http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/bsktcase/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from bsktcase en-us Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:59:30 +0000 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:59:30 +0000 Today we spent an inordinate amount of our day sitting in the hot sun waiting for the High Speed Catamaran To it turns out Nowhere.Where we were trying to go and perhaps this was our first problem was the city of Bratislava capital of Slovakia just down the Danube River yes that one from Vienna.Why Bratislava Rick Steves has this to say Conveniently located Bratislava mdash the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Austria/Vienna-State/Vienna/blog-393589.html ... tired old Sound of Music jokes when talking about SalzburgActually much credit goes to Greg for going native and appreciating Salzburg in the proper European manner as the first home of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. At the end of our trip he even commented that were it not for Mozart tourists might not visit Salzburg at all Meanwhile I'm humming Edelweiss hint not a traditional Austri http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Austria/Salzburg-State/Salzburg/blog-391401.html As Germanophiles know the German language often builds words by mushing together several small words into one big long word. Students of German are frequently advised to tackle intimidatingly long German words by looking for smaller pieces that might themselves be words the student can recognize. For this reason I found it very curious that the German word for cemetery is Friedhof because I http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Austria/Vienna-State/Vienna/blog-391007.html It snowed back in Seattle today. Online in the afternoon I witnessed a flood of TweetsFacebook stati from home proclaiming it Mother Nature's April Fool's Joke all by people who don't know each other.Here our 1. April was utterly free of Aprilscherze April Fool's Jokes even from my punloving sweetheart for which I blame residual jet lag. We set out this morning to visit Greg's 1 d http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Austria/Vienna-State/Vienna/blog-389058.html Gre aus Wien Greetings from ViennaReason 1 to take fewer longer trips to Europe 15 hours of travel mostly in coach class. This is of special concern if you are a fat American and don't fit well in coach seats. Miserable. We were in really rough shape upon arrival in Wien Vienna.Fortunately for us two nice things happened as soon as we got here. First a delightful gentleman w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Austria/Vienna-State/Vienna/blog-386831.html It all started when I created a lowfare email alert for SeattleFrankfurt am Main. I set it at what I figured was a ridiculously low threshold and didn't think about it again.Until last week when it triggered. 450. LOLwutJust wrapping up a brutal month of 60ish hour workweeks trying to deliver a software product looking for a way to relax and reward myself and airfares to Europe in this http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Seattle/blog-373732.html And the medal winners areGOLD Sony VAIO VGNTZ340 rosMy bestever impulse purchase for an accidental reason. I had no idea how helpful the builtin webcam would be but free ooVoo video calls home were a lifeline for LG and her parents and thereby also for me.Plus the everyotherday video calls provided a neat justification for me to have the laptop and WLAN wireless internet in the fi http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Seattle/U-District/blog-314685.html All we knew is that we were going to the Ettlingen city Schwimmbad which means public swimming pool also Freibad which specifies that it's an outdoor one. Fine fun for the kids didn't think much else of it. Had to go into town to pick up a swimsuit and goggles for LG since I told her not to bring hers oops. Yeah OK the Ettlingen public pool is not exactly what I expected.Huge grass http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Baden-W-rttemberg/Karlsruhe/blog-307566.html I'm surprised and impressed that LG is having any fun in Prague at all. It's been cold windy and raining hard since we arrived... utterly miserable for sightseeing. And still overrun with tourists. We can't even have the fail to ourselves.Yesterday we got stuck in a rainstorm while standing in the queue to get into the Katedrla svatho Vta Vclava a Vojt283cha great big cathedral of s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Czech-Republic/Prague/blog-312941.html I am finally starting to figure out the German showers thing and with it kind of having an epiphany about the foreign cultures thing.I particularly value my showering experiences so it was a particular concern for me that I and I think Americans in general have a thousand different kinds of trouble with German showers and British showers.For one thing they're tiny like so much else in Eur http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/blog-310983.html We're hosted in Dresden by friendsofafriend'sparents wonderful people whom I also visited for a few days in 2005. I had heard that they were excited to have me back but I didn't expect Herr S. to be jumping up and down totally literally on the train platform when he spotted us. We were greeted with a huge smile and hugs and kisses.Back at the apartment zwei kstliche hausgemacht Kuchen. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Saxony/Dresden/blog-310980.html IS NOT OK. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-309519.html I admit it I am a fan of Bob Roll and his hilarious commentary on the VS. channel's coverage of the Tour de France cycling race every year. As I understand it he butchers the pronunciation of the name of the race on purpose well beyond the normal butchery of French that Americans normally perpetrate. But I digress.I'm now officially writing these entries in whatever sequence I feel like. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Alsace/blog-307567.html This morning after Frhstck breakfast I joined our host family for a trip to the Lebensmittel grocery store in search of ingredients for an American recipe dinner we planned to cook for the family. I did a Happy Dance in the aisles when I found real amerikanisch chili powder and had general fun shopping in a similarbutdifferent environment.One of the most interesting developments was http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Baden-W-rttemberg/Karlsruhe/blog-306075.html Like literally. It was stormy almost all day today fortunately the rain showers were brief and infrequent and the air was mostly warm but we fought against strong winds nearly everywhere we walkedAfter Frhstck breakfast at our Pension HotelBB this morning we headed out to see Berlin without exactly a clear plan for the day. The proprietor of the Pension was most helpful last nigh http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-308349.html Travel day today. We drove to Aalen just in time to miss the direct train to Karlsruhe. Fortunately another train connecting in Stuttgart actually got us there even faster. Our second leg was on the French TGV rail which seemed like a major score until we figured out that our tickets didn't include seats. We had to stand in the entryway for 25 minutes from Stuttgart to Karlsruhe. Oh yeah http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Baden-W-rttemberg/Karlsruhe/blog-306073.html I think pretty much everyone including our tour guide thought I was insane for bringing an 8yearold to the KZGedenksttte Dachau Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. Sure all German schoolkids are required to visit a concentration camp but that's 12 and 14yearolds. Not 8.By the end of our tour our guide had no doubt why I figured LG could handle it.Throughout the tour I was happy to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Dachau/blog-305071.html I'm way way behind on prior blog entries but here's one quick tale worth sharing out of sequenceThis evening we went to a magnifique restaurant in the Alsace for a regional specialty flammkuchen. It was a pretty special treat so I told LG she could have Sprite instead of the normally required milch milk. Immediately audibly and totally unprompted she repliedThank you Danke Merci http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Alsace/blog-307259.html Good Lord I'm way behind on these blogs.Today Laura I took the weekendonly direct train from Nrdlingen to Mnchen Munich to take the Munich Walks Englishlanguage guided tour of the Dachau concentration camp.When we arrived at the Hauptbahnhof main train station hungry for breakfast Laura almost instantly spotted a Starbucks and demanded we go there No argument from Auntie on that one http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Munich/blog-305068.html Apparently at this exact same time Rick Steves is in Billund Denmark filming the original LEGOLAND for his program. Stay tuned. In the meanwhile it's LEGOLAND Deutschland and no pledge drive either We scored BIG by coming here on this particular weekday because the schools in Bayern Bavaria have not let out for the holidays yet. The park wasn't crowded at all and the lines were merc http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/G-nzburg/blog-305067.html