Portland

Our latest event in what's shaping up to be a very busy fall was a weekend in Portland. Our good friend Victoria (from Minneapolis) was there for work. Our friends Alex and Crystal made the 3-hour trip from Seattle with us. We all had fun eating and drinking our way through town while enjoying perfect weather.

On the way home on Sunday we decided to take a detour off busy I-5 to go to a visitor center at Mount St. Helens National Monument. We were a good 40 miles away from the mountain and didn't have time to go any closer - that's a trip for another day.

None of us had our cameras along, but the picture above is a webcam shot of the mountain on Sunday afternoon. The big explosion that blew the top 1300' off what used to be the Cascades' most beautiful volcano was in 1980. St. Helens has been erupting on-and-off ever since; the most recent eruptive period ended this past July. In the picture you can see the steaming lava dome that has built itself up in the crater over the past 28 years.

Travel Recommendations

I've had a couple people ask me recently about where I get information and do research when planning a trip, so I thought I would share some of my favorites here. As a disclaimer, I don't pretend to be an expert at this - although the tips below have worked well for me.

Airlines:
By far the best place to look for plane tickets is kayak.com. It's an aggregator, so you're searching fares from dozens of other sites. I love it because it has the best sort/filter/refine capabilities so you can really find the flight you want and see who has the best price.

After you've found your flight and are buying your ticket, go to seatguru.com to get insider info about which seats are the best - and worst - on a particular aircraft. Great info. I never pick a seat (or buy an upgrade to a "premium economy" seat) without consulting seatguru first.

Hotels:
Although plenty of other sites exist, I've always had the best luck using tripadvisor.com to get reviews on hotels. Actually read the recent reviews, don't just look at the numbers. Some people will give bad reviews to great hotels for things you don't care about ("smoking not permitted," or "overpriced breakfast").

After you've narrowed your hotel choices, it's back to kayak to find the best price. Kayak doesn't always find small, independent hotels, so if one of those is on your list you should check that hotel's website directly.

Destination Info:
I never go anywhere without first reading that city/state/country's article on wikipedia. Yes, the info isn't specifically oriented to travelers, but knowing general things about your destination will make your trip that much more enjoyable.

Next go to wikitravel, wikipedia's cousin, which has info specifically oriented towards travellers. Warning: not all destinations - especially smaller places - have a very complete entry.

Next, check out the New York Times' online Travel section. They contract with Fodor's to get overview info from the books, but that's not what you're here for. For almost any major destination, there will be articles from the newspaper over the past several years. Read them - I've gotten some of my best travel tips from these articles.

Lastly, go to the library or bookstore. Of course a general guidebook is fine (Lonely Planet, Fodor's, etc.); my favorite is the "Not For Tourists" series. In particular look for specific, narrow-scope books about your destination like "The Hidden Gardens of Paris," "London's Best Pubs," or "Northern California Tapas." I made those up but you get the idea. Bring a post-it and a pen and jot down some quick notes. I've gotten great recommendations this way.

I love to travel and enjoy the planning process also. If you've used other resources with success and would like to share, please leave a comment...

Paris

[This is post 3 in a series of 3 about our trip to Europe:
Amsterdam -> Antwerp -> Paris]

Paris was the focus and highlight of our trip, and I'll say up front that it exceeded all of our expectations.

It's fashionable amongst some groups of experienced European travelers to write Paris off as being overly touristy, over-exposed, and overrated. Indeed, it does receive more foreign visitors than almost anywhere else in the world. And yes, if you grew up in western culture you'll find some parts of the city so recognizable that you get the distinct feeling you've been to Paris before, even if you haven't; New York is the only other place that's ever made me feel that way. This impression is strongest at the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and Notre Dame, which, along with the steps leading up to Sacré Coeur, are certainly clogged with tourists. It's amazing how many people appear to make their living by selling little pewter Eiffel Towers and glow-in-the-dark plastic Arc de Triomphes.

My recommendation for the first-time Paris visitor is to absolutely go and see these things. With the exception of Venice, this is your best chance to see a real-life theme park - on a scale to make even Walt Disney envious. (I'm not usually an advocate for check-box tourism, but everyone will look at you strangely at home if you tell them you went to Paris and didn't see the Eiffel Tower.) But see those things early in your trip, and then devote the rest of your time to discovering why Paris is one of the most vibrant, influential, and, in my opinion, greatest cities in the world.

It almost goes without saying that Paris offers an embarrassment of great museums and historical monuments. But take it easy. Unless you have about a month to spend, you won't be able to see everything. So don't try. Amongst my favorites were Napoleon's modest tomb, the grandiose neoclassical Panthéon, and the so-great-it's-just-unfair collection at Musée d'Orsay.

After much research, we stayed on the edge of the Latin Quarter, a locals' and student district due to its proximity to several branches of the University of Paris (including the 3 that claim the name "Sorbonne"). It's an area of the city that still maintains a medieval air, with its small, windy, cobbled streets and bustling cafés, restaurants, and shops. It was largely untouched by Hausmann's grand boulevard-building project under Napoleon III, which is responsible for much of the Paris we see today.

The area is wonderfully pleasant to stroll through, to relax and enjoy the great street-life of the cafés and markets alongside Parisians. It also benefits from being walking distance from several other great areas: Jardin du Luxembourg, Le Marais, and Île St Louis. (The Metro will get you anywhere in the city, but the trains lack air conditioning and can become sauna-like during busy times - walking is preferable). Strolling, eating & drinking, and just sitting in a café and watching the world go by are activities that Parisians excel at. These are the things that will make for a memorable and worthwhile visit, and these things - more than the history or larger-than-life monuments - make Paris a truly great place to visit.

We took quite a few pictures, and after narrowing it down to the "best", we were left with an album of 160 photos. I realize that not everyone has the time or desire to flip through that many pictures, so we created another album of the top 40, each with embedded comments explaining what's going on. The bigger album still has some great pictures that just didn't make the cut.

Antwerp

[This is post 2 in a series of 3 about our trip to Europe:
Amsterdam -> Antwerp -> Paris]

After a nice weekend in Amsterdam, Anya's cousin Natasha and her husband Hans Peter left to go back home to Switzerland. As I said before, it was great to meet them; hopefully we will get to visit them sometime soon.

The 6 of us remaining were leaving Amsterdam and heading off to Paris on the train. That journey would take us through Belgium, and we wanted to stop somewhere to get a quick taste of that country. I'd been to Brussels previously and was somewhat underwhelmed; this time we chose Belgium's second city: Antwerp.

I'll let the comments we've added to the pictures speak to our time in Antwerp. I'll just say here that it was a pleasant city to spend a few hours in between trains, although it's probably not big enough to justify a whole lot more than 1 day for the typical tourist.

Some interesting Antwerp facts to think about:

• It's the capitol of the region of Flanders; which is the northern half of Belgium (Wallonia is the southern half)
• The language of Flanders is Flemish, which is a version of Dutch (Wallonia is French-speaking)
• Antwerp is the third busiest port in Europe (only Rotterdam and Hamburg handle more cargo)
• Antwerp is the diamond capitol of the world; about 80% of all the world's diamonds pass through the city to be traded
  
• Antwerp has one of the largest communities of Orthodox Jews in the world outside Israel
  

Amsterdam

[This is post 1 in a series of 3 about our trip to Europe:
Amsterdam -> Antwerp -> Paris]

Anya's employer was nice enough to send her to the preeminent conference in her field this year, which happened to be in Amsterdam. I joined her there once the conference was over, as did the rest of her family (by coincidence her brother & sister-in-law - who live in Japan - were in Europe also). As an added bonus, Anya's cousin Natasha and her husband Hans Peter flew in from their home in Switzerland. It was a big family reunion, and it was truly a lot of fun to see everyone from around the world (and to get to meet Hans Peter & Natasha, who graciously invited us to visit them in Zurich - a great plan for our next trip to Europe).

For people who are embarking on their first trip to the Continent I think Amsterdam would be a good place to start. It's relatively small and it's easy get around, either by walking or taking the excellent tram system. The people are friendly and laid-back, and almost everyone is able and willing to speak fluent English (it's said that Amsterdam has a higher English literacy rate than most cities in the U.S.)

That having been said, there is definitely a right way and a wrong way for the casual tourist to see Amsterdam. If you don't do a bit of research and plan ahead, Amsterdam will live up to its reputation as being the Las Vegas of Europe: at times tacky, scruffy, and unpleasant. The very oldest part of the city (near the train station and the city's main square) is given over to touristy stores selling kitschy souvenirs and overpriced restaurants with bad food. The streets are filled with boisterous and disrespectful American and British tourists there to take advantage of the legalized marijuana and prostitution. These people apparently have no desire to see the real Amsterdam or to learn anything about Dutch culture or history - something that works to your advantage.

Avoid these crowds by staying further out in the neighborhoods where actual Amsterdammers live, work, and play. There, you'll find a cute, cozy, welcoming city that seems like a genuinely nice place to live. The 8 of us spent two pleasant days strolling through these neighborhoods, enjoying the museums, nice shops, comfortable pubs with tasty beer, and authentic Dutch food. A'dam is just as cosmopolitan and culturally rich as any of the European capitols, but is more relaxed, open, and welcoming than some of those other cities.

Of course everyone has their own tastes and preferences for travel, but I think we did Amsterdam the "right" way - and had a great time doing it.

I've embedded comments into our pictures, so that's the best way to read about what we did.

Fermé: en vacances

Anya and I are taking a little trip to Europe, so I won't be updating this blog again for a bit. For those of you who are loyal readers (Hi Mom!), be patient - I'll post pictures and exciting stories when we get back.

If you're itching to look at some pictures, my friend Pavel posted a fantastic album from his sailing trip in the San Juan Islands (see the wikipedia entry) a couple weeks ago. Pic #49 is my favorite, although they're all really interesting.