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Published: August 15th 2013
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So here I am, at home, in Madison, Wisconsin, writing my final blog.
On my way home, I traveled on a United 777 from London Heathrow to New York. The Boeing aircraft, like all long-haul equipment, had a personal video device for each passenger. The video options included the ability to track the location of the airplane by GPS. The location was, of course, superimposed over a constantly changing map (see the attached photo). As the aircraft neared North America, I noticed something odd (at least I found it odd). The map of North America marked the locations of Toronto, New York, Houston, Miami, Cleveland and Panama City, Florida. Panama City??? Really??? The map did not mark Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Dallas or Chicago ... but it did include Panama City? Panama City, Florida??? Does anyone else think the software engineer had a "totally awesome" spring break about 10 years ago?
I want to share some final thoughts on my trip and on the blog, in no particular order.
First, thank you for reading. I am truly humbled that so many of you have taken the time to follow my adventures.
Second, if you have not read
the Stone Family Blog, then please go back and read www.travelblorg.org/Bloggers/The-Stone-Family/ My adventure started with the Stone Family and even though I don't appear (for reasons that are explained in this blog), my exploits for the first 3 weeks of my trip are documented in that blog.
Third, speaking of the Stone Family, I would like to thank them for allowing me to show off my favorite city, London, and for allowing Allison and Tyler to hang with me for another week in Europe. I really do appreciate it.
I am a camera guy. I have a nice camera, and a bunch of fancy lenses, all packed neatly (or as neat as I get) into a large camera-backpack. But I did not want to carry all that gear around Europe, so I sent my camera and my camera-backpack home with the Stones. The photos in this blog were taken with my IPhone. I am honestly surprised and extraordinarily pleased with the quality of the photos. Thank you Steven Jobs.
Favorite day of trip ... Wimbledon, London
Favorite city ... London
Favorite new city ... Krakow, Poland
Honorable mentions ... Lucerne, Switzerland, Berlin, Germany, Prague,
Czech Republic and Salzbug, Austria.
Best meal ... amazing eggs benedict (breakfast for dinner) at a cafe in the Latin Quarter, Paris (the waiter also clued us into some great dance clubs)
Best beer ... Berlin
Most expensive city ... Lucerne, Switzerland ... no other city (including London and Paris) were even close
Most inexpensive city ... Krakow, Poland
Special recognitions ... (1) Fat Tire Bike Tours in Paris, Berlin and London. If you travel in Europe, I urge you to see if Fat Tire Bike Tours are available. Without exception, each tour was fun and informative. As you know from this blog I tried other bike tours in other cities and they were nowhere near as good. Fat Tire has it down. Take advantage! (2) The K+K Hotels. K+K is a small Eastern European family of boutique hotels with accommodations in most large Eastern European cities and in some Western European cities (the K+K George Hotel in London is my favorite hotel in the world). High quality, modestly priced and a first-class English Breakfast is included with each hotel room. I recommend the experience.
Things that made me smile ... Maoam Candies, which
are delicious ... Lisa Stone's invention of the best term ever, "Oyster Up," meaning to add money to your London Underground Oyster Card ... guys in garish suits ... Tyler Stone's frantic attempt to excuse his single-handedly eating of an entire bag of fresh grapes by claiming he "did not want them to spoil" ... Bermondsey Tube Stop ... not being able to find the Eiffel Tower because we were standing underneath it ... walking through the pouring rain in Salzburg ... Lisa Stone's frustration with European appliances ... helados and cervezas in every city ... realizing the GPS has taken us 130 kilometers away from where we wanted to be ... The Alps ... Fast Trains ... frisbee in the park, with a less than aerodynamic frisbee ... floras and markets ... sitting on a train and seeing castles nearly as often as we see red barns when driving around Wisconsin ... making dinner choices by pointing to things being eaten at nearby tables ... Ed Stone's delight at discovering he was entitled to a rebate of the 20% VAT tax he paid on every tee shirt and hoodie purchased by his family, and his admonition that I not
tell Lisa, lest she think it was some sort of "Sale" ... Proper English Breakfasts ... Hungarian goulash and chicken paprika ... Nag's Head Pub, Covent Garden, London ... the look on my face when I met Maribeth Gettinger' college roommate ... and there are more, so many more.
But for now, I will say thank you again for reading.
There will be more trips and more blogs ... but for now ... YOU HAVE BEEN A GREAT AUDIENCE ... THANK YOU .... GOOD NIGHT!
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Jed
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Awesome
It's been a treat to follow you through Europe, Jeff. Thanks for taking all of us along!