Shetland Islands, Scotland is a popular port of call for a number of Northern European cruise itineraries and for a small place there’s much to see. After our first visit one of our favorite television series became Shetland,, a British police drama. Since Lerwick is such a small town every show included scenes we recognized which added a new dimension to the experience.
Lerwick was founded as an unofficial marketplace to service 17th century Dutch herring fleets. It took a long time to grow due to its illegal status and alleged immorality. Today, Lerwick is Shetland’s only burgh and serves as a hub for the islands’ population of around 22,000 people. Shetland is part of Scotland but the town’s name is actually Old Norse. A local dialect still survives called Norn, which was the common language in Shetland until the late 19th century. The name “Lerwick” in Old Norse means bay of clay. The Shetlands is noted as a major roosting location for puffins but also has a number of interesting archeological sights dating back over a thousand years.
More And More That Caution “Buyer Beware” Should Be Considered When Planning Travel
If you don’t know Groupon they’re an online company that was originally intended to help local businesses promote their company using discount coupons. Working mostly with restaurants, Groupon promoted the discount with prepaid vouchers online and through emails to subscribers. There have been issues but most problems involved a few dollars, but times have changed and they’ve even expanded internationally.
Groupon, The Good, The Bad And ?
Just recently we wasted several days and several hundred dollars trying to use a Groupon deal to visit Busch Gardens Tampa. We still operate an online business and wholesale products to some local shops and we needed to get away for a few days before the holiday rush started. It was planned as a three day road trip to Tampa with the centerpiece being a day in Busch Gardens. We had Groupon admission tickets (both printed and digital) that included the park’s meal package that clearly stated on both that the ticket expired in early December. We made reservations at a hotel near the park for two nights and in the first morning went over to Busch Gardens to spend the day. At the entrance we were told that the tickets had expired on October 27th.
The Busch Gardens people insisted that it didn’t matter what the ticket indicated, the bar code showed it clearly had expired and they had no responsibility for the error. We needed to contact Groupon. It took two hours to start an online chat with Groupon while sitting outside the entrance. There is no phone number that works so we downloaded the app. On the chat we explained that we had come from out of the area and had spent $300+ on a hotel and were now at the entrance to the park. The Groupon agent indicated that they would need to contact Busch Gardens to resolve the issue but unfortunately Groupon could not issue a new corrected ticket. At one point they did offer to provide us with a $10 credit on our account for “the inconvenience”. After another hour plus we were informed that it could take seven days to resolve the matter with Busch Gardens and they would look into a refund but couldn’t guarantee what would happen (after all their policy is no refunds).
Busch Gardens Tampa
The final irony of all this is that Busch Gardens was currently running a special that would make the tickets only $3.00 more than what we paid Groupon. We could not get a refund on the additional night at the hotel and with no other options we just went home…
P.S. Busch Garden’s claim that we purchased though a third party so they were not responsible for the problem is legally incorrect. As far as the law is concerned that is not the case. They had entered into a contractural arrangement that allowed Groupon to represent them and offer those tickets and they had obviously benefitted financially the sale and legally both parties are responsible (odd how nobody accepts responsibility any more?). Again the only Busch Gardens contact we had was the gate attendents and they kept insisting that there was nobody else we could speak with. The cost of seeking redress however is probably to difficult to pursue. Exploring options regarding Groupon we discovered that some years ago Groupon lost a class-action case. It seems that after that they changed their official policy. Today by buying from Groupon the small print states that you accept that you cannot sue them. You can contact an arbitration company – but after several hours on the indicated website I couldn’t even find the submission form.
While traveling there has always been a hiccup or two – language problems, a cancelled flight, a too short connection, a missing reservation etcetera. It just is one of those things you need to deal with. Something has changed recently and it seems we are running into serious issues on a regular basis. There was a last minute cancelled trans-Atlantic flight that cascaded into problems that took days to straighten out with nobody on the travel business side seeming to care or was even interested in helping with a solution*. On that same trip a reservation for late arrival in Amsterdam at a hotel couldn’t be honored because they overbooked. Transfers that don’t show, wrong directions as to where to go, train service that changed without notice. Often today these are not small inconveniences but serious travel disasters and in more and more cases – you’re on your own!
The Groupon Final Outcome
It took a bit longer than seven days, a whole three weeks. Groupn agreed to refund the purchase price but wev never got the $10..
The Elk mostly disappeared from the mountains of the eastern United States. Reintroduction of elk into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park began in 2001 when 25 elk were brought from the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area along the Tennessee-Kentucky border.
Despite early struggles, including predation by black bears on young calves, the elk population in the Smokies has been doing well since shortly after the reintroduction.
Best Elk Viewing Location In The Smokies
The Mountain Farm Museum
The park provides various locations to allow for visitors to see elk, but the best is in the open meadows near the Mountain Farm Museum. Elk can often be seen browsing for food in the area especially in the early morning.
The Iron Gate, also known as the Đerdap Gorge, is situated between Romania and Serbia and is one of the most scenic stretches along the Danube river. The Iron Gate is a natural gorge formed by the Carpathian Mountains on the Romanian side and the Balkan Mountains on the Serbian side. It stretches for about 134 kilometers and offers stunning views of cliffs, caves, and and rock formations.
The Iron Gates consist of narrow gorges and wide basins, making it one of Europe’s most significant natural features. While an important stretch of the navigable Danube it was actually very dangerous with challenges posed by the river’s rapids and many whirlpools. The construction of the Iron Gate Dam was crucial for controlling navigation. Construction of a dam began in 1977 as a joint project between Romania and Yugoslavia and was considered an engineering marvel. Completed in 1984 with hydroelectric generation from 16 units generating a total capacity of 432 MW.
A number of archaeological sites in the gorge have provided evidence of early human occupation. Classified as the Iron Gates Mesolithic culture they are dated between 13,000 and 6,000 years ago, shedding light on hunter-gatherer lifestyles in Romania and Serbia.
Some years ago we had a wall mounted pot holding orchids outside our front door with a small pond with goldfish and more orchids off to the side. For several months this little tree frog took up residence in the pot and more often than not he would be there, just sitting and watching the activity around our front door.
We’ve since moved but for over a year we now have a new resident tree frog outside our front door residing in a bromeliad. He disappears for a day or two but always seems to comes back.
Every serious traveler needs a pin map! And they make a great gift for the other travelers you know!
Years ago, shortly after we put ours up on the wall, we started getting requests from family and friends to make one for them. It became a favorite gift item and after a few dozen maps we decided we’d try selling them online.
We started selling on Etsy with a few world map color versions and added a United States map. We offered a selection of titles and provided personalization (all our friends and relatives wanted theirs personalized). Within a couple of months sales took off and soon I was spending hours printing and shipping maps. A few dozen a week wasn’t going to make me rich but unfortunately it was eating up a lot of my week. After about six months I shut it down because it was just too much work and I couldn’t keep taking orders while we were traveling.
If you love travel, keeping a travel pin map is a great way to keep track of where you’ve been while also a fantastic decorating accent. We started ours years ago and even today it is a fantastic conversation piece.
After a lot of prodding we decided to put in some more time exploring our travel pin maps again. After talking to a number of friends about the process and discussing options we developed a plan.
Our own travel pin map
This time we’re using a do-it-yourself approach and if you follow the steps here you’ll have a decorating accent to be proud of and for now you can download them for free!
Making Custom Travel Pin Maps
Here’s how to create your very own custom 16×20″ (or smaller) pin map for under US$50 all in with five simple steps:
Download your map below
Blue on brown version in jpg file format:
Download 16×20 brown on blue map without a heading
Print the map up to 16×20″ at home or at Walmart or Office Depot
Pick out a standard frame to fit the map print
Remove glass (plastic) in frame and back up map with a sheet of foam board
Close or seal the back and add a frame hanger if needed
Get a set of map push pins
Do It Yourself Instructions For Our Travel Pin Maps
Customizing Our Map To Make It Your Own
Instructions For Customizing Your Map
WithMicrosoft
Microsoft offers several software tools and services that can be used for annotating our JPG map file that include:
Our files are formatted in a 4:5 ratio that will produce prints from 4×5” through 16×20” and are provided in an open jpg file format that can be customized using many standard applications in computers using MS, Apple and Google operating systems by following the steps outlined here.
• Microsoft Paint: A basic image editing program included with Windows that allows users to add simple annotations such as text, lines, and shapes to images.
• Microsoft Office Picture Manager: A more advanced image editing program that comes with Microsoft Office and provides more features for annotating images, including the ability to add captions, watermarks, and other effects.
• Microsoft OneNote: A digital note-taking application that allows users to insert and annotate images, including JPG files.
• Microsoft SharePoint: A cloud-based collaboration platform that allows users to store, share, and annotate images, in JPG files.
WithApple Macintosh
Using the Preview application:
• Open the JPG image in Preview.
• Click the “Markup Toolbar” button in the toolbar.
• Select the annotation tool you want to use, such as the “Text” tool, “Shape” tool, or “Arrow” tool.
• Click and drag on the image to create your annotation.
• Adjust the properties of the annotation, such as font, color, and size, using the options in the Markup Toolbar.
• Save the finished file for printing.
Using The Google Operating Systems
With a Google computer using Google Cloud, This system offers a comprehensive platform for image annotation. It provides a suite of tools and services that enable users to annotate JPG images efficiently and accurately providing powerful image editing tools that facilitate the annotation process. Users can easily draw bounding boxes around objects, add polygons, or even create 3D annotations. These tools ensure precise and consistent annotation, which is essential for high-quality machine learning models.
Printing Your Map
If you have access to a printer that can print to a sheet size needed you can print the map yourself at either 11×14 (standard frame size) up to 13×19 or 16×20. Make sure there’s an off the shelf frame available.
Large prints can be ordered from a number of sites including Office Depot and Walmart. If you have a wide format (13×19) you can of course print it yourself.
Print yours with Walmart Custom Prints. The 16×20” print is the best format at under $14.00 and the order can be placed with your local Walmart online at the web page below.
Our maps when printed can be formatted to fit a 16×20” standard size frame, or 11×14”, 8.5×11” and 8×10”that are available nationwide from many stores like Michaels or Walmart as well as online. In order to convert the frame to a pin map all need to do is to remove the plastic or glass front, back up the map with a sheet of foam board and reassemble. See a good choice from Michaels HERE.
Pushpins
Hopefully you’ll be adding a lot of pins to your map and while you can find push pins in most office supply departments we recommend a smaller headed shorter pin made for that purpose and recommend Yalis Push Pins 600-count Map Tacks available from Amazon HERE.
The Intentional Travelers 
