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 mercifully short, so we actually got to do and enjoy things! Truly, the highlight of LEGOLAND is "Miniland". At LEGOLAND Deutschland (LLD), the major German cities are represented in LEGO: Frankfu [View Full Entry]

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We set out for Austria with a few modest goals in mind: a picture at the border, some chocolate for Horst at a local grocery store, a snack of traditional Kaiserschmarrn (a sweet, eggy, fluffy pancake with raisins), dinner at a chicken restaurant, and cheap diesel. One out of five ain't bad? For some reason, the attractive EU signage for the Austrian border is like a kilometer back in Germany, i.e., not at the border, so we missed it. We settled for the actual sign at the actual border, which does say Österreich but Ramona was quite upset that it was [View Full Entry]

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We stopped at a Bäckerei (bakery) and a Metzgerei (butcher) for lunch fixins before we left town. The 2-hour drive into the Alps was beautiful, of course. One interesting thing about Bavaria is the farms all seem to be small family operations, and it's common to see actual farmers actually farming as we drive by. Neuschwanstein is Neuschwanstein. What more need be said? We had to wait three hours for our guided tour, which afforded us time to eat and nap and plenty else if there had been anything else to do on the side of the mountain, which there wasn't, [View Full Entry]

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The town we're staying in, Nördlingen, has in its name a silent umlaut. More or less. I have confirmed this with a few locals. I suspect the Germans and/or Bavarians find it as difficult to pronounce with the umlaut as I did, but will need further research to see whether other silent umlauts exist in similarly challenging words. Update 28 Juli: Here in Baden and/or by me listening more closely to native speakers, the umlaut is pronounced, but does not seem as difficult as I had imagined. Those umlauts (and "ch", too) they teach in American schools, I think, are made [View Full Entry]

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Here we are in Deutschland (Germany), and as expected, being a parent-esque figure to a kid is hard. :) "Nun sind unser zwey" is the inscription on Nördlingen's Narrenspigel, the "Fool's Mirror", a carving on the side of the old town prison building. As you look at the image of the fool in the "mirror", he says: "now there are two of us"! Both the idea of two, and the idea of the fool, seem apt for my adventure bringing somene else's eight-year-old on a monthlong trip through Europe. :) This week we're staying in Nördlingen, a charming medieval town on [View Full Entry]

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What does it mean to be a master-advance-planner who's nonetheless likely to adapt, improve, or otherwise drastically change at nearly every phase of a decision? Several months ago, I was driving around a back road in north SeaTac when I came upon a fancy new-ish pet boarding facility. I went home and mentioned to the family: "hey, there's a swanky new boarding place in north SeaTac, up on 140-somethingth, but I don't remember what it's called." The family replied: "oh, yes, '! Up on 140-somethingth! We've boarded our dog there and they're fantastic! Yes, we're pret [View Full Entry]

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The Nintendo DS Lite appears to be the only one of my many rechargeable gadgets whose charger is NOT dual-voltage. This means a simple plug adapter won't cut it... a step-down transformer is necessary to prevent DS fryage. Step-down transformers are almost literally bricks to carry around. They suck. And for one appliance? Some posters in online fora say that buying the European adapter from Nintendo works absolutely fine for charging a US DS Lite, but Nintendo's support website actually says you'd be better off buying a whole 'nother DS Lite game console in Europe. I can [View Full Entry]

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Updates to the tool* report: * Guitar Hero: On Tour for Nintendo DS * Nintendo DS (borrowed) * BUILT NY neoprene Electric Pocket #8 (stripe) for camera * BUILT NY neoprene charger caddy (stripe) * Bunch of lightweight shirts & a cardigan * Ziploc bags Still considering acquisition of Eagle Creek packing cubes. Still developing toiletries plan. Hey, cool: -- * Hmm, is that "tools I'm buying for trip", or "stuff I'm buying that proves I'm a tool"? [View Full Entry]

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In ten days, I embark on my second epic tour of Europe: Deutschland, Czechia, 500 meters' worth of France, and perhaps 45 minutes of Austria. Three years ago, I visited an old friend and made several new friends. Now, my 8-year-old goddaughter and I will connect with all those old-new friends and will meet a high school classmate of my mother's as well. My friend's kids are older, so it'll be great to catch up with them and get to know them all over again. We're also taking my friend's daughter with us to Berlin. Sole guardian of two other-people's-kids, one [View Full Entry]

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A great, full day at Smith. These folks really know how to put on an educational event... oh, wait, they're a college. Riiight. Campus, at 8 AM on the first Saturday of the school year, was hilariously empty and silent. We were shuttled to one of my old haunts, Wright Hall (the one with the owl), for a morning keynote and panel. I was pleased to recall that my first time in the Wright Hall auditorium had been as a first-year for an SGA showing of "Rocky Horror". Before things started, I walked over to the new Campus Center in a [View Full Entry]

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