Katrin & Jojo

September 16, 2008

We´ll be on the plane in 5 hours…and I am really excited!!! To pass the 2 hours we have to wait before Jojo´s Mum drives us to Duesseldorf Airport, I try to write a few things you should take care of when you plan a holiday like this. At first I have to say: Just do it!!     Don´t wait for the right time. Look at your calender and see if you have at least 3 weeks of free time – and some time to prepare…

1) Before your start: You need… 

• a passport. For the United States it has to be a biometric one with a special photo (that measures proportions of your face) and fingerprints. As you´re not allowed to show any expression on your face you look like a prisoner or like a cow, so don´t worry ;-) If you already have one it has to be certificated after September 2005.
• a Visa- or Mastercard. You can get a free one at DKB (deutsche kreditbank AG) if you want to save the annual fees for the card.
• some money, of course. As the US$ isn’t too expensive nowadays (compared to the Euro), it´s not impossible to afford it. 
• travel insurance. We wouldn’t want to pay extra money in case we could not make the trip or in case we got ill during the holiday itself. For members of the ADAC (german automobile club) there are relatively cheap insurances which cover a lot of things that might happen.
• a travel guide. I got the recommendation to buy one from “Reise-know-how” publishing company which has a great assortment of books. Of course, you should know where you want to go ;-)

2) Look for a flight

There are some good websites that compare flights of several travel agencies. I like www.flug.idealo.de because it searches nearly every good site you can book a flight at. The adventage of sites like www. ebookers.com is the possibility to choose flexibel departure dates, so you can take the flight on the cheapest date.

3) Rent a car or a RV

We decided to take a car and drive from motel to motel. This seems easy. If you have not reached the age of 25, it can be really expensive, because of the additional fee about $10 to $50 a day. We found one rent-a-car company – Alamo – that offers Under-25-Special-Rates. Those are affordable and the great thing is the free additional driver (that´s me ;-))

4) Plan the tour itself

That was Jojo´s part and I am sure he did an exellent job! We will keep you posted!!!

September 12, 2008

This is from the what-to-do-while-waiting-for-your-departure-department. Thanks to the internet there is yet another thing the average Joe (in this case: me) can do while waiting for his holiday. Of course I’m talking about following Forex rates which can be viewed in near-realtime (15 min delay) on a lot of websites. Usually I wouldn’t really bother, but since the Euro has taken such a beating in the last month or so I am anxious how far it will still fall. Luckily a big part of our trip has already been paid (the flight and the rental), but still, seeing the Euro drop from almost $1.60 to $1.40 in a relatively short amount of time gave me a little shock ;)

September 2, 2008

This blog is an attempt to cover some of our holiday in the New-England region in the fall of 2008. Not only do we like to keep you up to date as to our whereabouts, but also supply some nice photos and general background information. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment if you like it ;)