Thursday
Jun112009
June 11, 2009 Quick trip notes
- Nothing is free in France, including WiFi, toilets with seats (or toilet access at all). Spending $20 bucks at a cafe is the best way to find a nice toilet.
- The French can be exceedingly nice. I went through security for my Paris departure with my wife’s boarding pass while unknowingly holding mine in my bag. She was back at the ticket counter getting our large group through. This could have become a monumental hassle and security red alert. It was handled rationally, politely, and reasonably by the French airport authority staff. TSA they are not. Vive la France. I take back 49% of all the nasty things I’ve ever said about them.
- Heathrow Terminal 5 is OK - neither as good or as bad as you might have heard. It’s a great spot if you want to spend $600 on perfume or see an Italian supercar spinning on a turntable. Finding a bottle of water is a bit harder.
- No review any time soon on the Rick Steves bag. My creature-of-habit brother-in-law couldn’t let go of his eBags Weekender Convertible.
- A rarely-mentioned reason to go light/one-bag is the paucity of elevators in most of the world outside the US. A 40-pound rolling bag up five flights of stairs is miserable and many are destroyed as their owners thunk-thunk-thunk them down. A cheap rolling bag is always one curb or staircase from destruction.
NC10 ON THE TGV - The high-speed TGV is cool and comfortable, but boarding one with a lot of luggage is not. A small carryon is also a must if you want to keep your bag nearby since the overhead rack on the TGV is not too spacious. And the TGV is double decked - another reason not to have a large or heavy bag.
- I wouldn’t want a larger computer than the 10-inch netbook for plane or train. The tray tables in coach are just too small for anything else unless you like using your screen at less than 90 degrees (see photo).
;)
Reader Comments (19)
Brad,
I'm glad you enjoyed your trip and answered some questions we all had regarding minimalist travel.
I'm looking to get a netbook for a trip to Germany in September and wondered if you took any special equipment (surge protector, etc) with you on this trip to support your computer.
Thanks
Jeff
Jeff, I just bought the best, most heavy duty, country-specific adapter plugs I could find since the the Samsung power block is dual voltage. I can post the link for a place where you can buy ANY adapter plug you can imagine. I always feel of the cord and power block a little while after I've plugged in to make sure that everything is cool. I coached our entire group on power before we left and we had zero power issues (except for one hair dryer which failed thought it was marked dual voltage). Once in London one of our people knocked out power for most of the ground floor of a hotel!
http://travel-adapters.ecrater.com/
Wow, how did they knock out the power of the hotel? Did they electrocute themselves?
To answer the other readers question about surge protector in Germany. The voltage and quality of line current is much more stable in Germany than in the US. Here I get spikes, surges and outages several times a year. Very often due to bad weather. All my equipment is on surge protectors; not my laptop, though. In Germany most people don't even use surge protectors or battery back-ups simply because it is not necessary. We've got good stable power. So don't bother. Besides that, there is a good chance that any surge would hit the PSU (brick) first, before it can take out the actual computer. You can always buy another power supply for the computer. We even have those in Germany! :)
Toilet hunt can be hard in France. :) Funny you should notice that. Especially in tourist centers they declare that use of the facilities is for guests only.
Welcome home and glad you had a good trip.
I've been reading this site and your blog with interest. Loved seeing the photos.
In December Heathrow T5 was working okay but I found the shops to be too upmarket for my purse strings.....who can afford Prada when you've just laid out a few thousand for a good holiday and I'd never get a Ferrari on the plane!! I must say though, it's a nice light and airy place to "hurry up and wait" in. ;-)
I can't recall ever paying to use a toilet in France but I guess times are-a-changing.
I remember using a travel iron (many years ago, before I got the one bag religion) to accidentally take out the power in an entire wing of a hotel in Chioggia. Good times.
Someone in our party left a travel iron on their bed and rang up a 60 Euro bill for damages. It burned down to the mattress. As for toilets, Italy was as bad as France. I paid €1.50 somewhere. Switzerland is lovely though. Even the scrapyards were neat and clean. And T5 is nice enough, just seemed a little too polished to actually be called Heathrow.CdG in Paris was a little disappointing, not nearly as cool as it looks on that U2 CD cover. It's about as ugly and pointless as the hideous La Defense area west of Paris. Returning home to sleepy, shiny, newly-refurbished TYS (Knoxville) with free WiFi, a calming water feature, and no crowds is always a shock.
I hear being a common tourist in Italy is costly these days. Switzerland is basically paradise on earth. You went to La Defense on such a short trip? Did you take the entire group there? Or did you just go because you hadn't seen it yourself? La Defense wouldn't even be in the Top 20 of things to do while in Paris and to work on the Top 20 of my book you'd have to go at it for two weeks and 12 hours a day.
The travel iron thing is crazy. Don't these things have a protection circuit? I never used one. And you even prepped them on stuff to pack. It seems that a travel iron was not something that was in line with the recommendations. If it burned through the mattress they cut you a really good deal. Probably replacing the mattress is more than 300 Euros. Glad it didn't cause any fire, after all.
Till - on these group tours you usually have a couple of great hotels and couple of sleeping boxes. We stayed at a convention hotel in La Defense but spent no daylight hours there. It is a vicious mixture of socialism, modernism, capitalism, and architectural hate crime.
I see, you are excused then! :)
"Architectural hate crime" is a wonderful expression. I will use that in my art history classes, when appropriate. I think that the actual arc de la defense is a most interesting architectural achievement but the ensemble of buildings is definitely not great.
Did you know why they have the sail in the arc? It's to break up the wind. The arc is positioned in such a way (accidentally) that it acts as a wind tunnel. Without the sail it blew people back down the stairs as soon as they arrived on the entrance platform.
There are two more architectural mishaps in Paris.
One is a bridge going over the Seine that was built with wood which would give off a slippery resin when wet. Not ideal for a bridge over water. People kept falling down.
They used the same wood at the entrance of the National Library. But that is not the worst thing they did at the NL. The NL consists of four L-shaped skyscrapers, that are supposed to resemble open books. The books, that are light sensitive, are stored in glass buildings over ground. The readers that need light to read, are put in an underground facility at least partly. How stupid is that?
When they realized that the books were damaged by too much light, they had to basically cover the windows of the glass towers (the entire tower is made of glass) from the inside to shield the books. Of course, they couldn't use plywood for that, so that little operation cost them something like 20 million.
The Bastille Opera's facade material was so shoddy that it started crumbling after less than ten years. Big plates were coming down from the facade cladding.
Vive Mitterand.
At least the Louvre Pyramid was a success.
Till
Brad,
Thanks for the response. We're headed to France at the end of our journey and the intel is helpful.
Thanks also for the useful information on France. I'd already steeled myself to use pay toilets, but I appreciate the confirmation.
It's nice to hear that the French do remember the meaning of their own word, etiquette. Although the TSA will be even more grating after getting to deal with a professional group of security people.
BTW, do you recall any water fountains in Heathrow's terminal 5? Since I'm bringing along my water bottle, I'm obviously hoping to avoid buying those damned bottles of water.
I don't recall any water fountains in LHR but there may have been. Bathroom taps usually won't work as they're automatic and often blend hot water or are in very shallow sinks.
My rule is never pass a good bathroom, anywhere. And go early and often on the plane. You don't want to get blocked by meal service or limited by turbulence. My brother-in-law went the whole 9 or 10 hours of the Paris flight without going. I went 6 or 7 times, if only to stretch my legs.- coach you know.
And save your coins. I went to a pay toilet in Nice and the attendant wouldn't change by my €10 note. Free toilets often have attendants with tip baskets. I tipped a couple on the way in and regretted it after I got a look at the place.
Brad said:
Since summer 2007 there has been free wi-fi in a number of parks in Paris. You can also check the OzoneParis map of Wi-Fi coverage, or type in your address to see whether you're in an area covered by free Wi-Fi. or use the Ozone free Wi-Fi at Centre Pompidou.
I did see some places with free WiFi but I was unwilling to tote my computer around looking for them. And a correction, our hotel in Beaulieu Sur Mer did have free WiFi. Free hotel WiFi is rare throughout Europe - that's what I meant. Sorry for the hyperbole.
And here's a connectivity tip. Throw a short cat 5 network cable in your bag and you can plug in at the Samsung lounge at DFW. Just don't buy the cable at the airport - $20.
Excellent tip for DFW. I am there rather often. Which terminal is the lounge in? I use the same bath room rule.
For filling the water bottle, if bathrooms don't work, I would actually not hesitate to ask for a glass of water or for direct filling of the bottle from a vendor. They might find it strange if you don't buy anything but even then I'd still do it.
Till
We were in different terminals for each direction of travel - maybe B & D. I believe they both had one. I'll bet someone on Flyertalk will know. You could probably get a sympathetic shop employee to fill your bottle; they're human too, usually.