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Been There ...
And We'd Do It Again

Past Travel Tips and Orchids & Onions
Rome | Switzerland | U.S. | Germany
General Travel Tips
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Our readers are at least as helpful as we try to be. You bring back useful and timely ideas. We'll share the best periodically. We've also more ideas about travel than fit neatly into our pages. We'll discuss some of those from time to time as well. Hopefully you'll find this page as up to date as your evening news.

If you have a travel tip to share, drop us a line.

October 7, 2001
Safety in Travel During Periods of Terrorism

From: Ed and Julie

It's now common for us to receive notes similar to this:

I would greatly appreciate your opinion regarding the safety in traveling to Rome, given the current state of concern for terrorism.

To start, a couple of statistics:

  • In the last five years or so, about 10,000 have been killed, worldwide, by terrorism, including September 11 victims.
  • By comparison, about 40,000 Americans each year are killed by traffic "accidents". To us, that seems to make it more likely we'd get crushed by a Firestone tire than by a collapsing building or crashing airplane.

We mean neither to diminish respect and sympathy for victims of terrorism nor minimize the threat terrorists pose to our way of life. Certainly, terrorism needs to be dealt with ... aggressively. But, statistically, one has a far greater chance (at least 20+ times as great) of dying in a traffic accident as in a terrorist incident. And we do wish more attention were paid to reduce the many thousands of avoidable highway deaths each year.

We have no ability to forecast the future. That said, in the past we've traveled on business and pleasure during Arab-Israeli wars, Vietnam, Bosnia, Serbia, Desert Storm, to Britain during periods of active IRA violence, the Somalia affair and times of multiple hijackings. Always without incident.

I have checked the Government (State Department) website and it does mention that there have been terrorist comments regarding threats to symbols of "American Capitalism".

Whatever those may be. Offhand, few come to mind in most places, excepting embassies, and virtually none would be on a top 40 list of things for most vacationers to visit. Certainly before embarking on a business trip to meet with a highly visible American firm overseas I would want to carefully consult with both my company's security experts and those of the company I'm visiting.

If one wants to be conservative one might wish to avoid US airlines and hotels owned by or part of American chains, etc. Personally, we find few places where American chain hotels are both well-situated and of especially good value for money. On the other hand we'd normally not want to avoid all US air carriers.

Partially tongue in cheek, one might wonder whether the risks are greater to be in the US or in Europe right now.

I'm curious if any of your readers have returned from Europe recently and if they experienced any safety concerns etc...

Absolutely none whatsoever ... all have reported delightful visits, and quite sympathetic individual Europeans.

We do hope you'll not let the black, tragic events of September eleventh deter you from visiting Europe. This is a new era, for certain. However, over the nearly 40 years we've been traveling overseas, we've been away from home before, during and immediately after many crises. We can't predict the future, of course. Our past experience, though, has been without reason for serious concerns about our safety during our travels.

All of the above notwithstanding, a decision to travel, at any time, is a personal decision. We think, for us, now is as good a time to travel as any. Others may not feel so. All we can do is give you our experiences, leaving the ultimate judgment to you.

September 17, 2001
More Destinations Added to TWEnJ?

From: Ed and Julie

It's common for us to receive notes that include thoughts like this:

I think you should cover all the famous tourist spots on your website like you have done for Switzerland and Rome.

The value of a website like this is two-fold.

  • We've spent more time, more often at the places about which we write than most vacationers, by far. We have knowledge and perspective that most visitors will never approach, although our perspective remains that of a "traveler" rather than an "expert".
  • We write about places we find the most enjoyable ... for us. An up-close-and-personal "best of Europe" compilation, if you will. We could certainly write about many other places we've visited, and even those we haven't. We'd rather, though, leave those spots to the folks who know them the best.

So, yes, we've been to Paris, London, Madrid, Helsinki and more, but we won't be writing about those any time soon.

We do hope you'll not let the black, tragic events of September eleventh deter you from visiting Europe, soon. This is a new era, for certain. However, over the nearly 40 years we've been traveling, we've been away from home before, during and immediately after many crises. We can't predict the future, but in the past, certainly, we've never had reason for serious concerns about our safety during our travels. Don't let the terrorists win!

August 23, 2001
Pages and Printers

From: Ed and Julie

We often get notes from readers about how many forests of trees they've devoured printing pages from our site. Like most else developed for the World Wide Web, we've published our pages with a computer display in mind rather than the printed page. Nonetheless, it's flattering to find our information seem so useful to many that they want to print them. Our pages, by now, have probably done more traveling in Europe than we have! As an example, "Lee" recently wrote:

I have enjoyed your travel website more than any other. I have printed all your information about Switzerland and will use it almost exclusively on our three week trip. You and Rick Steves will accompany us to the most beautiful country in the world.

We do receive a complaint a couple of times a year that our pages don't print properly on that reader's printer. They ask, "Can you please do something so we can print the pages out properly?" Obviously they're having a problem not experienced by most folks.

Unfortunately there's nothing we can do. One of the neat features of HTML (the 'language' in which this page is encoded, and the basis for the World Wide Web) is that the author doesn't have to worry about how every client system works. Think of the tens of thousands, or millions, of combinations of printers, browsers, computers, operating systems. The author not only doesn't have to worry, has virtually NO control at all over how things look at the other end.

This is occasionally frustrating to the author. Sometimes we care very much how things look, but we have little control how it all turns out. We design mainly for folks running very recent versions of IE or Netscape. Our pages look just a bit better on IE than Netscape. Nevertheless, in most cases everything is quite legible on an old computer with a Flexowriter for a printer running on an early Mac operating system using some cobwebby early version of Netscape or Mosaic.

It works this way. The page is coded in a generic way. The job of formatting it for presentation, whether on the screen or on a printer,is left to the client computer system. Authors worry about content; client systems worry about presentation.

So, if our pages don't look good when printed out on your system, we're sorry. But we'll have to ask you to have a few words with your printer, your browser, and their settings. Often you'll find the solution in the browser Page Setup settings. In both IE and Netscape go to
File|Page Setup and take a look at the selections for page size and margins.

In most cases you'll be able to find the right things to twiddle to get everything to print out nicely. In some cases you'll have less luck because of a fault or quirk somewhere in your system, whether software or hardware. We wish we could help overcome the problem, but it's completely out of our control, unfortunately.

August 19, 2001
More Switzerland ... Mainly Montreux

From: Stephen Olshewski

I just wanted to complete my previous note regarding my trip to Switzerland. From Zermatt we stopped in Montreux for a day and night on our way to fly home from Geneva. We were there right at the beginning of the two week long International Jazz Festival. We stayed at the Hotel Suisse Majestic, which was conveniently located right down by Lake Geneva and in the middle of the Jazz Festival.

You were right about the town not being that nice. But the 3 mile long promenade (walk-way) along the Lake was beautiful! We walked most of it while we were there, and were quite impressed by all the pretty flowers, trees and plants. A lot of nice hotels\buildings also are along the path. One day we took the path to the Chillon Castle, which we enjoyed exploring, and then took the trolley back to our hotel.

While our room at the Majestic was facing the town, un-air conditioned and hot, and very noisy at night; the third story terrace area was very nice, with a beautiful view of the lake. The buffet breakfast was quite good, set in an opulent room.

We were surprised that some guests had dogs, which they even took into the breakfast buffet room. A couple dogs even started fighting. We were surprised that the hotel allowed this. [Actually, dogs are a part of the scene in Europe, everywhere ... for better or for worse. TWEnJ]

Being in Montreux during the festival was fun. There were all sorts of vendors set up along the lake promenade selling all kinds of items, including many food vendors. There were a couple of band shells with free music, and mimes, etc.. All in all, lots of good free fun!

We spent one afternoon and night in Geneva, prior to flying home. We stayed at the 5 star President Wilson Hotel, for a weekend rate of $150.00. You were right about Geneva too. Very nice, clean city, but not a lot of atmosphere. It would probably have been nice to have seen the League of Nations, and other organizations, if they have tours.

That's all for now. I'd love to go back someday to Mürren and the Bernese Oberland area, and do more hiking and exploring! It's such a beautiful and spectacular area. I'd like to go back again in early Summer - we had great weather, and there were lots of wildflowers, and still lots of snow up on the mountain tops.

Thanks again for all your advice!

[While not Ed and Julie's favorite city, to say the least, many love Montreux. We've just added an article by a frequent visitor who is passionate about the city.]

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August 17, 2001
It's All Relative

From: Ed and Julie

Just the other day two of us were asked, "Just how spread out is Rome; how walkable is it?"

The first respondent replied that, "Rome is very spread out."

Ed replied, "Spread out is relative, I suppose."

We've always thought of Rome as pretty compact. It's less than a mile from the Trevi to the Colosseum. Perhaps a half a mile from the Trevi to Piazza Navona. That 1.5 mile circle encloses more than half of Rome's most important sights.

Virtually all of the important venues, with few exceptions, are between the Termini and St. Peter's, a distance of about three miles. The distances are  'as the crow flies', of course. Admittedly, not all Rome's streets are as straight as a crow flight.

One must remember that, for the most part, the areas of Rome you'll be most interested in seeing are pretty much the areas that were there 2,000 years ago. There was no metro then, no buses, no taxis. And, in fact, no carts, carriages, wagons or chariots were allowed in the city during the daytime, unless you were a vestal virgin. So it was very much, de facto, a walking city.

Crows or taxis or the metros or buses or chariots notwithstanding, we continue to think of Rome as quite walkable for most of us, and certainly not at all spread out.

August 10, 2001
Thanks for Switzerland Info

From: Stephen Olshewski

Thank you very much for all your advice on your website regarding traveling to Switzerland!

I recently went on a 9 day trip to Switzerland (in late June early July) with my girlfriend and followed a lot of your advice. You were right on the money so many times.

We stayed the first 1.5 days in Lucerne at Des Alpes, which was very conveniently located in the middle of "Old Town". We loved Lucerne's Old Town, the covered bridges, the crystal clear Reuss River and Lake Lucerne, and the beautiful church bells.

We did the Mt Pilatus Round Trip (Lake cruise, Cog Railway and Cable Car/Gondola) which was great! We even hiked around on top a little, and heard mountain cow bells for the first time.

We then spent 3 nights in Mürren, which was our favorite place in Switzerland. We stayed at the Blumental Hotel, with a very nice corner room with balcony overlooking the spectacular mountains. We had beautiful blue sky weather for 4 days. We went up to Allmenhubel and hiked the Northface Trail - it was perfect! We also went up to the Schilthorn around noonish (should go up early in the morning for clearest skies), and had mostly clear weather at first, and then the clouds started coming in. Very cool place to be. Did not want to leave. All in all we loved Mürren and the surrounding meadows and trails and we definitely want to go back.

We also went over to Wengen one day, and took the cable car to Männlichen. We did the hike over to Kleine Scheidegg which was spectacular! Had lunch with an awesome view at a restaurant just before Kleine Scheidegg. Then hiked up to Eigergletscher, and trained down back down to Wengen. We thought Lauterbrunnen and Wengen were nice, but thought Mürren much nicer!!!

We went to Zermatt next. The town was interesting - lots of shop and restaurants, but the surrounding towns and terrain were no where near as pretty as the Bernese Oberland area. Once again, you were right about this. The Bernese Oberland area is so much greener, lusher, and the styles of buildings nicer.

However, we do want to rave about Hotel Bella Vista! For a 3 star hotel, it was excellent! Great location, on the side of town and up a little, so you're in a quieter area with a great view of town and the Matterhorn. The owner and small staff were really nice, and interior of the hotel was bright, new, and very pretty (nicer than Blumental - which we also really liked). We had another great balcony room on the corner, with a clear view of the Matterhorn. And it only costs about $100.00 a night! with a real nice breakfast! If I ever go back, I'll want to stay there again.

August 6, 2001
Euroscams

From: Ed and Julie

The advancing conversion of most of Europe's money from the legacy currencies to the euro is, not surprisingly, offering opportunity for scam artists.

Keep your eyes open for those taking advantage of the uncertainty created in many folks' minds by the conversion to the euro, both eurozone resident and traveler. The currency may not yet be in circulation, but the scams are. Most affect residents, but travelers need to be alert.

As an example, consider a dinner bill for DEM100, about USD50. If the restaurant makes a 'mistake' and writes EUR100 on the credit card slip you'll find your dinner cost you almost 90 dollars. The overcharge would be far worse in most other eurozone countries. One understands if this happens once. If the restaurant does this a dozen times a week it's hardly an accident ... but it would be profitable for them.

Naive residents, and perhaps tourists, are being approached and offered an advantageous exchange rate for the "early" conversion of their legacy currency for the new euros. Only problem is, there are no euros in circulation yet ... except the counterfeit ones you'll get if you bite on this scam. Even after euros are out there are likely to be scammers offering "sidewalk special" exchange rates for legacy currencies in exchange for counterfeit euros.

Be on the lookout for counterfeit legacy banknotes as well. Travelers are generally unfamiliar with the proper appearance of 'foreign' currency, but the advancing euro adds another dimension. The massive amounts of bills that will be turned in after January 1 will suggest to counterfeiters and others an opportunity to slip 'hot' money and bogus bills past unsuspecting consumers and shopkeepers.

If you'll be traveling to the eurozone soon and are unfamiliar with the euro, you'll get yourself up to date with a gander at The Euro: A Primer for Travelers.

August 3, 2001
Just Back From Mürren

From: John Truesdale

A newly opened spot for budget and probably more youthful travellers in Gimmelwald: Sleep In The Hay. We talked to a number of young people who stayed there who spoke favorably about it.

I didn't find your site until after we returned, but found your suggestions in Mürren to be pretty much on target. We stayed at the Bellevue-Crystal and were very pleased with our accommodations and the on-site managers.

We did do several walks around the town after dark and found a lot of vacant rooms. This is a great area for hiking and just sitting back and doing nothing. We went all over the valley on our regional train pass including the Wengen-Männlichen-Grindelwald route. Unfortunately, it was on a day when the clouds were hanging low. On our last day, we could clearly see the station at the Jungfraujoch from the Grütschalp-Mürren train.

Highly recommend the Mürren side of the valley for a vacation within a vacation.

I agree that Rick Steves overrecommends Walter's place in Gimmelwald. But, I think that it may be worth a short stay at least once. I think that it has probably lost some of its charm over the years.

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Last Revision: October 7, 2001

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