Dar / Thom:
September would be cheaper. Problem is I really think we will be coming back in August. I'm going to try and get into Western Mich University's staff. Good benefit package and all that. This means I need to make myself available to start work before the term begins in late August.
I just started looking into their web site for job openings and haven't even begun to communicate with them so it could all go up in smoke. Then again Amsterdam's economy is picking up. We liked it there. We haven't had the opportunity to really discuss and look into if jobs and living there is feasible.
The root of the whole problem is we miss owning or at least having a permanent place of our own. It became real apparent in Amsterdam. No - after we came back from London. We started talking about where we are going to live. The more we talk the more a house sounds appealing. Just not having relatives who bicker with the landlord in the same building would help. From what we can gather the niece we rent from is having some sort of problem with the uncle and his wife upstairs. From the little contact with the aunt that we have had, I can understand why.
Gawd I can get side tracked, can't I?
The safest bet is to come in July or early August. Our first recommendation is to fly the Czech Airline (CSA). They work with or have an agreement with Continental. The flights leave from Chicago on Continental to New York (New Jersey specifically), then onto Praha. What is nice about this flight is that little hop to New Jersey breaks up the time on the plane. I don't know the exact times, but New Jersey to Praha is a shorter time than Chicago to Frankfort.
The second recommendation is Lufthansa from Chicago to Frankfort and transfer onto Praha. Only thing is Frankfort is a bigger terminal than New York/New Jersey. We have hit it lucky each time and not had to go far between gates. Of course, two times doesn’t really set a track record.
Tip: Don’t book a charter flight. For one, I swear they seat more people on the plane than the regular airlines. More important, customer service is non-existent. They come around once for a soft drink. Even a simple wine costs extra. Later they come with food and maybe a small orange drink before landing. Regular flights break up the time by coming around with drinks (included in the price) and snacks and a meal (or a meal and then a snack). Then they do the hot towel before breakfast. Generally flights leave the USA late afternoon. Coming back they leave in the morning. They have movies and various radio programs all included in the price. Coming over I listened to an old Cosby tape. Reminded me of listening to records Mom and Dad had and tapes at your house back in Atlanta of the columnist from there that we like so much that right now I can’t remember his name. . . Grisard? They have the little tracking thing to show where you are at along the flight plan. We have flown charter once, and won’t do it again. It is too long of a flight to economize.
Tip: Book an aisle seat (along the seats from the window and not from the middle rows) for the longest portion of the flight. There is not a whole lot to see over the ocean, which is 90% of the time. You can get up at your leisure. Even if it is to get up for a minute, it is nice to do it without making the person next to you get up every time. I normally like the window. We have done the window/middle three times and middle/aisle twice. Long flights the ability to get up was worth no window.
To clarify the "along the seats from the window". The bigger planes have two or three seats along the window, an aisle and then four or five in the middle. Those people in the middle seem to get up a whole lot more for some reason. Ha-get this-I'm telling you, who probably has two people in the house that could tell you the seating capacity and number of rows of every commercial plane in the air, what type of seating arrangements a plane has! My apologies to Thom and Justin. And to you for that matter! I'm sure you've flown the biggies from the West coast. I don't know if they are DC10 or a 442 with a 16 valve.
Anyway, once more I've sidetracked!!!
Scratch the meeting in Amsterdam and possibly Munich. Amsterdam is a 12 hour drive. We had such a good deal to fly is the only reason we went now. We are already booked for Munich in early June. Europe has only two months where the kids are not in school so planning ahead is a must. Mid August for some reason is considered a slower time possibly due to temperatures. I would need next week to look into cost of meeting in Munich (rent a car compared to a train) vs. paying Mom the difference to fly all the way to Praha instead of flying to Munich and meeting her there. Make that the next two weeks. I have two things to do with the Women’s group next week and I think Jack will need to buy a suit for the opera (the sport coat he brought it too wintery), plus no groceries in the house because we were gone. Which in the States would be a quick car trip to the store, BUT we must consider how much can be carried when walking so we spread it out over three or four days.
I guess another reason to book in early August is that we could return to the states at the same time.
I’m really glad she decided to come. I hope after looking into it Munich is a good option. From what I have read and the brochures I’ve looked at it is something we could plan to do twice. There are resort towns to the south of Munich that look interesting. So I’ll get back to you on that.
Boy did we squeeze a lot into Amsterdam. We hit at least five museums from military, to history, to the arts. April 30th was the Queen’s day celebration. Thousands of people in the streets (no lie). The center of town is people eating and drinking (more drinking than eating). Out towards our hotel it was more of a gigantic garage sale. Some great bargains that we passed up on household things. Very unique and glad we were there to experience it. We even took a bus tour to Den Haag, Delft and a sea side resort town that I could not begin to spell. And of course the Red Light District. What a hoot!
Enough from me. I got some other mail to answer yet tonight before people think we crashed or I got Jack permanently lost.
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