You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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Watcha Doing? Version 2015
I think southern europe would be fine pragya. Comfortable temperatures for travelling, but too cold for swimming. If you go more north, like Germany or The Netherlands, you could have 12 degrees and sun or -12 and snow. Although most likely it will be in between, not too many snow days here. Even more north, Scandinavia, will have more snow and much shorter days.
Dawn wrote: "Pragya, I've been to Europe in January and it's great. If you don't want snow just stay south but we never found it a problem getting around or managing to see everything we wanted. I still want..."
Phew! Thank you, Dawn. Exactly what I wanted to hear. LOL
Where are you thinking of going?? So much good stuff to see and a whole month to see it in. Sounds like great fun!
Peggy wrote: "I think southern europe would be fine pragya. Comfortable temperatures for travelling, but too cold for swimming. If you go more north, like Germany or The Netherlands, you could have 12 degrees an..."Got it, Peggy. I should plan smartly then. I can do without swimming. ;)
@Dawn: I am still to plan that. So much to see, and a month is too less but that would be the most I would be able to afford and I'm still saving up. I will be bankrupt after the trip, all my life savings gone but I am sure it will be worth it. :D You got any suggestions on not-to-miss-countries?
Mar-April is spring in Canada. Weather can be unpredictable. Vancouver tends to get a bit of a head-start than the rest of us. The flowers will be out, people will be golfing, it will likely be beautiful. Here, one province over... we just got rid of our snow and the grass is starting to turn a hint of green. Jackets are still a very good idea especially in the morning.Personally, I'd want to go to South America since I've never been there.
I've never been to any of those places so they all sound amazing to me! Well, I have been to Panama City... but the one in Florida, not Panama City, Panama. LOL. I've been to a couple of the port cities in Mexico on a cruise, but other than that, I have never been out of the southeastern US.... And Dallas, Texas which I guess would be considered "out west." I want to travel the world eventually. My top places I want to visit include Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and any/all tropical beaches.
Rusalka wrote: "Gorgeous photos TJ. Blue bonnets are different to bluebells?Been looking at flights today. Friend of mine looks like she may be getting married in Trinidad next year. My choices are:
LA/San Fran ..."
Vancouver Toronto Trini sounds a little exaggerated...
Pragya wrote: "Dawn wrote: "Pragya, I've been to Europe in January and it's great. If you don't want snow just stay south but we never found it a problem getting around or managing to see everything we wanted. ..."
I see no problem with Dez / Januar for a Euro Tour. Dez has his wonderful charm -inclusive in the Nord- with X-mas (thinking of X-mas Mart in all the nord countries).
Only the parks are no so charming in winter (inclusive in the south), and that counts also for palaces, castles, burgs and such kind of parks...)
The only out of the country traveling I have done (outside of the U.S.) is Canada :) I love Canada! I've only been to a few places in British Columbia but I loved it :) I've been to several states in the U.S. though :)
Mariab wrote: "Pragya wrote: "Dawn wrote: "Pragya, I've been to Europe in January and it's great. If you don't want snow just stay south but we never found it a problem getting around or managing to see everythi..."Missing parks is alright but I would have wanted the palaces and castles to look charming. Oh, well.
@Pragya: Not-to-miss countries is a hard one, they are all so great. I'll go with favorite cities as that's always my favorite part. London is absolute top pick. Every trip to Europe we stop there for at least a day.
Rome, Venice and Pisa. I'm sure everywhere in Italy would be fabulous but these are my favorite so far. The best of history and buildings.
And Krakow in Poland. Great city with beautiful churches and it's close enough to take day trips to both Auschwitz and the Salt Mine. Both awesome.
Dawn wrote: "I still want to go over in December and hit all the great Christmas markets and see the decorations. "This. The German Christmas markets are supposed to be fantastic.
I'm a bit late to the discussion but I'll throw my two pennies worth in now. I've always wanted to go to Chile because on one side you have beaches and the other mountains. It's so diverse. That said, all the places you mentioned Rusalka I've never been to either. As for Trinidad, we stopped there to refuel once (or was it Tobago?!?) on our way to Grenada. If it's anything like Grenada, you'll have an amazing time. It was gorgeous.German markets rock! We get them show up here over Christmas and I love the atmosphere walking around them but you can't beat them when there in the place their from I guess. I've not experienced them in Germany but I have in Krakow. The decorations were fantastic. We visited there in December and while it was cold and we had a little snow, it was beautiful sunshine the rest of the time and we had no problems getting around.
If you want warmth in Europe during those times, then I guess Italy, Spain, Portugal are going to be favourable although I'm not sure how much warmer they are compared to us in the North. If your interested in the Eastern European countries, Croatia is beautiful. Prague is beautiful too and if you go there, I highly recommend their electric bike tours.
I find it funny when people always recommend London as a must see. If I can avoid it, I will. Too manic for my liking. Yes there are some fantastic monuments and buildings and there's loads of history and shops. I guess I've just seen it now and so all I experience are way too many people crammed in to too small a place, and really expensive food and drink. My favourite museum in London (and it's also free) is the Natural History Museum.
Now you're all making me want to go on holiday!
To all this I would add Paris, Florence, Barcelona, and the Andalucia region in Spain. Too many wonderful places!
Really excited! Just booked to have a cycling lesson on Monday so I can get a bit more confident on the roads. I'm all good on the tow path but not so sure about the big bad traffic.Also...Ducklings! The first lot of seen. 13 in total with their mum. Just trying to upload a couple pictures to photobucket and I'll post them. I know Rusalka will want to see them.
Really excited! Just booked to have a cycling lesson on Monday so I can get a bit more confident on the roads. I'm all good on the tow path but not so sure about the big bad traffic.Also...Ducklings! The first lot of seen. 13 in total with their mum. Just trying to upload a couple pictures to photobucket and I'll post them. I know Rusalka will want to see them.
Good luck for your cycling lesson Sarah.Aww, those ducklings sound adorable! I love ducks and think ducklings are just the cutest thing. 13 is quite a number! I bet mum has her hands (or should that be wings?) full with them! :)
Here we go with the ducklings:
You can only see 12 in that bigger picture but there were definitely 13.
They are so cute! Thanks for posting the pics Sarah :)
So cute! Thanks for posting, Sarah :-)
Cute and funny! I love duckings.
Squeee! I love ducklings more than most things. How cute! 13?! Wow. I'll be surprised if half of that clutch makes adulthood, that's a lot to look after!Re: travel, I seem to have some time to make my mind up. Flights are only just starting to be schedualed for next year now, so the few are very expensive. I'll look back in 3 months and see how we are going. The votes seem to be "go the places I don't live, or exactly where I live" :P I totally agree.
If we leave the country, I want to see as much as possible, so stop overs in places on the way there and back are a must, and maybe we can do some YLTO met ups?
I love the baby birds. There's a dugout along the highway that I used to travel each day before I moved into the city. There's a couple families of geese that call it home. I used to love seeing the baby geese each spring. They'd be all balls of fluff. I enjoyed watching them grow, and learn to fly. I hated it each fall when it was obvious that they wouldn't be coming back to the dugout until the next spring.
Thanks for the tips, Dawn, Sarah and Peggy.Love the ducklings, Sarah!
Rusalka, that's always been on my mind. On my Europe trip, if any of the YLTO folks is in Europe, I would love to meet up.
Sometime you should come to LA and we can see all these amazing things that are here, but I have never seen :-) BTW I don't even know where City Hall is ;-)
@Sarah: I haven't met a Brit yet who recommends London as a place to visit. Lots of ex-pats living here and they think the same as you. But I love everything about it and would never consider going to Europe without stopping there! Though the last time all the security was a bit disconcerting. :)Oh and I can say with certainty that Spain and Portugal are not warm in February but both just required a warm jacket; not the whole mitts, hat and long johns look. It wasn't much different to London temperatures actually.
Berit wrote: "Sometime you should come to LA and we can see all these amazing things that are here, but I have never seen :-) BTW I don't even know where City Hall is ;-)"lol
When you find it, it's worth a trip up. Even though you have to go through security and be warned not to jump off. It really highlights how low everything is built in LA, the city seems to spread out instead of up.
@Sarah: A couple of my friends visited London and liked it so much they are planning to shift there permanently. Although I have heard the weather's really unpredictable.@Dawn: I don't do as bad with cold as other people. In 15 degree celsius/ 59 F, on a very windy day, I was at Great wall, China in a thin tee and shorts. And I love snow!
I just didn't want you the think you could head to the beach for a suntan, it perfect traveling weather just not really warm per say. :) I did the entire trip in t-shirt, yoga pants and hoodie. It worked great.
Though I did visit New York in January and practically froze!
I have not been to China yet, how was it?? I want to see the Great Wall sometime but it looks like more around 5-10 years from now before I get there.
I think Spain and Portugal depend on whether you're in the north or south of the country, and it can also change every week. I was in Lisbon in January or February and walked around in a tshirt (and I'm always cold very quickly). It was lovely!Keyword for clothing is layers ;-)
@Dawn: Glad I don't need to get tanned. In fact, I'm trying to get rid of the one I have got. :p Tee, yoga pants and hoodie - Wow, that sounds right up my alley.
China was amazing. You really have to go to the Great wall. It's so mesmerizing. I was awestruck!
@Peggy: I think I should be very meticulous in my planning then. Thanks, Peggy.
Got a love yoga pants and a hoodie ;-)
Berit wrote: "Got a love yoga pants and a hoodie ;-)"Absolutely!
Dawn wrote: "@Sarah: I haven't met a Brit yet who recommends London as a place to visit. Lots of ex-pats living here and they think the same as you. But I love everything about it and would never consider going..."I'm a Brit and I would recommend London as a place to visit. I wouldn't want to live there permanently but it's great to visit every once in a while. I'm a big fan of The Globe Theatre because of the fact you can see a play for £5 if you go in the 'groundling' area. Your legs may never speak to you again however! ;)
Currently my 3 favourite cities are Las Vegas, Rome and New York.
Finally, a Brit who likes London! I guess I can't say that I don't know one anymore. :)I'm in love with the Häagen-Dazs restaurant myself!
I haven't been to the Häggen-Dazs restaurant. Think I may have to check it out now ;) On to my London bucket list it goes!
We were in London for just one day last time and that was one of the stops we had to make, a fancy plate of ice cream and a pot of tea made a perfect dinner!
Sad day:( I just read that the actor who played Gilbert Blythe in Anne of Green Gables passed away :( http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/canada/jonat...
Got a little packing done yesterday :) I will admit I was having too much fun reading all the Toppler comments :) we only have one item remaining on our wall so that's nice and all the nail holes have been patched. Most of our stuff we use on a daily basis that's not packed so I think I am done packing for now lol! Our air conditioning went out again last night :( it went out last week, took a few days for maintenance to show up and they said they "fixed" the issue. Apparently some wires were loose (awesome)! Who knows when they will show up this time. I can't wait to move :)
I haven't visited this thread in a while. All this talk of trips and places makes me want to plan a vacation. I've been to London, Rome, New York, LA and others not mentioned, but I'd love to go to China, Spain, Portugal, Australia. My son is going to Germany this summer for 2 months and suggested we meet him there for a bit.
Wow, that's a lot of places, Roz.@Stephanie: I was almost tempted to tell you to read a book since I didn't think your packing was going anywhere. ;)
You were totally right, Pragya ;) I read a little bit in Alex Cross's Trial. I think I started this book before now that I've read a little bit. Either that or it reminds me of a book I have already read.
:) Good luck with the moving, Stephanie.
I was beginning to think my Keurig was broken, until I realized that I was hitting the power button instead of the start button. Ahhh, there's coffee now! Three times the charm, as they say.
It is raining ashes at my house, there is a big fire near me, and it is not even fire season yet, fortunately I'm not close enough to be a evacuated. They are saying it will take some time to contain this one, sigh.
At least you don't need to be evacuated. Scary about fire though.
It's been such a beautiful day, here on Long Island, I spent the day preparing my vegetable garden for the coming season. I'm determined to do better this year. Usually I get lazy and plant late.
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You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors (other topics)Gateway (other topics)
The Casual Vacancy (other topics)
The Thirteenth Tale (other topics)
The Fellowship of the Ring (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Isabel Allende (other topics)Enid Blyton (other topics)
Karin Slaughter (other topics)
Have you ever been up to the 27th floor of City Hall?? It's got a great view of the city.
I also think the library is pretty impressive and I love the little funicular Angles Flight, it only costs 25 cents a trip.
The Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels is totally worth a look in, very impressive building and pipe organ.
Oh, and Venice beach. What a awesome place.
And the Getty Museums, the Santa Monica Pier (I have this roller coaster tattooed on my arm!) and the Disney Concert Hall....
Can you tell how much I like it?? :)