Your Personal First Aid Kit — Over-the-Counter Meds

You are on vacation, in a foreign country, enjoying a walking tour of a new city. You grabbed a quick and tasty lunch from a sidewalk vendor. But, as the afternoon progresses, you feel the onset of an upset stomach and you just know that you will soon be dealing with a bad case of diarrhea! Your dream vacation is quickly turning into the vacation from you-know-where.

If you were at home, you might just call your doctor; but more-than-likely, you would just go to the medicine cabinet or run down to the local pharmacy and buy an over-the-counter remedy such as Pepto-Bismol to deal with the problem. Even if you were traveling in the US, you would still feel comfortable dealing with the problem. Of course, if the symptoms persisted, you would surely call your doctor.

But, you are not in the US. You are in Mexico or Germany or France, etc… You cannot read or speak the language other than to say, “¿Dónde está el baño, por favor?” or “Wo ist die Toilette, bitte?” or “Où est la toilette, s’il vous plaît?”.

Did you bring your trusted over-the-counter meds with you on this trip? If not, do you know how to find something locally to take care of your problem? Does your travel first aid kit contain something besides bandaids, Neosporin or Bactine and your favorite sun block to keep from getting a sun burn?

For our discussion today, I will only be discussing how you might be better prepared to deal with common problems that you have always treated with available over-the-counter meds. I am not a doctor and I am not giving medical advice; just sharing some common sense thoughts with you. I am just reminding you that in addition to the prescription drugs that you are sure to bring on your trip, in the original containers with the prescription info label still intact, have you thought about how you will deal with life’s daily problems of cuts, bruises, insect bites, sunburn, headaches, sleepless nights, or nausea, because it may be very difficult to find what you need in Timbucktu.

Before I get completely into this discussion, please keep a few very important things in mind.

Have you used these meds at home? Being on vacation in a foreign country is not the time or place to be trying out something new. I am sure you have seen the commercials on TV about this new drug or that new drug. You know what I mean. The one that says it will cure your depression, but the side effects are thoughts of suicide, etc… Over-the-counter drugs can have side effects too. Many of the anti-itch preparations can cause contact dermatitis which can be worse that the itching you started with. If you have not tried it at home, don’t take it on the trip. An allergic reaction could be much worse than your original problem.
Have you read the labels of your commonly used over-the-counter drugs? It is too easy to overdose on something if you take more than one medication for what may appear to be two different symptoms.

For example, let’s say that it is the end of a very long day of viewing the tulips and all the other beautiful flowers at Keukenhof Gardens in Amsterdam. You are developing a slight rash on your arm where you brushed up against some prickly plants earlier in the day, you have a splitting head ache, maybe from the wine at dinner, compounded by your allergies to all the pollen at the Gardens.

You rub on some generic anti-itch cream to stop the itching. Now, all you really want to do is to take a Benadryl for your allergy symptoms and get some sleep so you will quit scratching your arm. You take a couple of Generic Tylenol PM and go off to bed.

Guess what, you just took three doses of the same medication. You took a 25mg capsule of Benadryl for the allergy symptoms. You also rubbed the same thing on the hives on your arm with the anti-itch cream. Your anti-itch cream contains as it’s active ingredient, Diphenhydramine Hydrocloride. That is Benadryl, too. And, if that is not enough, you should know that the sleep aid in the Tylenol PM is another 25mg of Benadryl in each caplet. If you had read the package for any of the three products, they all say that they contain Diphenhydramine Hydrocloride and that you should not use it if you are taking any other product that contains the same ingredient, topically or orally.

Now that you know that generic Tylenol PM contains Benadryl, maybe you don’t even need to bring the generic Tylenol PM along on the trip. If you are already packing Benadryl and generic Tylenol, you are all set.

Before I leave the topic of Benadryl, keep in mind that in Amsterdam it may still be considered a controlled substance. Many countries have different rules on drugs than we do in the USA. Check with your doctor to be sure you can take it with you.

So, rather than to tell you what you should bring along, I will talk about what I bring along when I travel.

As you might have guessed, I always travel with Pepto-Bismol. I take the caplets rather than the liquid or chewables. Of course, I always have Excedrin and Tylenol or generic replacements.

Catching a cold or dealing with allergies when you are on vacation is a real pain in the back side, so I always bring along the meds I am used to using.

Based upon the second scenario above, you could also guess that I bring along Benadryl or a generic copy of it and the anti itch Benadryl cream.

I usually carry two types of anti-itch cream. One is the Benadryl cream above and the other will be the Hydrocortizone cream such as Cortizone 10 in the photo below. In Europe, I found that you can only get a 0.5% cortisone cream over-the-counter, but here in the US, it is a 1% cream. Below you will see what we picked up in Germany and France as well as the US brand that we usually bring.

If you don’t use Cortizone or Benadryl creams, maybe you use the aloe vera products. Here is what I bring along, especially if I am going to be enjoying time in the sun. I find that I want to have some aloe gel after a long day in the sun or wind.

With that background in mind, what do you look for when you are in a foreign country and you didn’t bring along your personal over-the-counter first aid kit? Well, first of all, if you are still in Amsterdam suffering from allergies, forget about finding Benadryl in the local pharmacy as an over-the-counter medication. I read recently that you cannot get it without a doctor’s prescription. You can buy pot over-the-counter in Amsterdam, but not Benadryl. You will need to ask for a generic antihistamine for your allergy problem.

Fortunately for you, most pharmacies have someone working there who can speak a little English so you can still go in and ask for an antihistamine, or a cold medicine or an allergy medicine. I have no idea about what you will get, but it won’t be what you are used to taking. The best plan here would be to have brought some along on the trip. I have read that in parts of Europe you might ask for or look for Benocten or Nautamine as a substitute, but I suggest that you ask your personal physician about these products to make sure.

The best solution is to have planned ahead. I would always recommend that before you travel you set up an appointment with your doctor. Tell your doctor what you take in the way of over-the-counter meds and ask for recommendations for similar products in the countries where you will be traveling. As noted above, make sure you know the active ingredients on the products you use and I would suggest that you even write them down so that you can share that info with a pharmacy if it is necessary. There is also a website that you can use, http://www.drugs.com/international/ that will allow you to type in the name of the medicine you are looking for and will provide info about what to look for in another country.

When you meet with your personal doctor to make sure that you are up-to-date with any needed shots; he may refer you to the Travel Clinic in the hospital. You can download a list of required shots from the Department of State website for the countries you will be visiting.

I would also make sure to get my doctor’s phone number and email address so that I could make contact if necessary. It is amazing how easy it is to take a photo, of the hives for example, and email it directly to your doctor so that he or she can see what you are dealing with when you make contact from your smart phone while on vacation in Germany or France or wherever you are visiting.

The bottom line here is to plan ahead. Do your homework so that you really know what over-the-counter meds you are currently taking so that you can determine if there are generic equivalents available and exactly what is in each of them. Yes, I know that the names of the drugs are long, complicated and difficult to say, but they are easy enough to write out so that you can see if you are accidentally putting yourself into an overdose situation by taking what you thought were safe over-the-counter meds. They may have been safe when taken individually, but in combination, there could be issues.

One final comment about medical issues while traveling abroad. If you are on a cruise, and you have a medical issue that causes you to break out in hives or some other malady so that you look like you may be contagious and you could infect the rest of the passengers, don’t be surprised if they confine you and your family to your cabin and ultimately put you off the boat in the next port and refuse to let you back on.

Did you check to see if your medical insurance covered you while in a foreign country? Probably not. Most of us don’t think to do that. Can you just imagine being in that situation?

Here you are, stranded in a foreign country, you don’t speak the language, you are ill, don’t know how to find a doctor or hospital. You don’t have any extra money to cover your hospital or medical expenses or a hotel room and meals for the rest of the family. Hopefully, you did buy trip insurance that will cover your medical issues in a foreign country as well as get you back home when you have recovered. Think about that the next time your travel agent asks you if you want to buy trip insurance. If you don’t have an extra few thousand dollars in the bank, you could be up the creek without the paddle.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Simplify Your Vacation — Buy Your Train Tickets Online

A major part of our planning process is to make sure that we have all of our connections such as airline reservations, train tickets, etc… pre-purchased before we leave home. Of course, you can have your travel agent do that for you, which is one of the many reasons to use a travel agent.

If you are the independent type and don’t use a travel agent, then at least follow their lead and make your reservations and purchase your reserved tickets before you leave home. Make sure that you give yourself plenty of lead time, at least a month or two, so that the tickets can be shipped to you. That way you know that you have a seat on the airplane or train and won’t be going standby or with an open ticket. Once you start looking, you will find everything you need on Rail Europe.

We recently took a grand vacation to Europe that involved a flight to Zurich, Switzerland, a train trip from the airport to the city of Zurich, a bus tour to the Alps, a train trip to Basel, a river cruise down the Rhine to Amsterdam, two bus tours plus an on-off bus tour and a canal cruise in Amsterdam, the high speed train to Paris, intercity train and subway to our hotel, several trips on the subway, an on-off bus tours of Paris. the intercity train to the airport, and finally the flight back home.

Over 90% of all of the tickets were purchased and in our hands before we left home. No fuss, no muss. No worrying if we will be able to get from point A to point B or how to do it.

So, I will walk you through the process for getting tickets for your train travel in Europe just in case you don’t want to use my services as a travel agent to do it for you.

The first job, of course, is to decide where you are going and when you are going. For our recent trip to Europe, everything revolved around the Romantic Rhine River Cruise with Viking River Cruises. The cruise was scheduled from May 5th to May 12th. To deal with jet lag, we flew to Zurich early, leaving home on the 2nd of May.

Here is where the first issue comes up. We arrived, because of the time difference, at about 11:00 on the 3rd of May. So, make sure to double check for the local time. That meant that we needed a train or a tram ticket from the Zurich Airport to the City of Zurich at about noon. I wanted to take the train because I was going to be taking the train from the Central Station to Basel in a couple of days, and I wanted to be familiar with the train station. I also considered taking the tram if it would deliver me directly to the hotel.

I Googled, “train from Zurich airport to Zurich Central Station” to locate the info that I needed. I also read several of the posts to get some insight from other travelers. After some searching I discovered that I could take the #10 tram and it would deliver me directly to the hotel. It would take about 30 to 45 minutes because of all of the stops enroute. The train would get to the central station in about 10 minutes. Since our hotel was only a few blocks from central station, we opted to take the train.

Almost everything you need to know about trains is found on the Rail Europe website. Here was the site that we used for additional information. Just fill in the blanks, and order your ticket, but don’t forget to look at the fine print. After looking at the fine print, I discovered that there would be an $18 fee to order the tickets and have them sent to me. That combined with the fact that the trains ran every 15 minutes or so, left me to decide that we would buy our tickets when we arrived at the airport. I just had to make sure that I had Swiss Francs available to make the purchase. I will talk more about Swiss Francs and Euros in another blog post.

So, even though I am not booking this part of the trip before leaving home, I am not done yet. I still want to know how to get from the arrivals gate at the air port to the departure gate for the train. More homework.

To find out about getting from the airport to the train, I went back to my original Google search and found the link for Swiss Federal Railways – Zurich Airport. After clicking on this site I found that the train travel center was located beneath the airport. Looks like all-in-one service from this airport. I also found that the tram also runs every 15 minutes as well. I spent a little extra time on the airport site to check out the info on getting through customs. Now, I have done my homework and know that it will be an easy transition from the airplane to the train.

I also spent a little extra time online learning about the Central Station in Zurich. I found that there was a complete shopping center under the train station, including a grocery store, bakery, deli, etc… Our favorite was the Migros grocery store. We saw them every we went in Switzerland. Not mom and pop stores like we would look for in France, but very convenient and with decent prices. We picked up fresh bread, pastries, wine and cheese to take back to our room.

They also had a separate entrance for their Migros Take-Away, a deli where you could get sandwiches to go. Great for taking on the bus trip to the Alps.

For the next leg of the journey, I went back to the Rail Europe website and checked the schedules for the train from Zurich to Basel, our next major connection. Just like before, I typed in the from and to cities and found fares from about (25 Euros) $35 to $48 for economy and up to $74 for comfort seating per person. The trip would take about an hour. There were very frequent trains so I wasn’t too worried about getting tickets. I checked into the Basel area and found that there was more than one train station, so I checked to see which station would be closest to the pier where we were getting on the ship. The ship was closer to Basel Bad Bf than it was to Basel SBB, but it would require a transfer to an intercity train and it cost more, and the baggage would be more of a hassle, so I opted to take the train to the Basel Central Station and then take the taxi to the pier. A quick check on the taxi fares showed that it would be about $35 Swiss Francs, total for both of us.

The last major connection would be from Amsterdam to Paris France. Back to the Rail Europe site once again. Searching from Amsterdam Central Station to Paris Gare du Nord shows that we would be using the Thalys Rail Service for this trip. The cost for economy was from $124 to $206.

We did book this one online because we wanted reserved seats for the longer trip and I wanted my tickets in hand before leaving home. Also, I wanted to make sure that we were going forward, not backward. If you are traveling as a family with 3 or 4 people, you can get facing seats with a table in the middle if you want. (see the photo above) Regular seats have a drop down tray table just like an airplane. Just like ordering airline tickets online, you just fill in the blanks, provide the credit card info, and you are finished. The $18 fee for having the tickets sent to me was worth it to know that it was already paid for and we did not have to worry about getting a seat on the day we wanted to travel.

Always get to the train station early so that you don’t have to rush. We made sure to stop by the train station a day or two before we were leaving to find out where we would be catching the train. In fact, unlike air travel, you can actually go out to the loading platform where your train will leave from to really get the lay of the land. We also found out where to look on the side of the carriage, next to the door, to see about where to expect our carriage the next day so that we were there and ready to go when the train arrived for us. Just hop on, put your big luggage on the rack, sort of like the one on the airport shuttle, and take your carry-on back to your seat and put it in the overhead area just like on an airplane.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Study the Metro Map Before You Leave Home

One of the joys of travel in Europe is that they have a great public transit system. In fact, on our trip to Europe, we did not rent a car. All of our travel was done on public transit, and it really was much easier that I thought it would be. Just make sure that you have Euros in your pocket beforehand. More about planning for that part of your trip in another blog post.

The key is to study the info available about the Metro system before you leave home. My wife bought me Fodor’s Paris 25 Best and Fodor’s Amsterdam 25 Best. Both have city maps as well as Metro maps. I made sure to have the Metro map in my pocket at all times. (Below is a copy of the map provided by the Metro since I did not want to copy Fodor’s.) Make notes so that you really know what you will be doing, how you will buy tickets, what you can buy before you leave home, etc… Nothing is worse than standing in a station and not knowing what to do. You watch people around you going up to the ticket machines, putting in their money and buying their tickets. If you did not do your homework, you would be lost unless you already live in a big city and use public transit everyday. Your only issue may be which lines to take to get where you want to go. If you are from the San Francisco area, it is like riding the BART train. You buy the appropriate ticket from the machine, slip it into the slot at the turn style, take your ticket when it pops up and walk on through.

Another advantage of studying the Metro map before you leave home, is that you can better plan which hotel to use based upon access to the transit system. I discovered after studying the transit map that in some locations, as many as three different trains intersected which would allow you to pick the appropriate train to go to different parts of Paris for sight seeing rather than to get on one train, go to another station and change trains to get where you wanted to go. You may still have to do that, but if you have three to chose from at one location, you have simplified the process. In Paris, we chose to stay where the #8, #6, and #10 lines intersected at the LaMotte-Picquet Grinelle station.

Since we arrived in Paris at Gare du Nord on the high speed train from Amsterdam, we had to buy a ticket from there to our final destination (Not like the movie, but where we were staying). It was as easy as walking up to the counter and asking for a ticket to Grenelle, or pointing at the map to where you want to go if you don’t speak French.

It would also be very helpful if you learned a little of the language before the trip. If you are not into learning the language, you can use Google Translate to type out your question and let it translate for you. Print it out and bring it with you.

For example, since we arrived in Gare du Nord, I would have typed the following into Google Translate, “I want to buy a ticket from Gare du Nord to Grenelle,” and it will give you “J’ai besoin d’un billet de la Gare du Nord à Grenelle, s’il vous plaît”. Print that out before you leave home and hand it to the person at the ticket counter.

The ticket covers your passage South on the “RER B2” train and the connecting trip on the metro. The cost was less than 10 Euros per person. If you type that same statement into the regular Google search, you will find postings from several other travellers who can walk you through taking the B2 train South to Denfert-Rochereau, then walking to the #6 line to travel west toward Etoile. Lots of stairs – so I hope you packed light. If you don’t want to go to that much trouble, maybe you should just get a taxi. Give them the name of your hotel and be prepared to pay closer to $100 Euros for the taxi, plus the cost of each bag.

The other thing is to learn is how to chose which train and which direction the train is going. You may be able to see that you want to be on the blue line, but when you look at the signs, the names of the station you see listed may not be the one you want to go to. In Paris, for example, they list the name of the last station on the line for each direction. If you look at the map, you will see the Number 8 (Purple) line in Paris has the name Balard for one direction and Creteil Pointe du Lac for the other direction (although it only shows Creteil on the signs at the station for the direction). The Number 6 (light green)line terminates at Charles de Gaulle Etoile (although it only shows Etoile on the signs at the station for the direction) on one end and at Nation at the other. The Number 10 (yellowish gold) line terminates at one end at Boulogne-Pont de St. Cloud on one end and Gare d’Austerlitz on the other. All we had to know to get back to our station at Grenelle was where we were in relation to it and then jump on the right train. You can see from the close up of the map below, where the #6, #8 and #10 line intersected at Grenelle. You will also be able to see the terminus at one end of the #6 at Charles de Gaulle Etiole (This is not the airport. Charles de Gaulle was just a popular guy) and #8 at Ballard.

Click this link for a map that you can enlarge. paris-metro-mini-map-2014

Make sure that you have already purchased tickets to simplify things. We bought a carnet of 10 tickets, 5 for each of us, for our daily travels about town as soon as we got off the train at the Grinelle station. We had to pick up a couple extras when we decided to take in more sights. Below, you see an example of a regular ticket on the Paris Metro. I think they only cost about 1.70 Euros per ticket and they are good throughout the whole center part of Paris. If you will be there for a few weeks, you may want to buy a Pass rather than individual tickets. I figured that we would use 10-20 tickets during the time we were there, a couple per person per day.

Don’t forget to look at the front of the train when you hear it arriving at the station. Sometimes there are two different trains using the same line. For example, the intercity train, the “B” line, has two trains going north, B3 andB5 and two going south, B2 and B4. When you are headed to Charles De Gaule airport from downtown Paris, you want to make sure to get on B3, not B5 or you will end up in Mitry-Claye, where ever that is. You won’t have an airplane waiting for you when you get there and you will have to buy another ticket to get back to Paris, then another ticket to get to the airport. Hopefully you will still make your flight.

Finally, make sure that you know which terminal you will be flying out of when you head to the airport. For example, if you are taking the B3 line to Charles De Gaule from downtown Paris, it makes stops at each terminal. If you get off at the wrong terminal, you will have to take the airport shuttle to the other terminal, dragging your luggage along when you do (Yes, this is the voice of experience.)

If you plan to visit Paris, here is a nice video about France worth viewing.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Before and After the Cruise–Do it Yourself or Buy a Packaged Deal

No matter what kind of cruise you plan to take, it is always a great idea to plan to arrive in port at least a day early to get over any jet lag and to make sure that a flight delay won’t cause you to miss your ship.

Once you accept the need for the early arrival, you now need to consider arriving a couple of days early so that you can take in the sights of the port city. Sort of a mini vacation before you start your cruise.

Do you want to do this on your own, or do you want to be fully pampered? If you do it on your own, you will have to take care of your airline reservations, your transfers (taxi or shuttle) to your hotel, and the subsequent transfers to the ship the following day or even a couple of days later. You also need to make sure that all of this time is covered by your travel insurance so that any problems won’t come out of your pocket.

The same set of issues come up at the other end of your cruise, but remember that the larger the ship the more time it will take to clear the ship and head to the airport. All of that adds stress that you just went on vacation to relieve. I would suggest that you really make the best of your vacation and add a little time to each end of your cruise so that you can enjoy each port and so that you can leisurely arrive at the ship and so that you can leisurely disembark as well.

The real question is – do you want to plan all of this yourself or do you want to let the cruise line take care of it all? Generally, it may be a little cheaper to do it yourself, but it will be a lot easier to let the cruise line do it all.

Quite often, many cruise lines, especially if you are cruising in Europe, will give you special prices on airfare if purchased with your cruise, and they will arrange that airfare to fit around your before or after cruise stay in the port city. They will also take care of all transfers of luggage from the ship to your port city hotel. Additionally, they will be able to set up shore excursions in your port cities so that you will be able to see the local sites.

If that is not enough, the better companies, such as Viking Cruse Lines, will have someone there to meet you and to lead you through the process and they will also be available at your hotel should you encounter any issues. Although, more for the adventure and the experience of doing it the hard way, I booked all of my before and after cruise activities myself for our most recent European vacation, my neck and back still aches from lugging the suitcases from the ship to trams to trains to hotel rooms.

The next time, I will follow the lead of my friends on our Viking Romantic Rhine River Cruise and let them handle all the work. If you are less adventurous or if you don’t really want to have to lug your suitcases around as you go from air travel to train travel to subways or taxis, etc… I would suggest that you opt for the cruise line’s before and after the cruise offerings.

Friends that we met on the cruise did both and we have exchanged emails since returning home and they had nothing but wonderful compliments to Viking River Cruises for their experiences before and after the cruise.

For example, most our recent cruise, the Romantic Rhine River Cruise from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, was with Viking River Cruises. They provide a 2-night Lucerne package for $599 per person and a 2-night Amsterdam package for $499 per person. They provide all transfers from airport to hotel to ship and from ship to hotel then to airport on the other end. They also provide something that is very important: a real live meet and greet person wearing a Viking River Cruises red jacket and signs so that it will be easy for you to connect with them. All you need to worry about is your carry-on and going through customs. They will walk you through everything else. They have also set up excursions at each end of the cruise as well. Visit the world-renowned museums featuring works by the Dutch Masters in Amsterdam and explore the traditional Swiss town along the banks of Lake Lucerne with its dramatic Alpine backdrop.

Best of all, is that with Viking River Cruises they regularly offer 2 for 1 pricing on their cruises; and they also provide discounts for air fare on the all-inclusive trips. You will also find that they include beer and wine with lunch and dinner without any additional cost and they provide excursions in each port, also without any additional costs to you. If you did not see enough with the provided excursions, they do provide additional excursions at some ports at an reasonable additional cost.

For more information about their cruises, please spend some time on our website at www.TeamEdwardsTravel.com to look at the videos. Then, click the banner and it will take you to the Viking River Cruises website where you will find more information about their cruises. We will be happy to make your reservations for you.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Planning The Trip of a Lifetime, A European River Cruise

Have you ever dreamed of taking a European River Cruise? You see them advertised on TV more and more these days. We have been on large ocean cruises, but wondered what it would be like to take a river cruise.

I did my homework and finally decided that my wife and I would have a wonderful time celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary on a Romantic Rhine River Cruise. I checked out all of the various companies that cruise this waterway looking for the one that I thought would best meet our needs. I also talked with friends who have taken river cruises and was not surprised that they all had their favorite cruise lines. Some recommended Viking, some AMA Waterways and some Avalon.

We got more recommendations for Viking than the others combined. I then went to several seminars at our local travel agency office that were put on by the river cruise companies before finally deciding to book our trip of a lifetime on Viking River Cruises. Of course, making that decision was the easy part.

Now, we had to decide what we really wanted to see, when was the best time to go to see these sights, how much time we wanted to travel, if we wanted to do a before and or after cruise add-on that we could purchase from the cruise company, which airline, etc… The other things to plan ahead were train tickets, having Swiss Francs and Euros in our pocket before the trip, and of course, learning about the tram or subway systems in the cities we planned to visit. It was almost getting to be too many things to think about, but as they always said when I was a Boy Scout, “Be Prepared”; so I always plan ahead.

Our other consideration was that if we were going to spend the dollars to fly that far, we were going to get more out of the trip, so we planned for three days in Zurich before the cruise to deal with jetlag and then three days in Amsterdam so that we could visit Keukenhof Gardens and see the sights. We added 5 days in Paris to really make it a trip of a lifetime. So, back to the first question. What did we really want to see? I love flowers and gardens, so I wanted to see the Keukenhof Gardens in Amsterdam. And, my wife wanted to go back and taste a real Belgium waffle. So, of course I included that in our itinerary!

After doing my homework, we decided that we needed to be in Amsterdam there before Mother’s Day if there was a late spring, and a week or two earlier if it was an early spring. The next thing was to decide to utilize the cruise line’s before and/or after cruise offerings. Since we wanted to have a less structured trip, other than the cruise, we chose to put together our own before and after cruise itinerary.

If you are less adventurous or if you don’t really want to have to lug your suitcases around as you go from air travel to train travel to subways or taxis, etc… I would suggest that you opt for the cruiseline’s before and after the cruise offerings. Friends that we met on the cruise did both and we have exchanged emails since returning home and they had nothing but wonderful compliments to Viking Cruises for their experiences before and after the cruise.

We booked the cruise from Basel to Amsterdam, which meant that we would fly in to Zurich, Switzerland and spend a couple days there seeing the sights and getting over jetlag. We then made our way to Basel on the train to start the cruise.

Also, since I did not want to have to carry 3 weeks worth of clothes, during the planning process I found a laundromat in an area of Amsterdam that we wanted to explore, then booked a hotel in that same neighborhood. We really wanted to stay in local hotels rather than in the big hotels for a better feel of the local area. Upon our arrival in Amsterdam, we disembarked and walked to the hotel. After dropping off most of our luggage at the hotel, we took one suitcase full of dirty clothes to the laundromat.

We were pleasantly surprised when we found that it was also a full service laundry. We left our dirty clothes and enjoyed lunch and a walking tour of Amsterdam, and picked up clean clothes for the rest of the trip later in the afternoon. After three wonderful days in Amsterdam, we caught the high speed train to Paris. What a wonderful way to travel! Since we made sure to visit the Centraal Station before it was time to leave, we knew exactly where to go to catch our train to Paris.

We had reserved seats so it was as easy as flying – other than putting our own luggage on the train. We arrived in Paris and took the B2 line south to the subway that took us to our hotel. We stayed in a cute 1 bedroom apartment near the Grinnel train station. Again, another smaller hotel that also had apartments in a nice neighborhood close to a farmers’ market. We chose this location because there were 3 trains that used that terminal, so we could go almost everywhere from there.

We spent 5 days seeing the sights in Paris before reversing directions, taking the B3 train to the airport to fly home.

While you are in the process of planning your trip of a lifetime, or any expensive trip, make sure to get travel insurance and do at the beginning, the day you pay your deposit for your trip. Why, because the insurance will cover you for pre-existing conditions if you do it at the initial booking stage. If you wait to do it just before you leave, and a medical issue causes you to cancel, you won’t get your money back if it was a pre-existing condition. Some of us are getting up in years and you don’t want a health issue to rob you of the trip along with the money you already spent. It would be bad enough to have to cancel the trip, but to lose all that money too, that would really hurt.

One of the great planning tools that you should use is the availability of videos of your travel destinations. I went online on my Blockbuster account to search out travel videos. Hard to find because they are included under a separate category. (Yes, I know that you cannot use Blockbuster anymore) I also searched my Amazon Prime Account. If you look in the index you won’t find Travel videos there either; but if you search “Documentaries” you will find the travel videos hiding there. For Paris, we viewed the following videos: Cities of the World, Paris, France and Modern Times Wonders, Tour D’Eiffel and Burt Wolf’s France. Finally, for France, we viewed these last videos: The Greatest Journeys on Earth, France, The Journeys of the Sun King, On Tour… BLUE DANUBE CRUISE WACHAU A Journey Through The Middle Ages and Paris France, The City Of Magic: A Dream Vacation Tour. We also viewed the Burt Wolf; The Rhine and The Danube, and the Burt Wolf; Holland and Belgium. Yes, I do know that the Danube is a different river, but I was thinking ahead to the next river cruise.

In the next several blogs, we will share more about our trip and what we learned along the way. Hopefully, you will be able to learn from our mistakes so that your trips will be trouble-free!

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Paris

Our first trip to Paris followed our Viking River Cruise down the Rhine, from Basel to Amsterdam. After a few days in Amsterdam, we took the Thayles high speed train from Amsterdam to Gard du Nord in Paris. Wow! That was a great train ride.

After our arrival in Paris, we picked up a 10 caret of Metro tickets and hopped on to the RER south to the Metro stop at Denfort Rochereau. It was a long walk, plus three flights of stairs up and back down to get to our train, the #6 line, to the La Motte Picque Grenelle stop.

We stayed at the Citadines Tour Eiffel at that stop. We chose it for a couple of reasons. First of all, they had what they call Apart-hotel rooms. Sort of like small apartments, rather than just a hotel room. Also, it was located at an intersection of three different Metro lines. That way, we could go north, south, east or west to visit all parts of Paris. It was within easy walking distance to the Eiffel Tower. Finally, there is a Farmer’s Market under the tracks as well as another Farmer’s Market a couple of blocks away. We were able to visit both markets while we were there.

What more could you ask for.

We toured the city using the hop-on, hop-off bus. We would get off at a stop, wander around to see the sights, then catch the next bus to the next destination. This is a great tool to get oriented to a new city. After doing it in Paris, we decided that we should go back to visit some local destinations and were able to enjoy San Francisco and Washington DC via the hop-on hop-off bus. We have been using the Big Bus since it has an app for our phones as well as a great website to better plan our trips.

We took the Metro all over town as well. One important Metro stop that we used often was the one at Tuileries. It is just a short walk from there to the office where we had ordered our tours. We ordered them online through Viator, but picked up our tickets at the Paris City Vision office. Keep in mind that they have two offices, so check your vouchers to make sure that you are at the right office. They are only about a block apart, so if you are at the wrong one, you can quickly get to the other one.

(To make it easier for you to navigate in Paris, many of these photos have been captured from Google Maps Street View and is a live link back to the original Google Map. Click on the photo so that you can look around to get your bearings. This is a great tool. I always try to walk the streets before I actually visit a new city. Also, if it is available, I will book a Big Red Bus tour in a new city.)

This stop is also very close to the Louvre. There is another stop that is closer, but since we had purchased the small group walking tour of the Louvre, we met our tour guide at the tour office at the Hotel Regina.

The Paris City Vision office (located just in front of the white vans behind the statue) is at Hotel Regina.

ParisCityVisionTours_2Pyramidies_AtHotelRegina

Often, we arrived early for our tours, so after exiting at Tuileries, we walked across the street and turned right, heading toward the Hotel Regina about one block away. At the hotel, we turned left and walked up Rue des Pyramides to enjoy a great little sidewalk cafe, La Rotonde des Tuileries.

This is only a block away from where we would catch our bus to the Eiffel Tower for dinner or our walking tour of the Louvre.

After a little snack, we walked down to #2 Rue des Pyramides, on the left, at the Hotel Regina.

We opted to purchase a dinner and river cruise through Viator so that we didn’t have to wait in any long lines at the Eiffel Tower. This tour was handled by Paris City Vision. As you might expect, having dinner in the Eiffel Tower as well as seeing the lights of Paris on the river cruise is a wonderful way to experience Paris.

If you chose to tour the Louvre on your own, rather than to use a group tour, they you will want to take the Metro directly to the Palais Royale de Musee Louvre Metro stop.

Get off at the Palais Royale de Musée Lourve metro stop.

When you exit the station at the large open square shown above, you are just a short walk from the Louvre.

We had a great guide and a wonderful visit at the Lourve, and were able to get great views of everything but the Mona Lisa.

That room was so crowded that unless you wanted to push through a hundred people, you were not going to get very close. As you can see from the photo below, you had to hold your camera above your head and take several shots. None of mine came out without someone or something in the way. I should have had a selfie stick, but I hadn’t ever seen one before our first trip to Paris.

If you have never traveled on the metro in Paris, please check out my other posts on how to use the metro. Don’t leave Paris without experiencing Le Metro!

We are ready to go back to Paris!!!

———————————————————————-

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!