Hi all, Just want to bring closure to the blog. I got home at 1;30 am Monday morning after spending 23 hours traveling. I amde it with my bags and that is what counts, but the crying baby and the man behind me getting sick to his stomach made for an interesting 12 hours between Aukland and LA. Here are my last photos. I made it to a nature sanctuary outside Wellington Sunday morning before my plane departed. I enjoyed keeping all of you in touch. Thanks for all the wonderful thoughts and comments. I have the photos in twice. sorry [View Full Entry]

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Hello! I feel like I am on the Survivor Reality TV show. These last few days have been quite rough. We left Melbourne Wednesday night and took a 2 hour flight to Brisbane, getting in around 10 pm. Awoke to a beautiful view. Brisbane's weather was incredibly wonderful. We met with the Queensland Transport Department all day and then flew out last night to Wellington. It was a three hour flight and two hour time difference. I am now 16 hours ahead of you all. Awoke to a cold Wellington day - low of 4C and a high of 12C. We [View Full Entry]

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Hi there, I am posting a bit earlier in the day - 5:05 pm. By the way, it is a 14 hour time difference. Just had a full day at the Victoria DOT. Their approach to target setting is very different from New South Wales, but also good. We heard from the Secretary of DOT (one step below Minister of Transport) say that their land use and transportation plans were one and the same. Australia does not appear to have a regional planning process as we know it. The state has a far greater role in land use and reconginizes the [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone, I have hit the wall. We had a 6 hour meeting on Sunday that wiped us all out. Then all day Monday with the RTA and NSW government followed by a flight to Melbourne tonight. The stuff that we heard about in Sydney was unbelievable. I can't wait to share with all of you. We have two days here in Melbourne before going to Brisbane Wed. night. I will post photos tomorrow night. [View Full Entry]

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Hello from Sydney!! I made it and so did my bag. We left London on July 30 at 9:30 pm aboard Thai Airlines. The flight to Bangkok was 10 and 1/2 hours. It was nice - a 747. I had a good amount of room for coach. The three plus hour layover in Bangkok was interesting. They certainly want you to duty free shop to your heart's content. It was so cool to see so many different cultures walking around - Buddhist monks that dressed like the Dali Lama, Saudi Arabian women in all black head to toe, but the black [View Full Entry]

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My mind is jello. We had a very good and long day with the Ministry for Transport. Like the Swedes, Climate Change and Economic Growth permeate everything they do. I had to go way back in my mind to remember my Parliamentary form of government from college political science classes. It is very different from our system. Gas is $3.50 a liter here and 50% is taxes. The Treasury Deprtment ccan change the tax based on inflation without getting any approval from Parliament. We learned alot of detail today. Bottom line... negotiating agreements seems to be the modus operandi. I am [View Full Entry]

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Hi all, I am in London and it is after midnight. We arrived at 8:20 pm and were out of Heathrow airport in 30 minutes!!! customs, baggage claim and everything. Had a good day in Stockholm. My photos will show that I really was there. We took the Arlanda Express train to the airport. It got up to 205 km/hour. The trip went smoothly and we flew a 767 Bristish Airways plane here. Well, since we will only be here for two nights, we had to make the best of our trip. So the group headed for the pub across the [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone!! Thanks so much for responding! It is nice to know so many people are reading my blog!! Well today was back to work. Spent the entire day in the hotel conference room with the top officials from the Swedish Road Administration. We learned quite alot. In fact, after I post this, i am going to have to type up notes from the day. It is now after 10 pm and I have had the second four hour dinner. How do the Europeans do this? The restaurant was built in 1651 and we had a great dinner with our Swedish [View Full Entry]

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Today is Sunday and the only free day we have. I started the day on a boat sightseeing tour of Stockholm and its islands. Several people from our group went on the tour. Stockholm is part of an archipeligo (sp?) of 100s of islands. It was founded in the 1200s. We learned about many of the islands. We saw many cruise ships. I found out that the Swedish language is Germanic in origin and very similar to Norwegian and Danish. However, Finnish is Hungarian in origin, so the Swedes cannot understand them at all. The Swedish government has declared that they [View Full Entry]

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I made here with my bags, although the handle was broken off my suitcase when I picked it up. Our plane landed about 11:10 local time. I have had about three hours sleep since yesterday morning. So far, Sweden looks very much like the US in the drive from the airport. Lots of campus looking office builidings off an expressway with a transitline parallel to the highway. Our hotel is right across the bridge from the Old Town. Since we could not check into the hotel when we arrived, we walked through the Old Town. That is where the photos were [View Full Entry]

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