The Global Frying Pan

Summer Travelling In Germany 2009

2009-04-10T19:49:00.004-04:00

With the global economy taking a nosedive this year, many people are second-guessing their European (or German) vacations this year. So here are a few tips:

1. When planning a "Euro zone" vacation, do not buy your Euros all at once. Watch the currency markets over a period of months and buy your Euros on days /weeks that the dollar is "strong" this will give you a longer period of time to lock in the best exchange rates ahead of your trip.

2. Stay away from the large hotel chains throughout Europe unless you can get a "package deal" through your airline or through a travel broker (like AAA). If you have to stay in a chain hotel, always ask if there are any special discounts available before you book. Starting a trip mid-week is and carrying over to the middle of the following week means that you will get an overall cheaper rate per night than only booking from weekend to weekend.

3. Never rent a car from a major city unless you will be staying in that city your entire trip. You can rent a vehicle through Hertz, Alamo and others to pick up in a small town or city and save on the daily rates. Pickup your rental by taking public transit to where the rental office will be away from the big cities. Since the rental agencies do not get a lot of business in smaller towns and cities, the rates are far more competitive and its worth taking a train to pick up the vehicle for the savings.

4. When renting a vehicle, only rent the vehicle when you actually need it. If your plans include spending more than 2 days in a major city, turn the car back in and take the public transit. It is of no value to have a rental car sitting in a parking spot for days and driving in most major European cities is a major headache if you are not accustomed to driving in the big city.

5. Unless you "just have to see XXX" regionalize your vacation. Making loose plans that encompass and entire company is extremely expensive unless you have an itinerary to support it. If you don't have a vast list of "must see(s)" start in one interesting area and spend most of your time there (like the Rheinland or Mosel areas). This way, you can thoroughly explore an area's sites and minimize the overall cost by remaining in the same general area. On days where you will be traveling in rural areas, that is when having a rental car is important (since the time you will need to take public transit is extensive and you subsequently miss all the "stuff" in between).

more to come....

Yes Johnny the 80s Are Still Quite Alive!

2009-01-02T01:37:00.008-05:00

As a practicing DJ (in between gigs right now, thank God!), I often find myself wondering what all the fuss is about these days when new music hits the web. I have been fortunate to witness the many many gyrations or waves of genres for some time, but the major underlying mentality is (ironically enough) from the 1980s. Now before anyone gets too hurried to call me "crazy", I want to clarify that what I really mean is that the underlying mentality is European 80s. The world has seen many "British waves" over many different decades starting in the 60s (Beatles, Dave Clark Five, Rolling stones, etc), through the 70s (Police, Eurythmics, etc.) and obviously leading through the 80s (the list is endless almost). One point I want to make with all this verbiage, is that it hasn't been always "British". We have seen many groups from all over Western Europe since the 70s (ABBA-Sweden, A-ha-Sweden, Aqua-Sweden, Scorpions-Germany, Eiffel 65-Italy, Alphaville-Germany, etc) and we still are hearing plenty of groups today with 80s-esque undertones and lyrics/melodies. The problem is, Americans do not realize this because all the groups sing in English and with little to no accent (probably because most learned "Oxford English" in school versus "American English").

The genre called "Techno" (or in the old days "Electronica") is grabbing alot of attention globally in a time when most listeners are wanting for something "new" or "satisfying". Forget the Hip-Hop stuff, that genre has already been mostly played out (as it currently is morphing into something nobody is sure of). The latest trends in the Americas, for some time now, have been to be the last to acknowledge something good coming from other parts of the globe. Techno (there are many "versions and flavours") is commonly played in Clubs and Discos throughout Europe, Australia and South America and has been for some number of years. Many of the Techno artists are cross-enabled as "Club DJs" and produce often for both sides of the industry. These terms are also blurring, in large part, due to the underlying "beat" that permeates most of the tracks produced today. What once was "Rave" is certainly "Club" today and yet most "Techno" artists can easily play in "Club" environments (as well as produce music for Clubs to easily play/mix).

In my opinion, one of the best "Techno" artists of the day is "Darude" (from Finland). Although, there are many artists in this genre now (and for many years), "Darude" is bringing a "variation" of this to the mainstream and his work is starting to truly pay off. There are alot of subtle yet distinguishable past "influences" that can be caught in his music (to a older trained ear, in either case). I couldn't have been more blind to this until Darude informed me that he had produced some variations from the group "A Flock Of Seagulls" of the track "I Ran". I thought it was most illuminating that the 80s influences are still alive and vibrant in the minds of younger artists of today. Darude has released another album named "Label This" and it is an endeavour to make it difficult for "music critics" to force him into a "genre". I can understand his frustration that so many music critics of today are so "under-educated" that they can't function as critics unless ALL music is classified and catalogued by "genres". This is exactly what got the Music Industry into trouble to begin with! "Cookie cutter" mentalities that attempt (and often succeed) to make everyone conform to the same "label" that they are preassigned to. FORTUNATELY, most Europeans do not play "cricket" that way and thus the main reason why most "new" music has originated from, for many years now, Europe or Australia. Heck, even the Eastern Europeans are showing promise today with a few groups hitting European charts.

In any case, I am amazed how many 80s groups have re-formed in the last 2 years. With all the praise for The Police tour that has just recently subsided, as well as "The Regeneration Tour" (a slew of different 80s New-Wave groups that toured together), it is becoming more obvious than ever that the world is tired of the "cookie cutter" material and is again looking backward to the gifted artists of the past to pull them out of their coma. Needless to say, things were done alot differently in the 80s. Many groups conformed to their own beliefs then and made the Music Industry cater to whatever they were doing at the time. That is why music in the 80s was diverse, vibrant and entertaining.

I think we will see alot more of artists like Darude in the next year or two as people realize that they are getting tired of buying or listening to burned out music that just isn't even remotely entertaining anymore. Let's not even mention the fact that people will not be willing to "take a chance" with their money buying CDs or downloads that they realize they just don't like anymore. Darude and his peers have their work cut out for them, but I believe the underlying influences of the past will make them the "New New-Wave" of the near future.

Global "Repression" Hitting Travelers In The Shorts

2009-01-01T21:02:00.003-05:00

I have been watching the news lately and have really begun to fathom the impact that the world economy will have on the global travel trade in 2009. With the dollar fluctuating between 1.30 and 1.45 per Euro, I am beginning to wonder how this will affect all the various elements of trip building (i.e. air travel, hotels, rent-a-cars, etc.). The affect of the global oil trade (barrel of oil now trading in mid to high 30s) has helped on the price of gasoline (gas oil for the Europeans) when one does travel abroad but I haven't seen the equalizing affect on air travel. The rates are relatively unchanged from this summer and when last I checked Expedia, the ticket prices were actually a bit higher than in June for some reason.

With currency fluctuations as they are, paying for even middle grade hotels is an expensive undertaking. Youth hostels, have always been an option to me in the past, but with all the craze about them, they can cause a bit of a problem if you actually have a need to sleep! For the economy driven traveler, I would also put a hasty warning out to all, that the possibility of your hotel reservations being canceled due to bankruptcy of the hotel is extremely high. When the amount of travelers drops significantly, the result is negative cash flow and no hotel has ever been able to weather such trends for long periods of time. My advice is to definitely purchase trip insurance (U.S., GB and Canada) where you can. At least, you get some or all of your money back and can make other arrangements on the fly if it happens to you.

Having traveled in Germany for some time, I realized very early that there are a number of bed and breakfasts around the country (mostly rural Germany and on the rivers) that you can always count on. These are people's homes, for the most part, and they offer the comfort of a home versus the hotel environment most travelers are used to. These are also recession proof, for the most part, because the people that are renting rooms out actually live in the house full time. If you want peace of mind, then you should always go this route.

I have found that renting a car in Germany is a very expensive proposition. Last October (2007), I rented a minivan. By the time all was said and done, it cost me over U.S. 1,500 dollars for 9 days of renting. Had I been traveling alone (was traveling with friends from where I live), I would have settled with the good ol' public transit system. Not only is this extensive throughout Germany and Europe, but it is so dirt cheap that it makes me wonder why they have cars over there to begin with. In most cases, you can get to your destination as quickly (if not more so) with public transit as with an automobile. With the slow down of the Autobahn and the various unexplainable traffic jams, the time I wasted driving from Frankfurt International to Garmisch Bavaria would have been better spent sitting in a Biergarten tossing a few back. I probably lost at least an hour of personal time just being frustrated with the often lack of progress circumnavigating the outer belts of the cities I had to drive around.

If you are a major stop and go sightseer, then an automobile is the only way to travel. Since there are sooooo many different picturesque villages to traverse across Germany (or Europe in general, for that matter), your time schedule would be far more flexible darting in and out of towns to view sights...afterall, you are on vacation!

New Year, New Blog

2009-01-01T14:50:00.000-05:00

Firstly, I want to wish everyone a very successful and Happy New Year! God knows everyone will need one after the utter catastrophe called 2008!

For those of you who have known me personally over the years (yes, okay, decades then) this is my new blog, wiping the slate clean after a long and turbulent blogging history somewhere else. This time, I will still be oriented toward global issues, views and opinions, but I will leave the tone a little less controversial.

Stay tuned as I finish the build out of this blog. I should be done sometime between the 1st and 3rd of the new year!