Driving in Sardinia and Spain=GPS Dilemma

Well, since I will be renting a car in both Sardinia and Spain, I did decide to get a portable GPS. Whether to buy a Garmin or a Tomtom? I had posed the question to the LonelyPlanet website with 2 answers(with one "vote" for each), when I headed off to Best Buy to check them out. Marcus, the helpful Best Buy clerk, me swayed me towards the Garmin. Oh, and, it was on sale ($139 vs. regularly $179)!
That was the easy part. THEN I had to get European maps, and Marcus suggested that I buy them on-line. (In retrospect, I'm not sure why he did, but I opted for that. He actually led me to think they did not stock them.)So I brought the GPS home, plugged it into my car, and was pleased with the way it worked, although Marcus had shown it to me.
Ah, that getting the European maps was that easy! Today I went on-line (now armed with a Garmin 10% off coupon from registering the GPS system), and bought the maps. I had three choices-download to my computer, a DVD, which would take 2-3 weeks to ship, and _________?_. I decided-or I thought it would make the most sense-to have these maps on my laptop, but it turned out that it needed SO MUCH SPACE (1907MB vs. 525MB on my laptop) that it could not be downloaded onto my computer. Having it on my laptop would make it better for travelling, in case I wanted to plan routes, etc. I canonly load it onto one computer, so loading it onto the desktop wouldn't work. So BACK TO MARCUS AND BEST BUY, as I was told that a special cable to download data would work. Well, several hours later, I am no closer to the European maps, but I do have more than two months to get them, and I will. Oh, yes, when I was trying to download the maps, somehow the language changed to Spanish! I FINALLY managed to get the device back to English at least. So hopefully I will get some SOLUTION from the Garmin customer service tomorrow. They are very responsive via email; it was a thirty minute wait on the phone!:((

Oops!

Well, I'm having problems editing my posts, so sorry for any typos....I also wanted to add this link....(This blog site indicates that it is linking with sites I put in, but they do not show up. Not too user-friendly....) TESTING...I can't see it here, so this way I know it will be here. http://www.hotelgalleria.it/ is one of the places I have emailed. Nothing fancy...but then I'd always rather eat and drink my travel funds than sleep....However, since we DID learn from last year's escapade with our hotel in Nice, I will be checking with www.tripadvisor.com for reviews on any hotels I may stay in!

Further Booking Details....

"Oh, I can't wait! I love Venice!" This is actually what I said as I read a response from one of the many hotels that responded to the emails I've sent inquiring about hotels in both Rome and Venice. I'm going to fly from Alicante, Spain, to Venice on October 23rd for 3 nights.(I'll be meeting up with 2 Weston friends, Jane and Joan.)So with

Rick Steves' Venice 2010

in hand, I emailed maybe 10 or so hotels and B&Bs all over Venice, which does not seem that large, but wikipedia says it is 160 sq. miles(!).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice,_Italy
Maybe 5 of them have responded negatively, so I'm glad I'm getting this out of the way now!:))
Meanwhile, 3 months from last Tuesday, I'll be flying rto Newfoundland...so the count-down begins!

3 months from next Tuesday...Newfoundland here I come!

Why, Newfoundland, you may ask....Well, if you don't ask, I'll answer anyhow. My ex-husband's parents were from Newfie...Heart's Delight, to be exact. David has a wonderful cousin, Ivy, who came down for a vist several years back, and asked if I might like to go to Newfoundland with her. Well, "Don't invite me, I will come!"....So on July 20th I fly from Boston to meet Ivy in Toronto, and then we'll go on to St.John's, Newfoundland. Her daughter Robin and her husband Jerry have a house in Heart's Delight, so that will be our base for most of our trip. Robin, Jerr, and their kids will arrive about July 28 or 29 at which time we'll go to a local B&B. I've rented a car, so we will be able to get around easily. (Cars are very difficult to come by if you don't rent them early, Ivy told me.) It looks to be beautiful country, so I'm looking forward to being there until August 2nd, when I fly back to Boston. I'm not sure if we will get there, but Gros Morne National Park, which is on the western coast looks pretty spectacular. I did get a AAA Trip Tik just in case....I NEVER would have thought that I'd be goign to Newfoundland, but it will be a wonderful start to my 2010 itinerary!

Some More Planning Details

Well, since last summer's blog was very abruptly stopped (read came to a screeching-NO pun intended), my comfort level with the blog format is a bit shaky. I drafted part one and saved it with the belief that I could edit it, but I had no luck on this computer-hence the choppiness, etc. Sorry, Mr. Mitchell, the wonderful English teacher everyone loved!
One of the interesting thing about planning a trip like this is making SURE that all the details come together. I have no interest in not making all the pieces come together and being at the airport on the wrong day, etc! So I'm flying in and out of Rome; I'm taking Ryanair to Sardinia and then to Madrid and on to Alicante to rent a car and drive to Aguilas. Of course, I did book all the Ryanair flights just before they announced they'll be charging one euro to use the bathrooms! The Lonely Planet website had a funny caption about this, "Are you you toilet-on-the plane people just weighing the rest of us down?"

The reason that Ryanair is so popular is they are incredibly inexpensive! For example, the flight from Sardinia to Madrid was 43.99euros or $62.88; Madrid to Alicante was 41.73euros or $59.65! However, I will have to print out my boarding passes before I get to the airport or they will charge me 40 euros or 40 GBP!

I still have some loose ends to wrap up, and hotels to book, but this trip is pretty much set for me to take!:<))

Trips 2010 Planning

Well, my planning for 2010 is well underway, so I'm going to share some of the process. Starting in July, I'll be in Newfoundland for two weeks. I return home on August 2nd, and then leave on August 4th for Rome. I'll be at http://www.flickr.com/photos/22028647@N04/2178254763/in/set-72157603723038155/

From September 1-23, I'll be at

http://www.homeexchange.com/show.php?id=64272

I'll fly to Madrid for an overnight before I head over to Aguilas, Spain at

http://www.homeforexchange.com/ID=27498

I leave there on October 23rd to wend my way back to Rome for my October 27th departure.

This trip had started before the night when I told a friend that I wanted to celebrate my 70th birthday with a year-long trip; my original plan was to stay in one place for a year. (At the time I had hoped it would be France....) I found no one else who was interested in staying being away for a year. My original blurb referenced my plan, but at the very least I wanted to stay in one place for a month. So the first positive reinforcement that I got was from Joan, who lives in York, England, but also has a home in Aguilas, Spain.

Luckily people are interested in coming to New England in the fall to view the changing season and our spectacular foliage change. Joan and I first emailed in 2009. She had a trip to Australia first, so we didn't communicate too much initially, but eventually she said that they did, in fact, want to come to my home. So she and her husband will be at my house for two weeks with the use of my car. I, on the other hand, will be at her house for a month, and I will be renting a car. Aguilas is a beach community and somewhat isolated, so I know I'll want to have a car to get around to see as much as I can.