Intro
Welcome to my blog about our 2014 trip
to Spain, Portugal, Catalonia, and New York.
This trip had us visiting Madrid, Spain; Lisbon, Portugal; Barcelona, Catalonia and New York City over a 10 day period.
I've decided to make it all just one post this time in order to keep it chronological.
Google does a storybook automatically for a person's trips. If you want to just see some picture highlights you can take a look at it here. I couldn't get it to work on Chrome for Mac but it seems to work in every other platform.
Just some quick pointers to mention about international travel.
When trying to get a good price there are just
a few rules we have picked up.
The first
and most important is to be flexible.
The second is to monitor twitter for any specials.
Specifically www.airfarewatchdog.com.
Lastly, what we like to call the “21 day
rule” which is prices for most flights will generally stay steady until 21 days
before the scheduled flight, doesn’t always apply for international
flights.
What we have noticed over the
past few months is that the closer you wait to book your flight the cheaper it
is.
Unfortunately we had a fixed schedule
due to Chin’s residency dates and because of this we ended up booking with
miles on Delta.
Lets start off with some numbers.
- Our trip started on Friday, July 18th and ended on Monday, July 28th
- We walked 87.2 miles
- We went on a 4 hour bike ride tour through Madrid
- We flew 11,836 miles
- We brought back 7 bottles of wine (would have been 8, but I broke one bottle in NYC), 16 packages of coffee brought back (none over
2€), and 18 boxes of truffles.
- We watched 12 movies on the plane rides
Here are some “guidelines” that we use when we travel
- Pick out just a couple things for a must see
list (usually 3 tops) and then just explore
- Make sure there is public transportation near
the hotel
- Pick up a free map at the airport before you start your journey. Make sure you understand where you are and where you are trying to go next
- You may have to pay to use the WC (i.e. bathroom), so keep small change handy
- Write down your hotel itineraries, hotel addresses, hotel phone numbers, and flight information. Store this information in a place that you can access without internet. Also, share the information with someone in the states, for safety reasons.
- Pick up a language guide and try to learn to say a few phrases. This goes a long way with the people of the country you are visiting. Trust me. Chin tries to learn a couple of words and practices. Her favorite phrases are "how are you", "thank you", "good morning, afternoon, evening", and "bathroom".
- No need to take cabs. Check out public transportation (i.e. buses, trains, subways)
- Skip 99.9% of everything that requires an
entrance fee –yes, there are lots of free museums and
cathedrals/churches/basilicas as they don’t charge (exception is La Familia
because it is private)
- Pick hotels outside the tourist area to save
money. Your business districts will have
high end hotels (i.e. Hilton, IHG, Starwood, etc.) with low rates. Also, these high end hotels may offer breakfast and a dinner appetizer with beverages and free internet - this saves you money.
- If you see a heavily tourist area DO NOT EAT THERE. The food will be overpriced and
usually frozen in order to serve the large amounts of tourists
- Get you phone unlocked so that you can use an international SIM card.
- Pick up SIM cards when traveling. Never know when you will be in an emergency
- Most important, stay attentive at all
times. There are lots of professional
pickpockets out there.
Day 1 & 2 Friday and Saturday
We left sunny St Thomas on a Friday and took a roughly 4
hour flight to JFK where we then headed on to Barcelona. I believe it was a 7 hr flight from JFK to
BCN. This was on Delta. Last year we had a small 757 plane. This year we had a very new Airbus
A330.
It was a much better experience except for the fact that this was the 2nd
year in a row where neither Chin or I could sleep on the plane. It was an overnight flight so it would have
been nice to get some sleep. Delta has
also stepped up their complementary items by offering sleeping kits, nicer
headsets and full bottles of water on top of the previous complementary items. When we landed in Barcelona it was still the
morning. I think it took us maybe 30
minutes to clear customs. Very simple
process. After we cleared customs (no
checked bags) our mission was to find an ATM and then find the train station. Using an ATM to take out money is cheaper
than going to a currency counter. You’re
most likely still paying a foreign transaction fee but it is still cheaper than
the exchange rates offered by the currency counters.
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| A view of Spain from the train |
Objective 1: Find an ATM.
We did find one but the first one we found didn’t work.
Not because it was broken but because the
United States is years behind the curve once again.
Our debit and credit cards are not “Pin and
Chip”.
I can think of at least a dozen
instances on this trip alone where our cards would not work.
You see, the rest of the modern world uses a
computer chip inside their cards which then gets inserted into a machine where
you then enter your PIN.
Our cards just
come with magnetic strips.
Quite often
we are able to get our debit cards to work with our PIN number but the credit
card rarely worked.
We are rectifying
this for our next trip by getting pin and chip credit cards and with no foreign
transaction fees.
Objective 2: Find the train station. We learned a great deal of patience last year
on trying to figure out the transportation systems. Well, we DID learn a great deal of patience
until we got to New York. We ended up
asking for help but we had to take a bus to a different terminal where we were
able to walk to the train station. Our
itinerary was to fly into Barcelona then head to Madrid for a day then to
Lisbon and then back to Barcelona for Chin’s residency. Doing a round trip is much cheaper than 2 one
way international flights. Getting a
ticket and taking the correct train was very simple. It was a slow train but it did get us to the
central train station so that we could take a train to Madrid a few hours
away. I wanted to see some of the
countryside but our time was limited. We
thought this would be the best way to do that.
We couldn’t really do a train between Madrid and Lisbon because it was 8
hrs one way and after experiencing numerous delays and broken trains we wanted
to make sure we weren’t late in getting back to Barcelona.
Also, due to the lack of train rides I have had to write
these posts after our trip and not just the next day due to the lack of time.
We were a little confused on how to buy the train tickets at
the train station (name of station: Barcelona Sants) due to separate sections
and machines. Eventually we figured it
out and got on a train. It was easy to
figure out which train to get on and which track it was on. The train was clean and pretty
comfortable. We bought the cheapest
tickets available. The most interesting
aspect of the train ride for me was how the landscape was very manicured. You
could see hundreds of acres of fields but they were all sprinkled with random
patches of trees. Like the patches were
there to stop erosion. We also were
impressed with all the windmills. There
was both vineyards and olive trees and plenty of hay fields. The vegetation was rarely tall and it had
many rolling hills with the mountains in the background. Little hamlets abound; each one having a very
large and old church in the middle of it.
The best comparison that I can think of is Hill Country in Texas. Especially when you get close to Fredericksted.
Upon arriving in Madrid we had no issues getting from the
train station to the airport (via another train). At the Madrid airport we picked up local sim
cards. Again, another instance where we
are behind the times. We payed 10 Euros
for each sim card. 7.50 of it went to
3000 minutes and 1 GB of data for 30 days.
The remainder 2.50 went as credit that we used when we called overseas
or in roaming. That’s less than $15
after the currency conversion plus remember that all incoming texts and phone
calls are free in the rest of the world.
Our lack of competition or regulation (see: European roaming rates) does
not exist. Let me also say that my 3G
data worked better and faster than our usual Sprint and AT&T service. You know what else is crazy? The sim cards worked in all 3 metro
systems! Can’t say the same thing about
NY, Chicago or Atlanta.
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| The restaurant were we had dinner at |
We stayed at a Hilton near the airport. After receiving a suggestion from the front
desk we went for a late dinner at a restaurant not far from the stadium. Affordable tapas and we even got a whole
bottle of wine for 12€. Can’t go wrong
with that! Only disappointing part was
we needed to be back to the airport by midnight to catch the last pickup to our
hotel. We just missed it and had to pay
a cab. We also had to show him the card
for the Hilton because we couldn’t understand a word he was saying.
Day 3 – Sunday in Madrid
This was the day that Chin was most looking forward to.
This was the day that she wanted to do a bike
tour of a city.
In this case it was
Madrid.
We had read that Spain loves to
party and that most people will be partying till 5 and 6 Sunday morning.
That’s definitely a true statement.
We started a bike tour in downtown Madrid at
a little after 10 am and the streets were dead.
There was just 4 of us plus the guide.
The guide was originally from Belgium.
The other two bikers were from India.
I think they were brother and sister as he lived in Bombay and she was
going to school in London.
I only
mention this fact because she had a difficult time riding her bike and in fact
crashed it in the first 5 minutes into a cement wall and wiped out.
There were other head-scratching moments like
the brother cutting us off where I would have to hit the breaks to avoid
slamming into him, picking basil and oranges out of private garden, to her
freaking out an oncoming bicyclist she nearly hit, and her trying to ride her bike with her kickstand down.
Let’s not let those weird moments take away from the amazing
bicycling tour that we had. From 10 am
to 1 pm we got to see almost every important site. The bike tour only cost us 30 euros a piece, which included a drink a tapas. I have a map of the route that I will upload
as well. During that time we also
stopped for tapas and drinks and he showed us “the greatest Mercado EVER!”
Probably not the greatest but we went back to it twice for lunch and
dinner. It was so busy you could barely
move around in it. I could ramble on
about all the old statues and buildings that we saw and their park that was
bigger than Central Park in NYC but I want to just mention the 2 weirdest things
we came across.
The first one is these fish that were in a pond in this
park. They had humps on them, maybe
under a foot in length and it looked like they had lesions all over them. They were so many of them it looked like you
could walk on top of them. The tour
guide nicknamed the Cheetos fish because people would feed them Cheetos all the
time. Sure enough, 15 feet down there is
a kid feeding the fish Cheetos. Most
disgusting fish I have ever seen. I
didn’t even take a picture but I bet google has one.
The second weird thing was the guide showed us 2 statues of
Satan. The extremely catholic city has 2
statues of The Fallen Angel. Here is an
excerpt from this site:
Built in 1877 by Spanish sculptor Ricardo Bellver, The Fallen
Angel is one of the most controversial monuments in Spain and arguably, the
only public statue in the world dedicated to the devil himself. Inspired by
John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost, the remarkable work of art depicts
Lucifer falling from Heaven, being especially intriguing as it rises 666m above
the sea level.
The 2nd statue is on top of a building in
downtown on private land of who’s owner remains anonymous.
After the bike tour we went back to the Mercado for some
tapas and drinks.
We ended up with some
paella, olives and vermouth.
I’m sure
you are frowning at the word vermouth but here me out.
First if it’s 1.25€ a glass, wouldn’t you try
it?
Secondly, it was awesome and it’s
not the dry stuff we are accustomed to in martinis.
There are different flavors and our original
vermouth was served on the rocks with oranges in it.
Turns out vermouth is making a comeback.
Also, just about every drink comes with a
side of olives to eat! Side note – we paid to use a bathroom again but it was
very cheap and would have been free if we should our receipt.
There was plenty of free
bathrooms/toilets/WC’s around.
Just don’t
know why they don’t call them
baños like in Mexico.
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| Variety of Vermouth to Try |
After lunch we walked around the city a bunch and capped it
off with some dinner back at the same Mercado. This time we had some
croquettes, more olives, more vermouth, and some cheese spread over bread. We then headed back to the metro and then to
the hotel as we had a late plane ride to Lisbon, Portugal.
Lisboa, aka Lisbon is an amazing city. I’ve seen it listed as one of the best places
to visit in all of Europe due to it’s history and affordable prices. After visiting I would have to agree with
everything that was written about the city.
At first I was concerned because there were only luxury shops in the
airport and their metro system was spotless with art all over the place but
those concerns were removed when we went to get some food late at night.
We got into Lisbon late and as such had some difficulty
finding the hotel. We were staying in
the business district as those hotels will always be the cheapest on a
weekend. We stopped into a Sheraton to
ask for directions to the Doubletree where we were staying. They were so helpful that not only did they
draw a map but both front desk people came out of the hotel with us to help
point out exactly where to walk to get to our hotel. This was around midnight. One can’t ask for better service than that.
We checked into the hotel and then headed out to a near by
restaurant. Ended up having a local beer
and Chin a Mojito – except it tasted and looked like a caprihana. For food we
got some grilled cheese and ham.
Portions were huge and the prices great.
We headed back to the hotel for the night but you have to
look at the picture of the hallway. The
hallway was all black! It looks like a
scene out of a Stephen King movie.
We started the day by getting completely confused on where
to go.
Nothing is close to being
straight –which I am fine with except for the fact that they don’t have
markings for all their roads!
It ended up being fine as we eventually found a metro and
then walked the rest of the way down hill.
We stopped at a café for some food.
Guy spoke some English and was very nice to us. Chin practiced her Portuguese - she wanted to say thank you. We continued our trek down the never ending
hilly city. We found some amazing views and lots of side
streets that were walking only. By
walking I mean they were steps. Lots and
lots of steps.
One of the things on my list was to see this elevator.
They built elevators across the city for
people to take up to see the city skyline and to get around easier. Chin said
this was her favorite part of the trip.
This would have cost us 5€ but an all-day metro pass included using the
elevators.
They do have several trams in the city but we didn't use any
of them. The only other thing that was a
definite on our list was to see St. Anthony’s cathedral. That was really nice. The walk up those hills was terrible. We walked all the way up to check out this
castle only to find out that it cost money to go inside and there was a
line. No big deal for us as there really
isn't much to see inside a castle anyways.
One goes for the views!
We walked back to a place we walked past earlier to catch
lunch. It was in the middle of the
sidewalk which headed down this pedestrian road. The food and drinks were awesome. We got some great ideas from the food for us
to make at home as we eat a lot of rice and beans.
After relaxing there for a bit it was then time to walk
through some barrios. You may catch a
glimpse of the reoccurring street shots but I think that started for me when we
visited Monterray, Mexico a few years ago.
There is something about that moment when you are taking a
picture of a street that really captures how it feels to live there.
The dirt, the clothes hanging out to dry, the
flags, seeing the stores below to the several hundred year old stone buildings
.
I feel like I can imagine how it was
for someone walking home and looking down the street.
Just be happy that pictures don’t capture
smell.
The stench of human waste
permeated certain areas.
This was the day that we walked 13.5 miles. While walking all over we decided to stop in
to a place for happy hour. 2€ for a
large beer and 1€ for a large glass of wine.
The beer was a good pilsner and I do love the wine over there.
We decided to walk all the way back and checked out this
park that was high above the city and for dinner we went back to the same
restaurant and had the same thing as the night before.
Day 5 - Tuesday
We had a plane to catch to take us back to Barcelona but
before we left we wanted to do a little more exploring and to go to a
supermarket (super Mercado) to find some more coffee.
Had to get coffee from every country we
visited even if it just cost 1€ a bag.
In the morning we took the metro to a different part of town that we
didn’t get to earlier.
We had some food
down there.
I had cockle (looked like
squid) and Chin and some grilled sardines.
Great food and again everyone is just very nice.
We maybe cut it a wee bit close but we made
it to the airport on time and only had one issue.
The first part of the issue was when we were on the jetway
we got targeted by a guy who looked at our bags and decided they were too big
for the plane. Obviously that was a load
of crap but at least we didn’t have to pay for them to be checked. We were worried they would get left behind as
they were the only 2 bags deemed “too big” and were just sitting at the bottom
of a chute on the tarmac. Our worries
were for naught as they did make it on the plane.
The second part of the issue was when we landed we didn’t
get our bags. In fact there was a group
of 10 of us that didn’t get our bags. We flew Iberia – a One World alliance
member in other words they are not a low-cost carrier. When you land in Barcelona you see two doors
in front of you when you get off the plane.
They both say “exit here if no bags”.
We exit and we immediately see the belt and the number zero on the belt
which is what they said our luggage would be on. Chin and I are just sitting on the floor
waiting with almost no one else around.
Later another group comes through the door and tells us the luggage is
now on belt 15. Talk about a head
scratcher as there is only one belt.
They were waiting on the other side of security but security shooed them
through and told them they couldn’t wait on that side. Besides the group of us there is only 3 other
people in the entire building. A stewardess talking on the phone and a guy
pushing another guy in a wheelchair.
That’s it. They weren’t helpful
at all.
We walk out of the building and to another building that is
connected by a walkway were we then ask information. They point us to the secure area and tells us
to talk to the security guy to see if they will let us back in. After checking all our passports he actually
does let us back into the secure area.
This is where all the belts are!
We are able to pick up our luggage and continue our
trip. We paid to get on a bus that drops
us off in downtown Barcelona right in front of the FC Barcelona stadium. We then caught the metro and a tram to get to
the hotel. It was a very nice room and
the hotel was across from the mall. It
was around midnight so we packed it in for the night.
DID YOU KNOW?
Barcelona doesn’t really consider themselves part of
Spain. They consider themselves part of
Catalonia which is an autonomous region of Spain They speak Catalan which like
Portuguese is just enough difference from Spanish to make it hard to interpret.
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| This where the bus from the airport dropped us off at |
Day 6 - Wednesday
Chin started her residency today. I went with her to register for her
class. They used a conference building
located behind the hotel. After
registration we walked over to the waterfront and walked down aways before
circling back through some parks with some unique art. From all the Gaudi influence, a Frank Gehry
bird, and the weird looking museums and high rises there is a lot of art in
this town.
Come class time I went to look around the mall and then
headed back to the room to do some work.
For dinner we headed out to a highly rated place on foursquare.
It wasn’t that far away from the hotel so we
decided to walk.
The food and drinks
were great along with a relaxing atmosphere.
Here is another tip if anyone decides to visit either of these 2
countries.
Always request the check when
you are ready.
They will never give it
to you unless you ask for it.
They will
let you sit at the table for however long you want.
As in every other instance the waiter came
over and humbly (seriously) asked if we liked the food.
Their shoulders slouch, their head tips and
then with a soft voice they ask if you like the food.
Everytime we eat out this happens.
You tell them it’s excellent and they stand
up straight, get this great big smile and say thank you very proudly.
I wish the French could learn something from
their next door neighbor.
Day 7 – Thursday
Not a lot happened this day.
I took a 45 minute walk down the waterfront while Chin was in
class. I don’t know how the city did it
but it has some of the largest expanses of open areas I have ever seen. Numerous wide avenues, multiple paths on the
water front for both pedestrians and bike riders. The beaches were very clean and the water was
very blue. I expected it to be dirty looking
like it was in Santa Monica up to Malibu.
I guess the Spanish value their water quality more than the Californians
do.
My feet were killing me so I took the metro back to the
hotel. Grabbed lunch with Chin at the
mall and then we each went back to work.
For Dinner we went to a very high rated restaurant in downtown
Barcelona. The prices were still more
than affordable and the food was excellent.
Day 8 – Friday
Another low-key day today.
Chin went to school and I did some work in the morning and eventually
left with a suitcase of laundry to go and find a Laundromat.
Of course, the Catalan word for
"Laundromat” doesn’t resemble the Spanish word.
- English = Laundromat
- Spanish = lavandería
- Catalan = bugaderia
I did find one in downtown Barcelona. They had the ever popular Speed Queen washers and dryers and directions in 4 different languages (Arabic, Spanish, catalan, English). All told it took maybe a little over an hour to wash and dry 1 load of clothes for 9.50€. The mall had a dry cleaners that charged 20€. I think I saved some money doing it this way. 
I ate lunch back at the mall again and then waited for Chin to get done with school. After she was done with school we headed over to the mall so I could show her this one store that I had been frequenting. This was a nice 3 level mall and probably 40% of it was a 2 level store that was the size of 2 walmarts. One level was for non-food goods like clothes, electronics, fans, etc. The 2nd level was all food. Cheap at that! Here is where we picked up tons of coffee, teas, bread, wine and cheese. Little note about this place: Pay in cash or make sure you have your passport on you. Even with a pin they will still verify ID. Also, don’t try walking out with anything. Tons of security everywhere. Also, bring your own bags. Everywhere in Spain they charged for their bags if you needed one. It’s setup the same way as Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco. Frugal people would love this store. So, that means Chin did too. When you can get good cheese like gouda or brie for under 2€ or bread for 39 cents or wine for just a couple of Euro you know you are in the right place. We bought some Iberian chorizo, some gouda, loaf of bread and wine to take back to the hotel for dinner. All that totaled less than 3€. FOR THE TWO OF US!! You might be thinking the wine was something like “2 buck chuck” but I can assure you it was good stuff. I didn’t look up this specific bottle from that night but the bottle of red wine I brought back cost me 6€ and it looks like it would cost $20-$30 in the states based on internet prices. We really enjoyed our gouda/bread/drink combo when we visited Europe last year. That carried over to our meals on the beach back home and now during this last trip.
Day 9 – Saturday
Our last full day in Barcelona. Chin had a few hours of school in the morning but after that we had a full day of exploring to do. We explored so much I think I will let the pictures do the talking plus I will have to add a map showing the path we took.
In a nutshell, we started at Barcelona’s famous boulevard in the center of the city. We checked out sites all the way down to the waterfront. Walked around there and tried to see if we could catch some of the Olympic area (nothing left). Caught a metro to La Sagra Familia area where we found a seafood restaurant recommended by foursquare. We ate paella tapas and a lot of water. The paella was seafood and had whole cooked, shrimp, lobster, clams, and mussels in it. I loved it!
Our feet was already killing us but we kept on going. After La Sagra Familia we headed to a park overlooking the city. Great views and even more beautiful Roman aqueducts. We skipped the inside of La Familia and the paid part of the park that had lots of statues in it. To get to the park it was literally all up hill. They had 7 escalators built right into the road that one had to take to get to the park. We had a great time there but we were beat. I only had one more thing on the list and that was a castle. We decided to skip it because we already had a great view of the city at this park.
Now this is where logic fails us.Chin convinced me to walk all the way back from the park to the hotel much like we did in Lisbon.It was all down hill but it was 6km (under 4 miles) back to the hotel.We did walk it!When you take these long walks you get to walk through a lot of areas that are not brimming with tourists. It gives a person a different perspective on the visiting area.When we got back to the hotel it was happy hour time.
We have Diamond status and with it comes access to the executive lounge. This lounge is by far the best Hilton one we have ever been to. It was on the 15th floor and had it’s own patio overlooking the city. We ate some tapas and had some drinks for a few hours before we headed back to the mall to pick up stuff for the trip home and dinner.
We had more cheese, meat, bread and wine for dinner. As you saw from the numbers we also picked up several bottles of wine and lots of coffee and teas.
Here is a link to all the Barcelona pictures I took.
Day 10 NYC
This was one of those long days again. You get up at 6 am Barcelona time, head to the airport and then catch a 8 hr flight to NYC. To put in another way we got up at midnight during east coast time, didn’t really sleep on the plane and then went to bed at midnight the same day while being awake for 24 hours.
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| An auto-awesome photo from Google of the WTC Memorial |
Catching an international flight from Barcelona was so easy. I don’t think it even took 30 minutes to get to our gate. Compare that to Zurich which took at least 2 hours I was really impressed. As always, only metal detectors and you don’t have to take off your shoes.
The flight was fine. It seemed like it was the same plane. When we landed at JFK it was then time to clear customs. Last year when we were in Milwaukee we signed up for Global Traveler. The cost difference between TSA Precheck and Global Traveler wasn’t much at all. With Global Traveler we got to skip the huge line, go straight to a kiosk, maybe a minute to enter in your details and then walk out. Loved it! Of course, our luggage took over 30 minutes to be retrieved which negated some of our time savings. When exiting we also got to go into a special line and was able to leave the airport much quicker.
We took public transportation to our hotel in Queens. It was not without our problems. First we had to figure out which stop to get off of at the airport itself. Then we had to figure out how to pay for the train we were just on and then lastly, we had to learn how to read train stops on a map that don’t correlate with the names in the subway itself. The NYC subway system is a piece of shit. We have never been so confused by a metro system ever. At least in Berlin our confusion came from the multiple options of public transportation we had to choose from. Here, we couldn’t figure out which stop was which. Not only that there was no phone reception so we couldn’t verify anything while in the subway system. The next day we didn’t feel so bad as there were plenty of actual NY residents that also were lost and confused.
We did eventually make it to the hotel. It was a new Home2 Suites by Hilton. That part of Queens had loads of construction going on. You could really tell the area was turning over. We only had the short layover so we headed back out. We picked out 3 objectives. I had never been to New York City before and was just there on layovers at the airports. We went to visit the WTC memorial and check out the new tower there. That building is truly massive. We walked to the waterfront while over there and caught a glimpse of the statue of liberty. Chin wanted a picture of it the background like we have of the one in Paris.
From there we got back on the “sophisticated” subway and headed to Times Square. What a tourist trap. I think it’s worse than even Las Vegas Boulevard or Hollywood Boulevard. We stayed in that blob of gluttony for quite sometime as we made our way towards Central Park. On the way we had pizza at Serafina in the Dream Hotel. Very cool setup and the pizza was good. Not great, but good.
We did eventually make it to Central Park and just took some pictures of the area by Trump Tower. We then found a subway stop and then headed back to the hotel.
The next morning we headed back (about 1 hr) to JFK were we boarded our flight back to St Thomas. If anyone was thinking it the answer is yes. We DID go to the beach when we got back to soak our blister covered feet and sore legs. It’s nature’s Epsom salt soaking.
Our next overseas trip is going to be to in the fall for 2 weeks. The deal I found was so good that it works out to be cheaper than flying to Chicago during that time of the year.
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| view of Manhattan in the background from our hotel |
Link to New York City Photos
Conclusion
If you read it this far I thank you for your patience in reading this. I love to write down almost every little tidbit from these trips. The small details are very important to me. I will read a travel book about the area (Chin likes to buy me Lonely traveler, Fodors, etc) and visit sites like www.tripadvisor.com but they all still assume to much. It also helps me to remember how much fun we have on these trips. These trips are made more amazing when you have someone to share it with. Chin and I are coming up to our 5 yr wedding anniversary and we just last week realized that we have taken at least 1 international trip ever since we started dating. (Monterrey, Mexico was the first). I also have to laugh at all the specials we have taken advantage of to do this traveling. I guess it goes to show that when you put some minds together you can accomplish many things.
