Marci and Steve Go Back to Europe

Now, maybe my initial impression is all wrong. And I should say, right away, that we love Australia and Canada. And before I even go into comparing countries, I should probably start with the airport game. In all fairness, I admit Steve does not play or enjoy this game but it is one of my favorites when we travel to a foreign county. As soon as we arrive in the airport, I can't help but trying to guess who is a 'native' and who is perhaps another American or French or German visitor, without cheating and listening to their language. I try to zero in on the 'look'. It might be height, or color hair, or clothing. Sometimes it is a style, or lack of it. Once I get a feel for the local look, I guess and then try to listen to see if I was right.  Perhaps it's the common British background....and here is where the comparison with Canadians starts. Lots of blondes, kind of tall, casual dress ( no, real casual dress) lots of skin showing regardless of size or shap...

   Nothing quite like traveling for 30 hours, landing and immediately getting in an unfamiliar car, sitting on the wrong side and navigating your first roundabout within two minutes!  Luckily Steve had already thought about his philosophy of driving on the left called 'Follow another car that's not a rental', assuming that driving on the left was native for them. And it worked fairly well since it was only two roads from Cairns to Port Douglas. Never mind that every time you go to put on your turn signal, the windshield wipers go on and once you realize and turn them off, you put on the wrong turn signal anyway.                                            The good thing about the first drive was there were virtually no turns because as it turns out, the roundabouts, of which there are a considerable number, are easier. You do have to get used t...

With  118 years, tens of thousands of miles and hundreds of flights between us, we have finally arrived to First Class travel. It sure took us long enough and if we had to wait this long, we wisely picked the trip that took us the longest to plan and the farthest to get to.  We awoke Monday in Philly at the usual 6AM, headed to the airport by 3PM and arrived in Port Douglas, North Queensland Australia on Wednesday at 2PM, thats 62 hours, minus the time difference (14 hours), minus the sleeping in flight (6 hours) and minus the dateline crossing....which is the totally confounding part of the equation. Any way you do the math, it is quite a long journey but doing it first class made all the difference! We boarded our first flight to LAX on American Airlines and immediately it was apparent, as I had forecasted to Steve, that it was American in name only, that the plane, the service, was really still our old nemesis, USAir.  Sure the seats were wi...

Follow The Yellow Brick Road!!!!!  OR  We're Off to See the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz It's early morning, November 9th, Philadelphia. The sun is shining, Fall is crisp in the air. The house is clean, the linens freshly washed, the dishwasher unloaded, the fridge empty. The weekend had Shelby and David here, and  Sunday  dinner with Spencer for the last pre-trip kids 'fix'. It has to last a while. The car is sleeping soundly in the suburbs, there's no milk left for coffee, the bills are paid for months ahead. Itineraries are given out both for and to prevent emergencies, goodbye calls, emails and texts are sent and received. And we are packed! Again, each with precision in the same orange 24" suitcase from our last big adventure. Black and white color palette will reign, a repeat performance (let's hope it never goes out of style or good taste), shoes are always challenging and this time, along with rain gear and hiking boots for t...

Well, Good Morning, friend - it has been a long time, hasn't it? It has been almost exactly 2 years since the " Steve and Marci Euro 2013" went dormant.... We have had over 10,000 page views since this started - not a lot compared to Trump, or Jon Stewart, but not bad for a little travel blog created at the last minute. I know many of you have enjoyed the missives whilst we traveled, as you all told me how much you looked forward to them.  Marci & I are about to leave on a new adventure - a 9 week trip to Australia and New Zealand. And I have a small problem you can help me with. Marci is reluctant to write a new travel blog for this trip - she feels that unless she does something new, why bother...and I know from all of you that you would actually like the same style of travel blog. So, if you can, you will need to write to Marci and convince her that there really is an audience for her writing while we hit Oceania this November and December.... >...

BONUS BLOG Dateline: Nov. 12, 2013 Place: New York City Event: Bumble and Bumble Private Party Reason: To celebrate the publication of a new Book Wow. Marci & I were invited to attend “an intimate affair’ in NYC this week. It was a spectacular party to celebrate a new book written by our friend, Laurent Philippon. Laurent at the Party Regular readers of this blog will recall that Laurent, who lives in Paris, spent a bit of time with us back in June & July when Marci and I were staying in the Marais section of Paris. We met him traveling in Mexico City a few years back... Laurent is a very talented and world famous Hair Designer, Stylist, and Consultant to Bumble & Bumble  ( see:  http://laurentphilippon.tumblr.com/ ) ….he was kind enough to take Marci & I to the Haute Couture fashion show in Paris, and even arranged for Marci to have the world’s best hair color touch-up in Paris at salon Superstars ….see the old...

The Last Reveal  We all know Steve is the king of WTF blogs. They are so his thing, not only because he has that kind of sense of humor, but because he is a great observer of those little things as we walk or drive or metro around.  I, on the other hand, am not funny and not a keen observer. But, in case you haven't guessed, I am THE blog writer and so I thought, with no new odd photos to use as a final WTF, and with the great interest in the WTF blogs, perhaps we should end on that note (actually there will be one more post before we go dark). We got lots of guesses. Right away. From our usual players and from some first timers. From people who don't travel much to people who travel a lot. From guesses in Euros to guesses in Turkish Lira (good thing we're now experts at all those exchange rates). From low guesses to high guesses- they were all over the place.  Then, so as to ruin MY first WTF blog (and possibly in fear of being usurped as the WTF king) Steve pipes up and...