Page 4 of DrakeSmart Travel Blog Posts


Europe » Belgium » Brussels-Capital Region » Brussels March 17th 2009

Day 5 - Monday Today was program day at The Transport For London. This is my program that I found accidentally when I was reading a trade journal. The topic, Congestion Charging- motorist paying an 8 pound charge to enter the city. Interesting concept and it's working. Traffic was not as bad as it use to be. We traveled the city by bus, tube, foot and cab. See for details. Goodbye London and hello Brussels! New cast of characters: Susan is a graduate of the MPA program and Donna is a retired co-worker of Susan's. Angela is a graduate of the MPA program and Shelley is her sister. The drive to Brussels was fun and not as long as I anticipated. We had our usual "chunnel party". So what is a chunnel party? To get from ... read more
Chunnel Party
Fish Stew
Pis

Europe » United Kingdom » England March 16th 2009

Day 3- Saturday Greetings everyone, two full days in London is over. We saw a lot, but missed a lot. Here is a link to the major attractions that we either saw or should have seen . Here are Saturday activities: We took the motorcoach to Parliament Square and opted to get off. Marti, Carole and I went off by foot. We had a couple of places to see: Churchill Museum, Cabinet War Rooms, Trafalgar Square, Covent Gardens, Leichster Square, Theater District, Big Ben and everywhere in between. After walking around Parliament Square, we headed for the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. They were both fantastic. Churchill's Museum was absolutely outstanding for the layout of materials, pictures and so forth. They had a very long digital table with a touch screen that brought up documents ... read more
Churchill
Windsor Castle
St Paul

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London March 14th 2009

Day 2 - Friday Hi everyone, we had a great first full day in London. After a long plane ride, we had a 3 hour program at the London Wetlands. You heard it right, after many many hours of being on the plane, three hours waiting at the airport, we now go to a 3 hour program at The London Wetlands. Read more about this on the . Short note on the cast of characters that I will be hanging with in the next couple of days: Dr. Meyer is the lead professor on this trip and he has Lance Noe as the task master. Luggi is our motorcoach driver and has been the DrakeSmart driver for the last 10 years. Lew is our travel agent. Marti is a friend that I met in 2003 when ... read more


Day 2 - Friday In London The plane ride from Des Moines to Chicago was uneventful. During the layover, we had our first group meal. Joe, Andrea, Amy, Scott, David, Eric, Jessica and I ate at the Macaroni Grill. Great food and we all swapped stories and shared what we we were looking forward to. The plane ride from Chicago to London was not as long as I anticipated. I watched one movie (Doubt) and was able to sleep with the help of Mr. Benadryl. I call benadryl the miracle drug, it helps with sleep, allergic reactions, allergies and I'm sure a lot more. Our group (Group 2) arrived at 6:30 am and we waited for the rest of the group. I used the internet 3 pounds or $5 US dollars for 30 minutes. This is ... read more
Ann Blogging

North America » United States » Iowa » Des Moines March 12th 2009

Day 2 - Friday in London Travel day is here. Getting out of the office was uneventful. Thanks to all for seeing that I got out on time and for my best bud Judy for taking me to the airport. News on packing. My suitcase weighed in at 47 pounds. I did not reach my goal of 40 pounds, but under 50 pounds works. Why did I stress so much about packing? Longstory short here: I had a hectic trip to the airport 3 years ago and I mean just getting out of the office. So in my mad dash to the airport, I forgot my suitcase at work so I had to go back to get it. Thank goodness that I got a ride to the airport. As I got back to the airport, I ... read more

North America » United States » Iowa » Des Moines March 11th 2009

Dateline Travel Day Tomorrow I'm done packing and re-packing. Loaded up the laptop, charged up my Zune player and got my purse in order. I'm ready to get busy traveling as my head is spinning with "did I do that, did I make that call?" This behavior is not new for me. My life is so busy, be it at work, at Drake or at home. The extra hour of daylight helped me today with the last of my projects. My friend Judy would say "the extra hour is more for the retailers." Judy, I helped out the economy today with a car wash and gas. Home- In 3 hours, I filled up my dad's red jeep, got it washed and picked him up at the airport at 8. This is a weird longstory short. My ... read more

North America » United States » Iowa » Des Moines March 10th 2009

Dateline Des Moines - March 10, 2009 I have been preparing for this trip since June of 2008. To begin my longstory short, I am a life long learner and traveler. I love to travel and traveling anywhere outside Iowa is my goal. To my Iowa friends and family, you know me as Ann. To my Trinidad family, you know me as Sandra. This too is a longstory. To begin my longstory short, I am a graduate of Drake University with a masters degree in public administration (MPA). I hold two other degrees (University of Northern Iowa and Allen School of Nursing) but I am most proud of my MPA degree. As a gift to myself, I enrolled in this Comparative Management course in 2003. I just wanted to travel to Europe. What I got out ... read more




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