Blaney Travel Log: Home Again, Home Again

Home again, home again Jiggidy Jig!

You may have thought you were done receiving these ramblings from me but surprise! There are just a few loose ends that we wanted to clear up about our trip.

First and most importantly a huge thank you to Kathleen. She not only pushed us to go on this adventure but she also made all of the travel arrangements from airlines to all of our train travel, to the VRBOs, the AirBnBs, the reservations for tours and the hotels. She also served as our navigator on busses, trains and while walking. Thank you. We look forward to your return to us from NYC.

Secondly, there were some photos that I thought were worthy of sharing that did not make it to the daily email so I've included some of them.

Lastly there were some items that I learned during our travel that I found kind of interesting. I'll feel foolish if everyone reading this already knows these things.

The official Languages of Belgium are French, German and Dutch. Flemish is not really a language. It is Dutch dialect.

At least in London (maybe other places too) you can tap your credit card to use the subway. No need for subway cards or tickets (Billetts).

There are places (London and Paris) where you may have to rescan you card or subway receipt to get OUT of the subway. It seems they sometimes charge according to how many zones you crossed)

There were many places where we were only able to use credit cards, no cash. Perhaps it's a Covid thing.

We spent 2 days and two nights in London and during the entire time we never used English money (pound sterling) only credit cards.

The ratio of the Euro to the dollar is almost 1 to 1.

The ratio of the dollar was $1.20 to the pound.

In London we had to scan our room key (card) to get the hotel elevator to move.

In an Amsterdam hotel we had to place our card pass in a receptacle by the light switch for the room lights to work.

December 5 & 6 is the night when children in this area of Europe receive gifts. Christmas is more of a family big meal holiday.

One of the people who helped Ann Frank and her family did not die until 2010.

Twice I was equally embarrassed and grateful when a young woman offered (insisted) that I take her seat on the subway. One, I was hauling luggage to the airport and she was just going a few stops and the other time I must have just looked old and pitiful.

In a somewhat related note, there is nothing in subways that would would come close to meeting the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Therefore, there are not a lot of senior citizens who take the subways.

We rode trains in the Netherlands 3-4 times and never had our tickets checked.

Thanks for putting up with these almost daily updates of our trip and as I said earlier (and I'm talking to you Bruce Ruzicka), none of this will be on the test.