Newspaper Page Text
September 28, 2022
Page 6A
JUST THE WAY IT IS by Sloan Oliver
Reporter
Barnesville Marble & Granite Company
Serving Middle Georgia for over 100 Years
Still a joy to tour old Europe
Designers & Manufacturers
of Marble, Granite, &
Bronze Memorials
Since 1908
George & Janice Moore
Authorized
Georgia Marble Dealer
Railroad & Main Street • Barnesville, GA • 770-358-1470
Since 1898
Call your local Monroe County representative
Scott Harrell
478-256-3586
or toll free: 800-551-1102
3250 Vineville Ave., Macon, GA 31208 r
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tourist areas they speak decent
English. If you understand
some Spanish, you’ll do fine
in Italy.
Other expenses - Unlike
here where restaurant water
is free, they don’t drink tap
water. Ask for water and you
get a bottle that costs about
$2.00. Also, expect to pay to do
“your business.” Most public
restrooms at train stations,
city centers, and highway gas
stations charge €.50-€1.00
to use the facilities. Most of
them are fairly clean, except
the areas with large numbers
of immigrants (mostly from
the Middle East and Africa) -
those were disgustingly filthy.
Apparently, those immigrants
have different standards of
cleanliness.
Covid - Europe has had
enough of Fauci’s hysteria.
Thankfully, the world has
finally realized that life must
go on and has chosen to live
and not cower as Biden’s
White House wants us to. As
of now, there are NO Covid
restrictions whatsoever. We
were never asked to produce
any Covid documents. There
is no requirement to show
any vaccination status, no
requirement to get tested, and
no mask requirements. When
I say no mask requirements
- that applies to everywhere
we traveled but one. You don’t
have to mask in the airport,
on the plane, or in restaurants.
In two weeks’ time, the only
place masks were required
was on Italian trains. Trains
are public transportation, so
masks might be required on
busses, subways, or on trains
elsewhere.
Currently, the exchange
rate is very favorable; $1 =
€l(Euro). Europeans love
credit cards and use them
much more than we do,
especially those “tap” cards.
Customs has become much,
much easier; NO forms to fill
out and no digging through
your suitcases. Neither enter
ing Germany nor coming back
to Atlanta did we have to un
pack anything or produce any
receipts. The only questions
we were asked was amount of
cash we carried and if we had
any food (we did) but didn’t
have to produce it.
Final Thought - Now’s the
time to go to Europe. The ex
change rate is good, Covid re
strictions are over, and they’re
happy to see Americans.
Travelling allows us to better
see ourselves - the good and
the bad. My wife and I just re
turned from two weeks in Eu
rope - Germany, Austria, and
Italy. We had planned a visit
back in May 2020 but Covid
craziness shut down
the world. Then
Dec 2020, for her
college graduation,
we decided to take
our granddaughter
to Europe but Covid
-endless vaccines,
endless test
ing, endless
restrictions,
endless forced
masking, and endless shut
downs took away any desire to
travel until recently Following
are a few observations about
our trip.
Driving in Europe is
expensive. Gas costs around
$ 1.75/liter (Italy) to $2.25/
liter (Germany and Austria)
which equates to around $6.50
- $8.00/gallon. That’s why their
cars are so small and get 40
miles per gallon. The
autobahn (Germany)
has no tolls but the
autostrada (Italy)
costs about $. 10/mile.
To travel any distance
in Italy, you must take
the autostrada - too
slow otherwise.
So, gas is cheaper
in Italy but you
pay tolls. Expect
to pay for parking anywhere
you visit, whether it’s a small
town or large city. Finally, the
international highway signs
are easy to understand.
oJWfru
Sloan Oliver ofBolingbroke
is a retired Army officer who
writes each week in the Report
er. Email him at sloanoliver@
earthlink.com.
Europe is a wonderful
destination, almost magical -
thousand year old castles, nar
row cobblestone streets, town
centers made for walking,
endless outdoor restaurants
and cafes, beautiful scenery,
and ethnic foods of all ethnici
ties. The very oldest towns in
America are several centuries
old. There are suburbs in Eu
rope with towns that predate
the Roman Empire. And every
single town has buildings,
churches, and bridges that are
500+ years old. Those build
ings could never be duplicated
today - not just the cost of
such intricate architecture but
nobody has the skills required
to carve the infinite numbers
of statues, gargoyles, and stone
blocks cut to all sizes. Walking
the streets, I gazed in amaze
ment at the beautiful buildings
-in every city.
We rented a car in Munich
and drove close to 1,500
miles in Germany, Austria,
but mostly in Italy Having
previously lived in Italy, I’m
very familiar with European
driving, especially Italy. I love
it; the Italians drive exactly
like me - defensively aggres
sive. You name the distraction
and Italy has it, and on very
narrow roads. It’s like driv
ing in a video game - things
are coming at you from all
different directions all at once,
all the time - motorcycles
and scooters zip to your left
between you and oncoming
traffic, scooters zipping to your
right on the shoulder, endless
bicycles, people just walk out
in front of you, large trucks
on tiny roads, driving the
wrong way on one-way streets,
roundabouts everywhere, and
bumper-to-bumper traffic that
somehow manages the chaos
without accidents. Round
abouts are endless. On small
roads, you seldom go more
than three miles without one.
The best way to navigate a
roundabout is to always enter
taking the right-of-way. Don’t
yield unless a larger vehicle
forces you otherwise. A num
ber of times my wife simply
covered her eyes so she didn’t
have to see what’s oncoming or
see my driving. With every
thing going on, thank God we
had our granddaughter to help
navigate.
Lodging - The hotels and
AirBnBs were fairly economi
cal. We paid an average of
$145 per night for the three
of us. Hotels in Germany,
Austria, and northern Italy in
cluded breakfast; the AirBnBs
in the Veneto and Tuscany did
not. We booked the AirBnBs
before we departed. The other
nights, we started looking for
hotels around 6:00pm and had
no problems finding a room.
Several times we stayed in
one room with a foldout bed.
Some places gave us a suite
with two rooms. Avoid staying
in town centers because hotels
are expensive and parking is
difficult to find. Also, many
town centers restrict driving to
locals which means you’ll have
to drag your bags a long ways.
Venice is one of my favorite
cities but DO NOT stay there;
stay about 30 miles away and
take the train. It’ll save you lots
of money and the hassle of
dragging your luggage to the
hotel.
Language was no problem.
Between the Italian I remem
bered from 25 years ago, the
Italian our granddaughter
learned on her Duolingo app,
and the Italian my wife learned
watching Youtube videos
we had little problem. Also,
if needed, we had a transla
tion app on our phones that
worked very well. And in most
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