Most Commented Travel Blogs (264)

Pet Peeves? I've got a few (dozen) and I'm sure you do too...
Top of my list this month relates to driving and aggressive drivers because the world doesn't have enough.

There was a time when we only had red and green lights. I was probably a kid when they added a yellow light to let drivers know the red light was only a few seconds away. The timing on the yellow varies depending on the length of the intersection and it allows drivers ample time to get through safely before the light turns red.

What's worse is the multi-lane left turn where they have an arrow (or arrows) and typically when the lights turn red, on coming traffic has the go-ahead. That doesn't stop 5 or 6 cars from pushing through their left turn on a red light, forcing oncoming traffic to wait.

Please, Department of Transportation, deputize me and set me up at a busy corner with full ticket recording video machines (and a full length bullet proof body suit) to catch offenders at an average of 5 for every 4 minutes it takes for the lights to cycle.

I'll work for commission. Tickets for running a red light are $75 and and 10% seems fair. That calculates to 48 tickets per hour or $360 per hour. I'll show up on rush hour morning and night 5 days a week. That's enough to quit my day job!

I haven't seen a driver's handbook in a few years, but a car approaching an intersection to make a left turn, is to remain stopped until they can safely complete the turn. You can be ticketed for crawling out and stopping diagonally along the median waiting for the other side to clear. While everyone does this, they've been doing it for years as though it's correct. The same thing goes for a right turn on red. They leave out a small detail of AFTER FULL STOP.

U-Turn yield to right turn. I was making a right (with a right turn arrow) and had to brake or a driver making a U-Turn would have hit me. Yeah... the sign (he ignored) was clearly there.
That's probably the same skill-set for the people who make U-Turns on a red light.

The most irritating and dangerous is 'charging the intersection' aka anticipation turns. Back to the 6 lane road with turn lanes and wide median. You're driving along in the outside lane, no one behind you. A driver from oncoming traffic wants to make a U-Turn (or left turn) and starts his turn BEFORE you reach his car. That means he's already 110 degrees into a 180 turn. If someone in front of you shows down and you hit the brakes, the driver making the synchronized U-Turn has a good chance of hitting your rear side.
I was in the middle lane when someone made a wide right turn into my lane at the same time another car was charging the intersection. Anticipation of a disaster, I leaned on the horn and both drivers realizing their stupidity, cut back avoiding a 3-car collision.

That should qualify my pet peeves for the month of December. Stay tuned there could be a cameo later in the month.

It is that time again! It's time for your favourite blog ever - my planning for the USA.

The last blog was about the food. This blog is about something else.. It can't always be about food, right?

My friend, who I am visiting, told me that she would be working Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Saturday, she's off at 3 pm, so I need to keep myself busy and/or entertained until she's back home. Fortunately, I love exploring. All I really need is some water, a good pair of shoes and my camera. With those three things, I can be busy for hours. I can look at the local area, for example. I could also help her with grocery shopping. The possibilities are endless!

I COULD also be a total recluse and spend the entire day watching TV, but that's not fun. Not fun at all. Besides, I am in a new country, so I need to experience shtuff.. Flying 4173 miles just to watch TV is just.. Not it..

I need to ask my friend if I can get a spare key so I can go exploring while she's at work! She's off work Sunday and Monday, so those days can be spent driving to DC. I'm thinking we're going to hit a shopping mall on the Saturday, but nothing's set in stone just yet.

My trip is 51 days and 11 hours away! I should start packing soon..

I am slowly getting things in order for my trip to New York next year. I have gotten a confirmation where I am going to stay: At my friends place.

That means that I am going to have to cook some Danish style food for her and her baby, and I know just the thing to make! I hope she eats pork, since Danish food is very pork based. If she doesn't, I am gonna do some tweaks to the food I want to prepare for her.

I am gonna collect the rest of my money for the trip tomorrow. I plan to get at least $550, which means I will have $1003 in total. I have also decided to add a suitcase to my trip, which will cost me $60 each way, which is a price I am willing to pay.

I also had a look at what was included in my plane ticket, since I bought a "basic economy" fare. From what I have read, I am now allowed to bring one carry on bag with me on the plane, as well as a personal item of my choice. I am also getting a comfortable seat in the Main Cabin and enjoy free snacks, soft drinks and inflight entertainment. So it's not gonna be a complete spartan experience, which I was worried about.

So far it's looking good. I am well prepared, which is a first for me! I am usually very last minute, but because I bought my plane ticket almost 10 months in advance, I have time to really prepare.

Now we are just gonna plan what we are going to do for the entire week I am there. But it shouldn't be hard to do, since there are a lot to do, apparently.

Now I just need it to be May 1st, so I can leave!

Great people and land. But my long term interest in visiting once more, this time to teach and to learn the language, is waning, as I watch Hong Kong. The Party bosses simply seem most interested in a gross misbalance betwen putting food in mouths, and personal political freedoms. Of course, it's always a trade off, even here in the West. We must all look closely to goings on there, into our own hearts, and decide. Regrets.

Emirates airline has asked staff to take voluntary paid and unpaid leave as the effects of the coronavirus across the world ramps up.

The Dubai-based carrier halted most flights to China and suspended operations to Iran, the epicentres of the coronavirus.

Following Saudi Arabia's decision to temporarily suspend issuing tourist visas to people in countries badly hit by the coronavirus outbreak, Emirates stopped flying tourists from more than 20 countries to the kingdom, the company’s biggest market in the Middle East.

An email to staff described a “measureable slow-down in business across our brands” and called for “flexibility in the way we work”.

A spokesperson for Emirates said: “We can confirm the email was sent to our employees around unpaid leave due to the difficult business conditions.”

German airline Lufthansa on Friday announced that it expects to reduce its flights by up to 25 percent in the coming weeks due to the increasing spread of the new coronavirus.

Due to the "accelerated spread of the coronavirus" the company said it would have to cut the numbers of its short- and medium-haul flights by up to a quarter and ground 23 of its long-haul planes.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation has said that the virus outbreak could mean a $4-5 billion drop in worldwide airline revenue.

Lets makes this world the most beautiful place on earth There is enough sunshine for all of us. Everyone can enjoy the sunshine and life to the highest level.
Regards

Yes, I'm a rider, I ride as often as I can. Sometimes I wake up early, and have trouble getting back to sleep, I've been know to take off for a ride at 3am. Other times on a whim I'll throw a couple of changes of clothes in a bag and just take off. One time when I did that I wound up spending the night in Arkansas, the next night found me in Iowa. I have already earned 1 Iron Butt patch, and am presently waiting to see if my second ride will be approved. In both cases it was 1000 miles in 24 hours, not the easiest ride to make, but in it's own way quite fun.

Back when I bought my trip to Washington D.C., I bought the tickets through Lufthansa in their Economy section. The flight was 3658 Danish kroner ($530.43), with a random seat allocation. I decided to spend 628 Danish kroner ($91.06), on picking my seats on all the flights, bringing the total cost of the trip to 4286 Danish kroner ($621.50).

Cheap, but it showed. The quality of the flight wasn't the best.

I will let you all know why I wouldn't pick Lufthansa again!

The trip was from Copenhagen to Frankfurt, and then onward to Washington D.C. A few days before departure, Lufthansa sent me an email where they told me, that they had gotten a different aircraft for my flight to Frankfurt, so I had gotten a new seat.

"alright, no harm done. At least I am going to go on my trip", and that first flight was quick. However - I seemed to be sitting between a company trip, because they all knew each other. They talked. And talked. And talked. Quite loud as well, and even when the safety demonstration was being performed. Very rude, I think.

The food on that flight - if you could call it that - was a bottle of water and a piece of chocolate. Granted, it was just an hour, but still. I was very hungry, and I had a two hour wait in Frankfurt - with no Euro on me, and my card isn't working outside Denmark.

Strike one.

We landed in Frankfurt ahead of time, which was fantastic! It was my first time in Frankfurt airport, so I had no idea what to expect. From the aircraft, we had to take a bus to the terminal, and from there, I had to find my gate for my next flight. Luckily, the gate was easy to find, so I sat down and relaxed until it was time to board.

An hour and a half later, we boarded. We were 350 people that needed to board - with just four people to handle that. It took a bit of time, but once we were situated in the aircraft - a rather old and tired Airbus A330 - we pushed back. The flight to the US was nothing to write home about. Pretty streamlined and pretty boring. The food was good, though. I got a chicken/mashed potato dish, which was excellent. Or maybe I was just hungry.

Just before landing I got very hungry. Luckily, they offered a snack, which I was very excited for. However - the bread was VERY dry - maybe because it had spent 8 hours in the fridge.. You don't put toast in the fridge..

Landing in Washington Dulles was good. We had some minor turbulence, but I wasn't worried. We touched down ahead of time, so it was off and through immigration. That flight was quite smooth, so maybe the Copenhagen to Frankfurt part was a one-off?

No.. The trip home was even worse. We pushed back from Dulles a few minutes behind schedule. That happens all the time, so as long as we landed on time in Frankfurt, I could make my flight home.

An hour into the flight, the captain came on the intercom, saying that some of the screens didn't show the entertainment, so they would kill the power and reboot. That didn't help, so they rebooted it again, which helped.

That was the only real memorable thing that happened on that flight, so fast-forward to landing in Frankfurt. I had an hour and a half to reach my gate and my connecting flight. I made the gate with 40 minutes to spare, so I sat down and relaxed. We boarded about 50 minutes later, and to my delight, I had a whole row to myself since the flight was only half full. That meant that boarding was completed well ahead of time, so we had about 20 minutes to relax, before we were taking off and pointing the nose to Denmark, and Copenhagen.

However - that was not to be for a while.. Read my next blog to find out why that was, and why I will not be flying Lufthansa again..

This is part 2 of my absolute nightmare of a trip home from the US. In the last blog, I detailed the trip to Germany and the US, and the trip back to Germany.

Now it's time for the absolute biggest annoyance with air travel: Delays!

We were sitting in the aircraft, all buckled up, ready for takeoff, when a van with two people came up to the side of the aircraft. They wore helmets and vests. "Oh boy, this can't be good", was my thought. About ten minutes later, the captain came on the intercom and explained that we had to disembark, because the aircraft had a malfunction. However, we already had a new aircraft, and all we needed to do was find the new gate. We would then be off shortly.

However, when we reached the gate, we had to wait for an hour and a half to be allowed to board. By then, the boarding time said 7:40 am. The flight was originally scheduled for a 7:15 am takeoff, so we were already 35 minutes late. 7:40 am came and went - no boarding yet. A few of the passengers went to the desk to hear how much longer it would take. No answer. Only that they were working on it. By then, the time was 8 am

New boarding time was put on the monitor: 8:20 am. That made one of the passengers so irate, that he asked the staff member to cancel his ticket, which the staff member did. Very little information was given to us. It was a mix between "sorry for the delay" and "we have no information yet".

8:20 am came and went - still no boarding. I am usually a very calm and positive guy, but even I was reaching the point of having enough. Finally, at 8:45 am, a full hour and 5 minutes after the 7:40 am boarding time, we boarded the flight. 20 minutes later, we were ready for departure. Takeoff was at 9:18 am and we landed in Copenhagen at 10:18 am. Originally, we were scheduled for a 8:35 am landing, so we were almost 2 hours late. I found my suitcase, and went home.

That whole delay in Frankfurt single-handedly made me swear to never fly with Lufthansa again. Some good experiences cannot outweigh the bad. I know it's a low-cost airline, which I definitely experienced. My next flight will be with SAS. They have a direct flight to Dulles from Copenhagen, and I will definitely spend a bit more to get a better class. I am thinking Premium Economy, since I don't really have the money for business class. One more strike for Lufthansa was also when their app suddenly locked me out, with no way to change the password.

Pro: The food on the flight from Frankfurt to Dulles was good. Smooth flight as well. The flight from Dulles to Frankfurt was, despite a reboot of the in flight entertainment, pretty smooth as well. We hit some turbulence on the way, but it wasn't extreme.

Con: The "food" from Copenhagen to Frankfurt, the sandwich before landing in the US, the delay in Frankfurt and the app shutting me out

Three pros and four cons. It wasn't all negative, but I am still not going to recommend Lufthansa. If they had been more open and transparent about the delay in Frankfurt, I wouldn't have minded that. However, because they gave so little information, they go on the cons list.

Overall, I give the flight, as a whole a 5/10.

That's how long I have to wait until my next USA trip. By then, the date will be October 28.

The plan is to experience Halloween in the US. Once again, I am staying with my friend, her son and her cat, which I have nicknamed The Terror.. It's a long story.. Anyway!

I plan on booking the flight in six months. That gives me just over 4 months to save up, which is entirely possible. I am getting a second payout from work next month, so that's going to be put on my savings account. Before you know it, I have enough for my flight to the US.

This time around, I am flying direct! I don't want to change flights, because it can end badly, like my trip home earlier this month. I am also going to go a class up, and select Premium Economy rather than regular economy. More space on the plane and lounge access - two things I have never tried in my life, so I am thinking that now is the time. I also think the food is better, but I'm not sure.

I am prepared this time. The last time, I just picked the cheapest option available, which showed. This time, my flight will leave in the middle of the day, rather than at 6.35 am. That means I can get a good nights sleep at home before I head to the airport. Now that I know there is a direct flight from Copenhagen to DC, that's what I will take from now on. I gave Lufthansa a chance, and they blew it. I will explain more in a future blog.

Now I have my next trip to plan in a few months. And yes, that means another installment of my "Making plans for my USA trip!" blog series!