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The Hardest Part

Posted by No Kids, Will Travel on March 9, 2012 in Adventure, Canada, Travel

Like most people who enjoy travel, I count down the days to departure with increasing glee. My last day at work before my time off begins feels just like the last day of school before summer vacation.

But, without fail, the night before we steal away – whether it’s for a weekend in Toronto or two weeks in Italy – my heart starts aching.

Our cat, Storm, is our baby. I swear her face changes as soon as she sees us pull out our luggage. She looks concerned and anxious and I start feeling the guilt. I know it’s silly, but I go out of my way to keep her from seeing my bag or the actual packing. You should see me “sneaking” around so she won’t “catch” me. It’s okay, laugh at me. It’s just as ridiculous as it sounds.

I feel guilty all night, and Zeke tells me – repeatedly – that Storm will be fine. I know she’ll be fine. We always have someone stopping by to see her and make sure she has everything she needs (which amounts to attention, food, water and a clean litter box). Still, my heart literally hurts.

The alarm goes off and it’s time to finish getting ready and get out the door, and I can’t even look Storm in the face. I tell her over and over that we love her and we’ll be home “soon” (she can’t tell time, I know that much).

There’s another pang of guilt as we close the door and lock it. All the way to the car, Zeke tells me she’s fine and I tell him I know.

And you know what? He’s right.

When we get home, Storm is usually a little extra attentive (needy) for a few days, but there don’t seem to be any lasting mental or physical effects. She’s our sweet girl and we’re a loving, complete family until the next time the luggage appears.

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Following the PATH

Posted by No Kids, Will Travel on March 4, 2012 in Canada, Travel

Toronto’s PATH is like most jewels found underground.  The network of tunnels is more than 17 miles long, covering enough area to earn it the title of largest underground shopping complex in the world. The PATH has 1,200 shops and restaurants and an array of business services. It connects more than 50 buildings and office towers as well as the adjoining parking garages and subway stations.

You can travel to the main tourist attractions in the warm comfort of the path as well. The Hockey Hall of Fame, Roy Thomson Hall, Air Canada Center, Rodgers Center and the CN Tower are all connected. We did find that the walkway from Union Station to the CN Tower is periodically closed because it cuts through the convention center.  If there is a big event there like the Auto Show you have to go outside and walk around, but it’s only a small inconvenience.

The PATH isn’t a new idea.  The first tunnel was created in 1900 when a store owner connected his main store with his bargain outlet annex through a tunnel.  The idea was so popular (due to the cold Canadian winters) there were five more tunnels by 1917.  The tunnel connecting our hotel, the Royal York, with Union Station was built in 1927(it’s currently under construction but still passable).

I know it sounds silly for me to go on and on about this large shopping mall, but it was awesome!  If you have ever had to work a job, like I do, where you have to go from building to building in the middle of the winter you will be smitten with the PATH.  The glorious idea of not having to wear a parka or having wet feet from walking from building to building is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize in my book.  So take some time – even if you happen to visit in the warm summer months – to explore the enlightened way of the Toronto PATH.

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A History of Our Adventures for All to See

Posted by No Kids, Will Travel on February 27, 2012 in Adventure, Canada, Travel

An eight hour weekend drive just to get a patch.  The little blue back pack with the flag patches is a constant companion on each of our trips.  The little bag is not only practical for keeping travel necessities like kindles, snacks, and hand wipes but, your pricey electronics, like your new digital SLR. A camera bag is target for any thief.  But, I digress.

The backpack is an important part of this story because it is the sole reason sun worshipers like us are heading to Canada in February.  We’ve been to Mexico and wanted to complete the North American trifecta. I wonder if they have a flag for that? So we decided to take a drive of 450 miles from Frederick, MD to Toronto, ON, Canada, in order to buy a Canadian flag patch for the little blue back pack. We also chose to choose a weekend that our Washington Capitals are playing the Maple Leafs in Toronto.  I can’t wait.  I’ve never been to an NHL game; it’s kind of ironic since I’ve interviewed many of the players in the locker room as part of my job. I’ve been to see AHL (minor league hockey) games in Hershey, PA, GO BEARS! and love it.

We crossed the border around 11 and were only a little disappointed that they didn’t stamp our passports. We arrived in Toronto around12:30 and we pleasantly surprised by our room being ready.  The Fairmont Royal York is a grand old lady of a hotel built in the twenties right in downtown.  We had plans in the evening and it was raining so we decided to take in the Royal Ontario Museum (The ROM). The real irony was the special exhibit was on the Mayan Civilization.  We visited actual Mayan ruins at Tulum in Mexico two years ago.

The most amazing thing we learned about Toronto is the P-A-T-H.  The PATH is an underground network of tunnels that like a lot of the downtown buildings.  We love it. We walked from the hotel to the subway without ever setting foot above ground. The subway stop was even on the block of the museum.  The subway was easy to navigate too.  You go to a kiosk in the subway and feed a ten dollar bill (Canadian) into the slot and get tokens.  The tokens cost 3 dollars a slug.  You plop them in a slot on the turnstile and head to the train. It is a flat fare so no matter where you go on the network you just have to pay 3 dollars a trip.

A note on Money, I hate not having the local currency on arrival. You should have cash to tip the people that help you and pay for incidentals.  We drove all around the Toronto suburbs so when we arrived at the hotel we’d have some cash to tip the valet.  I eventually found a Bank, went to the ATM then took the cash inside and had them change it for small bills.   I find it just a way to help show you aren’t and ugly American.

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To Gondola or Not to Gondola, That is the Question

Posted by No Kids, Will Travel on February 19, 2012 in Adventure, Italy, Travel

A gondola ride in Venice is one of those things that boarder on cliché, like losing one’s virginity on prom night.  You promise yourself you’re not going to do it and yet you wake up the next morning in the back of an El Camino looking for your knickers.

The gondola ride has another thing in common with losing it, you get in the “boat”, with your “friend” and it feels very awkward at first. You look around at all the people walking along the sidewalks like your friends at the dance and become very self-conscious, as if they are all making judgments and assumptions about you and the person you’re with. You can also hear your father’s voice in your head, chastising you. This time it’s not for lacking the inability to unhook a bra with one hand, but for paying more than 50 Euros for a 40-minute trip.

You eventually push past it.  You get over all those silly notions flying around in your head, widen your perspective, look up at all the buildings from canal level and marvel at the cleverness of it all.  My “friend” was Amanda. We boarded a gondola in the middle of the afternoon, feeling we’d only be in Venice once and we had to do it – if only to have an answer for the people who would ask if we did.

It was difficult for Amanda.  She has a severe problem with heights and it affects her ability to climb into a boat. In her opinion “when you hit water you’re just falling more slowly.”  We finally got in the boat and sat in the love seat in the back.  We didn’t look like a post card or a movie, I had a big 35mm camera and we were both wearing heavy coats to stave off the early April chill.

The gondolier began his slow rhythmic strokes, gliding us down the canal and starting our tour. I remember being torn between taking pictures and taking it in. I was in Venice, a place I’d dreamed about visiting all of my life, in a gondola with a girl who was quickly becoming my best friend and all I could do was aim, focus and frame, my instincts as a professional photographer taking over.   I eventually forced myself to relax, to lean back in the seat and something amazing happened, she leaned back into me. I don’t know if I smiled, but I’m pretty sure I did. I put my arm around her and we sat like a real couple in a gondola as we floated through one of the most romantic cities in the world.

So, take that gondola ride. It’s like your first time, good or bad you will never forget it.

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Venice – A once-in-a-lifetime must

Posted by No Kids, Will Travel on February 12, 2012 in Italy, Travel

When you hear someone mention Venice there are a few things that come to mind, “Wow, that’s beautiful.”  Or “Venice really? Isn’t that just filled with tourists?” or “The canals, they’re beautiful” or “I heard the canals smell” … all these things are (kind of) true.

Venice is a city built on hundreds of sandbars and marshes in the middle of a lagoon. It is unique among all the cities in the world, it is simply amazing.  The airport was small, yet modern, no doubt to accommodate all the visitors that flood into the city like the aqua alta (high tide) during the late spring and early summer.  The tourists who pack the city during the late summer’s oppressive humid heat are also treated to a distinct odor from the watery thoroughfares. The guide books all say the best time to visit is the fall and I agree, fall in Italy is perfect, but our trip to Venice was in the early spring.

The city felt like it was just waking up from a short winter hibernation.  A grey sky hung low over San Marco Square and the air was damp. The grand parlor of Venice was our first stop, the map we had said the hotel was just a few blocks off the square and should be simple to get to.  The first thing you need to know about Venice is that there is no direct route to anywhere.  You turn to the left and the right and the right and the left and find yourself back where you started, or staring at the edge of a canal with no bridge in sight. I have an amazing since of direction and we still wandered like a drunken kid coming back from his first kegger.  The best thing is everywhere you turn a picture of beauty is staring you in the face, Venice is a beautiful and wondrous place.

Traveling Tips-

Walking Shoes (You will walk everywhere in Venice)

Vaporetto- If you’re not walking, you’re taking the bus, it’s just this one floats.  It follows a fixed route and is easy to follow the schedule.  The Vaporetto stops are covered barges tethered to the side of a canal. You buy the tickets in hour increments, not stops.  The No. 1 boat is the one that makes all the stops along the Grand Canal and is the one you will most often use to see the tourist sights.

Train Station- If you are traveling by train you want the Santa Lucia Station, not the “Venice” station on the mainland.

Airport-Transport- The walk to the Alilunga Boats (boats that take you to San Marco from the Airport) is only ten minutes outside the arrivals at the airport. You can buy the tickets at VeniceLink.com or in the arrival areas of the airport, or if you have 13 Euros (2009) in cash you can buy it on the boat.

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Cars, Planes, Trains – You Name It

Posted by achanguris on February 5, 2012 in Italy

I remember setting my alarm for some ungodly hour – I think it was something like 2:00 a.m. – so I could meet Zeke at his parents’ house for our ride to the airport. That’s how it all started, our first trip to Italy that would kick off a lifetime of seeing the world (here at home and afar) with my best friend.

We got to the airport around 4:00 a.m. for our 6:00 a.m. flight into London Heathrow. I had flown before, but never anything like this. I was leaning heavily on Zeke’s travel experience (he had been to Greece and England twice and Egypt once before we met). He was a patient guide from DC to Heathrow around London to Gatwick to Venice and beyond.

Our cheap tickets to Venice required 30 hours of travel. Zeke’s mom drove us to the airport in her car. Then we hopped Dulles’ famous “People Mover” to catch our plane. From Heathrow we took the London Underground into the city where we walked around for a little middle-of-the-night sightseeing as we tried to kill our 12-hour layover. We spent a decent amount of time sitting on a bench along the Themes listening to Big Ben toll the quarter-hours away.

Next up we took one of London’s black cabs to Victoria Station and chatted with a very (VERY) inebriated (but very kind) woman before catching the train to Gatwick. From Gatwick, we flew into Venice where we caught the boat taxi (vaporetto) to Saint Mark’s Square. I remember joking that all we needed was a bicycle and we’d have just about every mode of transportation covered.

I remember being pretty relieved to get to our room at the Hotel Pomezia. I was in pretty desperate need of a shower – so much so that I remember telling Zeke I was getting in the shower first, no discussion. He didn’t seem to mind too much. After we both got cleaned up, we passed out for 20 straight hours to recover from the trip.

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No Kids, Will Travel

Posted by No Kids, Will Travel on January 31, 2012 in Travel

We have No Kids so we Will Travel!

We seem to be a rare breed — 30-somethings who are perfectly happy being married adults without children.

As travel enthusiasts, we’ve noticed the range of travel marketing from trips geared toward honeymooners to family vacations to the retirement crowd. There’s nothing wrong with fitting into any of those classifications, but (as with most things in life) some of us don’t quite fit those molds.

We’re sharing our adventures and tips here, and we’d love to hear from you! Where have you been? What have you seen? Whether or not you had kids in tow, left them with relatives, or enjoy a similar lifestyle to ours, we can all learn something from each other.

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Can you feed the cat?

Posted by No Kids, Will Travel on January 29, 2012 in Travel

The story of Amanda and Zeke is rooted in travel. Zeke took to globetrotting early; Amanda was inexperienced in exploring the world.  The relationship itself was borne out of travel.  Back in the days before they were married, Amanda and Zeke were just friends at work with no romantic interest in each other.

After a particularly long, frustrating day Amanda asked Zeke if he would go to Italy with her. She had always wanted to see the world, but her boyfriend at the time adamantly refused to get on an airplane. Zeke took all but ten seconds and said “sure”.  The “Just Friends” were booked on the cheapest flight they could find and in the air in four weeks.  The tickets cost $420 round trip, Washington, DC to Venice, Italy.  It is important to note that when you get cheap tickets you have to put up with a lot of inconveniences, like a 12-hour layover in the middle of the night in London where you have to change airports.  The friends landed in their hotel room after 30 hours of travel and were delighted to find they didn’t want to kill each other.

The two spent time in Venice and Rome, then continued on to Florence. Florence, my friends, is where it all happened.  The two friends fell in love, with a city and each other. The impact of the city was so great they returned for their honeymoon and spent their five-year anniversary there.

The young couple also discovered that the only thing they loved more than each other was exploring the world together. It’s a fact that leaves their friends and family to wonder when they plan to settle down and start a family (you know, the kind of family that doesn’t use a litter box). But the two are hooked on the world and love the freedom of running away together with the simple words “can you feed the cat?”

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