June 4, 2008
Five out of the six beaches awarded the Blue Flag in Scotland are in the Fife region in eastern central Scotland.
Burntisland Beach
Aberdour, Burntisland, Elie, Leven East and St Andrews West Sands have all been judged to offer bathing facilities of the highest order and receive a Blue Flag award.
Sunset at St Andrew’s beach
One of the best ways to see all the beaches is to follow the Fife Coastal Path. You can spend 5 - 7 days walking along the 150 kms path or have a shorter walk on one of the sections.
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June 4, 2008
If you hire a car at Pisa airport where the rental company has a policy of returning the car with a full tank of fuel you may find it virtually impossible to fill up the fuel tank of your rental car. When we were on our way to the airport on a Saturday afternoon, the petrol station near the airport, was unamannned and the payment machine would only accept bancomat cards (I didn’t know what they were) or cash in 5, 10 or 20 euro notes. The machine would not take credit cards.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa
You don’t know exactly how much fuel you need to exactly fill the tank and you may not have notes of correct size. It’s a pretty nasty sting in the tail when you are getting back to the airport to check in for return flight. There’s only one machine for all the pumps and when we were there there were another British couple who put in 40 euro worth of fuel which wasn’t enough to fill tank but they had no more cash, so they were going to be hit with refuelling charge although they were perfectly willing to refill car. A Brazilian guy lost 40 euro in the machine. We were lucky we had a 20 and a 5 euro notes and that filled our tank.
If suppliers have a return full policy it should be easier to adhere to this policy. I think all the car hire suppliers in Pisa should put pressure on petrol station to be manned or at least to accept credit cards.
My advice to you is to ensure you leave plenty of time to refuel and have a supply of 20, 10 and 5 euro notes.
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June 4, 2008
Economy Car Hire are offering a 10% discount on bookings made online for Spain and her islands during July and August 2008, if you book before the 11 June.
Alpujarras by traskas
I’ve used Economy Car Hire twice and rate them highly as they have a no excess policy, unlike some other so called “inclusive” prices where you can be stung with an excess of several hundred euro if your hire car is damaged or stolen. Their prices also include a second driver free of charge.
On the last two occasions I booked car rental in Italy last month and November 2007 in the Canaries, Economy Car Hire had the best deal for 2 drivers. Spain is good value for car hire as I paid 50% more for car rental in Italy than in the Canaries.
As always do shop around for the best deal and read my car hire tips.
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June 4, 2008
You can read the June 2008 edition of the Europe Travel Blog Carnival at Heather on her Travels. A big thank you to Heather for hosting the carnival. There were a couple of posts about Rome one of my favourite European capitals. Heather talks abut her two visits to Rome one as child with her family and then recently with her own son.
Rome Panorama by zaryila
Another post was about skiing in Scotland where I was happily surprised to read that someone had actually had a good experience skiing in my native Scotland as I usually you hear about negative experiences such as “Snow sports in Scotland - taking the piste“.
Skiing in Scotland, it’s so CR@P you would not believe it” by moron noodle
If you have any blog posts about travel in Europe please submit them by 30 June for the next edition published on Monday 7 July 2008.
If you’d like to host the Europe Travel Blog Carnival, which is published on the first Monday of each month, please contact me.
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June 4, 2008
We spent the last week of May 2008 in Tuscany and Umbria in Italy. I’d expect the average temperature at that time of year to be in the mid to low 20 degrees celsius with the odd shower or period of rain. Instead for the first few days the temperature was into the mid 30s. Then there was a day with thunderstorms, torrential rain and hailstones (which were more like chips off a block of ice) where the temperature dropped to 14 degrees, followed by a cool day of almost constant rain.
Downpour in Gubbio
We were caught in a torrential downpour during a thunder storm in Gubbio where there streets were temporarily turned into rivers. All the street lights came on due, tricked into thinking it was dusk by the low light.
We were touring around Tuscany and Umbria by car and only had a few hours at each location. I’m hopeless in hot weather and with all the slopes in the hill top villages and towns walking around was tiring and sticky. I was forever seeking shade and not concentrating on taking photos and notes. On the wet days you couldn’t get a decent photo or walk around to explore. It was difficult to sleep at night because of the heat. I wasn’t keen to have air conditioning on all night. One day in Perugia we decided to stay around the hotel room and pool during the day as it was just too hot and visit Perugia in the evening when it was a bit cooler.
View to Perugia from the hotel pool
I’m sure that I would have enjoyed the trip more and had a better selection of photos and more expansive notes in pleasantly warm, dry weather. I would avoid visiting southern Europe during Summer when I’d expect the weather to be too hot for me, Have any of your recent trips been affected by unexpected weather?
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June 4, 2008
We were amazed by the number and intricacy of the inflorata or pictures made from flower petals which covered the streets of the Tuscan village of Fucecchio. The floral pictures lay in then centre of streets through which the Corpus Domimi Communion Procession wound its way up the church.
Sometimes getting lost can pay off. Last Sunday the 25th May we were driving from Tirrenia on the coast near Pisa to Siena when we were confused by signs for the autostrade and superstrade heading east towards Firenze from Livorno. After taking about 2 hours to cover a distance which should have taken 30 minutes we decided to stop in the village of Fucecchio. It couldn’t have been better timing if we planned it for as we wandered around the streets we witnessed the Corpus Domini procession and all the beautiful floral street art.
So next time you get lost don’t despair because you end up seeing something wonderful but totally unexpected.
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June 4, 2008
I wasn’t exactly astounded to read that Brits spend more than half their holidays in their hotel and hotel room. If you think about it logically you probably spend eight hours in bed, one hour having showers, doing hair, make up etc and one hour eating breakfast. So already that’s a total of 10 hours in the hotel. If you are staying on half board you can add at least another hour to that. I don’t spend time in hotel bars (as I’m a Scot who never drinks alcohol), watching tv, sending text messages, checking emails or have a laptop with me.
I think it depends on the individual and the type of holiday. If we stay for a week in an apartment or hotel during a Winter Sun holiday we might spend a hour or two a day reading in the balcony but if we are on a touring holiday where we stay in a different hotel every night, we may spend very little time in the hotel if we arrive late and depart after breakfast.
<a href =”http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/622168/” >How much time do you spend in your hotel during holidays?</a> <br/> <span
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June 4, 2008
The 3 Harbours Art Festival runs from 31 May to 8 June 2008 in the three coastal villages of Prestonpans, Cockenzie and Port Seton, in East Lothian a few miles east of Edinburgh. The Festival was highlighted as one of the “Best Outdoor Arts Events” in the Guardian.
The Festival theme is the sea, an integral part of life in the three villages. There are many events and workshops on offer. Cockenzie Power Station will be illuminated in the evenings. There is a paper boat competition, Murals Trail walks, a Gala day, music events and art exhibitions. From Monday 2 June - Friday 6 June there is a daily John Muir Trail bus tour from 10.00 to 18:00 with various stops at at a cost of £20 including lunch.
Prestonpans Pottery Mural
I’m attending a two day Mosaic workshop on Wednesday 4 and Sunday 8 June which are free of charge. On Saturday 31 May and Wednesday 4 June there is a Women’s Art Workshop, costing £3 per session, which explores the themes of femininity and womanliness The Workshop is led by local artist Jacquelyn Rixon. I attended art workshops run last Summer by Jacquelyn and they were wonderful as Jacquelyn engenders a very relaxed yet supportive atmosphere which enables all participants to explore their creative talents.
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June 4, 2008
I was incredulous when I read tip no 5 to “buy your sun cream in Winter when it is cheaper” in the “5 Top Tips for Proper Holiday Budgeting” by a leading UK debt counselling charity. Now the other four tips are pretty sensible e.g. shop around for the best deals and set aside a small amount of money from your monthly budget for your holiday spending fund.
by gaetan_lee
It’s possible to purchase sun cream for a couple of pounds in a discount store and I don’t think that there are so many special offers on sun cream during Winter. While I applaud the worthy work done by debt counselling charities I think that this last piece of their holiday budgeting advice is verging on the absurd.
What are your top tips for holiday budgeting?
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June 4, 2008
I’ve never flown with them before I’m already hacked off by Jet2.com. We fly with Jet2.com from Edinburgh to Pisa, Italy for 7 nights tomorrow from Edinburgh. I tried to check in online and it would appear that you can’t check in online unless you pre-book your seat at a charge of £3.99 per person, plus payment card fees, per person per flight, so that would be another £16+ for 2 passengers making a return trip. I don’t think there should be a charge to check in online and it doesn’t cost anything to allocate you a seat during online check in. Surely there is a cost saving for the airline not having to pay staff to staff the check in desks?
by jennyfoo
I’d read the on my confirmation email that you are allowed to take hand luggage weighing up to 10 kgs per passenger and I thought if we both take a small suitcase as hand luggage we’d only need one bag in the hold. It costs £6.99 for a hold bag per flight. This charge was £5 in November 2007. However I read the small print which states that the maximum size of cabin package is 46×30×23 cms and both our small suitcases are a few centimetres wider than this.
In order to avoid a possible additional charge for 2 hold bags, as they charge per individual bag, if Jet2 are meticulous about cabin baggage size, I thought I’d better pre-book another hold bag as if you are charged £12 for each piece of hold baggage at the airport. On my confirmation email it states that hold baggage can weigh up to 20kgs. However today on the Jet2 site baggage rules its states that the maximum weight for hold luggage is 17kgs so it looks like Jet2 charges per hold bag have increased by £2 while the weight limit has decreased from 20 to 17 kgs in the last few months.
I flew with Easyjet from Glasgow to Berlin a couple of months ago, with only cabin luggage, and there was no weight limit on cabin luggage and the maximum size was 55×40×20 cms
I’m getting fed up with all this, it’s really confusing and so easy to get caught out and you feel that it’s all designed to trip you up and make more money out of passengers who don’t pore over the small print. Legally UK cabin baggage can measure up to 56×45×25 cm with a maximum weight of 18kgs but airlines can set their own limits.
I think that there is a real need for standardisation of cabin luggage which would set a sensible size and weight as a minimum, so that at least you could buy a suitcase that you knew you could always take on board on any airline.. Of course individual airlines could choose to increase the size and weight of hand luggage.
My advice to you is to read all the terms and conditions carefully, then you can choose either to adhere to the limits or risk the additional charges at the airport if all bags and carefully weighed and measured.
Have you been forced to pay additional charges at check in, either through ignorance of the rules or by hoping you could flout them?
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