Some things that we loved, hated, and couldn’t have done without, as well as just interesting observations.  

Loves:

*The food was quite yummy, even if we had no idea sometimes what we were ordering as the menu was in another language!  To luck we could figure out the “main” ingredient usually even though “chicken” or “pork” was different in each language too!

*Slow pace:  it couldn’t get much slower but it set the pace for everything else.  It really was relaxing but it did take a little time to get used to the slow and then back to fast once you are home again.  

*The views were amazing, whether it was city or country or somewhere between--loved the variety of the landscape and the flowers and ruins.

*Europe in general has a serious commitment to wind energy and solar energy; everywhere we went were fields of windmills and solar panels, and many houses have solar panels affixed to their roofs!

*We loved that some side view mirrors were automatic and they tucked themselves in when the car was locked--how cool is that feature!!  We did not have that feature but we saw it on more than one occasion.

*The toilets in most of Europe have multiple water options, usually two buttons so you could use a little water to flush or a lot, depending on your needs.  We also noticed this feature when we’d visit John-Paul and Aurora in California.  This is such an water saving option!

*The lights not only change from green to yellow to red BUT they also went from red to yellow to green which allows the option of readying to go.  

*Windows never had screens or very rarely.  Seriously!!  No screens and the windows would be opened to the street for breezes.  Even our hotel rooms windows could be opened for air and there weren’t screens.  To be fair, the rooms on the upper floors could not be opened very far so one wouldn’t fall out or jump, but could be opened.  

*And the shutters!!  The shutters were on almost all windows and fully functional.  Wow!!  The could be closed and quite often were.  Some had mini shutters within the bigger ones to only allow some of it to be opened.  There were two types of shutters...the wooden ones but also ones that resembled roll-top desks...the part that rolls down.  The were installed right outside the window and were rolled down at varying points depending on how much sun was shining in at the time. Again, no screens, but lots of shutters.  

*The GPS in the car was invaluable.  We hadn’t planned on one as it was an extra fee and a bit pricey.  We both have cell phones and the plan we currently have lets us use them in Europe for a set fee each day so we thought we’d just go that route.  But our VW Golf came with one, no extra fees.  She was quite polite (Please prepare to go right.) but often we’d land up on some scenic route that was curvy and all over the place.  Granted, it could have been our fault as perhaps we took a wrong turn and she “recalculated” based on our choice, but we’re not sure that was always it.  The maps on our phones worked out well when the car’s GPS couldn’t find the exact street address.  BUT our using Google Maps drains the phone’s batteries so we didn’t try that too often.  We would hope for a GPS again in future trips.  With one week to go we discovered we could just press down on the GPS itself and get a route that way.  Before we’d have to enter the country, city, and street address.  It was a touch screen, which was handy as we could zoom in to see the streets and curves to know how much time we had to prepare to turn right.  We accidentally pressed on a spot and could get a route right to it!!  That would have made some general directions easier!! Sometimes we just headed for the city center to get an  idea of how long we had to drive and then we’d fine tune once we were closer or once we knew where we were staying or seeing.  

*Our phones were invaluable.  We used them to research where we wanted to stay, as “hot spots” when we could so we could attempt Internet on our Chromebook, for directions, etc.

*Cheryl is a Google Maps person whereas Andrew tends to rely on the iPhone maps feature.  Both were fine although Andrew thinks Google Maps sounds snooty whereas Cheryl feels that way about the iPhone Maps “person.”  Both got us where we needed to go whether driving or walking.  Sometimes walking became an issue if you put your phone back in your pocket or just held it down as then it wasn’t in the “right” direction any longer so led us astray a few times.  :)  We figured that out pretty quickly.  

Hates:

*Okay, an easy one--robbers that prey on tourists and others.  Get a life and a real job!  We are spending money in your countries!  Yes, I know it happens in America also, especially the bigger cities, but still. We are eternally grateful we weren’t hurt, but it really stressed us out for the rest of our journey when people in general were really nice--we had to remember that people in general are really nice!!  

*Graffiti: it is everywhere and it isn’t pretty.  We all believe in the right of free expression but this is vandalism--and it is EVERYWHERE-in the cities and in the country, everywhere and on many things.  Some things are abandoned but some things are not.  I can’t imagine how disheartening it must be to own a business and have to repaint over this stuff all the time. Some of the graffiti was NOT paint but etched, in metal, in stone, or in wood.  That is much harder to hide.  No one is that important.   

*Parking the wrong way on the street.  It is HARD to tell what direction the street actually goes as the cars are parked all over the place.  We've already been on streets waiting for the car ahead of us to move only to find out it is parked and not going anywhere!  It is unnerving!  And it makes it easy to drive the wrong way down a one way street, OOPS! :/

*Drivers that pass around curves :O--enough said.

*Smokers--please don’t take offense if you are a smoker.  Many near and dear to me are smokers and it is a very difficult habit to break.  Just a few weeks ago (months??) we read an article that stated that smoking in the US was actually down!!  YEAH!!  BUT apparently people in Europe did not get the memo or don’t read the research or just enjoy their smokes because it seems like everyone smokes.  Restaurants that are “open air” with windows open to the streets have ashtrays; if fact they bring you one if you happen to not have one!  All ages, male or female, any race--it doesn't matter.  Walking down a sidewalk, or waiting in a line, or coming out of a building (ironically you can't smoke in buildings but that just means there are a zillion people smoking just outside of the doors as they don’t have a “zone” for it.  If only a person would just smoke the entire thing and move on, but they take a drag and share that smoke and then let the cigarette (or whatever (!)) just keeping smoking tendrils near and far.  The USA has come so far in its fight against tobacco use and sharing how detrimental it is but we didn't’ see any ads for that in our travels.  The ads we did see were definitely more promotional--the need to glorify it.. “Be your own person.”  :)

Interesting, not necessarily bad or good

*Toilets came in all shapes and sizes and distance from the floor.  Some were unisex so you really had to look at the signs before entering and be prepared if a man came out ahead of your going in or came in while you were washing your hands.  Most if not all were “down the hall and down the stairs.”  Really.  I don’t know what persons with physical disabilities would do as some were really in remote locations and very tiny.

*Almost every hotel we stayed in required us to put our room cards in s slot on the wall in order for the lights and A/C to work.  Also, most hallways had motion sensor lights, so it was dark and it lit up when you walked into the hallway.  One room we stayed in we had to actually flip the breakers for anything to be turned on. Great energy savings all the way around.

*Some of our shower/tub combos functioned separately.  We attempted to warm the water with the faucets only to find out that it really was for the tub only and there was a separate contraption for the shower--it had its own water and everything.  

*When we camped on Omaha Beach we experienced unisex showering rooms.  The shower rooms had full doors and were for anyone.  That was a little weird coming out of the shower and seeing a man at the sink brushing his teeth.  He didn’t seem even a bit surprised at my presence.  That was the only campground we encountered that had one shower room so we were expecting more but the rest were all separate.  

*We had battery packs that we used to keep our phones charged (I guess we had two to start and ended with one as Cheryl’s is still in Spain somewhere.).  The cell service was okay, with the cities having the best services.  We both have iPhone 6 phones and they tend to prefer LTE service so 3G and lower (some places still had 1x or none!) would cause them to work hard and use battery to try to find strong signals.  3G just wasn’t good enough to even send a picture or research basic things on the Internet.  Most of Europe was okay, as the cities and towns are close enough. The campsites often boasted WiFi but it wasn’t fast.  

That is it for now!!  We may or may not add more interesting things we remember as we remember them. I am sure once we sift through the thousands of pictures we took we’ll find more to comment on.  :)

Thanks for reading!  

Until next summer!!