A digital travel diary. · WP v1.08 · Updated
In the morning, we woke up to a delicious breakfast at our Tobhartbauer residence. We enjoyed the freshly baked rolls, hot tea, fresh cheeses, and cold cuts.. . . . . After breakfast, we drove to Salzburg, stopping by Schloss Hellbrunn (just south of Salzburg). The drive was not very long - about an hour on the finely paved Austrian roads. . . . .…
Read More: Getting wet at Schloss Hellbrunn
From Bad Ischl, we resumed our automobile road trip in our newly rented Nissan Qashqai (aka Koshka), driving another hour to the village of Hallstatt. After some waiting, we parked at Hallstatt's Parking Lot 2 (near the funicular base).. . . . Hallstatt was famous for its salt production, dating back to the early Iron Age in Europe around 800 B.C. Because the Salt Mines…
Read More: Touring Hallstatt
On the way to Hallstatt from Vienna, we stopped for lunch at the beautiful village of Bad Ischl. The drive from Vienna was relatively uneventful except for traffic approaching Bad Ischl and Hallstatt. On the way here, we saw many beautiful Austrian lakes and houses decorated with flowers.. . . . Bad Ischl is a small, beautiful village with a highly rated Kaffee Zauner (used…
Read More: Lunch at Bad Ischl
Sunday, July 2, 2017 . . . On July 2, 2017, I flew from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to London's Heathrow Airport (LHR) aboard a Virgin Atlantic VS20 Airbus jet. Although the flight was delayed by 30 minutes (from 5:30pm to 6:00pm), I still arrived in London at 11:50 am BST (on schedule). I got a little sleep on the plane and started listening…
Read More: Sightseeing Vienna
Our Norwegian Airlines flight D85052 from Malaga, Spain, to Stockholm, Sweden, departed on time from Malaga's airport at 2:30 pm.. . We landed in Stockholm, Sweden, right on time at 6:45 pm. We collected our luggage, which took 15-20 minutes, and then decided what to do. We all felt rested from our vacation in Spain and had the energy to explore a new city.. .…
Read More: One Night in Stockholm
Saturday, April 10, 2016. . Our drive from Zahara to Ronda, Spain, covering the beautiful Spanish countryside, was short and uneventful.. . . . . We arrived at Parador de Ronda Hotel in our little Opel Meriva rental car around 1:00 pm.. . . . . . After checking in and dropping off our bags, we decided to stroll through Ronda to find a decent…
Read More: Exploring Ronda
Monday, April 4, 2016 . . . . . We arrived at Seville's San Bernardo train station at around 8:45pm from Granada, Spain (where Alex and I started our Spain trip). We took a taxi from San Bernardo train station to our Airbnb apartment rental in downtown Seville.. . . . . Our Airbnb apartment was on the main Calle Francos street, with many boutiques…
Read More: Splendid Seville
Friday, April 1, 2016. . . Today was the start of my short family vacation to Spain, with the first stop being Granada, followed by Seville, Ronda, and finally Malaga. . . Inna and I prepared a very complicated European vacation focusing on southern Spain. Since Inna had more time and flexibility, she would depart earlier to see Barcelona and Madrid. In contrast, Alex and…
Read More: The Long Road to Granada
Our flight to Stockholm Skavsta Airport on Ryanair was a bit complicated. We had a scheduled departure from Bergamo (BGY) airport at 20:50. Unlike other airlines, Ryanair charges extra for printing airline tickets and additional bags. Each bag is weighed, and additional charges apply for anything over 15 kg. Inna and I spent some time packing and repacking to get our weight close to 15kg…
Read More: Skavsta, Sweden
We arrived at Venice's San Lucia train station (on the island) from Bologna at around 1:10 p.m. Once there, we purchased a 3-day Waterbus ticket for each of us ($40/ticket) to use public transportation in Venice, Murano, and Burano.. . I did not realize it at the time, but a machine sold those tickets next to the agent, and I could have purchased the exact…
Read More: Venice, Italy
Thank you, Rick Steves, for keeping tourists away from Bologna! . . . We like it hidden and unique (and not overrun by mobs of tourists). We came to Bologna for one primary reason - it is supposed to be the culinary capital of Italy (but don't tell anyone).. . We arrived at Bologna's central train station on time, at 1:15 p.m., from Milano Centrale…
Read More: Bologna, Italy
"Buongiorno," do you have any warm jackets for sale? All I had was my red raincoat, and I was freezing. Italy was not supposed to be this cold! I was in the little town of Bellagio on the beautiful Lake Como, and all I could think about was finding a place to warm up.. . I packed enough for my Italian trip but forgot to…
Read More: Lake Como, Italy
We flew out on Norwegian Airlines flight DY7068 at 8:00 p.m. PST from Oakland Airport to Stockholm, Sweden, as the first part of our Italian vacation.. . Norwegian Airlines used the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and it was a pleasure to fly on a modern jetliner with comfortable seats and an Android entertainment system. Norwegian Airlines is an à la carte airline, so all food or…
Read More: Milan, Italy
On the Tallink Baltic Queen ferry, we sailed from Tallinn, Estonia, to Stockholm, Sweden, around 10:00 a.m. We had a tiny cabin on the ferry, sufficient for the one-day sail. Alex and I had separate top bunks, and Inna slept on the bottom bunk. There was not much room for anything else. Our luggage blocked the way out (but what can you do?). . .…
Read More: Stockholm, Sweden
We arrived in Tallinn, Estonia, aboard the Tallink Silja Line ferry from Helsinki at 3:30 p.m. We planned to visit our Radisson Blu Sky hotel and explore the beautiful medieval old town.. . When we arrived, we waited for bus #2 to get to our Radisson Blu Sky hotel, but it did not stop at our bus stop. We decided to take a bicycle taxi…
Read More: Tallinn, Estonia
After getting up and having breakfast, we took the metro to Copenhagen Airport. It started lightly raining in Copenhagen, but not enough to get us wet. We boarded the M2 subway at Kongens Nytorv metro station and took it to Copenhagen Airport (Lufthavn station). On the way there, in the metro, we had our 24-hour Copenhagen tickets checked. During our five days in Copenhagen, this…
Read More: Helsinki, Finland
. Our flight from Bergen, Norway, to Copenhagen, Denmark, was scheduled for 8:10 p.m. from Bergen airport. It's a relatively short flight, and we planned to land in Copenhagen at 9:30 p.m. However, our plane was delayed 15 minutes (not a big deal). We also called our Phoenix Copenhagen hotel to confirm they had our room reserved for our late arrival. To my great surprise,…
Read More: Copenhagen, Denmark
We unpacked and relaxed after checking into 193 Strandgaten, an 8th-floor apartment building. . . . . . We brought in our suitcases and relaxed for a brief moment.. . . . . Opening the windows, we were thrilled by the spectacular view of the beautiful, ship-filled harbor. . . . . Since we were hungry (from our long and tedious journey from Balestrand), we…
Read More: Bergen, Norway
Since we had early morning train tickets to Flam, we got up at 5:30 a.m., packed, and boarded our train from Oslo to Myrdal at 6:45 a.m. The plan was to change trains in Myrdal and ride on the scenic train to Flam, followed by a ferry cruise to Balestrand through the magnificent Norwegian Fjords.. . . . . I had an unexpected problem with…
Read More: Balestrand, Norway
Today, we flew out on Norwegian Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner from San Francisco, California, to Oslo, Norway, on our summer Scandinavian vacation.. . This was our first time on the Boeing 787, and it is a much superior plane to all of the previous Boeing and Airbus jets I have flown. The seats were much better, the engines were much quieter, and the cabin was…
Read More: Oslo, Norway