Trying to find Insurance

One of the big problems with renting a car in a foreign country is insurance. If you get the rental company's insurance, you end up paying a bunch of money on top of the daily fee for the car. If you don't, and you crash (or even lightly damage) the car, you could end up responsible for whatever repairs are necessary PLUS whatever income they miss out on while the car is in the shop. Pretty dismal prospects. Thinking to head off this potential disaster, I signed up for American Express rental car protection. They add a small fee if you rent a car with their credit card and they cover whatever you do to it. However, when I read the fine print American Express expressly excludes Italy and a dozen other "high-risk" countries. So, what now? When I started "polling" my other credit cards none of them would cover a car in Italy. So, I'm going to apply for a card that purports to do the job. And if that doesn't work, I'll be buying the rental car company's insurance. I just won't like it. But since I have damaged all four of the last four cars I rented: one here, two in Italy, and one in the U.K., I guess I don't have any choice.

Finding a place to stay in Athens

This morning I spent several frustrating hours reading critique after critique on potential Hotels in Athens, Greece. We have to stay one night in Athens before boarding the ship for our scheduled cruise throughout the Greek Islands and Turkey. Man, what a pain. To read the critiques, most of the available hotels are hot, possessing of tiny rooms, less than clean, and good for not much more than having a roof over your head at night. The surrounding streets are filled with pickpockets, drug users, and denizens of every description. The showers are purported to be dismally small, the elevators equally tiny, and the breakfasts boring and not so fresh. About all most of them can boast is a close proximity to the old part of Athens and the night life. And, most importantly for a blog-writing fanatic such as myself, the wireless internet, if it exists at all, is usually charged for. Finally, I stumbled across the "Lotus Hotel," which is slightly removed from the city center, in a nicer neighborhood, and of fairly new construction. Further, the internet is reported as "free." So, being totally worn out from the search, I booked the Lotus and shall hope for the best. After all, it's only one night and I suppose anything will probably do fine. The cost is going to be about $120.00, is above my budget somewhat, but will have to be okay this time.

Making progress on lodging

Yesterday I lined up some of our lodging in Rome. For our last day in Italy before catching the flight home, I selected the terribly expensive Hilton located right next to the airport. I decided that it would be better to turn in the car the day before and then be able to leisurely walk to our Hotel for the night, then, just as leisurely, walk to the flight the next day. We'd have time for breakfast and, since our flight isn't until 10:00, we have plenty of time to walk across the courtyard to the terminal and check in before our flight. For our first and second nights in Italy after the Athens cruise is over, I selected the Colle degli Ulivi (Olive Tree Hill) B&B near Rome. After our experience with the hustle and bustle and lack of parking in Rome in 2006, I wanted something outside the city where we could easily park and ride public transportation into the city. We'll only be there a day before we head for southern Italy, Calabria, and the sun-washed island of Sicily where so many of Concetta's ancestors and relatives came from. This morning I received confirmation from Colle degli Ulivi so we're on for that one. They even have wireless internet, or so they say.

Coaxing Information from the cruise company

After repeated emails I finally learned the needed information on what happens on the final day of the cruise. Chris emailed to say that we would have to be off the boat by about 8:00 a.m., though we would probably be given breakfast. Therefore, it seems obvious that we should schedule our flight from Athens to Rome in mid to late morning. That way, after our two hour flight to Rome, we'd have time to pick up the rental car and drive to wherever we have decided to stay for our first night Italy.

Doing more footwork

Today I sent an email to the cruise folks to determine how long we can remain on board once we're back in port near Athens. If we're lucky, we can have a leisurely breakfast, do out packing, and then catch a midday taxi to the airport for the flight to Rome. I also sent an email to the chap in England who rented us the Mini Cooper for a month in 2008 for our trip around the British Isle. I was interested in finding out if Minis are available in Italy by someone he might recommend. And, I determined that the best thing to do for our last night in Italy would be to stay at the airport Hilton, even though expensive, so all we have to do is take the short walk to the terminal before flight time. It would also allow us to turn the car in the day before our flight. Once I hear from the cruise folks, I will book the flight from Athens to Rome.

Tickets Ordered

Well, I finally got tired of searching all the Orbitz/Expedia/Etc. Websites and just ordered the darn tickets. Got them from CheapOair.com. The process seemed to work out okay, but no seat assignments. I emailed CheapO and asked about seat assignments and they said they had already emailed them to me. They hadn't. So, I called the various airlines and did my own seat assignment task. For the most part, I got the seat assignments I wanted, all except for the outgoing Denver to Toronto 3-hour flight. On that one, it's what they call a "Shared Code" flight. That means that two carriers are in on the particular flight. I called each one and asked them to assign me a seat. Each one refused. So, I waited a time and called back. Once again the two carriers indicated that they were "unable" to issue a seat assignment. So, we'll have to take pot luck on that leg. Word to the wise: stay away from flights by a carrier actually flown by another carrier. You'll get screwed because no one takes responsibility for the seat assignments. Anyway, the trip has been scheduled. The next item is to find a flight going from Athens to Rome after the cruise, nail down where we're staying in Athens and Rome, and possible nail down the rental car in Italy.

Searching for a flight

Today I spent several hours trying to find the perfect flight(s). What we would really like to do is fly from Reno to Athens, Greece. Then, after the cruise is over, we'd like to take a short hop over to Rome (about a two-hour flight). Once we've spent a couple of weeks in Italy, we'd like to fly from Rome back to Reno. However, the airline companies seem to be conspiring to keep the perfect flights out of our grasp. I fear we're going to have to make some compromises in order to pull off our objective.

Tackling the nuts and bolts

This morning I emailed "Brightroam," the company who provided the phone that we took so successfully to England, Wales, and Scotland. All you do is get the correct sim card for wherever you're planning on traveling, then buy some minutes before you go. They give you a USA phone number to bounce USA calls to them. You also have a European phone number, if I remember right. On our trip to Italy in 2006 we found ourselves at an extreme disadvantage not having any way to communicate with anyone. The phone is a real must-have. I also contacted the cruise company to see if they had any tips on what to bring and not bring, and if there was any place I could go and read feedback on other cruises. Still to do is making sure our GPS works in Italy.

Booking the Tour to Greece

Well, this morning I took a deep breath and called the Archaeological Institue of America Tour company and booked our tour to the Greek Islands. Lucky I did. In our preferred price range, all but one of the cabins were already booked. So, we're committed now and we must begin to plan this vacation in ernest. My intent is to fly to Athens a couple of days ahead of when we must board the ship so we can see the city. Then, after the cruise is over, we want to fly to Rome, rent a car, and spend a couple of weeks in beautiful Italy and Sicily.

Planning for 2010 fall trip begins

Well, I just spent the entire morning surfing the internet, looking for ideas for our trip to Greece in September. As I already knew, having lived in Greece for six months of my life back in the 1970s, you must see the Greek islands by boat. Since I don't have a yacht at my disposal, I came to the conclusion that we must book a cruise. But Concetta and I have never been in favor of the typical cruise vacation: too many people, too much regimentation, too much food, just too much of everything. So,we decided on a cruise with the Archeological Institute of America. Their cruise seems to fit our needs exactly. They have a small ship and they visit more interesting places than the standard cruise ships visit. I still have to call in our reservation as you can't register on line. But I'm getting excited now. The planning -- and the fun -- begins at this point.

New Web Site

Please check out out new web site at tomdavis.me The web site will allow you access to the edited blog material arranged in a "top to bottom" chronology, which should make it easier to read. Also, I have provided a link to my memoirs material which you might find interesting. You'll be able to see from the home page on the web site that tomdavis.me will serve as your portal to the Davis family in the future, though this blog will be used on actual trips and vacations.

Thanks.

Tom.

Headed for San Diego

This weekend, October 18th and 19th, Concetta and are heading for San Diego. Yes, I know what you're thinking. I just got back from L.A. where I attended my 40th class reunion. Still, I'm always ready for adventure, so Saturday I found myself back behind the wheel for yet another eight-hour drive to the southland. Fortunately Concetta and I have a stock of Hammond Innes adventure novels on tape that I have been saving for just such an event.

The purpose of our trip is to rendezvous with Concetta's sisters, Paula and Phyllis who are flying out from Ohio. We're going to be staying with Concetta's aunt Mary in San Diego as well as spending time with one of her favorite cousins, Angie Campanella. Actually, the trip dovetailed (don't you just love that word?) rather nicely with something I've been wanting to do for many years: attend the Pasadena Heritage Society's annual craftsman home tour in Pasadena, Altadena, Sierra Madre and other nearby L.A. County towns which just happened to be taking place this very same weekend.

I just love the craftsman style of construction that was in its heyday around the turn of the last century. It's all river rock, handmade tile, and satiny hardwood floors. Instead of the current trend of having houses look bright and sparkling like hospital operating rooms, craftsman bungalows tend to be dark and oaken and full of leather furniture. They have huge fireplaces and shingled exteriors and cut glass windows. Yes, I love them. And there is no better place to see this lovely work than Pasadena.

In fact, Charley Seims and I always spend countless hours exploring the various Pasadena and Altadena neighborhoods when we come for our annual hike in the nearby San Gabriel Mountains each November hoping to find a craftsman we hadn't seen before. It was Charley who turned me on to craftsman architecture in the first place.

Let me tell you, this event is VERY popular with the faithful! As you can tell from the photo of the line ahead of us at our second stop this morning (see pix 2), dozens, if not hundreds, of people turn out for the opportunity to get a glance inside some of these near 100-year-old treasures (though no cameras are allowed). Last night we had tickets to attend a cocktail party and tour of the Barnes house overlooking the Arroyo Seco, and today we actually did tours of six different houses. Let me tell you, by the time it was "ale time," this afternoon, we were dragging. Still, it was loads and loads of fun, and we even picked up an idea or two.

Tomorrow morning we're going to take our time leaving Pasadena as we plan to visit the Huntington Library and art museum before we head on down to San Diego. Hopefully, our trusty GPS will navigate us there without difficulty. It was a great help finding the tour houses today. So, until I find another hot connection for the ol' laptop here, I'll say...

ciao, tutti.