Check your rate.
Month: October 2009
Europe on the cheap – airfares
There are millions of things to do in Europe.
Millions more if you have money.
I spent the past summer there. It was easy to decide what to do. I had a focus. Hiking.
Lonely Planet Western Europe provided me a list of best hiking regions.
Hitting many of the “best hikes” did involve a lot of travel on the 3 main kinds of airlines:
Full service Airlines
Discount Airlines
Charter Airlines
I flew no full-service airlines. Here is a sampling of the flights I took during high season:
Halifax to London = CAD$200 – Thomas Cook (Charter)
London to Venice = CAD$100 – EasyJet
Glasgow to Barcelona = CAD146.96 – RyanAir (world’s worst airline)
Bilbao to Glasgow = CAD$159.36 – EasyJet
Glasgow to Calgary = CAD$227.24 – FlyGlobeSpan (Charter)
I highly recommend flyglobespan.com. Their charters run only seasonally. And only once a week. But flying direct from Calgary or Vancouver is wonderful for that low fare.
Average airfares are still increasing, I believe. But lowest airfares are as low as they’ve ever been as airlines get better and better at filling all the seats.
I normally start with two websites:
Mobbissimo.com
Yahoo Travel (formerly Fare Chase)
From there I might compare with other aggregation sites like Kayak, if necessary.
Then I try to find the flight / fare on the website for the carrier, and buy direct, online.
If you are flexible on dates and times, you can often get a low fare. The further in advance of the flight, the better. For Charters it’s worth cross checking with a travel agent.
Flying to and from Europe … and between European nations is very inexpensive. Cheaper than train or bus in most cases.
uncunning linguist
I’ve always admired those with a gift for tongues.
Traveling in Europe this summer I would have had a much easier time if I was fluent in …
Italian
German
Spanish
Swiss German
French
Basque
Catalan
Ladin
Asturian
I only speak a smattering of French, German and Spanish.
When a woman asked me if I had seen her lost dog, I spoke enough German to reply, “I’ve not eaten your hound.“
My greatest language barrier, however, was in Scotland. Who knows what those old Scots are saying?
Click PLAY to see a Yank trying to learn to speak Scottish.
no snow in Hawaii
Snowfall brings city to crawl
Mayor will request more removal gear after 200 accidents snarl traffic
In Calgary, October came in like a lion.
I’m visiting my folks in Parksville, B.C. … WHEW.
And checking flights to Maui.
Canada Olympic Park – biking
While home for a couple of weeks I enjoyed trail running and biking at C.O.P.
Not Whistler, B.C., the 2010 Olympic Park.
But Calgary, Alberta, the 1988 Winter Olympic Park.
Not the terrain park, rather the undeveloped land east of C.O.P called Paskapoo Slopes,.
Start biking just at the sign that says: Private Property. Keep Out.
The trails are very popular. And quite well used.
Waldorf School hosts their annual Fun Run every year on that land.
global warming to end by Christmas 2009
So says Brian.
He’s a Global Warming skeptic. Like these guys:
… Some global warming skeptics in the science or political community dispute all or some of the global warming scientific consensus objecting to whether global warming is actually occurring, if human activity is truly to blame, and if the threat is as great a threat as has been alleged. Prominent global warming skeptics include Richard Lindzen, Fred Singer, Patrick Michaels, John Christy, and Robert Balling. …
Of course there are pro-industry, right wing idiots that deny global warming as a knee jerk reaction.
But there are also serious scientists that feel there is not enough evidence. That the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has jumped the gun. Especially the “hockey stick” graph.
Read about critics here.
Or read a mainstream media article – BBC – What happened to global warming? That’s written by the Climate correspondent, BBC News.
You’ve heard skeptics before.
… But Brian now declares that global skepticism will be WIDELY covered by the mainstream media by Christmas.
Let’s see if he’s right.
We could go back to worrying about the next ice age.
Me, I’ve done no research at all. There are many bigger problems in the world occupying my attention.
my 6-day hike in Spain
The second longest trek of my summer in Europe, the Picos de Europa Circuit.
An unforgettable (91.5km) route covering the … most extaordinary limestone landscapes – river gorges, alpine lakes, depressions, dense beech woods, narrow canals, cliff hanging trails and peaks with breathtaking views …
… click through to my hiking blog to see the trip report and photos
retire to the Sunshine Coast, B.C.
CAD$405K
Friends of mine are selling. Guaranteed no rain, ever.
3 bedroom condo on Sechelt’s beautiful waterfront, Downtown locaton, concrete building, recreation, exercise and hobby room. Wood burning fireplace, hardwood floors
$50-billion lawsuit against Big Tobacco
Love it.
In launching a $50-billion lawsuit against tobacco companies, Ontario is joining what many expect will eventually become a national battle to recover health costs linked to smoking.
The governments of British Columbia and New Brunswick have already filed claims against cigarette manufacturers and most of the other provinces have passed legislation enabling them to make similar cases.
“Let’s be clear: This is important for the people of Ontario who have paid a lot of money for health-care costs directly related to tobacco use over the decades,” Ontario Attorney-General Chris Bentley told reporters yesterday. “We believe the taxpayers should be compensated for the costs that they have paid. That’s what this lawsuit is all about.”
After years of legal wrangling in the United States, tobacco manufacturers agreed in 1998 to pay state governments $246-billion (U.S.) over 25 years to help pay for the costs of treating people with smoking-related illnesses. …
That $246-billion settlement is not correct. It turned out to be well over $300 billion.
… And why is it that smokers do not consider this littering? Most don’t toss anything else on the ground.
Rick McCharles 