The past 4 months I have been looking at plane tickets using Cheapoair. It has worked really well and from Sunday until yesterday they dropped almost $200! Tickets were looking to be around $950 then yesterday they were down to $750 not sure why they dropped but I took advantage of this and called a travel agency back in Grand Island to do the actual booking, called First Holiday Tour and Travel.
Since this is such a big trip for me and I really don't want to have to deal with anything going wrong. I paid a little bit higher price but their insurance plan has everything I could possibly need in it, they really make sure if any unforeseen circumstances occur they can help you out. So if you ever have any traveling needs let them know I highly recommend them!
Keep Ashley's family in your prayers as they try to get to France, their flights got canceled yesterday and they had to make some alternative travel plans and can hopefully get to Ashley and spend Christmas how it should be spent, with family!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Switzerland
Having done a lot of research this past weekend, I have been looking in the Jungfrau Region, of Switzerland to spend our time in. An anonymous backpacker once wrote in a hostel guest book "If heaven isn't what it's cracked up to be, send me back to Gimmelwald." I feel like this place deserves some exploration. There are many different hiking trails that explore the surrounding towns of Murren and Stechelberg. From the sounds of it each is a great representation of storybook Switzerland.
Lauterbrunnen a town in a nearby valley that plays host to Trummelbach Falls which as you can see look amazing and is fed by alpine glaciers and snow deposits that melt during the warmer months and can range from a small trickle to 20,000 Liters per second!
The main attraction of the Jungfrau region is the 3 glacier covered monoliths, Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau (Ogre, Monk, and Virgin).
More to come...
Lauterbrunnen a town in a nearby valley that plays host to Trummelbach Falls which as you can see look amazing and is fed by alpine glaciers and snow deposits that melt during the warmer months and can range from a small trickle to 20,000 Liters per second!
The main attraction of the Jungfrau region is the 3 glacier covered monoliths, Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau (Ogre, Monk, and Virgin).
More to come...
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Travel Plans
Naturally you have to have some sort of plan to take on Europe, because no matter how long you have you definitely can't see it all. Hopefully three weeks will be plenty of time to travel around Europe and still be able to make it back to the States with a job waiting for me when I return.
Ideas started out with Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Switzerland, and possibly Germany. With three weeks we finally decided that Germany was at the bottom of our list and would be cut. After even further debate on how we wanted to do our traveling we decided to include Southern France and cut Venice, this allowed us to stay at a more comfy Bed and Breakfast in Avignon and travel to smaller French towns and hopefully find some time to see the Mediterranean Sea! After many hours of debate our final decision is as follows.
Dustin arrives to Paris Wednesday April 13th and the catches a train to Troyes where Ashley will be awaiting since she has to teach class until the 15th. Enjoy all that Troyes has to offer and let myself get used to being "the weird foreigner."
On the 16th, catch an early train ride to Paris and proceed down to Avignon where we hope to stay at Clos des Saumanes, a Bed and Breakfast that one of Ashley's friends highly suggested.
Stay for 3 nights then catch the Eurail to Switzerland. Where we plan to stay in a hostel for cheap and do some hiking and possibly some other adventures since its the second best place for adventure sports in the world!
On the 22nd or 23rd return back to Paris and stay with some of Ashley's amazing friends and spend Easter Sunday worshiping God at Notre Dame Cathedral, attending the International Mass at 1130 (its the only one with English). After mass we will head back to Troyes to pack up Ashley from her humble little apartment.
We will then be in Troyes and the surrounding area until the morning of the 28th when we will take the Eurail again up to Amsterdam. During our days of "downtime" we plan on heading to the Fontainebleau Forest, home to hundreds of thousands of sandstone boulders. I just could not be this close to a world class bouldering area and not at least try to do some climbing. So if weather permits we plan to get a couple of days in climbing, if it does not provide conditions to climb I would still love to walk around this magical forest.
Then to Queen's Day, or koninginnedag! It is a festival celebrating national unity and consists of a festival-like atmosphere which includes, the only day of free market in the Netherlands, dancing, open air concerts, children's games, carnival floats, parades, street theatre, fireworks, DJ music, decorated canal boats, along with everyone dressing in the country's color of Orange! So if you have any great orange costume ideas let me know!
We plan to return to Paris on the 1st of May and explore until our flight back to the United States of America on the 3rd!
Ideas started out with Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Switzerland, and possibly Germany. With three weeks we finally decided that Germany was at the bottom of our list and would be cut. After even further debate on how we wanted to do our traveling we decided to include Southern France and cut Venice, this allowed us to stay at a more comfy Bed and Breakfast in Avignon and travel to smaller French towns and hopefully find some time to see the Mediterranean Sea! After many hours of debate our final decision is as follows.
Dustin arrives to Paris Wednesday April 13th and the catches a train to Troyes where Ashley will be awaiting since she has to teach class until the 15th. Enjoy all that Troyes has to offer and let myself get used to being "the weird foreigner."
On the 16th, catch an early train ride to Paris and proceed down to Avignon where we hope to stay at Clos des Saumanes, a Bed and Breakfast that one of Ashley's friends highly suggested.
Stay for 3 nights then catch the Eurail to Switzerland. Where we plan to stay in a hostel for cheap and do some hiking and possibly some other adventures since its the second best place for adventure sports in the world!
On the 22nd or 23rd return back to Paris and stay with some of Ashley's amazing friends and spend Easter Sunday worshiping God at Notre Dame Cathedral, attending the International Mass at 1130 (its the only one with English). After mass we will head back to Troyes to pack up Ashley from her humble little apartment.
We will then be in Troyes and the surrounding area until the morning of the 28th when we will take the Eurail again up to Amsterdam. During our days of "downtime" we plan on heading to the Fontainebleau Forest, home to hundreds of thousands of sandstone boulders. I just could not be this close to a world class bouldering area and not at least try to do some climbing. So if weather permits we plan to get a couple of days in climbing, if it does not provide conditions to climb I would still love to walk around this magical forest.
Then to Queen's Day, or koninginnedag! It is a festival celebrating national unity and consists of a festival-like atmosphere which includes, the only day of free market in the Netherlands, dancing, open air concerts, children's games, carnival floats, parades, street theatre, fireworks, DJ music, decorated canal boats, along with everyone dressing in the country's color of Orange! So if you have any great orange costume ideas let me know!
We plan to return to Paris on the 1st of May and explore until our flight back to the United States of America on the 3rd!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Troyes
Troyes is the town in France where Ashley is currently living. It is just southeast of Paris and is about a hour and a half train ride. It is one of the historic capitals of the Champagne region. Troyes is also one of the best places to see how Europe looked back in the days of the Three Musketeers. There are many cathedrals that still stand near the town center, or centre as they say in French. When I arrive in France I will grab a train, with the help of some of Ashley's American friends who live in Paris, to Troyes. She will still have to teach for a couple of days so we will stay in Troyes and I will get a better sense of the culture that she has been experiencing for the past 6 months.
Ashley is really excited for the upcoming Christmas holiday, she loves to decorate for it, and will be able to share it with her family. Her parents, David and Jane, and sister, Cassie will be heading to Europe over the holiday season to do some traveling.
The city of Troyes has erected a large Christmas Tree in the center along with a small forest of Christmas trees to accompany it. This along with garland and lights throughout the town have really brightened her often gloomy rainy weeks during the winter. As soon as she sends me pictures of her "Christmas tree forest" I will post them for all to enjoy.
Ashley is really excited for the upcoming Christmas holiday, she loves to decorate for it, and will be able to share it with her family. Her parents, David and Jane, and sister, Cassie will be heading to Europe over the holiday season to do some traveling.
The city of Troyes has erected a large Christmas Tree in the center along with a small forest of Christmas trees to accompany it. This along with garland and lights throughout the town have really brightened her often gloomy rainy weeks during the winter. As soon as she sends me pictures of her "Christmas tree forest" I will post them for all to enjoy.
France
As most of my friends and family know, my girlfriend, Ashley has been in France for a couple of months now, teaching Conversational English to high school students. I have been working here in Nebraska and am working to get a full-time position at LifePoint.
LifePoint is a medical health facility and health club all in one, we have a spa, physical therapy, cardiac and pulmonary rehab, and everything your local fitness center offers. I have recently been a part-time Personal Trainer/ Health Coach and now enjoy benefits as of yesterday! So needless to say, it is going extremely well.
In April, I will be traveling to France to see and spend time with Ashley for 3 weeks. I plan to blog about our traveling in Europe and thought the preparation would also be interesting to some. It is also a great way to spend less time being bored and missing her.
I have had a couple of blogs in the past and was not good at updating them, mainly because it took time and I was working hard to graduate from college. Hopefully I will do better with this one and will update a couple times a week which will make it easier for all to follow.
LifePoint is a medical health facility and health club all in one, we have a spa, physical therapy, cardiac and pulmonary rehab, and everything your local fitness center offers. I have recently been a part-time Personal Trainer/ Health Coach and now enjoy benefits as of yesterday! So needless to say, it is going extremely well.
In April, I will be traveling to France to see and spend time with Ashley for 3 weeks. I plan to blog about our traveling in Europe and thought the preparation would also be interesting to some. It is also a great way to spend less time being bored and missing her.
I have had a couple of blogs in the past and was not good at updating them, mainly because it took time and I was working hard to graduate from college. Hopefully I will do better with this one and will update a couple times a week which will make it easier for all to follow.
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