European Trip 1998

In Switzerland, on the way to the Jungfraujoch, where you can walk in an ice tunnel through a glacier.

This was my fourth trip to Europe in 4 1/2 years and Lyn's third in 3 1/2 years. You can add in a couple of trips to the Philippines. Each time we seem to getting more casual about planning them, although I am getting more concerned about the cost. We are greatly indebted to our friends in helping us cut down on costs and for their patience in dealing with our uncertain schedule. Looking back it's still hard to believe that so many wonderful people welcomed us into their homes showing us great hospitality and providing us with the best views of European culture. From Germany to France to Switzerland, we will always remember our wonderful hosts and are looking forward to the day when we can return the favor.

We had planned a Spring European vacation, however, we procrastinated. Time passed as we got involved in other matters. Finally, Lyn started looking into plane fares, but the prices seemed to be going up by the minute. We had just about given up on the trip when I looked at a web site for one of the airlines we had heard about. MartinAir (a Dutch airline) was auctioning tickets on certain dates. The minimum bid was $299, I bid $301 (including taxes it came to $355) on Friday. On Saturday evening we checked our e-mail and found out we were successful. We had 10 days to prepare!

Maps courtesy of www.theodora.com/maps (with permission).

When we had first thought about the trip, months before, I had wanted to go to St. Petersburg to visit our friend Yulia and Romania to visit our friends Mihaela and Dorel, but it would take at least a month to get visas for Lyn. With MartinAir we would be flying in and out of Amsterdam, which made England very convenient, but the English consulate is 400 miles away in Los Angeles. We ended up getting a Schengen visa which covered the Benelux countries (Holland, Belgium, & Luxembourg), France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Austria. Lyn only needed one other visa, Switzerland. The visas were pretty easy to get except that we wasted one day, trying to get the Swiss visa, when we found the consulate closed due to some obscure (to us anyway) holiday. Lyn is always afraid to drive in downtown San Francisco but she and a friend were able to do it when she needed her Swiss visa and somehow we managed to pick up both the air tickets and rail passes with a couple days to spare.

On Wednesday (the day of the trip), we packed the final few things. We were actually not rushed. It helped a little that the shuttle bus company phoned, saying they would be twenty minutes late. I turned off the water, struggled on whether to turn off the gas (remember this is earthquake country), but, not being sure how to relight the pilot lights, I left it as is. Leaving your home unattended for 3 weeks is scary. Once again, the flight to Europe was smooth. I wonder how Lyn will react when we she experiences real turbulence for the first time. On the plane, Lyn was thumbing through the MartinAir magazine, looking at the pictures in an article on Los Angeles lifestyles. I glanced over her shoulder and saw something that looked familiar. As we looked further, it came to us that the "something familiar" was me. It was a picture of me taken skating the slalom course at Venice Beach. The face was hidden, but clothing, skates, and skating style left no doubt. It seemed very odd to end up in the magazine of a Dutch Airline.

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