More Travel Agency Work
Jul. 21st, 2024 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeThis afternoon, Lisa and I sat down to book the last of the hotels that she will need (as far as we can tell for now) on her post-Worldcon trip.
After Glasgow 2024, she will travel with her friend CD Carson (many of you know him from the Luna Society table at Worldcons and other conventions) for the next two months using a first class Eurail Pass, which fortunately still covers the UK. They will travel from Glasgow to York, then to Portsmouth.
From Portsmouth, they'll take a ferry across the Channel to Caen, then on to Paris, and then to Munich. We've reserved an AirBnB for Lisa in Munich for the period that looks very promising. (Carson will be staying with friends a few km away, reachable on the U-bahn.) The two of them have various plans for traveling around Europe, using Munich as their base for both day trips and for some longer trips, but I'm leaving those arrangements up to them.
The trip home is even more complicated. I've booked the two of them on a NightJet (sleeper cabin) train from Munich to Hamburg, for which the Eurail pass appears to cover the rail transportation, so I only had to pay for the compartment. After getting off the train in Hamburg early in the morning, they'll travel that same day to Copenhagen. The next day it's on to Gothenburg for a two-night stay, followed by a train to Oslo, and then the famous Bergensebahn from Olso to Bergen. They'll spend the night there and then board an overnight ferry to Hirtshals, Denmark. There they will have part of the day to kill before boarding a two-night ferry from Hirtshals to the Seyðisfjörður on the east coast of Iceland. Later that same day they will take a quick flight across Iceland to Reykjavik City airport and spend three nights in the same hotel where Lisa and I will be staying on the way out. Then it's back to the USA, flying to Chicago, where they will spend four nights looking at things in Chicago without being distracted by a Worldcon.
As it happens, trains from Chicago Union Station to Reno and to Fort Worth leave within a few minutes of each other, so it should be easy enough to get over to Union Station and head for their respective homes. I've booked Lisa in a roomette on the California Zephyr to bring her home. The Zephyr is often delayed; however, when I see it go by Fernley, I'll tell my co-workers that I'll be gone for a couple of hours and then drive to Reno. Lisa knows that I'll come and collect her, so even if they train beats me to Reno, there's nothing to worry about.
Unsurprisingly, we've been making all sort of travel bookings over the past few months. Today, we spent several hours booking hotel rooms for the swing up into Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. It seems simple enough, but it did take hours to study the areas and the hotel websites and pick out the right rooms and reserve them.
After getting the hotel reservations done, I purchased our travel insurance. Because our trips are so different, I had to buy separate policies for each of us. My main concern on those policies is emergency medical evacuation insurance, as if you need that, you really need it.
I've been encouraging Lisa to take this trip every since she and Carson started considering it. We're not getting any younger, and this might be her only chance to do something this ambitious.
Me? I'll be staying in the UK for a little while after Glasgow (I have some trains I want to ride), and also working remotely from there because I don't have unlimited time off. Now that we have Lisa's travel plans more or less settled, I can fill in the last piece of the trip for me, which is using my United miles for a one-way trip from LHR to RNO via either SFO or DEN.
After Glasgow 2024, she will travel with her friend CD Carson (many of you know him from the Luna Society table at Worldcons and other conventions) for the next two months using a first class Eurail Pass, which fortunately still covers the UK. They will travel from Glasgow to York, then to Portsmouth.
From Portsmouth, they'll take a ferry across the Channel to Caen, then on to Paris, and then to Munich. We've reserved an AirBnB for Lisa in Munich for the period that looks very promising. (Carson will be staying with friends a few km away, reachable on the U-bahn.) The two of them have various plans for traveling around Europe, using Munich as their base for both day trips and for some longer trips, but I'm leaving those arrangements up to them.
The trip home is even more complicated. I've booked the two of them on a NightJet (sleeper cabin) train from Munich to Hamburg, for which the Eurail pass appears to cover the rail transportation, so I only had to pay for the compartment. After getting off the train in Hamburg early in the morning, they'll travel that same day to Copenhagen. The next day it's on to Gothenburg for a two-night stay, followed by a train to Oslo, and then the famous Bergensebahn from Olso to Bergen. They'll spend the night there and then board an overnight ferry to Hirtshals, Denmark. There they will have part of the day to kill before boarding a two-night ferry from Hirtshals to the Seyðisfjörður on the east coast of Iceland. Later that same day they will take a quick flight across Iceland to Reykjavik City airport and spend three nights in the same hotel where Lisa and I will be staying on the way out. Then it's back to the USA, flying to Chicago, where they will spend four nights looking at things in Chicago without being distracted by a Worldcon.
As it happens, trains from Chicago Union Station to Reno and to Fort Worth leave within a few minutes of each other, so it should be easy enough to get over to Union Station and head for their respective homes. I've booked Lisa in a roomette on the California Zephyr to bring her home. The Zephyr is often delayed; however, when I see it go by Fernley, I'll tell my co-workers that I'll be gone for a couple of hours and then drive to Reno. Lisa knows that I'll come and collect her, so even if they train beats me to Reno, there's nothing to worry about.
Unsurprisingly, we've been making all sort of travel bookings over the past few months. Today, we spent several hours booking hotel rooms for the swing up into Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. It seems simple enough, but it did take hours to study the areas and the hotel websites and pick out the right rooms and reserve them.
After getting the hotel reservations done, I purchased our travel insurance. Because our trips are so different, I had to buy separate policies for each of us. My main concern on those policies is emergency medical evacuation insurance, as if you need that, you really need it.
I've been encouraging Lisa to take this trip every since she and Carson started considering it. We're not getting any younger, and this might be her only chance to do something this ambitious.
Me? I'll be staying in the UK for a little while after Glasgow (I have some trains I want to ride), and also working remotely from there because I don't have unlimited time off. Now that we have Lisa's travel plans more or less settled, I can fill in the last piece of the trip for me, which is using my United miles for a one-way trip from LHR to RNO via either SFO or DEN.
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Date: 2024-07-25 04:27 am (UTC)