|
Post by whollygoats on May 18, 2018 19:33:18 GMT
So, I happily came home from touring bits and pieces of eastern Europe. Pannonia and the northern Balkans, along the Danube River. A friend asked me online what my next objective is...and I shunted the question by telling them "out to my garden".
My garden is true enough, but it is what is it that calls me to leave my home and see what's over the horizon?
I ruminated some on it and came up with a set of possibles. As ever, they break down in to 'in-country' and 'overseas'.
I have a 'Four Corners' roadtrip on the back burner and have for years, now. A map of the 'Indian Country' graces my dining room table under the protective shield. This should be the next major exploration. It's been co-opted by two overseas adventures so far.
I desire to tour the Baltic...all around the Baltic, from Denmark to Helsinki and the coastal spots of interest in the countries around the Baltic basin.
The Tasman Sea tour...New Zealand and the southeast coast of Oz.
Andalusia and the Barbary Coast, from southern Portugal and Spain, Morocco, Tunisia, Sicily and Malta.
The Greek Islands, preferably with coastal Turkey and Istanbul.
The Illyrian coast...from Venice to Ionia, sailing the Adriatic.
The North Sea, again. But this time, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
In an aviation inspired gig, a flight to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, to ride some aircraft Buffalo Airways still operates.
To the US Air Force Museum in Wright-Patterson AFB, in Ohio.
The US Navy avaition museum in Pensacola, Florida (a winter get-away for me).
The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mt. Hope, Ontario, to ride one of more of their aircraft.
Way down the list are distant desires to see the likes of Merv and, in particular, Isfahan, but my government makes such utterly impossible.
Also down the list is Java, and Bali. In particular, I'd like to see Borobudur. It is the prospective climate, right ON the equator in tropical Indonesia, which scares me.
The Greek isles and Turkey has fallen pretty far and it is now much less enticing than it was as a destination just two years back, this has been countered with a rise in interest in the Adriatic.
Also climbing in interest is a return to France. I have not yet seen Brittany and would love to go to Carnac to see the standing stones and also visit the French St. Michael. Provence, the Rhone valley, Savoy, or the Cote d'Azure.
|
|
|
Post by Mari on May 19, 2018 17:01:24 GMT
There are so many places I still want to go. My computer shows me a picture every time I turn it on from all over the world. It has caused me to expand my wishes.
|
|
|
Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 4, 2018 11:56:11 GMT
Lots of places I want to see but my top place is still New Orleans, and I also want to really see New York, Western Australia and Tasmania.
|
|
|
Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 19, 2018 0:52:48 GMT
I was looking at Canada as a destination. It used to be one of my top places when I was younger. Plus, as a huge Anne of Green Gables fan I also want to see PEI one day. Sri Lanka is also looking good as a destination to meet in the middle with the in-laws. And I am pretty set on Lord Howe Island for our honeymoon. It's an island paradise, UNESCO heritage and only 300 people live there and they only allow 400 tourists max at any time. Bliss.
|
|
|
Post by Kye on Jun 19, 2018 3:13:59 GMT
Oooo, Canada! It's a big place though, so you'd have to narrow it down a bit. PEI is great --quite tranquil and pastoral (as described in the Anne books).
Lord Howe Island sounds lovely.
|
|
|
Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 19, 2018 4:01:43 GMT
Yep, very big! It does make it tricky because the closer part to us is the west part which is also the part with Rockies and Vancouver, which I really want to see. PEI of coure, and Montreal and Niagra Falls and all our friends are on the east side which is also far! We'll just have to go for a super long trip.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 20, 2018 19:00:21 GMT
Do the west coast, surface travel to the Rockies, then catch a flight in Calgary and fly to Toronto, do the Great Lakes area and then train to Halifax.
I did a lot of time in British Columbia as a youngster, because my father really liked it up there. I've seen the Columbia Icefields Highway several times and highly recommend the drive from Banff to Jasper, stopping at as many places as possible. If you actually go there, I'll let you in on my favorite little secret spot.
You could take the train all the way across the nation, but I'm not a good barker for the Great Plains provinces. I've seen some of the US equivalent and it doesn't excite me. Niagara is amazing and Toronto is fun. Montreal, of course, has Farther Kye and a lot of culture. It also has the best 'smoked meat' sandwich deli on the face of the planet. A bit further is Quebec City, which, in my estimation, is the out-and-out most romantic, and most European, city in North America. Then, it is on to the Maritimes....best time of year: autumn. This is 'leaf peeper' country, but other times are just as amazing. Halifax and St. John are both friendly, welcoming cities.
I think Canada is amazing, and British Columbia, as they advertise here, is SuperNatural. Plus, they have some of the nicest, most gracious folks I've run in to in my travels.
But most of my fellow locals have very little experience with that at all. They're more interested in the likes of LA, Lost Wages, and the bright lights, big city, sunny beaches draw. Sunny beaches are exceeding rare in Canada.
|
|
|
Post by Kye on Jun 20, 2018 21:31:46 GMT
Yeah, we all go to Cuba for the sunny beaches.
|
|
|
Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 22, 2018 0:40:43 GMT
I was thinking of going either in June or I guess September. But June gets me out of the coldest and shortest days of the year here, which I'm always up for. Plus we can incorperate both miney and Ronald's birthdays if we go June/July. In any case, this is a trip that likely won't happen for a couple years at least. I've heard Quebec City is romantic. It woud make my list. I defnitely have no intenion of training it across the country. I know how big it is! Even bigger than Australia! A big waste of time unles you're really into that sort of thing.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 22, 2018 0:49:51 GMT
I was thinking of going either in June or I guess September. But June gets me out of the coldest and shortest days of the year here, which I'm always up for. Plus we can incorperate both miney and Ronald's birthdays if we go June/July. In any case, this is a trip that likely won't happen for a couple years at least. I've heard Quebec City is romantic. It woud make my list. I defnitely have no intenion of training it across the country. I know how big it is! Even bigger than Australia! A big waste of time unles you're really into that sort of thing. June is pretty and when most of the tourists are on Canadian highways. September is drier in western Canada and too early to enjoy any foliage change in the Maritimes, which happens in mid- to late October. Past mid-September is good because it is 'shoulder' travel time in North America and most families are back involved in academic school year activities (which can clog museums, but not much else). I saw Niagara Falls in March (school break for teacher me) and that was an eye-opener for somebody who had always visited in summer.....there was three plus inches of accumulated ice on the metal railings around the Falls. I think everybody should visit Toronto in January/February to get a taste of the real Canuck lifestyle, Tim Hortons and all. It's brutal. ETA: September and after, autumn, is forest fire season in western Canada. Maybe even all of Canada. EATA: I'd encourage you to push it from June in to May. Western Canada will be thawed by then and you'll still avoid the nasty part the antipodean winter by going May into June. Schoolchildren are usually still in classes through most of May and much of early June. Once school releases for summer break, families are on the move en masse. We did the overnight 'Ocean Express' from Quebec City to Halifax in a sleeper. Compared to USer trains, the sleeper was wondrous. I would not discourage this means of covering that distance. But two to three full days crossing the plains and muskegs of central Canada is just self-abuse. Unless, of course, as you note, you are the kind of person who does that kind of thing. Y'know, the kind of person who books passage on the Long Straight to Perth.
|
|
|
Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 22, 2018 1:00:50 GMT
Only old people do that, and only if they get to travel first class.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 22, 2018 1:07:17 GMT
Only old people do that, and only if they get to travel first class. What? Train? On sleepers?
|
|
|
Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 22, 2018 1:15:59 GMT
The Indian-Pacific. The train that crosses Aus from Perth to Melb/Sydney. It's generally patroned by the older generation. There is a cattle class carriage but apparently it's horrendous. You have to sleep in a seat for 3 nights!
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 22, 2018 1:33:25 GMT
Yeah...And I imagine the scenery doesn't really change a whole lot. Take an airliner and you're there is two shakes.
And, remember, you're not going to be young forever.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 22, 2018 1:38:48 GMT
Oh...and summer is NOT the time you want to visit New Orleans. It has a notorious reputation for humid and when it is hot, it is sticky.
|
|
|
Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 22, 2018 2:48:11 GMT
Yeah, that's an issue. I was thinking of New Orleans as a 40th birthday trip, but my birthday is July so it's not a grand idea. Although, I don't mind hot and humid the way you do. Maybe I should do Canada for my 40th instead.
|
|
|
Post by tangent on Jun 22, 2018 14:33:06 GMT
Flights were horrendously expensive in my early 20s and by the time I was 28, I had a family to look after. We had almost no money for travel abroad either with or without the family until I was 38 and even then we were limited to cheap package holidays in the Mediterranean. So I haven't travelled the world and it's becoming less likely I will do so.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 22, 2018 16:48:51 GMT
I remember those air fares. After my first foray to the UK in 1980, I didn't think I'd ever get back. But I went and married a traveler. She took me to Israel and then back to the UK, on her terms. Airfares were still daunting, then. When I flew to and from my Silk Road tour (SF to Japan, St.Petes to SF), I flew 1st class and it cost me more for those flights than it did for the whole 26 day tour.
Our last two trips to Europe have seen falling airfare prices and we have found central and eastern Europe to be quite inexpensive.
We're considering returning to do the Adriatic.
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Jun 22, 2018 18:48:39 GMT
When I did my penniless-student trip to Australia I flew Garuda Indonesian Airlines to save money. They no longer exist. As I recall the flight stopped in Zurich, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Jakarta.
|
|
|
Post by Kye on Jun 22, 2018 19:02:51 GMT
I really shop around a lot for deals in airfare. Luckily, my go-to tour company has a department that finds and books low cost flights. I mostly use their service.
|
|
|
Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 23, 2018 10:48:29 GMT
Flights are pretty cheap thsese days. Especially to Europe. I looked at Canada and it's more expensive! Flying to Montreal is the same distance as flying to Amsterdam from here.
I booked my next travel destination. Just a short distance away. Ronald and I are going to spend the last weekend in August in the Grampians and do some hiking. It's a 3 hour drive away.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 23, 2018 13:39:47 GMT
Flights are pretty cheap thsese days. Especially to Europe. I looked at Canada and it's more expensive! Flying to Montreal is the same distance as flying to Amsterdam from here. I booked my next travel destination. Just a short distance away. Ronald and I are going to spend the last weekend in August in the Grampians and do some hiking. It's a 3 hour drive away. You're only three hour drive away from the Grampians? That's handy to get to Scotland.
|
|
|
Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 24, 2018 8:19:54 GMT
Wales is closer (the new south kind).
|
|
|
Post by tangent on Jun 24, 2018 12:26:28 GMT
Grampians or Gariwerd?
The Grampians were named after the Grampian range in Scotland. There is also a Grampian range in New Zealand, a Grampian county in Philadelphia and there used to be a Grampian boat builder in Canada. It seems the name has got around.
But the aborigines called it Gariwerd. Not so onomatopoeic.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Jun 24, 2018 14:13:46 GMT
The Grampians were named after the Grampian range in Scotland. There is also a Grampian range in New Zealand, a Grampian county in Philadelphia and there used to be a Grampian boat builder in Canada. It seems the name has got around. In short....Anywhere there have been Scots emigrants. I liked the park stroll to the Hoe in Plymouth. They had a map with all the Plymouths worldwide in one of the pedestrian tunnels.
|
|
|
Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 25, 2018 2:25:08 GMT
I like the name Gariwerd but it hasn't caught on much yet, the way Uluru has for what was formerly Ayers Rock. Last time we where there I did notice it signed a lot more. Eventually it should get there.
|
|
|
Post by Mari on Jun 25, 2018 16:47:15 GMT
At the moment I don't really care where, as long as we get to go away. With no babysitter for the cats and beardagame, it's looking bleak though.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Aug 30, 2018 20:57:46 GMT
WOO-HOOO...
I got my wish book. The Overseas Adventure Travel catalog came with their latest offers.
Man...Since it started with Europe, I was pretty much read to sign on to any one of the first seven tours they advertised. They've a Baltic tour, a Norwegian fjord tour, two Adriatic tours, and even a Greek Island/Turkish coast tour. There was even a British islands tour which I found interesting, although I'd already been to seven of the eleven stops. The Hebrides are still calling to me, too.
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Aug 31, 2018 8:28:12 GMT
Those all sounds good. Kye's done the Baltics ... and you've got to keep up with the good Farther, surely.
Norwegian fjords appeal to me.
|
|
|
Post by Kye on Aug 31, 2018 12:01:28 GMT
I'm going to Mexico in January. I've been to a couple of resorts in Mexico, but never a real exploration type trip. That will be very different!
|
|