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The Steiners - Manny and Jennifer

We like to travel, are very picky about our itineraries but believe any destination has something interesting to offer. If you are looking for interesting itineraries, you will find them here, if you are looking for creative places to stay, you will not, our lodging philosophy is to use as many SPG, HHonors, and Priority Club points as possible. This means we stay in some world-class hotels, not the quaint and boutique places tucked away in a hard-to-find corner of town.

Manny has opinions on everything, visit TripAdvisor for his and other's reasonably reliable advice on travelling and where you will find comments on everything from restaurants to destinations. We also have an affinity for traveling on the rails, an indispensable resource for traveling by train is The Man in Seat Sixty-One, it is very detailed and gives a very current account of conditions on the rails. The worst rail agency so far goes to RILA, Bulgaria's corrupt state institution. Congratulations to Bulgaria. If you want good information on "beating the [corporate travel] system" then check out FlyerTalk.

Good news, made Platinum on Delta SkyMiles. Free entry to Clubs on International flights and upgrade certificates for same . . . here we come!

Paris and the Sud-Ouest Memories Trip
September 7th 2004 -» September 17th 2004 The Balkan Capitals by Rail
September 2nd 2007 -» September 15th 2007 Holiday Trip to Paris and Eurostar to London
December 23rd 2007 -» December 30th 2007 30th Birthday in Florida Gulf Coast
April 12th 2008 -» April 14th 2008 Vegas and Southwest Canyons Road Trip
May 17th 2008 -» May 27th 2008 Hampton Roads Early America Exploration
August 17th 2008 -» August 19th 2008 Western Caribbean 5-Day Cruise
January 23rd 2009 -» January 29th 2009 Bahamas 3-Day Cruise
April 3rd 2009 -» April 6th 2009 Quadmodal Tour of Byzantine Europe
May 2nd 2009 -» May 16th 2009

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Joined on: August 11th 2007
Last Login: November 5th 2009

Blog Entries: 90
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Blogs & Travel Journals

by The Steiners, order by Date newest first.

By The Steiners
November 2nd 2009

South Africa Day 0: Tickets Purchased, Itinerary Finalized! North America » United States » Ohio » Columbus

Intensive Planning Over We are finally all set to go on the trip, it was a far more laborious process than I would have liked. Life should not be this complicated, I'm okay with how little vacation we get in this country, but I am not okay with struggling to take it. The goals are as follows: 5 Countries in 3 Weeks: *South Africa *Swaziland *Zambia *Zimbabwe *Namibia Must Sees: *Kruger NP - Seek the 'Big 5' in Famed Game Park *Victoria alls - One of Seven Natural Wonders *Namib Desert - Oldest in the World *Swakopmund - German Seaside R [View Full Entry]

By The Steiners
October 5th 2009

Boulder Day 2: Recovery Required North America » United States » Colorado » Denver

Hotel Boulderado
Where we stayed for the weekend. Suite 416.

Waiting for the flight back to Columbus tonight at Denver International Airport, at least it's a direct flight back, but we'll be in close to midnight tonight. We had a great weekend but after yesterday, we slept in (relatively speaking) and opened The Cheesecake Factory in Boulder for brunch. We walked Pearl Street a bit and after checking out from the hotel, headed south. Western Denver We went through Golden, Colorado which only has about one useful thing in it - the Coors Brewing Company, which was not much to look at. The old town is a bit interesting, but did [View Full Entry]

By The Steiners
October 3rd 2009

Boulder Day 1: Rocky Mountain NP North America » United States » Colorado » Boulder

Start of the Day
Everything is okay! Hunky-dory. Not sure what the peak is behind us, this is somewhere near the main entrance at Estes Park.

First Night Jennifer got in last night without a hitch, even ahead of schedule. I decided to surprise her since I dropped dad off early and catch her coming out of the terminal. I had suspected she might start doing some intensive shopping in the concourse rather than come to the terminal, so I waited for 30 minutes intently watching every tram load of passengers trying to find her . . . argh! So easily distracted by shiny perfume bottles! We are at the Hotel Boulderado as guests of one of the owners, Frank, who I am working with to do [View Full Entry]

By The Steiners
July 5th 2009

The Alleghenies Day 2PM & 3: Along the Mason-Dixon North America » United States » Maryland

4th of July Concert
In Cumberland, MD.

We crossed the border into Flintstone, MD where we fed the thirsty Ingrid some much needed gasoline. In the backcountry hills of Bedford, one could easily run out of gasoline if not careful. Not much to see in Flintstone but it was a relatively important town to the Imes family simply because it was nearest significant junction on the National Pike. Cumberland Fireworks We drove on to Cumberland which was readying for the Fourth of July Festivities. A quiet mountain city with great historical character and reasonable efforts at reviving the downtown, something which lacked [View Full Entry]

By The Steiners
July 4th 2009

The Alleghenies Day 1 & 2AM: Exploring Bedford County North America » United States » Pennsylvania » Bedford County » Bedford Springs

Lush Green Canopy
Another blissfully green Ohio summer!

I organized what has turned out to be a relatively pricey but well-worthwhile trip to explore the roots of Jennifer's maternal grandparents. This was simple enough as it involves one county in Pennsylvania, Bedford. Making I-70 Interesting We picnicked and enjoyed our Portuguese Vinho Verde from house wine in Worthington (highly recommended) in the wonderful State Park that is Lake Barkcamp in eastern Ohio, it is only a few miles off of the interstate and well-worth the detour for a picnic on the monotonous highway. Note that it is forbidden [View Full Entry]

By The Steiners
May 15th 2009

Istanbul Day 3: Life in the Suburbs Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Istanbul

Ortakoy Mosque and Bosphorus Bridge
The classic shot of old and new in Istanbul.

Commentary on Istanbul Shopping We leave tomorrow morning very early the same way we came through Amsterdam. We had an interesting day today which ended with our stay here at the Sheraton in Atakoy which is a wealthier suburb of Istanbul near the Ataturk Airport. The hotel is nice although the staff is even greener here than they were in Santorini, more on that later. It was nice to be in a true residential neighborhood as we went to the Galleria, which is an enclosed mall next to our hotel, with a number of high end shops but also evidence of [View Full Entry]

By The Steiners
May 14th 2009

Istanbul Day 2: Three Pillars of Tourism Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Istanbul

Courtyard of the Blue Mosque
I am too lazy to look up the proper Muslim term for what this area is called in Sultanahmet Mosque.

Two Behemoths of The Golden Horn We had to get it out of the way, the two most important sites in Istanbul, the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia Museum. Each among the most stunning works of religious architecture in the world, each competing only a few hundred meters from each other for the glory of their respective interpretations of God and his worship. The Blue Mosque was built later and its cohesiveness and execution give it a perfection that the much older and somewhat tattered Hagia Sofia cannot keep against on a "looks" basis alone. But the story of Hagia [View Full Entry]

By The Steiners
May 13th 2009

Istanbul Day 1: Arriving in Istanbul Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Istanbul

Istanbul's Mushroom Burbs
Tackiness and lack of creativity seem to be the hallmark out here, this is quite a ways out from the city center.

My favorite quote from Day 1 in Istanbul, a rug merchant in the Spice Bazaar: "You see all of these old people who come here to visit, and they can barely see and are tired of walking after five minutes . . . they save up their money their whole lives and then spend it to come here when they can not really enjoy it. Here in Turkey, we live life now, why wait to see the world? Do it when you are young and can enjoy it. We don't live long in Turkey, maybe not past 75 or 76, because [View Full Entry]

By The Steiners
May 12th 2009

Mainland Greece Day 2: Opinions in Thessaloniki Europe » Greece » Central Macedonia » Thessaloniki

Tight Streets
Thessaloniki's market district, much tighter than in Istanbul.

Today is another day that feels longer than a day. It is easy to forget that this morning we were in Meteora, then on a train, then all over Thessaloniki, and now on a train again! We are on the Philia Express on our way to Istanbul now, not a lot of Philia toward Istanbul from Greece though, as it is only a three wagon sleeper. The nice part is we are really moving fast. The Philia is also only among the Anglos, at least in our wagon, as everyone is American or Canadian, except for one Greek-Irish couple, but he [View Full Entry]

By The Steiners
May 11th 2009

Mainland Greece Day 1: Monasteries and "Magic" of Meteora Europe » Greece » Thessaly » Meteora

Train to Kalampaka
They REALLY like graffiti in Athens.

Visiting Meteora was to be the big question mark of the trip. Google Earth did not have a clear aerial, the hotel was not very communicative, and I had no mre information beyond the fact that it is the location of the monastery where the James Bond movie, For Your Eyes Only was filmed. Greek Trains I think we are becoming enough of an expert on the subject, having been on Serbian, Austrian, French, Chinese, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Hungarian railcars and trains. What we have experienced so far are the regional trains, these are okay, a little beat up, but still [View Full Entry]

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The Steiners - Manny and Jennifer

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