Travel Thread

[NTP66]

Our plan was to stay in LAX for 2 days before/after Australia. I think I'd be okay to do that in a single day, but not my wife and daughter.

[willeyeam]

Yeah in that case that sounds more appealing. I had an hour or two layover in LA. At that point I'd rather just fly through

[NTP66]

There are only two options for me - either fly through the same day, or stay in LA for at least 2 days. When we flew to Maui in 2016, we stayed in LA overnight, and then caught a morning flight over. The jetlag we all experienced was absurd, both going there and coming back. Never again. Every other time we have gone we have made the entire trip in one day, and had zero issues. We only switched it up that one time because my daughter was 4 at the time, and we weren't sure how she would handle 10-11 hours of flying in one day.

[tifosi77]

Our plan was to stay in LAX for 2 days before/after Australia. I think I'd be okay to do that in a single day, but not my wife and daughter.

It's not that nice of an airport to spend two days there.

[Shyster]

Qantas is hoping for even longer flights. It has a request for proposals out to Boeing and Airbus for what it calls "Project Sunrise": an aircraft that could fly Sydney–New York nonstop with a full load and Sydney–London nonstop with a reduced load. Not even the Airbus A350-900ULR variant that Singapore Airlines is flying between Singapore and New York (the current longest route) could handle those routes. It wouldn't be the first time that an aircraft manufacturer made a special variant for Qantas; back in the day Boeing made a special short-body version of the 707 for Qantas that had longer range.

[Gaucho]

Happy to report that Porto is awesome.

[NTP66]

We leave for Myrtle Beach this afternoon. I think I took afternoon flights to/from because they had MileSAAver awards in F for these ones. Kinda wish I just took economy and left earlier.

[tifosi77]

Happy to report that Porto is awesome.

We've seen a couple things recently that have sorta punched Portugal pretty high up on the list of potential destinations.

[Dickie Dunn]

Porto was my randomly generated computer background the other day. Made me want to add it to the European vacation we’re planning for next year.

[Gaucho]

Highly recommended.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

Coming back from Cali I had a layover in Dallas. Stopped at Pecan Lodge for BBQ

Worth the hype imo

[robbiestoupe]

Just came back from the Outer Banks. Not worth the extra 4 or so hours it would take to get to Rehoboth or Virginia Beach. Also, a week at the beach isn’t as appealing at 42 than it was at 22.

[shafnutz05]

Just came back from the Outer Banks. Not worth the extra 4 or so hours it would take to get to Rehoboth or Virginia Beach.

[DigitalGypsy66]

A couple of random travel related thoughts.

I ran into a history professor I work with, and he takes students on study away trips a couple times a year for the last 20 years or so. He goes out of his way to get to non-overpopulated tourist destinations like Porto, Malta, and so on. He does do a Holocaust trip every few years, and he is really depressed going to Auschwitz because of how touristy it’s become. Our students are fine, but other groups walk on the train tracks, take weird selfies, and so on. Plus, he said Auschwitz is getting to the point of attracting more tourists per year than actually perished there. He was deeply unsettled by the experience this time around.

Glad to see @NTP66 is flying to #DirtyMyrtle this year. We picked out son up from camp near Greenville (northwest SC) and drove home to the middle part of the state and got stuck in beach traffic north of Columbia. It was awful, all the major interstates to the major beaches and Charleston. It’s like this each Saturday in both directions, as most weekly rentals run Saturday-Saturday. The population has blown up, and the coastal areas are overdeveloped without the interstate system being upgraded to handle millions more visitors each year.

[NTP66]

It’s pretty crowded in Myrtle Beach right now, but I expected that to be the case. I still haven’t told my wife that we’re going on a tiger safari on Tuesday (she thinks I didn’t want to spend the cash on it), so that should be fun.

On another note, being up before everyone does come with some perks, like watching this morning’s sunrise:

[shafnutz05]

Nice view! Never been to Myrtle but have friends that swear by it. Just over a month until Nags Head...can't wait.

[shafnutz05]

Our students are fine, but other groups walk on the train tracks, take weird selfies, and so on.

TBH, this is the primary reason why I will probably never visit Auschwitz. The Holocaust Museum is most definitely on my must-do list, if only to do my little insignificant part to keep the memory alive. I'm the type that gets angered (too) easily by the actions of others, and I'm afraid I would lose it on someone at Auschwitz.

[tifosi77]

The Holocaust Museum is most definitely on my must-do list...

The USHMM is really something. It's set up on a variety of floors, and some visual exhibits are actually on raised pedestals that you then look down into which keeps littles from seeing the images. When you enter the section (iirc the 3rd floor) that focuses on the camps, you walk through a cattle car and under a (replica) 'ARBEIT MACHT FREI' sign. Even knowing it was replicas, it made me uncomfortable and a bit nauseous.

[count2infinity]

Got back from my trip to Milan, and It was a great first European visit.

My flight left from JFK at 10:30 PM and we landed about noon the next day in Milan. I tried to sleep, but no dice. Every time I got comfy a kid started crying or turbulence or something would wake me. Get to the city and meet my host of the Airbnb that I got, had to travel to the conference to get our booth all set up, and then at 6 pm, I'm ready for some food, so I start walking around. Closed, closed, closed, closed.... wtf is going on? I settled for a grocery store to get some beer and got some doner kebab next door then head back to the apartment and crash hard.

Turns out all the restaurants open either at 11 or noon, then close about 3 and don't open again until 7-7:30. It was odd, but only because I wasn't used to it.

Anyways, Milan is cool. Most people say you can see it in a day, and it's hard to disagree. We only had about 4 hours or so every evening to explore and we were pretty much done by the 3rd night. We had seen the city. The cathedral was awesome. It was massive.

And there's an area just south of the cathedral that has all the nightlife, the bars, the great restaurants (yes tif... they have great restaurants that locals actually suggest going to). The area had cool canals and whatnot:

One place was run by a mom, daughter, grandaughter trio and the food was incredible. We started with octopus, cherry tomatoes, pomegranate seeds, evoo, and herbs. Then I had the spaghetti with clams:

I also went 3 times to place that brews American style craft beer. The 3rd time the bartender asked where I was from and it turned out he was the owner. We chatted for a while about beer, and the beer culture in America. It was great chatting with him. Also, it was really interesting the first night. The place was packed, so people just stood on the sidewalk and drank. I joined them. The attitude around alcohol was just so different. People were just walking down the street swigging a beer... as it should be.

Anyways, great first trip to Europe. I hope to head to Munich in the spring for a different show that my job will likely send me on.

[count2infinity]

Oh... also, might be blasphemous, but I got pizza from a couple of very highly rated places. The pizza there isn't magical. It's just as good as quality stuff you get here.

[shafnutz05]

Oh... also, might be blasphemous, but I got pizza from a couple of very highly rated places. The pizza there isn't magical. It's just as good as quality stuff you get here.

That's not blasphemous at all. Italians invented pizza, but Americans (specifically Italian-Americans in New York) perfected it. And I had some great slices in Rome.

[shafnutz05]

Great Wolf Lodge visit this evening. We will drive back first thing tomorrow morning and my wife will drop me off at work. Always enjoy coming up here.

[NTP66]

@DigitalGypsy66, dafuq is with Myrtle Beach and people driving golf carts on the roads, through drive-thrus, etc? I kinda get your DirtyMyrtle comment now. Hilton Head ruined this area for me, because the standard had been set far too high.

[shafnutz05]

Only bad thing about GWL is the trash that comes out from NY/NJ. 10 year old (maybe even 9) that had a worse mouth than Eazy E in his prime. After the fourth loud "**** YOU" in front of my daughter I finally told him to stop. Oh and the absentee parents that were letting their 3 year old run all over the restricted area of the toddler area. He's lucky he didn't fall.

Thankfully the riff raff is a small minority though.

[NTP66]

Thankfully the riff raff is a small minority though.