Subject: Trip Debrief --

Good Morning Mele -

I'm back from a wonderful trip and thot I'd give you a quickie "debrief" on it.

London  What a great town - aside from their obstinate insistence on driving on the wrong side of the road which made their traffic the most dangerous of all of the places that we went as far as I was concerned (no small feat). We stayed at the Limegrove which was good only in so far as its location --near Victoria Station (well ok, and price). I really thot the place was pretty much of a loser, not especially because of the place but because "harried joyce" really didn't have it together. This may not be altogether fair as we arrived early in the morning--but this is the only place that we stayed that I would not go back to.

The near by internet cafe (I have a card for you) was great. Good location, nice people, computers that worked, good coffee and the appearance of being a somewhat stable business that will be there for a while. Having an internet hook up really made a difference for us. On my next trip I'm going to make more of an effort to line up such cafes (do they still exist and if so their location in relation to where we will be staying, etc) in all of the places that I will be going.

The departure from Luton airport to Italy went well. I've got some material on the Green Line bus that we used to get to the airport.. It was comfortable, on time and reasonable. By the way the whole Europe by Air thing went off without a hitch. I was only able to confirm one of the flights (from London to Rome) ahead of time but there was no problem on any of them. The only hitch is that the "airport taxes" can be pretty steep - the highest being about 23 BP from Luton, as I recall.

The "Ceremony of the Keys" was wonderful: great ceremony, an opportunity to see the tower at nite--9 pm-- w/o the crowd, (8 of us there) convient location from the tube and the price is right--free!. I would definately encourage anyone that is making arrangements ahead of time to give it a go. Also loved the production of "Julius Caesar" at the Globe. I had purchased the tickets ahead of time off the web and they were there waiting for us as promised (What did you pay?--It is possible to coll Theatre box offices directly from here and get the local London price--mele) ........and the British Museum.....what can you say.... a truly unbelievable experience!   By the way, we found "Mona Winks" to be very valuable here and in all of the museums that we visited.

Rome-- loved it but stayed with friends so not much to offer here.

Venice --wonderful place. Stayed in Hotel Bernardi - Semenzato a great, reasonable (110,000 L w/o bathroom), immaculate, well placed hotel. I've got some literature on it for you.

Italy Bike Tour worked out well altho I don't recommend taking a 78 year old. Mom did well and the guides were very accomodating but......... also, anyone considering such a thing should be reasonably proficient on a bicycle and should spend some time doing at least a little training/preparation. Ididn't and was sorry. The tour guides were very helpful and very nice, the food was good, the lodgings were all acceptable or better. The major disadvantage was the pretty fast pace which had us spending only one nite in every place that we went. I'll give you their catalogue for future reference. Bike tour web site:  http://www.frii.com/~explus/

Florence-- not much to offer here. stayed in a pretty upscale hotel (thru the tour). Loved the Bargello Museum. Didn't see the Accademia or Ufizzi - not enuff time. Basically we were pretty overwhelmed by the place.

Naples/Pompeii-- thanks lots for copying steves section on Naples out of his '99 "Italy" book for me. It was really very useful for this part of the visit. We stayed at the Hotel Generva (i think it was) out of steves' book. It was fine - nice people, very clean and the price was right.  Pompeii is absolutely AWESOME. you must go. Naples was everything that everyone had told us - big, crowded, poor, dirty, wonderful people and the home of the unbelievable National Archaeological Museum. Anyone going to Pompeii really must include a visit to this museum as part of the "experience." It has most of the choice goodies from Pompeii and Herculeneum, as well as a host of other amazing things.

Paris-- another great experience. We stayed at Hotel Telemaque, 64, rue Daguerre, 19, rue Roger, 75 014 Paris. Tel 01 43 22 60 08 Fax 01 43 20 72 92 - again nice people, clean and reasonable (250 FF/nite - w/bathroom). It was on rue Dauguerre in the 14th arrondisement (sp?) which, given the wonderful metro system, worked well for us. Altho we didn't see the rue Cler area, rue Dauguerre sounds similar in that it is a homey little neighborhood with lots of shops (bread, pastries, meat, seafood, cheese, etc) and cafes. One could easily and happily entertain oneself just on this street for quite a while. By the by, the Lourve (and several other places as well, including Saint Chappelle) was closed - museum workers on strike. So that's about the long and short of it. Used the emerser  - it was great to be able to make tea "at home" in the evenings.

Thanks lots for all of your help in planning and executing this trip - it was all extremely useful and made a real difference in the quality of our trip. Hope all is well with you.

aloha,       marlee                                   See 3 tips in Addendum