We drive 5 hours in order to have a non-stop and much cheaper route, so I think 3.5 hours is great! For us, flying to Europe is a big deal and we wanted fewer chances of things going wrong with delays and cancellations.
But booking a hotel on the way back is recommended. I want to say once we didn’t and it was ok. But another time, we got up at 6am Iceland time and drove the golden circle ourselves, then took an evening flight that got us back at a decent hour time wise to get home. But in reality, we had been up for almost 24 hours and it was flat out dangerous driving like we did. Never again.
Following up about our Vienna trip. It was a successful trip despite our pre-trip anxieties about what could go wrong due to Covid. We went to many museums including the Art History Museum, Belvedere, Albertina, Leopold, Sisi Museum, Imperial Treasury, Sigmund Freud. We went to the Schonbrunn Palace gardens (we had seen the interior on a river cruise tour in 2019). We saw the Vienna Boys Choir, Spanish Riding School, and the opera Don Pasquale. We saw the catacombs at St Stephens Cathedral and the Imperial Crypt at the Capuchin Church. Vienna was packed with people and tourists and we saw lots of Viking and other river cruise tour groups being led around. The restaurants were all very busy and reservations were a must.
We arrived home yesterday after flying VIE-LHR on BA, spending one night at a hotel at Heathrow, then taking a morning flight LHR-PHX on AA. We were in business class and frankly we didn’t see many masks on the plane except during boarding and disembarking.
In preparation for the testing requirement for reentry to the US, we had packed a bunch of rapid antigen tests, plus we had ordered and packed test kits through eMed. eMed | Travel
At the end of the trip we first checked with our own rapid tests to make sure we were negative. We then got online in our Vienna hotel room with an eMed proctor on Webcam and did their rapid antigen test. The results were emailed to us as well as available on our phones. We printed out hard copies to take to the airport with us.
I kept getting emails from AA urging me to use an app called VeriFly and to upload my negative test results through them. I did that but as far as I could tell, it was no use whatsoever and at check-in at the Vienna airport, the agent asked for our hard copy test results along with our passports. She then gave us both boarding passes for our two flights home.
Side note: while doing our VeriFly stuff, I logged into my husband’s gmail account and realized that he had failed to cancel a meal kit delivery, which arrived on the 22nd and then sat out in the Phoenix heat for a week before we got home. That box went straight into the trash. I did have a neighbor checking for packages but the delivery person had sort of hidden it behind a pillar and it went unnoticed. Unfortunately my husband had ignored the delivery notification email apparently thinking it was spam.
We’ll test again tomorrow and hopefully didn’t get sick on the trip home.
Anyone else starting to mull over options for the next two eclipses in Oct 2023 (annular eclipse) and April 2024 (solar eclipse) or are we Creeklanders the only weird ones with starting that so early? We want to know what our Plan A and B are in time to make reservations a year out if that’s the opening point.
For the latter, two of my kids live right under the path, but trusting it to be sunny on an April day in their locations is risky.
For the former it will definitely be a road trip for us - will be contemplating which state or national parks are in better locations. Also not sure if any colleges are in sweet spots. We saw the last eclipse at Clemson and it was spectacular.
Our cabin is right in the path of the 4/8/24 eclipse. We get more sun than a lot of places, apparently, but who knows. We’ve already talked about going up there with friends and/or family. The only risk is if it’s in between snowmobile and car seasons, ha. There’s usually a window of time when the logging roads aren’t passable, and you never know when it will be.
In October 2023 we’ll probably go to Capitol Reef NP, Utah, and in 2024 we have an invite to a friend’s place in upstate New York State. Not convinced the latter will be sunny though, so a trip to Texas might be a better bet.
What I realized about annular eclipses, per the photo above, is that it’s way more important to be right on the center line if you want good photos.
Well we couldn’t help ourselves. My best friend and I were taking a walk Friday when she asked, “Maui in September?” (we just got back a month ago!) - I don’t think I even took a beat and agreed. We walked to the nearby coffeehouse, opened Airbnb, found a great place in Ma’alaea where we love to be, and on the spot agreed to 11 nights of painting and laying low and I booked it on the spot (I’m the reservationist among my friends). On my way home I contacted my HR rep and asked to be put on the master calendar as being out and she laughed - I didn’t want to wait until Monday, as we’re going to be shorthanded in early fall, and those dates are going to be coveted. Yesterday I bought flights and reserved a car. 4 months will fly by. I’m all but packed! I believe this will be our 11th Maui trip. I love all the islands but Maui has a hold on me.
H and I are going to Maui. Taking DS and his SO. DS rides bikes. He’s in training for a big race…asks if there is room in our car for him to take his bike. I’ve got a standard sedan on reserve…it won’t work with 4 ppl, plus luggage, plus the Costco run stuff.
So…I call Costco to ask if I can upgrade to a larger vehicle. Well, um…yes I can. But only if I agree to pay them $373 LESS for a mini-van that I was contracted to pay for the sedan. That made my brain stop for a moment - as did the brain of the agent. All was triple checked. And yes indeed. It was the case…yup…weird world.
Have him be really careful there. I’m a cyclist and used to riding on the busy Coast Hwy and have ridden most of the Pacific Coast, but there are a lot of 2 lane roads with distracted (more than usual) drivers. I’d suggest getting out early before too many people hit the roads. I’ve ridden on the Big Island, but I think the roads are more open there.
He’s aware of the issues since he’s done these rides in the past. He also carries a GPS since so many spots have no cell reception. I - as his mom - cross my fingers, say a few prayers and keep an eye on that GPS tracker.
The rental car prices quite often drop the closer you get to your trip. On our last trip to Maui, I got a lower price 3-4 times in the last week. A few days before we left it dropped twice within 15 minutes. Easy to keep getting the lower price with Costco.
