The answer is easy. Pull out one of our old battleships with huge 16″ guns (and many others) cruise right to the ports where the pirates hang and blast away until there is not one ship left. This is cheap and this is visually stunning and I’d love to be there. Imagine the poop that will come out of the pirates bottoms when they see this come in and start blasting!

The photos will show how tired we were. All through the rail portion of the first day, we were totally beat and on edge. Once we arrived in Toledo and checked in, we had been up close to 24 hours. We decided to stay up until 9 PM so we could sync up with the local time. We ended up wondering around the streets of the old city for hours, climbing and descending the steep stone streets before finally ending up at a restaurant & bar across the street from our hotel. We ate jamon and drank Spanish beer and wine until we collapsed into our room at 9 pm. There was an open air ‘rock’ concert in the Plaza de Toros which reverberated around the city that night and actually helped us fall asleep with the cool breeze falling into the bedroom from the ancient open window of our room above the stone courtyard of the hotel and apartments. Enjoy if this www.blurb.com widget works well enough.

This book was preliminary and I am looking to re-publish with tighter editing. Cheers, Yarbz

THE FLAT TIRE SCAM:

Not all moving vehicle scams involve taxi drivers, suggests Robert Siciliano, head of IDTheftSecurity.com. “My wife was traveling in Spain and stopped at a red light,” he recounts. “Someone knocked on her passenger window and kept pointing towards [the car] and saying ‘tire flat, tire flat.’ She got out of the car to look and they opened up the passenger door and took her purse off the seat.”

THE TROJAN HORSE SCAM:

Tour guide Ann Lombardi of the Trip Chicks says she “recently watched a schemer in action in Frankfurt Germany train station” perform the classic hollow suitcase with rollers and frame trick, which Lombardi says works thusly: “A distracted tourist takes his eyes off his bag for a second. Behind the tourist lurks a guy with an enormous suitcase. In a flash, the thief lifts the enormous hollow luggage, puts it over the tourist’s bag, and calmly wheels away with his prized catch.” Avoid such schemers by always protecting your luggage between your legs while in crowded transportation areas, she says.

THE BASKSHEESH SCAM:

While in Egypt, longtime flight attendant Betty Thesky, author and podcast host of Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase, recalls that it was hard to look away when “a local man started yelling ‘Madam madam madam!’ and, when he had my attention, he pointed at a sculpture. I have eyes; I could see the sculpture, but because he pointed to it, he now considered himself my personal tour guide, and he wanted money. He followed me around saying, ‘Baksheesh, baksheesh, baksheesh!’ which means tip. The goal seemed to be to irritate me enough so that I would give him money just to make him stop,” Thesky says, which she did not do, though baksheesh man continued harassing her.

THE SPILL SCAM:

That ‘bird poop’ on your shoulder might very well be tube mustard that’s been squirted there by a scammer, says Lombardi, after which the scammer or an accomplice offers to “help wipe the offending matter off your clothing. Then swoosh! There go your wallet, passport, and other valuables.” Invest in a money belt, Lombardi suggests.

THE MONEY DROP SCAM:

Lonely Planet’s Reid observes that “Moscow toughs still try to play the mind-numbingly obvious, though apparently still successful, money-drop trick,” performed when “a guy rushes past a foreign visitor in the Red Square area and ‘accidentally’ drops a wad of hundred dollar bills. Another tough guy picks it up at your feet and offers to share it with you. If you do, the original guy will track you down and demand the full amount back.”

THE SKIM SCAM:

It’s not uncommon for a dishonest merchant to “add an extra zero or two when submitting his merchant’s copy of your signed credit card receipt to the card provider,” yielding an inflated charge that you’ll have to contest when you get home, says Lombardi, who recommends “writing long, dark horizontal lines before and after the charge amount on the receipt you sign overseas.”

Private investigator Jeff Stein says to look out for skimming, which involves a small electronic “skimmer” used to swipe the magnetic strip on your credit card and steal its information. “A skimmer can hold hundreds if not thousands of card holder account numbers,” Stein says, and “it used to be common for waiters and waitresses to use them.” Once you leave the restaurant, Stein says, the scammer can “retrieve the information from the skimmer and start placing orders with your account number.”

THE ATM RECEIPT SCAM:

How ATM users handle their receipts is a source of a perpetual scam, says John M. Wills, a former Chicago police officer and retired supervisory special agent for the FBI. Scammers “can spot out-of-towners [at ATMs] in a heartbeat,” Wills says, and “when they do see one, they will be on the lookout for how that ‘mark’ handles the receipt. If they leave it at the machine, or crumple it and put it in the nearby trash,” the scammers will retrieve the receipt to see how much you withdrew as well as your remaining balance. The rest, Wills says, is history. “The bad guys tail the man or woman until the opportune time presents itself to rob them of their money, force them to withdraw the balance of their account, or do both. It all works because people just aren’t aware of their surroundings. It’s easy money.”

THE POUR SCAM:

Stein says he’s often hired by bar owners and hotel and casino chains to root out bartenders “who will ring you up for the premium liquor, however they will use the house brand and pour the premium liquors to a future customer and pocket the cash without ringing it up on the register,” Stein explains. “Or they’ll charge you for the premium, but pour you the house brand and pocket the difference.”

THE SOB STORY SCAM:

Traveler Hali Chambers was sitting on a bench in the Seattle airport when a man approached her and asked for help.

“He launched into a story about how he had a fight with his girlfriend and she took off without him and he had no money to take the shuttle,” Chambers recalls. “He was waving a shuttle schedule at me. I extended my hand and said, ‘Hi, I’m Hali. What’s your name?’ He said, ‘Sean.’ And then I said, ‘And your girlfriend’s name?’ He didn’t answer right away, but then said, ‘Jennifer.’ The man started in on her again with his story, at which point Chambers asked him if he was from around there. His response? “Are you going to give me the money or not?’” She didn’t.

Thanks to FoxNews for these tips… One must always be aware it seems. Also don’t for get this scam which is popular in certain countries:

THE CUT OF AMERICAN TOURIST’S HEAD WITH A RUSTY KNIFE SCAM:

Once this one has been pulled on you you really won’t care anymore… Watch for it!

Feste and Mrs. Feste in backyard glades
How I Love Winter!!!!!!