NEWS RILL

Yesterday we spent time in Koln, Germany - a wonderful, quaint town.  Since this was our first day of experiencing some light rain, we decided it would also be a great time to visit our first museum.  Up until now the weather has been way too wonderful to spend any time inside but I have to admit, this museum caught both our attention and our interest.  It was the Chocolate Museum.  Unfortunately, no one in my family either cares much for chocolate or “needs” it.  But, it was still fun to see the process of manufacturing it and tasting a few samples.

This morning we took the rail from Koln to the Frankfurt airport and right now are spending some time in the Admirals Club before our flight takes off in a couple of hours.  It has been a fantastic trip and thanks again to Stan Moser, we have enjoyed traveling first class, including the amenities of the Admirals Club.

For those of you planning a trip to Europe, I do have some recommendations: 

1) Take a wash cloth.  For some reason I’ve yet to discover, they don’t use them over here.

2) Plan time in Grindelwald, Switzerland.  It is an awesome place, especially if you enjoy the mountains and like to hike. 

3) Leave the traveler’s checks in America!  They are not user friendly over here as Sue discovered - contrary to the advise of her AAA agent who told her she would find an Am Exp bank on every corner.  Just not so althought I do believe she saw one place in the 14 day trip that did accept them. 

4) Euros and a credit card are all you need!  Based on some good advise from some friends and also supported by what I read, I took twice the amount of money I had planned, which really came in handy when the Am Exp traveler’s checks did not work well for Sue. 

5) Pack lightly.  That was the second best advise I received and a great decision on my part to follow.  Believe it or not I took only one small suitcase and a backpack on rollers. 

6) Oh, you know those converters you can purchase for around $20 so you can use your blow dryer and curling iron, forget it.  I purchased one but then got over here only to discover that the sockets all have a round covers in them so the only thing that worked were those pieces of equipment that are already wired for 220v and then all you need to make sure of is that you have a plug.  For me that was the charger for the camera battery.  By the way, I loved the camera I had to use while over here - Thanks, Brigette!  I owe you one for that.  Now, for those of you who might wonder what on earth I did without a blow dryer or curling iron, well, all I can say is that it was good to stay with Martha periodically while we were over here and that the 4 star hotels all had blow dryers, too, which was a huge help.  I survived and so would you!  A trip to Europe is well worth any small inconvenience you might have with the few things we Americans are use to having.

7)  We used the 8-day rail pass and loved it.  You can get either a 3-day, 5-day pass - whatever but we found it a great way to travel Europe.  In addition, the subway systems and rails are fairly easy to figure out and once you do, it’s no problem at all to find your way around. 

8)  Also, the Swiss pass sounds like a great deal when visiting Switzerland.  We didn’t get this but it would have probably well paid of itself.

Well, I’m heading back to enjoy the snacks and beverages in the Admirals Club before we head to the plane.  : ) 

Auf Wiedersien.

Bobbie & Sue

 

Tags: Travel //