Travel Thread

ColoCowboy said:

Too bad about Edinburgh. We really enjoyed our time there... I suppose it helps having friends serve as your personal tour guides.

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Things are turning around. I tried this beer Innis & Gunn matured in a single malt cask, Awesome! I’m thinking I was just exhausted earlier only 4 hours sleep last night, early train from Inverness to Edinburgh. I’m at the Sheraton in Edinburgh. I just went out in front for some fresh air and 2 guys dressed in Scottish attire are playing bag pipes every few minutes.

What I like about the UK is tax is already included in the price shown.

Tomorrow train Edinburgh to London. Some of my tours in London got canceled because low tourism atm. I got pretty good itinerary though. Got 1 hour tour in Buckingham Palace state rooms, 1 hour tour at Parliament. Eye, Tower, natural museum, Churchill war rooms, night bus tour. Stonehenge, Bath. St Paul’s, Freemason Grand Hall, Soho and other sites on foot. Oxford Cambridge Dover Warwick canceled . I got the 19th open atm gonna do one of those I’m missing.

Sarek said:

Tomorrow train Edinburgh to London. Some of my tours in London got canceled because low tourism atm. I got pretty good itinerary though. Got 1 hour tour in Buckingham Palace state rooms, 1 hour tour at Parliament. Eye, Tower, natural museum, Churchill war rooms, night bus tour. Stonehenge, Bath. St Paul’s, Freemason Grand Hall, Soho and other sites on foot. Oxford Cambridge Dover Warwick canceled . I got the 19th open atm gonna do one of those I’m missing.

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May want to add Windsor Castle to your list and, if you have time for an out-of-town trip, head to Bath.

ColoCowboy said:

May want to add Windsor Castle to your list and, if you have time for an out-of-town trip, head to Bath.

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Got Bath with Stonehenge same day tour. Ya had Windsor with Oxford or Dover tour, both those got canceled. I want to stay a few more days but also wanna be home for Holidays. Will decide later.

Highlands --- B+....Isle of Sky is a must. Picked up a bottle of 26 year old GlenFiddich at the distillery. They let me sample some before i bought it, off the charts.
Edinburgh --- B-....Rosslyn Chapel and Hadrian's Wall was best tour from Edinburgh.

London --- Was exhausted by the time i got there. Need to go to London fresh. Tube is nasty and i would advise spending the extra cash on Taxi if possible.

Overall great trip and happy to be back stateside in time for Christmas!

A SB win would be a great way to top it all off!

Update my own thread

Heidelberg, Germany: We spent Thanksgiving week here to see the Christmas markets. Luckily we got in and out before the shutdowns. What a beautiful town with its castle overlooking from above. On a River, a University town and just overall charming. Easy drive after flying into Frankfurt. I highly recommend doing Christmas markets/ice skating in Germany for a bucket list event. My OP mentioned my love of the Mosel/Rhine River valleys and this trip made me appreciate Germany even more

Oahu North Shore: Just got back from this day before Christmas. This was our 6th Hawaii adventure and again, in my OP, I mention my love for Maui. We’ve been to Oahu but just stayed on Waikiki. This time we drove an hour and stayed on the North Shore snd loved it! A completely different experience. We went to many surfing beaches to watch and some with less pounding surf to play in. Loved the town Haleawi and swam and golfed at Turtle Bay resort. Word to the wise: We decided, along with a BIL and his family to skip the resorts and stay at Courtyard Marriot. They were great but the town it was in Laie, is the only dry town in all the islands. Cute downtown with Christmas stuff we walked to but no drinks. The Mormons bought the town decades ago and have a BYU campus there. Beautiful temple too. Great location to explore but those 3 miles are dry. There was a grocery store 4 min away though that sold. Just a travel heads up if you imbibe. Overall Oahu doesn’t get enough credit. We drive a lot our last day taking in so many breathtaking views. Highly recommend North Shore for the true Hawaiian surf feel

Sarek said:

Highlands --- B+....Isle of Sky is a must. Picked up a bottle of 26 year old GlenFiddich at the distillery. They let me sample some before i bought it, off the charts.
Edinburgh --- B-....Rosslyn Chapel and Hadrian's Wall was best tour from Edinburgh.

London --- Was exhausted by the time i got there. Need to go to London fresh. Tube is nasty and i would advise spending the extra cash on Taxi if possible.

Overall great trip and happy to be back stateside in time for Christmas!

A SB win would be a great way to top it all off!

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Glad you enjoyed Scotland! Out of all the stuff I’ve talked about in here it is an area I have not hit and really need to!

I’ve only been in London once..right before pandemic and even knowing what Covid was. I was with wife, kids and mother in law. Really enjoyed it and had a blast. Loved the Covington Garden area. Train to Windsor was great too. It was January and the cool weather fit the scene.

In Spain right now. About to hit Week 2. Week 1 ..or 8 days…we started in Segovia, then Toledo, Teruel, Tarragona and now Begur on Costa Brava. Beautiful here right on coast and swimming in Med. We are here until mid week and then Barcelona to end. I’ve been to Segovia and highly recommend recommend it Teruel is a gem in the hills. Our plan was a couple of nights in each until here but we had a hiccup after Turuel where we had one night there and one night in Tarragona..which was supposed to be 2. Drives have been beautiful so not a big deal. Today we will explore some hidden beaches for Fathers Day

Temperatures are cooking in Spain Italy and pretty much anywhere south of the alps.

I started in Amsterdam 2 nights, train to Berlin 4 nights, train to Vienna 7 nights this is my last day in Vienna, flight tomorrow to Paris for final week. Flying back to NY on June 28th.

Too many tourists in Europe during summer months. I Enjoy Europe more in fall/early winter. Love Italy in December.

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

I can’t believe it. Paris is filthy, full of trash and some nasty smells. The city center by Notre Dame, The louvre, etc is good, but walk one mile from there in any direction and it’s overwhelmingly dirty and smelly…….Don’t come here in summer.

I was in Budapest for a day and before I went there I thought it was going to be shady or bad in some way, but it was really nice compared to Paris.

Paris needs a serious DPW with real funding!

Sarek said:

Temperatures are cooking in Spain Italy and pretty much anywhere south of the alps.

I started in Amsterdam 2 nights, train to Berlin 4 nights, train to Vienna 7 nights this is my last day in Vienna, flight tomorrow to Paris for final week. Flying back to NY on June 28th.

Too many tourists in Europe during summer months. I Enjoy Europe more in fall/early winter. Love Italy in December.

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

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We’ve had what I’ve considered really great weather these 2 weeks in Spain…sun and breezy …ending in Barcelona now. However in Toledo last week it was 109 and 107 our 2 days. Then it dropped so unlucky but luckily a lot of what you do there is in cathedrals