I’m not a Frenchie, I’m a Belgie (Thursday, September 20, 2007)

Most days, my blog entries are written 1 or 2 days after-the-fact. They’ve proven a great way to use time on the train. But this evening, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to blog “live” (although I won’t actually upload the material until later). I’m sitting at a café in Brussels Grand Place, having just eaten dinner (the photo is taken from where I am sitting). Brussels is an interesting place, although I really haven’t seen very much of the town. Lots of different languages are being spoken. The only thing that seems to be constant is the number of bags from the local chocolate stores. I estimate there are at least 20 stores selling chocolate (exclusively) within a 2 block radius of my current location. I assure you this is a conservative estimate. In earlier days, I might have been compelled to test many (if not all) of the offerings. But after 12 years since my last dessert, I figured I could keep the streak alive for one more day & pass on the chocolate.

As for my dinner, I would have opted for the local favorite food (mussels and fries) tonight, but my stomach was bothering me earlier, so I went for something simple (a ham omelet). And sadly, I’ve had no Belgian beer to wash down my food. The Belgians do make a very tasty sparkling water, though.

My day started at my canal-side hotel in Bruges. I have to admit that Bruges was somewhat more of a tourist trap than I expected. Don’t misunderstand me, it is still a very nice town and far from a “rip-off”. Yet the whole town seems devoted to the tourist. Nevertheless, I enjoyed wandering the town, taking an opportunity to climb 377 steps to the top of the city hall tour. It was a funny staircase, getting so tight at the top that I had to remove my backpack to get through.

(An aside: The lights just came on in the city hall in Grand Place. I’ve really enjoyed taking photos in Europe at night…tonight looks like no exception).

I also went to a church that has the first Michelangelo statue that left Italy. I’ve seen quite a lot of ornate, Gothic-style churches this trip. This church would be very impressive, had it not been for the many spectacular churches I’ve recently seen.

I also took a 30-minute canal boat trip. The canals of Bruges don’t really compare to say, Amsterdam or Venice. But they add charm to the town, and provide another perspective. The small (20 person) boat had people from France, Belgium, Germany, Japan, England, Canada and the US, a pretty diverse crowd. The tour guide/boat driver offered commentary in Dutch, German, French, and English.

Other than that, I just walked around and saw the town. It’s a nice place. If you are into beer, chocolate, or lace, it’s probably heaven. It’s also good if you like all thing Dutch, but don’t want to travel the extra hour or two to Holland.

I took a mid-afternoon train back to Brussels. Unfortunately, I missed the twice-hourly train by a matter of seconds (thanks in part to the construction at the Bruges train station). I got off at the Brussels Central station (as opposed to the main station called “Brussels-MIDI”). It too was under construction, and finding the luggage lockers was a far from trivial task. Eventually, I prevailed, stowing my luggage and then heading out to see the town. I had to switch languages once again, as Flemish is prevalent in Bruges, but French prevails in Brussels. Let’s see: I went from Hungarian to German (in Austria) (and briefly to Slovakian) to Czech back to German (in Germany) to French (in Luxembourg) to Flemish (in Bruges) back to French (in Brussels). Whew! Thankfully, English (with a little German mixed in) was able to carry me through.

I walked around a shopping district for awhile, at one point running into a large police presence and a loud mob. After getting a safe distance away, I asked a shop keeper what was going on (hoping it wasn’t a railway strike). His reply, “It’s about tonight’s football match.” I figured I must have run into the Irish or possibly Scottish team. Or perhaps it was a repeat from ten years ago in Vicenza, Italy, when the potential hooligans were from Naples? Nope. These loud fans that were being barricaded away from others by a large police presence were from…Vienna. I must admit that revelation came as something of a surprise.

I eventually wandered to the “Mannekin Pis” statue. Today, he was dressed in clothing from Chile (apparently, they are celebrating some sort of anniversary). There was a whole horde of people gawking at a 2 foot tall statue of a boy, well, relieving himself. I walked over to Grand Place (where I am now), a very impressive town square. It’s almost as though it was designed by Hollywood, with the different building lining the square. The restaurants and cafes (all terribly overpriced) were mostly full, on a day where it is approximately 55 degrees. The chocolate stores were doing a healthy business (perhaps that’s a contradiction in terms?). And there are lots of people to watch. People-watching isn’t really my preferred sport, but it is fun to do on occasion. And I can’t imagine a much better place to watch people than Brussels’ Grand Place.

With that, I think I’ll sign off. I plan to have one or two more entries, documenting my travel home and some general thoughts and impressions from the trip. It’s been a fun three weeks; challenging at times (especially with the illness that just won’t go away), but fun. I’ll save other thoughts for later, as now it’s time to get the check and head towards my airport hotel. This time, my flight is at a humane departure time (11:20am), and I don’t have to do much to prepare. This is a very different scenario than my departure, to be sure.

A post script: As I walked between Grand Place and the train station, I got to witness first-hand one of the truly Brussels traditions. A gentleman, probably about 50, dressed in a suit and tie, picked a fairly vacant and dark spot of a nearby square to relieve himself publicly. For a moment, it was like I was back in college. Ah, youth…or Brussels.

Pass the Duchy (Wednesday, September 19, 2007)

To the best of my recollection, I’ve never had a single day in my life where I visited two different countries (each for the first time). I’ve had a few days where I stopped in multiple countries, but never such that two countries were both new to me.

That is, until today. I started the day in Trier and caught a relatively early (for me, before 9am IS early) train to Luxembourg (about an hour away). The train ride from Trier was through the countryside, with fields of corn and hay, along with grazing land. Upon my arrival, I stuffed my luggage into a locker and set off to wander around the city. The main sights are about 10 minutes away from the train station. Luxembourg City doesn’t have any spectacular sights (or at least that I saw), but it is very nice. The main city is on a bit of a hill, surrounded by a very nice park (in what would be a very large moat). I walked around, took pictures and took advantage of the city’s free wireless internet service, then walked back to the train station. In total, I spent three hours touring the city. My only mistake was that I forgot to initially ask the tourist information person where I could get my passport stamped (they didn’t do it on the train). The unfortunate answer (which I found out too late) was it can only be done at the tourist office in the center city. As it was about 15 minutes until my train (the next train was in 1 hour) and I didn’t think it was worthwhile to walk back and forth for just a passport stamp, I moved on.

I got on the train headed for Brussels. Just like Luxembourg, I’d never previously been to Belgium. However, I had enjoyed a few Belgian Waffles (and even Belgian Beers) previously, but have never been a big fan of their sprouts. The train ride (about 3 hours) went mostly the countryside. One thought: Belgium is officially bilingual (French and Flemish). I wonder…doesn’t that put an awful strain on the animals? Imagine a poor cow, having to take time from his busy grazing schedule to be fluent in two languages! It just doesn’t seem right.

The weather was fairly nice and sunny when I left Luxembourg (albeit a bit chilly). As I got closer to Brussels, the sky was gray. I’m prepared for this, because the first thing my tour book said about Belgium is that the weather is predictably unpredictable. This means my raincoat and umbrella will be close at hand for the next couple of days.

As I was able to secure a place to stay in Bruges, my stay in Brussels today is limited to changing trains. The process of securing a hotel was complicated by the fact that my cell phone call got dropped a couple of times. Thankfully, the person at the hotel was very kind regarding this inconvenience.

Upon arrival at the main Brussels train station, I could have caught a train to Bruges in a matter of seconds (just across the platform). However, to get to Bruges, I had to know what the ultimate destination of the train was. As the most convenient and timely train was out, I was fortunate that another would come along 30 minutes later. I took the time to wander around the station; it is very large and has trains headed for seemingly everywhere. My train left Brussels at about 5pm, and was absolutely packed (including 1^st class, which was a first for me). However, the train cleared out considerably after the first stop (Ghent). The Bruges train station is under massive reconstruction, so much so that the steps from the platform made of plywood. To get to my hotel, I took one of the many buses headed for the “Markt” (the old marketplace), then walked about 4 blocks (cobblestones) to my hotel. It was situated right next to a canal & I had decided to spring the extra 5 Euros to secure a canal view. This part of Bruges could easily be transplanted into the Netherlands without skipping a beat. The canals, bicycles and Flemish language (very similar to Dutch) made me feel like I had returned to Holland. After resting awhile, I spent some time in the hotel lobby taking advantage of free wi-fi (arranging my final hotel as well as checking my seats for the flight home [good thing, as I now have a better chance of having an empty middle seat for my first leg, although the second leg looks pretty grim]), before heading out for a late dinner. There are a series of cafes that line the Markt, all seemingly aimed at the tourist trade. I opted for a Chinese meal a few steps off the Markt. The server probably spoke more languages than I do, but unfortunately we didn’t have one in common. The food was barely passable and the server was more interested in other matters than getting my check. Try as she might, she still wasn’t a serious challenger for the title, “Employee of the Month”. One funny thing: there was some sort of music playing while I was there, primarily a pan flute recording. I chuckled when I realized the song being played on the pan flute was Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is”. I had managed to stumble into a place with some serious elevator music.

I took a few photos of the area at night and headed back to the hotel. One interesting thing about my room: It appears they installed a prefabricated bathroom into the room. The inside was a series of plastic panels that fit together a bit like Legos. It was very funny, yet functional. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really possible to take a photo that did justice to this sight.

The Tales of Trier (Tuesday, September 18, 2007)

If you think my title is a bad pun, I had thought to call this entry, “Moseying Down the Mosel” (but thought better of it).

I didn’t plan to do much sightseeing in Koln, but rather head towards the towns along the Mosel River. I left my hotel and did plan to take photos of the cathedral (which is conveniently located next door to the train station). The cathedral is massive, supposedly to leave one with a sense of awe. I got to the main train station and headed outside. Rain was falling and it was windy. The rain became more intense and the task of holding my umbrella and trying to take a photo was clearly more than I could handle. So I headed back inside to gather provisions for lunch (they have a very large array of restaurants and a good-sized market). I did have time for another attempt at photographing the cathedral and this time, the weather was more accommodating.

My initial destination was the small town of Cochem along the Mosel River. I changed trains in Koblenz, with our conductor announcing that we would not be able to make the connection (as we were running late and they could not delay that train). As it turns out, I did manage to make the connection (with a little fast walking). The trip from Koblenz to Cochem was mostly on the banks of the Mosel, making for a very scenic trip. Many of the hills had vineyards and there was an occasional cow or two, munching happily.

Cochem is a picture-postcard small town. Many tour groups come here, along with a fleet of boats that sail along the Mosel. I walked from the train station with my luggage (as I couldn’t find the lockers and as the one person selling tickets and answering questions had attracted an unusually long line) towards the center of town (about 10 minutes away). The center of town really was beautiful; as if it were designed solely for tourists. I took many photos along the way, and then headed back to the train station along the river walk. In total, I spent one hour visiting Cochem. I would have liked to have taken a boat trip or visited one of the remote castles in the area, but I just didn’t have enough time.

From Cochem, I made my way to Trier. Trier is “the oldest city in Germany”, sporting ancient Roman ruins. I had booked a hotel next to the train station (a somewhat worn, but nice enough place), so I checked in & dropped off my bags, then set off to see the sights of Trier. The main sights are a ten minute walk from the station, along a park-lined boulevard. I saw the ancient Roman gate (Porta Nigra), the Cathedral and ancient Roman Baths (along with yet another beautiful set of gardens). The baths were very interesting, as the Romans created a fairly elaborate system for transporting the water through the facility. It was a very large site and as I walked through the tunnels, I wondered if I would ever find my way back out of the catacombs/labyrinth.

After sightseeing, I headed back to the hotel for a well-needed nap. Afterwards, I headed to the café next door to catch up on my blog uploading (they had free wireless internet). I was probably the only person there not watching an important soccer match (in the inter-European “Champions League”). It was a bit chilly outside, but the fresh air certainly beat the prospect of going inside, where there was plenty of smoking occurring. This would be one factor that would make it difficult for me to live in Europe: Smoking! The good news is that the train, train stations (at least in theory) and many other places have banned smoking.

Of course, my sensitivity to smoke has only been heightened by my having this upper respiratory infection. Today, it has been a full two weeks with this version of the crud (with the first 2-3 days being the worst of it). I think I’ve done well to not have it cut substantially into my trip. However, my guess is that I’ll only get better once I make it home. In the past few days, my voice has been rather “froggy”, making it surprisingly hard to get German words out. I still find that I speak German well enough to ask the question, yet not understand the answer. But with a froggy voice, even the former is in doubt.

Leaving Berlin for a dose of T+A (Monday, September 17, 2007)

I know the above title may cause concern that my blog has moved from “PG-13” to “R” or “NC-17” (or worse). Never fear...or at least no more than one should typically fear my blog.

I got to bed very, very late Sunday night, yet managed to get up fairly early on Monday. I have now entered the unplanned part of my itinerary; four days and nights with no solid plans or hotel reservations. The only constraint I have is to be in Brussels Friday morning for my flight home. Assuming I don’t receive a better offer.

I figured I’d be heading out from Berlin about midday. There were still many things I wanted to see, but precious little time. As it turned out, I had only about one hour to wander a bit. I took the subway to Potzdamer Platz and walked along one of the only remaining sections of the wall. That walk led me back to Checkpoint Charlie (now overrun with tourists). I walked from there over to the Jewish Museum. Lilan (and Rick Steves) gave this museum a very high recommendation. Unfortunately, I only had time to look at the very interesting outside of the building, before walking back to my hotel.

After checking out, I went back to the subway, this time with my entire collection of luggage. I headed for the HauptBahnhof, and was a bit concerned when one of the subway trains arrived extremely late. Timing was very important, if I was to enjoy T+A this afternoon. I made the train with about 5 minutes to spare. This train was an Inter City Express (ICE) train, which can travel at speeds of 140mph. After two hours, I had made it as far as Bielefeld. I had a very, very tight train connection here (4 minutes to switch platforms), but managed to make my 8 minute train ride to Herford, the home of all things T+A.

What is T+A, you might ask? I think by now, most of you have been subject to that story. My cousin Stirling, is in the very high-end audio business. His company represents T+A, a very well-respected high-end audio company in the US and Asia. T+A stands for “Theorie und Anwendung” (roughly translated, “Theory and Application”). His business associate Siggi Amph, is the Managing Director of T+A. I met Siggi a couple of times at the Consumer Electronic Show. As it turns out, I managed to catch Siggi at the office (he had just returned from the show in Milan and was about to head to Austria). Siggi picked me up at the Herford train station and drove me out to their facility. It’s an impressive operation that has expanded over the decades since Siggi founded the company. While the T+A brand is not a household word in the US, they have a very large following in Europe, due to their outstanding engineering and very attractive styling. Definitely not a brand you’ll see at BestBuy! Siggi’s employees were very friendly and knowledgeable. It was a very pleasant visit and I was glad to see where all this equipment is designed and manufactured.

After Siggi returned me to the Herford train station, I continued on my journey. I semi-randomly decided to aim towards Koln (what we call “Cologne”). It’s about two more hours on the train (another very fast ICE train). I spent the first ten minutes securing lodging for the evening, and spent the remaining time watching the German countryside whiz by, while I caught up on a day or two of blogging).

Koln has a very busy train station. They have one very slick innovation: Instead of having lockers for your baggage, they have an automated storage system, where you put your bags in & get a code (and they are automatically moved down to the basement on conveyor belts, then brought back when you return. I didn’t get to use it and admit I’d be a little skeptical about it working properly (thoughts of the conveyor belt nightmares that initially plagued the new Denver airport come to mind), but it is cool.

My hotel was 4 stops away on the subway. I’m staying tonight at a Hotel Ibis, an economy chain that’s primarily outside the US. It was a very Spartan, utilitarian room. The area around the hotel had some restaurants and shops, but no major sights. Then again, as I’ve been to Koln before (albeit 29 years ago), seeing the sights wasn’t a priority. I had a simple Asian dinner (at a cook-to-order Asian fast-food place) and called it a night.

Checkout Charlie (Sunday, September 16th, 2007)

Charlie and I stayed up late Saturday night, so Charlie’s 7am wake-up call was a bit painful. Charlie succeeded in making his goal of being out of the hotel by 8am and I promptly went back to sleep for another two hours. I’m sorry to see Charlie leave, but after two weeks together I was ready to do a bit of solo exploration.

Then again, solo exploration was on hold (at least for today). My dear friend Lilan (who moved from San Francisco to New York several years ago) is spending two months in Berlin and we are scheduled to spend the day together, which should be a treat on several fronts.

I called Lilan and we talked about where we could meet. But as I remembered she was having some trouble getting her computer to connect to the internet from her sublet apartment, I suggested that I just come by and see if I could sort it out.

Lilan is currently staying in a very functional, somewhat oddly decorated sublet about 5 subway stops from my hotel. I looked over her computer situation and managed to figure things out in a couple of iterations (even with a DSL modem that only spoke “German”). Before long, I had her laptop connecting to the wireless network. My technological prowess will likely be reported (and perhaps exalted) in her very entertaining blog (she’s a writer & it can be found at http://grovergirl.typepad.com/berlinorbust/ ).

Having done my tech support duty, we set off to tour a few colorful neighborhoods of Berlin.

We started with the area around Frankfurter Alley (that springs from Karl-Marx Alley). This is an area where the DDR (East Germany) leveled rows of existing buildings to be able to create grand, wide boulevards. We walked to the Fredrichshain area and visited the Volkspark. Berlin apparently is the “Greenest City”, with the largest amount of area devoted to parks. From there we wandered over to the very popular Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood. This area sustained little damage in the World War II, but crumbled under the watch of the Communists. It has always been very artsy and now seems a bit like a laid-back, artsier version of the Rockridge area of Oakland. They create very interesting play structures in their corner parks; much less pre-fabricated than what we have in the US. All in all, we walked in these areas for about 3 hours. We decided to get a late lunch in the Mitte area (not too far from my hotel). It took a subway train plus a fair amount of walking, but we arrived at a very stylish Vietnamese Café. They had very few choices, but my dish (a chicken dish with coconut milk and spices over rice) was really good. I don’t remember previously eating Vietnamese at an outdoor restaurant; this café had outdoor tables.

After we ate lunch, we set off towards the Reichstag building. The German Parliament was located in Bonn before the wall came down, so when they moved it back to Berlin, they had to have a very special building. We took a series of subways to get to the Haupt Bahnhof (an impressive building in its own ight) and walked over to the Reichstag. While the building is free to enter, there’s a pretty long line (we only had to wait 30-40 minutes total) and very heavy-duty security (along the lines of the security I see at the Frankfurt Airport). The building was originally built in the 1890s, but heavily renovated since the wall fell. Now, the old exterior is an interesting counterpoint to the futuristic glass dome inside. We rode the elevator and walked up many ramps to get the most stellar views. We caught only the end of the process of the sun setting, but stayed up long enough to get some really great and colorful sunset photos.

Lilan accused me of “lucking out” with the weather. Yes and no. While I got to enjoy a beautiful day on Sunday (where I was wearing only a t-shirt all day…okay, so I was wearing pants too), I feel like I earned some good weather from all the days in Hungary and Austria with inclement weather. So there!

Now, I once again bid adieu to my friend. Lilan was off to a literary event and I went off to see more of Berlin at night. I took many, many photographs from the top of the Reichstag, then of the Reichstag from ground level. I walked to the Brandenburg Gate and took several more photos. Then I decided I would do some serious “Berlin at Night”, starting with Potzdamer Platz. It’s not the most authentic place, but I did get a good number of nice photos. From here, I took the subway back to the Zoological Garden and did another iteration of the previous day’s bus tour, hopping off the bus for 10 minutes to view the “Victory Column”. I ended getting off the bus and walking thoroughly around some of “Unter Den Linten” sights I saw on Saturday, getting more beautiful night photos. I ended up in a restaurant area not too far from my hotel for a late dinner. There were lots of restaurants, but they were essentially empty at this late hour. I had a lovely dinner, with the relative calm broken by a completely insane woman who brought her dog inside the restaurant. The staff was telling her to leave, she was screaming, and the dog was barking continuously and loudly. Other than that, Berlin seemed to be a very safe and pleasant city (at least the parts I visited).

When I returned home (after 14 hours away from the hotel), I realized that Berlin was the sort of place I really liked. I will likely come back here, long before I’ve seen all the other places “on my list”. Perhaps I’ll opt to rent an apartment here for a month-long vacation (peppered with side trips)? Too soon to tell when I’ll be back, but it will be a welcome return.

Employee of the Month (Saturday, September 15th, 2007)

We got off to a slow start on Saturday. We stayed up fairly late and after Charlie got 3 crummy nights of sleep in Prague; he really needed a good night of sleep. So we woke up at 11am, rested and ready to tackle Berlin. Our first task was to find the local subway station; not easy, as the most direct route there is through pedestrian thoroughfare (that we missed the first time). Our stop was Spittelmarkt, on the U-2 line. We negotiated getting Charlie an all-day ticket, and then travelled to another station (Alexanderplatz) to get me the “Berlin Welcome” 48 hour ticket.

Alexanderplatz is a major landmark, with a couple of large department stores and quite a few different subway and bus lines. It’s next door to the large TV tower/observation platform. Once again, we relied on Rick’s advice and started walking from here toward the Brandenburg Gate. Within a couple of minutes, we came upon a large crowd at the park. It turns out there was a major peace protest being held. It’s difficult to accurately estimate how many police vehicles and personnel we saw in the next 30 minutes, but 100-200 vehicles (including many that appeared to be “paddy wagons?” and 500 officers is probably a good guess. We decided it might be good to get away from this throng, so we moved on (even though we were about ready for lunch). We walked by a good number of sights on “Unter den Linden” Street, including the Berlin Cathedral, the Palace of the Republic (currently under reconstruction), and the Opera House.

The Brandenburg Gate is a very impressive structure. It was especially well-guarded today (seemingly related to the protests). After Charlie and I each took virtually every possible photo of the gate (and probably some photos that just aren’t possible), we walked over to the Jewish Holocaust Memorial. It consists of something like 2700 graffiti-resistant markers. About this time, the police shut down the local streets to car traffic to allow the protesters (who were marching, probably to the Reichstag building) to pass. Again, I’m not sure how many protesters there were, but I would guess at least 10,000. By this time, we were starving and didn’t want to be too close to the protesters. So we headed towards Potzdamer Platz (referred to as the Times Square of Berlin). We thought about trying one of the many eateries in the enormous Sony Center, but opted instead for a “diner” a block away. Not exactly the epitomy of diner greatness; Charlie said his burger was the worst he had in quite awhile.

After surviving lunch, we headed on the subway to the west to the Zoological Gardens stop. This is where we picked up a double-decker public bus that makes a scenic run from the west to east side of town. We rode the bus for about 40 minutes, seeing the sights (including the main park, the Reichstag building and the other “Unter den Linden” sights we had previously strolled by. Back at Alexanderplatz, I enjoyed a moment of international friendship, as the fruit stand vendor gave me the single banana I selected for free. I also enjoyed a wurst from a totally self-contained vendor; he had his grill in front of him and strapped to him. We went back to the hotel for a few minutes of rest before heading back out.

This time, we headed to the TV tower, hoping to see a great sunset from 200 meters above the city. The line for the elevator moved slowly (perhaps we weren’t the only people with this brilliant idea). We made it to the top in time to see the tail end of the sunset; not spectacular, but enjoyable. This view really underscores how large Berlin is, as the city seems to stretch as far as the eye can see in every direction. It really was a nice view, but probably doesn’t rival the Eiffel Tower.

We then set off towards “Checkpoint Charlie”. By the time we arrived, the area was virtually deserted. We didn’t go through the museum, but got plenty of photos of the area. As it was now time for a late dinner, we found a place that looked good a block south of Checkpoint Charlie. They had a diverse menu, which was quite reasonably priced. We ordered our food from our waiter, only to have a woman bring us a pair of pizzas (that actually belonged to the table next to us). Our waiter brought out our soup, then left for the evening, leaving what appeared to be the owner and his wife. After we finished our soups, the women brought us our food. Mine didn’t look quite right, but I was hungry. After a couple of bites, I determined this wasn’t what I ordered (and the same for Charlie). The owner came by & we mentioned this. He apologized and said the mistake was because the other waiter didn’t speak English. He pressured us into eating what we had. As it tasted good, I figured it would be okay. About 3 minutes later, he came out with what appeared to be the food we ordered and promptly took it to another table. I watched the interaction and saw the other people would have no part of our food. The owner came back to our table with the food and exchanged these dishes for what we had been eating. Then he loudly cursed out his wife (who when not working, was sitting transfixed by the local shopping channel).

The food was very good. So much so, that Charlie even ordered dessert. We had some trouble getting the check, as when we asked the wife for the bill, she just shrugged (looking very annoyed) and kept watching her shopping channel. As you might imagine, the bill wasn’t quite right, but was close enough to not merit further discussion.

We returned to the hotel and crowned the wife from this evening’s restaurant the coveted title of “Employee of the Month” for her customer service efforts far above the level of incompetence and nonchalance expected from such employees. (I never said we were “nice”…with any luck, the woman from Friday night’s taxi experience will enjoy this level of service at her earliest convenience)

Czeching Out a Dresden Blitz (Friday, September 14th, 2007)

Our hotel in Prague has been less than totally efficient. I set up a wake-up call for 7:45 that arrived at 7:10. Okay, better a bit early than late. I checked my laundry and after nearly two hours of drying overnight, it was still pretty damp. The clothes dryer seemed to be more of a clothes heater than a dryer. I set it for another two hours, and headed out on my own to revisit the Castle. Rick Steves’ advice was to get to St. Vitus Cathedral right at the opening time (9am), else be lost in the sea of tour groups that follow shortly thereafter. Boy was he ever right! When I entered, there were perhaps four tour groups. I walked through the impressive church with relatively little obstruction. I am very fond of stained glass windows, and this church had many beautiful examples of stained glass. After seeing the church, I opted to climb the tower staircase (277 steps in one spiral staircase, with probably about 20-25 revolutions in total). The view from the top (after I caught my breath) was quite scenic. The views towards the city were somewhat obscured by haze and sun, but I still ended up taking a lot of nice photos.

From there, I headed back on the tram & metro to the hotel. In short order, I’ve become pretty darned facile in getting around Prague using public transportation. I met Charlie back at the hotel (he had gone to see their television tower that had very unique sculpture), only to find out the laundry was still not entirely dry. I split the remaining laundry between a machine on my floor & the floor below, and hoped for the best. I’m pleased to report that shortly in advance of our departure, we had dry laundry (or at least close enough to dry to not necessitate wrapping it multiple garbage bags).

We checked out and headed for the Holesovice train station, on our way to Dresden. It’s Prague’s secondary train station, but still an easy trip on the metro. There was a huge throng of students waiting for the train. Of course, they were all travelling second class, so the first class car was relatively empty. This arrangement was perfect for me, but not so great for Charlie (who didn’t have a train pass for this route and opted to save $ by going second class on this trip). He ended up having to stand for about 45 minutes (as the throng of students had seemingly reserved a couple of cars worth of seats), then sit with his suitcase nearly in his lap for the balance of the trip. Suffice it to say, he upgraded to first class for the Dresden to Berlin leg of the journey.

The route through the Czech Republic was fairly scenic, including a long stretch along the bank of a picturesque river. We entered into Germany, and shortly thereafter were in Dresden. Dresden is still relatively free of US tourists; virtually everyone we saw were German tourist groups.

We took a scenic tram tour (aka-we got on the right tram going the wrong way). I figured this out within a couple of stops, but as that was getting close to the end of the line, we just stayed on the tram. Once turned around, we were headed for Dresden’s Old Town. Most of the Old Town looks old, but has been reconstructed since the firebombing in 1945. There are a series of very ornate baroque buildings, including a palace and a couple of churches. They have several great museums, but we had decided that we weren’t going to be staying long enough to take them in We decided to climb the stairs of the “Watchman’s Tower” of the Royal Palace. This was yet another suggestion from Rick that turned out to be very enjoyable. This building holds a couple of different museums and was packed as we entered. After buying our ticket, we had trouble finding the correct door to lead us to the tower. As it turns out, because of construction, we were led to an all-but-unmarked door on our way to the tower. We were virtually alone (after climbing about 160 steps) on the top of the tower and had a great view of Dresden. At that point, time was running short and we needed to get back to the train station. That’s too bad, as there were many cafes and restaurants that looked inviting.

We couldn’t immediately find the correct tram, but after a small amount of trial and error, were back at the train station, ready to continue on to Berlin.

Other than being about 20 minutes late, the train to Berlin was quite uneventful. Charlie was clearly happy to be out of steerage and into first class. We arrived at Berlin’s new Haupt Bahnhof, which opened with much fanfare last year. It may be the nicest and most well-equipped train station I’ve seen (complete with all sorts of stores and restaurants, including a 24 hour pharmacy).

After we debated the complexity of taking the subway to our hotel with our bags, we opted to take a taxi. Our timing was good, as it just had begun to rain. We walked to the front of the taxi line & the first taxi was too busy with a cell phone call, so we went toward the next cab. A woman jogged to my right and cut right in front of me (to catch the cab). When I said “Hey”, she just jumped in the cab and smiled smugly. Had I another few seconds to think, I believe her shins would have become well acquainted with my suitcase at high speed. As it stands, she gets the award for most obnoxious behavior (and hopefully karma caused her to get a very dishonest cabbie). The good news is that we got another cab within seconds, who was extremely efficient and honest (he actually overestimated how much it would cost (on the meter), which saved us money). Our hotel is very nice in a very central location; about 3 minutes walk from the nearest subway stop.

It was a very long, but successful day.

Another Town, Another HUGE Castle (Thursday, September 13, 2007)

This was a major “sleep-in day”. We stayed up very late, watching “the finest” in international television. We might have opted for an early start, but one of the major sights we wanted to tour was to be closed all day. Yep…first we saw the Pope in Vienna, now the Jewish High Holidays are upon us (closing the various historical synagogues & the Jewish cemetery for the day). I now strongly suspect that there will be some sort of Islamic holiday or pilgrimage happening in Berlin, and a major Buddhist convention in Brussels to coincide with my visit. I guess I bring the religious out in people everywhere I go.

Most US airlines remind passengers that your closest emergency exit may be behind. After a full day and a half in Prague, I realized that connections to the metro and trams were closer if we took the opposite direction (e.g. up the hill). We walked towards this tram stop (about 2.5 blocks away), stopping for Chinese food (that was quite good) for lunch. We took a tram (#22) that Rick Steves recommends for a good tour of the Little Quarter and Castle Quarter of Prague. After girding our wallets against the notorious pickpockets, we jumped on the tram. We took it through a good amount of the New Town, before crossing the Vltava River to the Little Quarter. We jumped off the tram to visit a memorial to those who survived communism (but suffered). It was a very moving set of disfigured sculpted men. It had some of the affect of “The Scream”, but in a robotic way.

We jumped on the next #22 tram and headed to the Malostranske stop. Here, we took a few photos of the St. Nicolas church, then walked over to the Charles Bridge. There were literally waves of tourists entering and exiting the bridge. We paid $2.50 for the chance to climb the Charles Bridge tower (about 150 steps). The views of the city, river & castle were stunning. Surprisingly, we were virtually alone there. It’s as if none of the throngs of tourists had a clue about this hidden gem. Shhhh…don’t tell anyone!

We once again jumped on the tram & headed up to the castle. Once again, following Rick’s advice, we approached the castle from the back side (such that we didn’t have to climb uphill). We saw all sorts of great views as we descended. So much so, that we apparently didn’t see the left turn towards the castle complex. We blissfully continued to descend to back of the St. Nicolas church. Oops. So it was time to turn around and hike up the hill. Ultimately, we came to a long set of steps. By the time both Charlie and I negotiated the steps, I think both of us were ready for a cold shower and a nap. The castle isn’t a single “castle”, but rather a series of castles and churches. We walked the rampart garden and climbed three more flights of stairs to get to Castle Square. The hike was worth it; the castle buildings are really spectacular. Especially the St. Vitas Cathedral, a gothic/neo-gothic masterpiece! I wanted to tour the cathedral, but missed the last entrance for the day by two minutes. Such is life…

After walking around Castle Square and taking an obscene number of photographs, we headed for what we thought was the castle gardens. Actually, it was more like the moat, which has been converted to a very nice set of paths, lawns and trees. At the end of our nature walk, we ascended to the Summer Palace and the real castle garden. Both were nice, but neither was especially noteworthy.

Whew. That was a very full day of sightseeing. We both were ready for a nice dinner. We picked out (from Rick’s recommendations) a seemingly hidden place near our location. It was literally a stealth restaurant, as if we didn’t know what to look for, we’d never found it. It had a great view and very good Czech food. All in all, this was a great way to top a busy sightseeing day.

Upon our return the hotel, we opted to use the free laundry facilities (that way, I’d have clean clothes for the balance of the trip). The machine (singular) was a combination washer and dryer. What a cool idea! I gathered my clothes (and a few of Charlie’s things) and started the washer. The washer has two separate lengthy wash cycles, followed by three rinse cycles. In total, the wash process took just over 2 hours. Then, I tried to figure out how to get the machine to serve as a dryer. I’m not the best at figuring out pictures, so I ended up restarting the wash (thankfully it was a short 30 minute wash cycle). Eventually, Charlie and I figured out how to get the dryer to work. The automatic drying time was about another two hours, so I let it run overnight. So far, the combination washer/dryer was showing very little regard for my time.

That said, the day was a success. Charlie’s blister problem seemed to be solved and we had a second consecutive day of no rain. These factors let us cover a lot of ground and see a lot of very memorable sights.

A Blister and Some Sun (Wednesday, September 12, 2007)

My umbrella and recently purchased rain jacket have worked overtime on this trip. In fact, I think the last day I can recall with zero precipitation was a week ago Monday. I can say a lot of things about this day, yet most importantly, it didn’t rain. For one whole day!

Charlie & I got a bit of a late start this morning (as we stayed up late & Charlie didn’t sleep very well on the roll-away bed). We wandered back to Wenceslas Square & sat outside for a nice lunch. We sat next to a group of 8 Irish soccer fans…a couple of them were getting serious abuse regarding the state of their hangover. The waiter was a funny guy; he pulled the old “pretend to spill the cup of coffee” trick (with an empty cup). Nice entertainment for our meal.

Following our lunch, we headed to Prague’s Old Town. We started with the Old Town Square and timed our visit (accidentally) to coincide with the top of every hour ritual with their astronomical clock (involving the angel of death & the 12 apostle). It was a bit strange, but certainly entertaining. Prague’s Old Town is very picturesque and we walked around through various neighborhoods. We had planned to tour some of the Jewish sites, but the line to get into the Jewish Cemetery was rather long, so we decided to delay that until tomorrow.

We decided to visit the Klementinum (the National Library). It’s a tour with a seemingly odd combination of things: a very old library, the astronomical tower, and a tower with a splendid view of Prague. We ascended the steps (some in a very tight spiral staircase, others were some very steep and narrow wooden steps and took a whole lot of photos. It was an interesting tour and the library was on par with the national library in Vienna, complete with frescos on the ceiling and a whole lot of old books.

At this point, Charlie’s feet went from difficult to critical. He got a nasty blister on one toe a few days ago. It appeared to start healing (in the form of a callous). Yet today, the blister managed to grow, seemingly to the size of small US state. So we headed back to the hotel. This made me happy, as I was craving a good nap. While I stopped off at a store, I saw a group of Hare Krishnas dancing down the street. Funny…I don’t remember the Hare Krishna in Berkeley having a leader using a microphone headset (ala Madonna).

After napping, Charlie and I discussed the possibilities about going out for dinner. Ultimately, Charlie decided to stay home & rest his feet. I planned to head out for some food & to do some wireless internet (as I really needed to post some of my blogs), then bring Charlie back some grub.

I had spotted a café with wireless internet during our walk last night. I headed there, only to find it was overrun with Prague locals and some pretty nasty sounding industrial/metal music. It just didn’t seem all that inviting. So I trudged on.

Surprisingly, the best place to find wireless internet was…KFC! I went in & for the price of an order of French fries, had 90 minutes of good WiFi. At about 10:15, I packed up to head for a Greek restaurant (to get stuff for Charlie), figuring it would take about 15 minutes to get there (and they closed at 11).

I managed to make several wrong turns. I’m not quite sure how this happened, except that I think my first wrong turn really screwed things up. I spent the next 45 minutes wandering aimlessly (thinking I was purposeful) through the Old Town. I felt a bit like the person wandering through a haunted castle that keeps falling through the trap door slides and ending up further away than before. This is really out of character for me, as I usually have an excellent sense of direction. After walking probably every street in the Old Town (perhaps twice), I finally found the Four Seasons Hotel & got directions back towards my goal. I had to get Charlie something else (as the restaurant was closed), but was glad to finally make it back to the apartments (around 11:30).

Despite the ego leveling of this journey, did I mention that I didn’t have to break out my raincoat or umbrella for an entire day? Woo hoo!

The Coming Prague (Tuesday September 11, 2007)

As I write this, I am remembering what happened 6 years ago. I’m proud to say that I may not be the bravest person by any means, but am glad that I’m in the midst of my 4^th trip to Europe since 9/11/01 (and that doesn’t count my shortened trip to Australia in 2004). My parents, the intrepid travelers who were on a flight to Barcelona less than a week after 9/11/01, would hopefully be proud.

Today started with Charlie off doing laundry, while I slept in & relaxed (gazing out the window at the beautiful view of the castle from our apartment). We had missed the breakfast hours at the hotel across the way (who provides breakfast for our hotel), but went over on the chance they might still be serving. While the manager told us we were late, they did feed us. When the server brought us a set of rolls & jam, I figured we were in for the typical continental breakfast. I was wrong, as the bread was followed by a cold cut & cheese plate, a plate of sliced watermelon & finally a meat & vegetable omelet/frittata. Wow! Both Charlie could only describe this breakfast as a feast.

We checked out of our hotel & headed towards the castle. The castle “moat” is actually a bear pit. They have real bears, even now! The views from the castle were quite beautiful & we took a lot of pictures. We actually ran into one of the women we met at the Gellart Baths in Budapest (only to hear that we were very lucky we were in Bratislava the day before the big soccer match). We toured the gardens & decided to skip the actual castle tour. Charlie took a rest while I ascended the 162 steps (according to Rick Steves) of the castle tower. I found even more scenic views & took an obscene number of photos.

We headed back towards our hotel, stopping in the main square for lunch. Charlie had ordered some sort of pork dish, which ultimately was served as something appearing to be a pig’s knee (which seems to be popular). It made me glad that I ordered mixed grill on skewers (far simpler to eat).

We collected our luggage and set out for the bus station. It’s a 10 minute, mostly uphill walk. The walk is challenging with rolling luggage & cobblestones, and made more challenging by the return of the intense rain. Of course, the rain let up as soon as we got into the bus. From Cesky Krumlov, the bus is a quicker & easier way to get to Prague. It’s also very reasonably priced, with a 3 hour bus trip costing $7. We drove through a number of towns, including Cesky Budjovice (the home of the “real” Budweiser beer…Charlie had some yesterday & thought it was outstanding). One town was a study in contrasts, with grey communist-era-looking apartments on one side & brightly painted older apartments on the other side. This route certainly isn’t densely populated, with lots of open fields & agriculture.

We thought we were heading to Prague’s main bus terminal. However, that wasn’t the case. In fact, at first, we weren’t really sure where we were. We fairly quickly figured out our situation & went to get metro tickets. Both of us were going to get a 24 hour ticket, but we didn’t have enough change. Each of us bought some snacks & it turned out we were 1 Czech Crown short of the 160 Czech Crowns we needed. Note to self: Make sure to load up on coins here. I ended up getting a single-ride ticket & we were on our way to the hotel. Once there, they informed us that they were oversold & moved us to a different location. It was somewhat ritzier & closer to downtown, but required one of us to sleep on a roll-away bed (not me!). So we went along, as there didn’t seem to be any good options (at least for our first night).

We went for a walk about 9:45pm, heading towards the river. We saw the famous “Dancing House” & lots of great views of Prague Castle lit up at night. We walked all the way to Charles Bridge, and then headed away from the river through the Old Town towards Wenceslas Square. There were a very large number of people out (at 11pm on Tuesday night). As we walked further, we ran into more & more shady characters. I know that Prague is pretty notorious for pickpockets & scam artists, but I was surprised at the number of seemingly shady people. It was kind of disappointing, as Charlie & I agreed that we had trouble thinking of a place we had been where we felt less safe. Our total walk took a little over 2 hours & we saw a fair amount of the city; perhaps more than we really wanted to see.

Falling for Cesky Krumlov (Monday September 10th, 2007)

I spent the early morning doing my laundry at the Rick Steves’ recommended laundromat/internet café. All the washers & dryers were on some sort of very cool, centralized control system. I’d certainly like to have one of those dryers at home, as they made very quick work of my clothes (including a pair of jeans, which usually tax my dryer at home’s meager capabilities).

We had made arrangements to meet a shuttle that would take us to our next destination at the train station in Linz (about 1 hour away). Before we knew it, Linz was upon us & we met our shuttle with time to spare. The shuttle is a cost-effective ($20/each) and quick (90 minute) way to go from Linz, Austria to Cesky Krumlov, in the Czech Republic.

Cesky Krumlov is a well-preserved medieval castle town in the southern part of the Czech Republic. You may not have heard of it, but 1.5 million tourists come here annually (seemingly mostly Germany & Japan). It really is storybook beautiful, a bit like Rothenberg in Germany, but a bit less touristy. We stayed at a Rick Steves’ recommended hotel called “Castle View Apartments”. Our 2 bedroom apartment was spacious & beautiful. The patio looked out on the castle, and its elegantly painted tower.

After checking in, we walked around the town. About 10 minutes into our walk, we came across a really nice scene, with a few ducks swimming near a wooden bridge. I got ready to take a picture & suddenly found myself falling (as though the bridge was giving way). Turns out there were some very tricky (and dangerous) planks & openings on this bridge (which I didn’t quite see, as I was distracted by the buoyant waterfowl). My fall was scary & a bit painful, but fortunately, not too bad. My leg fell about 2 feet & I got a few bruises. Given the possibility that this could have ended with me wrenching my knee or falling 10 feet into not too much water, I’m very grateful it turned out to be a close call.

After a few minutes to recollect myself, we continued to walk around the town. We watched a series of rafts & canoes negotiate the river (and a couple of small sets of rapids). The river essentially loops through the town, with a series of mostly foot bridges across the river. While there are several things one can do in Cesky Krumlov, the most enjoyable thing to do is to absorb the atmosphere. That’s what we did; enjoying meals at fairly uncrowded restaurants (it would seem a lot of tourists just come for the day). After a few days in Austria, even touristy places in Cesky Krumlov were very reasonably priced (with meals costing about $10 or so).

Cesky Krumlov is highly recommended as a place to slow down from the at-times frenetic pace of a sightseeing vacation.

Bus-tod (Sunday September 9, 2007)

We headed out from Vienna, mere hours ahead of the throngs of Papal visitors. Our next stop: Salzburg, 3 hours by train from Vienna. The train was very pleasant and efficient. They even have 230V plugs (for a laptop, etc.) at the seats (but I wasn’t willing to unpack my suitcase to get my laptop power adapter & European plug converter). I’m not quite sure why, but train travel seems to pass much more quickly than airplane travel. Then again, if the public transportation & rail system in the US was anywhere near as efficient as most of Europe, I’d probably have little use for my car.

Our hotel in Salzburg was about ¼ mile from the train station, but our directions indicated it was more like ¾ mile. Since it was raining (yet again), we opted to take a taxi. The driver was a bit confused, but was willing to take our 4 Euros to drive us about 2 blocks. After settling in, we set off to find the modern art museum (where there was supposedly a great view of the city and fortress on the hill). We set off on what we thought was the correct bus & had real trouble figuring out where we were (on the less than ideal map). We tried another bus, only to find out we really weren’t where we thought we were. A kind local gentleman helped us & before long, we had navigated the correct series of buses & arrived at the museum’s lift. The cashier took advantage of my rusty German, telling me that the cost of the lift was 1.7 million Euros (actually, it was 2.90 Euros). It was funny, especially when he said it was a joke (as I was having real trouble figuring out what he was saying).

I must say that speaking & understanding some German came in very handy several times in the past few days. It actually makes me wish that I had the opportunity & motivation to get fluent in German (or perhaps another language). It’s just a great feeling to be able to converse in something other than English.

After we took several million pictures from the Museum terrace, we set off walking towards the hilltop fortress. It’s a very scenic walk along the hilltop. We saw a good number of locals out walking (many with their seemingly all-well-behaved dogs). We had a very nice conversation with a woman (who spoke only German) & her very photogenic dog.

At the base of the fortress, Charlie opted to head back to the hotel. I trudged on up the hill & surveyed the fortress. I took the funicular back down the hill and walked around the old town area. I’m surprised how much of this looks familiar, yet I can’t really remember much about the details about my first trip here (back in 1978, with my mother & father). After taking another few dozen photographs, I braved getting on a bus to return to the hotel. It didn’t take me too long to figure out the bus wasn’t quite heading where I wanted to go. I hopped off that bus & found a bus that appeared to be heading my way. Thankfully, this calculation was correct and I ended up at the main station.

Charlie and I later set out for dinner at what could be described as a shopping center across the street from the hotel. After enjoying some decent Chinese food, we decided to take a random loop trip on the buses. Most of the bus routes pass through this main station (usually on something like a figure 8 loop). We jumped on a bus & saw some new places on the east side of the river. We stayed on the bus & it looped down to the southern part of Salzburg. The bus was heading back from this area, when got to a stop & the driver announced, “All out. End of the line.” It appears that we misread the schedule & the buses that would normally run afterwards did not run on Sunday.

So here we were, about 3-4 miles from the downtown area in a decent-enough, but far from touristy area of town. We saw a few taxis pass by, but all had passengers. We found some help from an attendant in a mini-mart, but he wasn’t able to make the outside call for a cab. We were walking towards the infamous American Embassy (McDonalds), when we successfully flagged down a passing cab. About 13 minutes and 13 euros later, we were back at our hotel. Being dropped off in the middle o not much was pretty disconcerting, but we managed to pull through.

Returning to the subject of public transportation…while I’m sure most of our bus woes in Salzburg could be attributed to “tourist error”, I must say we seemed to have more trouble on each bus segment here, than we had in Budapest and Vienna combined. So I guess I’m not quite ready to trade in my car just yet.

I like the dry Wien (Saturday September 8, 2007)

We set out from our hotel mid-morning, opting to stop at the local café for something along the lines of brunch. It was a very authentic neighborhood pub/café…we may have been the only people speaking English there in awhile. The food was good & somewhat less expensive than the rest of Vienna (where things just seem to be quite expensive, especially given the Euro/$ exchange rate).

We hopped on the subway towards the opera house. We were planning to take a tour of the opera house (English tours were at 1, 2 & 3pm). As we arrived early, we walked around the area & took photos from the terrace of the Albertina Museum (great view of the area). We return to the Opera at 1pm, to a sea of people. They offered tours in about 5 languages & they ended up splitting the English group into 3 separate groups. While the whole thing was a bit chaotic, they pulled it off with elan. In fact, I would say that the tour exceeded my expectations. They don’t go backstage (as they stage a different opera each night, they need the set-up time), but the main auditorium, intermission areas & other spaces were very beautiful & our guide did an excellent job explaining the significance.

After the Opera, we went to a café to take a short break. Charlie has experienced some pain in his feet & this rest period was essential. From there, we toured the National Library, one of the most beautiful rooms I have ever seen. Everything from the frescos on the ceiling to the ancient, large globes was truly beautiful. That & there were a lot of impressive old books in the shelves. Not exactly a place where you can check things out with a library card.

From the library, we continued on to the Austrian Crown Jewels. This would qualify as some “serious bling”! Certainly on par with the crown jewels in London.

At this point, Charlie decided to head back to the hotel. I continued on, walking around one of the main shopping streets & seeing the St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Because the pope would be saying mass here the following morning, there were huge video monitors outside (that were currently showing the Pope’s visit to a small Austrian town). The church was impressive enough, certainly very large. I went from there over to stroll the vast Hofburg Palace grounds. The nearly 24 hours of no precipitation started to end & I headed back to the hotel.

Charlie & I just didn’t really have any good ideas about what to do about our dinner. We walked around the shopping area near our hotel & found few good options (although my many sushi-loving friends would have liked “Fred & Ginger”). We ultimately jumped back on the subway & headed to the center. We took a slightly route from our “standard” exit station & saw an incredibly cool art installation (which we thought was an ingenious advertising billboard). Essentially, it was a series of lights shining on water, which was shot out along the lines of a dot-matrix printer. Words can’t really do it justice, but I can’t currently remember the URL (and a quick Google search came up empty). Stay tuned…

We looked at several menus & eventually came across a nice café near the opera house. Amazingly, that had something that would pass for a non-smoking section (a true rarity in Vienna). The atmosphere was very authentic, including a piano & violin serenading us (made more entertaining when a party of Spanish tourists turned the place into a sort of violin/sing-along bar). A bit later, several well-dressed couples came for what was obviously après-Opera food. Our food was superb…all-in-all a great experience, especially given our lack of planning.

It was a very busy & successful day. And given the crowds that would be converging on the center-city the following morning, it was time to leave Vienna.

Wasser unto Wien (Friday September 7, 2007)

Global warming seems to have caused more periods of torrential rains & unrelenting drought. In our case, the rain started on Monday (late, in Eger) & has followed us ever since. Generally speaking, the rain has been less than torrential…usually just sprinkling & fairly light rain. However, the rain does serve to complicate sightseeing.

On this day, we opted to get up early to see the Schonbrunn Castle (a couple of blocks from our hotel). Rick Steves recommend going early or late, so we opted for early. We essentially were completely soaked by the time we got to the castle. The castle was very impressive (even though we saw only about 40 of 2300 rooms), but our hopes for touring the grounds were dashed by the wind and the rain. We opted to merely head back to our hotel & dry off.

Getting an early start helped, but as we both had our fill of the rain, we opted to rest a bit (neither of us slept very well the prior night). I eventually went out in search of a camera store (to get information about repairing or replacing my camera). Again, I got soaked & was a bit put off by the options in the nearby camera store (for replacement, as repair in any timely manner was out of the question).

After I once again dried off, we made our way to the central part of Vienna on the metro. This is a superb system, with trains running about 5 minutes from early until late. We emerged from the metro near the Opera House (a very historic landmark). We wandered around a bit & ended up having to resort to going to McDonalds to get some food (as every café we saw was very smoky & with our respective illnesses, just wouldn’t be able to stand it). We encountered the least competent McDonald’s employee in Austria (and strong candidate for the All-Europe honors). Despite that, we did manage to eat something along the lines of food & then set off to see the city. Charlie spotted the distinctive “M” of the Vienna Marriott. We had a lovely chat with their concierge, who gave us some good tips with respect to our visit & camera replacement.

Central Vienna is surrounded by a “ring” road (the replacement for the original city gates). We took the counterclockwise tram around the city & saw quite a lot of sights from the tram. We ultimately decide to get off the tram near the Museum area and walk around a bit (aiming for the recommended camera store on one of their biggest shopping streets). We wandered into a beautiful antiquarian bookshop & chatted with the owner. It’s about this time that we realized that the rain seemed to have let up. There was a huge police presence, even more so than Bratislava. They were to be holding a “street soccer” tournament in front of the local city hall, but that wouldn’t have seemed to require that level of security. Perhaps the Austrians are just careful? It was about 5pm & traffic seemed to come to a complete stand-still. Yet as we were walking around (and the rain had let up), it became a more pleasant time.

I finally found the recommended camera & electronics shop. It was a bit bigger than the Media Markt of the previous day, taking up an entire floor of a department store. I actually found a camera very similar to my “sick” camera at a relatively good price (especially considering it was eligible for a 20% VAT tax refund. Only one catch, this place didn’t take credit cards. So I had to schlep down five floors & find a working ATM. Ultimately, I was successful & got my new camera.

We then continued to wander around, finding that there were far more picture-taking opportunities without the rain. We chatted with a woman who owner in laundry company (and we would have used her, but the logistics of getting to her shop would have been difficult). After a simple dinner at their version of an “Applebee’s” (which had a nominal non-smoking area), we walked around the impressive building lit for night-time viewing. My new camera worked especially well & it got a good workout (through my taking literally a 100 nighttime photos). We ultimately made our way back to the hotel & called it a day. The let-up in the rain really made this a positive day.

One last thing: The let-up in the rain & traffic snarls? These were all a result of the Pope visiting Vienna (a very big deal!). We had no idea about this when we planned our trip (and no indications that hotels would be more difficult than usual). It’s weird that just about the time the rain let-up, he & his entourage drove by on the Ringstrasse (in a convey of a whole bunch of police & military). I know beautification can’t occur until after his death, but I do think we may have come up with the first documented Papal miracle.

And one more thing: September 7th is the 60^th anniversary of my parents’ wedding and the 44^th anniversary of my adoption. I’m glad they selected me…or did I select them?

Rail and the dying of the light (Thursday, September 06, 2007)

Poor Charlie’s sinuses were badly exacerbated by the relative dryness in our room. And I’m sure that my periodic hacking didn’t help matters. We ultimately slept in a bit & decided not to take a train straight to Bratislava (for a brief visit) & head straight to Vienna instead. We noticed once again, that when you negotiate a price with a taxi, they don’t use their meter. I’m sure there are some interesting tax implications involved.

The train from Budapest from Vienna was far more crowded than the intra-Hungary trains of the past few days. First Class was still spacious & many seats were available, but we definitely no longer had a full car to ourselves.

We had our first experience with the border crossings on trains. They are fairly simply---the current country’s people check you, then the new country’s people come through. In some cases they stamp your passport, in other cases they don’t. Certainly, security from Hungary to Austria isn’t anything like it would have been 20 years ago.

We got into Vienna & made our way to our hotel (which was about 2 blocks from the Schonbrunn Castle (the Hapburgs’ Enormous Summer Castle). Shortly after we got settled, we headed back out to Vienna’s other major train station & took a train to Bratislava in the Slovak Republic.

Rick Steves’, our trusty tourism guide, didn’t seem too impressed by Bratislava (going so far as to not recommend any hotels in town). Neverthess, we ventured out (if for nothing else than to say we’ve been there). The train station is a bit shabby & the main street towards the old town wasn’t all that impressive (especially in the continuing rain). That is, until we came to the gardens behind the Slovakian “White House”. It had an interesting set of statues & very nice flowers. I think one of the trees was presented by the people of Krygistan. The front view was a bit more traditional, including the 2 costumed & absolutely stationary guards.

We arrived at the old town & literally everything changed. It was beautifully restored, with many cool artistic touches (including leaving a few stray Napoleon era cannonballs in walls. They also had very unusual public sculptures, including a statue called “the peeper” which resembles a less than honorable guy peering up from the gutter level.

I took a number of photos of this statue, before having the good coordination to drop my camera (with the lens not retracted. As it was almost exactly dusk, one could say that camera faded into the dying of the light. Camera first aid efforts were not successful. While it’s good that the pictures on the memory card were pretty clearly safe, the prospect of trying to repair or replace my 13 month-old camera in Austria wasn’t appealing (especially my recent experiences with replacing my razor).

Still, all in all, Bratislava was a pretty nice place. Did I mention that the town was overrun with Irish men, mostly sporting the Irish green Soccer jersey? Their singing and enjoyment of very large glasses of beer were watched closely by a large cadre of Slovakian federal police. I’m fairly certain that they were in town for the preliminaries for the Euro 2008 soccer tournament.

I have one additional hypothesis regarding Bratislava: They must either deport or hide their unattractive women. At times, it felt a bit like a voyeur in the “Land of the Leggy Supermodels”. Mind you, I am in no way complaining! Except that it would have been far more cool to drop my camera due to some extraordinarily attractive woman than my general clumsiness.

After a decent dinner, we hiked back to the train station & returned to our hotel in Vienna. I can now say that I’ve been the Slovak Republic, and sampled a bit of what it had to offer.

Separate Rooms Make Great Neighbors (Wednesday September 5th, 2007)

I didn’t sleep especially well, but having my own room for a night did help. Still, I certainly wasn’t feeling great when I work up this morning. We enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel (a “real”, rather than continental breakfast included with the room) & walked around to see some of Eger’s sights (that we hadn’t already seen), such as Europe’s furthest north minaret, a bustling local market & an impressive cathedral. We checked out of the hotel & through the help of a taxi driver, made it to our train with about 60 seconds to spare. For the majority of the trip, Charlie & I had an entire 1^st class train car to ourselves.

We arrived back in Budapest & checked back into the Marriott. We debated about going up to see an area north of Budapest called “the Danube Bend” (a series of 3 towns, reportedly where the Budapest locals go to take a brief nature break). Personally, I thought the Danube Bend was some sort of position in European Yoga. Nevertheless, we opted to not go today (the weather was still rather dreary) & instead across a very rainy &windy bridge to Buda to head for the famed Gellart Baths.

These baths are a pretty wild place! They are part of a hotel, but seem to be the majority of the facilities. It was a beautiful, very ornate building containing a series of indoor & outdoor pools & other spa facilities. We met two women (an aunt/niece) from Northern & Southern California. As it turns out the aunt lives in the Montclair district of Oakland, which is about 5 minutes from me & 2 minutes from my previous residence in Oakland. What a small world! We ended up talking to them in the 36 degree (C) pool for awhile & then each of us attempted the steam bath (which seemed to be infused with eucalyptus). It helped my troubled sinuses, but as it was extremely hot, I really couldn’t stay in there for more than about 2 minutes. All in all, this was a very enjoyable experience. Not quite as relaxing as the visit to the baths in Eger, solely because of the far larger number of people at the baths here. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped back at a restaurant we visited a few days back…it was so good that we both thought we should repeat the experience.

On our way back to the hotel, we were once again approached by a pair of the “consumption ladies”. This time, we must have only earned the JV team, as the two ladies who closed in on us were about as clumsy as you could imagine. We waved them off & once a respective distance away, had a laugh at their relative inexperience. We later ran into a gentleman trying to convince us to visit a “club” (I’d repeat the moderately funny pitch he used, but this*is* a PG-13 blog).