Wow you havesome seriously beautiful pictures there

What camera were you using?

Thanks. I was really pleased with some of the photos. Then again, I was also frustrated that the monitor I used to correct some of the photos (color/brightness) was off… which caused some of the images to look underexposed. BUT, no time to go back and fix it now. So, if you see those images, ignore them!

For the trip, I was using a Canon 10D. A picture of my camera as seen last weekend after it took a dip in some mud/water :

http://www.atvoutdoo…

That trip seems pretty cool. I am actually planning a trip very similar to yours. If you don’t mind me asking, how much did the trip cost you, excluding airfare and the stint in the US?

The trip total came out just under $4000. I think that included US airfare of $400. It also included $400 for a flight to-from the UK and includes $450 that I paid to go skydiving. So, without those things, it cost me around $2750.

Was this just a lucky shot or did you do something special to get the light effect? It’s really neat.

http://www.karnesec.net/schef/europe/displaypics.asp?DIR=Paris&Type=2&img=CRW_5838.jpg

That shot was very much planned delfrio. The dimness of the tower meant that I had to have an exposure time of around a second to take a reasonably lit picture. One of the neat things about a camera with manual zoom (SLR or Single Lens Reflex) camera is what you see in the picture. If the lens is zoomed during the exposure, an effect like the one seen in the picture will occur.

So, the picture was taken with the camera on a tripod. I opened the shutter to begin the shot, and in the second or so of exposure time, I zoomed the lens out. The image you saw is the result.

The effect is really cool for some things and not very hard to pull off. I first saw it in a magazine and thought it was worth a try.

David, Your site is fantastic. That is very similar to the trip I am planning for next september through november or december. I have lots of questions. You mentioned your budget. What about train tickets? Did you buy a rail pass or point to point tickets along the way? Is that cost factored into the $4000? What about accomadations? Did you stay in hostels? Also, how was the weather? I wasn’t sure whether or not places like beaches in portugal, greece, the cinque terre and nice would be worthwhile in the fall. Did you swim at all on your trip? Thanks for the info! -Courtney

Thanks Courtney. Ask away. I found previous travelers very helpful when planning my trip so I will do whatever I can to help with someone elses.

-What about train tickets?

I purchased a two month EUrail Pass with unlimited travel. I had no itinerary so unlimited was my only way to go. The cost was included, and it was around $900.

-Did you buy a rail pass or point to point tickets along the way?

The only tickets ever purchased were bus rides in Lagos Portugal and then another to first get into Spain. The rail system in Spain is sketchy since Madrid is the hub, most rail trips try to take you through Madrid. As you could imagine, this makes point to point rail travel tough in Spain. The Eurail map provided with a rail pass (given with your purchase) is a great resource for finding routes.

-What about accommodations?

We played things by ear. Sometime, like in Zermatt Switzerland, we got screwed with a hostel of 48 franks. We also had times where we ran into other travelers looking for hostels and ended up shacking up together for around 8 euros each per night. As I said, I went with another person which made finding double rooms almost easier than finding cheap hostels. I used "Let’s Go" 2004 western Europe edition. The prices weren’t right a single time, but they were always close, and if nothing else, provided us with good numbers to call.

-Also, how was the weather?

We were lucky. We only had about 10 bad weather days the entire trip (Sept 6-Nov 10). Weather is really a toss up. Study weather.com to find usual averages as to how to plan your trip. We had originally hoped to hit the coast lines while it was warm but we got side tracked when the guy I was traveling with needed to drop off his snow board. So, we went clockwise instead of counter. Not planned, but it worked well for us.

Portugal! GO TO SAGRES! The tip of Sagres is disappointing and more of a tourist trap, but there is a sweet beach in a cove of the cliffs that rocks. It is about 3 KM from the tip of Sagres that everyone goes to. Go see the beach. Good surf with no crowd. It’s a great place. We went swimming in that water on Nov. 1st if I remember. The water was "cool" but still very swimmable.

Side note, get a good phone card or something to call with. An Hostelers International membership offers with it an eKit membership. I used the eKit phone card for most of my cards. It proved very useful!

the javascript menu you’re using isn’t working in firefox

great photos, i want to steal your camera

No firefox ehh?? Rats! Guess I should have tested that before going ahead with it. Well… too late now.

Thanks. I would appreciate you not stealing my camera

The photos from Schilthorn are great! You had an amazing luck because it’s very unusual to be completely above the clouds there. Mind if I steal a few photos for the gimmelwald.com website? I’ll give you credit, of course. Do you remember date/time you were there?

We were amazed to see the cloud cover like it was. The day down in Lauterbrunnen was almost a total bust. The weather was dreary and overcast the entire day. We got bored and started walking around the town when we came up on the gondola lift to the Schilthorn. There is a TV monitor showing what the top looks like, and to our amazement, the cloud cover was just under the observation floor and there was no one up there! We couldn’t pass it up.

The pictures were taken on Sept 16th, between 4-5PM. Feel free to use the images as you would like for the site. Printing the images for professional use is a different story but online usage is fine. I do ask that you give me (David Scheffler) credit on the pages the images will be used. I would be happy to make higher quality images available to you if you require those. Let me know where or if you post any of the images. avid@atvoutdoors.net”>david@atvoutdoors.net

Alex, this is a great quote from your site: "I have a big wall world map hanging over my workdesk as a constant reminder that there is more to life than waking up, going to work, getting home, eating dinner, watching TV and going back to sleep."