Steve Holden's Blog

Where We Stayed (While In Europe 2019)

When we were in Bad Pyrmont, Germany we stayed at Hotel Schaumberg.  It was a great location for us, the room was great for the three of us, and the food for breakfast was awesome.  I would stay there again.

When we were in Belgium we stayed with our Belgium family in Ottingies (south of Brussels).  It was great.  We'd stay there again also :-)

Our Airbnb in Normandy was excellent (photos).  We would highly recommend staying there. The host was amazing. The area around our Airbnb -- known as Les Bateaux -- was a short walk down to the beach and a great location to explore D-Day historical sites, memorials, and museums. 

In Paris we stayed at the Hôtel de Roubaix (6 Rue Greneta, 75003 Paris, France).  I thought the place was average and good for our situation.  It was easy to get to and easy to navigate to the Louvre for sure by walking.  Also it was easy to get from the hotel to the airport via a big transit hub that was just down the street (10 minute walk).  We used Booking.com to reserve our rooms.

Our Airbnb in Rome was great (photos) the location was about a 30 minute walk to the Vatican and then a 30 minute walk to the Colosseum. The host was excellent and very helpful in helping us get to and from the airport.  The place included a full kitchen, air conditioning, and was roomy enough to spread out.  I'd recommend staying at this location if you travel to Rome.

The next stop was Amsterdam.  I spent a lot of time trying to find a good AirBNB but wasn't successful.  I also looked into some of the nicer hotels but the prices were 3x what we ended up paying.   We ended up at Hotel Isis (Spreeuwenpark 17, Amsterdam Noord, Amsterdam, 1021 GS, Netherlands) via Booking.com.  It was definitely spartan but clean.  And I felt safe in that part of town. The walk to the ferry and taking the ferry was fun and different.  Having the ferry stop in Amsterdam at the Central Train station was a bonus.  I probably wouldn't stay there again but if you are in a pinch it is doable.

After Amsterdam we made our way for a 1-night stay in Berlin at the Hotel-Pension Cortina (Kantstr. 140, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Berlin, 10623, Germany).  This hotel was also booked via Booking.com.  I was also not able to figure out a good AirBNB option in Berlin, and since we were staying just one night I wasn't as detailed in my research on this hotel. It turned out fine, but just like Hotel Isis it was spartan but clean.  Our room was on the shared courtyard so it was noisy at night.  I definitely would have considered some other hotels if I wanted more comforts.

Our last night of the trip was spent at the Marriott Sheraton at Frankfurt Airport.  It was by far the best hotel room we stayed in during the trip, and given that we just walked up and got the room, the price was pretty affordable.  It was a great ending for the trip.  Solid night sleep and great shower in the morning.  The walk back to the airport was easy, and we got through security/customs/immigration without any issues.

How We Traveled To Europe And Within Europe

We booked our tickets for Europe via AirTreks which I learned about via the Rolf Potts podcast.

We all flew out San Diego direct to Frankfurt on Lufthansa. Carson flew back from Paris to Washington, DC (IAD) to San Diego via United a week earlier than Conrad and I.  Our return flight was a direct Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to San Diego.  I thought all the flights ended up being affordable, and having AirTreks do all the coordination was wonderful.

We bought all our train tickets in Germany using the German Train App (Bahn).  The app was very helpful and useful.

We bought our local Belgium train tickets at the stations using their kiosks (the English interfaces on all the kiosks we used were easy to use & understand).  Some kiosks took my standard Visa and others required me to use the Debt Visa.  In the end, one or the other ending up working.

I used the Internet to buy our train from Brussels to Paris via Thayls.  This was a great option because the travel time between Brussels and Paris was less than 2 hours.

Once in Paris we used the kiosks to buy local subway tickets within Paris.  Again we had the same issue with credit card vs. debt cards. Sometimes one would work and in another situation it wouldn't. In the end, one of them worked.

I used the French Train App (SNCF) to buy our train tickets from Paris to Normandy, and the the kiosk at the train station in Normandy to get back to Paris.  This SNCF app also had a copy of our tickets so that was nice not to have another set of paper tickets.

We did use the Paris subway system a couple of times on the 2nd day.  It was very handy.  Tickets were purchased at the local kiosks in the subway station.  Also we bought our tickets to Charles de Gaul using the kiosk at the main subway station near our hotel.  They were more expensive then some other options but the ride was a direct ride without subway line changes.

Carson flew home from Paris via United on Monday, June 17th.  After she left, Conrad and I flew from Paris to Rome using via Vueling Airlines.  These tickets were purchased via CheapOAir, but I did our seat upgrades directly using the Vueling Airlines app.  The flight on Vueling was good.  Conrad and I both had luggage that would have been OK for their overhead, but when we checked in they had us check the bags.  This slowed us down in Rome by about 30 minutes in waiting for our luggage.

Once in Rome, our AirBNB host setup for us a car service to pick us up at the airport and take us to our AirBNB.  This worked out great because we had the least amount of time in Rome and we weren't so sure about our public transportation options.   The trip from the airport was great and the trip back to the airport, which was early in the morning, also worked out great.  It was money worth spending.

We ended up flying on EasyJet from Rome to Amsterdam.  We carried our luggage on without a problem.

The flight from Amsterdam to Berlin (TXL) was on KLM.  I really liked the KLM experience.  We got to carry our luggage on and they had cool snacks!

 We left Berlin to Frankfurt on the night before we were flying back to San Diego.  This flight was on Lufthansa and we had to turn in our luggage at the gate because of our ticket class.  There was definitely room for them.  That was kind of a bummer.  It took like 40 minutes to get our bags which made us late for trying to get into the hotel that is in the "secure" part of the airport.  So we had to go outside of security and stay at the Sheraton that is attached to the airport.

In summary ....

• [PART 1] All the flights worked out without any major issues.  We didn't get to carry on our luggage a couple of times. Which mostly only caused us delays in waiting for our bags.  All the airports worked great.  Moving around, getting through queues, shopping, services, etc. were great.  I think I liked the Amsterdam and Frankfurt airports the most. But Paris, Berlin, and Rome were not bad.  I have been to worse in the U.S.
• [PART 2] A lot of what we did at the front of the trip was take trains. This worked great for three people.  I think that is why in PART 1 -- it worked great because it was just two people flying vs. three people flying.  The train experience was also overall very seamless and a good time.  Having the right mobile app was key so I definitely recommend using them.

Back to the main Europe 2019 page.

Berlin To Frankfurt To San Diego

On Sunday, June 23 -- Conrad and I left Berlin for Frankfurt (photos).  We arrived late in the evening in Frankfurt and stayed the night at the Marriott Hotel next to the airport.  We wanted to stay in hotel that was in the actual boarding area (bod hotel) but it was closed by the time we got there.

The Marriott Hotel was great though and probably the best "hotel" that we stayed in.  Unfortunately it was for less than 8 hours.

After getting up on Monday morning (6/24), we made it through security and immigration with no issues.  We had some time for some last minute shopping, food, espresso from McDonald's (not bad), and some time to see a bunch of airplanes.

The flight home was smooth sailing on Lufthansa and it was really good to finally get back home.  Immigration control in San Diego was also a breeze.

Here are some photos from our last day in Germany:

• Frankfurt to San Diego

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Experiencing Berlin

Conrad and I made our way to Berlin on Saturday (June 23) from Amsterdam (photos).  The trip from our hotel to the airport was very straightforward: walk to the ferry, take the free ferry to Central Station, and then take the airport train from Central Station to the airport.

Here are two sets of pictures from Berlin:

• Day 1 (Saturday)
• Day 2 (Sunday)

One of the super fun parts of Sunday afternoon was hanging out with Conrad's girlfriend Skye's family (aunt, uncle, nephews, and niece) who happened to be in Berlin at the same time:

At the end of the day on Sunday, we headed back to the Berlin Airport for a late evening flight to Frankfurt.  The trip to Frankfurt from Berlin had no major issues.

Some thoughts about this part of the the trip:

• We managed to take the bus from the airport to a stop near our hotel (short 10 minute walk), and hotel was very close to a Berlin City Train Station.
• Our flight from Amsterdam to Berlin was on KLM.  They had a great little snack step-up (photo) that was pretty well engineered and tasty.
• Conrad really wanted to buy Birkenstocks in Germany.  We found some but the selection was not great.  And they cost more plus the taxes made them even more expensive then buying them in the U.S.  So we skipped those purchases.

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Experiencing Amsterdam 2019

SUMMARY -- Amsterdam was one of the cities that we spent more time than others ... mostly because I was attending Getting Things Done (GTD) Summit 2019.  The conference was 2 days (Thursday and Friday).  We arrived on Wednesday from Rome.  We left on Saturday for Berlin.

Here is a collection of photos from Amsterdam:

• Walking Tour the first day
• Food on the first day
• Big Weather the first day
• Walking Tours on the 2nd and 3rd day (Mostly Conrad photos)
• Light Dinner & beer at Little Delirium at the Central Station
• Dinner at Castels

Some additional thoughts about Amsterdam:

• The train from the airport to Central Station was pretty easy to navigate.
• The airport in Amsterdam was pretty nice and easy to move around in.
• Taking the bus from Central Station to the GTD Conference was super easy.
• Our hotel was on the other side of Central Station and required a ferry ride.  The ferry was free and left every 15 minutes.
• The hotel we stayed in worked for us but it wasn't super great. There was no air conditioning so luckily for us it never got very hot.  I think the room we had would have been less than ideal if the weather got warm.
• Rain comes and goes in Amsterdam.  Even that big storm on the first night was basically over in 15 minutes.
• Lots of bikes.
• Walking in Amsterdam to and from our dinner and after GTD Conference events was good.
• There is a subway system that we used the last day that worked out pretty well.
• More info about Little Delirium.
• More info about Castels.

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Getting Things Done (GTD) Summit 2019

The Getting Things Done (GTD) 2019 Summit was held in Amsterdam from June 20-21, 2019. 

BACKGROUND -- My family and I had already purchased our airplane tickets by the time I confirmed I was able to attend, so we ended up re-arranging and making some adjustments so I could attend. My son Conrad could still get to his major city requests, and Carson could fly home "early" but still spent time in Germany, Belgium, Normandy, and Paris.  It was an answer to prayer that it all worked out. Here is our complete trip summary.

The conference was amazing!  I still need to summarize all my notes (Part 1 - Day 1 PDF is DONE!) [Still working on Part 2], but here are some links to some online content about the conference:

• My Google Photos
• David announced his perfect GTD Tool
• GTD Teens book was discussed in several sessions
• Martin Haagen's thoughts about the summit
• Scoro at the summit
• Arif & Ali's thoughts after the summit
• Twitter #gtdsummit

Experiencing Rome

We arrived in Rome late in the afternoon on Monday (June 17, 2019) and made it to our AirBNB via a reserved driver.  This worked out great as our time in Rome was actually the shortest overall at this point.  The driver was waiting for us as we left the luggage area and drove us straight to the AirBNB.

Here are some pictures of our AirBNB.  I would recommend staying there again.  The location was good and it had a good kitchen and sleeping arrangements for us.

We did a walking tour the evening we arrived.  And then had dinner.

Our second day Tuesday (June 18, 2019) consisted of the following events:

• Seeing the outside of the Vatican
• Walking to the Vatican and then to the Colosseum
• Pictures around the Colosseum
• Lunch
• And more walking in Rome
• Dinner in Rome (2nd Night)

On Wednesday morning we got up pretty early and made our way to the airport again using a reserved driver.  We had a relatively early flight to Amsterdam and we had read things could be problematic at the Rome airport. In our case it was not a problem getting through security, and things went very smoothly getting to our gate.  We had time for breakfast and some shopping at the airport.

Some other thoughts about Rome:

• Walking around was very easy with Google maps.
• No scooters.
• The main events - Vatican, Colosseum, etc. -- had no tickets available at the last minute.
• There is no way you could get me to drive in Rome.  Crazy!
• There seems to be amazing history around every corner.

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The Big Travel Day

SUMMARY -- Monday, June 17, 2019 was our big travel day - Carson flew home to San Diego from Paris. Once she was airborne, Conrad and I made our way to Rome (and then on to Amsterdam, Berlin, & back to Frankfurt to fly home to San Diego on Monday, June 24, 2019).

MORE DETAILS -- The trip from our hotel in Paris (Hôtel de Roubaix) to Charles de Gaulle airport was a straight forward train/metro ride (RER B).  It took less than an hour and wasn't very crowded.

For some reason even though this was a "BIG" day I only have four photos documenting this part of the trip.

Carson made it through security and then customs on her own in Paris, but it took much longer than we had anticipated. She was successful in flying home on United from Paris to Washington, DC (IAD), and then on to San Diego.

Once Carson was airborne we made our way to a smaller terminal to fly down to Rome via Vueling Airlines that was booked via CheapOAir. 

While we were waiting for our flight to Rome we found a store called Spencer, and as we were leaving we could see a Concorde airplane display from our seats on our plane.

The trip down was uneventful and we got to Rome without any issues. Our Airbnb host reserved us a driver who was waiting for us and we made our way to our Airbnb in Rome pretty efficiently.  After checking-in to a wonderful location we managed to do some city exploring and get dinner before bed (see next post).

Collection of all the photos of the day.

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Experiencing Paris, France

When we arrived in Paris (Saturday, June 15th) it was still late mid-day (trip summary). We ended up dropping off our stuff at our hotel (Hôtel de Roubaix) and then started walking toward the Seine . We ultimately made our way to the Eiffel Tower.  We took a ton of photos.

Here is our collection of photos from the Eiffel Tower.

We ended the day eating at Hall S Beer Tavern (pictures) for dinner. We were super hungry, the food was excellent, service was pretty good, and sitting down for an hour or so was much needed.

The next day we headed to the Louvre for a guided tour (highly recommended), and then we had time to walk and see what we wanted.  We did that for about 2 hours. Once we were done at the Louvre (most of the morning) we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe, and Norte Dame.

We had lunch at L'Etoile 1903 near Arc de Triomphe.  The only picture I took was of the beer (I think we were super hungry and just started digging in before a picture could be taken of our food):

The food was good at L'Etoile 1903 and I would recommend eating there again.

After we were finished for the day we ended up eating dinner at Cafe March (photos). We all liked our food and the atmosphere was good. I'd eat there again.

Just before dinner though, I was able to meet up with Rolf Potts (travel writer) for a quick picture. He was in Paris at the same time teaching a class on writing.  I've been listening to Rolf's podcast for some time -- Deviate.  Some of his podcasts actually inspired parts of this trip.

Other pictures from Paris can be found here.

Some other details and thoughts about Paris:

• The French people we met in the stores and restaurants were super helpful and accommodating of our lack of French.
• There are a lot of scooters in Paris.
• Taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower from the other side of the Seine was a great recommendation from our train companion from Brussels to Paris.
• He also recommending going to an "unofficial" memorial for Princes Diana which we did.
• The subway system while we were there was great.
• The train system worked well for us also.
• We probably could have done better on the hotel but we really weren't in the room all that much other than to sleep so any "better" setup would have been lost on us.
• Having Carson leave us early was a bummer but it all worked out in the end.

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Normandy To Paris

Our trip from our Airbnb in Normandy back to Caen  to return our rental car included a stop in Bayeux.  If you are going to this part of Normandy I would consider Caen over Bayeux for renting a car.  The city is bigger and the rental agencies are all near the central Caen train station.

We stopped in Bayeux to see the Tapisserie de Bayeux. that was more than like created in the 11th Century and is over 70 meters long. The tapestry tells the "engrossing story of the conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy in 1066."  It was definitely worth seeing and the audio program was very well done.

After this museum we made our way back to Caen and then turned in our rental car.   We then had a train ride from Caen into Paris (via the Saint Lazare Train Station) and then a Metro ride (subway) from St. Lazare to the nearest stop near our hotel.

In Paris we stayed at the Hôtel de Roubaix (6 Rue Greneta, 75003 Paris, France).  I thought the place was average and good for our situation.  It was easy to get to and easy to navigate to the Louvre for sure by walking.  Also it was easy to get from the hotel to the airport via a big transit hub that was just down the street (10 minute walk).  We used Booking.com to reserve our rooms.

Here are all the photos from this part of the trip.

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