Sunday, November 30, 2008
Night train to Madrid
My first route through Spain was only going to the major cities. In my effort to add in some smaller towns, I decided to skip Madrid. Well that didn't work out too well because not only did I only get two little towns in, I had to skip Sevilla and wound up back in Madrid but only for the day! I arrived at 8:30am, stowed my backpack at the train station lockers, did the free walking tour (neweurope.com), then did a tapas tour and was back at the train station in time for the night train to Barcelona! Madrid is kind of a blur but during the walking tour, it was interesting to hear the Spanish side of the same time period I had heard about from the Portuguese perspective just a day or two before. Apparently, around the time of Columbus, the two countries figured they pretty much owned the world and had kind of decided to divided it up amongst themselves! Portugal seems to have been better at the negotiating table and that¡s why Brazilians speak Portuguese!
Lisbon, Day Two
This was the day I learned everything I ever wanted to know about Lisbon. Well, not quite but the tour guide was pretty passionate about his country and provided lots and lots of background. This was a walking tour of the city and as it was a rather chilly day, there were only two of us brave (or silly) souls on the tour. The other was an Aussie (I have met so many Aussies out here, I'm wondering if the last person out of there turned off the lights!). We started with about a 30 minute Portugal history lesson just standing there in the square. Beginning back in Roman times. . .yes, it had that familiar ring. The city is this old but the stuff isn't quite that old because one conquering army torn down or built over the previous etc, etc. But here's the thing with Portugal-since the early 1200s---never been conquered. The reason Lisbon doesn't have much left to show for its Roman and subsequent design styles is cuz of the 1755 earthquake that lasted for, I think, more than 10 minutes and had been guessed to have been about a 9 on the Richter scale. It was on a Sunday. The very devout were in the churches whose roofs collapsed. The trembler shook the embers out of the fireplaces so lots of folks were than caught in the fires. The ones that escaped the initial collapse of everything around them and outran the fire to get to the river were caught in the tsunami. Must have felt like Armegeddon. Well, that was the Portugal/Lisbon 101. After that we meandered through town looking at how they pulled themselves up and became the city that they are today. They took advantage of the sort of clean slate they now had and didn't just rebuild what they lost but improved on it.
Long before the earthquake though, Portugal had lots going for it. It was a hugh empire and still today you can see it's influence around the globe. If you've eaten Indian food, specifically Tandoori, that's Portugeuse. Do you like tempura? Portuguese. Peanut Butter and Jelly? I have no idea where it comes from but I'll bet there's some Portuguese influence in there somewhere.
There are of course several churched in the city but the most incredible one, I think, is St. Nicolas'. It was the richest church and was filled with all of the kind of trappings a rich church of that era would have---lots of gold ornamentation and incredible painting and stained glass and all of it lost when the church burned. Rather than try to rebuild and fall short of the previous splendor, the rubble was cleared and the ceiling was painted in ochre. Pews were brought in and that was pretty much the extent of the restoration. You either hate it or love it. I'm in the latter category.
I didn't do much more after the tour except find my way back to the metro station and headed out to the main train station because I had a night train to catch to Madrid.
Long before the earthquake though, Portugal had lots going for it. It was a hugh empire and still today you can see it's influence around the globe. If you've eaten Indian food, specifically Tandoori, that's Portugeuse. Do you like tempura? Portuguese. Peanut Butter and Jelly? I have no idea where it comes from but I'll bet there's some Portuguese influence in there somewhere.
There are of course several churched in the city but the most incredible one, I think, is St. Nicolas'. It was the richest church and was filled with all of the kind of trappings a rich church of that era would have---lots of gold ornamentation and incredible painting and stained glass and all of it lost when the church burned. Rather than try to rebuild and fall short of the previous splendor, the rubble was cleared and the ceiling was painted in ochre. Pews were brought in and that was pretty much the extent of the restoration. You either hate it or love it. I'm in the latter category.
I didn't do much more after the tour except find my way back to the metro station and headed out to the main train station because I had a night train to catch to Madrid.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Lisbon
Before we get to Lisbon, you're gonna have to go on the same ride that I did to get here. That ride starts with the morning bus into Burgos from the hostel that never came. Turns out it doesn't run that far out on Sunday. The really rotten part about that is that I specifically asked about the bus when I checked in and was told I could catch it right out front until 11:oo! Ah, I'llchalk that one up to language difficulties. I pulled up my hood an started to walk. I had taken about 15 steps, when a car slowed down and the driver hollered "halooo". Now, I don't normally take ridess from strangers and had it been nighttime, I'd've kept on walking. Carlos spoke almost as much English as I speak Spanish. He had seen me waiting for the bus and then start my walk. He explained that he has done the pelligrino (pilgrammage, I think) from Santiago de Compestello to Burgos so I guess that means he knows what the walking in the rain is like. He dropped me off just a few blocks from the cathedral. See what I mean about the Spanish folks! And having had transport I found myself with time for a sit down breakfast. I picked a place right next to the cathedral. It was a pretty good choice because it was kinda like a Denny's. That is to say the menu had pictures. I pointed to a close approximation to sausage and eggs but chose the chorizo to at least keep it a little native. It went down very well. One American style breakfast, a relaxing cuppa and then I was ready for the tourist chu-chu tour of the town. This ride looks like a train but runs on tires and motors to the city highlights much like the big city tour busses except this is not a hop on, hop off deal. You go thru the whole town in about 45 minutes. After the ride I basicallly walked the same path, or at leasst the parts of it I wanted to explore more of including the castle ruins. The castle bit themselves date back to the Romans around 700ad oor something but there is some evidence of human habitation dating back to several hundred years BCE. This place be old!
After following my highlighted version of the highlights, I visited the outside of the museums that are closed on Sunday. And that was prettymuch my day unless you want to count the many, many hours I then spent in the train station. When at last it arrived I was eager to board and get in a bit of sleep. I had only booked a second class seat which meant I did not get a berth but I thought it would be a regular seat but it was a cabin type deal that I was sharing with a very, very chatty Brazilian. He said he didn't speak much English but I guess he wanted to try out all that he did know. After about two hours, another passenger joined us and she spoke Portuguese so that got into a very animated conversaation and Idozed off. I did manage to be awake when it came time for me to change trains. The change was quick, easy and uneventful. The next two hours to my next destination went through some really nice scenery. My favorite topography is a wide flat valley with the mountains/hills easily visible. If you've been to the Mission Valley in Montana or New Meadows in Idaho you knnow what I'm talking about. That's the kind of area we traveled through. The bottom land was more farmed than ranched as far as Icould tell and the major crop looked liked it might have been olives?
At the end of that train ride I wound up in Castelo Branco. I don't want to say this is not a recommended tourist destination but right now it seems to be more of wannabe. And they're making a run at it, too. Of course this is way off season, so they don't have their best face on right now but rather now is when all of the work is happening to present the things that the tourrists will want to see. For, instance, they have their own castle ruins at the top of the hill overlooking the town but they are in the process of excavating those ruins plus several other sites around the town. While these places are not publicized as places to visit, the public is nott prohibited from these areas either. I witness several folks walk under heavy equipment operating in thesse areas. I have a bit too much OSHA in me to try that but still managed to see some of the digs going on.
Castelo Branco was just another overnighter and considering the previous evening I was glad for an early end to the days activitiess. I had a late luncch of the third item on the menu (turned out to be a pork dish with fries and a banana for dessert) and went back to the hostel.
One really long sleep later and I was chowing down on the full on continental breakffast. A short walk after b'fast and I was at the train station for my trip out of the interior to the coast.
I arrived in Lisbon at one of the newest train stations. It exits out (almost) into the Park of Nations, a great long public park along the river. The area is filled with museums, restaurants, gardens, sculptures and other attractions, all built or installed for the 1998 World EXPO. I say the train station almost exits into this park because it actually goes through a three tiered shopping mall complete with a food court, multiplex and a couple of anchor type stores. There was even a Bata shoe store there!
I found a tourist info place to get directions to the hostel. Some hostels, having been hostels since way back, are sometimes located on some prime real estate. Such was not the case for my Lisbon hostel. In fact, my Lisbon hostel was not even a Lisbon hostel. Reading the descriptions of the different hostels in the city on the webbsite I chose the one not located in the city center thinking it would be a little quieter. It was also only about 1/3 the price. Sometimes the price difference is a great savings other times (like this time) not so much. Not only was out of the city center, I was out of the city! While I save quite a bit on the room rate I sort of lost out on some of that saving because of the time and cost to get to the city to do the stuff. The first day of getting to the hostel really sucked mostly because of how high my expectations had gone when I first stepped out into that hugh, bright, clean train station/mall/park only to find that my hostel was on the other side of the river , which by the way took a train (subway, bus and boat to get to! To be fair, the train and boat terminals were big and bright, too.
My first day, yes, I visited the mall. My destination was the park so since I was going through the mall anyway, I did a few laps. There was a Nike store, a Bata shoe store (that's kind of a Maryland thing), Icoste. I think those were the only store names I recognized except for McDs, BK and Pizza Hut. I made it through unscathed. That is to say, I made no purchasess even with everything in full Christmas mode!
I spent most of the rest of the day in the Oceanarium. It's a great big aquarium-Bigger I think that the National Aquarium in Baltimore but laid out in kind of the same idea with one big central tank representing the Atlantic Ocean and then other separate exhibits and tanks representing microcosms of other ocean or other wise fishy parts of the world-coral reefs, wetlands, tropical rainforests and the like. They don't have the seal, sea lions or dolphins but the otters were fun to watch. The current temporary exhibit "Here be Monsters" wasn't very impressive.
From there, I made a short stop into what I thought was the science center and I guess it was. It was three or four floors filled with all kinds of hands-on experiments. One area was devoted to the various visual puzzles, another looked at sound waves and so on. It was mostly geared to introductory or elementary level kind of stuff-kid's games with science and wouldn't you know it, the place was full of kids. Thus the 'short stop'. I didn't think I had spent that much time ateither place but it was after dark by the time I started my journey back to the hostel. On the subway, I began to wonder how long the boats run. Luck for me, they run after dark!
I'm gonna stop here and make sure this gets published and continue Lisbon next time.
After following my highlighted version of the highlights, I visited the outside of the museums that are closed on Sunday. And that was prettymuch my day unless you want to count the many, many hours I then spent in the train station. When at last it arrived I was eager to board and get in a bit of sleep. I had only booked a second class seat which meant I did not get a berth but I thought it would be a regular seat but it was a cabin type deal that I was sharing with a very, very chatty Brazilian. He said he didn't speak much English but I guess he wanted to try out all that he did know. After about two hours, another passenger joined us and she spoke Portuguese so that got into a very animated conversaation and Idozed off. I did manage to be awake when it came time for me to change trains. The change was quick, easy and uneventful. The next two hours to my next destination went through some really nice scenery. My favorite topography is a wide flat valley with the mountains/hills easily visible. If you've been to the Mission Valley in Montana or New Meadows in Idaho you knnow what I'm talking about. That's the kind of area we traveled through. The bottom land was more farmed than ranched as far as Icould tell and the major crop looked liked it might have been olives?
At the end of that train ride I wound up in Castelo Branco. I don't want to say this is not a recommended tourist destination but right now it seems to be more of wannabe. And they're making a run at it, too. Of course this is way off season, so they don't have their best face on right now but rather now is when all of the work is happening to present the things that the tourrists will want to see. For, instance, they have their own castle ruins at the top of the hill overlooking the town but they are in the process of excavating those ruins plus several other sites around the town. While these places are not publicized as places to visit, the public is nott prohibited from these areas either. I witness several folks walk under heavy equipment operating in thesse areas. I have a bit too much OSHA in me to try that but still managed to see some of the digs going on.
Castelo Branco was just another overnighter and considering the previous evening I was glad for an early end to the days activitiess. I had a late luncch of the third item on the menu (turned out to be a pork dish with fries and a banana for dessert) and went back to the hostel.
One really long sleep later and I was chowing down on the full on continental breakffast. A short walk after b'fast and I was at the train station for my trip out of the interior to the coast.
I arrived in Lisbon at one of the newest train stations. It exits out (almost) into the Park of Nations, a great long public park along the river. The area is filled with museums, restaurants, gardens, sculptures and other attractions, all built or installed for the 1998 World EXPO. I say the train station almost exits into this park because it actually goes through a three tiered shopping mall complete with a food court, multiplex and a couple of anchor type stores. There was even a Bata shoe store there!
I found a tourist info place to get directions to the hostel. Some hostels, having been hostels since way back, are sometimes located on some prime real estate. Such was not the case for my Lisbon hostel. In fact, my Lisbon hostel was not even a Lisbon hostel. Reading the descriptions of the different hostels in the city on the webbsite I chose the one not located in the city center thinking it would be a little quieter. It was also only about 1/3 the price. Sometimes the price difference is a great savings other times (like this time) not so much. Not only was out of the city center, I was out of the city! While I save quite a bit on the room rate I sort of lost out on some of that saving because of the time and cost to get to the city to do the stuff. The first day of getting to the hostel really sucked mostly because of how high my expectations had gone when I first stepped out into that hugh, bright, clean train station/mall/park only to find that my hostel was on the other side of the river , which by the way took a train (subway, bus and boat to get to! To be fair, the train and boat terminals were big and bright, too.
My first day, yes, I visited the mall. My destination was the park so since I was going through the mall anyway, I did a few laps. There was a Nike store, a Bata shoe store (that's kind of a Maryland thing), Icoste. I think those were the only store names I recognized except for McDs, BK and Pizza Hut. I made it through unscathed. That is to say, I made no purchasess even with everything in full Christmas mode!
I spent most of the rest of the day in the Oceanarium. It's a great big aquarium-Bigger I think that the National Aquarium in Baltimore but laid out in kind of the same idea with one big central tank representing the Atlantic Ocean and then other separate exhibits and tanks representing microcosms of other ocean or other wise fishy parts of the world-coral reefs, wetlands, tropical rainforests and the like. They don't have the seal, sea lions or dolphins but the otters were fun to watch. The current temporary exhibit "Here be Monsters" wasn't very impressive.
From there, I made a short stop into what I thought was the science center and I guess it was. It was three or four floors filled with all kinds of hands-on experiments. One area was devoted to the various visual puzzles, another looked at sound waves and so on. It was mostly geared to introductory or elementary level kind of stuff-kid's games with science and wouldn't you know it, the place was full of kids. Thus the 'short stop'. I didn't think I had spent that much time ateither place but it was after dark by the time I started my journey back to the hostel. On the subway, I began to wonder how long the boats run. Luck for me, they run after dark!
I'm gonna stop here and make sure this gets published and continue Lisbon next time.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Wyoming?
Bye-bye to Bilbao and the coastal region. On this dreary, wet and windy day I left the coast and headed inland. I'll have to check my geography to figure out if those were actually the lower parts of the Pyrenees that I went through today. It was a 'purty pitcher', not in spite of the fog, mist or clouds but because of all that. When the train was up pretty high we were kind of in really low clouds &/or fog and I kind of nodded off. When I woke up I might have guessed I was in Wyoming. The terrain looked exactly like the middle part of Wyoming between the praire of the mid-west state and the mountains. I think this might be the first wide open space I have seen on this journey! It's not quite Big Sky big but it's close.
And that has been my introduction, sort of, to Burgos. I arrived just before noon and went looking for the TI but let myself get side tracked to the catherdral. I had received a tip from one of the people at the Maritime Museum yesterday that this was a 'must see' place. Right call on that one! This one is pretty grand and pretty old. . . kinda. There's been some kind of church or chapel on the spot since 1221 or something. This one has been the most extensive as far as what's still there and what you can actually get to see. Several chapels with incredible alters, a choir with 103 individually carved seats. It took about 100 years to complete the seats. And, my favourit bit-a papamousca. I'm not sure it's spelled right but it it a piece of medieval sculpture that looks a bit jester like. It's attached to a clock. At the top of the hour it opens it's mouth. Papa is a kind of slang word for 'eat' and mousca is 'fly' so every hour the jester eats a fly. I was surrounded by magnificent displays of devotional art taking decades or more to complete and I picked out the clown! But I wouldn't have seen it if the audio guide hadn't mentioned it so somebody else liked it, too!
The train ride, the cathedral tour and lunch at a downtown family restaurant was pretty much the day. I had plans of other stuff here at the hostel but the facilities are limited so this will pretty much be it. (Free interet again!!) This is just a one night stand here but I will have all of tomorrow to explore more of Burgos because I´ve got a night train to Portugal.
This is another nonhostel hostel. Maybe that's why it's spelled hostal. But I´ve got a single room and don't even have to go down the hall for the bathroom. These hotel/hostels have TV in the rooms. I saw Monk in Spanish last night. And on the joyous note, I'll bit an hasta la bye-bye from España.
And that has been my introduction, sort of, to Burgos. I arrived just before noon and went looking for the TI but let myself get side tracked to the catherdral. I had received a tip from one of the people at the Maritime Museum yesterday that this was a 'must see' place. Right call on that one! This one is pretty grand and pretty old. . . kinda. There's been some kind of church or chapel on the spot since 1221 or something. This one has been the most extensive as far as what's still there and what you can actually get to see. Several chapels with incredible alters, a choir with 103 individually carved seats. It took about 100 years to complete the seats. And, my favourit bit-a papamousca. I'm not sure it's spelled right but it it a piece of medieval sculpture that looks a bit jester like. It's attached to a clock. At the top of the hour it opens it's mouth. Papa is a kind of slang word for 'eat' and mousca is 'fly' so every hour the jester eats a fly. I was surrounded by magnificent displays of devotional art taking decades or more to complete and I picked out the clown! But I wouldn't have seen it if the audio guide hadn't mentioned it so somebody else liked it, too!
The train ride, the cathedral tour and lunch at a downtown family restaurant was pretty much the day. I had plans of other stuff here at the hostel but the facilities are limited so this will pretty much be it. (Free interet again!!) This is just a one night stand here but I will have all of tomorrow to explore more of Burgos because I´ve got a night train to Portugal.
This is another nonhostel hostel. Maybe that's why it's spelled hostal. But I´ve got a single room and don't even have to go down the hall for the bathroom. These hotel/hostels have TV in the rooms. I saw Monk in Spanish last night. And on the joyous note, I'll bit an hasta la bye-bye from España.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Gotta love the Basque people!
Yesterday I spent my time roaming around the old part of the city. There were the narrow cobbled-like streets, the oldest church, the historical museum and like that. Today my first task was to see if I could remedy the oops I created for myself yesterday. I went directly to the train station and fortunately, it wasn't crowded and the wonderful, wonderful ticket agent there (Carmine, I think she said her name was) took the time to get me on my way. It was great because when I gave her the name of the the town in Portugal I was trying to get to, she said couldn't find it. However, Carmine is not one to give up. She kept typing and meanwhile was enlisting the help of her coworker, possible her supervisor, and everynow and again he would walk over and give her some instructions and together, they were able to come up with the tickets I need to get me on my way to Portugal. A grand shout out of thanks to her for that.
With that wee problem solved I continued on with my day a bit lighter in step. I had my same tourist map from yesterday and this time instead of the 'old city' section I followed the part for Abando. I don´t really know what that translates to but it was a highlight of the more modern places around town even though it started at the town hall which is a really impressive town hall. Next photo upload op, I'll try to get that one on here. There was a modern sculpture right across from the town hall so that´s the tie into the modern city, I guess. I took the funicular train to the scenic overlook. That's something the tourist info people here should tell you to do first! What a great visual aid. Back down the hill and across the glass bottomed footbridge over the river! That a weird sensation especially since it had been raining most of the morning and the bridge surface was slicker than deer snot on a doorknob! In spite of that I made it the Guggenheim where I spent the rest of the morning and a good start of the afternoon. This is one of those museums that provides audio guides. When you see a piece that you want more info about, you locate the little info sign or card associated with it. If there's a number on the card with a little picture of headphones or some similar audio icon, then you punch in that number and here a pleasant voice telling you about the art work and the artist &/or some related little known and ever less cared about fact. Punch in the #1 at the stary and you get the introduction. At this museum, the introductory commentary provided a great tour of the building itself because it is a work of art just by itself. (Architecture by Frank O. Gehry) I like that kind of stuff. In fact I think a large part of my visit in the Louvre was taken up with the history of the building! The other aspect I enjoyed about this particular museum is that the works are accessible more so than most of the other places I've visited. There is one entire wing filled with giant iron sculptures that you don´'t just stand around and look at. (I´ll get the name of the artist in here soon.) You get to, in fact, have to walk through them. The commentary for these works is by the artist himself and he describes the pieces from the inside out. There were at least two galleries with works like that that I got to.
After I left museum, I continued my stroll looking for a likely spot to have lunch. Forgive me, but I went to a Burger King in a shopping mall. (My budget was shot after paying for the train reservations to get to Portugal!) There were two stops left on the days walk-the Belle Art Museum and the Maritime Museum. I went for the boats. The Maritime Museum is a medium sized museum or maybe it's even a small museum but it's really well done so it seems like there's more to it. I gleaned more of the history of Bilbao from this museum than I did from the Basque Historical Museum yesterday. Of course, that was due mainly to the English language film/slideshow available in the Maritime Museum, I'm sure.
Now I'm back at the hostel, sharing my day and looking forward to tomorrows sights. I've been told the cathedral in Burgos is not to be missed. I'll let you know!
With that wee problem solved I continued on with my day a bit lighter in step. I had my same tourist map from yesterday and this time instead of the 'old city' section I followed the part for Abando. I don´t really know what that translates to but it was a highlight of the more modern places around town even though it started at the town hall which is a really impressive town hall. Next photo upload op, I'll try to get that one on here. There was a modern sculpture right across from the town hall so that´s the tie into the modern city, I guess. I took the funicular train to the scenic overlook. That's something the tourist info people here should tell you to do first! What a great visual aid. Back down the hill and across the glass bottomed footbridge over the river! That a weird sensation especially since it had been raining most of the morning and the bridge surface was slicker than deer snot on a doorknob! In spite of that I made it the Guggenheim where I spent the rest of the morning and a good start of the afternoon. This is one of those museums that provides audio guides. When you see a piece that you want more info about, you locate the little info sign or card associated with it. If there's a number on the card with a little picture of headphones or some similar audio icon, then you punch in that number and here a pleasant voice telling you about the art work and the artist &/or some related little known and ever less cared about fact. Punch in the #1 at the stary and you get the introduction. At this museum, the introductory commentary provided a great tour of the building itself because it is a work of art just by itself. (Architecture by Frank O. Gehry) I like that kind of stuff. In fact I think a large part of my visit in the Louvre was taken up with the history of the building! The other aspect I enjoyed about this particular museum is that the works are accessible more so than most of the other places I've visited. There is one entire wing filled with giant iron sculptures that you don´'t just stand around and look at. (I´ll get the name of the artist in here soon.) You get to, in fact, have to walk through them. The commentary for these works is by the artist himself and he describes the pieces from the inside out. There were at least two galleries with works like that that I got to.
After I left museum, I continued my stroll looking for a likely spot to have lunch. Forgive me, but I went to a Burger King in a shopping mall. (My budget was shot after paying for the train reservations to get to Portugal!) There were two stops left on the days walk-the Belle Art Museum and the Maritime Museum. I went for the boats. The Maritime Museum is a medium sized museum or maybe it's even a small museum but it's really well done so it seems like there's more to it. I gleaned more of the history of Bilbao from this museum than I did from the Basque Historical Museum yesterday. Of course, that was due mainly to the English language film/slideshow available in the Maritime Museum, I'm sure.
Now I'm back at the hostel, sharing my day and looking forward to tomorrows sights. I've been told the cathedral in Burgos is not to be missed. I'll let you know!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Big oops on the horizon. . .
. . .but more on that in a moment. Today was exploring Bilbao. The hostel is just out of town on the western edge, I think. I´m not really sure because the street doesn´t show up on the map city map supplied by the info desk at the hostel which isn´t exactly a hostel. I´m staying in my first pension which is basically a really inexpensive motel room. It´s about on par with a Motel 6. It´s more than a hostel but that´s because I opted for a single private room rather than the mixed dorm situation that I avoid after my experience in London. But, alas, no breakfast included *sigh* I´d gotten kind of used to that little continental meal. Today I was on my own for desayuno and decided I was going to try to find a real restaurant and maybe get as close to an American cardio vascular delight as I could find. Lots of places with Bar in their name were open at 8 AM. I peered in to some of them but they only seemed to be serving croissants and wee small cups of coffee/expresso. After a while, I was even hoping to spot some golden arches. I´ve been seeing a very specific ad for that place ever since Biarritz-a small billboard with a freckled face lass smiling out and there are the arches quietly placed in the upper corner. That´s it. That´s the entire campaign. I have yet to see an actual McD´s since I first saw the billboard. Probable better off. Anyway, I didn´t find my pseudo-American breakfast but ducked into a little cafe/bar place across from the museum I was going to go to once it opened. I had half an hour. I order what I thought was just a plain croissant (I say 'ordered' but I usually just point at something and say 'Uno, por favor'). Turned out is was a funny little sandwich. Ham, with a slice of hardboiled egg and what I think was a bit of tuna on top of the egg. That and a cup of hot tea was just perfect to sit with and watch the rain. Before the museum opened, though more folks started crowding in so I thought I´d best leave and make room for other paying customers. I would up skipping the museum and spent the next bit trying to track down the free walking tour people. I had the phone number but only about 1 in four public phones work. I would up taking my own version of a walking tour just looking for a phone. I finally found one and it turns out that the tours are still happening except only in Spanish or Basque (remember how the signs in Wales are in Welsh and English? Everything here is in Spanish and Basque). So I just continued exploring on my own never knowing exactly what I was looking at. Tomorrow, I'm going back to the museum I skipped today and will also visit the branch of the Guggenheim that´s here. I probably won´t know what I´m looking at there either even if it´s in English!
OK, now the Oops! I´ve been looking over what´s coming up on my itinerary and all through Spain and Portugal, I´m only hitting the big cities. I don't really like the big cities and wanted to see something of the smaller places so I did some rerouting. Checking to see what hostels are in what towns and seeing what trains might get me there. I was cross referencing this internet site with this guide book and seeing if that info matched the map that came with the railpass and somewhere in all an Oops! occurred. Instead of going from here (Bilbao) to Madrid and staying there for 3 days, I booked three different hostels along the train route to Lisbon. Turns out I need reservations on the train for each leg of that route AND they're already booked! Between my museum tours tomorrow, I´m going to go to the train station to see if I can Spanlish my way through my alternatives. Either way, the adventrue will begin on Saturday.
Hasta la bye-bye for now.
OK, now the Oops! I´ve been looking over what´s coming up on my itinerary and all through Spain and Portugal, I´m only hitting the big cities. I don't really like the big cities and wanted to see something of the smaller places so I did some rerouting. Checking to see what hostels are in what towns and seeing what trains might get me there. I was cross referencing this internet site with this guide book and seeing if that info matched the map that came with the railpass and somewhere in all an Oops! occurred. Instead of going from here (Bilbao) to Madrid and staying there for 3 days, I booked three different hostels along the train route to Lisbon. Turns out I need reservations on the train for each leg of that route AND they're already booked! Between my museum tours tomorrow, I´m going to go to the train station to see if I can Spanlish my way through my alternatives. Either way, the adventrue will begin on Saturday.
Hasta la bye-bye for now.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Over the river and through the woods. . .
Free internet and a more recognizable keyboard, too!
I tried to leave Biarritz around 9:30: am but even though my Eurail Pass map shows red train lines going from Biarritz and in a round about way connecting here to Bilbao, evidently you can´t get here from there. So my days travel went like this a late morning bus from Biarritz to Hendaye. I had an fun non conversation with a youngster at the bus stop. He wanted to speak the little English he knew and he really wanted to answer the questions I was trying to ask in the French I didn´t know. He did manage get me to understand that I was going to have to take the bus we were waiting for to the end of the line and change to another. So I did the first part of that. I took the bus to St. Jean de Luz. Since there was an info desk there, I just thought I´d confirm Raphael´s instructions. According to the nice lady at the info desk, there would be a big green bus in a 1/2 hour going to Bilbao. I believed here until it was almost an hour later then I followed Raphael´s instructions. I took a bus to Hendaye. From there I took a 5 Minute train ride to Irun (there´s an accent on one of those letters) where I went through a sort of customs check-a passport check, really. Then I found the next bus to Bilbao, abit more than an hours trip. Finally, out of that bus station down into the subway to catch the underground to the city district where the hostel is, just a mere 50 meters from the exit. I gotta say so far, the generally feeling is that I´m gonna be more comfortable in Spain than I felt in France. The few Spaniards I have spoken to in just the brief time I have been here have been more pleasant and smiling when I ask for information. If I had had more encounters with other French folks like young Raphael, perhaps I would have a better feeling. However, I´m returning to France later in the my trip so I´ll try harder at the language to see if that will improve the situation. While I make no claims of being able to really speak the language, the little bit of high school Spanish that I recall seems to be having some effect.
My last evening in the hostel at Biarrtiz, I had dinner with two other native English language speakers and a Frenchman who had lived in English speaking places. It was sooo relaxing. One guy is taking a year off before beginning his formal studies in language at Leeds. He was fluent in French and would soon be heading to South America to begin a short course in Spanish as a Foreign Language before beginning a tour of that continent. The other English speaker, a Canadian, was a just graduated Sociologist and was doing her own RTW before jumping into the job market although she did mention some things about working while on her journey. The French fella is sort of decompressing in his native France having just left the world of finance. He´s taking some time to do some real surfing while he does some cyber surfing for either his next career &/or next place of employment. He´s looking closely at Austrailia. It was cool to find some other folks out here checkin things out and for all different reasons.
At breakfast this morning, I joined one of my roommates and we then joined with a friendly Dutchman who was bicycling back to his home. He said he usually just camps but the day before had just been so wet he decided to give himself a chance to dry off. I guess he was riding a mountain bike because he referred to it as a ´bush bike´. When he heard that I was from the Pacific Northwest he told the story of a friend of his who was camping there and a bear got into his tent. Not really knowing what to do the guy started yelling at the bear but oddly enough the guy yelled in English! I´m sure that´s why the guy escaped unscathed. Had he yelled in his native tongue, the bear wouldn´t have understood.
One more story-On the longest and next to last leg of the journey today the was what I´m guessing was a three generation family. Grandma, Mom and Son. They were sitting just ahead and across the isle from me. Son and Grandma shared a row and Mom sat in front of them. Most of the trip Son and Grandma has a nice conversation going. Towards the end of the trip Son received a cell phone call. The call went on for awhile and the longer it went on, the more excited Son became and the louder his voice got. I watched Mom. She was smiling and shaking her head. Grandma was bouncing in her seat laughing to herself. More than a few people were turning around and looking back at him. Finally, Grandma had enough and started nudging him adn Mom joined in too and the phone chat ended. I haven´t a clue as to what was being said but I was the only one enjoying the moment without truly eavesdropping.
Well, that´s a good long one for this time. Tomorrow I´m gonna explore the town and rethinking my time in Spain. I´ve got too many (and only) big cities on the itinerary.
I tried to leave Biarritz around 9:30: am but even though my Eurail Pass map shows red train lines going from Biarritz and in a round about way connecting here to Bilbao, evidently you can´t get here from there. So my days travel went like this a late morning bus from Biarritz to Hendaye. I had an fun non conversation with a youngster at the bus stop. He wanted to speak the little English he knew and he really wanted to answer the questions I was trying to ask in the French I didn´t know. He did manage get me to understand that I was going to have to take the bus we were waiting for to the end of the line and change to another. So I did the first part of that. I took the bus to St. Jean de Luz. Since there was an info desk there, I just thought I´d confirm Raphael´s instructions. According to the nice lady at the info desk, there would be a big green bus in a 1/2 hour going to Bilbao. I believed here until it was almost an hour later then I followed Raphael´s instructions. I took a bus to Hendaye. From there I took a 5 Minute train ride to Irun (there´s an accent on one of those letters) where I went through a sort of customs check-a passport check, really. Then I found the next bus to Bilbao, abit more than an hours trip. Finally, out of that bus station down into the subway to catch the underground to the city district where the hostel is, just a mere 50 meters from the exit. I gotta say so far, the generally feeling is that I´m gonna be more comfortable in Spain than I felt in France. The few Spaniards I have spoken to in just the brief time I have been here have been more pleasant and smiling when I ask for information. If I had had more encounters with other French folks like young Raphael, perhaps I would have a better feeling. However, I´m returning to France later in the my trip so I´ll try harder at the language to see if that will improve the situation. While I make no claims of being able to really speak the language, the little bit of high school Spanish that I recall seems to be having some effect.
My last evening in the hostel at Biarrtiz, I had dinner with two other native English language speakers and a Frenchman who had lived in English speaking places. It was sooo relaxing. One guy is taking a year off before beginning his formal studies in language at Leeds. He was fluent in French and would soon be heading to South America to begin a short course in Spanish as a Foreign Language before beginning a tour of that continent. The other English speaker, a Canadian, was a just graduated Sociologist and was doing her own RTW before jumping into the job market although she did mention some things about working while on her journey. The French fella is sort of decompressing in his native France having just left the world of finance. He´s taking some time to do some real surfing while he does some cyber surfing for either his next career &/or next place of employment. He´s looking closely at Austrailia. It was cool to find some other folks out here checkin things out and for all different reasons.
At breakfast this morning, I joined one of my roommates and we then joined with a friendly Dutchman who was bicycling back to his home. He said he usually just camps but the day before had just been so wet he decided to give himself a chance to dry off. I guess he was riding a mountain bike because he referred to it as a ´bush bike´. When he heard that I was from the Pacific Northwest he told the story of a friend of his who was camping there and a bear got into his tent. Not really knowing what to do the guy started yelling at the bear but oddly enough the guy yelled in English! I´m sure that´s why the guy escaped unscathed. Had he yelled in his native tongue, the bear wouldn´t have understood.
One more story-On the longest and next to last leg of the journey today the was what I´m guessing was a three generation family. Grandma, Mom and Son. They were sitting just ahead and across the isle from me. Son and Grandma shared a row and Mom sat in front of them. Most of the trip Son and Grandma has a nice conversation going. Towards the end of the trip Son received a cell phone call. The call went on for awhile and the longer it went on, the more excited Son became and the louder his voice got. I watched Mom. She was smiling and shaking her head. Grandma was bouncing in her seat laughing to herself. More than a few people were turning around and looking back at him. Finally, Grandma had enough and started nudging him adn Mom joined in too and the phone chat ended. I haven´t a clue as to what was being said but I was the only one enjoying the moment without truly eavesdropping.
Well, that´s a good long one for this time. Tomorrow I´m gonna explore the town and rethinking my time in Spain. I´ve got too many (and only) big cities on the itinerary.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Plan B
I only used that title because I just left Brive, traveled thru Bordeaux on my way to Biarritz and tomorrow I'll head to Bilbao. Boy, ya just can't mak ethis kind of stuff up!
Yes, it was a long travel day to get here but gave me time to plan for Spain which starts tomorrow. I try to watch the scenery go by but I find myself drifting away in thoughts of the next hostel, the upcoming holidays and how come you put groceries in a bag on the East Coast but in a sack out West and then realize "Oh, I'm back in a wine growing region!" That was when I started planning out Spain. I also found myself on one of those late arrivals into town. I knew the hostel was kind of close but I didn't seen my second favorite sign- a lower case "i" indicating tourist information so I decided to take a cab. Bad idea. I've used taxis only a few times and each time it seems the hostel is about 6 or 7 €. This one was 8€. That would not have bothered me except the trip took less than 90 seconds! So beware of the rip off cabbies if you travel to Biarritz!
After that unpleasant start, things looked up. The next day was a walking tour and into the city center which is right on the beaches of the Bay of Biscay. Even though it is mid-November and it was mostly overcast, there were more than a dozen surfers scattered along the beaches. The surfers were all out there in there neoprene wetsuits sitting on top of the water meanwhile over at the Port Vieux beach, the senior citizens of The Polar Bear Club were taking their daily swim in just the regular tank tops and Speedos!
After the beach tour, I did lunch at a little bar. I decided to try a sort of sampler platter of tapas. I had the pate, the fish soup, little shrimp with something else, two different kinds of salami with different cheese on different bread and a little bowl of little pastries and little squids. Sorry 'bout those little squids, but they remained on the plate. They were presented beautifully but I left them for last and wasn't hungry enough to be that adventurous by the end of the meal. Stuffed with tapas and a slice of basque cake for dessert, I then visited the Chocolate Museum. Not a chocolate factory, they still managed to provide almost sensory overload of the Cocoa bean aroma. Free samples, too. I guess I wasn´t that stuffed but I still had no room in my stomach for squid or maybe I just didn´t have the stomach for squid.
Earlier today, I took the bus bqck into town to visit the two museums that were closed on Monday. The first was the Sea or Maritime museum. It's a sort of cross between the history of the town and an aquarium. While all of the informational signs throughout the aquarium are in French, they do have an English audio guide. The various tanks and displays of the aquarium only have species found in the waters surrounding Biarritz but that's still quite a few species. Grouper, striped this and sharp beaked that. There was a sea turtle, a massive crayfish, crabs, sea horses, a couple of eels, lots of flounder-ish type and at least two types of rays and of course the shark tank. Only four inhabitants but one was a type of tiger shark. On two levels there were seals. All of that only covered about 1/2 of the contents of the museum. The rest of it was devoted to all of the maritime/historical aspect of Biarritz from the days of whaling (boo hiss) to present day fishing methods with the various collections of artifacts and models of boats through the years. All in all, it was very well done and a pleasant way to spend the morning. In fact, considering the way the weather changed in the afternoon, I probably should have just stayed there and stared at the fish the rest of the day
Yes, it was a long travel day to get here but gave me time to plan for Spain which starts tomorrow. I try to watch the scenery go by but I find myself drifting away in thoughts of the next hostel, the upcoming holidays and how come you put groceries in a bag on the East Coast but in a sack out West and then realize "Oh, I'm back in a wine growing region!" That was when I started planning out Spain. I also found myself on one of those late arrivals into town. I knew the hostel was kind of close but I didn't seen my second favorite sign- a lower case "i" indicating tourist information so I decided to take a cab. Bad idea. I've used taxis only a few times and each time it seems the hostel is about 6 or 7 €. This one was 8€. That would not have bothered me except the trip took less than 90 seconds! So beware of the rip off cabbies if you travel to Biarritz!
After that unpleasant start, things looked up. The next day was a walking tour and into the city center which is right on the beaches of the Bay of Biscay. Even though it is mid-November and it was mostly overcast, there were more than a dozen surfers scattered along the beaches. The surfers were all out there in there neoprene wetsuits sitting on top of the water meanwhile over at the Port Vieux beach, the senior citizens of The Polar Bear Club were taking their daily swim in just the regular tank tops and Speedos!
After the beach tour, I did lunch at a little bar. I decided to try a sort of sampler platter of tapas. I had the pate, the fish soup, little shrimp with something else, two different kinds of salami with different cheese on different bread and a little bowl of little pastries and little squids. Sorry 'bout those little squids, but they remained on the plate. They were presented beautifully but I left them for last and wasn't hungry enough to be that adventurous by the end of the meal. Stuffed with tapas and a slice of basque cake for dessert, I then visited the Chocolate Museum. Not a chocolate factory, they still managed to provide almost sensory overload of the Cocoa bean aroma. Free samples, too. I guess I wasn´t that stuffed but I still had no room in my stomach for squid or maybe I just didn´t have the stomach for squid.
Earlier today, I took the bus bqck into town to visit the two museums that were closed on Monday. The first was the Sea or Maritime museum. It's a sort of cross between the history of the town and an aquarium. While all of the informational signs throughout the aquarium are in French, they do have an English audio guide. The various tanks and displays of the aquarium only have species found in the waters surrounding Biarritz but that's still quite a few species. Grouper, striped this and sharp beaked that. There was a sea turtle, a massive crayfish, crabs, sea horses, a couple of eels, lots of flounder-ish type and at least two types of rays and of course the shark tank. Only four inhabitants but one was a type of tiger shark. On two levels there were seals. All of that only covered about 1/2 of the contents of the museum. The rest of it was devoted to all of the maritime/historical aspect of Biarritz from the days of whaling (boo hiss) to present day fishing methods with the various collections of artifacts and models of boats through the years. All in all, it was very well done and a pleasant way to spend the morning. In fact, considering the way the weather changed in the afternoon, I probably should have just stayed there and stared at the fish the rest of the day
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Brive (pronounced breeve)
I thought this town was going to be another bust like Tours. I did what research I could at the hostel for things to do here. After having missed out on the grotto up in the Tours area, it was really lucky for me that there were quite a few grottoes around here. That was good because there's not much more. Up and at 'em early today to make sure that I didn't miss any excursions that might be going out in the morning. I had my directions to the tourism office- "go left from here, turn right at the traffic light and then soon you will see the, um, the . . .big theeng. That is toursim"
The 'big thing" is a lighthouse kind of thing but I got side tracked when I arrived because Saturday is market day here in Brive. Good thing, too because the hostel is one that does not include breakfast so I was one my own. The market was huge. There were fresh cut flowers and today's vegetables all cuts of meat including a kind of scary table that had two boxes of live rabbits right next to a cold case filled with rabbit, uh, carcasses all skinned and dressed. I was wondering how you say "For meat of pets" in French!
After getting stuff for breakfast and a picnic lunch (no rabbit), I found headed to the tourist office and arrived just as they opened. Turns out my punctuality was for naught. The grottoes I had the brochures for were either closed or had no public transpo headed that way and there are no other tours operating this time of year (that's going to be my motto). However, Brive does happen to have its own grotto, open year 'round AND free! We like free. Just 2 kilometers through town. Of course these free ones weren't nearly as spectacular as the pictures for the ones I didn't get to but these had the added bonus of being the Grotto of St. Antoinne which means these were not just pseudo cavelike entrances that didn't "go". Each of the grotto was shrine and had a statue and you can go there and make an offering, light a candle, pray for something, etc. I prayed for transportation to a cave. So far I have not been answered but maybe that's cuz I couldn't get my candle to light. Cave, grotto-they all leak.
That adventure took about two and a half hours or so 'cause I wandered up the hillside next to the grotto to look at the statuary up there, too. Still had a bunch of day left and no real direction so I went back to the market because there was stuff there besides food. I've been thinkin' ahead a bit to the India portion of my trip. I'm not sure my western wardrobe is gonna work overthere. I've always had an androgonous look about me but the culture there is so different, that might be trouble. I wasn't too concerned about it because I was pretty much going to go right into a tour group and had kind figured on the safety in numbers kind of thing but I've had to make some travel changes and I will be in India on my own for the first five days. I will of course be in Mumbai which is modern up to date kind of place but still a different culture. So I wandered through the market in Brive and bought a scarf. I figure that'll get me started in Mumbai and I'll get the rest of what I'll need when I get there.
After that tremendous shopping spree, I was ready for a hot cup of something. In my search of a Starbuckslike place I realized I was on the street where I lived, so I just headed back to the hostel and took a nap instead. A bit later I was up and out again with still not much to do so I headed towards the Fine Arts Museum I had passed by earlier in the day when it was closed. Along the way, I noticed that lots of people were going the other way. Well, sometimes my herding instinct makes sheep look like independent thinkers and I started following the crowd. I wound up at my first professional (coulda been semi-pros) rugby match. Brive vs The Other Team. The stands were packed, the players were in a fist fight less than two minutes into the game resulting in one opposing player being sent off, I had hardly any idea what was happening but I think the score was close at half time when I left. I'll have to find out who won later.
And that's the end of this day. Long long travel day ahead tomorrow for final French destination at the foot of the Pyrenees, or maybe it's in the Pyrenees. I'll find out tomorrow.
The 'big thing" is a lighthouse kind of thing but I got side tracked when I arrived because Saturday is market day here in Brive. Good thing, too because the hostel is one that does not include breakfast so I was one my own. The market was huge. There were fresh cut flowers and today's vegetables all cuts of meat including a kind of scary table that had two boxes of live rabbits right next to a cold case filled with rabbit, uh, carcasses all skinned and dressed. I was wondering how you say "For meat of pets" in French!
After getting stuff for breakfast and a picnic lunch (no rabbit), I found headed to the tourist office and arrived just as they opened. Turns out my punctuality was for naught. The grottoes I had the brochures for were either closed or had no public transpo headed that way and there are no other tours operating this time of year (that's going to be my motto). However, Brive does happen to have its own grotto, open year 'round AND free! We like free. Just 2 kilometers through town. Of course these free ones weren't nearly as spectacular as the pictures for the ones I didn't get to but these had the added bonus of being the Grotto of St. Antoinne which means these were not just pseudo cavelike entrances that didn't "go". Each of the grotto was shrine and had a statue and you can go there and make an offering, light a candle, pray for something, etc. I prayed for transportation to a cave. So far I have not been answered but maybe that's cuz I couldn't get my candle to light. Cave, grotto-they all leak.
That adventure took about two and a half hours or so 'cause I wandered up the hillside next to the grotto to look at the statuary up there, too. Still had a bunch of day left and no real direction so I went back to the market because there was stuff there besides food. I've been thinkin' ahead a bit to the India portion of my trip. I'm not sure my western wardrobe is gonna work overthere. I've always had an androgonous look about me but the culture there is so different, that might be trouble. I wasn't too concerned about it because I was pretty much going to go right into a tour group and had kind figured on the safety in numbers kind of thing but I've had to make some travel changes and I will be in India on my own for the first five days. I will of course be in Mumbai which is modern up to date kind of place but still a different culture. So I wandered through the market in Brive and bought a scarf. I figure that'll get me started in Mumbai and I'll get the rest of what I'll need when I get there.
After that tremendous shopping spree, I was ready for a hot cup of something. In my search of a Starbuckslike place I realized I was on the street where I lived, so I just headed back to the hostel and took a nap instead. A bit later I was up and out again with still not much to do so I headed towards the Fine Arts Museum I had passed by earlier in the day when it was closed. Along the way, I noticed that lots of people were going the other way. Well, sometimes my herding instinct makes sheep look like independent thinkers and I started following the crowd. I wound up at my first professional (coulda been semi-pros) rugby match. Brive vs The Other Team. The stands were packed, the players were in a fist fight less than two minutes into the game resulting in one opposing player being sent off, I had hardly any idea what was happening but I think the score was close at half time when I left. I'll have to find out who won later.
And that's the end of this day. Long long travel day ahead tomorrow for final French destination at the foot of the Pyrenees, or maybe it's in the Pyrenees. I'll find out tomorrow.
Friday, November 14, 2008
No tours in Tours
It is getting down to slim pickin's out here in the tourist universe at least for this particular "flyin' by the seat of my pants" tourist. Holiday train connections put me into St. Malo too late to be able to appreicate all that that little berg has to offer. I take the blame for that one for not knowing the holiday schedule however the next days delay wasn't a holiday thing. I wanted to get the early afternoon train out of St. Malo to get to Tours by late afternoon. According to the schedule I had in hand, that was quite doable. The schedule I had in hand did not account for work on the train line. One of the three legs of the trip (the longest one, too, of course) was on the bus. To late of an arrival into Tours left no time to scout so the next morning was spent trying to get the scout in but alas, by the time I found out about the various villa and chateau tours still operating this time of year, they had all departed. I did a modified version of the self-guided walking tour of the town. There is still a bit of the old town-ness to Tours--narrow cobbled streets, some half timbered buildings an occassional ruin but they have moved on and are really wanting to be cosmopolitan. The reason I came over this way is to spend some time in and see a bit of the Loire Valley but I'm thinkin' this area is probably best seen with more personal transportation available. After missing the arranged tours and then doing the town, the front desk at the hostel told me "Oh, by the way, here's your free ticket to the grottos just outside of town". A bit of investigation revealed that no public transportation went out that way so I wasn't going to be able to take advantage of that particular freebie. Too bad, too because I think it might have been the highlight of my visit to Tours.
So I was up and out not too early but still early enough to catch the 9:05 train out of Tours to Brive. A couple of changes later and I would be in Brive by 1:30 and be back to my normal routine. Funny how things don't go as planned; ain't it? The 9:05 train was a bus. The connecting train was delayed 15 . . .no, 20 minutes . . .wait, you can take this train . . .Okay, this train won't work so I'm going to give you a note for the ticket agent inside and he will get you a ticket for the next train going in the same direction you are going and you'll only have to wait three hours. And sure enough three hours later I finally was on the train. The only good thing about that particular train ride is that it carried us out of drizzly, gray cloudy weather into a sunnier day. (Have I mentioned how good the weather has been on this trip! I've been lovin' every minute of it)
So here I am in Brive. Now what? I'll see what brochures I can find here at the hostel and try to do some planning but before I do that just few- a few random observations because the internet if free here but there are no scandisc ports.
For quite awhile now I've been traveling through different regions all in varying degrees of autumn leafing. A day or so I ago it appeared that I had maxed out on getting to see changing leaves. Most of the trees are now naked or almost so. I say almost because the other day I saw a stand of (possible birch) trees (really white bark) qnd they were leafless except for large spheres of green scattered throughout. Harkening back to my forestry years, I'm guessing it's some kind of parasitic thing. Actually, I keep thinking mistletoe or mistletoe-like but I don't know if I'm even barking up the right tree with that thought. What I do know is that from a distance, it looks like a bunch of wild poodles are hanging out in the birch trees of the Loire Valley.
That's it for this installment except to say that I don't proof read these updates because it would use up too much of the time when I've got to pay for access but since to day is free I ,ight go bqck qnd check it. But just so you know, the keyboards are laid out a bit different in each country. I'm no great typist anyway so when you throw that into the mix you get the mess you have been dealing with. One this keyboard, for instance the q & a are reversed the , is where the m is supposed be. You have to use the shift key to get a period. All of the numbers along the top row are funcitons of the shift key as well. The w & z are reversed and it goes on and on. Well, I'm not gonna proof this one either but let you figure out what other keys are moved around based on how often I screw up! By the way, can you find these keys on your keyboard---§@éàüçè ?
So I was up and out not too early but still early enough to catch the 9:05 train out of Tours to Brive. A couple of changes later and I would be in Brive by 1:30 and be back to my normal routine. Funny how things don't go as planned; ain't it? The 9:05 train was a bus. The connecting train was delayed 15 . . .no, 20 minutes . . .wait, you can take this train . . .Okay, this train won't work so I'm going to give you a note for the ticket agent inside and he will get you a ticket for the next train going in the same direction you are going and you'll only have to wait three hours. And sure enough three hours later I finally was on the train. The only good thing about that particular train ride is that it carried us out of drizzly, gray cloudy weather into a sunnier day. (Have I mentioned how good the weather has been on this trip! I've been lovin' every minute of it)
So here I am in Brive. Now what? I'll see what brochures I can find here at the hostel and try to do some planning but before I do that just few- a few random observations because the internet if free here but there are no scandisc ports.
For quite awhile now I've been traveling through different regions all in varying degrees of autumn leafing. A day or so I ago it appeared that I had maxed out on getting to see changing leaves. Most of the trees are now naked or almost so. I say almost because the other day I saw a stand of (possible birch) trees (really white bark) qnd they were leafless except for large spheres of green scattered throughout. Harkening back to my forestry years, I'm guessing it's some kind of parasitic thing. Actually, I keep thinking mistletoe or mistletoe-like but I don't know if I'm even barking up the right tree with that thought. What I do know is that from a distance, it looks like a bunch of wild poodles are hanging out in the birch trees of the Loire Valley.
That's it for this installment except to say that I don't proof read these updates because it would use up too much of the time when I've got to pay for access but since to day is free I ,ight go bqck qnd check it. But just so you know, the keyboards are laid out a bit different in each country. I'm no great typist anyway so when you throw that into the mix you get the mess you have been dealing with. One this keyboard, for instance the q & a are reversed the , is where the m is supposed be. You have to use the shift key to get a period. All of the numbers along the top row are funcitons of the shift key as well. The w & z are reversed and it goes on and on. Well, I'm not gonna proof this one either but let you figure out what other keys are moved around based on how often I screw up! By the way, can you find these keys on your keyboard---§@éàüçè ?
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Omigosh! It's a photo
That would be me in front of the abbey in Bath. It took ten minutes to upload this one picture and I only had the memory disc directory to choose from so I didn't know what the image was going to be. I'm going to randomly select more photos for this entry and we'll see what we get. I think I have time for one or two more.
That's a self portrait at Conwy Castle in Wales. You can kind of see the castle against the backdrop of the trees on the hillside. I'm standing on the town wall in this shot, too. I've got time for another random selection. Let's hope I'm not squinting in the next one. I hope it's a good photo because I haven't found the ' remove photo' button yet!
This is the 'Madonna and Child' by Michaelangelo and is located in Bruges, Belgium. It is one of the few of his works that ever left Italy. And you can see why. Most places would have displayed this standing up (and most bloggers know how to use their photo editing software well enough to know how to rotate an image)
This is one of the building disguises Munich uses when it's fixing up a place. They hang a 1 to 1 scale photo of what the place is gonna look like over the old building. It would work a lot better as a beautiful way of hiding the construction zone if it weren't for the giant advertising going on but that's probably what paid for the covreing in the first place.
So a few crappy photos to start with. I'll keep working on this aspect of the blog as computer time permits.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The beaches at Normandy
Pardon my ignoance, but who out there knows what 'Mulberry' means as it relates to D-Day? My knowledge of WWII history is limited to what I have forgotten from every history class & course I've ever taken and what I haven't forgotten is tainted by the Hollywood version of events. The movies always cut away from the beaches after June 6th and follow the soldiers to victory so I was certainly enlightened at Arromanches.
That was the second day of my visit to Bayeux after I eventually got into the hostel the previous. I gotta say though, what that particular hostel may have lacked in personality it made up for it with the included breakfast spread (and the beds were some of the comfiest hostel beds I've experienced thus far). It was the continental breakfast with all the elements but with pluses: Not just a bread but a choice of breads, the salami was there but the cheese was not the cold cut style and there were at least six choices, real OJ instead of the orange drink favored by most hostels plus other fresh fruits, four types of spreads; hardboiled eggs and cereal. This place had more of a B&B feel to it anyway so that might be the reason. Most all of the hostels have an after dark security policy and provide either codes of keys to guests for access after hours. This one was the same. I usually don't need the afterhours stuff cuz I'm home before the street lights come but lately I've getting a bit of moonlight. The day of my own Omaha beach landing we got back after dark. Not to worry, I had my door code in hand. What I didn't have in had was a flashlight. The doorway was in an alley sheltered from the streelights. The key pad for the doorcode was not the standard ten keypad layout because it was an alpha numeric keypad-two vertical rows of 8 buttons numbers and a few letters. Fortunately I had come across a similar keypad way back in the UK and actually recalled the layout and was able to key in the code but touch.
My last day in Bayeux was one of my better planning mistakes. I have been having fairly good luck with taking morning trains, arriving at mid-day or so, scouting in the afternoon and then touristing the next day. Didn't work out like that this time because of the bank holiday. They commemorate Veteran's Day on Veteran's Day not the most convenient Monday. That meant that the first available train out for me wasn't until mid-afternoon. Well, that gavve me a chance to visit the D-Day Memorial Mueseum right there in Bayeux. The various museums we visited on the previous day's tour werekind of rushed affairs in order to get to all the sights. Now I had the time to go through the exhibits at a more respectful pace and still had time for a sit down lunch. This was my first encounter with a cary foreign meal. A guy I was in school with was just shy of being totally vegan. One of his tenants regarding his diet was "Never eat anything with a face." I kinda subconsciously follow that only n my mind it's skewed a bit to "Never eat anything's face." That's why I was a little bit taken aback when my salade de la mer (Garden greens with shrimps, shredded salmon and fried white fish arrived) arrived and was staring back at me. The shrimps were whole and the salmon looked way fresher than I'm used to. Overall the entire thing had more of the appearance of sushi or sushumi than the 'traditional cuisine' advertised on the restaurant window (La Petit Normand).
My later than normal train meant that I didn't get to spend any time in St. Malo. I only had an overnight stay scheduled there. I arrived too late to see the town and then had to catch an early afternoon train out because track repairs made my trip to Tours a much longer trip. I was only able to make a quick early morning walk along the beach and a brief visit to the old town area. I wouldn't mind another visit to St. Malo and from there a visit to Mont St. Michel. That is big highlight of the area I didn't know about at all. *ah well* All the more reason to return someday.
So now I'm in Tours and will have only tomorrow to explore so I'm going to go find the touristy literature.
That was the second day of my visit to Bayeux after I eventually got into the hostel the previous. I gotta say though, what that particular hostel may have lacked in personality it made up for it with the included breakfast spread (and the beds were some of the comfiest hostel beds I've experienced thus far). It was the continental breakfast with all the elements but with pluses: Not just a bread but a choice of breads, the salami was there but the cheese was not the cold cut style and there were at least six choices, real OJ instead of the orange drink favored by most hostels plus other fresh fruits, four types of spreads; hardboiled eggs and cereal. This place had more of a B&B feel to it anyway so that might be the reason. Most all of the hostels have an after dark security policy and provide either codes of keys to guests for access after hours. This one was the same. I usually don't need the afterhours stuff cuz I'm home before the street lights come but lately I've getting a bit of moonlight. The day of my own Omaha beach landing we got back after dark. Not to worry, I had my door code in hand. What I didn't have in had was a flashlight. The doorway was in an alley sheltered from the streelights. The key pad for the doorcode was not the standard ten keypad layout because it was an alpha numeric keypad-two vertical rows of 8 buttons numbers and a few letters. Fortunately I had come across a similar keypad way back in the UK and actually recalled the layout and was able to key in the code but touch.
My last day in Bayeux was one of my better planning mistakes. I have been having fairly good luck with taking morning trains, arriving at mid-day or so, scouting in the afternoon and then touristing the next day. Didn't work out like that this time because of the bank holiday. They commemorate Veteran's Day on Veteran's Day not the most convenient Monday. That meant that the first available train out for me wasn't until mid-afternoon. Well, that gavve me a chance to visit the D-Day Memorial Mueseum right there in Bayeux. The various museums we visited on the previous day's tour werekind of rushed affairs in order to get to all the sights. Now I had the time to go through the exhibits at a more respectful pace and still had time for a sit down lunch. This was my first encounter with a cary foreign meal. A guy I was in school with was just shy of being totally vegan. One of his tenants regarding his diet was "Never eat anything with a face." I kinda subconsciously follow that only n my mind it's skewed a bit to "Never eat anything's face." That's why I was a little bit taken aback when my salade de la mer (Garden greens with shrimps, shredded salmon and fried white fish arrived) arrived and was staring back at me. The shrimps were whole and the salmon looked way fresher than I'm used to. Overall the entire thing had more of the appearance of sushi or sushumi than the 'traditional cuisine' advertised on the restaurant window (La Petit Normand).
My later than normal train meant that I didn't get to spend any time in St. Malo. I only had an overnight stay scheduled there. I arrived too late to see the town and then had to catch an early afternoon train out because track repairs made my trip to Tours a much longer trip. I was only able to make a quick early morning walk along the beach and a brief visit to the old town area. I wouldn't mind another visit to St. Malo and from there a visit to Mont St. Michel. That is big highlight of the area I didn't know about at all. *ah well* All the more reason to return someday.
So now I'm in Tours and will have only tomorrow to explore so I'm going to go find the touristy literature.
(Photo above was taken from the old town wall in St. Malo)
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
What I did on my Paris vacation.
Itinerary: 9:30 AM -11:30 AM Highlights of the Louvre;
11:30- 12:15 visit Tuilieres
12:15 - 2:15 Musee de Orsay
Lunch on the run
2:30 - 3:30 Stroll the Champs Elysee
3:30- 5:00 Climb the Arc de Triomphe
5:00- Head to the Eiffel Tower for the evening.
That is the plan I deviated from. I was at the Louvre early. there were no crowds. I went immediately to the La Joconda (The Mona Lisa). I was there with only about fifteen other people. I was not surpised by how small it is because I had heard often that it is not a large piece. What did surprise me was how close you cannot get to the piece. It's on a free standing wall all by itself. It's got bullet proof glass in front of it and a banister/barrier about five feet away from the wall. Plus they have those crowd control stanchin deals set up going from the ends of the wall to a point mqybe 20 feet or more out in front. That's as close as you can get. My eyes aren't any younger than the rest of me so I did the best looking I could at that then turned my attention to some of the other 35,000 pieces of art. The two hours turned in to 5 and a half and the rest of the itinerary turned into a train ride to the Arc that I did not climb (too pricey) and another train ride to the tower. I did walk up the first half qnd then took the elevator up to the top. I didn't wimp out. You're not allowed to do the steps all the way up. Anyway-great view of the ginormous city that is Paris. I think if I had done the tower first thing, I might have left the city right then!
So, that was my quick visit of Paris. If I could ever go back; I'd plan for many, many more days and I'd spend them all in the Louvre.
I left on a mid morning train to Normandy. I tried to get in to my hostel as soon as I arrived but for the first time, I was shut out so I had to do my scouting with pack on back. Luckily, Bayeux is a small town so I was able to hit all the highlights including lunch within a short walk from the hostel. This meant that I had the entire next day available to visit the beaches of Normandy.
And that'll be next time 'cuz my time is up.
11:30- 12:15 visit Tuilieres
12:15 - 2:15 Musee de Orsay
Lunch on the run
2:30 - 3:30 Stroll the Champs Elysee
3:30- 5:00 Climb the Arc de Triomphe
5:00- Head to the Eiffel Tower for the evening.
That is the plan I deviated from. I was at the Louvre early. there were no crowds. I went immediately to the La Joconda (The Mona Lisa). I was there with only about fifteen other people. I was not surpised by how small it is because I had heard often that it is not a large piece. What did surprise me was how close you cannot get to the piece. It's on a free standing wall all by itself. It's got bullet proof glass in front of it and a banister/barrier about five feet away from the wall. Plus they have those crowd control stanchin deals set up going from the ends of the wall to a point mqybe 20 feet or more out in front. That's as close as you can get. My eyes aren't any younger than the rest of me so I did the best looking I could at that then turned my attention to some of the other 35,000 pieces of art. The two hours turned in to 5 and a half and the rest of the itinerary turned into a train ride to the Arc that I did not climb (too pricey) and another train ride to the tower. I did walk up the first half qnd then took the elevator up to the top. I didn't wimp out. You're not allowed to do the steps all the way up. Anyway-great view of the ginormous city that is Paris. I think if I had done the tower first thing, I might have left the city right then!
So, that was my quick visit of Paris. If I could ever go back; I'd plan for many, many more days and I'd spend them all in the Louvre.
I left on a mid morning train to Normandy. I tried to get in to my hostel as soon as I arrived but for the first time, I was shut out so I had to do my scouting with pack on back. Luckily, Bayeux is a small town so I was able to hit all the highlights including lunch within a short walk from the hostel. This meant that I had the entire next day available to visit the beaches of Normandy.
And that'll be next time 'cuz my time is up.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Oh! to be in Paris now that spring is here!
Ok, so it's fall not spring but here I am in the city of lights. I debated about coming here after reading some of the different guidebook descriptions about how fast, hectic and crowded it was here. Kind of all the things I like least about cities but I here I am anyway. I won't disagree with the guidebooks but it's not overwhelming probably due to the off seasonness of it all. I arrived late in the day and my first night in one of the most exciting cities on the planet. . .I did laundry. Sue me. It was my defense mechanism. Today I did started the tourist stuff. I took the free walking tour of the city and got the introduction to the places to go/see and a good lay of the land. I'm not gonna get to see 1/2 of what I'd like to. The tour took up a good bit of the day and since it rained most of the time, I called it a day after the tour except for a quick attempt at a letter box near the Palais des Invalides. No score on that particular box. So while I haven't been into any of these sights yet, I have been to or within sight of The Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, Musee de Orsay, the Eiffel Tower and Napolean's Tomb. I actually have a sort of filtered view of the Eiffel Tower from my room. At the top of every hour after night fall for the ten minutes it sparkles-the tower, not my room. It's pretty cool. I might have to break my rules about being home before the street lights come on while I'm here. While it rained most of the day today, it did stop in the late afternoon and there was actually an OK sunset. If that is a harbinger of tomorrow it will be a really glorious day.
Mixed in with all the seeing of sights and hanging out in lots of subway and train stations, I'm occassionally having thoughts of where would be best to spend the Christmas holidays. I'm thinking that the time around Christmas and through the New Year might be a good time to 'land' for awhile. I've also changed my itinerary to leave from Rome instead of Athens. It means skipping Greece this time around but I think the ancient ruins will be there the next time I get over this way. So here's a shout out to readers for suggestions of landing zones for the holidays. I just gotta be in Rome by the 4th for and earlyearlyearly flight out on the 5th.
So that's it from Paris.
Mixed in with all the seeing of sights and hanging out in lots of subway and train stations, I'm occassionally having thoughts of where would be best to spend the Christmas holidays. I'm thinking that the time around Christmas and through the New Year might be a good time to 'land' for awhile. I've also changed my itinerary to leave from Rome instead of Athens. It means skipping Greece this time around but I think the ancient ruins will be there the next time I get over this way. So here's a shout out to readers for suggestions of landing zones for the holidays. I just gotta be in Rome by the 4th for and earlyearlyearly flight out on the 5th.
So that's it from Paris.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Switzerland and beyond
I ran out of time on that last line of the last post so I'll pick it up from there (This will all get edited out in the book version :) )
So I was in Bern. I arrived there and found that for the first time the hostel was down the hill from the train station instead of the ususal upness I had experienced so far. Such a downhill journey it was, in fact, that there is a tram ride is involved if one is so (ahem) inclined. I took the stairs found the hostel and I forget what I did the rest of that day but it was not adventurous. I think that might have been where I last blogged before election day. So far, I have not identified many real grocery stores. Mostly I have been shopping at convenience stores. At least that's the closest thing I can equate them to. But in Bern, very near the trainstation is as place called Leob. It's three or four floors of department store and is split between two blocks. There's a grocer, bookstore, department store and clothing store and probably more. I found the internet cafe two floors down from the street level. This was very nice internet place. Some many of the ones I found in Germany were 'call shops'. I'll let you figure out what people did in the enclosed cubicles with just a computer. Anyway, back to Bern. Day two was a planned excursion to Interlaken. I hadn't ever really planned to stay in Bern but all of the hostels I tried south of Interlaken were closed for the season and I found out why. I woke up on day two to a blanket of snow, albeit a thin blanket. This was two days before Halloween! I actually wasn't very surprised. I figured I was more or less in the Alps. Well, I was the only one not surprised and it turns out I was less in the Alps than I thought. I asked few locals and they all said it was not unheard of to have snow this early but it was unusual. Lucky me, I guess. At first I was gonna skip the Interlaken trip but decided to go for it and took the tram up to the trainstation. Glad I went. While it was overcast and iffy durindg the hour or so train ride, the cloud cover broke open to a partly cloudy condition not long after I arrived. They had a bit more snow there than down in Bern but the streets and sidewalks were cleared and I had a nice couple of hours strolling the streets, a wildlife park and the Japanese Peace garden. I took only few snap shots of the Mts but I#ve never really been good at capturing a landscape to bring out the real feel of being there. I missed the peak identifier but I think I can pick out the Eiger. The Matterhorn is on the other side, I think. I'll get that one when I get to Italy.
Bye-bye Berny and on to Lausanne or Luasanne but not Lusane or Lucern. Gotta be careful to get the right one. Lausanne is OK but by now, I'm really outside the tourist season so there's not a lot available to me. The Olympic Museum is open all year so I did that. The Roman Ruins are in the park so there visitable anytime by anyone and really close to the hostel, too. As it happens, I was in Luasanne on the first Saturday of the month when all the museums are FREE. I like free. I went to the Archeology History Museum, The Geology Museum, the Zoology Museum and the Beaux Arts Museum (Steinlein is the featured artist). All of these museums, maybe more accurately called exhibits, are in the same building but each is an entire floor. Across the market square (and it was a Saturday Market day, too) was another art exhibit. Modern art and I need not say more because, well, I can't cuz I didn't get it. . .again.
After Luasanne, I picked a spot about 1/3 of the way to Bacharach. I had all ready made my reservations for there but I couldn't get in for two more days. I did a one night stay in Mannheim. I can't say much about the city because I really didn't explore it at all. However, I can tell you that there is a pretty nice riverside park(that'd be the Rhein River) less than a hundred yards from the hostel. Right on the edge of that park, on the banks of that river is a restaurant. I think that was my first official sit-down eat-out restaurant in Europe. Turns out they had a new menu and it wasn't available in English, yet. As I scanned the entrees, I picked out the 'ravioli' mixed in with all the German words. I have been having pretty good luck with Italian food in Germany so I asked my German waiter whose name was Jose about the ravioli. "It's very good this day." He didn't know the English word for the kind of ravioli but he came up with the best he could (still better than any of my Deutsch). "It is ravioli with Halloween inside". When I asked for a glass of water, Jose asked if I wanted it with gas or without. I had the salmon with roasted baby potatoes, salad and a coke. I did get the water. . .without gas. It was very nice! After that a sunset stroll along the river and I called it a night.
Up and at 'em the next morning and an early arrival in Mainz. Located the hostel, unloaded my gear and back into town for the self guided walking tour which I cut short to stroll through the shopping district which is a maze. I love the streets in these old towns! I did refer to the tour map now and again because most of it was in or near the shopping district anyway. One thing I tried to find was the Gutenberg statue. He is there homie and there has been a statue of him in one of the town squares since the 1800s. Or at least there has been a plinth there. Man, talk about the end of the tourist season. They even put the statues away!
Well, time is ticking away and there's not much to say about Bacharach because it is a closed up town. I thought I had a shot at a sort of boat cruise on the Rhein but it didn't work out so I've got a long travel day tomorrow. I'm headed to Paris.
So I was in Bern. I arrived there and found that for the first time the hostel was down the hill from the train station instead of the ususal upness I had experienced so far. Such a downhill journey it was, in fact, that there is a tram ride is involved if one is so (ahem) inclined. I took the stairs found the hostel and I forget what I did the rest of that day but it was not adventurous. I think that might have been where I last blogged before election day. So far, I have not identified many real grocery stores. Mostly I have been shopping at convenience stores. At least that's the closest thing I can equate them to. But in Bern, very near the trainstation is as place called Leob. It's three or four floors of department store and is split between two blocks. There's a grocer, bookstore, department store and clothing store and probably more. I found the internet cafe two floors down from the street level. This was very nice internet place. Some many of the ones I found in Germany were 'call shops'. I'll let you figure out what people did in the enclosed cubicles with just a computer. Anyway, back to Bern. Day two was a planned excursion to Interlaken. I hadn't ever really planned to stay in Bern but all of the hostels I tried south of Interlaken were closed for the season and I found out why. I woke up on day two to a blanket of snow, albeit a thin blanket. This was two days before Halloween! I actually wasn't very surprised. I figured I was more or less in the Alps. Well, I was the only one not surprised and it turns out I was less in the Alps than I thought. I asked few locals and they all said it was not unheard of to have snow this early but it was unusual. Lucky me, I guess. At first I was gonna skip the Interlaken trip but decided to go for it and took the tram up to the trainstation. Glad I went. While it was overcast and iffy durindg the hour or so train ride, the cloud cover broke open to a partly cloudy condition not long after I arrived. They had a bit more snow there than down in Bern but the streets and sidewalks were cleared and I had a nice couple of hours strolling the streets, a wildlife park and the Japanese Peace garden. I took only few snap shots of the Mts but I#ve never really been good at capturing a landscape to bring out the real feel of being there. I missed the peak identifier but I think I can pick out the Eiger. The Matterhorn is on the other side, I think. I'll get that one when I get to Italy.
Bye-bye Berny and on to Lausanne or Luasanne but not Lusane or Lucern. Gotta be careful to get the right one. Lausanne is OK but by now, I'm really outside the tourist season so there's not a lot available to me. The Olympic Museum is open all year so I did that. The Roman Ruins are in the park so there visitable anytime by anyone and really close to the hostel, too. As it happens, I was in Luasanne on the first Saturday of the month when all the museums are FREE. I like free. I went to the Archeology History Museum, The Geology Museum, the Zoology Museum and the Beaux Arts Museum (Steinlein is the featured artist). All of these museums, maybe more accurately called exhibits, are in the same building but each is an entire floor. Across the market square (and it was a Saturday Market day, too) was another art exhibit. Modern art and I need not say more because, well, I can't cuz I didn't get it. . .again.
After Luasanne, I picked a spot about 1/3 of the way to Bacharach. I had all ready made my reservations for there but I couldn't get in for two more days. I did a one night stay in Mannheim. I can't say much about the city because I really didn't explore it at all. However, I can tell you that there is a pretty nice riverside park(that'd be the Rhein River) less than a hundred yards from the hostel. Right on the edge of that park, on the banks of that river is a restaurant. I think that was my first official sit-down eat-out restaurant in Europe. Turns out they had a new menu and it wasn't available in English, yet. As I scanned the entrees, I picked out the 'ravioli' mixed in with all the German words. I have been having pretty good luck with Italian food in Germany so I asked my German waiter whose name was Jose about the ravioli. "It's very good this day." He didn't know the English word for the kind of ravioli but he came up with the best he could (still better than any of my Deutsch). "It is ravioli with Halloween inside". When I asked for a glass of water, Jose asked if I wanted it with gas or without. I had the salmon with roasted baby potatoes, salad and a coke. I did get the water. . .without gas. It was very nice! After that a sunset stroll along the river and I called it a night.
Up and at 'em the next morning and an early arrival in Mainz. Located the hostel, unloaded my gear and back into town for the self guided walking tour which I cut short to stroll through the shopping district which is a maze. I love the streets in these old towns! I did refer to the tour map now and again because most of it was in or near the shopping district anyway. One thing I tried to find was the Gutenberg statue. He is there homie and there has been a statue of him in one of the town squares since the 1800s. Or at least there has been a plinth there. Man, talk about the end of the tourist season. They even put the statues away!
Well, time is ticking away and there's not much to say about Bacharach because it is a closed up town. I thought I had a shot at a sort of boat cruise on the Rhein but it didn't work out so I've got a long travel day tomorrow. I'm headed to Paris.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
It's election night
So no real update on the travel. Just a quick note to say all is well except the computers in the last two hostels which is why there have been no updates 'til now but I'm saving my internet euros to check the election results. The town I'm in now (Bacharach, German) has two industries-wine and tourism and both are very much off season right now so my original plan to maybe trying to find a fellow 'Mercan or two and sit in a pub or similar to watch elections results came to naught. However, the kindly hostel manager is trying to get CNN to come in on the TV so I might get to catch up on the news a bit later. I guess I'm quite a few hours ahead so the polls have only been opened for a short although I do see some of the various website making their early predictions as always. Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't try to keep up instead wait until I get to Paris in a day or so and get a copy of the International Herald Tribune!
Ok, I was in Bern, Lausanne, Mannheim, Mainz and now I'm in
Ok, I was in Bern, Lausanne, Mannheim, Mainz and now I'm in
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