The 6 item challenge is all about living in only 6 items of clothing for a month to get a better feel for what you really need and detach from your clothing possessions. I think its a cool project, but I don’t know if I could travel on only 6 items like this lady: My month of madness, or how I traveled in 6 items
BTW, the challenge doesn’t include accessories or underthings. Still, I wonder what the guys on the OBOW would think of this as a packing technique! Although, they’ve been hung up on men’s trench coats as a packing technique lately, I think they would still be impressed.
The car is rented. One more thing off of the checklist before we leave on Friday night. I hate to rent when I could take trains, but this trip it just makes sense. Tonight is my last manual driving lesson and I’ll also be buying a Europe iPad GPS app. to join our Michelin Germany map for navigation.
Lessons learned for trying to rent a car in France & Germany:
Its cheaper to rent from avis.de or avis.fr (hertz.de or hertz.fr, etc.) than it is to rent from avis.com. Why? I don’t know.
You really should call your car insurance company before you leave to see if they cover your European rental. I have USAA (a really good insurance company usually), but they don’t cover you in Europe
Call the credit card company you plan on using for the reservation and see what protections they offer you. My American Express had TOTALLY different coverage than our Visa.
Renting for Sunday pickup is hard. In France it seemed impossible to pick up on a Sunday except at the airport.
Check Europecar, Sixt and other non North-American rental car agencies, they often have better deals.
Learn to drive manual, its saves tons of money. We’re talking $50/day in France savings.
Pack light, these cars are small!
Wish me luck, and German/French drivers I apologize in advance for my manual skills.
Our last couch surfer “Long Way Dany” is a long-time traveler with quite the journey to talk about. He is also a great videographer. I really liked his latest, made a few days after leaving us.
The 6th wedding anniversary is the candy anniversary according to the traditional gift list. So this weekend we stopped into Modern Dwellers Chocolate Lounge in Anchorage and bought 6 truffles for our 6th anniversary. Some of the flavors were quite surprising, but all our selections were delicious. So delicious that three of them were gone before I got a picture!
Drinking Chocolate
Anchovy & Salmon Chocolate? No Thanks.
Dark Chocolate and Coconut and Vegan Too
Pistachios and dark chocolate? Yes please.
Julep Jive = A Mojito Dipped in Dark Chocolate
Such a beautiful, small, and wonderful thing chocolate is.
Tomorrow, le 14 juillet, is Bastille Day. This year marks the 50th anniversary of France’s farewell to its empire so troops from 13 of its former colonies will controversally march down the Champs Elysées alongside their French military counterparts in the annual parade. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/13/france-sarkozy-bastille-africa-colonialism) You can attend the parade or go in for some less controversial fun by celebrating things we love about France:
The view of the Eiffel Tower and fireworks. Good places to watch the fireworks are:
Breteuil Square: This square is close to the Duroc tube station and perfectly aligned with the Eiffel Tower. Mostly unknown by tourists (or so we hear, so that might not be true) so this may be less crowded.
The Buttes Chaumont Park: This beautiful park on top of a hill offers an outstanding view over Paris.
Sacré-Coeur in Montmartre: A very social spot to watch, surrounded by tons of tourists, but elevated so the nice panoramic views make up for it!
Passerelle Debilly: This bridge is on the Quai Branly and quite close to the Eiffel Tower. It provides a cool reflection of the fireworks in the water.
Being American means we get off for far fewer holidays than our European friends. This makes it even more special when the whole country slows down, takes a few days off and comes together over BBQ and family traditions.
Of course here in Alaska we can’t really do fireworks in 24-hrs of daylight, but we find our own ways of celebrating. This year we went and played 18 holes of frisbee golf, caught a summer movie and had little BBQ. Due to the rain that seems to only fall on my days off our BBQ consisted of the two of us making a little picnic in the living room, but it was special to spend time together none-the-less.
For now its back to work and planning future adventures.
Vagabonding had a recent post on travel journal peeping which pointed me to this link to moleskinerie. It is a pretty cool blog where people open up their own Moleskines and show whats inside, how they use them. I’ll never be a sktechbook artist doing amazing watercolors in mine, but its inspirational none the less.
