My best trip to Europe ever!
#16
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: SNA
Programs: Sixt Platinum, Avis Preferred Plus, Hertz President's Circle, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 3,557
Planning took more time than traveling, I'll tell you this. No surprises, no closed museums, no getting lost.. and you can't stand next to Mona Lisa, unfortunately.
#17
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: SEA once more (previously CDG and NRT)
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Posts: 2,450
Food:
For food, it was mostly supermarket stuff, about $8 to $12. Packaged salad, orange juice, bottled water, salami slices, mustard, sliced cheese, cashews, crackers, warm rolls fresh out of the oven, macaroni salads, and more. A lot of supermarkets offered lunch packages: sandwich, chips, and Coke for $3. Instead of wasting time in restaurants, I'd be eating on the way to the next destination. Europe has so much to offer and I didn't want to waste it.
For food, it was mostly supermarket stuff, about $8 to $12. Packaged salad, orange juice, bottled water, salami slices, mustard, sliced cheese, cashews, crackers, warm rolls fresh out of the oven, macaroni salads, and more. A lot of supermarkets offered lunch packages: sandwich, chips, and Coke for $3. Instead of wasting time in restaurants, I'd be eating on the way to the next destination. Europe has so much to offer and I didn't want to waste it.
#18
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: SNA
Programs: Sixt Platinum, Avis Preferred Plus, Hertz President's Circle, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 3,557
German supermarkets had German frikadelle and local freshly baked rolls. In France, I had the chorizo. In England, a frozen TV dinner... a shephard's pie. Oftentimes, I'd have something off the streets. Sitting and eating would have sapped a lot out of my time. If I had six weeks, I might have done that.
#19
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2008
Location: San Francisco
Programs: GM on VX, UA, AA, HA, AS, SY; Budget Fastbreak
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German supermarkets had German frikadelle and local freshly baked rolls. In France, I had the chorizo. In England, a frozen TV dinner... a shephard's pie. Oftentimes, I'd have something off the streets. Sitting and eating would have sapped a lot out of my time. If I had six weeks, I might have done that.
what is the small video camera you use with your glasses? Like the old Glass. I would enjoy it for concerts or other activities where I don’t need to hold my phone.
#20
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: SNA
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Posts: 3,557
It wasn't a camera in the glasses, it was just a Sony AS300 camera attached to my glasses using rubberband. Nothing sophisticated.
#21
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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im very shocked and impressed if it’s really 2 Oz but it looks amazing even if heavier.
#22
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: SNA
Programs: Sixt Platinum, Avis Preferred Plus, Hertz President's Circle, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 3,557
The GoPro Hero 7 wasn't ideal because of the width. The Sony AS300 is thin and easier to attach to sunglasses with rubber bands.
#24
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 297
gaobeast I think I'd take the story about a camera attached to glasses with a pinch of salt...!
#25
Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: Copenhagen
Posts: 35
Nice report! Haha, you went through Europe strong and fast. That is some time management skills you showed off. It is always fun for me to see pictures of Socialist/Eastern bloc living, cos that was my everyday life when spending summers with grandparents in Slovakia when I was a little kid in the 90s. Of course people don't change furniture with regime change so their home looked pretty much like on the pic. So when I went to that museum it was just like, hey look, grandma's living room is in a museum.
#26
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Brisbane AU, Planet X
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Posts: 1,605
You crammed in a lot of places, thanks for some hints on Scotland planning a driving trip next year, glad you found a hotel in Dundee that includes parking.
#28
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: SNA
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I made sure of that! If you use Kayak, you could pick hotels with free parking. Very nice, I picked a hotel in Rome well in advance... air conditioned, $55 a night, with gated (and free) parking! Downside was that it was run by nuns but they didn't bother me much and it was within walking distance to the Coliseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill.
#29
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: SNA
Programs: Sixt Platinum, Avis Preferred Plus, Hertz President's Circle, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 3,557
Nice report! Haha, you went through Europe strong and fast. That is some time management skills you showed off. It is always fun for me to see pictures of Socialist/Eastern bloc living, cos that was my everyday life when spending summers with grandparents in Slovakia when I was a little kid in the 90s. Of course people don't change furniture with regime change so their home looked pretty much like on the pic. So when I went to that museum it was just like, hey look, grandma's living room is in a museum.
Just about everybody in East Germany got rid of their furniture and cars when the wall went down. I don't even see Trabants or Wartburgs anymore. When I was in Belgrade about eight years ago, there were plenty of Yugos near Slobodan Milosevic's grave in Požarevac. All the buildings were Soviet-style concrete, you couldn't get more Communist than that city!
I wanted to stay in Ost Hotel in East Berlin, it still has DDR-style furniture and rooms even come with portraits of Honecker and Gorbachev!
#30
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2001
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It's smaller than half the size of a pack of cigarettes and probably weighs the same.
Since it didn't have a screen, a lot of videos were done 2 or 3 times just to be sure. I was able to put in about 12 hours on a 256gb Micro SD card. After the whole trip, I got it down from roughly 10 hours to 45 minutes.
Last edited by Wiggums; Jul 21, 2019 at 8:50 pm