Vacations – The Retired Dude

Jasper

Took this in Jasper a few months back, one goal of the new year is to pay more attention to pictures. Probably spend sometime reviewing older pictures and then try to keep on top of new ones.

AirBnB – Best of Hotel and Home

A number of years ago we signed up for AirBnB, it was a new service at that time and we were basically just seeing what it was all about. It looked like an interesting way to take a trip and have the benefits of having a proper place to rest and sometimes cook, home from home.

We actually did not use the service for a long time with our first booking being in Nova Scotia a couple of years ago when we rented a house on Cape Breton for a vacation where we would have Max, Derek’s grandson.

Noca

Since then we have had a number of rentals and have not had a bad experience once, most have been in Edmonton, and usually for just a weekend.

The Edmonton rentals where also pretty much though one person who has a number of locations across the city and they where all apartments, very comfortable and well appointed with lost of amenities and located near to everything we needed and, in a couple of cases, a hospital. (See some earlier blogs posts for the heart special)

So now we are trying AirBnB again for the next trip and will be our first rental in a foreign country as we are off to Rome again for Christmas. We have rented a place for a week and we are pretty excited as it is in a really great central location.

We have rented the place for 8 nights, which is also the longest we have had an AirBnB, which gives us lots of time to live like a local. Part of the appeal is that the location is close to some great restaurants, in an area we never got to visit this past summer and has a full kitchen for us to cook.

The place looks amazing and a place we will be able to chill out in after lots of walking and checking out parts of Rome, and Italy, that we did not get to see this past summer.

As with booking a hotel it’s a good idea to read the reviews of any places you plan to rent, but also keep an open mind as some people will sometimes right a review that on the first read seems negative, but is actually a misunderstanding between the person and the renter. You can usually get a feel based on the number if positive reviews.

So look for our posts about Rome sometime late December, there will not be a direct review of the rental, but we will be sure to mention if it is as good as expected.

Back…

Been a while since I posted a blog post, the last one was the start of our trip to Europe this past summer, then suddenly the trip was over and we where home without any other posts being made, sorry to everyone who was expecting a Bowen day by day of the UK and Italy.

Just to prove we did go here is a small gallery of our trip, very small.

We are off

For the first time in a while flying did not mean getting up at some crazy hour of the morning as our flight to Calgary was not until 12:20, so we arose around 8am and decided to go for a 5k run together. It’s been a while since Jenn and I have run together and I could only remember the last time being on treadmills at a hotel in Edmonton at the end of July last year.

As a cab ride in Grande Prairie is so expensive we asked Ian to take us to the airport despite him being on nights and had just finished work.

So in the rain we got to the airport in plenty of time and the flight even left a few minutes early.

We have a 5 hour layover in Calgary but we cannot get into the lounge until about 3 hours before, so Timmie’s it is for a breakfast sandwich and a cup of steeped tea, so assuming there is a Timmie’s in Concourse D.

So now we sit here for a few hours as we wait for the long flight to sunny old England. Guess could be worse places to be waiting.

This is the Aspire Lounge in the international terminal at Calgary, much better than the others ones in A and B concourse, they even have hot food.