Zpet

Well... we packed up and headed towards Ramstein Air Base, to hopefully get a flight out. At the time we left, there was a flight to Charleston, but it was showing 0 seats Firm. There was also a flight to Dover AFB (on a C5 with nice seats!) in the afternoon with 73 seats Firm. When we arrived at the terminal and parked our rental car, we went into the terminal to see that the Charleston flight now showed 49 seats, Tentative. After reviewing the Space A "present" list, we saw we were 70th and 71st on the list, so we decided it would be safer to take the Dover flight since that way even if everyone present wanted to go, we'd still make it. When the roll call started, there were several names called that ... read more

I guess its obvious from the title of this blog entry that we didn't catch either of the intended flights. This morning we were going to pack up and head to the base, but when I checked the 72-hour flight schedule again, both of the originally scheduled flights were still listed, but Tuesday's schedule had a Charleston AFB! So, we said heck with it and decided to go for that one. Much less hassle upon arrival in the states, since we just walk to our car and drive home, and most likely much less expense without the car rental and overnight stay near either of the other bases. The car's rental agreement isn't up until Tuesday at like 1pm, but we needed to see if we could stay in this apartment another two nights. I sent ... read more

Well, today started like most days, but didn't stay that way very long. We ate breakfast, packed up, and went down with our luggage to the nearest tram station, Bellevue. We caught the No. 4 tram to Wildbachgasse, close to where our car was parked. From there, we walked the 2 blocks or so to our car and .... couldn't find the car key! We both looked "everywhere" for the key, but neither of us remembered where we'd put it or seen it last. This was the start of a major fiasco, with a happy ending, Manoli stayed with our luggage near the car, partly to make sure that if the parking police came she could tell them we'd misplaced the key and would be gone soon. I walked back to the tram station and took ... read more

We packed up, had our normal hostel breakfast, and hit the road again, this time heading to Zurich, Switzerland. This time not only did we not have many tunnels, and no long ones, but about half the trip we beside the beautiful Lake Zurich. My wife was trying to take photos every few minutes! As usual, the roads were good and there was little traffic, so we arrived in Zurich by a little after 10am. Unlike the last two times, we had no problems with the route the car's navigation system came up with, but this time the hostel was on a back street with no apparent parking nearby. We ended up going back across the bridge to a place we'd passed with metered parking and a few open spots. We pulled into one, put 3 ... read more

Since we'd seen so much of Innsbruck yesterday before checking into the hostel, we had to walk quite a ways to see our first sight. Heading towards the one place I wanted to visit, the Glockengiesserei, or Church Bell Museum and Factory, we passed by a few new sights, especially on Marie-Theresien Strasse. The Spitalkirche was decent and the Hard Rock Cafe was a must see too. Near the beginning of the long street that became Leopoldstrasse later, you can see the Marie-Theresien Statue and the Triumphpforte. The Marie-Theresien Statue makes a great photo with the Alps in the background. The Triumphpforte reminds me of the Arc de Triomph, as I'm sure its supposed to. As we neared the Church Bell Museum, we spotted the Bergisel Ski Jump/Panorama at the end of the street, waaay up ... read more