France 2013: Trip Overview

Bonjour, messieurs et madames!  I just got back from a très magnifique, two-week trip to France.  Unlike my typical trips with friends, this one was a family vacation.  My parents just had their 40th anniversary, and I wanted to take them on a trek in Europe while their health was still in good shape. 
Our trip was spent entirely in northwestern France.  It was the second time in France for all of us. Aside from Paris, all the places we visited were new to us.

Trip itinerary & blog article index:

1) Flew in to Paris (A). With a long layover in Berlin
2) Normandy coast (B): The historic sites of the WWII D-Day invasion
3) Le Mont. St. Michel (C): The medieval city built on an island mountain (photo at top of this article)
4) Loire Valley (D): Region filled with beautiful chateaux (castles/mansions) built by French royalty
5) Chartres (E): Home of the beautiful gothic Cathédrale de Chartres.
6) Paris (F): 4+ days wandering the most beautiful city on the planet

As I write more, I will link to blog articles on the above locations. 

Here are maps of our trip.  The one on the left is a macro view, showing where we were in relation to France overall.  The one on the right shows more detail on the specific locations.

Getting Around

We rented a car to travel to all these locations. It was a great experience. The Normandy coast has a lot of small sites that you can visit, so having our own car allowed us to visit them at our own pace. The car was great for the Loire Valley too, since there are 10-20 chateaux you could visit. We planned around the big chateaux(Chambord, Chenonceau, Villandry); for the rest, we played it by ear. The French countryside was beautiful too. We really enjoyed driving through all the small towns and peaceful country roads.

When you rent a car in Europe, most cars you get are manual transmission. I was the sole driver, and I can only drive an automatic. So I reserved an automatic for a lot more money... but hey, it was a "premium class" rental - so they gave us a BMW 5 Series! What an awesome car for a road trip! The photo above is me with the BMW, in front of Chambord, the most grand of the chateaux in the Loire Valley. It also came with an excellent built-in GPS system, which saved us from getting lost many times.

Driving in Europe has its good points and its bad points. On the bright side, highway driving is great. Everyone is taught to drive very well, it seems. You rarely see slow drivers in the passing lane. People move aside to let faster drivers pass. And you don't see clueless cell-phone users cluttering up the roads. On the other hand, driving in cities and towns can be a pain! The streets are very small and crowded, and directions aren't marked clearly. Parking spots are tiny too. Most cars are very small compact and sub-compact cars; our BMW was quite a behemoth on the roads! Luckily, I managed not to hit anyone or anything...

The one place I did not drive in was Paris. Driving in Paris, just like any of the world's largest cities, is a complete mess! No way! We took public transporation instead. The metro and bus systems in Paris were excellent. Trains ran very frequently and were comfortable (and not smelly and rickety like Chicago's El hehe). The bus system was great too. Although the buses ran less frequently than the trains, there were more buses, and they covered lots of ground. It was nice to gaze out the window and admire the beauty of Paris during the bus rides. Tip to travelers: you can buy a "Mobilis" ticket that gives you unlimited train & bus rides in central paris for the great price of 6,60 EUR. Or a 5-day "Paris visite" card.

The French

Everyone seems to be curious how the experience was when dealing with the French.  I guess they get a bad rep in the States hehe.  Actually, just like my previous time in France, the French were great.  The French, on the whole, have a great sense of taste - whether it's in architecture, food, or fashion.  They are well-read, cultured, and have a good sense of what's going on in the rest of the world.  I think where Americans sometimes rub the French the wrong way is either from being ignorant ("I'm American, I don't care who you are") or not showing interest ("I don't want to try your food, where's the McDonald's?").  If you're gonna visit their country, you just need to be open to their ways.  The French are very proud of their culture and seem to want to share its greatness with you.  We had a great time talking to the locals.  All three of us can read and speak French too, so it made things much easier.  Many were impressed that these strange looking Asian visitors could speak their language.  But even if your French is poor, you get a lot of points by simply trying to speak their language.

Conclusion

It was a great trip!  Hmm, I think every trip is a great trip :)  We saw a lot, experienced a lot, and had spent some good family time together as well.  More blog articles and photos to come!

A quick excursion to Italy's Amalfi Coast

My blogging rate has slowed to a crawl. Sorry! Back to Italy...

Italy's big cities of Rome, Venice, and Florence are excellent destinations for tourists.  But the smaller towns are also amazing, in their own way.  We tried to balance big and small on our trip.

From our base in Rome, we took a day trip south to the Amalfi Coast. That area is quite a bit different than most places in Italy. It's full of small coastal towns built on hills.  We are also motivated to flee from Rome that day, since millions of believers converged on the Vatican to see Pope John Paul II's Beatification ceremony. 

The Amalfi Coast is a peninsula that sticks out to the Mediterranean Sea.  It's southeast of Naples, which is south of Rome.  There are a bunch of towns on the coast.  We visited Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello.  You may also have heard of Sorrento.  Other sights in the general area include Mt. Vesuvius, Pompeii, and Capri.

Usually travelers spend at least a few days in the Amalfi Coast.  It's the best way to appreciate the beautiful and chill atmosphere.  But we didn't have the time, so it ended up just being a day trip.  That meant waking up at the crack of dawn and taking a 1.5h high-speed train to Naples.  Btw, the Pope followers were already flocking to the Vatican at 5am!! 

Naples

I passed through Naples on my last trip (photos above are from that trip).  There is some charm to this city.  Great coastline, nice view of Mt. Vesuvius... This time around, however, Naples was just darn ugly.  The city streets where pretty ghetto everywhere.  There was construction all along the major boulevard, making it a pain to get around.  And they have had this seemingly perpetual trash worker strike problem, so everyone was just dumping trash in large piles at street corners. 

We had a bad transit experience in Naples as well.  We walked from the train station to the docks, expecting to hop on a ferry to the Amalfi Coast.  Turns out that there was no ferry service to the Amalfi Coast that day (May 1).  It wasn't posted anywhere, not even on their website, and no one cared to be helpful.  Things got a little stressful amongst our crew, I think.  But luckily, we found a Hertz car rental place nearby and rented a van.  Returning the van was messy too. All the construction and traffic made it really difficult to drive in the city. We barely returned the car on time and made it out on the last train back to Rome - with just a couple minutes to spare!

Once we got out of Naples, it was all good. Driving down to the coast was a most enjoyable experience. In fact, I am glad we drove, because we could see so much and just stop anywhere. The drive involved a lot of mountain passes, windy roads, and amazing views of towns and valleys.  The photo above is of the infamous Mt. Vesuvius (left, in the distance), the volcano that entombed the town of Pompeii in 79 CE. 

Positano

The first town we visited in the Amalfi Coast was Positano.  Wow.  It is one of the most picturesque towns I have ever seen.  Positano is built on a hill that drops right into the sea.  There are only a couple roads in town.  The roads wind back and forth, up and down the hill.  From afar, it looks like the buildings are built on top of each other.

Positano was once a small fishing village. It started getting some notoriety in the 1950's, starting with John Steinbeck. Now it's totally a resort town. You may have seen it in movies like "The Talented Mr. Ripley" or "Under the Tuscan Sun." At the base of the hill, the city center leads out to a relaxing rocky beach. There are all sorts of cozy restaurants, with great views of the town and the sea. The winding streets take you by dozens of shops, eager to lighten the wallets of tourists.

Here's a funky 180+ degree panaroma I took of Positano. Click on it for a full screen view (you can do this with any of the photos on this blog).

Amalfi

 

Amalfi is the main town in the Amalfi Coast region.  In the middle ages, Amalfi was the capital of the Duchy of Amalfi, which was an independent state.  Although parts of the town are built on a hill like Positano, the city center is bigger and flatter.  The piazza (below) is a great place to relax, drink some coffee, eat gelato, and shop.

Like most cities in Italy, there is a big church in the city center.  It looks magnificent with the afternoon sunlight shining on it.

Ravello

Ravello was the last town we visited in the Amalfi Coast.  Unlike the other two towns, Ravello is situated inland, high up in the hills.  You have a really nice view of the hills and valleys from Ravello.  Unfortunately, we needed to get back to Naples to catch the train, so we didn't have much time to spend in town.  Apparently we completely missed the seaside view from Ravello.  I didn't too my research well enough - oops.  But check out these photos from others on the Internet.  Holy amazing!

This photo of Ravello is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Summary

The Amalfi Coast is a beautiful, relaxing region of Italy.  I am very glad we went out of our way to see it.  I'm not sure I would travel back to Italy to see Rome, Florence, or Venice again.  But I could certainly see myself spending a few days wandering the hill towns of the Amalfi Coast.  The area really deserves several days of your attention (or weeks, if you're retired haha). I'd love to see the Cinque Terre again too.  Life may be short, but it should hopefully be long enough for a return visit!

Related links:

• All articles on my Italia 2011 trip 
• Slideshow on Flickr 

Japan 2010 - Trip Overview

I just spent 11 marvelous days in Japan for vacation.  It's a beautiful country, with lots of history, culture, and innovation.  Japan and China are probably the two most influential nations in Asia.  I'm glad to have the fortune of visiting both places.

This trip was very memorable and rewarding.  Lots of things to write about (and I'm not done yet).  Here are some topics:

• Tokyo, modern metropolis
• Fashion in Japan
• Kyoto, the cultural capital of Japan
• Food in Japan, yum!
• Entertainment and Nightlife in Japan
• Japan side trips: Nikko, Nara, and Osaka

Note: the articles appear in reverse order when you view my blog site in full.

Three of us went on this trip.  Mo, my faithful traveling sidekick (ha), was finally able to go this time.  Last year, he and I tried to go to Japan, but some red tape with U.S. immigration prevented him from leaving.  Instead, he was stuck in Mexico for a few weeks.  We refer to this period as Mo's Exile.  Ingrid was also able to join us as well.  It was her first time traveling with us (poor girl, stuck with two dudes).  Nonetheless, good times were enjoyed by all! :)

Japan is an island nation.  Although several thousand islands make up Japan, almost all its landmass comes from four islands.  Most of the good stuff is on the biggest island in the middle, Honshu.  Our travels were solely within Honshu.

Japan is located just east of Korea and Russia.  Since it's east of all its neighbors, it is known as the Land of the Rising Sun.  I knew it was close to Korea, but I didn't realize how far north it goes.  The big northern island, Hokkaido, seems like just a small hop from Siberia.  Japan is pretty far away from China too.  Now I know why Japan is so much more similar to Korea in language and culture than it is to China.

We spent the entire trip in two main areas of Japan - Tokyo and Kyoto.  We flew into Tokyo Narita Airport (1hr train to Tokyo).  Tokyo is Japan's capital and is the largest city on the planet.  We spent six days there, including a day trip to nearby Nikko.  The remaining four days were spent in the Kyoto area, which is a 3hr bullet train ride from Tokyo.  Kyoto is Japan's center of traditional and religious culture, very different from Japan.  We also did a day trip to nearby Nara and Osaka while based in Kyoto.

You can get everywhere in Japan via train.  However, train tickets are expensive.  Our solution was to buy a Japan Rail Pass, which gives you unlimited train rides over a certain number of days.  Just one round trip between Tokyo and Kyoto almost makes up for the price of the rail pass.  In addition to that, we got "free" rides to Nikko, Nara, and Osaka, not to mention some local rides in Tokyo and Osaka.

In Tokyo, we stayed the the most excellent Conrad Tokyo Hotel.  Gotta love traveling with consultants with lots of hotel points and elite status.

In Kyoto, however, there weren't many western Hotel chains to choose from.  We ended up staying at a hostel! Talk about a change of scenery...

Related links:

• All articles on my Japan trip
• Slideshow of Japan trip highlights on Flickr
• My full blog

A quick stroll through Zurich, Switzerland

Our Oktoberfest Euro trek started in Zurich Switzerland. Alex, Mo, and I originally had a flight connecting through JFK New York and landing in Zurich at 7am. However, bad weather in NY caused our flight to be canceled. We were re-routed through London and finally arrived in Zurich around noon. We had a train scheduled to depart for Munich at 3pm, so it left little time to spend in Zurich. Nonetheless, we were still able to do a quick stroll through Zurich.

Zurich is a pretty city. Although it's the largest city in Switzerland, it is so quiet and orderly that it feels like a small town. The city is immaculately clean and well-groomed (kinda like in Paris).  The architecture is very German.  Kinda makes sense - everyone here speaks a Swiss dialect of German.

Zurich is situated just north of Lake Zurich. A small river cuts through the town and leads to the lake. The prettiest sights in town are next to the water.

Small cobblestone-lined streets wind through the city, inviting you to wander about aimlessly.  Small stores and restaurants are everywhere.  It's fun to walk around here - you never know what's around the corner.

One thing you'll notice immediately in Zurich is all the trams and buses on the streets.  Zurich has the highest density of public transportation in the world.  It consistently ranks near the top cities of the world in quality of life too.

After our short visit in Zurich, it was quickly time to get to the train station.  Next stop: Munich and Oktoberfest!!

Trip preview: Oktoberfest in Munich - 1 day to go!

You heard it right - it's time for Oktoberfest!  Not at the local bar, not at a local German festival.  Tomorrow, we're going to the heart of it all - Munich, Germany!  It's the last weekend of the 200th anniversary of this fine festival.  Alex, Mo, and I will slip on our liederhosen, blend in with the German-speaking locals, and consume some large steins of amber-colored beverages.

If you look in the distant left of the photo above, you'll see a large, white tent.  That's an Oktoberfest tent, when I was in Stuttgart in 2002.  Unfortunately we could not stay long - it was a work night, so I think we only popped in for one drink and then left.   Munich on a weekend will be much more crowded and lively. 

I've never been to Munich, much less Oktoberfest in Munich.  But I'm very excited!  We have been told that you need to get into a beer tent by maybe 8am to get a spot.  Is that scary or what?  That's worse than St. Patty's Day!  I hear people can get pretty pushy for spots at the tables too.  I am not sure how long I will last in the tent.  Might have to take a German siesta at some point...

Oktoberfest may be an old tradition in Bavaria, but it has gotten hip too.  Case in point - there's an Oktoberfest iPhone app!  It's a great way to guide drunken tourists to tents of more beer.  But even better - I hear the app can help you remember how many beers you have consumed, and then it can post it to your Facebook or Twitter accounts! 

Although Oktoberfest in Munich is the main purpose of the trip, we will actually be visiting several cities in Europe.  We were a bit slow to book travel (oh yeah, so prices for flights got expensive.  The best deal we could find had us flying into Zurich and out of Madrid.  Which meant that we were in for quite a bit of transit during this trip.  The plan: Zurich, Munich, Prague, and Berlin by train.  Finally fly to Madrid, enjoy some tapas for a couple of days, then fly home.  Fun, eh? 

I should mention that these plans are hardly set in stone. In fact, we still don't have train tickets or hotels beyond Munich. Maybe we'll go to Austria instead, and see if the hills are truly alive with the sound of music? Or to Poland, to check out... umm... WWII concentration camps? Or to Italy, to eat some yummy pasta and drink fine wine... Well hopefully our plan will work as it is. We'll see...

The photo above is from Zurich, also from 2002 (when I couldn't take any good photos apparently).  Spent a day there.  Really pretty and peaceful.  It seemed like a smaller version of Paris, but probably not as fun.  For this trip, we'll only be in Zurich for a few hours. 

I haven't been to Prague and don't have any photos of it, but here's a sight that we'll get used to - the train station.  This "haupbonhof" is from Stuttgart.  We will have taken two long train rides (plus probably a bunch of metro rides) by the time we get to Prague.  I'm very excited to see Prague too, even if it's just for two days.  It'll be my first visit to the former "eastern Bloc" region.

I haven't been to Berlin either, so I have no photos to share yet.  But when I think of Berlin, I think of the Berlin Wall.  And when you think of the wall (and the wall falling), you just have to whistle that tune to "Wind of Change", no? :)  I hope this songs stays in your head for the rest of the day :) 

Take me, to the magic of the moment
of that glory night
where the children of tomorrow dream away
in the wind of change

Actually, the real reason we're going to Berlin is that Mo's brother lives there.  Yes, these crazy Mexicans are everywhere! :)  Maybe they'll be able to point us to a good taqueria that makes a special "schitznel taco" or "chips con sauerkraut". 

Finally, we'll hop on a plane from Berlin and fly to Madrid.  I spent half a day there before - this last April, in fact.  It's a beautiful city.  This time, we'll have almost two days to hang out there.  And I'll be with Spanish speakers!  Woohoo!  And after a long weekend of drinking beer in Munich, Madrid will be a great way to recover - by drinking sangria instead!

After a long 11 days in Europe, I will probably be looking forward to relaxing back home in the States.  But life is not so gracious.  Looks like October and November will be quite the road trip for me.  The following week, I'll need to hop back on a plane and visit Texas and/or South Carolina.  Also Connecticut, New Jersey, California in the following weeks.  Not to mention, my next vacation starts at the end of October - in Japan!!  So peeps - stay tuned for hopefully lots of travel photos on this blog :)