Touts - are best defined as those who try to solicit something out of you often in a somewhat bold and brazen manner. I will add the words "highly persistent" to this definition. Tangier is a fairly unfriendly port town - tourists coming across on the ferry from Spain may find it quite difficult to escape its clutches, especially if you are not used to dealing with aggressive touts. The closest town I can think of to compare to Tangier is … [Read more...]
Dave’s Travel Photos Appear in Newspaper Insert
(3/28/02) Several of Dave's travel photos photos and travel descriptions recently appeared in a travel insert in the 2nd largest newspaper published in Israel. This newspaper has a publication of 850,000 newspapers per day. This travel insert was a piece to promote tourism to Israelites - highlighting select locations around the world. The particular photos used from Dave's Travel Corner were taken from one of his previous trips to Europe. … [Read more...]
Bangkok, Thailand – Restaurants
In Bangkok, some of the street food can be as good as any of the sit down restaurants and certainly much cheaper. In addition, Thai's pride themselves on cleanliness. Compared to our street food experiences in other countries where we have often gotten sick, we do not get sick from street food in Bangkok. In many parts of Bangkok street food vendors are seemingly everywhere and in certain districts they stay open very late. For example if you … [Read more...]
Chamonix, France – Aiguille du Midi
Aiguille du Midi, the world's longest and highest tramway, is well worth the price of admission. The views from the top of the Chamonix Valley, and of Mt. Blanc and the nearby mountains are spectacular. This natural rock spire is pictured in numerous places in Chamonix. Tourist shops sell paintings of it, postcards, and photographs. It is situated at about 12,600 feet in the shadow of Mount Blanc which rises another 3000 feet or so higher. If … [Read more...]
Europe
This article differs from a number of other travel articles on Dave's Travel Corner in that it is not written about a specific place, location, or destination. It is written from personal experience based upon numerous trips to Europe and is intended to give the independent traveler to Europe additional information about a diversity of activities or experiences across the continent. The initial countries we visited before writing this article … [Read more...]
Europe – Lodging, Hotels
For not having reservations pre-booked while traveling in Europe in mid summer, I had no issues booking hotels or hostels at the last minute. Before I arrived in Europe I made a list of hotels & hostels in every city I planned to stay the night in. Then I would then book various hotels while on the train or from downtime hanging around train stations or airports. Often times I would just show up in a city and find budget accommodation. Finding … [Read more...]
Europe – Restaurants
I ate at restaurants which ranged from luxurious to basic, to eating food from the street vendors. As with prices for other items and services, the prices of food at restaurants generally becomes more expensive moving from the south to the north. The exception to this was food in eastern Europe, which was a bit cheaper than the rest of Europe. Most restaurants charge for every little item. The only thing I don't think I was charged for was for … [Read more...]
Europe – The Locals
I think that whatever country you are traveling in you will meet the bad apples as well as the good oranges. On my first journey through Europe I met some very helpful people who went out of their way to give me advice, show me certain areas, or give me help. Then I met some overly stressed people who all they had to say was "stick it between your teeth". I could definitely tell a general difference in personality between different cultures … [Read more...]
Europe – Thieves
I put myself in a certain "stay away from people" - "trust absolutely no one" zone when I was in train stations or crowded areas. I would keep a good distance from other people and not let anyone get very close to me. My awareness of what was going on around me was extremely heightened to the point of paranoia when I had my backpack with me. If I stopped in a crowded area to look at a map or for some other reason I would always try to make sure … [Read more...]
Europe – Money
The Euro was introduced on January 1, 2002. 14 billion Euro banknotes and 55 billion coins were initially introduced to more than 300 million people in 12 countries of the European Union. 12 countries who initially converted were: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands Spain and Portugal, & Monaco. For a list of the Euro conversion rates (for the participating countries old … [Read more...]