[speaker001:] this is a real easy topic for me to spend at least thirty minutes or an hour on I vacation
[speaker002:] I don't think they'll let us talk that long
[speaker001:] yeah I know it I know it you say vacation I just say where I love to go I've and I've been lucky enough I've traveled quite a bit Canada Mexico
[speaker002:] oh my
[speaker001:] been to Rio uh Europe
[speaker002:] ooh you've been to Europe
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] that's wonderful I'm envious
[speaker001:] yeah I was I was lucky enough uh when I was uh twenty years old back when the the dollar was really strong I mean it was you know still the keen currency I convinced my parents to let me take off a month and go backpacking in Europe
[speaker002:] uh
[speaker001:] and uh
[speaker002:] that's memories you'll never ever have again probably
[speaker001:] it oh not never and uh you know and I've just I went everywhere and it's you know
[speaker002:] hum-um what was your favorite country
[speaker001:] uh well jeez if I had to pick one country I guess I would have to say Italy
[speaker002:] Italy huh
[speaker001:] uh-huh I think so because uh it was just the the history was just so staggering whenever you know you walked into the coliseum and uh you realized how many thousands of years old it was you know and you could just imagine the uh the gladiators and the lions and it was you know pretty pretty staggering to think of and then of course then the Roman forum that's even older than that that's just ruins and uh but the food was good the people were nice and there was just so much to see and do
[speaker002:] well that was probably before we were the ugly Americans too
[speaker001:] well actually back then like I said it was this is in nineteen seventy two and uh uh you know I did the whole trip uh airfare uh everything for less than a thousand dollars
[speaker002:] oh not even sure you could get airfare
[speaker001:] yeah right and I and I stayed gone a month
[speaker002:] golly
[speaker001:] yeah now of course that was back when uh Arthur for uh this uh the writer Arthur Arthur Frommer had a book out it was called Europe on five dollars a day
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and so we budgeted and we said well we'll be extravagant we budgeted ten dollars a day
[speaker002:] I love it
[speaker001:] and and we stuck kept in that budget and had just really perfect
[speaker002:] wow who'd you go with
[speaker001:] I went with a friend of mine uh that I'd been in high school with actually he and I we were in college at the time and we were talking about going to Colorado taking a little trip uh up to Colorado that summer after school got out and we started adding up you know totaling how much it was going to cost and I said hell we could go to Europe for that he said well why don't we and I said you know we did I'm I'm really happy that that we did do that
[speaker002:] why don't we wow I've always wanted to go like to England
[speaker001:] well and I've I've I've been to England several times since then um and that is I could go back anytime
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] anytime
[speaker002:] well I teach literature and at the high school level and consequently I teach all about these wonderful places in Europe and in England especially and Canterbury Cathedral and you know all of these places and
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum yeah yeah
[speaker002:] and never seen them somehow now that doesn't seem fair
[speaker001:] well well I um uh had a job for several years that I traveled just an awful lot and uh as a matter of fact I stayed gone more than I stayed at home yeah for about four years and I built up an awful lot of mileage so I've made three trips to London just using airfare you know airline mileage and so that's how I've been able to make make those trips
[speaker002:] um gee of all the places you visited then what is your one spot for a vacation that you would love to go back to
[speaker001:] I I would go back to uh if I could go back anywhere right now I think I would go back to Edinburgh
[speaker002:] um why is that
[speaker001:] and well because uh we I didn't go any farther north in Scotland than Edinburgh and uh my brother was over there a couple of years ago and he uh uh went to on a driving tour all up through the Scottish highlands and just came back just raving about how wonderful it was very very scenic very
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] beautiful and it's it's a part of the uh the country that's a little bit off the beaten path there're not as many tourists that go out there and I enjoyed uh
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] Scotland so much but I could go back listen I could go back into London any day of the week and the beautiful thing about that is you could take a train out of London and head any direction it doesn't make any difference and take these fabulous day trips and anywhere you go is interesting and uh the last time we went we found this really uh small kind of quaint hotel actually we found it over there on the trip before but stayed in it the last time that was reasonable reasonable and uh just used that as a base and then took day trips on the trains the train system is wonderful which makes me wonder when we'll ever get our act together here in the US and have a and have a decent um uh transportation system but we'd just take day trips and that was that was a nice way to do it
[speaker002:] isn't that the truth did you go to Germany
[speaker001:] I have been yeah we went the first time I went over there I went to Germany and went to Munich and stayed right across the street from one of the original medieval beer halls
[speaker002:] oh my goodness
[speaker001:] and uh