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.

Fantastic quilts

A lady who's connected to the Victoria Mac Users Group (VMUG) makes the most fantastic quilts. Here are a few samples:

To see more, visit her website:

http://bentpincreations.com

Who killed the electric car

I just saw the 2-hr documentary (on a Canadian TV network) called "Who Killed the Electric Car", specifically the GM EV1. Well, actually, its demise caused other EVs that were in the works to be killed, also. It was a great little car, quite fast, charge it up at home, drive 100 miles, everybody who had one loved it. They were only leased, though, not sold. GM took them all (several hundred) back and destroyed them all. Even though people begged to be able to buy them, GM insisted there was no demand. Etc., etc. Then they start touting the hydrogen car, which could never be viable, and even if it was, would be way less efficient than a straight electric. One knowledgeable person called the hydrogen car the mechanical rabbit at a dog race track. See the film summarized & reviewed in Wikipedia. It was only released on DVD.

This show would not be aired on US TV, unless things have changed a lot. And this is the company that people want to save from bankruptcy. Hmph.

Kids can cut power use

On Huff Post, Ariana had an article about how she's getting greener. This is a post I put on it:

Here's a chance to tell folks about a cool trick about saving electricity, for people who have young kids.

When our family of 4 lived in Malaysia, in the 70s, electricity was relatively expensive, and we had a 9-yr-old son who never turned off anything. So we told him that we were going to change his allowance. Instead of getting $3 per week (a normal allowance for his age), we would give him $100 per month. When he had gotten over some of the shock, we told him about "the catch" -- that he would have to pay the electric bill out of his allowance! And the last electric bill had been $118, so, if he couldn't cut down on power-usage, he would be in the hole.

The next month, the electric bill was $67, and never again went over $75.

How did he do it? He prowled the house, looking for things to turn off. He took cold showers. When my husband and I were both reading, he moved our chairs closer together so we could share the same lamp. He "helped" the cook wash the dishes, to make sure she didn't use too much hot water. He changed the light bulbs, even getting fluorescent lights for his room and the front porch. He studied power usage in a library book (no internet then). He stopped watching TV and, if his brother started watching TV, he would get him to play a game or do something else instead. There were probably other things that I have forgotten, but you get the idea. .

Helpful financial media

Here is the Jon Stewart (Daily Show) video showing how the TV financial newspeople reported in 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTAk54c8tFQ

New Web Site

I have been working on a new web site to show the renovations we did to the house in Georgia. .I was gathering up photos to send to a friend and decided to put them on a wiki-blog instead of just on Face Book or My Space.

-- Please, go and have a look --

on the sidebar, click "House Renovation" on the "Links" list or under "Wiki Web Sites". If you click on "House Renovation" on the "My Blogs list" you will get the "What's new" page, click on "Home" to get to the first page.
Since it's a wiki, comments or questions are welcome. :-)

2009 -- still here

Another year has come & gone and we are still at the same address:
406-855 Ellery St.
Victoria BC V9A 6X6 Canada.

I put this in because there are still some things that must go by snail mail. The building has been painted since this photo, the balconies are light brown now, and the walls are light tan.

This is the 3rd day of the Obama Presidency. He's already done some very good things about foreign policy (order to close Gitmo, appointed special envoys, etc). I still don't like HRC.

His inaugural address was better than it sounded. It didn't contain the quotable gems that the press was looking for, but it spoke as much to foreign peoples and governments as to the American people, and was a clear repudiation of the Bush policies. I wonder if Bush understood it at all--he had his blank look throughout.

Michelle's inauguration outfit was great, but her ball gown was not. (I'm still very "into" costumes for public appearances--especially skating costumes).

Pictures from Port Renfrew

First, is what happened to the road that connects the two parts of Port Renfrew. It is now just 1 lane.

(Click photos to enlarge.)

Second, is the house we used to live in there, it was a dirty, ugly grey color, but now it's all new. I think I would have found a better green.

Third, is Ted & Loretta's house. Now those are great colors. Manfred says the two houses should be together -- apples & cinnamon. It's the house just above the landslide.

Ted sent us these photos. Thanks, Ted.

Merry Christmas

We are still in Victoria, not doing much of anything. Manfred is cooking a turkey.





This is the Parliament Building here, in Victoria. We are actually having a white Christmas this year, the first in Victoria since 1965! It almost never snows here, but this year it did.