Poland, France, Denmark & Sweden…running around Europe

Quick credit card update.

We just got our 22nd credit card. It comes with a $795 annual fee. No big deal. Each of those 22 cards returns 2X-4X more than the annual fee. When they don’t? I dump ’em. The total credit limit on those cards is more than $440,000. The total annual fees? Somewhere around $5,000. Remember, I made $92,000 doing this in 2024. I just had my first credit card rejection. Why? They said I had opened too many credit cards recently. C’mon man!

New format today.

Today I’m using a new format. I don’t expect to use this format all that often unless there is an overwhelming amount of positive feedback. I’m on Facebook. I have about 3,000 FB friends. I frequently post several times a day on the topics I cover in my newsletter: Finance, travel, and trackchasing. No religion or politics in my posts.

Please give me your feedback. One, two, or three?

1. Sounds good to use this format once in a while.
2. I love this so much I can’t even say it in words.
3. Nope. This sucks. Go back to the old format.

One of the best things about my lifestyle is that I am “comfortable with uncertainty.” A couple of days ago, after being gone for nearly a month in Europe, I flew from Sweden to Finland to England to Southern California. Two days after that, I flew from Los Angeles to Columbus, Ohio. Tonight at about 5 PM, I will decide if I’m going to drive overnight to New York or stay another night in Columbus and fly to Idaho tomorrow morning. I commonly don’t know what state I will be sleeping in by noon of that day, and sometimes I don’t know what country I will be sleeping in. I guess that’s being “comfortable with uncertainty.”

We were just approved for our 22nd credit card. We had to work to get this one. It comes with a $795 annual fee. I couldn’t care less what a credit card’s annual fee is… if the reward is dramatically more. Our combined credit limit for those 22 cards is slightly over $440,000. What does that mean? If we’re down at the grocery and need to add a few extra items to our cart, we’ll have the financial backing to do so. Remember, when you see somebody doing something that you think is crazy but you’re pretty sure they’re not crazy, the answer is usually about the money. Of course, nobody should do anything like this unless they’re willing to pay their credit card bills off every month, and even then, there are exceptions to that rule.

More than 11 years ago, I installed 38 solar panels on the roof of our house. Today, if we didn’t have solar, our average monthly electric bill would be $500 a month. As it is, our electric bill is zero, and they actually give us a little bit of money back each year. This past year, a guy came along and gave me five more solar panels for free. Ask me how later. Now our rooftop solar plant is producing so much free electricity that we don’t even turn the lights off when we go to bed.

Usually, when we leave on a trackchasing trip, our “last supper“ is a stop at In-N-Out Burger. However, because I’ve been gone for so long, we changed it up, and my first dinner back was at In-N-Out. The charge for two sandwiches, two orders of fries, and two drinks? $20.63. No matter how hard I look, I’ve never been able to find any inflation in my life. What happened to those people who used to complain so strongly about inflation?

The only piece of luggage I took on my 26-day trip to Europe is back and being replenished for the next outing.

If you need me today, I’ll likely be about 35,000 feet above the ground. Stockholm-Helsinki-London-Los Angeles. Don’t worry, give me a call. I’ll probably be watching movies on my iPad, but I always have time for you. 

Twenty-six days in Europe. This was a fantastic trip. Tomorrow I fly from Stockholm, Sweden, to Helsinki, Finland, to London, England, to Los Angeles, California. From the time I wake up until the time I hope to pull into my driveway, it’s 27 hours. It turned out to be 29 hours. Don’t worry. I’m home for a couple of days before I leave on a three-night trackchasing trip in the U.S.

Carol and I bought lawn chairs at the dollar store for the racing in Sweden. The folk racing tracks rarely have much in the way of grandstands. That’s my blue chair. I will leave it at the track today since it’s too much of a hassle to try to bring it home.

This triangle signifies a young driver in Sweden. These drivers are only permitted to drive a maximum of 30 km per hour, or about 18 mph, regardless of the road they are on. This creates quite a challenge on their roads where the maximum speed limit is 110 km per hour.

This was the experience at the Rosendalsbanan, Swedish folk racing today. Fans were like mountain goats. They had to find a place to sit on the side of a rocky mountain. 

Lunch on the long and dusty Swedish trackchasing trail.

Groundhog Day! Every morning for the past several days, I’ve gotten up, made my own waffle, smothered it with whipped cream and strawberry preserves, and I had to eat it while I was gazing at this beautiful view in Malmö, Sweden. This is not an easy life, but it’s my life. 

Carol’s 10-night adventure to Europe has ended. Don’t worry. She has more big trips planned for the year. Her luggage weighs more than she does. I’d like to keep it that way! OK, that’s a joke. Geez.

Best day of the trip? Maybe. Carol and I have arrived at the Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden to see the AC/DC concert.

Carol is rocking her Sturgis shirt today in Gothenburg, Sweden. She gets an addition to her wardrobe tonight when she pulls into the AC/DC concert. This woman gets around!

P.S. Carol’s parents used to own a Motel & Campground in Dayton, Wyoming. Peter Fonda always stayed overnight there on his way to Sturgis. And now you know the rest of the story. 

I’m on a kick of getting my haircut in foreign countries. Several weeks ago I got a haircut in Mozambique. This is my Swedish haircut.

This might be the coolest photo I’ve taken on our trip. The father, seated left, never takes his eyes off his son getting a haircut. He seemed super proud of the entire situation. It might’ve been his son’s first ever haircut. Of course the boy gets his treat.

When we are not trackchasing, we are touring. Today we went to the “World of Volvo” automotive museum in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo is headquartered in Gothenburg. This had to be the most unique and coolest architecture I’ve ever seen for a museum. It was a fun experience. We rode a tram to get there. Over the years Volvo has made just about everything.

Our hotel in Denmark has a beautiful beachfront location. We’re just enjoying our vacation.

If you are lucky enough to have a spouse/significant other/friend who you can say to, “Meet me in Copenhagen, Denmark next Tuesday” and they can do that… then you are lucky enough. My wife, Carol, took those instructions and ran with it. Did you know that she is the World‘s #2 Trackchaser with 54 countries? Her nickname is, “The Littlest Trackchaser.” She brings her lifetime track total of 722 tracks to the Nordic countries in hopes of some additions.

Maybe there’s a reason that I’m the only trackchaser that actively trackchases outside of North America. Gasoline in France was $8.85 a gallon. In 36 hours I drove 1,107 miles. France has lots of toll roads and if you don’t take them, it will take you forever to get where you’re going. My total toll road bill in those 36 hours that I drove the car amounted to about $200. Don’t forget, I’ve been unemployed for 24 straight years.

As you know, we travel internationally all the time. This trip is going to be known for a “worst of all time“ aspect. The hotel rooms have been terrible. They don’t have air conditioning. I’ve never been more uncomfortable in my life. A big part of this trip was a four-night stop in Gothenburg, Sweden, where I would be entertaining Carol. We would be staying in the only Hyatt owned property in all of Sweden. I hold top frequent stay status with Hyatt but when we checked in, they gave us only a standard room and the air did not work well. I didn’t give up. I got them to upgrade us to this suite for the last three nights of our stay here at no extra charge. If you don’t ask, you don’t get so you had better ask and do it the right way. 

I love dollar stores. This is one of the big dollar store chain retailers in Sweden and Denmark. Of course since the local currency for both of these countries is the kroner I’m not sure why “dollar“ is in the name. Racing in this part of the world is done at venues that rarely has a formal grandstand.People bring their lawn chairs, blankets or just stand. We go to a dollar store and buy a couple of cheaper lawn chairs and use them during our stay and give them to anyone who might need them when we are finished.

If you come to Europe, you’re likely to have a chance to eat some very exotic, beautiful and tasty food. I did that tonight in Malmo, Sweden. Octopus!

Whereever you are traveling worldwide GetYoutGuide will always be there to recommend an unusual and entertaining touring activity.

Swedish folk racing calls for some pretty “out there” seating arrangements.

I’ve been on the road for more than two weeks in Poland, France, Sweden, and Denmark. I’ve been able to meet my walking goals every day. This is a summary of how things looked over the past month. Even the smallest bars are at least 4 miles. What’s that really big bar of 12.5 miles? We went to Disneyland before we left on this trip!

Just rented my car in Paris. I’m in the baggage claim area of Charles de Gaulle airport and these six military guys, all with their finger on the trigger of an M-16, came patrolling past. Don’t know if that made me feel safer or not.

The Notre Dame Catheral is back in business after their big fire.

I doubt there is a single person reading this that went on their honeymoon in a Tesla.

During my trip to Sweden and Denmark I visited several auto museums. American antique cars are very popular in Scandanavia both on the road and in museums. This Edsel looks like a good-looking car.

This is French stock car racing. They work on their cars a bit differently here.

I stayed in a “F1” hotel in France. These are the discount of all of the discount hotel chains. Their front desk closes at 9 p.m. I pulled in about 1 a.m. I had to use this “ATM looking like” machine to get my room key. F1 hotels are cheap and I don’t really care for buying cheap things cheap unless I have no choice.

If you ever get the chance to see French police wearing roller blades I recommend taking a photo and dealing with the fallout later.

So…I’m riding on a French train to go into the city centre of Paris. The guy on the far left gets on the train and sits down next to me. We ride a couple of stops. Then about eight French police storm onto the train. At first I thought it was about the parking ticket I didn’t pay on my last visit. But, no! They were looking for my new friend. Soon he was escorted off the train to who knows where.

I’ve been to the Eiffel Tower many times. Nevertheless, I always need to get my picture taken. Once in a while the person I give my phone too gets creative.

 

 

 

Carol is not on Facebook. I would really appreciate it if she never knows that I really can do my own laundry if needed.

Krakow, Poland is a great smaller eastern European city to visit and tour. I took the tour of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. This was the biggest concentration camp that existed anywhere during World War II for the extermination of Jewish people and others.

The entire point of a hobby like trackchasing is that when you’re not at a race is to take the time to see and do whatever is available wherever you are visiting. I’ve been doing that my entire life. River cruises are always fun and this one in Krakow, Poland was as well. 

While walking around Krakow, Poland’s old town area, I discovered this informal opera. The crowd loved it. Did you know that the Main Square in Krakow is considered the “largest medieval town square in Europe?”

In my hometown of San Clemente, California we just had a mountain lion sighting. That’s fairly common. We actually have good sized coyotes roaming the streets within a couple of blocks of my house.

In San Clemente, it’s the Pacific Ocean then 1-3 miles of residential homes and then low rolling desert that leads to nearby mountains. Despite California having a large population these types of wild animals are always nearby.

My first car, a 1955 Pontiac Chiefton, did not have AI, artificial intelligence. Now, my Tesla Model X does. When I had that Pontiac, I always wished it had two things. Power windows, and artificial intelligence.

Trackchasing in Poland gives new meaning to the word, “rural”.

I hope you’re having a good summer. It’s been hot everywhere I’ve been. Europeans hotels mostly don’t have air-conditioning. That is bad!

See you next time.

Randy Lewis – Somewhere out in the middle of nowhere in Poland