Thoughts from working and travelling outside the USA
Back in 2012, before moving to Korea, we had a family trip to Machu Picchu and Cusco. Very impressive but not an easy place to get to (maybe that is why no one knew about it from the Western world until mid-1800's). The trip in 2012 entailed a flight to Lima, transfer and second flight to... Continue Reading →
First family vacation overseas in seven years, I'd been to Italy a couple of times for work but generally we had been very US centric in our travels. We flew into Milan and immediately drove to Florence. When renting a car I got distracted in getting a sports car versus room - so we had... Continue Reading →
We went to visit our friends from London who had moved to the country in southwest France - it was definitely off the grid but near a lot of great places to visit. We were able to see a lot of different places while we were there over a couple of weeks and it was... Continue Reading →
Sharon came back over to London for her birthday - we had a party in Barnes then flew to Nice for the weekend. I was much colder than we were expecting for March - definitely wan't beach weather. We drove along the French Rivera to Monaco - was cloudy when we were there. I was... Continue Reading →
I took a quick trip on my own to Budapest on a cold weekend (I think the airfare was less than $100) and on a recommendation stayed at the Hotel Gellert. The hotel was designed in an Art Nouveau style and connected to a spa. So first thing Saturday morning I headed to the spa...it... Continue Reading →
After we decided to return to the USA in October 2001, we had a pretty tight schedule of buying a house and getting relocated back by January and the start of school. So we squeezed in one more weekend trip and choose Stockholm since we hadn't been to a Scandinavian county yet. November wasn't the... Continue Reading →
We landed in Istanbul at 7am New York time on September 11th. We had a short-layover before our next flight to Izmir and went through immigration and security to catch our flight which was scheduled at about 8:45am New York time. The young Muslim lady wearing a head scarf working the immigration window was very... Continue Reading →
Our first and only trip to Russia (at least through 2020). Alexandra and Annelise stayed with friends so this trip was just Sharon and I. Unlike other trips where I usually seek the most inexpensive option, because I had concerns on security and there was no middle option, we stayed at the Grand Hotel Europa... Continue Reading →
The English discovered Costa Del Sol in the late 1950's when linguists were able to translate Costa Del Sol into "Coast of Sun" and realized that long sunny days are great break from short gray days. We went for a week during Easter Half-Term and stayed for a couple of days in a holiday resort... Continue Reading →
After I moved to London in 1999, one of the projects in our business unit was near Alexandria with the design office in Cairo and over 2 years I had 9 trips. First trip, right as the project started, entailed having a driver pick me up at the airport with a sign, stay in a... Continue Reading →
For the February bank holiday, we took the short flight from London to Amsterdam - about the same flight duration as from Washington DC to Columbus Ohio. We stayed in the old city and the lack of GPS navigation lead to some stress points: We accidentally drove our rental car onto a bike path and... Continue Reading →
I had a side-trip to New Delhi on one of my normal trips to our jobsite south of Mumbai. We have a large office there and it is my only trip ever - which is pretty unusual in my company. Had the standard stay in the guest house and they cooked dinner there for whoever... Continue Reading →
After I moved to London in 1999, one of the projects in our business unit was near Alexandria with the design office in Cairo and I had 9 trips over 2 years. First trip, right as the project started, entailed having a driver pick me up at the airport with a sign, stay in a... Continue Reading →
My first trip to Antwerp was with Alexandra in 1999 to buy an upgraded wedding ring for Sharon (as a bribe for moving to London). Alexandra was very excited for the trip and was excellent at keeping the secret - her bribe was a trip to the zoo. It was pouring rain and I had... Continue Reading →
My parents came to visit us in London so we were able to get away for a couple of quick weekends, first weekend to Vienna and the second weekend to Belgium. We had glorious couple of days of sunshine and visiting palaces in and out of the city. Schloss Schönbrunn Schönbrunn Palace was the main... Continue Reading →
Had four trips to Saudi in 2000 and 2001 to our two jobsites. Both were remote and on the coast and generally I spent most of my time in the camps. One site was on the Red Sea coast near Mecca (spelled Makkah on the map) and the other was on the Arabian Gulf near... Continue Reading →
We had purchased a old car with the intent of only using on the weekends to go to the store, but we decided to take the chance on a 6 hour drive each way from London to Edinburgh. We stayed in a spare room in a house which was short bus ride to the city... Continue Reading →
My wife's sister and her family came over for spring break and we went to Paris for a couple of days then returned back to London for a couple of days. They had a 7 year old son who was as "active" as Alexandra and they made quite a team. On the way over to... Continue Reading →
Our first trip from London was for the first bank holiday in February 2000 for a long weekend. Short winter gray days start to run into each other and it was nice to see the sun. Don't remember much about the hotel and we focused on visiting the main tourist sites. Sagrada Família Gaudi's work... Continue Reading →
I got the notice that I received an assignment in London in early August 1999 - I went over a week later and came back in mid-October to finish the move and on Annelise’s second birthday on October 20, we loaded our 27 carry on pieces on to a plane to London. We needed 27... Continue Reading →
First trip to Eastern Europe - a work friend highly recommended Prague and I was able to use some of my frequent flyer miles on British Airways from all of my India trips. We connected through London and a couple days before my trip I found that there was an executive meeting in London to... Continue Reading →
Most of my time in India was on the Dabhol Power Plant construction site which was a multi-level joint venture between Enron, GE and my company. Enron was the lead in the owner/operator (and local relations) and our focus was on building the plant and supporting the financing requirements of the largest project financing of... Continue Reading →
Made my initial trip to Egypt in 1994 - the 3rd leg of my first frequent flyer "score'". I had miles on American and somehow I got a buy-one-get-one-free promotion on TWA. I don't remember the specifics but we flew from Washington - Rome on American, took a ferry to Greece, flew a local airline... Continue Reading →
This was the 2nd leg of my first frequent flyer “score'”. I had some miles on American and somehow I got a buy-one-get-one-free promotion on TWA. I don’t remember the specifics but we flew from Washington – Rome on American, took a ferry to Greece, and then flew a local airline from Athens to Cairo... Continue Reading →
This was the 1st leg of my first frequent flyer “score'”. I had some miles on American and somehow I got a buy-one-get-one-free promotion on TWA. I don’t remember the specifics but we flew from Washington – Rome on American, took a ferry to Greece, and then flew a local airline from Athens to Cairo... Continue Reading →
Sharon and I went to St. Martin for our honeymoon in 1993 - still our only time in the Caribbean a and one of only two times we did have done the resort vacation where we stayed in one place for a week. Pretty relaxing week, did the standard parasailing, jet ski, and hanging out... Continue Reading →
After taking the overnight train from Paris to Zurich where we rented a car to drive to tour Northern Italy with stops in Genoa, Portofino, Pisa, Bologna, Florence, Venice and ultimately and back to Zurich where we flew home. We drove right by Cinque Terre (hills towns) as we took the Autostrada and not the... Continue Reading →
The first of our first international trips for Sharon and I, back in 1992. The original concept was to fly into Paris and out of Rome 17 days later and not worry about any arrangements in between. Sharon had high school French, which was a little helpful. I was between assignments and had already spent... Continue Reading →