Whine & Cheese

Hotel Endorsements

As mentioned, I was very pleased with our Europe hotel choices.  We did a fair amount of research, but it is still pretty difficult to feel like you made a good choice when you are traveling to someplace you've never been before.   

We had a lot of lodging choices to choose from via the website we used to book the trip - European Destinations - which I would also very highly recommend -- not one issue with any of our plane, train, or hotel reservations -- and it was completely self-book, we never talked to a person during the entire process (loved that!).  To narrow our choices, we looked at their internal rankings (i.e. a hotel was ranked 40 of 378) and tried to find a good value price-wise.  We were basically looking for a place to sleep, so we looked for something in mid-price range.  The Trip Advisor website was also very helpful having those same type of rankings as well as people's reviews... keeping in mind that they'll always be a Mr./Ms. Crankypants who will say it was the worst place they ever stayed.

Here's a quick look, from left to right, of our London, Paris, and Amsterdam hotels... 

Holiday Inn Kensington Forum - I was kind of iffy going with a so blatantly American hotel chain for our first leg... but then again, it was nice to be going into some familiar territory for my first dip across the pond.  As you can see, it was a quite large high-rise hotel.  Todd warned me that European hotel rooms tend to be small... but I have to say I was still surprised with the "coziness" of our room.  It was kind of challenging to figure out where to put our suitcases ... and the both of us couldn't walk (or stand) side by side at any point in the room!   It was actually quite humorous... and again, we were looking for a place to sleep, so it wasn't an issue that the bed did take up about 70% of the room.

Of the three cities, this hotel was the furthest away from the action... as the name tells you in the Kensington neighborhood... so you didn't walk out the door get tha big "Ta-da!  I'm in London" moment.  But it was just a very short two-block walk to the Gloucester Road Underground station -- which was hooked up to 3 tube lines.  So getting pretty much anywhere was never an issue... and we were also able to take the Underground directly from Heathrow... so didn't have to fork over hefty cash for a cab or track down some sort of shuttle.  There were also a lot of restaurants in the area and the always handy local grocery.

Hotel Royal Magda - Our Paris hotel by far was the least corporate of the bunch ... a boutique hotel with only 37 rooms... it had this wonderful stone spiral staircase to get up to your rooms... thankfully we were only on the 2nd floor, but after a day of pounding the Paris pavement the short climb still provided an end of the day physical challenge!   They did have a "lift"... and it was quite funny... as pictured above, it fit just the two people... though with luggage we had to go up one at a time!   And wasn't I lucky to catch Roger Federer in the elevator even a week before the French Open!  Haha!

Again, the room was quite small... though slightly more floor space than London... and I could not hold out my arms at length in the bathroom.  But again, how much time do you really spend in your hotel room?!?  The big selling point again here was location, location, location -- two blocks from the Charles de Gaulle Etoile Metro station (connected to 6 lines!) at the Arc de Triomphe... so just a short walk to the famed Champs de Elysees as well.  Took us about a half-hour to walk to Trocadero/Eiffel Tower area... though a Metro ride will get you over to the same spot even quicker.

Golden Tulip - I was very disappointed when it got time to book our trip and our first choice Amsterdam hotel was no longer available.  So we had to do some scrambling to figure out an alternative.   Little did I know at the time what a "happy accident" this was -- the Golden Tulip was in a far, far better location than our first choice -- near lots of food, shopping, and tourist spots.  Granted we weren't on a canal... but it's not like you don't see enough of those after a couple of days... though we were a bit off a street too in a bit of a pedestrian-only plaza... and walkable to our arrival/departure point of Centraal Station.

Here the room size was finally something equivalent to what you would see here in the States... and our only hotel that provided free wireless Internet (we purchased a day's worth of wired in London and "borrowed" some free WiFi in Paris).

The Money Shot

Kind of torn between alienating boring you with more travel stories... and still kinda sorta getting back into the routine of normal life here... so don't have much for you today!

Slowly but surely, I am making progress in uploading the Europe vacation pix.  Still have a good chunk of  Paris pix left (when we up the Eiffel)... though I might be slowed down for the next few days with some semi-rush work that just came in... but still uploading in dribs and drabs.

Before the trip, I read up how to do some night photograph and was determined to get some good shots.  Without a tripod (which I may consider packing the next time around), it is a bit challenging... but fortunately I was able to find some places to rest my camera to prevent the dreaded camera shake that needs to be avoided at all cost due to the longer exposure time.

I just uploaded what I think is the "money shot" from the entire trip. 

I was very pleased with this one.

Idol & DWTS Finales

Over the holiday weekend and right up to last night, we were catching up on the finales of American Idol and Dancing With The Stars... though we both knew the outcome of both reality competition shows.

Since we were cyber-ly connected during our trip, it didn't take all that much effort to find the results.  We could have stayed unspoiled, these items aren't exactly "news" in Europe... but having the option of finding out the results proved to be too much of a temptation.

It was nice to see that Kristi and Mark win DWTS.  Really no surprise, but arguably the best team often does not win the celeb dance-fest... but usually it is the most likable team... and the good news for Kristi was that she was the best and that perfect mix of humble and nice. 

Once again, I did a pretty good job of picking the finalists based on only one performance... with Jason and Edyta proving my theory that NFL players always seem to go deep in the competition.  My one miss (and there's always one!) was Marissa and Tony.  But given Marissa's tough start and multiple appearances in the bottom group, I am surprised she stuck around as long as I did.  I figured her contagious personality and "win one for the big girls" would serve her well... and it did, though she did morph into the loony, crazed, "I LOOOOVE this show" contestant this season.  My one miss was Cristian and Cheryl.  Despite his good looks and lack of shirt buttons, I didn't think he was well-known enough to go far... and I suspect if he had not got injured, he probably would have exited a tad earlier.  That said, I think it was probably the smartest career move he's ever made to appear on the show, I suspect we'll be seeing more of him.

In the battle of the Davids on Idol, I was very much surprised that Cook pulled out the victory.  While he was my preference, if past seasons were any indication it should have been the veritable knockout that Simon called for Archuleta.  I suspect the Daughtry factor may have been come into play... with the lesson learned and/or buyer's remorse of advancing champ Taylor Hicks and runner-up Kat McPhee in Season 5.   Also, "Archie" had a similar fanbase/frenzy as Season 2's Clay Aiken... and Ruben won... though I am guessing Cook is hoping for a higher career trajectory than the Velvet Teddybear.   Likewise, there was buzz that the "cougar vote" (Todd's mom -- in a homage to my mom -- comically dubbed it the "coyote vote") put Cook over the top.  So who knows, but it doesn't matter all that much... it seems like most of the top contestants end up doing pretty well for themselves no matter where they finished in the bunch.

Random Europe Thoughts

I am having a difficult time organizing my thoughts about the Europe trip, so I just do a sort of stream of consciousness / random observation post for now about our experiences in London, Paris, and Amsterdam...

General Thoughts:  Pretty much needless to say, all three cities were very international... just like America, very much a melting pot.  Paris was the most nationalistic, despite varied ethnicities - everything and everyone seemed quite French ... were there was more a retention of cultures in the other cities. 

Language:  Obviously not an issue in London, but we ran into little or no problems in the other two cities... and Amsterdam was very much English speaking.  Though despite the reputation, we had little communication problems in Paris.  We would attempt what little "greeting" French we knew, only to have English be spoken back to us pretty much 95%+ of the time... and none of that rumored French uppity attitude either.  Very impressed with all the multi-lingual-ism... again particularly in Paris, but also in Amsterdam... while I don't think we we're ever greeted with Dutch, it was clear that most people were fluent in at least two languages.

Money:  As expected, the exchange rate pretty much sucked.  Going in we tried to avoid "doing the math," but it was hard not to think that the prices you were seeing were either 2x (British Pound) or 1.5x (Euro) of the U.S. dollar.  If the exchange ratio was 1-to-1, it wouldn't have really seemed all that bad.  What was hard to get used to was $-oriented coins... the $5 equivalent was the smallest paper bill so when you had a pocketful of coins it was often difficult and confusing to figure out what was what with $ and cent coins all mixed together.  But no problem for the locals.  I had an experience where a helpful cashier in Amsterdam was able to quickly pull coins out of my palm to figure it all out.

Tourist Scams:  We read about some tourist-directed scams prior to our trip, but came across a "new" one... but only experienced it in Paris.  The first one and the one we knew about occurred the moment we exited the train station in Paris.  The correct answer to the question "Do you speak English?" is "No"... though ironically, even in this white lie you are letting on that you understood the question.  What is going on here is if you say "yes," the person will hold up some sob story and try to get some sympathy money.  We also saw this around the Eiffel Tower.  Though we did feel guilty a time or two, when we did run into people who were we believe legitimately looking for English assistance.

The second one is the "gold ring" scam.  While on our way to the Louvre, I was taking pictures (shocker, huh?!) at the Place de la Concorde and saw Todd talking to a woman who "found" a gold ring on the ground.  Before it got too far into the conversation, another woman came up to Todd and this woman and started yelling at her "pickpocket, pickpocket!"... while a bit jarring at first, it was pretty nice of her, so we backed away quickly.  Funny enough (or not!), the same exact woman tried to pull it on me just an hour or so later at a different location on our way from the Louvre to Notre Dame.  We also observed this going on around the Eiffel Tower (both a woman and a younger boy).  We googled it last night... and while it is not a pickpocket/distraction scam per se... it is more an attempt to try to get $$ from you once you accept the ring.  Fortunately, we didn't see anyone falling for it... perhaps like us, people had experienced it multiple times... likewise, we questioned its effectiveness... we understand the distraction to pickpocket vs. just an attempt at begging or extortion.

Train Travel:  We thoroughly enjoyed our inter-Europe travel via high-speed train... what an extremely civilized way to travel vs. airlines!   We did first class upgrades for both our train trips, but unlike planes the extra cost is not an astronomical amount.  Roomy seating, attentive food and beverage service, not feeling like you are being herded like cattle or picked over by security... it was darn relaxing!  Plus nary a child/baby (obnoxious or not) in sight and much more scenic!   

Public Transportation:  While those who use it everyday probably view it as a necessary evil and annoyance (particularly when tourists are involved), we loved and heavily utilized the metro systems in both London and Paris (didn't use any in the very walkable Amsterdam).  While we still did an insane amount of walking each day (no wonder and overweight European city dweller is a rare sight!), but the trains were a very extremely effective way to get to all the major (and minor) points in the city... and relatively inexpensive using a 3-day pass (London) or bulk discount package (10 tickets for $1 Euro a ride in Paris).  While we particularly lucked into it, when making a hotel selection a nearby Metro stop should be a top consideration... and if you can find a multi-line station even better... we were two blocks away from one in both London (connected to 3 lines and got us directly in from Heathrow) and Paris (6 lines!) and it was wonderful!

Looking American:  Before our trip, in his international travel experiences Todd suggested I ditch the white sneakers in that it pretty much a red flag that you were American.   While I still went the sneaker route, I did find that two pairs of Skechers that gave the comfort of a sneaker but didn't look like it.  I was interested to see if he was right... and sure enough he was... while white sneaks were on locals, they were minimal and it was the Americans were predominantly wearing them.  Now, it is not like I was ashamed to be from America and we didn't run into any anti-American sentiment (though there were certainly lots of humorous anti-Bush paraphernalia in gift shops and the such), but it was nice to blend in and not be pegged as a foreigner, or more specifically an American, until I had to open up my mouth. 

Well, that's probably enough rambling for now... hope you enjoyed reading some of my initial thoughts, there will certainly be more tales from Europe coming up...

London Pix Uploaded

It took about 4-5 hours (or more!) and over two days, but all my London pix are uploaded to Flickr!

Well, not all of them... 109 of them... which I know sounds like an awful lot, but considering I whittled that down from 393 photos, I think I did a pretty good job!

Next, it's on to the Paris and Amsterdam pix... but since I am going to have to do some "real work" starting tomorrow, it might take a bit longer to get all those done.  But you can keep checking my progress here...

Here's a direct link to our London set of pictures.

I hope you like them!

Back Home

Howdy everyone!   We made it back home last night (after 23 hours!) and had a great time in Europe.  For my first trip to Europe, it was a great sampler of three of its finest cities - London, Paris, and Amsterdam - and I would certainly love to go back to each of them.

My new camera also got quite a work out!   Ended up just shy of filling up my 4 gig memory card and the final tally ended up being 1,100 photos!   Though there was a good deal of experimenting that included a few dozen photos that didn't quite turn out, so I'll be working on getting those up in Flickr over the next few days or so.

Here are the highlights of what we saw...

London:  Kensington Palace, Hyde Park, Tower of London (just the outside), Tower Bridge, Millennium Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, Tralfagar Square, Picadilly Circus, London Eye, Parliament/Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Churchill Cabinet War Rooms.

Paris: Arc de Triomphe, Trocadero, Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, Place de le Concorde, Jardin de Tulleries, Louvre (just the outside), Notre Dame, Pantheon, Hotel des Invalides/Napolean's Tomb, Musee Rodin Garden.

Amsterdam: Dam Square, Anne Frankhuis, Hollandsche Schouwburg (Jewish Holocaust memorial), Red Light District.

... and lots more... interesting little streets, monument, statues... so will be touting the pictures as they get posted... stay tuned for a lot more!

Whine & Cheese On Vacation

I am pretty much is scurry around mode today, so I'll just make this the official "CYA!" post. 

Not sure if it's an omen or not, but have not readied anything to post blog-wise while I'm away... nor do I plan on blogging during our trip (tho depending on access, you may see something... but don't bet on it!)... so it will be a vacation for both myself and my readers... we'll see how much truth there is in that whole "absence makes the heart grow fonder" thingy.

But (you knew that was coming!), and again depending on access, I do plan on twittering / tweeting to let you know where we are or what we're doing.  I've expanded my twitter list from its normal 2 entries to 5, just in case there's some fast turnover.  If you feel like commenting on those, please feel free to do it on this post... always enjoy hearing from you!

Otherwise, W&C will be back to business after the Memorial Day weekend... and we'll have a lot of catching up to do with all the trip news as we'll having a new DWTS champ and American Idol!

Cheerio!  Au Revoir!  Vaarwel!

Our London Forecast

Ah, London!   Now this is what's always scared me about trying to get Wimbledon tickets for one specific day... rain, rain, rain!   

Needless to say, we're leaving early Sunday morning...  but hopefully that bodes well weather-wise for our next stop a bit further East and South... and quick check... it does!   A bit dicey on Sunday, but partly cloudy for the next 3 days with temps in the upper 60s... that is, if you want to believe days 8 thu 10 on a 10-day forecast!

New Lens Fun

We're getting down to our final hours/day(s) before our trip, I think beside the packing (or more accurately deciding what needs to be packed), we're in pretty decent shape.  It's time to start letting go of the pre-vacation frenzy and start just letting it happen... it's not like we're going away from civilization (in fact, just the opposite), so if there's anything we need (other than being conversation in French!) we should be okay.

One of my impulsive decisions last week was to get a new lens for my camera.  The one that came with it is fine, but having researched and learned more about the "bells and whistles" of my camera, I made a quick decision to get a better lens.   These video workshops have been extremely helpful to me (and it was also very nice that the camera used in these tutorials was mine... or close enough).

I won't embarrass myself about why this new lens is better ... still working my way around all the lingo... but it's an EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens... the key being the f/1.4.  I get all giddy about depth of field shots, and the f/1.4 will allow me to do that... and should also be quite helpful with night photography (though since I'm not lugging a tripod, I'm hoping for conveniently placed walls, ledges, stationary objects that will allow me these shots that won't work being handheld due to camera shake... and believe me, I can shake even on a good day).

I played around with the DOF a bit over the weekend and here are some shots w/ the new lens.

In the above picture, I focused in on the clay cat... and purposely left some "clutter" behind it so that I could test blurring it out.  With the f/1.4 the focus is so much on the cat's face that even it's back lets and tale are slightly out of focus... pretty nifty.

The next shot, I did the opposite...

Focusing on the green "thumbs up" button on the TiVo remote... this time, I had to learn how to change which of the 9 focal points thru the lens I wanted to be used.... and got a pretty dramatic DOF both in the background and the foreground.  I impressed myself!

The challenge will be to remember how to do all this stuff while I am out and about... and also not screw up shots by keeping some of these settings on when it comes to subsequent shots!  These shots are sort of semi-automatic... with me making some decisions and the camera doing the rest. 

Travel Document Fun

I've been around the blogosphere long enough to know that vacation posts are a dicey proposition.  As I "tweeted" earlier this morning, there is a fine line between being excited about a trip and sounding obnoxious about it.   I see it as an information exchange... it's been cool to be able to ask others about their trips and also be asked about places we've traveled... and I certainly enjoy reading about and seeing pix from other folk's travels. So depending on which camp your in... either apologies and move on... or enjoy!

In looking at our travel documents (yet again) this morning, I was amused by some of what I read.  In our ticket holder/travel wallet there was a fun list of Some Activities To Consider During Your Travels Through Europe, here are some that we might consider (or not!):

Make gargoyle faces
Pretend to understand a language
Take soccer too seriously
Miss your stop on purpose
Give every fellow passenger a nickname
Buy touristy things
Sound French
Invent blisterless wooden clogs
Drink wine
Read the inside of a ticket holder
Wake up not knowing what country your in
Stand in awe
Get lost

And this some info that was in our train-related wallet:

You need to check in at least 30 minutes before your train's departure.  This will give you plenty of time to go through passport control and the security screening as well as have time to grab a capppuccino and a pastry.

You must register licensed firearms and all oversized or heavy luggage items such as bicycles or large musical instruments. (If you're a cycling cellist, you will need to use this service.)

We are sorry but no animals, except for seeing eye guide dogs, are allowed on Eurostar trains, however small and friendly.

If you love your bag you'll use a tag.  You need to label all your luggage before you board - it's a security thing.

While it seems the actual traveling part of traveling is not so much fun these days, at least this humor gets us off to a good start.