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My best trip to Europe ever!

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My best trip to Europe ever!

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Old Jun 29, 2019, 12:15 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by gooselee
Wow - quite a trip! And here I am struggling to cram just 5 places into 20 days.

Re: Mona Lisa - I actually found it more fascinating to stand next to the wall it is mounted on and take photos of the horde huddled at the railing.
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.
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Old Jun 29, 2019, 2:11 pm
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by Wiggums
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.
I think you missed out with this - eating the same stuff you can find any where in the world. Part of the fun of traveling around Europe is exploring (and enjoying) the local cuisine.
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Old Jun 29, 2019, 3:31 pm
  #18  
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Originally Posted by SEA-Flyer
I think you missed out with this - eating the same stuff you can find any where in the world. Part of the fun of traveling around Europe is exploring (and enjoying) the local cuisine.
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.
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Old Jul 5, 2019, 5:17 am
  #19  
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Originally Posted by Wiggums
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.
i definitely agree that every nation has unique convenience foods and “fast foods” - OP isn’t the only person eating on the go. It’s no different from bakeries having treats that feel different. Yesterday I had a date nut scone - super delicious and I’ve never had one before. I always associate date / nut with cereals or snack bars, but not a scone!

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.
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Old Jul 5, 2019, 9:55 am
  #20  
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Originally Posted by gaobest
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.
It wasn't a camera in the glasses, it was just a Sony AS300 camera attached to my glasses using rubberband. Nothing sophisticated.
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Old Jul 5, 2019, 11:03 am
  #21  
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Originally Posted by Wiggums
It wasn't a camera in the glasses, it was just a Sony AS300 camera attached to my glasses using rubberband. Nothing sophisticated.
thanks - googled it and it looks mobile / Hand-sized except is it really 2 ounces weight?? No wonder it can attach to your glasses with a rubber band!!
im very shocked and impressed if it’s really 2 Oz but it looks amazing even if heavier.
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Old Jul 5, 2019, 1:46 pm
  #22  
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Originally Posted by gaobest
thanks - googled it and it looks mobile / Hand-sized except is it really 2 ounces weight?? No wonder it can attach to your glasses with a rubber band!!
im very shocked and impressed if it’s really 2 Oz but it looks amazing even if heavier.
The video quality is great, 1080p at 60fps. It was easy to attach to my sunglasses, so lightweight even velcro could do it.

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.
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Old Jul 5, 2019, 4:26 pm
  #23  
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Looking forward to your next TRs. I love John Wayne when we flew there for Disney :-)
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Old Jul 9, 2019, 2:55 am
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Originally Posted by gaobest


thanks - googled it and it looks mobile / Hand-sized except is it really 2 ounces weight?? No wonder it can attach to your glasses with a rubber band!!
im very shocked and impressed if it’s really 2 Oz but it looks amazing even if heavier.
gaobeast I think I'd take the story about a camera attached to glasses with a pinch of salt...!
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Old Jul 13, 2019, 12:27 am
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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.
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Old Jul 16, 2019, 12:44 am
  #26  
 
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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.

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Old Jul 17, 2019, 5:25 am
  #27  
 
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So far, this is the nicest post I've read and congratulations that you've made your tour/vacation enjoyable.
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Old Jul 21, 2019, 5:55 pm
  #28  
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Originally Posted by Bundy Bear
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.
​​​​​​​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.
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Old Jul 21, 2019, 6:01 pm
  #29  
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Originally Posted by DominikBlasko
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.
The World of the DDR in Dresden, it had demonstrations of typical living rooms in East Germany. The DDR Museum in Berlin also has that too.

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!
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Old Jul 21, 2019, 6:05 pm
  #30  
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Originally Posted by mentor of monty
gaobeast I think I'd take the story about a camera attached to glasses with a pinch of salt...!
I don't think you've even held one. It doesn't even have a screen on it. I had it running for about 20 minutes on the autobahn with the zoom feature on. That was one way to get rid of the fish-eye effect.

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
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