Category: Travel

My March/spring trip is upon me! Since it’s an odd year I usually stick to North America. So this year I’ve decided on Boston and Toronto for a 10-day for-sure winner! Yay for me!! 🙂

So I’m a complete aviation geek, so I used some of my miles to upgrade to first class round trip — yes! I’m not expecting much on a domestic trans-con, but it will still be a helluva lot nicer than normal. From Boston I’m winging my way to Toronto for a few days, and might even meet up with my geek friends from airliners.net there. That leaves me 5-6 days in BOS, so I’m actually thinking of going to the Cape for a few days — perhaps Ptown. Who knows. Would be nice to rest in a B&B with a fireplace and read for a couple days while I let the still wintertime weather play it’s course.

Anyways, I’m surely excited!! If anyone has any tips, let me know! 🙂

OK, finally got all the Munich photos and stories all done

Click here to read and view them!

As you’ll see, the Berlin stories and photos are in an entry below, and so are all the videos.

Geez, this was as much work as planning the trip almost!

It is so good to be home

I am back from my vacation to Germany. I had an incredible time and both Berlin and Munich gave me some great stories to tell. One thing is for certain, and the reason I travel: you can always find friends wherever you go — just be yourself, share a beer, and viola!

However, it is so good to be home. Really, it is.

I took a lot of pictures and notes, so in-between loads of laundry this week I’ll be uploading and sharing the stories. Stay tuned!

OK, I’m getting some pictures and experiences up here, including some videos!!

First is my report on Berlin, which is still a bit incomplete, but getting there!

I hope to have my Munich stuff up later today or tomorrow!

Here is all the best videos I took (from my new camera of all things!!) Lots more photos to come from Munich, Berlin photos are below, but the videos are the funnest…and here’s all of them. Requires Windows Media Player, which most PCs already have, and a high-speed connection

Ride the bus along the Kurfurstendamm in Berlin. Public transport is so awesome, except in Seattle. Berlin buses were the nicest I’ve been on.

Watch German TV. This was a “springer-esque” show — gotta love the announcer guy and the look on the woman’s face at the end!

Watch the Glockenspiel in Munich. I love the crowd’s “ohh, ahh” at the start

More Glockenspiel

Drink with people at the Hofbrauhaus. This was between lunch and dinner, so not much of a crowd, but still really fun!

Hofbrauhaus cheers! Short, but fun as everyone clicks their steins!

Riding the train at 200 KPH. The trains were on-time and comfortable.

My connecting train arriving in Fulda. Or so I thought. This was the wrong train — I got on it by accident. Luckily it was going to Munich as well!

Passing by Wurtzburg on the train. This town looked charming from inside, this video doesn’t do it justice — lots of church spires on the other side of the train (so I couldn’t really shoot those)

A snowy arrival of….something! Obviously some sort of publicity stunt, this was in Munich as I was walking along. Apparently there was some sort of German soccer star there as well — I had no idea. It was funny to watch, though.

What is it? More of this important jewelry unveiling in Munich, complete with TV coverage and motorcycles.

Riding the Munich Subway. The cleanest and nicest system I’ve ever been on (but the Berlin busses were nicer…)

Hello from the “Secret capital of Germany”! I’m in Bavaria after a long train ride from Berlin. It was good that the train ride was long, because I had a lot of recovering to do from a last-night party in Berlin — more later.

Berlin was BIG and spread-out. Thank GOD Munich is compact — and pedestrian friendly!! My feet thank you, Munich! This is my first real day here, and then I’ve got tomorrow and then I come home. Which actually is not that bad. Munich is so compact I’m covering a lot of ground and still having time to enjoy things.

BTW, hello, SNOW!!!!! Munich got dumped on the day before I got here, and there is about a foot of snow on the ground. It’s still snowing now. I love this — it’s perfect for me and the setting of Bavarian Germany.

Just got back from lunch at the Hoffbrauhaus! I drank 2 liters of really good beer, and am now walking off the buzz. Perhaps now I see why Munich is walkable — ahhhh, this all makes sense now. Nice planning Deutchland!

My last night I’m in a really nice hotel by the airport, so I will be uploading my photos then.

Another interesting note: you#ll see that I make fun of the Torino olympic opening ceremony and it#s music — so 80#s. Well, it must be a Europe thing, because it is ALL OVER THE PLACE here — everwhere I go it#s on the loudspeakers — I’m jazzing-out to ‘Celebrate a good time’ right now in the Internet cafe! How funny!!

Tsch

Greetings froma snowy Berlin!! Its about 32 degrees with light snow flurries. Still getting used to the fact that I am actually here. Flights were long, but the UPGRADE was nice!!! Biz class from Chicago to Brussels — yeah baby!!! Nearly did not make my flight to Berlin — Brussels airport is huge!

So I have walked the Kurfurstendamm already today — to keep the blood flowing. Went all the way to the famous KaDeWe department store. It is Berlin

I traveled down to SF to meet my friend Natalie for New Year’s. No bail was needed so we can consider this a successful trip! We also met-up with some friends I know from an aviation discussion board I frequent on the Internet (http://www.airliners.net/). Was fun to see those folks as well.

And the best of all, I got a new camera!! Wooo-whooo! It even has a movie function, soooooo….. without further delay, here is the first test (Windows Media player required)

Click to see THE FARTING TEDDY BEAR

Just planned my March 2006 vacation. Germany, here I come! Will be visiting Berlin and Munich.

Below is my routing — of course, it’s only one that I could love: