, but that has been no big expense. Privately owned campsites are often a little more expensive, but sometimes they include swimming pools, restaurants and other amenities.
Many times the campsites are in an excellent location: Can you imagine camping at Chamonix, France at the foot of Mt. Blanc; in Fiesole, Italy, high over the Arno River Valley with the domes and towers of Florence spread out below; on an island in the Rhône River with the floodlit le Pont d’Avignon and the Popes’ Palace on the far riverbank; with le Mont St. Michel (northern France) out our window one night, the Rock of Gibraltar (southern Spain), or the Parthenon (in Athens) on another: next to the wall of the Crusades city of Aigues-Mortes, and the double wall of Carcassonne, France; on the bank of the River Seine in Paris, the Neckar at Heidelberg, the Vltava in Prague, the Rhein and the Mosel at Koblenz, and the Danube in Budapest; high above the Mediterranean Sea on the French or the Italian Riviera; across the lagoon from Venice; along the Adriatic near Dubrovnik, and hundreds more. The excitement of visiting these spectacular destinations seems almost a dream.
Of course hotels are available in most towns and cities, large and small, and we have yet to find even the smallest village without a restaurant.
Europeans Camping
in Europe
CAMPGROUNDS IN EUROPE
Although generally unknown to most Americans, there are thousands of campgrounds in Europe, located in every country, many situated in a most magnificent location. Well, come to think of it, not every country — while we have spent nights in our RV in 26 European countries, there are no campgrounds in the Vatican, and we had to spend the night in a hotel in Monaco for our 29th Anniversary. We slept in a hotel in Tangiers, Morocco, and Reykjavik, Iceland, and we visited several Mediterranean Islands, Turkey and the Soviet Union while on cruise ships. While our ship was docked at Odessa, Ukraine, we saw a sign, in English, that said “Camping.”
Europeans have taken advantage of these locales in every manner that can be imagined — tents, buses, caravans, RVs, small buildings, motels, and even modified railway cars. Some campgrounds have room for thousands of guests, and we often find restaurants, grocery stores, and a variety of other shops. The largest campgrounds were in Italy. Like a small town with a couple of thousand residents, they even had street names and stop signs. One had a post office, telephone office, an ambulance, and special stores for ice, bread, fish — even an ice cream store that made the ice cream, while we watched.
TENTS
The tents we saw ranged in size from tiny to huge — some had barely room for one person, some held a dozen sleepers, others had multiple rooms for a family. Some people paid for a spot in several campsites before they left home. Their arrangements included a tent already set in place, complete with beds, bedrolls, and cooking equipment. They would drive their car from place to place, but didn’t have to buy the equipment, and didn’t have to spend the time and effort to set up and tear down the tent, then transport things from here to there. But they enjoyed all the advantages of a campground.
SMALL BUILDINGS AND MOTELS
At many campgrounds small trailers or manufactured houses were available for rent. For example, a more-or-less reasonably priced place to sleep at the campsite Paris-Ouest (Paris-West), with three-bedrooms, bath and kitchen, cost about $80 to $90 a night in 1995. For six people, with kitchen, on the Right Bank of the Seine River in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris — perhaps that’s not a bad price. Sometimes a campsite contained a real motel, and sometimes a real motel or hotel included a campground next door. The convenience, the outdoor space often near a lake or river, with a place for children to play — all the splendor of staying in a campground, without the need to own or transport camping equipment.
CARAVANS OR TRAILERS
There were thousands and thousands of caravans (what we call a trailer) in campsites throughout Europe. In a lot of campgrounds we saw from a few to a hundred small, permanently located trailers. Most were likely owned by a family, but many were for rent to passers-by. Very large caravans were pulled by the largest, most expensive automobiles, others were pulled by cars so small it was hard to believe they could do the job. We remember seeing tiny automobiles with the whole family stuffed inside, luggage piled three feet high on the roof, pulling a small caravan. Slowly, but moving. Amazing.
RVS AND CAMPER VANS
Except for VW Camper Vans, an occasional Mercedes Van that had been made into a camper, and a few imported from the US, almost no RV’s could be found in Europe until the mid to late 1980’s. Several times people asked to look inside our 1977 Dodge Cobra Van (1979-80) and later the 1978 Dodge Transvan (1983-85), to see the wonders of a camper Van made in the USA. We remember one RV so small the elderly English couple barely had room to change their mind, others were so large there was a small car in the garage in the back. The car was not towed, there was no trailer (as seen so often in the USA), the car was parked in the garage in the RV.
By the mid 1990’s there were so many campers and RVs in Europe, “No Campers Allowed” and “No Camper Parking” signs were proliferating.
TRAVELING IN A DOUBLE - DECKER LONDON BUS
Many times over the years, in several countries (including behind the Iron Curtain), we’ve seen converted buses that were being used as “home” for a couple dozen travelers. These buses were used as transportation, a restaurant, and the dormitory.
One of the most popular is a company called “Top Deck,” who use old double-decker London buses. These buses had been outfitted with seats, a kitchen, and a toilet downstairs, with bunks (including, we were told one time, a rather secluded “passion pit”) upstairs, as needed to accommodate the group of hardy youths for a tour of Europe. One time we saw a huge, elderly, renovated city-bus from Stockholm that served the same function for a group of Swedish students.
A BUS WITH AN EQUIPMENT TRAILER
At many places (including Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, Paris, Prague, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw, and others) the campground was home to one or more large tourist buses with three or four dozen college-age sightseers. They spent the night in maybe two dozen small tents, but not, we were assured, always in the same tent. The tents from each bus were usually all the same color, and were carefully pitched in straight lines. Sometimes it appeared the members of the tour group would do the work; other times that was the responsibility of a crew of workers.
In addition to the luggage compartment, the bus towed a large trailer that held luggage, tents, bed-mats and bedrolls, and communal meals were prepared in the “walkup” kitchen. A huge door in the back of the trailer swung up for access to the kitchen equipment, tent flaps on each side provided protection from the weather. The cook stood just outside, under the raised door that was now the kitchen “ceiling.” Here again, sometimes the cooking was the responsibility of the campers, other times there was a cook. The tour group used the bus for sightseeing tours during the day, and sightseeing and visits to “nightspots” at night.
A BUS WITH A BEDROOM TRAILER
In France, Poland, Yugoslavia, and in a couple of other countries, we saw a full-size tourist bus with a huge four-wheel trailer that contained a “walkup” kitchen in the rear, with fourteen windows on each of three levels, one or two for each of the “bedrooms” that were claustrophobic, at best. The side of the trailer opposite the windows, could be opened, and was protected by a large half-tent that covered the entrance to the bedrooms, and afforded a little privacy as the sleepers crawled into bed. Most passengers we saw in these buses were not college age, but were older adults, some with young children.
A SMALL BUS AND A TRAILER IN GREECE
In Greece we spent a night near a small passenger bus loaded with nine people from South Africa. Their bus pulled a small house trailer that contained the kitchen and some bunks, others slept in the bus.
To illustrate political hypocrisy, this was in 1989, just before the terrible war among and between this part and that part of Yugoslavia. Since the country of South Africa was guilty of racial discrimination, the Yugoslavs would not issue visas and permit the South Africans to drive across Yugoslavia. They had to sail from Italy to Greece on a ship. (We had arrived in Greece by ship from Italy that year, but we returned to northern Europe, via Yugoslavia. That was a scary drive in mid-1989, past Army bivouacs near Pristina and Skopje. The Yugoslavs were not just discriminating because of racial differences, they were killing because of racial differences.)
CAMPING BUS IN WARSAW
Two different years, in Warsaw, Poland, we talked with college students from Western Europe, who were traveling in a bus with trailer and tents. Both years the group had just returned from a couple of weeks in the Soviet Union (Russia). One year, much to the disgust of some of the other travelers, two “rich” American girls (and a couple of others) had rented rooms that were available in the Warsaw campground, instead of spending the night in a tent. They told us the Americans had continually complained about the living conditions, and the lack of shower facilities and privacy on the bus.
In 1985, while the Iron Curtain still stood, that tour bus had mechanical problems while near Moscow. The repairs took a day or two, and that hang-up resulted in problems with the Soviet government. Some of the travelers feared there might be a shortage of food and money. Government bureaucrats would not extend the visas, and forced them to drive all night to get out of the Soviet Union before their visas expired at midnight. The next day the little Polish towns, the countryside, and the city of Warsaw (all of which looked depressing when compared with Western Europe) looked like Heaven in comparison to the abject poverty in the Soviet Union.
In contrast, now that the Iron Curtain no longer existed, the 1991 group had no problems with the bus, their Visas, or the Government, and their report about Russia — what they saw and how they had been treated — was certainly different from what we had heard from the earlier group.
They told about long lines of people waiting for weeks, hoping to cross the border to Poland. Families in line had little food, primitive sanitation facilities, and slept in their cars, but they hoped to abandon the Soviet system and embrace the Polish system, which would result in an improvement in their standard of living. Polish people we talked to later, told us that the Russian immigrants were excellent, hard workers. Polish wages, that would have been considered minimal in Western Europe, were fortunes to the immigrants. We saw Russians with all their possessions lashed to their small automobiles, driving through Poland, a sight that reminds of pictures of the dust-bowl evacuations of the US midwest, in the 1930’s.
The contrast that made the biggest impression on us was the roadside fruit and vegetable stands between Warsaw and Kraków. In late August 1985 they were cardboard boxes that contained a few pieces of poor quality produce, but in early September 1991 farm wagons were loaded with an excellent harvest. What a difference the downfall of the Berlin Wall made for everyone in that part of the world.
CAMPERS FROM KRAKÓW
In Zagreb, (former) Yugoslavia (in mid-1989) we spent the night next to an old tourist bus with a load of 30 travelers from still-communist Kraków, Poland. This bus pulled no trailer, so all of the tents and equipment were stored in the luggage compartment. The members of the group included a heating and air-conditioning engineer, a member of management of a gasoline company, and two economists who worked for the Government (all were English speaking women). Those were good jobs, but they said their income under the Communist rule did not provide enough money for them to “live-it-up” as they traveled.
There were two people per tent, and they, individually or in small groups, did their own cooking. Most of what they ate had been brought with them from home — it was too costly to buy food as they traveled. Bread was too expensive for their budget, some campers had eaten no fresh bread since they left home a couple of weeks earlier — they had boxes of brown crackers instead. The bread baked and available before breakfast in this campground was both delicious and inexpensive, so we bought bread for us, and for the group. When we visited Kraków (our second visit) a couple of years later, we were sure sorry we had neglected to get the names and addresses of some of these people. We would have liked to discover how they now lived in no-longer Communist Kraków.
ADULTS IN A BUS
Next to us in an Italian campground was a large remodeled bus with 15 to 20 older adults from Germany. The bus was equipped with a seat and a bed for each person, but the beds were in every possible space high and low — certainly no privacy. They had an inside kitchen for cooking their meals, and everyone seemed to have plenty of wine, much of it in paper containers, like a milk carton. A very interesting group to talk with — several spoke English.
LIVING IN RAILROAD CARS
Along the Algarve Coast, in the south of Portugal (and one other place), we saw railroad passenger and freight cars that were permanently located in a campground. Each had been converted into very nice, multiple vacation homes. We were told each “home” was owned and shared by several families, most often from Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany.
CAMPGROUND FACILITIES
Of course none of the tents, and as far as we know, none of the camping buses had shower equipment, but some of the larger caravans and RVs did (three of ours did, and three did not). We don’t remember a campground that did not have toilets, showers, sinks, and a place to wash dishes, and many times cooking facilities were available. Quite often laundry equipment was provided, and ranged from a wash tub and clothes lines with irons and ironing boards, to coin-operated washers and dryers. Some campgrounds even had refrigerators for rent, arranged on a wall like lockers in a train station. We remember refrigerator lockers specifically in Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany, and at Trstenik, (former) Yugoslavia, on the Peljesac Peninsula.
We have met several people in Europe who said they had traveled in a camping bus in the US, but we remember seeing only two of those buses during all of our travel in the US.
CONVOYS OF EUROPEANS IN AMERICA
While they were not using campgrounds, one year in California we met a caravan of a dozen, or more, Fiat automobiles filled with Italians. They had flown from Italy to New York, drove here and there across the United States, ending in California. They parked the cars, then flew home. Then another plane load of Italians flew to California, drove the cars to New York, then flew home. Several tour groups were scheduled to use those same automobiles that summer, one driving west, the next one east, etc. There was a “wagon master,” or tour guide who made the reservations and arrangements, enforced the schedules and kept the group together. We thought it was an excellent idea.
CONVOYS OF AMERICANS IN EUROPE
Two different years we met groups of 10 to 15 American couples who were traveling as a group through Europe. Each couple had a VW Camper Van, and the tour was directed by a “wagon master” who made arrangements for campgrounds each night, gave directions and instructions where to meet the next night, and what to do on the way to that spot. Special restaurant meals, nightclub visits, and tours of museums and other cultural activities were carefully planned and carried out.
In European campgrounds by the hundreds we saw convoys of European caravans under the command of a tour director. Perhaps groups from The Netherlands were seen most often.
Some people like the regimentation of a group, Jim and Emmy are too individualistic, and have actually turned down opportunities to be “wagon masters.”
Shopping Information
FLEA MARKETS, STREET MARKETS
Perhaps the idea of the Marché Aux Puces (Flea Market) started in Paris sometime in the middle ages. A wide assortment of junk dealers and rag pickers presented their goods for sale in an open field near Paris, and we would venture a guess that some of those same “goods” are still for sale. From the looks of things, some of these dealers sell real live “Puces.” Several markets are held on different days of the week in Paris, and cities, towns and villages all over Europe have daily, weekly, monthly, or even annual flea markets, some in conjunction with outdoor food markets, but many are special “celebrations” all their own.
Most towns in Europe have at least one outdoor marketplace, and often more than one. The local “shopping mall” may consist of a caravan of specially constructed trucks and trailers that go from town to town, turning a vacant market square into an enterprising commercial center. Fruits and vegetables, bread and meat, fish and fowl, shoes and dresses, kitchen utensils and stationery, antiques and boutiques, all are available at these market cavalcades. At the end of the market day, after the “stores” have left, a cleaning crew removes all trace of the exciting bustling activity, and the marketplace often reverts to a parking lot or a sidewalk cafe.
SUPERMARKETS, STORES
In Europe, most neighborhood food stores are small, and they do not have a supermarket every few blocks, or even in every town. When you do locate one, many times it will be a really super-sized store. It is not unusual to find thirty to forty check stands, and at one grocery store on the south side of Paris we counted fifty-two cash registers, all busy on the Saturday we visited. One store in southern France had even more.
Where the grocery store is on the second floor, especially designed wheels on the shopping carts permit the shopper to easily maneuver from floor to floor on the specially designed moving sidewalk.
Many times these enormous buildings include restaurants, groceries, furniture, lumber and hardware, auto supplies, and a complete department store. At the entrance you may find several convenience booths and fast food counters, but often it will be one huge store, rather than many different stores as we find in most shopping malls in the US.
Many smaller shops, and especially those in smaller towns, are closed for a couple of hours at mid-day. However, more and more stores are now open all day long, right through the lunch hour, but check the local custom before you schedule your shopping excursion.
SHOPPING MALLS, ARCADES, GALLERIES
Indoor shopping malls are not a recent invention, even though hundreds have been built in the US in the last thirty years. In Paris alone, there are over 300 arcades dating from years ago, which must be considered as early versions of an indoor shopping mall. We don’t know which was the first, but the Gallerias in Milan and in Naples, Burlington Arcade in London, Galeries Hubert in Brussels, and others in Rome and other cities, all predate the modern indoor shopping malls in the United States by perhaps a hundred years or so, and they are certainly more architecturally exciting than any mall built in the US.
Just a few of the shopping malls we have visited would remind you of those in the US, but certainly there is no shortage of products to buy, and places to buy them. You could travel anywhere in Europe with only your wallet (filled, of course) and purchase everything needed to live well. That should not be a surprise, but before leaving on a trip, many tourists fill their suitcase and carry-on bags with everything imaginable. It’s as if they were going on a safari to the middle of a jungle, or to the Sahara Desert, rather than to a continent where millions of people have a very civilized and high standard of living.
SHOPPING FOR GOODIES
We suggest you use your shopping opportunities to buy products you need and will use and enjoy, rather than just buying “tourist gadgets.” If you plan to buy clothes, buy something that you can wear while on the trip, rather than taking everything with you from home. You know the rule: Take half the clothes and twice the money.
When you pack, remember to leave space in your suitcase so you will have room to bring your purchases home with you. As an extreme example, we remember the story of the man who filled his suitcase with clothes from the Salvation Army and the local Goodwill store. When something became dirty, he left it at the hotel and used the resulting space to carry items he wanted to bring home. If you want to try this, you must coordinate your trip and packing very carefully.
MONEY, VISA, MASTER CARD
Rather than carry a lot of cash, or even many traveler’s checks, we use our Visa or Master Card to obtain the local currency at banks in most countries. From Bergen to Barcelona, Venice to Vienna, London to Liechtenstein, and throughout Europe, cash is often available quicker than at home in California where Visa was invented.
ATMs are found in more and more places, but as of 1995 ATMs in some countries accepted our cards, and in other countries they didn’t. In the latter case a visit inside the nearest bank supplied us with cash. Credit cards are usable most everywhere, in gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores, antique stores, and department stores. In recent years, we don’t remember a country that didn’t accept credit cards. They were even accepted in the Crimea and the Ukraine.
LEARNING WHILE SHOPPING
To the traveler, the beautiful little towns and villages, the shopping centers, flea markets, and street markets, are truly living museums. For us, an hour is better spent in a supermarket or a furniture store, than in any nightclub or fancy restaurant.
By browsing in a hardware or department store we learn so much about the people and how they live. Funny thing though, we find Black and Decker, Stanley, and Rockwell tools in the hardware store. Kleenex, Velveeta, and Planter’s Peanuts are available from the US, and Bayer aspirin, Nestle’s chocolate, Shell gasoline, and Michelin tires, are familiar European products sold in both the US and Europe.
A Gift for Travel
Some people are born with a gift to travel, while others acquire their love for travel during a trip they expected might be a chore. Travel-lovers feel the urge to explore — to know what is over the horizon, or just around the corner.
On every street corner and at every turn of a page there are travel agents who will take care of all the details of your trip, or just issue your plane ticket, whichever is best for you. These days, preparing your itinerary is a matter of choosing from a wide range of options before you leave home, or just planning as you go, hour by hour, and day by day.
Before you leave home, write to the tourist offices of the countries you may visit and request brochures and maps of specific places, and information about items of general interest. Your local bookstore has travel books that will tell you what to do, and what to see, and what to buy, and what to eat, and where to stay. After you arrive in their country, the Tourist Information Office in each town will load you down with brochures and detailed maps of every nook and cranny you may wish to visit.
A “pleasure trip” does not mean you will spend all your time on the beach, or in each famous bar and restaurant in the area, or even attending cultural events and every museum listed in the guide book. It can mean visiting the countryside and the market place, exploring towns and cities and talking to cab-drivers, farmers, gardeners, shopkeepers, and your seat mate on the bus or train. There is pleasure in finding yourself in ancient towns and in lovely countrysides, and discovering for yourself the joys of meeting people in their own environment.
Have your purpose, budget, and overall schedule well in mind. Once you decide what it is you want to see and do and what your schedule and budget will permit, don’t make changes without a good reason and then come home disappointed that your initial purpose was forgotten. If your idea of a vacation is to visit Roman ruins, or wander through streets of half-timbered buildings, or just to visit “starred” restaurants, or even lie on the beach, remember, it’s your vacation, do it your way.
Adaptability can make the difference between a pleasant and an unpleasant trip. Sometimes your plans will be changed by factors outside your control. Early closing hours, exhibits and buildings closed for repairs, bank and religious holidays can appear at the most inconvenient time and place, and who knows, it may rain for a week straight.
Intelligent curiosity will lead to the home of a great author or composer or to a scene from a favorite book. It leads to the free band concert in the park, and to the public gardens where the local people gather. Curiosity as to how people live and work is just as intelligent as the curiosity that leads to study of the contents of an art museum, a cathedral, or an archaeological ruin. You come home with a “feel” for the country.
“Breathes there a man with soul so dead … ” that he is not gratified by another’s appreciation of his home, his city, and his country. He may grumble in private over the plumbing, the taxes, and his government, but he loves to have the visitor find his surroundings beautiful and interesting. The architecture, ruins from ancient times, gardens with precision plantings, the natural beauty, art and treasures, all can easily be appreciated. The tourist who comes to “appreciate” will visit and see the beauty, and never notice the negatives seen by the tourist who came to “criticize.”
The good traveler, who will be welcome in any country, is one who travels with a purpose; who can adapt to necessary changes in plans, and to unfamiliar and unexpected conditions; who tries to remain courteous and keep his sense of humor when cold, hungry or tired; who retains an intelligent curiosity in people, places and things; who shows his appreciation for his surroundings; and who is grateful for the good fortune of being able to travel in the first place. In short, he has
A Gift for Travel!
Tidbit by Jim and Emmy HumberdSimilar tidbits in: Book = Invitation to Germany, Travel Tidbits
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