Fred
Schade, daß die Reise zu Ende ist. Ich habe sehr gerne die Beiträge gelesen. Die tollen Ansichtskarten sind auch angekommen, inzwischen 5. Vielen Dank 🤩Published: 21.06.2022
Dear ones!
You have waited far too long for the final post. So, in advance: a huge sorry! In the first few days, we actually struggled a lot with jet lag, and the mountain of laundry kept us busy for hours. In addition, Marie had to pack her bags again and drive to Rosenheim for her deployment, and Benny caught the coronavirus and fought it alone in Lübeck! After 24 hours, 25 days together, we were separated and it is really tough for us. To that end: we miss each other ❤️
But now it's time: we will take a little look back at the journey and cover Marie's tick of expressing everything in numbers and statistics. And just because we are 1000 km apart, that shouldn't bother you. We have asked ourselves some questions that you probably can already answer after reading the blog intensively. In addition, we have put together some data and figures for you that summarize the holiday briefly.
1. Best Hotel: Washington D.C. Hyatt National Mall, here we had a lot of space, the breakfast was alright, the location was central, and we slept quite well here.
2. Best Excursion: by far, Algonquin National Park ranks at the top of the list because Marie said 'Yes' here. But Island of Adventure from the Orlando Parks (that was the first park) was pretty cool and absolutely recommended and even worth the admission. And the sunset on the Keys was simply enchanting!
3. Best Food: That was really difficult. We both agreed that it was the Brazilian Rodizio because it was proper food with meat.
4. Best City: of all the cities we visited, New York and Washington were the highlights, but in very different ways. New York had many extremes and so many beautiful places. The city enchants you in some way. Washington is so easy to explore on foot and history and politics are very present. You can tell that Washington doesn't have the hustle and bustle like New York and we felt very comfortable there! On the other hand, we only liked Miami because of the attractions around it, such as Key West or Everglades. The city itself didn't convince us, everything had to be done by car, and maybe we had higher expectations.
5. Most surprising moment: Besides the proposal, the Velocicoaster roller coaster because you can never imagine what kind of roller coaster it is! You can't describe it.
6. Funniest situation: Unfortunately, we don't remember which one exactly, but on the return journey from Algonquin National Park, we laughed heartily for 20 minutes because of the pronunciation of a word. At some point, it will come back to us! And otherwise, we experienced the heaviest rain shower of our lives in Tampa (we hadn't even been to Miami yet 😅). And we walked through the masses of water with a Walmart plastic bag on our heads and giggled like little children!
7. What we missed most: In terms of food, it was actually just a sandwich. Some classic bread with cold cuts would have been great, but it wasn't available. And right after arriving, Steffi made us a sandwich. Thank you thank you! It was a highlight! Otherwise, of course, our bed and a little bit of the normal everyday life. Towards the end, we were just exhausted and wanted to go home!
8. What we won't miss: The food culture in general and the smell of cannabis.
And since Marie wanted to evaluate everything again, here are the data & facts:
- we spent around 400 euros on fuel, actually averaging 1.50€ per liter converted - in 2018 it was much cheaper
- we drove 3,634 km and visited 9 cities
- we visited 3 national parks, one of which wasn't visible due to fog
- we spent around 475 € per person on food, which is around 20 € per day and is even below the budget that was planned (due to fast food)
- the most expensive activity overall was 511 € for the Orlando Parks for two people for two days
- Miami was by far the hottest place with a maximum temperature of 40°C
The last question was - how much money did we actually spend on what?
- 951.19 € for groceries and restaurants
- 2389.75 € for hotels and thus an average of around 100 €/night in at least 3-star hotels with breakfast (if available)
- 1083.24 € for the two cars and an additional 380.92 € for fuel
- 331.51 € for parking and public transport (we would have never thought and it is really expensive!)
- 1,394.25 € for all activities during the entire holiday
- 1,176.13 € for the flights to the USA and the domestic flight
- 767.25 € for cash, proposals, insurance, shopping, pharmacy, postcards, and more... it all adds up.
In total, that's around 8,500 € and we were actually a bit surprised, but it was worth every cent because no one can take these experiences away from us and we are very happy that we still made the trip this year!
At this point, we want to thank you all very much for reading diligently and we are happy if you were there with us in your hearts! Sending hugs!
B ❤️ M