Views from the Slow Lanetag:www.slowtrav.com,2011:/blog/pauline//12008-04-25T01:15:41ZTravel planning and travel journalsMovable Type 3.33Views from the Slow Lane moves to a new location!tag:www.slowtrav.com,2008:/blog/pauline//1.41262008-04-25T01:12:37Z2008-04-25T01:15:41ZHello Slow Travelers! I have been running my “Views from the Slow Lane” blog for several years on the Slow Travel website, which I used to own and run. I sold the site to Internet Brands last year. I am...Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
Views from the Slow Lane.]]>
Sometimes dealing with vacation rental agencies ...tag:www.slowtrav.com,2008:/blog/pauline//1.38642008-03-31T20:03:23Z2008-03-31T20:13:45ZWe are off to Savannah on Wednesday for a weeks vacation and the Great Slow Travel Gathering! We booked an apartment a year ago, when the Gathering was being arranged, with Luxury Living Savannah. Recently I had a few questions...Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
Great Slow Travel Gathering!
We booked an apartment a year ago, when the Gathering was being arranged, with Luxury Living Savannah. Recently I had a few questions about parking and transport from the airport, so I emailed them. No reply. I email again. Then a very curt reply. A week before the rental I email again requesting some "fragrance-free" things - no air freshener, scented candles or scented soaps on the sheets. Again, no reply. I phoned today and they had received my email and passed it on to the housekeeper, but just had not replied to me.
The listing says there is a phone in the apartment. My confirmation email from a few weeks ago gives me the phone number even. Brenda, another Slow Traveler, emailed me to say there is no phone in her apartment, so I asked about that. They told me they took all the phones out of the apartments because no one uses them. I can understand that - but why did my confirmation have the phone number still? Maybe I had planned to use the phone. They did not care about that - just repeated that none of the apartments have phones.
I have always been a big supporter of vacation rental agencies - companies that understand travelers needs, can give advice and extra support. Some do, some don't. I hope the apartment is nice!
Gathering Webcam
We are going to have a live webcam for some of the Gathering events, starting Thursday evening. Tune in here!
I am looking forward to seeing all the Slow Travelers at the Gathering!]]>
Special Price for the Vacation Home Expotag:www.slowtrav.com,2008:/blog/pauline//1.38222008-03-28T18:04:39Z2008-03-28T21:54:36ZTHE VACATION HOME EXPO IS COMING TO ATLANTA … and Pauline Kenny and Kathy Wood from the Slow Travel community will be there! Come visit our booth at the travel industry’s only consumer travel Show focused solely on the condominium,...Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
>> Saturday and Sunday: 3:00pm – 3:45pm
Meet directly with exhibitors representing vacation rental properties and resorts from around the world.
- Take advantage of Show-only deals and special discounts
- Attend educational seminars featuring vacation rental “insider tips” on emerging consumer travel trends and hot new destinations
- Plus, enter to win exclusive trip giveaways, prizes, and more!
Saturday April 12 / 10AM – 6PM
Sunday April 13 / 10AM - 5PM
Cobb Galleria / Atlanta, GA
Special Discounted Ticket Price
Admission - $ 5 Adult Discounted Rate (Under 18 Free)
CLICK HERE For Your Special Discount Ticket - ENTER PROMO CODE VHEDEAL
Lots of Interesting Exhibitors
Here is the list of exhibitors at the travel show. Many vacation rental agencies will have booths there.]]>
Vacation Home Expo, Atlanta, April 12 - 13tag:www.slowtrav.com,2008:/blog/pauline//1.30942008-02-02T21:37:32Z2008-02-02T21:41:52ZCome to the Vacation Home Expo, the weekend of April 12 - 13, in Atlanta, at the Cobb Galleria Centre! Pauline Kenny, founder of Slow Travel, and Kathy Wood, from The Luberon Experience, present "Slow Travel ... We’re moving too...Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
Vacation Home Expo, the weekend of April 12 - 13, in Atlanta, at the Cobb Galleria Centre!
Pauline Kenny, founder of Slow Travel, and Kathy Wood, from The Luberon Experience, present "Slow Travel ... We’re moving too fast". Find out about this emerging vacation rental lifestyle that's spreading throughout Europe and worldwide. Gail Hecko of Gail's Great Escapes will join Pauline and Kathy at the Slow Travel booth for the weekend. Drop by and say hello!
The Vacation Home Expo is happening side by side with the Atlanta Travel Expo. Two great travel shows for the price of one, both presented by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. All Slow Travel members receive $5 discount off the Show admission fee of $10 (print your Slow Travel Forums profile to show you are a Slow Traveler). ]]>
National Geographic Traveler Mentions Slow Travel!tag:www.slowtrav.com,2007:/blog/pauline//1.27472007-12-25T21:49:09Z2007-12-25T21:54:38ZNational Geographic Traveler, Smart Traveler section, "Slow Down - We're Movin' Too Fast", by Margaret Loftus, January 2008. Exerpt from article: "Pauline Kenny was roaming through a roomful of Rubens paintings at Munich's Alte Pinakothek when it dawned on her....Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
National Geographic Traveler, January 2008
This is the Academy Awards of mentions for me. National Geographic Traveler is one of the top three travel magazines and I am very proud to have them write about the Slow Travel community! What a nice way to start the new year!]]>
Poipu (Kauai) Under Constructiontag:www.slowtrav.com,2007:/blog/pauline//1.25402007-10-30T18:14:30Z2007-10-30T18:40:03ZIn September we did a last minute two week trip to Hawaii. We stayed in the same area where we always stay, Poipu on the south end, but this time we stayed on the eastern part of Poipu, near the...Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
Slow Travel Forums, but wanted to repeat it here so anyone thinking about going to Poipu, Kauai in the next few years knows about the construction.
We had a lovely vacation, but the major construction projects have just started. They are digging now, but the building has not started. We won't be going back to Poipu for a few years - until these projects are done.
Monk Seal coming up on the beach to sleep for the day]]>
View east from the edge of Poipu, near the Hyatt
A lot of Poipu and Kauai is still undeveloped. Even with all this new construction in Poipu, I don't think it will feel over-developed.
There are concerns that the current infrastructure cannot support all this new development. Already the main road that does a horseshoe around the island can be very congested with traffic for several miles around the main city of Lihue. Most of it is one lane in each direction.
I updated my two pages on Kauai:
The Garden Island of Kauai, HawaiiKauai Vacation Rentals
Here are the paragraphs I inserted on the SlowTrav pages:
In summer 2007, several large constructions projects started in the western end of Poipu. These projects will add 4,500 homes and apartments to this area. Construction has started on the large project of homes along the road to Spouting Horn. Several other large condo/resort projects, just west of the Sheraton have started. They are redoing the intersection of main Poipu road where it meets the road to Spouting Horn, so you have to detour.
If you are staying at the Hyatt end of Poipu (Pe'e Road, Poipu Kau, Poipu Beach Park) you will not notice the construction, but if you are staying in the Spouting Horn side (Ho'ona Road, road to Spouting Horn) you will be in the middle of this dirt and noise. These projects are expected to last for five years and will greatly increase the traffic to this area.
Here is a local article about it: Star Bulletin - Development projects affecting Garden Isle style]]>
SlowTrav moved to a new servertag:www.slowtrav.com,2007:/blog/pauline//1.24062007-09-29T05:08:19Z2007-09-29T05:12:28ZWe moved to a new server (for slowtrav.com and slowphotos.com) a couple of weeks ago, but there have been a few residual problems. Slowphotos.com is running slow, we had some problems with the blogs and the blog control panels are...Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
We moved to a new server (for slowtrav.com and slowphotos.com) a couple of weeks ago, but there have been a few residual problems. Slowphotos.com is running slow, we had some problems with the blogs and the blog control panels are slow and slowtrav.com was down most of today.
Moving to a new server ain't easy! Slowtrav and slowphotos are big sites and the move was not easy. Things will get worked out over the next week and we will be back to normal.
Test Driving the Talk Abroad Phonetag:www.slowtrav.com,2007:/blog/pauline//1.17472007-07-01T15:16:20Z2007-07-01T15:33:29ZCellular Abroad loaned me one of their new "Talk Abroad" phones that they sell/rent in conjunction with National Geographic. I needed a phone that I could use from several countries - Switzerland, Italy, France, and England - and thought this...Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
Talk Abroad" phones that they sell/rent in conjunction with National Geographic. I needed a phone that I could use from several countries - Switzerland, Italy, France, and England - and thought this would be a good opportunity to test drive their new phone.]]>
Cellular Abroad - Talk Abroad]]>
International Roaming with a Cell Phone in Europetag:www.slowtrav.com,2007:/blog/pauline//1.15882007-06-13T01:49:55Z2007-06-13T23:26:29ZOn this trip we will be in four countries: Switzerland, Italy, France, England. I want to bring a cell phone that I can use from all these countries to make local calls (not many) and to call back to the...Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
If you are traveling to ONE country in Europe, get a SIM card for that country
If you are traveling to one country in Europe, the answer to the cell phone question is simple.
* If you have an unlocked World Phone, buy a SIM card for the country ahead of time from Cellular Abroad or Telestial, or when you get to the country you are traveling to.
* If you don't have an unlocked World Phone, buy a phone you can use in Europe from Cellular Abroad or Telestial or when you get to the country you are traveling to (or get your World Phone unlocked).
Buying the SIM card ahead of time costs more, but you know your phone number before you leave and you don't have to spend vacation time in a cell phone store.
If you are traveling to several countries in Europe, there are several options
If you are traveling to more than one country, the question is a bit more complicated because you need a SIM CARD that works well between the countries. These are the options that I considered.]]>
Use my US T-Mobile GSM World Phone
I am bringing my new T-Mobile Blackberry on this trip to use for email and internet connection (use it as a modem with my computer). I added a $20/month option to allow unlimited International Email and Internet. This option can be turned on just for the time you are traveling (full month is charged).
I could use this phone to make and receive calls in Europe, but there are two problems.
* My friends in Europe would have to dial a US phone number to reach me, even in we are both in the same European country.
* Incoming calls are NOT free, but are the same as outgoing - $0.99/minute. You also pay for calls to the cell phone voice mail.
This would be a good solution if I did not plan on using the phone much and if European friends were happy dialing a US phone number.
Use my United Kingdom Vodafone - Pay as You Talk Plan
I have an unlocked World Phone and a UK Vodafone SIM card. This will work throughout Europe, but the rates are high when roaming outside the UK AND you pay for incoming calls!!
Outgoing calls are 75p/min ($1.50). Incoming calls are 75p/min ($1.50). There is a less expensive option for people with a yearly contract, but I have Pay as you Talk.
As of August 2007, it will be less expensive to roam throughout Europe with a European SIM. I think the rates will be capped at 0.49 Euro outgoing calls within the EU, 0.24 Euro for incoming calls, with lower rates by 2009. Read more on Reuters - EU adopts cell phone roaming caps - June 7, 2007.
Cellular Abroad, Talk Abroad International SIM Card
Cellular Abroad has partnered with National Geographic to offer the Talk Abroad Travel Phone. Rent the phone and SIM card for $15 a week, purchase for $199, or purchase just the SIM card for $79 to use with your unlocked World Phone.
The price includes 30 minutes of outgoing calls, gives you a UK phone number and voicemail, and is valid for 12 months each time the SIM is recharged (talk time is added). It offers free incoming calls, $0.90/minute outgoing calls in most EU countries ($1.15/min to call cell phones), no connect fee.
Read more - Cellular Abroad and National Geographic Talk Abroad Travel Phone (Mention "SLOWTRAV" for $10 off).
Telestial Passport
Telestial offers the Telestial Passport SIM card to use with your unlocked World Phone. The cost is $49 (includes $10 airtime). You get a UK phone number and voicemail. It offers free incoming calls and outgoing calls from most EU countries are $0.49/min with a $0.25 connection fee ($0.74/min first minute, $0.49 remaining minutes).
Read more - Telestial Pack More cell phone and Passport SIM - $159 with $10 airtime
(Mention "SLOWTRAV" for a 10% discount)
Use SKYPE on my computer to make and receive calls
This is a great solution, but only works if you have a broadband internet connection. Plus it is not a cell phone - you have to be at the computer to make and receive calls. I have setup SKYPE to use for the times when I have broadband and am at the computer.
What Did I Choose? Cellular Abroad Talk Abroad
I could use the Talk Abroad SIM card with my UK world phone, but I am "test driving" the new Talk Abroad Cell Phone from Cellular Abroad and National Geographic, and will be reporting how it works each week of the trip.
Cellular Abroard and National Geographic Talk Abroad Cell Phone
Resources
Read more about Cell Phones in Europe on Slow Travel.
Cellular Abroad and National Geographic Talk Abroad Travel Phone (Mention "SLOWTRAV" for $10 off)
Telestial Pack More cell phone and Passport SIM - $159 with $10 airtime (Mention "SLOWTRAV" for a 10% discount)
]]>
From the People's Republic of Bouldertag:www.slowtrav.com,2007:/blog/pauline//1.15382007-05-25T22:23:53Z2007-05-25T22:37:22ZIt has not been 24 hours yet, so who knows - but so far we are in love! What a town! Twenty years ago we crossed Boulder off our "places to live" list for reasons that seem stupid today. Too...Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
It has not been 24 hours yet, so who knows - but so far we are in love! What a town! Twenty years ago we crossed Boulder off our "places to live" list for reasons that seem stupid today. Too close to a large city, too harsh of a winter.
Today we walked along the Boulder River, walked down the Pearl Street Pedestrian area, walked around the Mapleton neighborhood, then did a short hike to the Red Rocks. The town ends right at the hills and there are walking/hiking trails everywhere!
The town population is larger than Santa Fe - 100,000 (Santa Fe is 70,000), but almost half that is University of Colorado students and staff. Boulder is part of a 2.8 million population area, but the green belt that surrounds the town to the east and the mountains to the west make it seem separate.
Downtown is lively and fun. There is the most amazing non-chain bookstore on Pearl Street. Last night we had a great dinner at Sunshine, a very good vegetarian restaurant.
But as I said, it has not been 24 hours yet. I would upload a photo, but I forgot to bring a cable.
The Interview that was not publishedtag:www.slowtrav.com,2007:/blog/pauline//1.14892007-05-08T14:31:01Z2007-05-09T01:41:19ZI did this email interview in April, for Packed Magazine, but it did not get published. Interview by Paul Scraton, editor of Packed Magazine, a European magazine for independent travellers. With Pauline Kenny, Santa Fe, NM – founder of Slow...Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
Packed Magazine, a European magazine for independent travellers. With Pauline Kenny, Santa Fe, NM – founder of Slow Travel, slowtrav.com
April 10, 2007What does “Slow Travel” mean to you?
Slow Travel means staying in vacation rentals and exploring the area close by. Instead of sleeping in two or three different towns in a week, or driving around to see every sight within reach, spend a week in one place in a vacation rental. This lets you slow down your trip and immerse yourself in the local culture.
How did you come to build the Slow Travel website?
In spring 2000, I decided to teach myself web design and figured the best way to learn would be to put up a website, so I needed a topic. We had been traveling in Europe, staying in vacation rentals, since 1988. Back then, finding vacation rentals was not easy, so I kept lots of notes on places we rented and other places that I thought looked good. From this I made a website! And then I made a philosophy to justify the way we travel.
What is important to think about when planning a “Slow Travel” trip?
Figure out where you want to go and find some good looking vacation rentals (read reviews!). Book the vacation rentals first because the good ones are taken six months to a year ahead.]]>
Once in a place, do you have any recommendations for how travellers can delve deeper, and experience more?
Get out and see the village or town where you are based. Choose a favorite café (or tea room in England) and go there every day. Talk to the people in the tourist office, buy those self published guides that someone from the area has written, ask people in the town to recommend restaurants and things to do. Learn some of the local language.
What about people who are short on time…do you have any tips?
You don’t have to do a long trip to do a Slow Travel trip. If you have a week, spend it all in one place and really see that place. On the next trip, go to a different place.
Can you recommend any other resources beyond your site for people interested in the “Slow Travel” movement?
SlowTrav.com is the only site devoted to vacation rentals that is not affiliated with a vacation rental agency. If you can’t find what you need there, try other travel websites and message boards. Anyone who is a traveler can help you decide where to travel to. You then turn it into Slow Travel by staying longer and seeing more.
On to you…what is your main motivation for travelling?
I like to experience different lifestyles and travel gives me that. I can go to England, rent a cottage in a village for a couple of weeks and pretend I am English (not much of a stretch actually, I was conceived on the boat when my parents emigrated from England to Canada). Or I can settle into a house in the Tuscan countryside and pass myself off as … well, as an American visiting Italy.
And can you tell us about your most memorable travel experience?
I love traveling and set up my life so that I can travel a lot. We didn’t have kids and we gave up regular careers so that we would have time and money for travel. In the last 20 years we have traveled a lot. I have about 1,000 most memorable experiences. Watching the sun rise over a stone circle in northern England; standing on a balcony in our Rome apartment watching the New Year’s fireworks; being chased by bulls while walking through a field in the Swiss Alps.
What has travel taught you?
Travel has taught me to be flexible. Also the best place to buy cow bells in Switzerland, is at the hardware store.
What about Europe…where are your favourite places?
I go through country obsessions. For many years, I was obsessed with Italy, and went there once or twice a year, but then I reached the saturation point. My current country obsession is England. We have been going to England for one month each year for the last few years. Now we are thinking of moving there for a year, but to use it as a base for traveling in Europe.
…and where would you be happy to never go again?
Lichtenstein. It is overrated.
If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?
Can I pick the season too? Right now, because we are having a cold windy spring day, I want to be in Hawaii, going for a long morning walk. No, England – England in the spring, walking through a meadow of wildflowers. Or France – sitting in a café in a village drinking coffee. July in Switzerland, just getting off a mountain ride, heading off for a hike. June in Italy, in Tuscany in the evening, sitting outside at a small restaurant, having dinner. Santa Fe, in the winter, when it is snowing. New York City, walking through the Village. Oh, wait a minute, the wind stopped, I am fine here.
Is there anything that you never travel without?
My computer. I have a small three pound Sony Vaio that I always bring with me. I can work, post on the message board, post on my blog, organize my photos. And we watch movies on it.
What is the first thing you do when you get home?
After collapsing from jetlag and renewing my bond with my cat, I embrace my washer and dryer with joy, because doing laundry is the worst part of traveling. Some vacation rentals don’t have a washer/dryer, some have those odd one unit things that are both the washer and the dryer and take four hours to do a handful of clothes. If we were in Italy, there was no dryer and we have been wearing t-shirts that are stiff as a board from being dried on the line. I know it sounds very house-wifey of me – but, after greeting the cat, the washer/dryer is what I am happiest to see.
Do you have the next trip planned?
We are doing a long trip this summer. Three weeks in Switzerland, in an apartment in the mountain town of Leysin, near Lake Geneva, to do some hiking. A week in Italy, in a villa near Assisi, with a group of friends. Then three weeks in England, in a cottage in the Cotswolds, to do some more walking and drink tea.]]>
Traveling with a BlackBerrytag:www.slowtrav.com,2007:/blog/pauline//1.14752007-05-05T00:42:56Z2007-09-04T04:33:44ZThis is the gadget that could get me to leave my computer at home someday. Not yet, but maybe someday. I finally bought a BlackBerry (and have been driving everyone crazy by emailing them from it). I did a ton...Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
This photo shows the main menu on the BlackBerry. You have a separate icon for each email address. Use the scrollwheel on the side to move between icons and click to open the icon.]]>
The BlackBerry gets your email when you are not at home
You can set up the BlackBerry to retrieve email from several addresses. I have it get my slowtrav email, my personal email and Steve's business email (we are sharing the one BlackBerry). Email for each address goes into a separate folder, so it is easy to keep it separated. Because all email is left on the server, when you go to your computer, you get all the email even if it already went to your BlackBerry. Think of the BlackBerry as a duplicate way of reading and replying to email. If you want to have copies of your replies, you can set the system to email a copy of the reply to you.
Email does not come immediately, but reaches you within a few hours. On our recent trip we were out walking in the woods in Virginia and I would feel my BlackBerry vibrate to let me know it had downloaded email. I have to figure out how to turn off that vibrating feature. It was very surprising at sometimes.
Once you are setup with the BlackBerry, it downloads all past email when you turn it on. I don’t really need this, because I read the email on my computer when not using the BlackBerry, but it is easy to delete email from the BlackBerry, so I just let it do this.
You can also set up an email address for your BlackBerry – email sent to that address goes only to your BlackBerry. To avoid getting all the email that accumulates on your server between times the BlackBerry is turned on, you could set your email to forward to your BlackBerry email address just when traveling. But, when you reply on the BlackBerry, it would be from that BlackBerry email address, so I find it easier to just let all the email go to the BlackBerry as well as to my computer.
Here is how it works
It is really easy to read the email and reply to it on the BlackBerry. Go to the folder, click the scroll wheel to see the email list sorted by date, click to open, click to reply, click to send. It takes a bit of getting used to typing on the small keyboard, but you get used to it.
This photo shows the main email list for one of my accounts. You can see the list of emails. Use the scrollwheel to move down the list, click to open and read an email.
This photo shows me replying to an email from Kim. Use the scrollwheel to click the email and select reply. Type in your message, click the scrollwheel to send. Easy!
The BlackBerry was easy to get working. I bought it at the T-Mobile store, they upgraded my account, I charged the phone, turned it on, set up my email - and that was it. I was BlackBerrying!
How to quickly delete email. In the email list, scroll to the date, click, select Delete Prior. All email from that date and before is deleted.
The BlackBerry works as your PDA
I also set up the BlackBerry to synchronize with Outlook for my notes, tasks and addresses. I used to keep separate Notes folders in Outlook by topic, but it only downloads the main Notes folders, so I changed to have them all in one folder and use categories to separate them by topics. This way I have all my personal notes on my BlackBerry.
Which makes me think – what if it gets stolen? Didn’t Stella lose hers in Rome? Well, that was easy – I just set a “device password” so if it disappears, no one can get at the data. But I think I may delete the notes containing some of my bank information just in case.
The BlackBerry lets you surf the web on your driving trip (from the passenger seat)
You can surf the web on the BlackBerry. Pages are a bit slow to load, but most of them are readable when loaded. Blogs format very well - I was able to read blogs as we were driving on our recent trip. I can also read the message board, but can't reply (the BlackBerry does not support the javascript the mboard uses for those reply windows).
On the first night of our recent trip we were heading into Asheville around 9pm and were not sure if the restaurant we were going to would be open, so I went online with the BlackBerry and found the information!! It was open and we got takeout to take to the hotel.
The BlackBerry displays photos
On the main menu, there is an “Images” icon. Any images you save from a website or from email are in that folder. You can buy a program that sends images from your desktop to your BlackBerry or you can just email them to yourself. I did the latter. I emailed 10 favorite photos as attachments to my BlackBerry email address. When reading the email, click on the attachments link to open then. Then open each attachment, click the wheel, and select “Save”. The photos are stored on your BlackBerry. View them from the Images icon on the main menu.
Pauline and Colleen in Santa Cruz, summer 2006 - I loaded this onto my BlackBerry!!
The BlackBerry works as a modem
I have not tried this yet, but I have the instructions and have done this with other mobile phones. You can connect your computer to the BlackBerry via BlueTooth or a cable and have your computer go online using the BlackBerry. This does not cost any more, as you are using the unlimited data plan on the BlackBerry.
Using my BlackBerry in Europe
I will be taking the BlackBerry to Europe this summer, so will be able to report on receiving email in Switzerland, Italy, France, and England. Before we leave, I will add the extra $20/month option for unlimited email and web internationally. T-Mobile uses the EDGE network, which some have said is not as good as 3G, but we will see.
. For an extra $20/month, which you can turn on unlimited international email and web access for the months you are traveling. You do not get cheap phone calls in Europe with that price, just the email and the web.
UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2007: The BlackBerry worked great in Europe. I added the International data plan and used the BlackBerry all through Switzerland and Italy to receive email. The EDGE system that it uses to connect to the Internet was available nearly everywhere.
We also used it as a modem with our computers the few times we did not have WiFi at our hotels or vacation rentals.
Is the BlackBerry always connected to the Internet?
No, it isn’t. On our trip to North Carolina and Virginia, only once was it not connected. I could still make phone calls, but I could not send or receive email. A message on the main menu tells you that you are not connected.
T-Mobile uses the EDGE internet connection. Some say that in Europe the 3G connection works better. I will find out this summer.
Oh yeah, it also works as a phone
The BlackBerry is a phone. It is easy to forget that with all the email and web stuff. It comes with small headphones or you can just hold it to your ear like a regular phone. It also has a good speaker phone which you turn on once you make the call.
But, aren’t you now tied to your work?
No – this frees me from my work! I used it on our recent trip to North Carolina/Virginia and it worked very well. I always travel with a computer, because I have to go online each day to check email. Steve and I are both self-employed and there is no one back in the office to check email for us when we travel. We have to check email every day.
My usual routine is to get to a hotel and setup my computer. Once I am online doing my email, it is easy for me to pop over to the message board and before you know it three hours have passed. With the BlackBerry on our recent trip, I did not even set up my computer in some places. I did all my email on the BlackBerry. During the day, when we stop for a coffee, I get out the BlackBerry and spend five minutes doing email. For me this is much better than spending most of the evening on the computer.
A good electronic gadget makes your life easier! This is what the BlackBerry does for me. I don’t know how much I will use it when we are at home, but when traveling it will get used a lot.
Resources
www.blackberry.com: BlackBerry
www.blackberryforums.com: BlackBerry Forums, these are a great resource to answer any questions about how the BlackBerry works.
blackberryblog.com: Blog with good information
www.bbhub.com: BBHub, the BlackBerry Weblog
www.t-mobile.com: T-mobile
The help section on the BlackBerry desktop software is good and you will find many answers there.]]>
Charlottesville and Chapel Hilltag:www.slowtrav.com,2007:/blog/pauline//1.14542007-04-28T01:43:28Z2007-04-28T01:59:14ZFast Travel: Asheville, 4 nights; Charlottesville, 3 nights; Chapel Hill, 2 nights. This is the last night of the trip; we fly home tomorrow. I am tired of living out of a suitcase and want to see my cat Buddy,...Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
Monticello near Charlottesville, home of Thomas Jefferson]]>
Charlottesville
Charlottesville is lovely. The weather is warm, the dogwood trees are in bloom, and everything feels gentle. We spent three nights at the Clifton Inn, a historic hotel just outside of Charlottesville. The main house was built in the late 1800s by some relative of Thomas Jefferson. His home, Monticello, is nearby. The inn has 18 rooms; half in the main house, half in out buildings. We spent two nights in one of the Livery Cottages and one night in the Honeymoon Cottage (I changed our reservation at the last minute, so we had to change rooms).
Clifton Inn
Charlottesville is a small town with the first university in America in the city center (created by Thomas Jefferson). There is a six block pedestrian outdoor mall in the downtown which is nice to walk – coffee shops, restaurants, shops, historic buildings. One day we explored the downtown area and then toured Monticello. The other day we hiked on one of the greenbelt trails, drove out to the countryside, explored areas in town.
Trails in Charlottesville
On Thursday we drove to Chapel Hill via Lynchburg (four hours). The driving both to and from Charlottesville was boring. They must have ordinances against billboards and tall signs, because you don't see any. And the roads don't seem to go through the towns but around them, which is good for the town, but boring for the drive. I had some podcasts on my iPod, so we amused ourselves with that. Plus I have my new BlackBerry (yes!! I have a BlackBerry), so I could do email and even surf the web while Steve drove (we shared the driving and surfing).
Notes: Blogs work great on a BlackBerry - the format translates very well. I can even read the message board but cannot post because Javascript is not supported. Email works well too and you can easily do short replies.
Chapel Hill
Steve and I traveled to Raleigh for work in the mid 1980s. At that time we both worked for a software company that produced school administration software and the state of North Carolina was one of our first big US customers. I came to Raleigh to get the installation project organized, then Steve came out for three weeks to get the project started. We both traveled to Raleigh a few other times. We loved this area then, but never really got to explore Chapel Hill, the smaller of the three towns in the triangle (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill).
Our GPS pronounces “Durham” as “D’ram”. This is another techie gadget which I came to love on this trip. It makes travel 100 times easier. I still use maps but I rely on the GPS (we have a Garmin Nuvi - thanks to the recommendations on the Slow Talk board).
In Chapel Hill we are staying at the Siena Hotel, an over the top, sort of cheesy, Italy themed place, but we have a huge room and the location is good. Too many “Madonna con bambino” prints in the room though. The historic Carolina Hotel where I wanted to stay was full and I was not so sure about the new Franklin Inn, but we drove by and it looks great.
Last night we walked just a few blocks from the hotel to Tandoor Indian Restaurant, the first Indian restaurant in this area. I found it listed as “vegetarian friendly” and it was close to the hotel. We had a fabulous meal!
Today we drove out to Fearington Village, a planned community that looked interesting, but was a little to far from anything to interest us (they advertise in the New Yorker and I have always been curious about the place). Then we drove into Durham, had lunch at the Whole Foods, walked around. Downtown Durham is being torn apart. Big old factories are being gutted and it looks like they are going to turn them into condos or offices. When it is all done, it may be wonderful.
Then we explored Chapel Hill. The downtown is small, just a few blocks of shops near the University. There are some other shopping areas in other parts of the town. We did a short walk in the Botanical Gardens. The woman at the tourist office told us about a famous food/cooking shop “A Southern Season”, so we went there. It was incredible!! It is a huge store with foods from around the world: hundreds of types of tea, chocolates sorted by country, cookies from around the world, a huge cheese bar. It was like Dean and Deluca (which I love) but bigger! We bought some teas from England, chocolates from France, cookies from North Carolina!
Tonight we got takeout from the Indian restaurant because our huge hotel room has a dining table – thought we should use it. We drove around some more and loved the neighborhoods here.
Home tomorrow. This has been a fun trip!]]>
In my mind I'm going to Carolinatag:www.slowtrav.com,2007:/blog/pauline//1.14402007-04-23T04:18:22Z2007-04-23T04:41:01Z“Dark and silent late last night, I think I might have heard the highway calling. Geese in flight and dogs that bite. And signs that might be omens say I’m going, going, going to Carolina in my mind.” “Carolina in...Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
“Dark and silent late last night,
I think I might have heard the highway calling.
Geese in flight and dogs that bite.
And signs that might be omens say I’m going, going,
going to Carolina in my mind.”
“Carolina in My Mind”, James Taylor, 1968
Okay, I have a thing for North Carolina which is probably a result of playing that first James Taylor album repeatedly when I was a teenager. I hear the words “North Carolina” and I feel the sunshine, smell the green, see the rolling hills.
We flew from Albuquerque to Atlanta on Thursday for a 10 day trip to North Carolina and Virginia. The three and a half hour flight went quickly because we both plugged into my iPod and watched the first three episodes of season two of Weeds.
When I planned our flights I thought the Atlanta airport was north of the city - arrive at 4pm, get a rental car, be on the road by 5pm and not dealing with rush hour. However, the airport is south of the city, so we hit rush hour. We took a highway that loops around Atlanta, so we did not have to drive through the center of town, but the traffic was thick. It was a four hour drive to Asheville. They had a big storm this week and we got the tail end of it on the drive.
We were booked at the Inn at Biltmore, on the Biltmore Estate on the south side of town. We got to Asheville at 9pm and went straight to a Chinese restaurant that I had found online in listings for vegetarian friendly restaurants. Picked up some takeout food and drove onto the estate (China Palace South on Hendersonville Road – good quality food, good vegetarian options). We do not have good Chinese restaurants in Santa Fe, so when we are somewhere else we head straight for the Chinese restaurants.
Walking along a strip mall, while waiting for our food to be made, I thought that maybe what I like about traveling is the emotional upheaval. The excitement – isn’t this great?; look at the moon rising; look at those mountains. The unknown – will we find restaurants we like?; will the hotel be nice?; will I have fun here? The fear – why am I taking a trip and leaving my house that I love where I have all my support systems and my cat?
The Biltmore Estate is huge; 8,000 acres I think (but I heard other numbers). We drove in the pitch black on narrow winding roads to the hotel. It is a big hotel with rooms that are nice but not worth the price (over $300/night). What is worth the price is the service (for example, the valet gets you bottles of water for the car when you set out for the day!) and being on the Biltmore Estate. My only complaint is that you hear every door on your floor opening and closing, but even I forgave that because of the location. (Don’t book rooms 273 or 275 – they are right across from the administrative offices and that door opens and closes nonstop.)
On Friday morning we had breakfast at the hotel, then took their shuttle bus to the Biltmore House. You get a good tour of the estate on the shuttle bus and it seems like the house is 10 miles from the hotel, but on Saturday we walked and it is only a 1 ½ hour walk (as the crow walks). Friday was sunny but a bit cool. The big storm that hit the area earlier in the week had finally moved off.
Detail from the Biltmore House]]>
Cotswolds or Blue Ridge?
Friday night was part one of a two part Slow Travel Get Together (GTG). This was the reason for the trip. We drove to the nearby town of Brevard and spent a wonderful evening with a group of regular Slow Travelers at Linda and John’s house. Some we had met before, but some we were meeting for the first time. We spent hours talking, had a nice catered dinner, watched some fun group performances, then talked some more. Linda had homemade limoncello that was the best I have ever had (she used the recipe from a Frances Mayes book).
On Saturday we planned to go for a walk on the estate and then go into Asheville. The sun was out and the day was warm (in the low 70s). We did a three hour walk from the Inn to the Biltmore House via the Lagoon and back.
Trail along the French Broad River on the Biltmore Estate
We stopped at the Winery, which is just below the hotel, and had lunch at the Arbor Grill. The food was very good and we sat outside. I was happy that there were several vegetarian options because the restaurant at the Biltmore House had only one (boring) vegetarian entrée. By the time we were done with the walk and lunch, there was only time for a nap and a shower before heading back to Brevard. No Asheville visit!
The Saturday night GTG was fun. We met again at Linda and John’s house and visited for an hour and a half. Steve taught Kathy and Charley’s daughter Kelly how to juggle! We all went to a restaurant in Brevard – the Hob Nob – for a nice dinner. There were about 30 in our group and we had three tables in the upstairs area of the restaurant.
It was sad leaving everyone after dinner and on the way back to the hotel Steve said “Now it is just us”. And the vacation begins. It begins by me changing our plans.
We were supposed to leave for Charlottesville on Sunday morning, but decided to spend an extra day here and see Asheville! We had been here for three nights and had not gone into Asheville. One of the reasons for this vacation is to check out three towns that were on our shortlist of places to live 20 years ago when we picked Santa Fe: Asheville, Charlottesville, Chapel Hill. We think it might be time to leave Santa Fe and we are trying to make a plan. We considered California and Arizona, but then crossed them off the list. Now we are looking in the east.
On Sunday we drove all around Asheville (it is small), walked around the downtown area (it is small) and had Sunday brunch at a great vegetarian restaurant – Laughing Seed. We both had eggs, sausage, potatoes and biscuits with gravy – a Southern breakfast, vegetarian style!! Soy sausage, biscuits with no lard, vegetarian gravy (which, of course, is not really gravy but a sauce). It reminded of us Café Flora in Seattle, where we lived 12 years ago. We used to go there for Sunday brunch most weekends.
It is funny how traveling can start the memories flooding back. Something new triggers the memory of something old and familiar. I get very emotional when I travel. Plus, every place we go, we are always thinking “should we move here?” Maybe it is just the thought of moving that makes me emotional.
I grew up in the east, so the landscape here feels familiar and the air feels like England, a place that I love. I like the town and the neighborhoods with historic houses. There are several good natural foods stores and a few vegetarian restaurants. I think Asheville is smaller than Santa Fe (which is 70,000), but there are more towns close by so it feels more populated here. The only thing that seems to be lacking, and I may be wrong, is a good walking area in town. You can drive out to good trails in the mountains, but I like to have a good place to walk in town. I was spoiled by Stanley Park in Vancouver, where you could walk for miles along the water or through the forests, but you were right beside the downtown area.
Still Asheville is pretty nice and is at the top of the shortlist right now. At the GTG, Jan said “Santa Fe is a little unreal, isn’t it?” Yes it is. I think we picked the most un-American place to land when we moved to the US. Not un-American as in not patriotic, but un-American in that Santa Fe is not your typical town. Adobe houses on dirt roads, no high buildings, certainly not in the center of things. Asheville feels more familiar. It reminds me of Bellingham, Washington or some of the towns in northern California.
But, tomorrow we drive to Charlottesville. And once again I have stayed up too late. Why do I never adjust to a new time zone!!!?]]>
Moo Mini Cards - cute, cute, cute!!tag:www.slowtrav.com,2007:/blog/pauline//1.13632007-02-27T23:52:00Z2007-02-27T23:36:01ZMoo Mini Cards - these are so cute! Recently, SlowTrav was mentioned in Skirt Magazine, in a fun article called "7 Deadly Sins". We were sin #2 - Take the lazy way. This is a womens' magazine available in the...Paulinehttp://www.cohenkenny.com
Moo Mini Cards - these are so cute!
Recently, SlowTrav was mentioned in Skirt Magazine, in a fun article called "7 Deadly Sins". We were sin #2 - Take the lazy way. This is a womens' magazine available in the Southeast. Kaydee posted about it in this thread on the message board.
Kaydee listed the other sins and #4 was "Take pride in your pictures". Kaydee's note: interesting ... something you can do through flickr to get 100 little personal cards. www.moo.com
I like cards, I like photos, I like little - sounded perfect! So I created an account on Flickr (been meaning to do this for ages) and uploaded a bunch of photos of my house and my cat.
This photo shows the Moo cards, with a Slow Travel card and another business card to show the size. You see the nice box and the cute cover.]]>
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cohenkenny.
I am still learning how to use Flickr, but it seems like a good way of making your photos available to your friends. Don't forget to also upload your travel photos to Slow Photos.
Once you have your photos on Flickr, go to Moo and select the photos you want to use for Mini Cards. Only a narrow slice of your photo is used on the Mini Card, so pick ones that have a good horizontal image. Moo is easy to use and lets you edit each photo. You can have 100 unique photos, or get copies of some. For example, if you select 20 photos, you will get 5 copies of each.
You even get to design the back of the card. I put my name and address and my Flickr profile photo. If you plan to give these out as "business cards" when traveling, you could put your travel photos on the front and your contact information on the back. Don't forget to list the www.slowtrav.com website (because you will want to tell everyone you meet to join us on the message board!).
It took me about 30 minutes to do the whole thing (upload my photos to Flickr, then configure them in Moo). Another click and I purchased them. The price for 100 Mini Cards is $19.99 or £9.99 or €14.99. My order was $24.98 including shipping.
They arrived about 10 days later in the mail. The cards are small, smaller than a business card, but the quality is good. The card stock is thick and the colors are good. They come in a hard plastic carrying case. One interesting thing - they were mailed from England!
Moo is very cute, maybe too cute, but I liked it. The website is cute. The emails from them are cute - "Hello Pauline. I'm Little MOO - the bit of software that will be managing your order with us." The order comes with a card that says "Yay! You're our new best friend". The cards are cute - way cute. Cute, cute, cute.]]>
Pauline Kenny, founder of Slow Travel, and Kathy Wood, from The Luberon Experience, present "Slow Travel ... We’re moving too fast". Find out about this emerging vacation rental lifestyle that's spreading throughout Europe and worldwide. Gail Hecko of Gail's Great Escapes will join Pauline and Kathy at the Slow Travel booth for the weekend. Drop by and say hello!
The Vacation Home Expo is happening side by side with the Atlanta Travel Expo. Two great travel shows for the price of one, both presented by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. All Slow Travel members receive $5 discount off the Show admission fee of $10 (print your Slow Travel Forums profile to show you are a Slow Traveler). ]]>
National Geographic Traveler, January 2008
This is the Academy Awards of mentions for me. National Geographic Traveler is one of the top three travel magazines and I am very proud to have them write about the Slow Travel community! What a nice way to start the new year!]]>
Monk Seal coming up on the beach to sleep for the day
View east from the edge of Poipu, near the Hyatt
A lot of Poipu and Kauai is still undeveloped. Even with all this new construction in Poipu, I don't think it will feel over-developed.
There are concerns that the current infrastructure cannot support all this new development. Already the main road that does a horseshoe around the island can be very congested with traffic for several miles around the main city of Lihue. Most of it is one lane in each direction.
I updated my two pages on Kauai:
The Garden Island of Kauai, Hawaii
Kauai Vacation Rentals
Here are the paragraphs I inserted on the SlowTrav pages:
In summer 2007, several large constructions projects started in the western end of Poipu. These projects will add 4,500 homes and apartments to this area. Construction has started on the large project of homes along the road to Spouting Horn. Several other large condo/resort projects, just west of the Sheraton have started. They are redoing the intersection of main Poipu road where it meets the road to Spouting Horn, so you have to detour.
If you are staying at the Hyatt end of Poipu (Pe'e Road, Poipu Kau, Poipu Beach Park) you will not notice the construction, but if you are staying in the Spouting Horn side (Ho'ona Road, road to Spouting Horn) you will be in the middle of this dirt and noise. These projects are expected to last for five years and will greatly increase the traffic to this area.
Here is a local article about it: Star Bulletin - Development projects affecting Garden Isle style]]>
This photo shows the main menu on the BlackBerry. You have a separate icon for each email address. Use the scrollwheel on the side to move between icons and click to open the icon.]]>
The BlackBerry gets your email when you are not at home
You can set up the BlackBerry to retrieve email from several addresses. I have it get my slowtrav email, my personal email and Steve's business email (we are sharing the one BlackBerry). Email for each address goes into a separate folder, so it is easy to keep it separated. Because all email is left on the server, when you go to your computer, you get all the email even if it already went to your BlackBerry. Think of the BlackBerry as a duplicate way of reading and replying to email. If you want to have copies of your replies, you can set the system to email a copy of the reply to you.
Email does not come immediately, but reaches you within a few hours. On our recent trip we were out walking in the woods in Virginia and I would feel my BlackBerry vibrate to let me know it had downloaded email. I have to figure out how to turn off that vibrating feature. It was very surprising at sometimes.
Once you are setup with the BlackBerry, it downloads all past email when you turn it on. I don’t really need this, because I read the email on my computer when not using the BlackBerry, but it is easy to delete email from the BlackBerry, so I just let it do this.
You can also set up an email address for your BlackBerry – email sent to that address goes only to your BlackBerry. To avoid getting all the email that accumulates on your server between times the BlackBerry is turned on, you could set your email to forward to your BlackBerry email address just when traveling. But, when you reply on the BlackBerry, it would be from that BlackBerry email address, so I find it easier to just let all the email go to the BlackBerry as well as to my computer.
This photo shows the main email list for one of my accounts. You can see the list of emails. Use the scrollwheel to move down the list, click to open and read an email.
This photo shows me replying to an email from Kim. Use the scrollwheel to click the email and select reply. Type in your message, click the scrollwheel to send. Easy!
Pauline and Colleen in Santa Cruz, summer 2006 - I loaded this onto my BlackBerry!!
Monticello near Charlottesville, home of Thomas Jefferson]]>
Charlottesville
Charlottesville is lovely. The weather is warm, the dogwood trees are in bloom, and everything feels gentle. We spent three nights at the Clifton Inn, a historic hotel just outside of Charlottesville. The main house was built in the late 1800s by some relative of Thomas Jefferson. His home, Monticello, is nearby. The inn has 18 rooms; half in the main house, half in out buildings. We spent two nights in one of the Livery Cottages and one night in the Honeymoon Cottage (I changed our reservation at the last minute, so we had to change rooms).
Clifton Inn
Trails in Charlottesville
Detail from the Biltmore House
Cotswolds or Blue Ridge?
Friday night was part one of a two part Slow Travel Get Together (GTG). This was the reason for the trip. We drove to the nearby town of Brevard and spent a wonderful evening with a group of regular Slow Travelers at Linda and John’s house. Some we had met before, but some we were meeting for the first time. We spent hours talking, had a nice catered dinner, watched some fun group performances, then talked some more. Linda had homemade limoncello that was the best I have ever had (she used the recipe from a Frances Mayes book).
On Saturday we planned to go for a walk on the estate and then go into Asheville. The sun was out and the day was warm (in the low 70s). We did a three hour walk from the Inn to the Biltmore House via the Lagoon and back.
Trail along the French Broad River on the Biltmore Estate
This photo shows the Moo cards, with a Slow Travel card and another business card to show the size. You see the nice box and the cute cover.]]>
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cohenkenny.
I am still learning how to use Flickr, but it seems like a good way of making your photos available to your friends. Don't forget to also upload your travel photos to Slow Photos.
Once you have your photos on Flickr, go to Moo and select the photos you want to use for Mini Cards. Only a narrow slice of your photo is used on the Mini Card, so pick ones that have a good horizontal image. Moo is easy to use and lets you edit each photo. You can have 100 unique photos, or get copies of some. For example, if you select 20 photos, you will get 5 copies of each.
You even get to design the back of the card. I put my name and address and my Flickr profile photo. If you plan to give these out as "business cards" when traveling, you could put your travel photos on the front and your contact information on the back. Don't forget to list the www.slowtrav.com website (because you will want to tell everyone you meet to join us on the message board!).
It took me about 30 minutes to do the whole thing (upload my photos to Flickr, then configure them in Moo). Another click and I purchased them. The price for 100 Mini Cards is $19.99 or £9.99 or €14.99. My order was $24.98 including shipping.
They arrived about 10 days later in the mail. The cards are small, smaller than a business card, but the quality is good. The card stock is thick and the colors are good. They come in a hard plastic carrying case. One interesting thing - they were mailed from England!
Moo is very cute, maybe too cute, but I liked it. The website is cute. The emails from them are cute - "Hello Pauline. I'm Little MOO - the bit of software that will be managing your order with us." The order comes with a card that says "Yay! You're our new best friend". The cards are cute - way cute. Cute, cute, cute.]]>