SF East Bay Hosts Travel Talk: Let's talk about Stockholm & more - Oct 12 (online, everyone welcome)

TRAVEL TOPICs for Oct 12: lots of great travels to hear about this month!

Note: there wasn't a ton of interest in the AI topic, so I am setting that one aside, for now.

(CWsocial) Stockholm - I will share photos (12 minutes) of what a "cool" city Stockholm was in August, and especially during Kultur Festival
- our Sweden expert, Badger, will be joining us, so please bring questions!

(William) by way of introduction, we'll hear about his plans for a winter trip to Vienna, Prague and Budapest
(Barbara) Lisbon, the Camino de Santiago, and wherever else she went for 8 weeks!
(Diane) Poland trip
(Carol) just returned from Vienna, Prague, Budapest

Join us to swap stories about these and other destinations!

Important note to first time attendees: our meetings require an extra setup step.

After you RSVP on this thread, I will send the instructions for the meeting setup via a private message on this forum. Please follow the setup and reply to my message. You must reply to receive the meeting link, which I will send nearer the meeting date.

You may also wish to check beck occasionally on this thread for updates before the meeting.

FUTURE ONLINE MEETINGS: 2nd Saturdays, except as noted

(November - no online meeting)

Dec 14, 2024, 11am PT - 1pm PT
Travel destination: we'll hear from travelers just back from Spain (And perhaps from Paris!!)

Jan 11, 2025 11am PT - 1pm PT
Topic: Italy!!

Feb 8, 2025 11am PT - 1pm PT
Mar 8, 2025 11am PT - 1pm PT

Questions on the Topic of using AI for Trip Planning
To be saved for another meeting....

me please

I'll be listening

Me, too! Thx.

A very interesting and trending topic. Please include me.

I saw a snippet this morning but didn't get a chance to look into it yet,, which said that when you send audio files or video clips as an attachment in email messages or chats this gizmo automatically generates either a transcript or captioning.

Wouldn't that be something to elevate the selfie game to the HNL?
('hole 'nutha level)

Anyone else care to join the discussion? Whether you've tried AI for travel planning or not, everyone is welcome!

I am cancelling the AI topic, and have scheduled our regularly monthly meeting at the same time.

ooooooooohhhhhhhh nnnnnnnnnoooooooooo!!!!!

Note: there hasn't been a ton of interest in the AI topic, so we'll switch gears and hold a more normal topic.

Please help me figure out what that might be!

I was recently in Stockholm and Gdansk and can field a discussion on either of those.

Where have you been that you'd like to talk about or where are you going that you'd like to ask questions about?!?

I can always show how I make my photobooks if you need a topic and there is interest. I was meh on the AI topic. Don’t want AI to take away from my major hobby, travel planning fun!

I know nothing about Sweden so that might be fun

I plan to attend and I’m interested in Stockholm, Gdańsk, and photo books! I won’t have any new travels to report on.

Hi! I'd like to join.

Going to Vienna, Prague, and Budapest this winter!

Hate to miss but I won’t be home yet and have a friend visiting me on the 12th. So I will have to see everyone in Dec.

Catherine, you are making my life difficult! LOL I'll be in Chicago on the 12th and since the topic was AI I decided I would forgo being part of this wonderful group. But I had a great day and a half in Stockholm years ago and a more recent visit to Gdansk as part of a trip to Poland and Hungary.

Can I let you know next Friday? I'm leaving tonight for a long weekend in Memphis.

Hey Tammy, can you share a little of the photobook making process in the context of a recent Europe trip? I know we've talked about this....and I seem to recall we were going to wait until you had a new trip and/or a new photobook in progress to share?

Please remind me so that I don't have to search my forum messages.... ;-/

Chani, of course you can let me know on Friday! In the absence of any other messages, I'll send you the details as the meeting date approaches.

I'm glad you're in the US right now.

Hi, I won’t be traveling in January, so if you need a topic, I could share some highlight photos about my time in the Puglia region of Italy.

TRAVEL TOPIC for Oct 12:

how about putting tickets in wallet?

Jean - I would absolutely love that! I used to travel to Italy regularly and it's about time I need to get back. I could use a jolt of inspiration from your trip!

Nigel - happy to cover it, if there's anything beyond the steps in my post to cover. For sure, bring any questions!

OK, I'm going to find a (very) few Stockholm pictures. It was a very pleasant surprise and I hope to go back!

CW, I can choose any pictures of past trips to Europe to show the process. I leave for Italy in 2 weeks so if you want to wait, thats fine too. The pictures I use don’t matter too much to show the process. The sample pages I make for the purpose of showing my process, will probably be deleted when I’m done.

Oh yes please, let's wait and see your Italy pictures and have you show us a bit of the photo book making then as well.

Perhaps we should have an all Italy meeting in January, with Jean also sharing her trip. Are you around in January?

I know a thing or two about Stockholm, so this might be interesting.

Badger, we'd love to have you join!

Perhaps we should have an all Italy meeting in January

GREAT idea!

I wish I could attend. It's Canadian Thanksgiving that weekend and I think I'm doing a turkey on the Saturday. I'll let you know if plans change.

I discovered that a bit too late, sorry Andrea! We'll be thinking of you and looking forward to our own Thanksgiving a bit later.

I would love to join with everyone on Saturday.
We’ll be returning from an 8 week trip on Monday the 7th, which included walking the last part of the Camino de Santiago. We are currently in Lisbon.

Please add me. I just returned from Poland.

I have just sent forum messages with the meeting details to everyone who expressed interest, even tentative, for the October 12th meeting. Space isn't an issue, so please join if an when your holiday and travel schedules allow.

I’d like to join, please. I’m very interested in Stockholm!

Thanks for PMing me the link! I will try to attend the first half of the meeting. It feels very nice to be thinking of some travel again! : )

I am hoping to attend. We’re still a bit jet lagged but will enjoy hearing everyone’s stories!

Carol, it is next week

Please include me. We're heading to Stockholm in June. Thank you!

I'd also like to attend. Maybe I'll bump into William in Budapest.

Nigel - yes, next week. We've been back one week and are still suffering from jet lag! It seems to last longer the older we get. But as I have said, if you want to play you have to pay :)

Carol, Susan and markcw, I've sent each of you think link for Saturday.

Susan, I have also sent a meeting setup step that you may wish to confirm before the meeting time. Welcome!

For those planning a visit to Stockholm, I posted my trip report yesterday with some info:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/7-august-nights-in-stockholm-during-kultur-festival

I'd like to join Saturday, thanks.

CL, forum message just sent, glad you can make it!

There's still time to join us as we talk about travels to Stockholm. I'll share my trip and Badger will be joining us and can undoubtedly answer questions.

We'll also hear from travelers who can answer questions about their recent trips to Lisbon, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Poland and more!

Would love to hear about Barbaras' Camino, but the time is just too darn late for me. Sorry to be such an early to bed person.

Sorry i’ll miss the Stockholm report and Badger’s in person recommendations. I’m currently enjoying a few days in Ferrara, Italy. I only just arrived here and can already recommend it.

We will miss you, Ms. Jo....I know our meetings are too late for your early morning hours.

Laura, we're having an "all Italy" meeting in January. I hope you can join to tell us about Ferrara!

Last call for anyone who would like to join us online tomorrow at 11am Pacific Time!

Don't be spooked if the title of the zoom meeting doesn't match the title of this thread -- it still says RS East Bay travel club, at least.

We got the straight--up 411 from everyone who spoke today.
Thanks to CW for hosting and for a great report; ditto everyone else.

Thanks for hosting CW and Avi. Barbara from Brooklyn you crack me up.

I learned absolutely loads and loads tonight

Let the record show that the combination of packing advice at the end of today's meeting and the raincoat thread in the forum right now will be held responsible for my ordering a new eddie bauer rain jacket that folds into its own pocket, in 'dark marigold'. I'm shivering a little bit just typing that color.

Hey, if a dark marigold raincoat gets you to Paris, then it's my new favorite color.

Thanks everyone for your enthusiasm today. Special thanks to Badger and Sandancisco for bringing their expertise.

Happy travels and I'm looking forward to stories in December from our fall travelers and to our virtual visit to Italy in January!

Thanks to CW and everyone who contributed.

Thank you to CWsocial, Avi, Badger, Sandancisco, and everyone for an informative meeting.

Thanks for allowing me to stop by the meeting! I hope I was able to provide some valuable information.

Thanks to everyone for a great meeting! A visit to Stockholm. Great pictures and a delicious buffet! Thanks to Barbara for her humorous report, reinforcing my thoughts of never walking the Camino :). The back and forth conversation was great fun!

I've updated the topics for the next couple of months:

December: we'll hear from travelers just back from Spain (and perhaps 2 travelers just back from Paris, I hope!)
January: all Italy!!