The Sternasty Travel Agency

Are you taking a family vacation this year?  What do you do to make it happen?  Call a realtor and book a rental property?  Do a search on Travelocity or a similar website?  Do you make a flight reservation?  A rental car?  Do you have a "vacation packing list"?  If it's a NEW place, do you "google" the top ten tourist attractions?

Just wondering, because I am somewhat OCD about travel.  I admit to having an "OIB packing list" file on my computer. (Ocean Isle Beach) Why?  Because our family has traveled to the same place in North Carolina for 18+ years of my married life (August 2014 too) and I certainly don't want to forget the crabbing buckets, the flashlights, or the bug spray.  The list has certainly been edited over the years….no more "nets" to catch small "rocket fish" in the tide pools or sand toys.  Now it has iPods, Euchre cards and golf clubs.

David and I made a travel "bucket list" at the end of last year.  We decided that we needed to be intentional about our time here in Europe so that we didn't miss our opportunities to travel before our time here is "up".  And since we aren't exactly sure how long we'll be here, sooner is better than later.

When I travel in the US, it's fairly easy and straight forward.  I hop on the internet, check out the "scores/reviews/locations" for lodging choices (we usually always stay at a Marriott….membership has it's privileges) and then either map quest the location for a drive or start the flight search/rental car options if we need to fly. Pretty easy, somewhat time consuming, but something that I enjoy doing….did I mention that I am a control freak?

As you might know (if you are an avid blog reader), we just returned from a whirlwind trek into Austria and the Czech Republic.  We took our car, so that trip was easy-peasy.  Our faithful GPS took us directly to our hotel and our feet did the rest.  I simply did some "hotel" surfing and checked into the tours available at each stop.

Tomorrow is a holiday in France.  It's Labour Day.  When the holiday is on a Thursday, many of the French people will take Friday off as well.  They call this Le Pont, or the bridge, and it gives them a 4 day weekend. (same thing if the holiday falls on a Tuesday)  It happens that NEXT Thursday is also a holiday….it's Victory Day (commemorating the end of WWII) here in Europe….I don't think that our neighbors (Germany) get that one off….at least I've never heard them refer to a "We lost day".

So basically, David has a 4 day weekend the next two weeks.  Add to that, Sarah is coming on May 12th and will stay until the 27th and our entire month of May is travel.  Where should we go??  What can we "check off" our list??  Oh my goodness!!  Can you imagine our possibilities?  I mean we can fly to Greece for only $106 per person ROUND TRIP, or maybe Croatia, that'll run you $160 pp.  Too much?  We can go to the south of France for $91pp or maybe Barcelona for $95pp.  You get the idea.

I have spent countless HOURS of time on the computer researching destinations, looking at flights, checking hotels, pricing tours and checking the weather…it's exhausting.  I AM NOT COMPLAINING….we are blessed to have this opportunity, but I have a crick in my neck from being on my computer so long!

Oh, the places you'll go…..

A quick driving trip to Lake Como, Italy was on tap for this coming weekend…we hadn't settled on a hotel because we were waiting for the price to drop a bit, so no firm reservations.  Well, the weather forecast is cold and rainy so we are scrapping that idea and going to drive to Baden-Baden, Germany and check out the mineral baths instead…..yes, we found some that are NOT clothing optional….I don't want to see anyone else's bare behind anywhere near the same water as I'm relaxing in.

Next week David and I are flying to Corsica.  Our roundtrip airfare was a whopping $230.  I first had to do a "top ten" search on the island so that we could decide what location to book our hotel in and then we had to rent a car (several search engines to find the cheapest option). We leave Wednesday night and arrive back on Sunday morning.

I will get up early Monday morning and drive to the Frankfurt airport to pick up Sarah at 7AM.  She and I will get back to the apartment, drop off her luggage and take a taxi to the Strasbourg train station.  From there, we will take the train to Basel, Switzerland where we will somehow get from the train station to the airport and board a plane to Rome. ($274)  Try "scheduling" that day…..we literally have about 30 minutes of wiggle room.  Please pray for no traffic accidents on the autobahn!  By the way, do you know how many hotels are in Rome?  Upwards of 3500, now you know why my head has been spinning!

Sarah and I will work this trip "backward" on Thursday evening.  I get to take my driver's test again on Friday morning (8AM) and then we will leave via car for Switzerland with David that evening.  Drive back on Sunday night and then stay put for 3 days….AND if we all survive the hang gliding excursion over the Swiss Alps I will find out if I passed my test.

Wednesday, Sarah and I will take the train to Baden-Baden, Germany and board a flight to Palma Mallorca, Spain.  David will follow on Friday (too bad he has to work to finance these trips).  We all fly back on Monday night and then I will drive Sarah back to the Frankfurt airport on Tuesday morning.

Are you exhausted?  Catch your breath, cause then we have to leave again on June 7th for a business meeting in Puerto Rico.  We will get back on June 15th and I will have 3-4 boys from Harvard's "Din and Tonics" jazz a capella group staying at our apartment for the week.

I will boot them out, launder their sheets and clean the apartment for our next set of visitors….David's brother, Michael, and his family.  Since I helped Cheryl purchase/reserve their train tickets from Strasbourg into Paris and then from Paris into the Normandy region, I know she can appreciate how difficult it is to juggle the different transportation sites…especially when they aren't in English :)

That puts us into July and so far, I haven't had the energy to "plan" another trip here in Europe.  Feel free to give me your suggestions….especially if you have already done the research and can recommend which hotels to stay in and what tours are a MUST DO.

Wishing you all at least ONE trip in the coming months.  God has blessed us with an incredible planet full of majestic sites that declare His glory….I hope that you take the opportunity to enjoy his wondrous works.

Planes, trains and automobiles

This blog post is going to be about travel.  Catchy title, right?  While I wasn't traveling with John Candy, it has been crazy over these last two weeks.

I flew home for Purdue's SAE Mom's weekend with DJ on April 9th. My flight left the Frankfurt airport at 8:20am, so David and I drove to Germany the night before and stayed in a hotel.  I took the shuttle to the airport and he drove the 2 hours south to work.

My bff usually takes me to/from the Indy airport, but she was teaching and I needed to hire a car for the trip to my house. The car service had a mixup on my reservation, so I had to wait a couple of hours at the airport.  I wasn't anticipating a REAL limo, but that's what I showed up.

Wednesday night was dinner with friends, Friday afternoon was lunch with Sarah in B-Town and then Saturday morning I was on my way to West Lafayette.

The Lion's Den inside the SAE house

I had a great visit with DJ and Sarah (thanks for driving up from Bloomington!) on Saturday and drove back home on Sunday afternoon.

DJ, Sarah and Jenelle

We won Pete at the auction

Monday was a drive to Cincinnati and a lunch date with my mom and David's parents.  Back to the airport on Tuesday for the trip back to France.  Same car service (same limo) back to the Indy airport.  Flight delay in Indy almost caused a missed connection in Chicago, but I literally made it as they were closing the door.

9 hours later I arrived in Frankfurt.  David was at work so I took the Lufthansa shuttle (a charter bus) to Strasbourg.  It drops you off at the Strasbourg train station and takes about 2 1/2 hours.  I departed the bus and hailed a taxi for the last leg of my journey home.  Let's just say that I was quite relieved to walk in the door of our apartment after a 20 hour journey.

Easter weekend in Europe is a little different than in the US.  Here in Alsace, Good Friday is an official holiday and then "Easter Monday" is a National holiday.

That gave David a 4 day weekend and afforded us the opportunity to travel to Salzburg and Vienna, Austria and then onto Prague, Czech Republic.

The old saying "there is no rest for the weary" was certainly ringing true for me! We got up early Friday, loaded up the car and headed out for Salzburg.  The drive was quite lovely and  took us about 4 1/2 hours.  Our hotel room was ready for us, so we dropped off our luggage and headed out to see the city.  After touring one side of the river we stopped for a slice of a traditional Austrian dessert, Linzer torte (considered the oldest known cake in the world) and a delicious heiße Schokolade (hot chocolate) at the M32 restaurant.  The views of the city from this terrace were delightful and provided us with a nice "rest" before we continued on our trek.

This was a powerful sight to see on Good Friday….

Our only traveling "snafu" came while we were attempting to find Hellbrunn Palace and the Trick Fountains.  We walked and walked and walked and couldn't find the palace anywhere.  It had begun to rain and while I didn't audibly complain about trudging around, my husband knew I was not happy.  He felt responsible for leading us everywhere but to the right place, and so we finally gave up and just went to dinner.  In his defense, we later found out that the map had a SMALL footnote saying that the actual Palace location was 2.5 km OFF the map…no wonder we couldn't find it!  Sidenote:  if you are a fan of "The Sound of Music" then you would enjoy this city.  Many of the scenes were filmed on location here and you can take a "Sound of Music tour".

David in the Mirabell Palace gardens with Hohensalzburg Fortress behind him on the hill

Back up Saturday morning and on the road again! Next stop was Vienna.  This drive was a little shorter, only about 3 hours.  We arrived at our hotel and unfortunately, our room was not quite ready.  We stored our luggage and headed out.  Our first stop was Schönbrunn Palace because of it's proximity to our hotel.

We entered the gates and BOOM….a line that was about 45 minutes long just to buy a ticket for the Palace tour.  We decided against the tour and just walked around the front of the Palace.  We ventured over to the east side and entered into a garden area.  We had no idea what to expect, and fortunately took a "right" turn and were in awe of what we saw.  The grounds were AMAZING…. if we had taken the other direction we would have totally missed seeing them.

Neptune Fountain and the Gloriette from the back of Schönbrunn Palace 

When we were finished we bought tickets for the Hop on-Hop off bus and headed into downtown Vienna.  Again, we explored fast and furiously….I was able to experience a Viennese hot chocolate and we shared a hot raspberry sundae at a little ice cream shop that has been run by the same family since 1886.

Again, the rain started and we headed back to our hotel.  We tried to go to a traditional Viennese restaurant (Herzog's…..Toni tell Blair!) but they were closed for Easter, so we settled for Pizza….yep, we are THOSE people.  After dinner, the rain had stopped so we walked back to Schönbrunn Palace for a last look at the Palace when it was all "lit up".

Easter Sunday found us up early again and on the road to Prague.  Another 4 hour drive and we were once again checking into another hotel.  Fortunately, the Marriott offers a mobile check-in and our room was waiting.  We went to the lounge and enjoyed a little snack and then headed out to explore on our own before our 2:30 walking tour.

David's grandfather immigrated from Prague, so it was especially nice to experience this leg of our journey. We also were fortunate in that it was Easter and there were several markets located around the city for us to enjoy.  Easter traditions in Prague are quite fun….perhaps you should read up on an Easter "pomlázka" or an Easter "dousing" in the Czech Republic.  

The crowds at the Easter market

Vaclav (our guide) met us at 2:30 and we were off. He gave us an incredible 3 hour walking tour of the city "Old Town" and "New Town", and gave us a detailed narrative about each section that we entered.

St Charles Bridge

 There is SO MUCH to see in Prague and we had so little time.  We were out until nearly 9:30 and finally had to head back to the hotel.  David did enjoy his "traditional" Easter ham dinner….it was just not quite the style that we are accustomed to!

A slab of "Czech" ham from a market vendor

Easter Monday we headed to "Lesser town" so that we could tour Prague Castle and experience the "other side" of the Vitava river.  We ended our day at the Strahov Monastery for a quick lunch and then hopped in the car for our trip home.

Prague Castle

Strahov Monastery

The route should've only taken us about 5 hours,  unfortunately, there was quite a lot of traffic and the drive was nearly 6 1/2. (That's a L-O-N-G drive without a potty break, but Marcie, I did it!)

So, my friends, you now know why this was called a travel blog.  In an 11 day period, I traveled over 11,000 miles….into/through Germany, the United States, Austria and the Czech Republic.  Would I do it again?  Absolutely.

When David told a colleague our plans for the weekend he was astounded.  He said, you know, most people would spend an entire 4-day weekend in EACH of those cities and you are going to try to do them all?  Well, we did it and I'm happy we did.  Prague is definitely on our "return" city list and we hope that David's parents and/or our kids are with us when we go back.

Next edition will certainly be about my "cruise director/travel agent" role and the countless hours I have spent arranging travel, lodging arrangements and excursions for trips that are occurring during the month of May…stay tuned!

Disclaimer:  this blog post may not be too interesting, but was a request from my father-in-love, Stan.  I hope that you enjoy reading it!!

I failed!!

It has been almost 8 weeks since my last blog entry….what have I been doing?  Well, I spent 4 weeks in Indiana/Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky visiting family, friends and children and then a weekend in Las Vegas to celebrate my 50th birthday.  We had the wonderful opportunity to spend spring break with DJ and Sarah (and Sarah's two Theta sisters, Mary and Kelley) in beautiful Grand Cayman and then finally arrived safely back in Strasbourg on Sunday, March 23rd.

David went to work bright and early on Monday morning and I was supposed to have a driving theory session at 8:00 AM.  As luck would have it, there was a scheduling conflict and it was cancelled.  I did have a session on Thursday and at the end of class time my instructor told me that the driving school had scheduled me to take the theory test the following week.

Catherine said that she thought it was too soon and that we should wait until May.  Apparently, translators are only allowed into the exam room on one day per month, so if I missed my "day" I would be forced to wait 4 more weeks.  I decided to give it a go, who knows, maybe I'd get lucky.  I was taking practice tests and generally missing 10 questions out of 40.

The tests are VERY tricky.  I started taking practice tests and generally missed 10+ questions out of 40. There is always one right answer and one wrong answer, but there COULD be up to 3 correct answers.  By the end of the weekend I was feeling better about the possibility of passing.  We had contacted 3 translators and none were available.  Monday morning I received a call saying that one had been located and would be available to help me on Thursday.

I arrived at the testing center and waited for my translator to arrive.  Her name was Pam and she was originally from India.  Her english was superb.  There was one other man that she was translating for during this testing session and he was from Israel.  He was extremely anxious and "had" to pass….he was somewhat amazed that I wasn't nervous.  I told him I was taking it having gone through only half my classes, so it was more of a "practice exam" for me.

It was finally time (10:45 for a 10:00 exam) to enter the testing room.  I was the first one in and seated about half way back from the front.  Once everyone was seated the explanations began.  The test is done via video.  Each question is shown on a projection screen and you have a remote control to record your answers.  Seems easy, right?

In theory, yes.  While I had a translator, so did the 15 Turkish people taking the exam and then there were 5 French people in the room too. So that the translators couldn't "cheat", they were not allowed to look at the screen.  They sat in the back of the room staring at a blank wall (sort of like a "time out").  The French proctor would read the question in French, the Turkish translator went 2nd and my English translator would finish.  Now, because the translators were not allowed to "cheat" and see the video, they had to rely on their memory to translate the question from French into the second language (each question had 4 possible answers) .  CRAZY, right?  I would have thought that they would at least be given a copy of each question, but hey, it's France.

That made the test a challenge.  There were several questions that were particularly tricky and I really needed a clarification (ex: whether or not the question said "at 300 meters" or "for 300 meters" or what the digital sign over the road way said because it wasn't part of the typed question, therefore unknown to the translator).

Unfortunately, because the translator couldn't turn around and SEE the typed question on the screen, she was unable to clarify several questions.  My new Israeli friend was beside himself.  I thought that he was going to be asked to leave the room, as he continually tried to ask the translator a question (strictly forbidden).  However, all she could do was restate the question and the 4 possible answers.

At one time, after you completed your test, they would give you the results right away.  Apparently, several of the proctors were actually assaulted by people who had received a fail.  (missing 5 out of the 40 is a pass)  Because of this, I did not find out how I did immediately.  I was fairly certain that I was going to either JUST pass or JUST fail.  Well, I stopped by the driving school yesterday and was told that I JUST failed….yep, I missed 6 out of the 40.  I will have to try again in May.

The other "new" happening here involved checks.  I had to pay my translator for her services and we were not certain if she would take cash or if I would have to pay by check.  I had no idea how to write a check here.

We had actually just received a check as reimbursement for a purchase I made in the states for our church and I didn't even know how to go about depositing it into our bank account.  Since that check hadn't been deposited, I was at least able to compare and figure out "what" must go "where" on the check.

I was able to pay the translator in cash, so I dodged that bullet.

At lunch that afternoon, I mentioned check writing to the Italian wife of David's co-worker and guess what?  She had an EXAMPLE in her purse!!  It had all of the necessary information and where to write it and she even had the French numbers on the page.  I mean, can you write out 265 Euro?  (deux cent soixante-cinq euro)  I still haven't deposited our reimbursement check…that will be an adventure for another day.

I am off to the US tomorrow morning.  I will be going to DJ's SAE Mom's weekend.  Or, maybe I should say "afternoon".  Fraternity Moms Weekends and Sorority Moms Weekends are different animals.

For Sarah's Theta Moms Weekend in February, I arrived on Friday afternoon, we visited in the hotel room for a couple of hours, and then we went to dinner with her pledge class friends on Friday night.  There was an activity at the Theta house on Saturday morning, we had lunch with her boyfriend Saturday afternoon, had dinner with the entire Theta house on Saturday night and she and I finished the evening with a movie at midnight.  Sunday morning brunch at the house and then a trip to get our nails done.

For DJ's SAE Moms "Weekend", I will arrive for a brunch at 11:00 AM on Saturday.  They will have a fundraising auction following the brunch and then an evening activity with a sorority. (Happens to be Theta, so that makes me happy)  Then I am dismissed.  I could probably forego a hotel room and drive back to Indy late that evening.  Fortunately, I have talked my son into Church on Sunday morning and a brunch date…otherwise I'd be flying home for 12 hours with my son.

I hope to cross paths with many of you during my week in the states, for those of you who I do not see, maybe a lunch date in August!!  I wish you all a blessed day!