shartbeck

All, Well, we had a wonderful, albeit quick stop in the Alps at the Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald, Switzerland. We arrived on Saturday afternoon around three and then were there about 24 hours or so. In that time though, we were able to get some good hiking done, and just relax after the craziness that was the Oktoberfest. We started getting the most of our railpasses right after Oktoberfest as we caught trains to Zurich, and then to Bern, and then to Interlaken and then took the Mountain tram up to Gimmelwald. If you are a regular reader of my blogs, you will remember that I was there last year, and although it may seem a bit redundant to return, i don't think anyone would ever tire of those views, and I certainly did not, and ... read more

All, If you are not a st. louis sports radio listener, you probably wont get the title, just thought i would pass that along. well, we have actually just arrived in Munich via an overnight train frmo Zagreb, Croatia, and are starting prep for two days of Oktoberfest. Our last day in on Hvar was actually a bit cloudy, and we tried to take a ferry over to Brac or Korcula, but the times just didnt match up with what our schedule was, basically, we wouldnt have been able to get back til the next morning. So, we just hung out on the harbor, and then enjoyed a night out on the town at the basically only bar in Hvar, Carpe Diem. It was a great time, and our new friends from chicago were there for ... read more

Ok, well it seems like it has been a long time since I updated, but my calendar assures me it has actually only been a couple of days, so let me let you know what we have been up to. We left Lisbon in the wee hours of Wednesday and took a rainy cab ride to the airport and caught an early morning flight to Rome. The Lisbon airport was really nice, and things ran smoother there than we had ever experienced in the states. The boarding procedure was a little different, as you took a bus on to the tarcmac and then boarded your plane kinda like a president would or something, except at the top we didnt turn and wave to adoring crowds. After a kinda shaky start, Lisbon was a blast in the ... read more

All, Well, hello from the western-most reaches of the European continent here in Lisbon, Portugal. The title certainly does not sum up our departure from Madrid and our early hours in Lisbon. Our train ride was about as good I suppose an 10 hour overnight train can be. I slept a nice chunk of it, Chris slept a little less I think. Anyway, had a minor issue when we were getting our 15 day Eurail passes validated on our way out of Madrid, since the train was leaving after 7 PM, it should have been stamped for the next day, but the guy stamped it for the current day, which in a nutshell basically cuts us off from riding the rails one day earlier than we expected too. We are going to try to come up ... read more

All, Well, yes we have finally made it to Madrid and had one full night here. Getting here was quite the adventure though. When we had booked our flights, We were supposed to go from St. Louis to Boston, and then Boston to Madrid. About a week after we booked those flights our itenarary changed and added in an additional flight to JFK and that was where we would be heading to Spain from. So, we already felt that this was kinda weird and both had bad feelings about it, but went along with it anyway. Of course, when we got to Boston, the flight to JFK that we were on was delayed due to weather, and we missed our connection to Madrid. We made the most of our time in Boston by grabbing some "chowda" ... read more