Moving nightmares

The move is on, but the road is bumpy.
The fact that we are moving such a short distance makes it harder, because one does not feel so justified in throwing things out that will need to be replaced. If you move a long distance, it's better to chuck your microwave, TV, shoes, furniture, etc. and buy new ones at the new place, but if you're just going a few miles away... :-(

So, we had it all planned, but Manfred didn't make reservations on the ferry for the truck (he didn't think it would be busy), so he couldn't get on it, and everything is balled up at the end. SNAFU.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and the New Year will bring health and prosperity.

Moving on....

Well, it's been a while. Too many things were happening. Mainly, I got more hassle than usual at the border getting back to Canada, so we have decided (finally) to move out, of Canada.
It is quite a small move, actually, just across the strait to the tiny town of Port Angeles, Washington state. See the map in the sidebar-- that line in the middle of the water is the border between U.S. and Canada. The distance is about 35 miles, 1.5 hr on the ferrry. It's not at all my kind of place, but any move is better than none.

We are now sorting things, throwing out junk, in prep for packing. We will load a U-Haul and go across the ferry on Dec 27 or 28. We found an apartment comparable to the Victoria one, but $550/month instead of $880.

Bad trip, wonderful visit, & Bill Jones

So... we have spent one really delightful week with our great friends, Chuck & Diane Fitzgerald, in Encinitas, CA. I was so nice to see them again and also to not have to go anywhere or see anything. Their place is so nice we never wanted to leave.

To get there, we survived the 10+ hour flight from London to LAX, and the commuter hop to San Diego. Unfortunately, we had to fly from Lisbon to London the day before, and stay in London overnight. It was verry, verry harry. We stayed in a really awful place and paid a bunch of those expensive Britsh £s just to get to the awful place and back to the awful airport. I will never voluntarily go to England again; I don't care how many crop circles they have! Their Midsomer Murders are justified.

Bill Jones finally joined us in Encinitas, looking the same as ever after his rude uprooting. We are now on the slow train to Guadalupe CA where we will visit with Robin and Virginia for a bit. The most charitable thing you could say about American trains is that they are cute. Unfortunately Americans have no convenient transportation whatsoever in the majority of the country -- they seem to not even realize that their airplanes no longer save time, their trains are a sick joke, their buses are pathetic, and their road/highway system is so 20th century it's embarrassing. Oh, well, I may have to stay here for a while, so I'd better try to accept it. Like any other undeveloped country. No wonder the land is so much cheaper than it is in Portugal.

One reason I haven't written anything for so long is that I was waiting for Manfred to put the photos on the iBook, so I can put them on the blog. Obviously, I could wait forever and it would never happen until I insist. So, I hope there will be something by the time I get to upload this.

Back to Lisbon

Geneva -- Well, having a tooth pulled was never in my travel plans, but now I can finally eat again. Finally, I can eat again, but I'm still a bit shaky. Manfred won't download and new photos to the computer ("too much trouble"), so I didn't feel like writing anything. We extended the stay to 3 nights.

I looked into properties in the Sintra area, they are very expensive. Especially compared to WA. The drop in real estate values has not happened here. Maybe it will, but I don't see any signs of an economic downturn, except in the tourism sector there are much fewer American and Canadian tourists, but plenty from Europe. The rest seems to be humming along with business as usual.

Other than the tooth-extraction, our Sintra stay was good. As you can see from Manfred's post, we loved the place we were in. However, it was unseasonably hot, and I didn't feel very well, so we didn't go around much, only to the beach.

Today is my birthday, and most of me (all but the tooth) made it to 69. We are back in Lisbon, leaving today to fly to London. There we will stay overnight in an airport hotel so we can take the flight to San Diego in the morning.

Back to Sintra

Manfred writing, this time -- We are in Sintra again, for two nites, found a Hostel, just opened about two weeks ago, a short walk from the train station. We first thought that it was closed but the door handle was about 18 inches above ground level and it was rather small. 36 Euros for the two of us per nite including b'fast and free internet (full 4 bars) in the room!!

Two young people are running it, they have other jobs but spell each other off so there is someone manning the small front desk at all times. Plus they are so helpful. Oh, there is a kitchen where you can do your own food, buying stuff for sandwiches from the store and, making coffee or tea also drink beer or wine, then sitting and chatting either in a nice large sitting room, your own room or the terrace.

It is 7:45 am, I'm sitting in our room in my undies, windows wide open, looking at the near treed hills with one of the castle on it, the sky is blue and cloudless and the air is very mild, sort of like a Hawaiian morning, some of our friends may recall.

Last nite we had a great Chinese dinner here in Sintra. Odd, but a beautiful place. Two main dishes, crab salad, rice, chinese tea, ice cream desert for 20 Euros for the two of us, about $30., reasonable for Europe, even in a slightly cheaper Portugal. A good size and very tasty.

For the last little while, Geneva has been complaining about a tooth paining her a lot. Every time she bites down on it with food that loose tooth was painful. So we just happen to see a dentist office as we were going out for dinner last night. So today, with the help from our hostel host, we went there, just around the corner, and at 3pm she will have it out. The dentist said that she has several problem teeth, which one would she like to have out. She said "this one". Out it came. 40 Euros, about $60.

All this time we have not watched any TV, read any news paper or anything else newsy, it's great!!! The other day we were standing on the Lisboa subway platform, waiting for our subway, there across the way was a big news display screen saying briefly that Obama was to get a Nobel Prize!! That's all.

Sintra and Lisbon

Yesterday, we took the train to Sintra and looked around to see if there's a good place to live. We even looked at 2 properties, but one was too small and the other too big. We talked to a couple of American ladies who have lived in the area for many years, and they suggested a small town north of Sintra as a good place for horses. We came back to our rooms in Lisboa, and today we traveled over lots of the city, especially the "Old Town" by tram. The streets are very narrow and steep, and the trams are old and slow and very noisy. After one ride, I was ready to swear off them forever, because the driver made it so jerky and unpleasant. Then we got one with another driver, a beautiful, young Oriental girl, and the ride was very nice. We saw street after street of old buildings, some in terrible disrepair, some nicely renovated, and everything in between. It seems there are 2 or 3 restaurants on every block. The trams were full of tourists, all speaking different languages. We saw several impressive churches, including one of the ugliest ones I have ever seen -- ugly mainly because it was so dirty. Everything except tile turns black, here. "Tire dust" is probably the main cause. One difference between countries we noticed is the graffiti. In Germany, it's quite artistic and often attractive. We didn't see any in Austria, but we were in small towns. Italy had some, but Spain had none. Zero. The huge Barcelona subway system has no graffiti anywhere, and not even any advertising on the trains, inside or out. Portugal, on the other hand, has graffiti everywhere, the ugly kind. The subway here in Lisbon is very nice, not all that extensive, but most impressive, except for small stops with no escalator. The walls of the stations are all tile, so graffiti-proof, but it's there, inside the trains.

"If it is Wednesday, it must be Lisboa"

--- and so it is! We have to make a couple of corrections, it is true that we extended our stay in Madrid by one additional night but we used that next day (Tue the 6th) to go to Sevilla, not Granada as mentioned earlier. We decided that we could only go to one of the two cities, so we chose Sevilla with the Alcazar, because there were plenty of trains. We stored our suitcases plus in a locker in the main train station and took an early fast train (2 1/2 hours) to Sevilla. We spent about 5 hours there, saw the fantastic Palace, had a bite to eat and took the fast train back to Madrid, in order to make our overnight Hotel Train to Lisboa. Well, while it was most interesting and amazing to see the Alcazar, the heat was pretty unbearable, 37C in the afternoon!! (That really sapped our "hit points") All the fast trains in Spain require a reservation and with a 10 Euro per person fee, and that was all arranged before we left for Sevilla in the morning. After coming back in the afternoon we had to hustle getting the luggage out of the locker, take the subway to the other train station, to make that stupid night train to Lisboa. Stupid because we could not get a bed on it, all sold out, so we had to sleep in our seats on this 10 hour bad ride. The train went slow, jiggled around a lot and as Geneva said, the only saving grace was the dining car!! It was a really bad night. New rule: never again take a night train unless we can get beds.

We got into Lisboa at 7:40 am Portugal time, one hour earlier, we gained one hour. They just had a rainstorm come thru and it just quit raining. As we were walking slowly toward the exit, a friendly middle aged lady approached us, gave us a card and asked us if we would like to have a room for the night. (It must have looked pretty obvious, although it was just morning). She went on to say, 20 Euros per person, double bed, w/ sitting room, very clean and the (taxi) transportation is included. We looked at each other and said --- lets go for it!! And so we did. She took us to the taxi outside and after a 10 minute ride, her daughter was there to pay the taxi!! We went up one floor and it's very nice. Old building of course, but solid and clean, as promised. We paid for 3 nights. We lay down a little to recoup, then got ourselves a 24 hour pass for the bus and had some lunch near our place. We went on a bus ride then slept a little.

The above is sort of dry reporting what we did. One day I will have more time or what ever, to give of my impressions, observations and valuations of it all, some day. The computer battery was dead going onto the night train, so we could not write, the ipod needed charging, but geneva read her book on it anyway until it shut down.

Getting on the www has been hit and miss on our trip, via WiFi that is. It ranged from 10 Euros for multiple uses to totally free for as long as you want to non-existant.

Madrid!

We were hoping to get by with only 1 night stay in Madrid, but all our clothes were dirty and we had to find a laundry. The one recommended by Rick Steves was out of business, so we went to another. Then we wanted to do the Royal Palace tour. This famous palace is on a par with Versailles and Vienna. But, when we got there, they were having some sort of official function, so it was closed to view-visits. But the function was actually much more interesting. They had marching band, marching soldiers, several horse troops all decked out, and a beautiful coach. They all moved up and down in front and side of the Palace and even through the streets, so everybody could enjoy the scene. Such beautiful Spanish horses, moving in unison, was much better than the palace tour. There's a video at the bottom of this posting. If it doesn't show up, scroll around a bit to see it, then click the play button.

Anyway, we had to extend our stay for another night, and every extra day in Spain means one less day in Portugal. Next we go to Granada to see the Alcazar, 2 nights-- then > Seville > Lisbon as fast as possible. Getting to Portugal is probably an overnight on the train, which is either expensive or not fun.

On the road again

This is Manfred: As much as we loved Barcelona, we are moving on. Did some emailing, blog posting and a quick breakfast on the Rambla, then made our way down the metro and after a few stops we were at the big train station.
After paying a small surcharge to go on the "big boy's", fast train (AVE) to Madrid, we settled into our reserved airplane-type seats and rested, because the getting from place to place on the streets and in public transportation is quite a chore. The train, all white, the nose looking like a bullet, left 2pm sharp and smoothly glided out of the staion, except for a few switching noises the train just floated on air. The rails are welded and noiseless. In the 3-hour trip we stopped about four times and many times the train hit 300 km/hr. = 186.4 mph! The train station in Madrid is amazing, old walls, newer roof, 5 stories high, and it has a jungle in it! That is where the passengers hang out, with shops and eateries.

Barcelona - what a great place!

We have been staying in a small hotel just off the "main action" street in Old Town, the Rambla. It's quite nice, large room, huge bathroom, free WiFi (but it doesn't work for the iPod), €63/night. But no breakfast. The Rambla is huge, with hundreds of people meandering up and down, looking at the kiosks, having snacks, watching the erformers, etc. We don't have a photo of it, yet.
We went to the market place for breakfast, good place for ham & eggs. The market is unbelievable. There are photos.
Today, was Gaudi Day. Most people who come here have to do a Gaudi Day. We visited the 4 most-viewed examples of his work here: the still-under-construction Sacrada Familia church, an apartment building, a residence, and a park. They were exhausting, but worth it. We didn't go in any except the park. If you want to learn more, google Gaudi.

Sailing from Roma to Barcelona

We are sitting in the bar by the swimming pool (complete with calypso music) on the deck of a cruise ship doing ferry duty. We spent the night in a small ship's cabin with 2 very good beds and a cute little bathroom.
We didn't get to see anything of Roma except the horrendous traffic getting to the train station and finding the garage to turn in the car at the central train station. There we were, stuck with our bags, and Manfred wanted to get to the port city, Cititavecchia, where our ship the "Cruise Roma", was to depart. So we took the train there, a short taxi ride to the port , and then waited, tied to our bags in a small terminal, for over 4 hours, until the ship was ready to board, at 8:30 pm. After that, it was nice, exploring the ship and having dinner, watching the port disappear, etc. It is really a nice 20 hr. mini-cruise.

Manfred's addition -- We ate à la carte, hamburger w/ fries and drink, €7, spaghetti €6.50. We met a cute Korean girl, traveling alone thru Europe. Had a great night's sleep. I got up at 6:30 am to watch the dock operations on the Sardinia stop, the sun came up, some clouds, warm breeze and the first cup of cafe con latte. We à-la-carted it again for a simple breakfast, cafe con latte, €1.50 ea., omelette to order €4 (finally, eggs!), and fresh-squeezed O.J. €3. You can't think of Euros as dollars, there is always that +50% lurking in the corner!!

More Tuscana, before heading to Roma

We just spent 2 nights in a very nice apartment in a little medieval fortified town, Lucignano. It had a large terrace overlooking the Tuscany countryside. We spent the time driving around to see other similar towns. They are amazing, with their tiny, cobbled "streets", huge cathedrals, panoramic views, and walls, walls and more walls. All built high on steep hillsides. We also had the best pizza yet, in a restaurant called "Nice People."

Manfred's new contribution

Ok, here I go, (Manfred). . . . this region of Italy, where the "boot" is the widest, on an Italian map, is called Umbria, as part of Toscani, generally the area between Florence and Rome. Yesterday, Sunday, we drove thru the area called Chianti, for the famous wine and the vines were just loaded with dark blue ready to pop grapes. The sky was blue, not too hot, the road was very curvey but not much traffic. Most all small villages sit atop hills surrounded by acres of vineyards and olive groves, and have fantastic views. Driving is a lot of fun with 'six on the floor' in this Fiat diesel of ours, but after an hour or two it get's tireing and I'm glad to stop and have a beer or a bed or dinner or all of it.
Having a car is very good for the countryside, seeing small towns on small roads; it totally sucks in cities and on Autostradas especially you want to get somewhere fast. We by-passed Florence (we both seen it some time ago) and went south for the country. Yesterday we saw Siena, an amazing town, spent some hours, had a picnic lunch, then continued on east toward Arezzo where we found an absolutely charming place called Lucignano. At about 6 pm the town was just finishing a weekend festival where all were dressed in old time clothing showing off old time ways. We found our bed there by asking a gas station guy who turned out to be the husband of an english wife and spoke pretty good english. He said 'I have a place for you' and he showed us an apartment on the ground floor with large living/sitting room with kitchen, bedroom and fully equipped bathroom with the ever present bidet, 50.€!! ($75) The terrance has a wonderful view of the valley and surrounding hills, each with it's hilltop village. We are considering staying another night.
I am amazed at the variety of not only car models of most european car brands but also of the shapes, configurations and sizes they have here. Lots and lots of motor bikes, from the 50cc put-put to the big racing bikes. And the way they, the latter pass on curves up and down hills is nothing, absolutely nothing, short of amazing!!! They all come out on weekends to scare the crap out of tourist drivers.
As far as transportation goes, trains are great for long distances and from city to city and no good in the countryside and cars are just the opposite. It is now about 8:30 am and we are sitting outside in a nice cafe on a beautiful Monday morning with fantastic weather, sipping our caffe late. Products available here that are somewhat familiar to us are Coke (have not seen any Pepsi), Fanta (pop), Heineken , Corona and Becks beers as well as all the local beers. Buying cigarettes is like going back in time... they have Chesterfield, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, Camels, and Marlboro, all are about 4€ ($6) /pack. The olive trees are full and the grapes are being harvested now.
We have not seen or heard anything on TV or newspaper. During our limited online time, we are too busy uploading photos and answering email to look at the news. We have no idea what's going on in the world and that's OK 'cause we are in our own beautiful world right now. Money machines are everywhere and getting cash on debit cards is easy. Most businesses here in Italy accept credit cards, but not so many in rural Austria & Germany. Europe is generally expensive. Prices look good until you add that horrendous 50% for the exchange rate.

Radda in Chianti

We spent the night in a medieval fortress/town, in a tiny hotel that is part of the castle, complete with long crooked passageways, and lots of stairs up then down. It was a nice enough room and bath, but it was the first bad bed we have encountered since leaving the U.S. All the beds, even in the youth hostels, are better than what we have in US & Canada. We went to eat at a place we were told was a pizzaria, but they gave us the regular pasta dinner menu, so we thought they had no pizza. Then a lot of other people came in and they were all getting pizza! We have checked out and I am enjoying the Italian espresso in an internet cafe, while Manfred is enjoying cafe latte and doughnuts. Gotta go and hit the road.

9/26 San Casciano V.P. - Tuscany

We found a nice little hotel (€58) here in this hilltop town just south of Firenze, and ate dinner at a great restaurant where we met a very nice, interesting couple from San Diego. We hope to visit them when we get to CA. I am sitting on a terrace overlooking an idyllic Tuscany valley (click on photo), drinking espresso and typing. Manfred can't take the coffee, so he's having a Fanta, and he was even asked if he wanted ice!! Tuscany is not nearly as beautiful as the Munich/Saltzburg area, but it has a better year-round climate. We have found that having a car is a huge handicap in an unfamiliar city, so we are not going to return to Firenze (sorry, David). We'll go on to smaller towns instead. Heading south to spend 4 more days and end up in Rome (which is actually only a 2-hr drive from here via the autostrada). .

On the road again -- in Italy

We took the overnight train (not a good experience) to Venice and spent a few hours and a lot of money there. Rip-off city. We finally got our car and got out of it to go to Padova. We found a nice b&b just before Padova. I got a cold, so we stayed there 2 days. Now we have just driven to Florence on the autostrada, which was pretty boring, but we are in a tiny town just south of Florence, where we are starting to look for a bed.

St Gilgen/Saltzburg, then Munich to Venice

We spent an absolutely wonderful week in St. Gilgen, near Saltzburg in Austria. There, we visited with our friend Runi, her son, Falco, and her friend, Heinz. The weather was ideal, our accommodation was a large, 2-room apartment with 2 baths and a big balconly overlooking the lake, Wolfgangsee. We went all around the countryside, which is incredibly beautiful, had lunch at a farm, visited luxurious hotels, took a boat ride on another lake, and had a lot of great food and wine with best friends. A highlight was a visit to Hallstadt, which Rick Steves has shown on one of his TV shows. There we toured what's probably the oldest salt mine in the world. People were getting salt there thousands of years B.C. The views from the mountain top were unforgettable. I hope there will be photos here. The last day we went on a great tour of Saltzburg, conducted by Runi. We enjoyed the Mirabell Gardens, strolling the streets -- see the photo of the fountain where people could let their horses swim (in the good old days). I started writing this in the train station in Munich and am continuing it on the overnight train to Venice. Earlier today, we drove from St. Gilgen to Munich, taking a longer, non-autobahn route to see some of the countryside. It is all as picture-postcard beautiful as it is in Austria, but flatter. The grass here is the most incredible green -- it gives a whole new meaning to "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" or, in this case, the other side of the world. All the time that we were in St. Gilgen, except for a few brief periods, we were not able to get on the internet with the iBook. We used Runi's computer to take care of some emails, but I wasn't able to do this blog, because I can't type on a German keyboard. Nobody knew how to change it to a different layout (it's a Windows computer).

Finally -- online again

We are in St. Gilgen, a small village on a beautiful lake, Wolfgangsee, in the hills of Austria. From Rothenburg we took a train to Munich (via Nirenberg) where we picked up our car (Ford Fiesta) and drove right past Saltzburg into the Saltzkammergut -- the scenic lake district near Saltzburg. We are staying in a 2-room 2 bath apartment in a nice inn with a fabulous view of the lake from the balcony. That's where we have breakfast. Manfred's longtime friend lives here, so we find out about all the best places to go for sights and food. And we get to meet lots of really nice people.

Still in Rothenburg

Today we got to see some of this amazing town. Did a lot of walking, quite a bit of eating, even bought some souvenirs. It is like going back in history. The streets are mostly 8 ft. wide, the sidewalks, when they exist, are 10 inches wide. Everything is so cute, so clean, so quaint, so lovely.

We had to move to a different place because the inn where we stayed yesterday was all booked up for today. But every building here in the old part of town, whether residence or shop or restaurant, rents rooms. All that we saw are large, very clean, with excellent beds and low prices. The only drawback is: no elevators and the rooms are always on the 3rd or 4th floor.

Tomorrow, we will have to leave very early to get to Munich, hopefully by noon, to pick up our car to drive to Saltzberg and St. Gilgen, in Austria. Trains leave every hour, but we have to change trains at least twice, which is always dicey.

In Rothenburg

This is a medieval, walled town. We are staying in an inn that looks pretty 18th century. It's really fun, and nice, and good to get away from Youth Hostels for a change.
Today we are going on an afternoon walking tour, and a night time walking tour. We had another wonderful dinner last night. Still haven't got photos on computer. This is the first place we have had unlimited free internet access, and both the computer and the iPod were on their last (battery) legs, so I didn't get much done, on or offline.
The photos show our room, the inn entrance, and one of the towers on the city wall.

In Heidelberg - heading to Rothenburg

It's been a hassle, getting online time. We did our Rhine cruise yesterday, Koblenz to Bingen, past all the castles, including our favorite at Bacharach where we stayed 3 days at the beginning of the trip. The weather was beautiful and it was very relaxing, sitting in the restaurant watching all the beautiful scenery slide by. There was a messup then, getting a train to Heidelberg - Bingen is such a small town that most of the trains did not run on Saturday. But we finally got to the Youth Hostel in Heidelberg. Don't know if we are going to spend any time here, or go on to Rothenburg right away. We were too late for dinner in the Youth Hostel, so we went to a Pizzaria, which was a delightful Italian restaurant, and had a great dinner. The wines here are all so nice, too. We didn't get any photos downloaded, so nothing new here yet. We've been taking videos, too, but I haven't yet figured out how to put them here.

Manfred's contribution

Hi everyone, this is Manfred, we have just boarded an ICE (fast) train in Berlin, going to Koblenz via Cologne, about 5hrs. I just looked at an electronic sign in the train and it said that we are travelling at 250km/hr. WOW! I just ordered a Becks draft beer, 1/2L, about $6. (food on trains is expensive) I'm just going to ramble on about things that I either remember or are happening now. The sky is blue, lots of cumulous clouds, cool nights and quite warm days, up to 20c. The fall colours are just starting to show. The Youth Hostel in Berlin Wannsee was very good, nice 2 bed room w/ toilet and shower (Dusche). We have just stopped at Wolfsburg, where the main Volkswagen factory is located. If anybody thinks that Canada (or US for that matter) has a lot of cell phones, think again! Germany has nothing on them. I can count on my 10 fingers how many people did not have a cell phone in action. And there are so many different styles and types as well as brands, everybody is represented here. And so many different gagets. I saw a group of youg Italiens watching a live soccer game with full sound, while they were sitting on steps waiting to vitit the German Bundestag Building, on a device about the size of a cell ph. but all screen, amazing!! The next place we will be sleeping is a small hotel in Koblenz, just one night and then on to a Rhine River boat called "Goethe" to Bingen, 6 hrs. ----- We just rolled into Hannover. It's 1:30 local time, here called 13:30 hr. The ICE train has blug-ins for our laptop, with an adapter, no problem. The newspapers are full of the up-and-comming German elections, September 27, the showdown between Angela Merkel and her opponent, I forgot his name. Also the German national ladies soccer team just won the European soccer title, front page!! Also the purchase of Opel, the German GM car devision, was bought by an Austrian/Russian consotium thus saving Opel. (lots of Opel vehicles hedre in Germany)!

Berlin - the Parliment Building

Now we are in Berlin. The most amazing place. The Grand Central Station is bigger and fancier than most airports. We went to see the new dome on the Bundestag. Here are some photos, including the Brandenberg Gate, and a view of the lake from the lobby of the Youth Hostel. Tomorrow we are off to Koblenz and the next day we take a boat on the Rhine and end up in Heidelberg.

Hamburg - Miniature Wonderland

We went to Hamburg, to see the miniature wonderland -- click here to see what it's like. Photos can't do it justice. We spent many hours on our feet, looking at all the various "countries" and levels. The photos show a castle garden, a rock concert and the Hamburg stadium, each full of hundreds of individual miniature people.

Finish Bacharach -- off to Hamburg

We spent 2 full days in the Burg Stahleck castle-hostel at Bacharach. At first we had a room with 5 bunkbeds, only 1 other person was sleeping there, and he happened to be from Victoria (Sidney)! Then we moved to a room with 1 bunkbed and private bath.
The first day was just lounging around, enjoying the ambiance and the views of the vinyards, forrested hills, and the Rhine River with all its boat traffic. The second day, we took the long, very steep hike down to the small village of Bacharach and spent the day walking in the park by the river, sampling various foods & wines, window-shopping, and taking pictures--up to a point.
Our camcorder was DOA -- dead when we got there. So we were snapping photos all over the place until the still camera quit on us, too. We learned a valuable lesson -- get everything fully charged the night before any excursion.
After having a nice dinner, we took a taxi back to the castle. There was no way I was going to walk back up that steep trail. That's an added expense of staying at the castle. The 10-minute taxie trip costs €8 = $12. You have to use it for arriving & leaving (you have to be very young, with backpacks only, to take your baggage up or down the trail).
Food here is very good, but like most of the world, it's overpriced at airports and on trains. We are now on the 5-hr train from Koblenz to Hamburg. There is a Hi-speed train that does it in 3 hours, but it costs extra. A Chinese guy just came by selling coffee and we took some-- $4 each for plain coffee in paper cups. We probably could have saved $$ by paying the surcharge for the fast train and not buying food.
Now we are going through farmland. Lots of cows and corn. Quite a few big windmills are dotted here and there -- not a lot together, like the wind farms in the US. We're in a 1st-class 6-seat compartment, by ourselves. OOOps -- we just passed a real wind farm! Just to make me a liar. There's no wi-fi on the train, so I won't be able to post this until I get to some hot spot.
Photos haven't been downloaded yet, will add them later.

Arrived in Germany

Here we are, at last, in our first Youth Hostel in Germany. It's the Burg Stahleck, pictured below (previous post). The plane trip from Seattle to Frankfurt was pretty awful, and we were traveling for 28 hours. We were just in the airport/train station in Frankfurt -- big but not nice.

Here are our first photos: view of the castle from the train station (it was raining), views from the windows of our room, views from the courtyard, and breakfast in the youth hostel.

...and they're off..

....like a herd of turtles. Well, we are, finally, underway, after our techie friend Chas saved the (computer) day, once again. So we have Manfred's "new" iBook G4, which he bought to replace his iBook G3 which went for video board repair 6 months ago and hasn't been heard from since.

But did it ever return?
No it never returned!
And its fate is still unlearned...
It may lie forever on the shelves in Tucson
It's the iBook that never returned....

So, we got on the 3 p.m. ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles (1.5 hrs) -- and that's as far as we got. We are staying in a hotel. Name: Downtown Hotel. It is very minimalist, with shared baths, but it's spotlessly clean and no bath looks as if it has ever been used by anyone.

Tomorrow we get up at 5 am to catch the 6 a.m. bus to SeaTac (Seattle-Tacoma) airport. It will take 4 hours to get there, but we'll arrive in time for the 2-hr check-in for the 12:30 flight to Frankfurt. It will stop in Chicago for a hour, flying time is over 11 hrs. "Getting there" stopped being fun and started becoming torture quite a long time ago.
When we arrive in Frankfurt, we will immediately hop a train to Bacharach, the village on the Rhine where we will stay in the castle, Burg Stahleg. that overlooks the town and the river. We will have 3 days to rest up and relax there. (See the photo in the post below.)

I am typing this on a PC! You know, like, with Windoze!!! XP, to be exact. It looks so strange, like going back in time. I'm using Firefox, on my same blogger page, but it looks so different, it feels like it's my old Mac SE I had in the 70s, or whenever it was. Even stranger is that people actually seem to like it like this.
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Trip plans

We are leaving on Sept 2 on a 6-wk trip to Europe. This is our itinerary, so far:

Sept 2 Wed
leave Victoria for Port Angeles, 3pm ferry 1.5 hrs
Downtown Hotel in PA 1 nite
Sept 3
6am bus to SeaTac airport (4 hrs)
leave SeaTac at 12:30pm American Airlines
Sept 4 to 7
arrive Frankfurt 11:10am (local time) 11+hrs
same day train to Bacharach 2hrs.
stay Youth Hostel Burg Stahleck (castle - see photo) 3 nites
Sept 7 to 9
Train to Hamburg 6 hrs.
Hamburg: Miniatur Wunderland model train (see video)
Hamburg Youth Hostel (2 nites)
Sept 9 to 11
Train to Berlin, 2.2hrs.
Berlin Youth Hostel (2 nites)
Full day in Berlin, sights
Sept 11
Train to Koblenz 5hrs
Koblenz: Hotel-Grebel Guls (1 nite)
Sept 12
9am KD ferry up the Rhein to Bingen (6hrs)
and train to Heidelberg 2.5 hrs
Heidelberg Youth Hostel (1 nite)
Sept 13
Train to Rothenburg 4.5 hrs
Hotel Altfränkische Weinstube (1 nite)
Full day in Rothenburg, sights
Sept 14
Change to Rothenburg Youth Hostel (1 nite)
Sept 15
Train to Munich 3 hrs
After 11am pick up car in Munich
Drive to Salzburg, then St Gilgen 2+hrs
Sept 16 - 21
Various car trips w/friends St Gilgen
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From here on, except train to Venice
and car in Italy, there are no exact dates and accommodations.
We will keep this up to date, as we go.
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Sept 22
Return car in Munich by 11am
Train to Venice 7 hrs
Overnight in Venice Youth Hostel 1 nite ?
Sept 23 - 29
Pick up car in Venice 10am
Various car trips in Italy
Oct 1
Return car in Rome, train to Civitavecchia
Ferry Boat to Barcelona 10 pm (20 hrs)
Oct 2 - Oct 15
Visit Barcelona
Train to Madrid
Train to Granada
Train to Lisbon
Pick up a car in Lisbon (for 4-5 days)
Youth Hostels & travel in Portugal, Sintra etc.
Get ourselves to London (via train & chunnel, or fly)
Visit England 1-3 days
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Oct 16 - 26 (?)
Leave Heathrow 11:35am (local time)
stop in LA (customs)
Arrive San Diego same day 5:10 p.m.
Visit friends in Encinitas
Then on to Santa Maria to visit with Robin & Virginia
Back to Seattle by train around Oct 26.
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Blogging away....

I spend quite a lot of time on the computer these days -- it's too hot to go out. I'm mostly working on Ask Geneva (about Macs).
I keep adding suff, answering questions, welcoming new member (yes, there are some), and searching for lolcats to put on it. If you haven't seen it lately, there lots of new stuff, including "Definitions" and "Tips & Tricks."

Sometimes I find a lolcal that really says the right thing, like this one.

New Web Site !!

Just started a new web site -- Guy's guide to how to understand women. Have a look --> click here <--

Be sure to look at the comments -- they are the most important part (added by Robin).

Britain's Got Talent

So, Diversity won over Susan Boyle. I rather like that outcome for 2 reasons: 1 - there are several of them, so more people get to win 2 - they can use the extra boost of winning, Susan doesn't need it. I therefore wanted either Diversity or Flawless to win. I don't know how to choose between them, they are equally good for me. But Susan will always be my favorite of all time.

Flocking away

Just put this blog on my Flock home and using Flocks blog poster to post this.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Added later: see this article http://tinyurl.com/ysvyo5 about blogging for $$

Trying out something..

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

This is what happens if you don't have a Mac. :-)

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Working on the wiki

I've been spending a lot of time adding to the wiki for Mac newbies. I've also changed the front page, and scattered around a few lolcats to lighten it up. Have a look: Ask Geneva (about Mac) Robin and I are working on ways to make some money from our blogs. See his: Horsemanship blog. Seems some people are making a very good income from blogs, but many others are trying unsuccessfully. If readers 'go to' any of the ads on these blogspot blogs, the 'owner' gets paid something, but not on wetpaint where I have my wiki. I have to move it to a place that pays.

This cat looks just like the one we had in Port Renfrew, Fritz.

Videos of great auditions for BGT

Susan Boyle -- sing

Diversity -- dance

Shaheen Jafargholi -- sing

Flawless -- dance

Sue Son -- electric violin

Jamie Pugh -- sing

Stavros Flatley -- dance

Gregg Pritchard -- sing

Julian Smith -- soprano sax

Holly Steel -- sing

Click the links (blue words after the names) to see the YouTube videos. You'll be glad you did.