a veg life

22 December 2015 Krakow, Poland Hello from Poland! We are off on our latest adventure, exploring more of Europe during our winter break. It's been a long day, but a great one.  We were able to stop in Chicago for a few days to see family and friends, so our flight to Krakow (via Berlin) left from O'Hare. We booked flights on American, but ended up flying on AirBerlin. Off-peak fares on American only cost 20,000 points one way, which is a steal (and reason enough to sign up for an American credit card)! Somehow, we lucked out and ended up with the extra legroom economy seats--we weren't in the same row, but someone was really excited to be in the exit row.  Neither of us got much sleep on the first flight--we landed in Berlin around 6am local time. When the border control agent saw my passport, he asked me, "Are you the owner of a Barclaycard?" and I informed him, yes, yes I am :) He couldn't believe it.  We weren't able to get to a lo...

(posted by Emily) 27 June 2015 Istanbul, Turkey 19,103 steps We left San Francisco at around 6pm on Friday. It was first time on Turkish Airlines, and we were really happy with the service. Rick could have used a bit more legroom, and it would have been nice to be in one of the rows of seats near a window, but we survived.  The food was pretty great, too! Rice and veggies for dinner in a tomato sauce, then a similar combo with potatoes instead of rice for breakfast.  I slept for a while, though I know Rick didn't get much sleep. Thank goodness for in-flight entertainment systems! When we arrived in Turkey around 5:30pm Saturday, we headed straight to passport control. Because we had purchased our visas ahead of time online, the checkpoint was pretty painless. Didn't even have to fill in an immigration form! We did feel sorry for the few people we saw make it all the way to the front of the line and then be turned away because they didn't ...

(posted by Emily) As I sat down to think about what to blog today, I realized we are so. close. to our summer adventure in the UK and Europe!  We've made our "To Do before June 25th" list, which includes lots of cleaning and loose ends around the house, and we've started organizing the things we want to be sure to have with us. A few quick tips as we plan ahead for the next big adventure:  1) Make sure you have the exact address and phone number of where you are staying, both written down and stored electronically. When we came back from Paris to London in 2012, I didn't have the address of the apartment we were renting and listed the US Embassy as our residence. The customs guy was not too thrilled with that solution, but let us through after making sure I knew that couldn't happen in the future. I'm planning on making an index card with the address of the boat, to keep in my passport cover, in addition to having it in my contacts on my p...

(posted by Emily) 2014 is going to be a big travel year for the Barclays. I will unashamedly admit we have been bitten by the travel bug, and hard.  Here's what's on tap for us so far:  February - Trip to Houston to see the Stevens clan April - Heading to Maui for Spring Break via May - Trip to ATL for Lindsey's graduation and I am planning a trip to Indy to meet Baby Girl Fricke! July - EuroAdventure 2014! Living on Dad's canal boat in London for a whole month, with a train trip to the continent thrown in. Brussels, Paris, Nice, Rome, and Venice, here we come! Labor Day - First Anniversary trip to Portland via Thanksgiving - Home for the holiday via Winter Break - Two weeks in SE Asia, including Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore and Bali via Pretty sure I want to spend all of my time planning and researching--too bad work gets in the way! :)  --E&R