Cookie travels

Right now my cutie sis and parents are cramming up their time for some touring around nearby Schengen states before my parents will be departing back to the Philippines on Friday. So yesterday they went to Austria and today in Germany. Whew! I could even suggest for them to visit Switzerland but it is not yet part of the Schengen agreement so they need to have visa in order to go there.

As one of the world’s famous cities, I would love to visit Geneva in Switzerland, noted as the headquarters of the United Nations. Other famous places are the Palais des Nations, the 13th century Cathedral St-Pierre and Maison Tavel which has a museum. Those who plan on staying at Geneva can check the following budget hotels with good traveler reviews at TripAdvisor.com:

1. Hotel Central
Traveler Rating: 3.5/5 based on 56 reviews
Popularity Index: 33 of 97 hotels in Geneva
Traveler Reviews: very small room, fantastic quality location and overall experience, good for backpackers
Rooms: 30
Recommended For: singles, seniors, families with teenagers
Average price: $74

2. Bel’esperance
Traveler Rating: 3.5/5 based on 19 reviews
Popularity Index: 37 of 97 hotels in Geneva
Traveler Reviews: great location, good value, almost perfect, nice hotel
Rooms: 40
Recommended For: singles, seniors
Average price: $85

As I was thinking about it, had my parents got more time, they could have stayed in a hotel in Vienna and Berlin for few more days to enjoy more of the sights in a relaxed pace. However, they have two more days left in Europe so it was a one day sightseeing in Vienna and another one day visit in Berlin. But thanks to the availability of one day tour cards in these countries, my parents were able to conveniently tour the tourist spots before their flight back home. Cramming yeah!

The title of my previous post might come like a bolt from the blue but talking about babies and traveling, it’s really difficult to travel with a baby, that’s why my cutie sis decided not to go sightseeing in Helsinki with us. She preferred to stay in Pori with her 10 month-old baby. Naturally, we had a baby-free tour of Helsinki and was able to cover most of the tourist attractions. Although cutie sis really missed the sights but for a whole day tour I think she made a sensible decision coz we had to walk most of the time, even climb up a flight of steps, and the rain in the afternoon made the tour unfavorable. Anyway, hopefully next time she can come back to Finland with hubby and enjoy the sights better.

Ever thought of how to let your family, relatives and friends know of a coming addition to the family? Photo Birth Announcements would be a perfect way to do it. Most of the time when we have these celebrations in the community we assign someone to make a photo invitation. But here’s an alternative…

A photo speaks a thousand words so let a simple photo speak. You can add some personally written wordings to complement the photo plus add some birth stats with it. The perfect way to do it, if you don’t have time doing it in the computer is to order it from photoaffections.com. This will surely free you from all the trouble of announcement preparations for the big day especially if you still have some travel plans ahead.

Well, finding a hotel in Helsinki was not a problem coz hubby was able to book online in the hotel we used to stay last Christmas when we went to Helsinki. However, the booking was non guaranteed coz this time they won’t accept a debit card. In this case, you have to pay when you check-in and you’re not assured that you get the room. Since we didn’t pay yet, non guaranteed booking turned out to be a blessing coz there was a change in travel plans later in the evening.

Executives of multinational companies in the upper ladder of management usually travel the world over and are mostly subjected to stress as they are the ones who tackle critical issues, those of “do or die” for the company. They stay from one hotel to another in their rounds and with a laptop or notebook, where they check-in could also be their office. The working environent is of importance to their state of mind. If there could only be a garden office in the hotel where they are accomodated, this could be the ideal way for them.

Most work places are in high-rise buildings at the center of a city, and aside from a plant box here and there, or a vase of flowers in a table or two, one has no communication with nature. The office worker is confined to this limited four-walled cubicle day in and day out, such that this affects one’s body metabolism.

It is different when one is exposed to the outside environment, with a view of trees, plants and gardens. It is refreshing and nerve-calming to even just have a glimpse of this open-air sight, and what more to have the opportunity to be out into the fresh air for a short breather any time, especially when one feels stress during a difficult work situation. Of course, this is a dream situation for an office worker, considering the conventional workplace today.

Browsing the net however, it seems for those who will take the option, this dream can come true, for now there is a company who offers garden buildings. Depending on one’s choice, he can select whether it be an office in one’s own garden, or a garden office in a hotel, hospital or in a school, or just to have a cozy nook outside your home with no problem in communication connections, as this is handled by experts. Aside from this, it is guaranteed by Lloyds of London.

This morning, I went with my mom and two sisters scouting for souvenirs. Afterwards, I had to hurry up to a travel agency to book for the Helsinki hotel accommodation of my parents and sisters, who will be going back to Prague after a more-than-three-week vacation here in our place in Pori. Their flight will be on Tuesday but they will go early Monday and stay overnight in the capital city so they can have time to go sightseeing.

There wasn’t any available rooms in our favorite hotel, so I went home still trying to figure out an alternative. But guess what? My hubby got the booking online, that’s life. Thank You Lord!

It’s one thing to be just reading about a product, and another thing to have one. By, my hubby, has got this GPS Tracking gadget which is very useful in travel. The device, which he hangs near the front mirror, shows the road on which the car is traveling, with an arrow indicating where the car’s present location is.

Presently my parents and two sisters are spending their vacation with us here in Pori City, Finland, and naturally we want them to be toured around to destinations of interest. They wanted to visit the two UNESCO Cultural Heritage sites of Rauma which is more than 100 kilometers away from Pori, and so off they went last Sunday. I wasn’t with them as we wouldn’t all fit in the car, and I was not feeling well also. Though By’s work location is near one of the sites, he was not really familiar with the details of the way leading to it, but it was the device, programmed with a female voice, which would prompt him where to turn, by how many meters, as: “after 200 m, there will be an intersection, turn right…” or similar directions.
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