jim_di_trip

Final Upload

2006-09-19T04:20:50Z

Wednesday: I know I’ve already done a download, but I need to relate my internet experience. Two days ago, we went into a nice café that advertised “Internet”. They didn’t have wifi, but a coin-operated terminal that cost 10 cents per minute. It took us a while to find out that you put coins in, and by the time we were ready to try someone else was using the one terminal available.

In the town we are in today, we noticed a Spielparlor (video games) that also advertised internet. We stopped by on the way to dinner and tried to use the computer they provide, but it was difficult For one thing, the z and y are interchange. The underscore (which I needed to log onto my livejournal) is down where The question mark should be. I had hoped to zoom through a jounal entry (a euro for 10 minutes) but was frustrated by the keyboard, which also had a recalcitrant space bar. (see the actual post on Friday for an idea of what happens if you try to touch type – I actually spent a lot of time making corrections or it would have been much worse. I didn’t notice until Friday that they also made space for all the umlaut letters (2 dots over the vowel).

Meanwhile, Diane was asking about wifi. The guy at the counter said sure; it was 3 Euro per hour. I went back after dinner and spent half an hour checking my email (at work, I know it’s stupid, but also got some family pictures) and uploading the latest journal. The speed was really good. When I was done, I asked how much; the guy looked at the time and said one Euro funfzig (a buck 75 at the current exchange rate). Not bad at all.

Also, when I said the Black Forest history exhibit was like Sturbridge, there was one important difference. The oldest building in this exhibit was from 1599. There are a lot of old buildings over here! One of the gasthouses that we stayed in (in Melk) advertised that they date from the 16^th century as well.

We also had an interesting view of a construction site near our hotel. While in the US you sometimes see the sort of crane system employing a horizontal beam on top of a single vertical tower, it is pretty much confined to big-city office type construction. Here, they use them everywhere, even for single-family houses. There is just no room for the sort of system we would use. There are two houses under construction near us and we got to watch the workmen move a small cement mixer from an upper floor to the back of a truck using this system. Fascinating.

The biggest hassle in Europe is parking. We have bypassed entire cities because we couldn’t park. In our hotel last night, they told us to go ahead and park in front of the garages with the big “no parking” signs. (We found a spot that didn’t quite block the garage). Tonight, someone (probably following our hostess’ advice) had blocked in our place and two others. I had to drive over the sidewalk to get out of my parking place. This is sadly typical. There is some suburban-type sprawl but it seems limited to car dealers and big-box stores.

Diane is commenting on the small number of insects there are in Europe. Everywhere we go, the windows are open but without screens. Yet we’ve only had a handful of insects in our room in two weeks. Thinking about it, we also have seen hardly any birds; I’m sure it’s no coincidence. I recall reading that there was a large population boom in the middle ages when one of the religious orders began draining swamps as a way to increase the amount or arable land. We suspect that because there have been people here so long, all the swamps and wetlands are long drained, and even the forests seem to be maintained.

Thurday: Another frustrating drive combining wrong turns with lots of construction. This time I should probably blame the Michelin map rather than the Autobahn. They put the route numbers in very small print making it hard to follow, and in an area where a lot of roads crossed near Mannheim (no not the steamroller) we wound up on the wrong autobahn. This wouldn’t have been bad, as there was an alternate way to get there, but in typical German fashion, the A6 numbers simply stopped appearing and the A67 numbers began. I have no idea where A6 went; it is a major road. I suspect that it branched off during one of the many construction detours; I recall a large number of cars at one off-ramp in a construction site.

However, the day was saved by a lovely drive down the Moselle, and a visit to Burg Eltz. This castle has been in the same family since the mid-13^th century (33 generations) and was originally a fortification. The last major additions were in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, when it still had a significant defensive role, so we got a tremendous look at how a real castle would look. Here is how it looks:

We then found our hotel that is in a small town that seems entirely devoted to wine and tourism. Small is the operative phrase: two restaurants, zero banks or gas stations, and one very small convenience store. For those of you of our generation, picture 1/3 of the corner store where you grew up.

Friday: We were pretty burned out last night, by the traffic and the stress of finding the hotel, so decided to take it easy today. We drove 20 km to Cochem, the largest town in Mittel-Moselle, arriving before the main tourist crowd could arrive. We walked up the hill to the castle, which is a 19^th century replication, from the original plans, of the 11^th century castle that originally guarded the river, and which was destroyed by the French in the middle of the 18^th century. It was quite spectacular, and offered beautiful views of the river.

Jim then bought some food for lunch while Diane shopped, and we met at the docks for the boat ride (now what could be more relaxing). The boat went about 10 km upstream, but the highlight of the trip was probably the trip through the locks on the river. We were raised about 30 feet. The views were also beautiful, with small villages on the banks and vines reaching up the incredibly steep hillsides.

Since I’m sure the pictures can’t convey the steepness of the hills, I’ll show you another castle picture today. This is actually the view of Cochem am Moselle, taken from the local castle

My German is very rusty, but I can get by. Twice today Diane asked people about winery tours and in each case I was able to understand the reply (with a lot of repetition and patience from the other side). The toughest thing is menus. Very few menu items appear as they do in our translation guide, and since German “cuisine” is not international the way Italian or French is we don’t have the basis for understanding we would in those languages. It doesn’t help that “braten” can mean roasted or fried or boiled, so when the menu offers half a page of various kinds of braten, you don’t really know what you’ll get. My first order was “gemischte braten”, which turned out to be a couple of pieces of extremely well done pork tenderloin and a piece of what I think was overcooked beef surrounded by spaetzle.. I got through it all but wasn’t impressed. I’ve done better since then but every meal is a crap shoot. Still, I mess up a lot, like when I told the waitress “Dies is fur Ihnen”, which means this is for “you formal– plural” when I should have said Fur Sie, which is formal-singular.

Saturday: We started the day with another wrong turn. I realize that part of our driving trouble is because Americans pay much more attention to route numbers than to the towns the routes go through, while for Europeans, it is the other way around. So, for example, if I were giving instructions to reach our home in Bedford from Rhode Island, I’d say go route I95 to 128, then get off at route 4. A European would, I think, say follow the signs to Boston, until you see a Waltham sign; drive through Waltham and stay on the road until you see a sign for Bedford; get off there and stay on the road until you reach the center of town.

At any rate, today was pretty much more of the same; another boat ride (the Rhine this time) and another castle. Dinner was a bit different for me: some kind of specialty from the Balkans that was similar to Italian food. I’m getting really sick of German food: big piles of potato with overcooked meat.

Diane and I are getting tired. This has really been too long a vacation. We’re looking forward to getting home. We’re shortening our days in order to reduce stress, and are both looking forward to getting home. I’m thinking about work, and Diane has to stop every time she sees a baby and remark on its cuteness, then say how much she misses Wesley. It’s been fun, but really wearing to deal with the language differences, the maps, and the amount of driving. I’m hoping that in a couple of months we’ll forget the negatives and remember all the wonderful things we’ve seen and done, because overall it has been a great experience.

Sunday. Finally, a bad day. Diane has been talking the last couple of days about how we haven't had rain since the first week (then I was working). The weather has been magnificent. Today was misty and it started to rain in the afternoon and rained all night. We didn't do a lot since we're exhausted.

Monday Back home at about midnight, only 23 hours after getting out of bed. It's good to be back home.

Hello from the Moselle

2006-09-15T13:02:06Z

Just a brief note. We#re sending this from an internet cafe. Todazy we took a boat ride on the Moselle. The weather isnät as nice as the alps, but wasn#t bad. This wierd German keyboard is messing up my touch typing, so please be patient. We are doing great, but are finding that this vacation isn#t necessarilzy relaxing. We#ve been covering a lot of ground, making a lot of wrong turns, and trzing a lot of good stuff.

We have also visited two really interesting castles. These are supposed to be the best two castles on the Moselle. One is from the 13th century and has been in the same family for 32 generations. It is still privatly owned. The other is a reconstruction of a castle that dominated the Moselle from the 10th centurz to the 17, when it was destroyed. We#ll have more with pictures when we get home. Onlz two more days!##

Big Update From Black Forest

2006-09-13T18:31:39Z

Saturday: We woke bright and early, ate breakfast, checked out, and were at the Schonbrunn palace shortly after it opened at 8:30. We were a bit concerned because we had bought a “combi-ticket” at the Hofburg, which supposedly meant we didn’t have to reserve a time like everyone else. It worked great; we wound up ahead of the crowds, and were able to maintain a position between two tour groups so we had the rooms almost to ourselves.

The furnishings were magnificent, although the story of the royal family was bittersweet. They talked about diplomatically arranged marriages, with the Empress Maria Theresa hoping of one daughter that she could be a good wife so that even if she didn’t like her current life she would find a reward in heaven.

After a bit of hectic city driving, we got out of town and were soon on the road to the mountains. The Autobahn was amazing. Over a distance of about 100 km we went through about ten tunnels, most of which were over 1 km long. One was 3.4 km. I estimate that we spent 20% of the time underground. Also, to protect the view, the road had fences and trees so it was very hard to see anything from the highway.

The obvious answer was to get off the highway, so we took a scenic route. The highlight of the tour was a long drive down the Enns river valley (really a canyon in places). After a while the valley broadened as we got higher into the mountains, but the mountains got more spectacular. The mountains on either side of us were nearly 3,000 meters high (a bit short of 10,000 feet). They consisted of sheer cliffs, almost totally bare of vegetation, for the last 1,000 meters.

We were a bit nervous coming to the Pension we had reserved. Diane said that she had the feeling that the pictures were too good to be true. However, they were actually quite accurate, and beautiful. We ate Zanderfilet at a nice restaurant with pretty much the same view. Here it is.

Sunday: This was our first real day for the mountains. We drove north, around the west edge of the Dachstein Tauern (ridge, I think), which is about 3,000 meters high. The drive was beautiful. On the north side, there is a mountain lake in a deep valley surrounded by cliffs. In the distance, we could see a glacier. It took about two hours to walk around the lake, with many stops including one for a picnic lunch. We then drove to Hallstadt, which is a beautiful town on another lake, but with so little parking that we skipped the town and found a spot further north from which to view the lake.

Following the two lakes, we drove further east and south, completing our circle around the Dachstein Tauern. On the way, we saw a ski jump area. It was horrifying how high and steep it is. You have to be completely crazy to even contemplate going down one of those things! We ended the day on the same road as yesterday, driving down the broad valley to the south of the Dachstein. We then broke our rule and ate dinner at the same place twice, since it had such a great view.

Monday: Today didn’t turn out the way we planned. We were stuck in traffic for an hour on a main highway (though not the autobahn). The police drove up and down the road every 10 or 15 minutes, but didn’t seem to be doing anything. Finally we gave up and drove 10 km back the way we came in order to take a different route (there aren’t many different routes through the mountains).

The detour turned out to be very interesting. The initial road was a bit narrow; it was full of tight turns and places where the road squeezed down to only 1.5 lanes for 50 feet or so. However, it then broadened into a high alpine valley with mountains all around. After driving through another pass, the view got even better. We wound up having a picnic lunch in a broad valley with mountains on all sides, and a glacier in view (though probably 40 or 50 km away).

We found a nice Gasthous in a small town just off the Autobahn west of Innsbruck. We had a nice dinner in a local restaurant (Diane had fish again; Jim had lamb). We were disappointed to learn that the tramway we expected to take to the top of a local mountain to see the glaciers is not working, so we need to make other plans for tomorrow.

Notes on Germany/Austria: One of the things we’ve been struggling with is trying to find a Laundromat. There are lots of places where you can drop off clothes and pick them up in 2 days, but nothing for people who move as fast as we do.

Our German is getting better; we can do fairly well in controlled settings such as a shop of restaurant, but still struggle with something out of the ordinary, such as trying to ask the tourist bureau whether the gondola at the end of the valley was in operation (it was at this point that the woman said we could ask in English). People respect our desire to speak German, and only use English when it is obvious we are in over our heads. Also, a great many people, even in the tourist trade, speak no English at all. Our hostess tonight, speaks fairly good English, but told us she only gets to use it about once a year.

Tuesday: This was our last day in Austria, but we made the most of it. We started out with a relaxing breakfast with our hostess, then headed back onto the Autobahn, headed west. We got off the Autobahn just before a long section that called for extra toll, and which for 50 km was more tunnel than above ground. The gondola ride we had hoped to take was closed, but another nearby was fantastic. We actually started in a gondola and then switched to chair lift. The chair was better, as it didn’t block the view at all.

We went up to an altitude of about 8,000 feet, from where we could see the 10,000 foot peaks all around. Many had glaciers. There was snow on the ground from recent fall (not a glacier). When we looked to the west, we could see distant peaks with snow cover, which were in Switzerland, which was about 50 km away. We walked around on the top for quite a while. The ski area is impressive; it covers several peaks, so you can ski down one and take the lift up another. In the summer, they graze sheep on the slopes and had constructed a full 9 hole golf course on the lower slopes. It was a pretty unimpressive course, although the views were quite nice.

After spending close to two hours on the mountain, we headed back down, and almost immediately left the valley floor for another narrow road into the mountains. Following the Michelin guide recommendations we went through a number of high (1700 meter) passes interspersed with beautiful alpine valleys. At one pass, we stopped at a hotel just below a 1700 meter pass for coffee and strudel and a view that couldn’t be beat.

Our one disappointment was in lake Constance (the Bodensee in Germany). We had hoped to stay there overnight, but there was a tremendous amount of traffic with long caravans of police escort (we have no idea what was going on - the Pope is in Germany, but the crowds would have been 10 times worse for him). We drove around through three towns before giving up and driving to the outskirts of the Black Forest, where I am writing this tonight. I didn’t get a single picture of the lake as we were trying to navigate, parking was impossible, and frankly it was too hazy looking south toward the sun to make much of a picture.

This leads to another difference between Europe and the US. In the US, there would be chain hotels near the freeway exit ramps. In Europe, you have to drive into the center of town and look around. This wastes a lot of time, since you spend 10-20 minutes fighting the traffic in a town of any size at all. The place we are staying is three stories high and has about 10 rooms, but is right across from the Radhaus (city hall). It may be the only hotel in town; we intentionally looked for a small town to avoid the heavy traffic, etc. in a bigger city. Of course the tourist bureau shuts down at 4 or 5 PM everywhere, so unless you look early (as we did yesterday) they can’t help you. At any rate, we arrived safe and sound and in good spirits. Tomorrow we explore the Black Forest.

Wednesday: Today was our Black Forest day. We started with a drive through beautiful scenery to the highest point in the Black Forest, the Belchen, and took a cable car to the top. The weather was a bit hazy, so our visibility was limited, but we could see the Rhine river in the distance. It was amazingly wide this far from the ocean. We will cross it tomorrow.

We then drove through more beautiful scenery, stopping for lunch in the center of the cuckoo clock production region. We visited a store advertising 1,000 clocks; It was quite something. We then spent over two hours in the Black Forest equivalent of Sturbridge Village. They had moved over 20 buildings from all over the region to one spot. We were surprised at how large the buildings were. Most were 60 to 100 feet long and nearly all were three stories with a huge attic floor. They explained that the roof needs to be steep as a result of all the snow. I’m in a bit of a rush to get to the internet café (with WIFI!!!!!) so I’m going to skip the picture upload. There may not be another download until we get home on Monday, but we may try again on Friday. Auf Wiedersehen for now.

Auf Wiedersehen Wien

2006-09-08T18:40:45Z

Today was our second and last full day in Vienna. We will stop at the Schonbrunn palace on the way out of town tomorrow morning, but tomorrow night we will be in the Austrian Alps (Radstadt). This also means that we may be without internet connections for the forseeable future. We'll probably try to find a wifi spot early next week, but don't count on it.

We started today in the Kunsthistorische Museum (Art History) and almost finished it there. You aren't supposed to take pictures there, so although I cheated a couple of times, the picture I will show is the public area. On the right, above the stairs is the gift shop and on the left is the cafeteria, where Diane and I had expresso and torte for lunch. It's a tough life, but someone has to live it! The entire museum was like a palace, and made the Louvre look kind of dumpy (though I'm not sure the art was quite as good).

The art ranged from very good to magnificant. This is the place where the Habsburg's art collection wound up. There were rooms full of Rubens, many Rembrandts, Titians, and 1/3 of the entire world's supply of Breugel the Elders. The paintings focussed on the Renaissance, but downstairs there were excellent collections of Egyption and Greco-Roman art, including an entire room full of busts.

We spent five hours in the museum, then dragged ourselves over to the museum housing the Austrian royal jewels. There were also coronation outfits, magnificant Reliquaries, and other special items, but the main attraction was the several crowns, including the crown of the holy Roman Empire, dating to the 10th century.

Diane and I then celebrated my birthday over authentic Viennese goulash. It was very good, but so plentiful that I didn't save any room for what sounded like delicious apricot dumplings. There are at least three fantastic restaurants right around the corner from our hotel. Tonight is the first night it's been cool enough that we've had to eat inside.

Bye for now,
Jim and Diane

Vienna Walking Tour

2006-09-07T18:39:54Z

Diane and I walked all over old Vienna today and our legs are really tired. For the first time on the trip, when I looked at the photos in the evening, it wasn't readily obvious to me what site I was looking at. We must have gone into a dozen churches in 6 hours, as well as several other spots.

We had a tough decision about what picture to include. The most different thing we saw was the Hofburg, the Imperial palace of the Habsburgs, but they didn't allow pictures. I voted for a picture of my favorite part of the day, which was when we visited a dime-a-dozen church (at least in Vienna where all the churches are splendid) and heard someone practicing on a beautiful pipe organ. It turned out she was rehearsing for a concert she is giving at the church tomorrow night. So we got a free preview. It was very good. However, since the photo only reminds me of the music, which I can't share with you, I'm providing a view of St Stephen's Dom, the main Cathedral in Vienna:

The taller tower is under repair. The guidebook says that after many centuries, this tower will probably never be completed. This is a Gothic cathedral, for a change. A nice break after all the Baroque churches. The wierd thing isthat I didn't like the Gothic churches as much as the Baroque. Diane on the other hand saw the Gothic as a breath of fresh air.

The food in Vienna is much better than Bavaria, but still doesn't hold a candle to France (except for torte). We're back to my old travel trick of visiting a bakery once or twice in a day and skipping lunch. Vienna really encourages this, as it is the original cafe society; everyone likes to sit at tables on the sidewalk and drink coffee. I just read the Irving Stone bio-novel on Freud, and the cafes figured prominently.

We had a long discussion over dinner about the different in style and work ethic between Europe and the US. I'm a real type-A personality, and have been quite successful at it. However, I'm starting to think about retirement, so need to find a more European pace. Sitting for a half hour over a cup of coffee seems like the thing to do. On the other hand, it can go too far. We were in a bakery today and a group of locals came in for coffee and pastry at lunch time. Ten minutes later they were getting a second order of pastry! That's a habit I can't afford to emulate.

We had a great dinner tonight. We both had Wiener Schnitzel. I had the cheap version (vom schein) while Diane got the real deal. It was another lovely outdoor cafe, just down from where we ate last night. There is another highly recommended restuarant on the same street, so we may eat all our Viennese within about 100 meters of each other. Diane likes the food here better than I do. I miss the lack of vegetables; my "salad" last night was about one ounce of lettuce scattered about the edges of the plate that had the meat and potatos on it. The meat tends to be either fried (which Diane likes, but my doctor doesn't) or cooked to death. Part of the problem may just be that Diane has been more successful in ordering. I've been envious of her plate a few times.

Random thoughts from Diane

2006-09-07T16:24:29Z

We had an interesting and full day of Wien tourism today, but I'll let Jim describe that. I have a couple of observations about the trip so far.

1. Naked babies - I know it's because I miss Wesley so much, but everywhere I look in Germany and Austria I see babies. Happy, frolicking baby statues in fountains of town squares; sweet angelic cherubs popping out from the pillars, walls, and ceilings of cathedrals.They're definitely plumper than Wesley, but they have that sweet round look that makes me want to hug my grandbaby!

2. Beds - Every place we've stayed so far has a king-size bed made up of two twin mattresses. The interesting thing is that there are no top sheets or blankets, just two separate duvets that are folded up at the end of the bed. It makes it interesting if you're sharing a bed.

3. Autobahn - I was really scared about driving on the Autobahn. It's absolutely true that there is no speed limit. People fly by at 170-180 kilometers per hour (110 mph) in the passing lane. However, I actually find it much more relaxing than driving on route 128 in Boston. For one thing, trucks, RV's, and vehicles towing anything are strictly limited to less than 100 kph (about 60 mph). Because of that, you can always drive in the right lane if you don't feel comfortable going fast. Also, cars always stay to the right until they want to pass. This means you can pretty much predict what other drivers are going to do - no lane changing (passing on the right is actually illegal!). I've been doing most of the driving so Jim can navigate, and it works out really well.

4. Food - Food in Bavaria was OK, but not really memorable. There was a lot of wurst (sausage), potato (which I liked), and cabbage. Because of the wonderful weather, we were able to take advantage of the many cafes and biergartens and eat outside almost every night, which made the meals memorable anyway. Now we're in Vienna where the food is excellent, the weather is still wonderful, and we can experience both in the many outdoor restaurants right around the corner from the hotel!

Gruss Gott From Vienna

2006-09-06T20:34:30Z

Good news. Our hotel in Vienna has free internet, so we can post as much as we want. This may be a mixed blessing as it means I can ramble. Before I bring you up to date on our travels, I'll ramble on about how hard it is to prepare for foreign travel. I spent 4 years in high school learning how to pronounce Ich, which is a wierd German sound (say i as in "it" followed by "hue"). It turns out everyone in Bavaria and Austria pronounces it as "ish". All that hard work down the drain. We bought language tapes that spent the first half hour teaching you how to say "Enschuldige Sie", which means excuse me, but over here, everyone says "Bitte". Similarly, no one says "Guten Tag," they all say "Gruss Gott" which means literally greet God. At any rate, our language skills are adapting. Diane is much better at language than I am and by the end of the trip she'll probably be more fluent than I.

Now, on the the travel. Yesterday, we left Ingolstadt and work and headed for Austria. First, though, we spent a few hours along the way in Passau, which is on the German/Austrian border at the spot where the Inn river meets the Danube. Another lovely city. Along the way we saw hundreds of fields with a strange crop that was trained on wires like a vine. Diane guessed it was hops and she was right.

However, the real prize of the trip was in Austria. We visited Stift Wilhering (stift means monastary), which was reconstructed after a fire in the mid 18th century, when Austria and the Baroque were both at the peaks of their power. Rumor at the time said the monks burned their own monastary so they could rebuild it. Although they later convicted a child, I wouldn't be surprised if it were the monks; nearby Melk had just completed a total rebuild after their own fire, and Wilhering may have been jealous. The Michelin guide says that it is one of Austria's most striking examples of the Rococo style. Those of you who read our last entry will recall how impressed we were by the church in Eichstatt. That was a pale shadow of this one. As a simple example, the picture below shows the ceiling above the apse. Now try to imaging an entire cathedral decorated in this fashion.

I was actually surprised that I liked the Baroque style as much as I do, since I normally like the classical style best. However, this was so well done that it just worked. We spent a lot of time just rubbernecking and taking pictures (way too many pictures - I've taken over 600 pictures so far and we have almost 2 weeks to go.

After we left Wilhering, we took a long way around to avoid going through Linz during rush hour but the highway signs directed us there anyway. We were ticked off and frazzled by the time we got to Melk, were we were spending the night. Melk is a pleasant little town, but its claim to fame was another huge Stift, which we toured this morning.

Stift Melk is very much a working monastary; we were awakened by the bells in a call to worship before 6 AM. This wasn't some tame ding-ding. It sounded like acouple of novices were just yanking on the ropes as hard as they could for about 5 minutes. No rhythm or tone; just a racket. We finally got back to sleep only to be awakened for the next set of prayers at about 7:30.

In some ways Stift Melk even surpassed Wilhering, in a similar style. It was larger in size but perhaps a bit less overstated in style. We arrived early and decided to look for ways to hang back behind a huge tour group (first tours of the day).  We found a little door that let into one transcept of the sanctuary. You couldn't reach the nave from there, but could see more than half of the church. Best of all, we were all alone. They hadn't even turned the lights on yet, although there was enough good natural light for pictures.

HOWEVER, I'm not going to show you a picture of yet another Baroque cathedral, because we decided that we should take a boat ride on the Danube. We rode about 1 hour west, from Stift to Durnstein, which is in the middle of Austria's wine belt. It was a beautiful trip. We both wound up a bit sunburned (Jim more than Diane) but had a wonderful time.

The current on the river is so strong that it took us 70 minutes (including two intermediate stops) to get to Durnstein, but two hours and ten minuted to get back. We really noticed the difference psychologically; going downstream, we had to rush to take pictures. Going upstream, everything happened so slowly that we had a lot of time to take everything in. One of the things we took inwas this castle. It is one of several that we saw. Note that the ancient fortification has been topped with a Baroque upper story dating from the19th century.

We made it through Vienna's rush hour OK and found our hotel. After Jim spent a couple of hours working (yes, I know it's stupid, but people need me) we found an excellent sidewalk cafe for dinner. I could grow to like this place. We are staying just outside the heart of old Vienna, a block or two from the Hofburg, which was the Imperial palace of the Habsburgs. Now it's full of the finery they collected over the centuries. We're looking forward to the next two days, and will be keeping you all up to date.

So long for now,
Jim and Diane

Eichstatt

2006-09-04T18:49:16Z

This may be our last entry for a while, since our internet access is becoming uncertain. However, we'll try to update at least once more at the end of this week.

Jim started the day working and ended the day working. Working while you're on vacation on labor day indicates a problem somewhere. The bad news is I had a lot to do and wound up pretty stressed out. The good news is that I've finally finished my work and can forget email, time cards, test plans, and just have fun (at least till Thursday when I need to check in at the office).

After I worked the morning, we went to Eichstatt in the afternoon. Eichstatt has the distinction of being one of the smallest towns in Germany to have an Episcopal seat, so it is very compact yet has some of the features of a large town (Dom, multiple churches, multiple Episcopal palaces). Although the Dom was beautiful, the picture we are showing today is from a church that didn't even make the Michelin guide. It looks very plain from the outside, but we went through the door, we were met by Uber-Baroque:

The entire church was full of all sorts of sculpture, paintings, etc. There was hardly a square meter of wall uncovered. This was probably the highlight of the tour, if only because of the shock value on us when we first saw it.

Tomorrow, we head for Austria for about a week. We will see two huge, richly appointed monastaries (we're starting to wonder about the vows of poverty that these Bishops and monks took) but more on that later.

Auf Wiedersehen,

Rothenburg und Bamburg

2006-09-03T19:14:57Z

Guten Tag!

We have limited internet access so here are two days in one upload:

Saturday: We had a wonderful day today. Or maybe it just seemed so as it was my first day off since I got here. We drove up to Rothenburg, which is a town that was once one of the largest in Germany, but somehow got left behind. As a result, it was more or less frozen in time until such time in the 19^th century when they began passing preservation laws. It is a very popular tourist site as it is the largest such town in Germany.

One of the highlights of the town is that you can walk the entire circumference of the city wall (which we did) and see panoramic views of both inside the town and outside. You will have to wait for the slide show to see those views, I’m afraid, although in the picture below you can see the preserved gate from an older and smaller wall that is now inside the town.

Because Rothenburg is so popular with tourists, it has been filled nearly to the brim with various souvenir shops, restaurants, and places to drink. However, it still retains its old charm. The picture below shows an area on one of the main roads into the center of the town, near one of the gates that remain from the original inner wall.

These homes, in the good section of town, would have been owned by the rich merchants, shop-owners, etc. and so it is probably appropriate that most of them still have shops on the first floor.

The town was surprisingly large; the circumference of the wall was over a mile. We spent over four hours walking all over town, and felt that we’d just barely seen it. Diane probably could have spent an entire day just shopping, but fortunately for my wallet if not for her, her feet started hurting. One of the special stores is a department store of Christmas decorations. Diane went in “for a minute” and got lost (that’s her story and she’s sticking to it) for 10 or 15 minutes. I really didn’t mind; there was a lot of stuff to hold my interest. Betsy and Peter would have loved some of the stores selling armor and replica weapons. I considered buying Wesley a little wooden sword and (cardboard?) helmet. Diane looked at a cute little lederhosen outfit. We also looked at a rather large bear (you’ll have to wait for the slide show) but didn’t know how we’d get it home.

We left Rothenburg at about 3 PM and decided to skip the Autobahn and take the scenic route home. Germany has designated a “Romantische strasse” as a tourist road that runs through many of the most scenic towns in Germany. We next drove through Feuchtwangen, a pretty little town on the way to our real destination, Dinkelsbuhl, which was a smaller, less crowded version of Rothenburg. Unfortunately, the romantische road was closed, so we had to double back to the Autobahn. Dinkelsbuhl was beautiful. We are concerned about download times for those of our friends and family who are using phone lines, or else I’d include a picture.

Next we went to Nordlingen, another small walled town. We got completely turned around in its narrow, twisty streets and found the wrong gate. It took a while to get out, but had the advantage that we walked through some less-touristy areas and got a sense of how the ordinary homes look. At this point, we headed south on the Romantische strasse, only to hit another detour (at which point I quipped that it should be the detourishe strasse. (If I said no pun intended would you believe me?) This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as we were “forced” to drive through a number of beautiful little farming villages, each with a beautiful church. I took lots of pictures from the window while Diane drove.

We finally would up back in Ingolstadt at about 1900 hours, famished. Our first night in Ingostadt, we wandered all over looking for a good restaurant. Tonight, we were so hungry that the very first place that we’d walked past the previous time looked great. We sat in einen Biergarten, and had gulash and Nurnberger sausage mit kraut. SEHR GUT!.

Tomorrow, we head for Bamburg.

Sunday: We started the day bright and early, but soon got caught up in the German road system again. We took Autobahn 73 about 15 km west and then noticed that the numbers had stopped appearing on the signs. We drove on for a while, and finally backtracked all the way to A9, where the A73 signs appeared on the autobahn again.. I tried to upload a map of the road as we witnessed it but couldn't; take my word it was strange.

Our next adventure was trying to find Forchshein. We got off the highway and at the end of the entrance ramp there were two fire trucks, a fire station car, and about 12 firemen with more cones than we could count blocking the one road into Forscheim. We got back on the Autobahn and went to the next exit where we saw signs for today’s “marathon run.”

It was worth the hassle. Forscheim is a beautiful little town, with a square surrounded by well-maintained half-timbered homes. The cathedral was beautiful, and we even got a warm greeting from the local citizenry. When we parked the car, we were concerned that it was too easy; usually the best spaces have signs restricting parking to residents. Our concern was obvious; a woman dressed in a bathrobe shouted down from a window across the street that it was OK.

Leaving Forscheim, we headed for our day’s main event: Bamburg. After our normal parking hassles, we headed up to the top of the hill where we could see the spires of the Cathedral. We got there just as they were posting the sign for no tours, as Mass was beginning. We snuck in under the wire, and celebrated Mass with the local congregation. I was a bit surprised that the church was nearly standing room only; we hear that religion is dying out in Europe, but at least in Bamburg, there is good attendance. The church was full of beautiful sculpture, although the subject of a sculpture representing “synagogue” - a woman wearing a blindfold– was a bit dubious.

One of the most interesting sights in Bamburg is the old town hall, which is built in the middle of the river. It was heavily decorated with various carvings, sculpture, and painting in a very Baroque style. Quite a sight, as you can see below, although a single picture can’t really do it justice.

We left Bamburg and after fortunate navigation out into the country, came to a fine old Baroque palace that was constructed by a local Bishop in 1710. He built it with personal funds and bequeathed it to a favorite nephew. It is still in the (very rich, I’m sure) family. They forbade pictures inside, so we won’t have many, but it was very interesting.

The most unique room was the grotto. As Diane said, it looked like something Hildy would do on the Trading Spaces TV show. The idea of the grotto was to make a room full of fountains that suggests coolness for folks back before air conditioning. This room’s theme was apparently the ocean. The fountains were decorated by gluing shells and rounded pebbles together. A large number of fish with mica scales graced the walls. There were a large number of statues of nude women around the walls (this Bishop loved to look at nude women, judging from his art collection – I’m sure he saw them as fine examples of God’s creative handiwork).

There were also a number of fine artworks. The guide said that this is one of the largest collections of art still in private hands in Europe. It was a mix of lesser works by old masters and great works of lesser-knowns. Still, I was impressed. Perhaps a third of the paintings seemed to me to be of museum quality. After an uneventful drive back, we are writing this up before we go to dinner.

We finished the day with a wonderful dinner in Ingolstadt. We sat outside in a sidewalk café and watched the sunset. I had a wurst salad, that was more wurst than salad. I’m really breaking my low-fat diet this trip; I’ll just have to eat a lot of salad once I get back to the states. Diane had pork schnitzel, which was flavorful but not nearly as tender as veal. Tomorrow it’s back to work for Jim (at least for the morning, but probably evening as well, but eventually I’ll start having a real vacation).

Working in Europe/Another day on Vacation

2006-09-01T16:04:32Z

The main reason I'm in Germany is so I can participate in a safety of flight test. In Seattle (Boeing), this type of test normally is scheduled to run from 7 AM to 7 PM, with a post-test daily meeting. If we are behind schedule or making especially good progress, we often run a couple of extra hours.

In our Wednesday post-test meeting, it was clear that we were behind schedule, and Boeing asked the local test manager if we could work later than 4 PM. He said no, which led to a somewhat heated exchange. He finally explained that he is not permitted to even ask his employees to work more than 10 hours a day. This is not a union rule, but Federal law!

As you can imagine, this led to an interesting discussion. In the US, Boeing is unusual in even paying their engineers extra when they work more than 40 hours in a week. MITRE does not. One of the NATO NCOs, from Denmark, said that their Air Force is just another job; if he works more than 37 hours a week, he gets paid overtime. Imagine how much a war would cost in overtime pay!

We finally ended the test on Friday, but I need to go back for a few hours on Monday to help write up a quick look test report (and sign off on it as the US representative). While I was toiling away, Diane was out having fun touring Germany (OK she was also cleaning my dirty shirts). Here's her story:

Laundry day in Ingolstadt - not bad at all. I dropped Jim off at the base at 6:45 am, so I got a good head start on the day. I found the laundermat the hotel recommended with no trouble - it even had a free parking space directly in front (a rarity in this city). Washers and dryers in Europe don't have individual coin slots; they're all numbered and have a central control unit. All you have to do is decipher the instructions, put your money in, and push the right buttons. I've used similar ones in France and Japan, so the concept was not foreign to me (ha ha). However, there were two older German gentlemen hanging out at the shop, and as soon as they saw me studying the machine they came right over and started instructing me on how to use it (in German, of course). I tried my now standard line "I don't understand German", but that didn't dampen their enthusiasm - they just added gestures to the lesson. One even pushed the button for the detergent, then carried it over and dumped it in the washing machine for me! It was kind of them, but I would have figured it out. I noticed later that there was even a button you could push for instructions in English. Then, when it came time to move the clothes to a dryer, a very enthusiastic older German lady was right there by my side. They have separate machines to give the clothes an extra spin (to cut down on the drying time), and my new friend physically stopped me from putting the clothes in the dryer until she had explained this new concept (in German, of course). Then she felt my clothes; apparently they were dry enough for her to let me put them in the dryer. She then told me how many minutes to request and pantomimed that I should take the clothes out after 15 minutes and fluff them before continuing. The final irony was that just before I left a German lady came in and asked me how to use the machines! Luckily there was a German speaking young man there at the time, so I was off the hook.

My protestations not withstanding, I'm really not doing too bad with my German. I can understand a lot more than I thought I would, and with the aid of my travel dictionary I can communicate reasonably well. If I have a really important or complicated question, I compose it in advance and write it down in my trusty pocket notebook. That way, if I get rattled and forget it I can just read it aloud. The most interesting communications experiences are always the spontaneous ones. Today I drove to Neuburg, a lovely little medieval castle town about 45 minutes from Ingolstadt. I drove up to the top of the hill and found parking spaces on the street right in front of the castle. There was a parking ticket machine, but when I went over, it had cardboard taped around it and no place to put money. Did that mean parking was free? I spotted a little old lady standing on the steps of a house nearby, and asked her the question (to the best of my ability). The answer wasn't simple, and she ended up spending about ten minutes with me, showing which places were free, which weren't, and even standing by my car as I parked to make sure I was leaving enough space for pedestrians to get by. She pointed to the cars on either side of me, both pulled right up to the wall, and described to me their potentially unpleasant fate, using "polizei" a numer of times. When I was finally settled she spent another few minutes in small talk; she even recommended a place for me to have lunch!

I've discovered that normal German citizens are often very helpful and pleasant, but I've been a little disappointed in the professional hospitality people. I've been to several tourist information offices where the employees don't even smile or greet me. Also, I'm a bit surprised at how many places catering to tourists neither speak English nor have information in English. I'm really glad I made some preparation for communicating in German! I expect it will be even more critical when we get out to the boonies.

The weather today was absolutley perfect, and Neuburg was a beautiful place to spend the afternoon. The castle town is right on the Danube and dates from the 1500's. The really old part is all on the hill, and along with the castle there are a number of lovely brightly colored and decorated buildings.

We probably will not post again until Monday. Jim has to pay for internet access, so we're trying to be reasonable. Tomorrow we hope to go to Rothenburg, then on Sunday and on Monday afternoon we'll see more of the sights within a couple of hours of Ingolstadt before heading for Austria Tuesday morning.

Diane's day in Ingolstadt

2006-08-31T20:19:15Z

As Jim wrote last night, I was pretty tired when I arrived. The train ride itself was great - very comfortable, nice scenery, classical music to listen to on my headphones. The logistics of the train trip were a little more stressful. I got off the plane in Frankfurt and went to the wrong train station (local vs. long distance). They sold me a ticket there and reserved a seat for me, then sent me through a long lobby, up and down many lengths of stairs to the much nicer correct station. I found the track, confirmed the destination on the automated board, and even found the place to stand for my designated reserved car. Then started the complications. First they announced (in German, then in almost unintelligible English) that my train was delayed. Almost immediately, a train pulled up and stopped in front of me. I was getting panicky, since I know the stopovers only last for 2 to 5 minutes, so I ran up to it and asked the first person I met "Munchen?" (the last stop for my train). He said "Dusseldorf", or something similar. I looked around and saw the people waiting with me on the platform didn't seem to be moving, so I didn't get on; also, I noticed that the automated board was now listing this new train. After a few tense minutes the board changed back to "Munich", so I gave a sigh of relief. Next thing I knew the loudspeaker was blaring a new message in German and all the people on the platform were picking up their suitcases and heading up the stairs. I grabbed my stuff and followed. We went down the next set of stairs to a new track. Now I had no idea where my car was supposed to stop, so I wandered up and down until the train came in, then headed for where I thought the car would be. My reservation was car 31 and the last car on the train was 28! To complicate matters, the other peopla had all split into two groups - the larger one headed for the opposite end of the train. All the while, the loudpeaker was making announcements in German. I looked at car 28, found the word "Ingolstadt" on the sign by the door, and boarded the train. I settled into a nice leather seat, and tried to relax. After about 15 minutes, a pleasant German-speaking train employee came to check tickets. When she saw mine, she frowned and began asking me questions (in German, of course). I managed to pick out the words "erst Klasse", and realized that I must be sitting in the first class section. She directed me to the appropriate second class car, which I thought was even nicer than the original one. The rest of the trip was fine, until we were approaching Ingolstadt station. I got up and went to the door when theu made the announcement, then the train stopped and the door didn't open! There were a number of buttons near the door which I started frantically pushing, then I tugged on the door. Still closed. The passengers in the next car were looking at me very strangley and then several of them started talking to me (in German). I was saying "how do I get out!!" Finally one kind soul said (in English), "not the station yet". Did I feel foolish? I had probably been pushing the emergency train stop buttons or something. Anyway, the train started up again, pulled into the actual station, and a nice gentleman showed the correct button to push to open the door. It's amazing how simple things can be so complicated when you're tired and there's a language barrier! I found a taxi and got to the hotel with no problem. I went to bed about 9:00 and slept until 8:30 this morning.

Sorry for the long story! Today I went down to the old city (about a 45 minute walk), and had a wonderful time strolling along the Danube and seeing the sights in town. Ingolstadt is a pretty place, with simple architecture quite different from France or England. There a couple of lovely old churches, nice plaza areas, and quaint restaurants. Last night We ate in a typical Bavarian style place, and tonight we went to a greek restaurant. There's lots of good beer. It's amazing to see the relative prices of beverages here - I stopped at a grocery store on the way back today and bought a liter of mineral water for 99 euro (about $1.25), a half liter diet coke for .89 euro, and a .33 liter beer for .60 euro. Of course, the exact same beer when I ordered it with dinner cost almost three times as much!

Diane Arrives

2006-08-30T15:26:01Z

Diane arrived in Ingolstadt around 4 PM. Tired, but unfazed. I had finished early after a day where we waited for the techs to get the airplane ready for the test. (typical test day spent chatting and working on other programs). I have an early start tomorrow, and I hope that I'll be able to get a lot accomplished. I'm starting to worry that if it slips too long I'll have to choose between seeing the whole test and vacation.

Diane was able to FINALLY get reservations for us in the Moselle valley after a lot of attempts, so we can relax a little on that account.

The train ride was a bit stressful, but otherwise nice

Visiting EADS

2006-08-28T13:46:52Z

Well, another day another Euro. I went to EADS for the pre-test meetings. (I'm over here on business this week, not pleasure - retiree Diane is another story). Things are going well; we are only a day behind schedule and so can expect to finish close to on-time. This bodes well for the vacation part of the trip.

I got out a bit early this afternoon, so headed into Ingolstadt. It reminded me of my collosal cave experiences back in grad school: lots of twisty little passages that all look the same (and are also one-way). Fortunately it wasn't dark, so the grue was nowhere to be found. I finally figured out how to get out of town. The road was in the wrong direction, but I was just so happy to escape the maze that I took it and then dead-reconned my way back to the hotel.

So, start time is at 7 AM tomorrow. I probably won't post much more until DIane arrives.

Jim

Arrived

2006-08-28T13:35:05Z

Well, I’m in Ingolstadt, after over 3 hours of driving on the autobahn. That is an experience: I’m going 80 MPH in the right-hand lane when I come up on a truck that’s only going 60 MPH. I glance in the rear-view mirror and there is someone going over 100 MPH who is gaining on me VERY rapidly. So, I hit the brakes, slow down quickly, then look for a space to merge into traffic that’s moving 40 MPH faster than I am.

The good news from the trip is that my laptop made it through checked baggage without damage. I was very concerned about whether I’d be able to carry my laptop on the British Air connection from London to Frankfurt so soon after the recent terrorism arrests. The travel agent told me Wed that no electronics could be carried on board; the gate agent at Logan wasn’t sure but recommended checking. On the way back I go directly from Frankfurt to Chicago and so I can carry it on.

The bad news is that I can’t get the hotel internet connection to work. They gave me this box labeled ISDN that is supposed to connect to the phone, but it doesn’t fit. There is a LAN cable coming out of the phone but it doesn’t seem to do anything. The desk clerk presents no so much a language barrier as a technical barrier. I’ll try again tomorrow, and hope to upload this update.

So far this has been kind of downbeat, so I should provide some good news. I managed about 3 hours of sleep on the two flights, and so didn’t do too badly on sleep, although I had to pull off the autobahn for 10 minutes when I was feeling a bit too tired to drive. The car is pretty nice: a Mercedes. It’s more expensive than I expected, but that may just be because they included the entire cost including taxes. It’s expensive: about $100 per day.

Our itinerary

2006-08-26T17:43:28Z

Diane's flight:                                 Tues. August 29, 2006
                                                        American Airlines 2003
                                                        lv. Boston 3:58pm/ arr. Chicago 5:45pm
                                                        American Airlines 84
                                                        lv. Chicago 7:20pm/ arr. Frankfurt 11:10am

Date                     Location                  Hotel
Sunday 8/27     Ingolstadt Ger.         Nh Ambassador Hotel
                                                        Goethestrasse 153 Ingolstadt Germany
                                                        Tel. +49 0841 503 311
I suspect this rings in our room, since we are in room #311.

Mon 8/28                                                    Same
Tue 8/29                                                     Same
Wed 8/30                                                    Same
Thu 8/31                                                     Same
Fri 9/01                                                        Same
Sat 9/02                                                     Same
Sun. 9/03                                                     Same
Mon 9/04                                                     Same
Tue 9/05         Melk Austria             Gasthof Goldener Stern
                                                            Sterngasse 17, 3390 Melk
                                                            www.sternmelk.at
                                                            goldenerstern.melk@aon.at
                                                            Tel. +43 (0) 2752 52214
Wed 9/06         Vienna Austria         Hotel Admiral
                                                            1070 Wien, Karl Schweighofer – Gasse 7
                                                            hotel@admiral.co.at
                                                            www.hotel-admiral-wien.at
                                                            tel. +43/1/521 41-0
Thurs. 9/7                                                 Same
Fri. 9/8                                                      Same
Sat. 9/9         Radstadt Aus.        Haus Alpina
                                                    Lärchenhofweg 6, A-5550 Radstadt
                                                    haus.alpina@sbg.at
                                                    www2.salzburg-online.at/hausalpina
                                                    Tel.: +43(0) 6452 / 71 56
Sun. 9/10                                            Same
Mon. 9/11         Austrian Alps        Not scheduled
Tues. 9/12         Austrian Alps        Not scheduled
Wed. 9/13         Black Forest        Not scheduled
Thurs. 9/14         St. Aldegund       Pension Scheid Friedrichs
                                 Germany              Am Moselstausee 12, St. Aldegung/Mosel
                                                            info@scheid-moselwein.de
                                                            www.scheid-moselwein.de
                                                            Tel: 06542/2432
Fri. 9/15                                                         Same
Sat. 9/16                                                        Same
Sun. 9/17                                                     Same
Mon. 9/18         Home                American Airlines 83
                                                     lv. Frankfurt 2:25pm/ arr. Chicago 4:50pm
                                                    American Airlines 1400
                                                    lv. Chicago 7:41 pm. arr. Boston 11:02pm

Getting Ready

2006-08-22T19:55:04Z

Here it is 4 days before I leave. Betsy is helping me get the journal set up. Diane is on the other computer making reservations for lodgings in the Salzkammergut section of Austria (beautiful Tyrolian lodge with flower boxes on every window. If it goes well, we'll be filling it with lots of good stuff.