Europe A La Carte Blog

Welcome to my blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I always use the Airport Parking Shop price comparison site to find the cheapest UK airport parking charges. We’re flying from Edinburgh to Pisa at the end of May. Although we could take the train from Berwick upon Tweed to Edinburgh on the outward trip we arrive back at Edinburgh at 20:30 too late to be sure of catching the last train to Berwick.

by ladybugbkt

The Airport Parking Shop cheapest rate was £25 for 8 days airport parking very close to Edinburgh airport which I thought was a reasonable price.

Easycar.com have done some research into the causes of arguments between British couples when driving a hire car abroad. My ears pricked up at this as my husband and I will be hiring a car to explore off the beaten track in southern Tuscany and Umbria at the end of this month. It doesn’t exactly portent well with more than a third of couples arguing when driving abroad (I’m actually surprised it isn’t higher) with poor map reading skills being the most likely cause of the argument.

by finnur

I had to laugh at some of the tips in the article such as ask locals for direction, which should have the addition of “assuming that the locals can speak English well and are good at giving directions”. Another gem of wisdom was to play music that you both like (assuming that you both like the same music) as you’re unlikely to argue when your favourite tune is playing (would you like to bet on that?).

What are your tips for avoiding arguments when driving abroad?

This post is brought to you by Europe a la Carte, adviser to English tourism.

England have taken Europe a la Carte’s advice and jazzed up the border crossing into England on the A1. Entry to England was very low key with a tiny sign and no flags compared to the Scottish side which has an enormous sign and three flags. However now England have erected three St George Cross flags. I suppose it had to be three because it couldn’t be fewer than Scotland and more than three would have seemed like one-upmanship.

After Europe a la Carte’s advice

Before Europe a la Carte’s advice

Call me biased but I still that the Scottish entry is better. There is a large Welcome sign, also the blue flags with white crosses are more eye catching than white flags with a red cross and there’s no large Welcome to England sign. Now this is said as an objective observation as although I’m Scottish I currently live in England and drive up and down the A1 regularly.

The Scottish Border on the A1

So England you’ve gone part of the way, how about a nice big Welcome sign too?

We”re flying to Pisa for a seven night trip to Tuscany and Umbria the last week in May 2008. I want to stay at comfortable accommodation and pay an average of 70 euros, around £55 sterling or 108 US dollars for an ensuite double room including breakfast. The idea of our trip is to see some of the less well known areas and towns such as Lake Trasimeno, Gubbio and Arezzo so we’re hiring a car to get around.

Lake Trasimeno by Schwarzkater

Here are the hotels I’ve selected, all 3 or 4 star, found by using the HotelsCombined price comparison site which searches through more than 30 accommodation suppliers sites.

Grand Hotel Golf Pisa through gtahotels 62 euros

La Vela, Trasimeno though booking.com 60 euros

Class Hotel Terni through gtahotels 62 euros

Holiday Inn Perugia through venere 65 euros

Hotel Planet Arezzo through venere 59 euros

Hotel Villa Maya Pisa booked direct with hotel 74 euros

It does take a bit of time and effort to select hotels that fulful your criteria. I ordered my initial search on HotelsCombined by price but you have to watch out for booking fees, check the cancellation policy and if the rate includes breakfast. I then read a few user reviews just to check that the hotel doesn’t receive consistently low ratings and if I can find a cheaper rate on the hotels own website.

Welcome to the third Europe travel blog carnival! I think that the Carnival is going really well due to the number of quality submissions I’m receiving. I do believe that I’m fulfilling my aim of publishing a quality blog carnival which is a coherent presentation of informative and entertaining blog posts for readers who love travel in Europe.

Transport

Planes, Trains And Automobiles (Part 2) « Middle Man posted at Middle Man is a hilarious account of incidents, on the short flight from Belgium to Holland, peppered with confusion over political correctness. Middle Man laments the lack of pretty female cabin crew with the growing number of Julian Clary wannabes taking on the job. After sitting next to a couple who looked like a gangster and his moll, escorted on to the plane by a police officer, Middleman decided to let the train take the strain in future.

Accommodation

Kristie presents Rome, Italy: Our Accommodations and Our Arrival posted at Norway - An American In Oslo. Kristie was lucky to find a good hotel, The Giada at a bargain price for a very late booking in Rome We spent our 20th wedding anniversary in Rome and I found Rome to be a totally enchanting city.

Beautiful view of Rome by edwin.11

I must admit I like to book my accommodation in advance. I booked a hotel in Perugia for our trip to Italy at the end of this month in February and the rate has now increased by around 20%, yet I can still cancel with no penalty up to 48 hours before arrival.

The Happy Hotelier recommends the Pension Manfred Klaus, Weingartsgreuth Germany as a” good and cheap address”. He has stayed at the Pension on many occasions over the years. There are several Bed and Breakfast in Scotland that I stay in fairly regularly and it’s a lovely feeling to be welcomed back.

Destination

Owen Peery writes about Carcassonne, France posted at France Tales. I’ve visited Carcassonne a couple of times and although a bit touristy it is very well preserved and fairytale like.

Carscassonne Cite by lorentey

Davexplorer presents Five Most Unusual Buildings posted at 5 Most Unusual. I thought that couple of the buildings featured in the post were amazing, both the Dancing House in Prague and the HSB Turning Tower in Malmo, Sweden made me feel as though I was swaying.

Dancing House, Prague by namui

In Travel to Stonehenge and See the Rocks posted at Traveling Mamas, Shannon was rather disappointed when she finally visited Stonehenge. I’ve heard quite a few people saying that. Personally I think the Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland are more atmospheric, partly because they’re not so overcrowded with tourists.

Callanish Central Circle by Hare_Guizer

A blog about executions carried out on specific dates sounds a bit of a gruesome topic for a blog. However there’s a lot of historical background in the post. 1796: Mastro Titta’s first execution of many posted at Executed Today which tells of the first execution carried out by Mastra Titta, one of Rome’s most prolific executioners. You can visit the Criminological Museum to find out more about 19th century public executions in the city.

Chris Christensen presents Video Episode 33 - Cinque Terra, Italy posted at The Amateur Traveler Podcast. The Cinque Terre is an area in Italy that I’d love to visit.

Cinque Terre by Stephanie_Costa

Christine’s descrubes The Ominous Strasbourg Cathedral (Cathedrale de Strasbourg) at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France. Strasbourg Cathedral was built on the site of a Roman Temple and was the tallest building in the world for around four centuries.

Heatheronhertravels presents A cycle in the Turia gardens - in Valencia posted at Heather on her travels, saying, “During their visit to Valencia, Heather and her family hired bikes and cycled along the boulevards of the Turia gardens, once the bed of the river that ran through the city, as far as the port and beach where they basked in the spring sunshine.” That sounds like the sort of cycling I prefer, no steep slopes and away from traffic.

Restaurants

Terry Dip presents Are Belgian waffles really that good? posted at Complete and Creative, saying, “Okay, so maybe a kiosk on the street isn’t really a restaurant, but it still offers pretty delicious food.” Sometimes a snack from a take away can be just what you want, if you are a bit peckish and don’t want to sit in a cafe or restaurant and yes, Belgian waffles are really good.

Waffle by Adactio

That concludes this months edition which I hope has informed, inspired and entertained you., The June edition of the Europe Travel Bllog Carnival with by hosted at Heather on her travels. Please submit your posts for the June Europe Travel Blog Carnival by Sunday 25 May.. Only one post per author will be published and your post should be specifically about travel in Europe. Unfortunately not all posts submitted can be included.

If you’d like to host a future edition of the Europe Travel Blog Carnival please contact me. However please be aware that you’ll have to spend some time selecting the posts for inclusion, adding some commentary and photos, its’s not just a quick copy and paste Carnival.

by ccgd

Visit Scotland have a great site called “Cafe Days” enabling you to find your perfect cafe. The featured cafes are independent cafes, often struggling to survive with the every expanding empires of the likes of Costa Coffee (which I refer to as Costalota) and Starbucks.

You can search for cafes on a regional map, when you click on the teacup a short description of the cafe appears. You can click for more detailed information about the cafe and other activities on offer in that area. Or you can search by type of cafe e.g. near walks, suitable for families, close to wildlife.

You can also print off recipe card so you can replicate some of the favourites at home.

There are four “Cafe Day Breaks” competitions on the site with prizes such as a stay in Auchen Castle in Dumfries including a Land Rover Experience and a full body massage.

I saw a well known travel site asking for submissions on travel in Europe on a budget of around $100 a day per person so I pitched an article I’d written for my travel site giving advice and a costing breakdown for a stay in Edinburgh on a daily budget of £50 sterling (approx $100) per person based on two travellers sharing a room. I received a reply from the editor saying that although my article offered good advice, it’s wasn’t written with search engines in mind and didn’t have a unique, fresh or zany angle which would be tagged on social media sites.

Now I can take rejection and I don’t think I’m a fantastic writer and any site I approach should be desperate to publish my material. I can see it from the editor’s perspective, he runs a site with high traffic and knows what he’s talking about. So basically I should write material which is key word stuffed and written for a search engine more than for a human or something quirky to get attention in social media sites. Or if I’m very clever combine the two.

Well there’s no point is trying to peddle boring good advice intended for humans versus machines, I’d better read up on search engine optimisation and keywords and try something a bit wacky to get noticed.

Now I’m not so sure when I’ve seen spikes in my traffic when an article or blog post is featured on a social network site such as Stumbleupon but although traffic increased there was no corresponding increase in revenue either through clicking on ads or affiliate links. An increase in traffic may be of value to a site which sells advertising on a CPM (fee for 1000 page views) basis but for me it’s pointless if it leads to no increase in revenue.

Maybe websites are so busy trying to grab readers attention and get highly ranked on social media sites that they are forgetting what the readers want, which in some cases may be good advice?

Every year on May 1 the “Riding of the Bounds” takes place in Berwick upon Tweed. In 1438 Berwick became part of England after changing hands between England and Scotland several times. Berwick lies 3 miles from the Scottish border and I call the area Scengland. The “Riding of the Bounds” was initiated to check that the area was secure, presumably from the Scots.

Leaving the Barracks

Riders gather at the Barracks Square. A piper heralds the start of the procession, led by a Marshall holding the Berwick flag. down to the Guildhall to request the Mayor’s permission to secure the boundaries.

Heading down Marygate to the Guildhall

The Mayoral party on the Guildhall steps

The riders then set off on their mission, halting traffic on the A1, check for marauding Scots and then report back that all is secure handing back the Berwick flag.

“Riding the Bounds” is rather perverse in the current climate as recent opinion polls show that 60 - 80% of Berwick residents would like Berwick to be part of Scotland, mainly because of higher per capita public spending in Scotland, so perhaps the ceremony will have to renamed “Redrawing the Bounds”?

I’ve often thought it would be great to have a social news site solely for travel and here it is Travel off the Cuff. On a social news network like Digg or Stumbleupon readers can submit articles that they like and members of the social news site can vote on the articles that they like.  Articles with a lot of votes are listed near the top of the page.  Travel off the Cuff’s founder, Mark writes a blog about his travel experiences for the site.

I like the ethos of the site that you can have a “great trip without having to plan every minute of the day”. Of course there is planning involved in putting together your trip. I believe that you should leave time for spontaneity and wandering around, not have an itinerary that is so crammed that you end not seeing anything properly as you dash around. I hope that the articles on the site will encourage this attitude to travelling.

I’ll be visiting Travel off the Cuff over the next few weeks to vote and comment on stories that appeal to me and submitting stories which I think deserve some publicity.

There’s an increase of visitors from European countries where the Euro is the currency as sterling drops in value against the Euro. While I suspect that London may receive a high proportion of the visitors, I’d urge would be bargain hunters to look at other less obvious destinations. Not only will you see more of the “real” Britain, if you venture, even slightly, off the beaten track, you’ll find that accommodation is generally cheaper than in the tourist hot spots. However if you prefer to stay near the popular attractions and plenty of shops, you could still enjoy some great day trips.

You could enjoy the river walks and seaside at Berwick upon Tweed in North Northumberland and be in Edinburgh or Newcastle in 45 minutes by train on the main East Coast Line.

Berwick upon Tweed

If you stay in the small city of Stirling in central Scotland there is a pretty good shopping centre and a beautiful castle and you can be in Edinburgh or Glasgow is under an hour by train.

Valley Cemetery, Scotland

From Edinburgh it’s easy to reach North Berwick or Dunbar in East Lothian for a day out by the sea,

North Berwick Beach, East Lothian, Scotland