Currency

Once again for currency exchange, we used an American Express office before we traveled to London. (Update: 2008, American Express exchange rate was no longer competitive–try other banks, check the airport or use ATM). Of course, since London is a large city, we also could have used an ATM card—Cirrus networks were widespread. We saw at least one that touted no service charge regardless of which bankcard you were using. Exchanging money by using an ATM is becoming much more popular and is worth a look if you are traveling. Research each foreign country to determine if there are ATMs that match your network (cirrus, pulse, etc). Make sure you know your pin number before you leave!

Getting Around London

Because we were in London a week, we purchased a travel card for use on the subway and trains inside London. We purchased ours before leaving the United States. There are several websites that allow you to do this, but beware some of them charge huge fees to mail you the travel cards.

We used: Ticket-on-line.com We had no problems or complaints. Note that they will not issue the cards until close to your travel date. The cards came with a few discounts to some attractions.

These cards allowed us to get on and off the underground without worrying how much any given segment cost. You can get day passes once you’re in London or just buy tickets to a given location, but we didn’t want to figure out fares every time we went somewhere.

Rush hour was crowded and a couple of times a particular segment was blocked or a train cancelled, but we were able to route around any problem areas. The 7 day passes were cheaper than a U.S. car rental for a week. Which brings up another point: I wouldn’t drive in London even if I were paid to do so. The lanes are narrow, the traffic is horrendous and yes, they drive on the opposite side of the road!

London is broken into “zoned” areas—the vast majority of museums and sights are within zone 1 and 2 so a travel card covering just these zones will work for most people. If you must travel outside these zones, such as to see Kew Gardens, just get the extra leg for that day. You’ll want to make sure your hotel is within zone 1 and 2 also—if it isn’t, get the more expensive travel card that covers zones 1 through 6.

Where to Stay

I had the most awful time finding budget accommodations. Prices in London are high—what with the exchange rate being 1.7 to 1 U.S. dollar, everything was almost twice as much as here!

The price in pounds sounds reasonable at first glance: the average budget room ranged from 60 to 100 pounds. Unfortunately, when you convert dollars, your room goes to 120 to 200 dollars a night. Also, be warned, the rooms are small and for the money, you won’t be spoiled. London has a lot of old buildings—the city has been there a while. That means that a lot of the hotels are remodeled Victoria homes or other remodeled buildings. Not all rooms are “en suite,”– meaning for those that aren’t, the shared bathroom is down the hall. You can save money if you are willing to share a bathroom or get a room with partial en suite. This might mean the toilet is in the room or just a wash stand, so make sure you know what you’re getting ahead of time. Also make sure taxes are included in the price you are quoted because the “VAX” is not a small amount.

For us, we wanted en suite and clean without anyone taking an arm or leg. I spent days researching prices and finally came up something outside the theatre and museum district, but that was part of the plan. We had our travel cards and we wanted to be away from main tourist crowds.

The Charlotte Guest house was within travel zones 1 and 2, in West Hampstead, ten to fifteen minutes by train to main attractions. The guesthouse supplied travel cards for stays of seven days or longer. The room was worn but clean. We were in one of their larger rooms and it did have a private bathroom and shower. The shower was so small, I met myself coming and going when I turned around.

We were on the third floor, so there was some sort of water pump in the bathroom that ran the entire time we took showers. It was a little noisy. The price was 55 pounds per night with travel card and included a full English breakfast or continental breakfast. The breakfast was in a very nice indoor patio and quite casual. Help yourself orange juice, milk, fruit, cereal and yogurt. The English breakfast was two eggs, toast or croissant, baked beans, sausage and bacon.

The people that worked there went out of their way to be kind and helpful.

The other place that would have been our second choice was a bed and breakfast website. A lot of the places on the site were also located a bit out of the main excitement area. We did not inspect any of the properties, but the person running the website answered my questions promptly and the price was a lot more reasonable than many other places I checked.

You might also try: Cherry court hotel This one was booked for the dates we needed it, but it was recommended on Rick Steve’s website and they did send a nice email. Rick Steve’s site gives a description and info. His site had a list of restaurants submitted by readers that I also found helpful.

Sightseeing

London had more sightseeing opportunities than we could cover in one week. Luckily some of the best museums are free. All of them have donation boxes and after you see these places, a donation seems a small price to pay! It is good that the museums are free because everything else in London is quite expensive. If you have more than a couple of days in London, get a guidebook, read it and prioritize what you want to see.

We used “Daytrips: London” by Earl Steinbicker. It gives good general information about what you can see in each museum, but isn’t much on outdoor sights and gives no hotel information. I’ve listed the museums in order of enjoyment, but remember, a lot depends on what interests you. There were also several other museums and places we did not get to see.

Museums

Victoria and Albert—A free museum with a lot of “life” objects from many countries: clothing, jewelry, furniture (including Chippendale), beds, art, lots and lots of porcelain, and other artifacts. Mind you these are not ordinary, everyday objects, rather the masterpieces of centuries past made by highly talented artisans. The V&A was huge and we spent over a day there; the emphasis of many displays was of European artifacts, but other countries were certainly represented. Favorites included a Wilkes detector lock, Wedgwood porcelain and some of the period furniture. There’s something for everyone at this museum.

British Museum – Also free. I liked this museum at least as well as the Victoria and Albert. Again, much to see here from all over the world, but probably the most fabulous were the Egyptian displays: mummies, coffins and stone sarcophagus; stone sculptures of sphinx, falcons, and various Egyptian rulers. The Rosetta stone is also here. The Rosetta was found in 1799 and was the key to translating hieroglyphs. (The stone contains the same decree in three different scripts: Greek, everyday Egyptian script and hieroglyphs. The known language allowed the hieroglyphs to be “translated” for the first time.) The sculptures, (Greek and Roman sculptures, Parthenon sculptures) were stunning at this museum.

Tower of London – About 13.50 pounds per person. This is not a cheap place to visit. We found a two-for-one coupon on the National Rail website. We had to have a rail pass that was good for the day and the printed coupon. It may be that the discount was available because we visited in November, which is off-season. Check the various rail sites for discounts. Here’s the link I used, but it will likely change or expire. http://www.londontrainsoffers.co.uk/phpversion/index.php

The Tower of London’s main attraction is the crown jewels. These are quite decadent.

Was it worth the entrance price? For us yes, but we had 2 for 1. The jewels were spectacular. The original Cullinan diamond was cut into nine different stones, and at least two of them are part of the crown jewels. The largest is called the Star of Africa (530 carats) and is in a sceptre that is on display. The second largest is in the Imperial State Crown—the one that Queen uses to open parliament—also on display. Since there were very few tourists, we were able to go through the display a few times and ask lots of questions.

In the height of tourist season there are two waiting rooms—count them, two rooms with films running to keep people from being completely bored while they wait to get into the display room. The waiting rooms have roped lines snaking through them—the same kind of lines you have while waiting for an amusement ride. A moving sidewalk trucks people along in front of the actual jewel display so you can’t stand there and gawk. I would go either very early or late in the afternoon (everyone else will be leaving) if you are in London during tourist season.

Also at the tower is a display that explains how the diamonds were cut. It is hard to find because it is located in one of the many “towers.” Ask one of the beefeaters how to reach the tower because it wasn’t obvious to us. Go to this display before you see the jewels if possible

Here’s a website that we found after we got back that has great information on the Cullinan diamonds.

Right after the crown jewel display there is a fascinating collection of opulent tableware—gold plates and goblets from various kings’ dining services. There are some very nice “salt shakers” and I am not talking K-Mart bluelight specials here. Some of these things were a foot high with all kinds of knobs and drawers and decorations.

One of the yeoman was kind enough to explain that in days gone by, salt was quite valuable, thus special plates that contained salt receptacles (and sometimes receptacles for other spices) were designed for the wealthy. Those on display were quite incredible.

There were also christening fountains, punch bowls large enough to bathe in and other tableware.

The armor in the “white tower,” is also at the Tower of London. It contains armor, swords, canons, guns, and the like. Quite interesting and worth a look. It’s the only other large display of relics at the Tower of London.

A few of the other towers contained information about prisoners that were kept at the tower along with some of the graffiti that the prisoners left behind. A dungeon room contains scant information on a couple of torture devices.

Museum of Natural History – Another free one, donations accepted. What more can I say besides, dinosaurs, dinosaurs, and dinosaurs! There were also whale bones/displays, mammoths and other animals, not all of them extinct. Very fun way to spend the day.

Kenwood House – Free, off the beaten path. Rembrandt paintings and many other famous portraits. This house is really a mansion and contains good period rooms with appropriate furniture. The library is fantastic and filled with old books. There are old clocks, a collection of miniature portraits and cameos.

One of the best things about this museum is that it is a bit out of the way in Hampstead and surrounded by a two very large parks. We got lost in the one park, but it was a great walk. If you have a nice day, this is a nice area to visit. We ate outdoors at the Kenwood House cafeteria and the food was good, if a little pricey.

Museum of London – Also free. I can’t say much about this museum because we only spent an hour or so here. It’s not that it wasn’t worth more time, but we had a business appointment that day and never got back to it. This museum struck me as a hodge-podge of items. Old printing presses, dollhouses, clocks, watches, coaches, displays detailing the great fire and the great stink of London (I’m not making that up either). If you want the history of London, this is the place to go! One of the more interesting displays was the sample dungeon.

Places to Eat

Everyone told us to avoid English food, so we did. The main complaint is that it is bland and the one time I ate English food, it was bland. Unbelievably bland. We did eat the English breakfast, which was also bland, but satisfying and hearty. (While I personally am of the belief that all eggs should be served with a side of salsa and melted cheese, I really don’t expect to be accommodated everywhere.) Eggs really aren’t that exciting anyway, except as an ingredient in chocolate chip cookies.

Oh—the food at the Kenwood house might be considered English cuisine and it was not bland. It was very tasty although because it was a tourist location, the portions were a little small. The prices weren’t bad for a tourist location.

We ate Thai food, middle eastern food and Chinese and every time they were fabulous. The prices were very reasonable also.

Highly Recommended Food Favorites

Number one favorite place to eat was Karahi Master located near our hotel. This place was FABULOUS. We had never eaten middle-eastern food, but this was a great introduction. For the more timid, they also had burgers and fries. The place was spotless, the owner, (Bass?) was extremely helpful, as were all the employees. The food was EXCELLENT, no matter what we ordered and we tried: curried rice, lamb kabobs, chicken kabobs, chicken curry, and another type of rice.

The naan, a type of bread that resembles a tortilla, was stupendous. I could have eaten about five of them and would dearly loved to have had one for breakfast with that bland egg and some salsa! Generally speaking the two of us ate there for under ten pounds total, but rather than order a dish for each of us, we tried one large dish and a couple of sides such as fried rice or the naan bread. I would go out of my way to eat here!

Second favorite: Banana Tree. Very reasonably priced Thai food. Food and service were very good. Generally we ate there for about twelve to fifteen pounds total. Worth a stop if you stay anywhere in the area.

Currency

American Express has offices all over the United States and used to offer better exchange rates than airports or other places (call around, and consider using an ATM card at your destination. In 2008 when I checked exchange rates, American Express was not very competitive.) We did take travelers checks – in the currency of the country (so for example, we had travelers checks in francs), but travelers checks were not readily recognized and we did have some delays cashing them. Smaller towns presented more problems than larger ones.

Do plan on using cash; Europe is not quite as accepting of credit cards as America.

You’ll note that in almost all of my travels, I generally try to pick an area and see everything possible rather than run from location to location. If you’re looking to see all of Europe in one trip, these tips won’t necessarily be best for you. Hiking is also something I spend a lot of time doing. Most of the books or web sites I recommend have a hiking slant. If you’re looking for more general tourist information, historical sites or things like that, extend your search!

Electrical appliances/Internet Connections
You’ll need electrical adapters in order to use items such as hair dryers, shavers, etc. The cheaper travel adapters handle the voltage differences; however if you have expensive equipment such as a computer, in order to protect it against possible damage, you may want to get the highest quality adapter available (you want an adapter that has a transformer in it.) Some of the cheaper adapters can be sloppy in the conversions. If you intend to hook up to the internet, you’ll need phone adapters for your phone cable. The phone jacks in Europe don’t use the same connectors–and each country may have a different connector. Try an electronics store or a store that sells baggage for these equipment needs.

France Sept 1999

A few years ago, we went to France on a business trip. We were in Nice, along the Mediterranean after the tourism season had died down a bit. We found the people there helpful and friendly and no one seemed to mind our broken attempts at speaking French. We enjoyed the trip and learned a few things:

Don’t drive unless you absolutely need a car to get to a particular location. The roads are much narrower than in the United States and the drivers use lines as “guides.” Road laws would more properly be called, “convenient suggestions if you have the time.” Driving is especially hazardous in large towns/cities. If you do get a car, get a SMALL car. Parking is non-existent and the smaller the car, the better.

When using road signs to try and get to destinations, only the large towns or cities are marked. On our way to the Grand Canyon du Verdon we kept looking for signs to the next town—but those on our roadmap were apparently too small to warrant any kind of road marker—either in the town themselves or as mileage markers to the “next” destination. As a result, we got lost and found it very difficult to figure out where we were going. It was impossible to stop as the roads do not have space to pull over.

Many of the quaint towns have perfume factories or wine shops. However, there isn’t any place to park the car. The roads often go straight through a town. You are through it before you know it and the side of the road is right up against either a sidewalk, an ancient medieval wall or shops. We never did figure out where we were supposed to park. In bigger towns, it was possible to pull into a park or supermarket and get out and walk to various shops or find a public bathroom.

Bathrooms can be scary and hard to find. One of them was this old fashioned kind of place that really had nothing more than a ceramic hole in the floor with running water. When I flushed it, with one of those old fashioned pull chains, the noise was so loud, I swear I thought the thing was exploding. Scared the bajeebers out of me. Exited that water closet in a hurry.

Many of the bathrooms require money. Keep some change on hand.

Eating in Nice was a rather lengthy affair. That is to say, eating dinner took about two or three hours. It is a main event and is supposed to fill the evening. We learned this the hard way. Go to dinner as early as possible and long before you are hungry. Each restaurant will offer you a wine or before-dinner drink. Whether or not you order the wine, you will still wait the appropriate amount of time before menus show up. Then you will be offered an appetizer. Again, whether you order or not, you get to wait through some magic stopwatch somewhere. On to salads and dinner. Don’t rush now, because you are supposed to be enjoying the ambiance, same thing you’ve been doing for the last thirty minutes.

Food in France is excellent. After you eat the main course, dessert is offered and then an after-dinner drink. All with the wait that goes with it, whether or not you order. I highly recommend that you do order desserts in France. They are the best in the world and by the time you are done eating and waiting, you’ll be hungry again anyway. Also, at least in Nice, they don’t bring the check until you ask for it. No one wants you to feel rushed.

Don’t be afraid to eat at the pubs (bars). The food there is excellent and the service quite a bit speedier. They will still offer you appetizers and drinks, but they seem a lot less hung up on making sure you take your time. The desserts at the pubs were second to none. The food ranged from lasagna to other exotic dishes that I knew nothing about. All of it was superb and pricing was very reasonable.

One more point about dinner—most restaurants don’t open until about seven at night. By that time my stomach was about to crawl out and start looking for food on its own. Some pubs are open earlier than the restaurants. For lunch, places open specifically for lunch and then close in the afternoon. Almost all places are closed from two until six or seven so plan your meals and carry emergency snacks.

In Nice the beaches are not sandy—they are made up of smooth round rocks. If you are planning several days on the “beach” take water shoes. The water is beautiful and warm. The beaches in Nice were all topless, but of course, you don’t have to go topless.

The best part of sightseeing was when we drove through the preAlps (foothills of the Alps?). This drive was where we saw the Europe of our expectations; castles, towns, and chateaus perched on mountainsides in clusters. Friendly people were eager to help, and we found villages with outdoor markets where fruit and other grocery items could be purchased.

Narrow winding mountain roads with breathtaking scenery were ours to be had. The traffic was easy once we were away from the coastal towns. In particular we enjoyed the Gorges du Cians. It was well worth the drive and we continued on a ways through the mountains to Beuil and then looped back to Nice.

We used the “Michelin Green Guide to the French Alps” 1998. Plan ahead. We had a hard time finding roadmaps. Find maps and other things on the web before you go as we did not have a lot of luck finding them once we were there. If you get there and need them, try bookstores—but they weren’t out on the shelves, we had to ask.

Getting to Switzerland
We traveled by train to Switzerland. Would I do it that way again? Depends on airline prices—they were almost equivalent to train prices at the time. The trip took about 9 hours (I miscalculated and thought it would be faster.) I also thought we would be able to see lots of the countryside.

We did see some, although there several lowered train track areas where all we saw was walls. The occasional castle could be seen from the train, as well as olive gardens, wineries, and hills. Since I’m a get-out-and-do type of person, I would have preferred to get there faster and start hiking. On the plus side—it beat driving. The train did all the work and all we had to do was relax.

A friend recommended taking a sleeper train next time—that would have saved the lost day and cost about the same. I’m not a very sound sleeper however and wasn’t sure I would have gotten a lot of sleep. I would consider it above just the day ride were I in that situation again. There is food on the train, but for cost savings and selection, you might want to bring your own!

Planning a possible trip to Spain next year. Thinking about going in Sept or Oct. Yeah, yeah, I’ve noticed the weak dollar. My plan is to cost average in. Buy some now (well, when the dollar pretends to be strong again) and then buy a little more Euros later and so on. Or maybe by then we’ll all be back on the gold standard and I should be buying bullion. But I digress.

What I want to know today is this:

Why is it that when looking for maps of Spain, I can find them on amazon UK–that ship from the US? These same maps aren’t available at Amazon US. If I were to order them from amazon UK, I’d pay international shipping rates, pay in Euros (converted) and then the map would come from Jersey. HUH?

Currency
American Express has offices all over the United States and used to offer better exchange rates than airports or other places that service such requests after you have arrived at your destination. Check with them and with your local bank. UPDATE: As of 2008, I couldn’t find any bank or credit card that offered competitive exchange rates. Using an ATM card to get cash once in the country seemed the best bet.

For this trip, 1999, we did take travelers checks – in the currency of the country (so for example, we had travelers checks in francs), but travelers checks were not readily recognized and we did have some delays cashing them. Smaller towns presented more problems than larger ones.

Do plan on using some cash though; Europe is not quite as accepting of credit cards as America.

In almost all of my travels, I generally try to pick an area and see everything possible rather than run from location to location. If you’re looking to see all of Europe in one trip, these tips won’t necessarily be best for you. Hiking is also something I spend a lot of time doing. Most of the books or web sites I recommend have a hiking slant.

Electrical appliances/Internet connection
You’ll need electrical adapters in order to use items such as hair dryers, shavers, etc. The cheaper travel adapters handle the voltage differences; however if you have expensive equipment such as a computer, in order to protect it against possible damage, you may want to get the highest quality adapter available (you want an adapter that has a transformer in it.) Some of the cheaper adapters can be sloppy in the conversions. If you intend to hook up to the internet, you’ll need phone adapters for your phone cable. The phone jacks in Europe don’t use the same connectors–and each country may have a different connector. Try an electronics store or a store that sells baggage for these equipment needs.

Getting to Switzerland
After flying into Nice, France, we traveled by train to Switzerland. I thought we would be able to see lots of the countryside. We did see some, although there were several lowered train track areas where all we saw was walls. The occasional castle could be seen from the train, as well as olive gardens, wineries, and hills.

Since I’m a get-out-and-do type of person, I would have preferred to get there faster and start hiking. On the plus side—it beat driving. The train did all the work and all we had to do was relax.

A friend recommended taking a sleeper train next time—that would have saved the lost day and cost about the same. I’m not a very sound sleeper however so I wasn’t comfortable with this idea.

There is food on the train, but for cost savings and selection, bring your own!

Switzerland – Sept 1999

Switzerland was a very special trip. Oh, what a magical place. We arrived in Geneva and took a train to the Bernese/Oberland area. When traveling here, it is imperative that you plan ahead and get reservations for a place to stay before you leave. Here are a few things we learned.

From Geneva (I can’t remember if we had to get this special train ticket at the main train station associated with the airport or a different one—ask before you leave the airport area!) it is possible to purchase “The Swiss Card”–a discount train ticket that allows you one round trip journey to an area within Switzerland.

So for example, since we were going to the Bernese/Oblerland area and spending the week there, this ticket was perfect—it saved us having to buy individual train tickets and also meant we got a discount on the Bernese/Oberland area three or five day pass (Jungfrau pass).

We learned about the Jungfrau pass through our hotel (often hotels will combine rooms with the pass). You can also ask at the train station in Interlaken about which passes are available for the region. I think the “Swiss Pass” is similar to the “Swiss Card,” but is used more for long distance trips in Switzerland rather than covering a single area.

Contact the tourism office of the main town you will be in—for example, at the time we went, mail@InterlakenTourism.ch was the email address for the Interlaken tourism area.

Check the www.raileurope.com website for information on other various pass cards. I had trouble finding out what was available from the U.S. side. It wasn’t until we got to Switzerland that I was able to figure out all the nuances so ask questions frequently once you arrive. It is my understanding that the more common Eurorail passes don’t work on most of the localized train systems within Switzerland so study what will and won’t work before you go.

The train passes appear expensive at first, but getting passes that allow you to go to and from any town (or within a region) come in handy and end up being money well spent.

Many of the Swiss passes can only be purchased at particular locations—ie you cannot purchase them ahead of time. We learned about the passes by reading a book, “Daytrips Switzerland” by Norm P.T. Renouf. This book was an excellent guide for worthwhile hikes and other information. I highly recommend it.

Take advantage of SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) check-in service when using the trains for long distances (such as to and from the Geneva train station). This service forwards your bags to your final destination. We used it and we loved it.

Don’t be intimidated by the complexity of the train passes; if things get out of hand, you can always just buy the ticket you need. We had no problem finding English speaking people to help us. Always show any pass you have when purchasing other tickets or passes. Most of them get you discounts on subsequent purchases.

When making your reservations to stay in Switzerland, get “half-board” at your hotel. This means your breakfast and dinner is included with accommodations. Food is very expensive in Switzerland and there are far more restaurants in larger towns than in smaller ones—hours of operation can also be confusing, so you’re much better off setting it up with the hotel ahead of time—it will save you both time and money. Every place we ate (whether our hotel or at other hotels for lunch) had quality food so I doubt you will be disappointed. If you don’t do half-board, plan eating excursions early.

We stayed at Hotel Silberhorn in Lauterbrunnen. The food was fabulous and the accommodations wonderful.

Telephone systems in Switzerland have different charges—get a prepaid phone card before you leave and make sure it works in the countries you are visiting. In Switzerland be prepared to still pay a reasonable usage fee anyway. There is often a local toll that must be paid to the hotel so don’t be surprised if it shows on your bill. The same applies for “toll free.” There is still a local fee for phone use.

Our phone from the room didn’t allow for international or toll free calls until the fees were explained to us because the hotel had had problems with American’s arguing over their bills due to the fact that toll free here means “free” for the person placing the call.

Another book I found useful: “Walking Easy Swiss and Austrian Alps” by Chet and Carolee Lipton.

We didn’t get to take nearly enough hikes while we were there! Never enough time! The great thing about hiking in Switzerland is that you can take gondolas or ski lifts to the top of several areas and hike down—cutting your hiking time and allowing you to see more. Of course we did do Jungfraujoch (the highest mountain in Europe) and it comes complete with glaciers and Alpine Vistas. Fabulous.

We also walked to the Trummelbach waterfalls—worth a walk.

We rode to the top of Schilthorn and then on the way down got off in Brig and walked down to Murren and took the train back to Lauterbrunnen (where Hotel Silberhorn is located.) This hike is ALL downhill and took about four hours. Don’t do this hike unless you are in good shape! The first part of the hike was covered in a few inches of show and ice, but the hike was glorious. Absolutely stunning.

Another excellent hike if you have it in you is the trip up the Grindelwald chair lift, to Firstbahn, hike to the Bachalpsee lake, and on to Faulhorn. We ate at Faulhorn—all food is brought in by helicopter—and if you walk up there, you’ll know why. We returned via some rather adventuresome footing to end back at Schynige Platte where we caught a train to Lauterbrunnen. Warning: This is an all day hike and strenuous. Don’t do this hike unless you are used to hiking up to ten or more miles in a stretch. Take food and plenty of water.

Shopping
For shopping, Interlaken seemed to be the place to go, although all the smaller towns had various shops with watches, Swiss army knives, clocks, chocolate and embroidery. The “Daytrips Switzerland” mentioned above recommended some of the shops, highlighting quality and reputation. Since it rains often in Switzerland, take an umbrella and shop on one of the rainy days!

We could have easily spent a month here and never run out of things to see and do. Switzerland was clean, friendly and beautiful. It is also probably a tad more expensive (including food, lodging and transportation) than some other places in Europe so be prepared. Was it worth it? You bet. Would I save my money and do it again? Absolutely!