Traveling U

28/04/2024

https://apnews.com/article/airlines-junk-fees-baggage-delays-c4a93f9ee9a2bf7d9ee07394183a0374?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=share

The Transportation Department said airlines will be required to provide automatic cash refunds within a few days for canceled flights and “significant” delays.

04/04/2024

Day 2 started with a 'windmill' of adventures.

We visited this cute Windmill and had an interesting political conversation with the local caretaker of the property and his friend.

We visited a monastery, Boyle Abby, which was then closed down by King Henry 8th and then redone as a house for many years.

After a few more historical sites we headed home for a relaxing evening at our cute Airbnb house. The owner gave us a warm Irish welcome, left us a few snacks and had the fire stoked for us!

03/04/2024

Dale surprised us with a get-a-way to Ireland!☘️

Spring is magical!

02/04/2024

Only a few hours in and you can’t go 5 miles without stopping for another castle. Ireland has over 30,000 castles!!!

02/04/2024

We’ve landed! In Dublin City where the girls are so pretty…

01/04/2024

Second leg of our epic journey. Atlanta to….

01/04/2024

Guess where our next adventure is?

07/03/2024

Ever since researching the eruption of Mount Vesuvius with my kids before visiting Italy 🇮🇹 for the first time, I have been fascinated with Herculaneum.

And always wanted to visit!

I have seen Pompeii a couple times and I heard that because Pompeii was covered in lava during the 79 AD eruption, there wasn't as much preserved.

With Herculaneum being covered in ash at the same time, much more of everyday items became frozen in time. You could still see the intricate tile work, colors, mosaics and so much more.
We twisted our friends arms to visit here instead of Pompeii.

The consensus... they were thrilled they came.

It was magical! As you look at it in the distance, you can see the new city built on top.

06/03/2024

Peru…. Wanna go?

16/02/2024

Beach time in CA during the winter!

18/01/2024

Temple of the Moon; one of Machu Picchu's best-kept secrets. Located on backside of Machu Picchu, explorers must descend approximately 1000 stone stairs to find this stunning precision mortarless white granite temple built into this mountainous cave.

15/01/2024

Abandoned Banermann's Castle, New York

29/12/2023

When we travel we buy a local paintings or prints of a painting and frame then on our travel wall. I had a stack of them that needed to go up and over the Christmas break, I added 13 more to the wall. Many of them were from the 9 countries we visited in 2023.

29/12/2023

If you’re going to Mexico to escape the cold up north… better take a warm coat, they got snow at Chichen itza. Never thought they would see that there.

😜 the 28th of December is Day of the Holy Innocents. It is just like our April Fools Day!!! Go with confidence that you will be toasty warm.

10/12/2023

Rome, Rome and more Rome!

After a long morning of searching for a ride when getting off the boat to our hotels (which was a bit frustrating) so book your ride beforehand either by:

-Your hotel (which was much cheaper than the taxi we ended up having to take)
-A private shuttle
-Possibly Uber (but we tried for 2 hours and couldn't get anyone to respond)

Also staying close into the city center will save you on transportation costs, then you can walk almost anywhere. We and the Hendry's stayed where we had free points and the costs for traveling got a bit much.

We started at the Roman Colosseum. You can have a guided tour for $40 and upwards for the Colosseum, the Forum, and one other attraction.

We opted to do them ourselves and found many hidden gems, along with the Basilica of Santa Maria Nova. So incredible as far as artwork inside though the outside was quite plain.

We walked up to the Basilica de San Pietro in Vincoli. This houses an incredible work done by Michelangelo for Pope Julius' ll's tomb. The crowning jewel is the statue of Moses, his horns represent his power! It also had the chains of St. Peter displayed for all to see.

We walked through many alleyways and stone lined streets to find the Trevi Fountain ... such beauty!

And of course, gelato!

We had apts. to attend the new Rome LDS temple for the evening. We were blown away at the incredible beauty of art all pointing to Christ and the incredible experiences we had inside.

This was definitely my favorite part of the day!

10/12/2023

Learn from us (Vatican City/Country):

We looked online at the official site for tickets at the Vatican but it said 'sold out' so we booked a 'skip the line' ticket for $29 Euros each. We didn't want to miss going!

We booked late the night before and none of us before heading to bed, read the fine print... arrive 30 min. to meet your group at another location (blocks away) then, walk together to the Vatican, we wrongfully assumed that we would meet our group at the entrance.

We decided to grab a little something to eat, thinking we had plenty of time to get there since we were at the end of the street by St. Peter's Basilica.

We couldn't be more wrong! We had to go all around to the other side of the Vatican, quite a ways, to get to the entrance (we did the fastest quick walk ever).... but we were a few minutes late. Assuming we were meeting at the entrance, we went through security and then looked for our group.

After leaving to see if our group was outside, asking around and finally a kind man selling scarfs showed us where the tour company was located. We found out that they have one page with all the groups tickets. There was no way to print new tickets for us.

Dale tried to talk to them about our other options, they couldn't refund since the tour had already gone (the tickets are only for that specific time) and they had no more spots that day.

*Our only option was to get in line and just buy a regular ticket to the Vatican.

We did. (You're welcome, because our mistake will save you both time and money)

We realized it was our fault for not reading the fine print and thinking we were closer than we were, so we were late a few minutes.

*Besides the lesson above... don't believe the main tourist sights when they say 'sold out'. We were so worried about getting in we bought the more expensive tickets, when actually we just walked up to the window and bought tickets, not even a line!

In Paris we bought expensive tickets for the Eiffel Tower, where the official site said the regular tickets were sold out. But when we were there we saw many people just walking up and buying tickets.

*Always, always go to the attraction and just buy tickets! Most places now days have been run over by tour companies that buy up masses of tickets and sell for more. Just go to the attraction and buy your tickets there... most of the time, it is never an issue!