Sunday, September 2, 2007

Things I've Forgotten along the way

** Ely Cathedral, back in the UK was shut down the week after we were there so that they could film the Other Boleyn sister, starring Eric Bana and Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman and due out in February. The Golden Age with Cate Blanchett and due out in Nov. has also filmed there recently.

** On the train to Prague: Ticket checkers, dressed more or less like stewardesses, stop by every once in a while to check our ticket. Then, a rather austere looking man in a police uniform with two guns comes in; D offers the man his ticket. After the man left I said to D, weren't the guns a pretty good give away that he wanted our passports and not our tickets?

** There are TV towers (like the landmark one in East Berlin) all over former communist Europe. You can watch them pop up as the train rolls through the countryside. They were built to jam the transmission of radio free Europe. Radio free Europe was originally broadcast from Berlin. The biggest TV tower in Prague was completed not long before the Czech revolution and ironically is now the home of Radio Free Europe (who had to leave Berlin becasue it was too expensive; the Czech gov't rents them space for 1 Euro/year).

** Because of security concerns luggage lockers are a thing of the past; now, you leave your bags at a left luggage counter, kind of like you would ckeck your cat or dog into a kennel for the day.

** Prague is not yet part of the EU, so they still use their own currency, rather than Euros. On the morning we were set to leave we still had about 200 Czech Crowns (about 10 dollars), so I stay with the bags and send D off to buy snacks for the train with our remaining Czech money. After all, we were to be on the train all day; we'd have to eat something. He wanders around the entire train station, surveying every little shop, trying to figure out where to spend his money. He comes back and has spent all of it but 17 crowns (less than 1 dollar) and wait did he have to show for it---?????????? A bottle of some kind of Czeck liquor. "what's this?" I ask. "I dunno," he says, but they sell it in every store, so I figured we had to have some." The worse part: he didn't even leave me enough money so I could pay to pee and I wait until the train got there. We ended up buying train snacks when we changed trains in Dresden and then could use Euros.

** We were in an Internet cafe in Berlin and D was calling ahead to make our reservations in Ramstein and some man overheard him ask for a space available room. Turns out the man and his family had recently space a'd into Germany from California and was touring Berlin and Prague like we were. So, we swapped "how we got from point A to point B" stories with him.

** D and I most certainly do not look Czech. We were never ever mistaken for locals in Prague like we were in Berlin. In Prague, however, any one over about 30 has a very beat down look to them. I saw lots of mammas on the trains with their 3-4-5 year olds, and you would of thought they were the grandmammas. Now, it's possible that becasue we never got into the work-a-day sections of Berlin, so we simply didn't see everyday folk outside of the tourist district. I've been menaing to look up what an average yearly wage is in Prague, just to see.

Hurry up and wait

Long day on Friday getting accross Germany from Prague to Kaiserslautern. It became apparent that reservations are actually only really necessary on trains headed into Berlin, and then probably only on the weekends. It was Friday afternoon when we first headed to Berlin, and it was Friday a week later when were leaving Prague. Our train was ultimately headed back to Berlin; we got off it at Dresden, but most of the seats were reserved from dresden to Berlin, but from Dresden to Hamburg (our second train's final destination) not so much. I think all the reservations (Berlin to Prague, Prague to Dresden, and Dresden to Kaiserslautern) only ended up costing 11 Euros (about 15 dollars)-- worth it, I think, for not having to worry about having to stand.

We are now waiting on a flight home. We're actually wating on a particular flight; the plane has had maintenance problems, but its home is our home and we figure it has to go there eventually, so we wait. The alternative is to fly into Delaware and then rent a car to get home. I'd rather hang out here and watch movies. without a rental car it's hard to get very far, and we've both been so tired we've been sleeping a lot, but we went to see Ratatouille last night and Stardust tonight, and I finally finished Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence that I've been carrying around with me since we left home. In fact I stopped by the terminal today and bookswapped it out for Greg Iles Turning Angel--never heard of Iles, but he seems kind of Da Vinci code-esque.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Praha

Arrived in Prague (or Praha as the locals call it) Tuesday about dinner time. At first glance, it doesn't seem like much, as drab and utilitarian as Berlin (due to its communist past) but without the energy of a big city. Trains from Berlin don't arrive at the main train station-- they arrive at the small dingy suburban station and while suburban Prague on the outskrts of the old city is safe enough, it's a work-a-day neighborhood with very little aestheitic appeal. Then factor in that the the Czech language is slavic in origin (think Russian) rather than romantic (French/Spanish) or Germanic (German/English) and there are no such things as slavic cognates in English and well, it's a bit overwhelming. The only way we were able to find our hotel was locate where we were on amap and count the intersections as they went past, as there was no way to understand the recorded voice announcing each stop.

Hotel prices drop by half as soon as you move out of the historic central city, so we stayed in a place about a 10 minute tram ride into the major tourist district-- close enough to come home mid day for a rest if we wanted. The hotel has small rooms and although it's western the way we would think about it, the service industry is far less service oriented than we're used to.

Yesterday we spent the morning at Prague's Castle and then simply spent the afternoon and envening walking the historic district. Prague was largely spared durinmg the war, so there was very little rebuilding to do; the result is street after street after street of fabulous architecture and facades. There are four main squares in hte old city each connected by charming old streets, then the castle district overlooks them all.

Today we spent the morning in the Jewish sector and then spent the afternoon in hte shopping district. Ate dinner tonight in Cafe Slavia, home of Prague's 19th century intellectual elite, with a table by the river with a stunning castle view, and we ate lunch yesterday in a monastery.

I won't say there's a lot to do here as opposed to other european cities but there certainly is a lot to see.

We leave for a long day on the train back to western Germany tomorrow (Friday)

Monday, August 27, 2007

Berlin

So the second most important phrase after 'do you speak english?' is "Rechnung Bitte" which essentially means 'check please'. We've learned over the past few evenings that waitstaif must be trained to only attend to you if you flag them down. Should you simply wait for them to bring you your bill, you'll be waiting until closing time.

D and I must look or act German because we've also leaned the phrase to ask for a menu in English and our waiters then tend to apologize to us that they didn't know.

It doesn't matter what you drink-- beer, water, soda, you pay just about the same for it. We paid 6 Euros (about 8 dollars) for water the first night we were here. Now we stop at a market, buy our own bottled water and buy the beer, brings new meaning to BYOB, I suppose.
The drink of choice for the Germans seems to be Red Bull and this Apple flavored ginger ale, I remember trying once at the Coke factory in Atlanta.

I am happy to report we just ate dinner and this is second day with out sausages. (D, however, was going through sausage withdrawl and had CURRYWURST for breakfast) I even managed to score some broccoli last night. Vegetables are as hard to come by here as they were in England, which is even harder to understand when you think about the fact that we're still in a growing season.

Reached a new record today and paid about $1.20 to pee in the subway station. We've been paying to pee ever since England and by and large it's been well worth it as the restrooms are super clean and we've never been asked for than about 50 cents. It seems to be a good system.

Yesterday we went on a city bus tour, hopped off at an arts and craft fair (which looked just like any American arts and craft fair I#s ever been to) and went to the Pergamom museum (Greek Antiquities). Then we did an East Berlin walking tour and tried to get into the German parliament building for a tour, but the line was too long and we weren#t gonna make it before the closed.

Today we went to the Egyptian museum, the main shopping district of West Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie, and walked a bit of the Wall. They've laid distinctive stones all over the city where the wall stood. There's only two sections of it still standing, one in it's origianl form and the other that's now utilized as a gallery where various artists paint murals on sections of the wall.

We leave here about noontime tomorrow for Prague (and yep, we stopped into the train station today at got seat reservations!)

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Sprechen Sie English, Bitte

spre ken zee English bit-uh. Which translates to "do you speak English, please", a constant refrain of the last few days, though I have tried to order food in German and talk to ticket agents in German, other than the above phrase, I'm pretty limited.

Arrived in Dusseldorf Friday morning. Actually we arrived in Weeze, a very very small town about 50 miles from Dusseldorf and then had to figure out how to get from this small town into a bigger one so we could start our train ride to Berlin. Fortunately the shuttle bus driver new I meant train when I said "bahnhof" and took us to the train station, which had no attendant, just a ticket machine. Since we had our railpasses we decided just to get on the train (even though all our instructions said the passes HAD to be validated before travel) and get off at the first big station to find someone.


PIcked up a quick sandwich at the station and then off to Berlin on a highspeed train (speeds reaching up to 250 KM/h): However, although we had our rail passes we didn't have seat reserevations, so had to stand for the first 90 minutes (of a 4 hour trip) Got to Berlin about 8pm and ate dinner at a local rest. (where mercifully the waiter spoke English) and collapsed into bed.

Most everyone speaks at least some English here,which makes it easier to travel, but makes me feel a little silly, as educated as I am to not really know another language. I was even panhandled bilingually today. We were approached by a panhandler in the rail station and just nodded and said "no deutsch". Not to be out witted, said panhandler promptly switched to panhandling in English!

We had to find a different hotel this AM, so left our bags at the first hotel and wandered the neighborhood. We are staying in the "Prenzleur Berg" session of east Berlin, near Alexander Platz. We grabbed a currywurst and fries from the oldest sausage stand" in Berlin (at least so says Rick Steeves)-- family run for over 60 years (interesting when you consider we are in the heart of East Berlin, but I guess even the Soviets wanted their sausages). A currywurst, btw, appeared to be a fried sausage with a curryied ketchup over it.

After lunch, grabbed our bags, checked into our new hotel then headed out to the Jewish Museum, since it is open late and we had already blown the morning. Germany is apparently in the midst of a continued effort to reach out to its Jewish population and the museum is filled with a reparation rhetoric that seems very outdated by American standards. IOW, I imagine to some German teenagers it matters that their classmates are Jewish in a way I don't think it has mattered in the US for a few decades, if not longer.

Then, dinner in a traditional Bier Garten (beer garden)-- lots and lots and lots of picnic tables (maybe 100) under blinky lights with beer, pretzels, potato salad and , yep you guessed it, sausages!

Haven't yet got a plan for tommorrow, but weƤre here (at the park plaza inn) until Tuesday AM and then off to Prague.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

London (update from germany)

the update from Germany explains any typos. We#re in an internet cafe so I can check in on my class stuff, and the keyboards are laid out differently to account for the German characters.

We spent a quick afternoon in London on Thurs. Rode the shuttle down to the airport (about 80 miles), stashed our luggage in a locker and headed into town for the afternoon. We spent most of the afternoon in Westminster square looking at Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, 10 Downing Street and Trafalgar square.

We didn't actually tour any of the buildings, but we did tour the Winston Churchill war museum, tunnels and passages underneath Westminster square that Churchill and his war council used as headquarters during the war. The tour is self-paced; they give you large cell phones through which you listen to an explanation of the bunker. Really one of the cooler museums I've been in. Churchill sounds like he was a real SOB, however. First in London and now here in Germany you get a very different perspective on WW2 than you do in the states. I didn't realize it the day we were there, but Cambridge is home to the only official American War cemetary in Britain. I would have liked to have visited it if I had known.

Then it was beer and bangers and mash in a local pub and back out to the airport to collect our bags before boarding another bus to a suburban airport to catch a few winks before our Friday AM flight to Germany. BUT...... on the way back to the airport made a quick detour to Kings Cross Station and Platform 9 and three quarters, where theres a luggage cart halfway protruding from the wall readying to board the Hogwarts express.

ELY

Germany didn't work out for today, but I have firm tickets for Friday morning. Will head to London tomorrow for the day and then fly from London to Dusseldorf Friday morning then a 4 hour train ride to Berlin Friday Afternoon.

Today we decided to brave the buses once again and lit off for ELY-- the second smallest town in England with a rather large and rather impressive Cathedral. Even having it navigated the buses once, it was still less than efficient. I'd say Ely is a bit further than Cambridge, but it still took us 2.5 hours to get there.

Aside from the Cathedral, Ely's claim to fame is that Oliver Cromwell grew up there.
The ride to Ely was very pretty, took us right through Newmarket, England's horse country, past race tracks and training grounds like the ones I'd imagine you'd see in Kentucky.

The ride was also interesting because early on the driver stopped and got out of the bus to move a garbage can out of the road, later when we in Newmarket he stopped and waited until the horses looped to the far side of the track, presumably not to spook them with the bus's acceleration. CAn't imagine bus drivers anywhere in the states would do anything of the kind. By and large everyone is very polite and yes, "cheerio" really is a part of the daily vocabulary.

Forcast for London tomorrow is 71 and only a 20% chance of rain. Will be very windy, but I'll take a dry 71 with wind over a wet 61 with wind (like today) anytime. I'm rather tired of being damp and cold, even if I'm not cold, I'm still not quite warm. The thing that baffles me, however, is that I've browsed through a few stores and the stock is all summer wardrobe-- tank tops, skirts, shorts, t-shirts-- the people on the streets aren't wearing jackets and the babies-- they're everywhere but very few babies have hata on their heads. How do you not put a hat on your baby when it's cold, damp, and blustery outside?

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Peter Rabbit

This must be Beatrix Potter country. There are rabbits everywhere. In the relatively short walk between our room and the computer cafe I counted at least 7.
There are so many of them it wouldn't be hard to imagine them with families, towns and lives of their own.

Took it easy today after our long back and forth to Cambridge yesterday. Meandered a bit through town and found the original Mildenhal marketplace, dating back to 1581. I've also noticed that lots of houses around town actually have thatched roofs-- they llok like roofs made out of pine straw with black netting strapped over it to keep it all into place. All buildings are either brick, stone, or stucco. No wood or no siding, which makes complete sense with how wet it is here. We don't even take the umbrella out with us anymore. You just resign yourself to coming home damp. Not wet, becasue it doesn't really rain, it's just a perpetual mist. It will be nice to move on somewhere else where it's a little drier and just a bit warmer.

Speaking of moving on. There are flights tomorrow to Germany. We're going to try to be on one.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Cambridge

Monday today and we headed up to Cambridge. Travel guru Rick Steves rates both university towns (Oxford and Cambridge); he says he prefers Cambridge and as we are within "easy" travel distance to Cambridge and not so much to Oxford, Cambridge it is and off we went.

As we didn't plan on spending a great deal of time in East Anglia and with gas 8 dollars/ gallon, we opted not to rent a car, so instead, set about piecing together a plan to get up to Cambridge by bus.

Next time we're in the are, we'll rent the car.
Because of oddly timed connections, it took us close to three hours to make the 26 mile trip to Cambridge. (The return was a bit faster because we hopped on the charter bus headed down to the London airports). And, the bus wasn't cheap. I've never thought public transportation was a major expense. Not so. We easily spent 30 pounds (60 dollars) to get back and forth to Cambridge.

Worth it, sure, but sticker shock... oh yeah.

Speaking of sticker shock:
We are routinely spending $25 dollars for a lunch that would cost $15 at home and $40 for a dinner at a pub (which I'd say are comparable to Friday's/Applebees type chains at home). Furthermore, portions here are closer to what portions should be, so we've tried to split entrees and add soup, but found there really wasn't enough food for two people. Coffee is $4 a cup (2lb) but that's mainly because you really can't order drip coffee. It's all espresso. So to get coffee you order an Americano (espresso with steamed water). Here, they're constantly asking me if I want milk, whereas at home if you want milk in your espresso you order a latte.

The upside, we're staying in a nice room for dirt cheap ($32/night) with free gourmet coffee in the lobby, free computer labs, and free laundry, so I imagine once we'll find that once we move on to areas that are less expensive overall, we'll end up about the same as we'll have to pay more for lodging and the little extras.

Anyway, back to Cambridge-- What a fabulous town. In another life I'd be doing a post-doc there, poring over texts in the drafty library or papers in my overheated office. As far as spending one afternoon there, however, it was a bit overwhelming. It has all the historical draw as a place like Williamsburg, enough boutique shopping for a resort town plus all the trappings of a typical college town.

We decided to focus on the historical aspect and went on a "college tour," spending about 2.5 hours walking through the various colleges that make up Cambridge University as a whole. The most famous of course is King's College, alma mater of the "heir and the spare."

One of the library's (forget which one) houses the original Pepys diary. And another boasts the burial place of Oliver Cromwell's head.  Cambridge supposedly  has the apple tree under which Sir Isaac Newton sat.  I'm doubtful as to if it's still the same tree, but that's just me.  Most of the buildings  in town were finished by 1600 which makes Cambridge a remarkably developed medieval/renaissance city. What Gondolas are to Venice, Punts are to Cambridge (see first picture): flat-bottomed boats that seat up to about 15 poled through the rivers that form the backs of the colleges. You can steer them yourself or let the experts guide them and it was entertaining to watch the inexperienced punters bounce them back and forth from bank to bank across the river.

Speaking of that other life, not only would I be post-docing here (and walking across the grass; fwiw only fellows can walk on the grass).  But perhaps I'd have a book at The Cambridge University Press bookstore.  I even went inside looking to purchase a copy of "the Cambridge", arguably one of the most important reference books in Early-American lit, only to find that it cost so much that I'd wait until I actually had a faculty office before I stocked its shelves.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Mildenhall


Mildenhall Village

Cambridge didn't work out for today. The bus schedule doesn't run on Sundays. Instead we slept late and then explored the local town, Mildenhall Village. This picture above (although a bit blurry) is the old church and the village.


Ate dinner at the Indian restraunt (apparently every english town has at least one).

Not too many flights out of here to Germany this week so we'll likely stay in the UK through the weekend. We will do some day trips from here (Cambridge, Ipswich, Norwhich) and then leave East Anglia and head down to London.

Typical England drizzle all day today.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Bangers and Mash

Landed inthe UK this afternoon, specifically Mildenhall, a small town in east Anglia, a couple hour drive north of London. Had to wait around a couple hours to get a room, but will be her at least tonight and tomorrow night. After that we might head down into London itself for a day or two.

Tonight we walked from our hotel to local pub and ate in thoroughly British style. D had bangers and beans and chips and black pudding. I had pot pie. And beer. Did we mention the beer? Did you know Ale's are traditionally served at room temperature (or so says this local barkeep)

Tomorrow we are day-tripping to Cambridge.

I complaine I didn't have cool enough clothes for a long stay in espana. Well, here I'm not sure I have warm enough clothes, even with my windbreaker. We got off the plane to the typical British mist. Currently (9:00 PM), it's 53.
More Later

UK Bound

Lucked into last minute lodging last night-- the second time this trip. There seems to be a pattern; check in after 10:pm and they'll release the VIP suites to any ol joe. Fabulous room and a great night sleep. Had laundry in the room, so took advantage of it to do a load, since I only brought one pair of capris, not expecting to be in a warmer climate.

Wandered back to the terminal this morning to rent a car-- the plan was to spend the day in Cadiz (look it up), and lo and behold saw a flight to the UK on the board. Sign us up we said. We have boarding passes in hand and are off to the Taco Bell next door for lunch (the only nearby options for food. We were going to eat lunch in Cadiz). Should be Fish and Chips and a well-deserved beer in an appropriately smokey british Pub for dinner, however.

So, in the end, didn't see any thing of Spain except what we passed on the way from lodging to the terminal. But the weather here is gorgeous. Can see why the area around here is a prime vacation destination.

Adios!

Friday, August 17, 2007

Crossing the Pond

Well, we made it. Am reporting in from Rota, Spain. Well, a terminal in Rota as we wait and see if we go to Germany tonight or hang out her for a few days.

Left home Tuesday and made our way to Charelston only to be told the flight we were going to take was no longer available. No big deal,however, becasue we got to spend a nice evening exploring downtown Charleston and ate dinner at a local seafood joint. However, finding a hotel in Charleston Wed. Night was an absolute nightmare. Quick 100 pop-culture cool points for you if you can guess what was happening in Charleston this week. That's right--next season's American Idol Auditions. We ending up paying $77.00 for a cheap travel class motel and felt lucky to have it.

Thursday we spent the day at Charles Towne landing historic site-- the original settlement site where the colonists spent the firs tdecade getting established before they jumped accross the bay and settled what we today think of as Charleston. We made it back to the terminal to pick up our flight scheduled to depart at 11:00 EST. By 11:00 we were checked in, by midnight we were on the plane, by 1:30 we were off the plane because of a mechanical failure--sitting on a bus on the tarmac in hopes the right spare part was in the warehouse. By 3:00 we were back on the plane and airborne by 4:00, asleep by 4:01. Didn't sleep bad at all, in fact slept most of the flight, but mainly because D, recognizing my inner princess did the only chivalrous thing and slept on the floor so I could stretch out over all three seats. Have been in Spain for only a few hours. Grabbed a bite to eat, getting our bearings and making plans. More Later!

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Delayed

Stuff came up at work, sigh. So we are still predeparture. Will, fingers crossed, head out Tuesday or Wednesday.

The worst part is that boyby has been at the grands for close to a week already. Everyday brings reports of new words. He's been to the pool twice without incidence. "Little fish" g-ma calls him. "Walks right off the steps and doesn't care" she reports. This from the kid who gloms fiercely to mama's neck and won't let go any time I take him to the pool, the kid who fusses without ceasing when we "all fall down" and go under the water. Over and Over she tells me "what a sweet/easy/laidback/content kid". All continued proof that he saves his best behavior for yours truly. I however, will quit complaining if the grands also somehow manage to get him potty trained. I can't even get him to sit on the potty, not for stickers or candy or cookies or tv.

"You can have ______." I say.
"Naaaa" he says as he scampers off to find his blocks, books or other favored toy.

Although D and I have gone to movies and dinners and hung out at coffee shops and tackled a couple of household projects--all adult things that are hard to do with him underfoot--I have to keep the door to his room closed so as not to wander in there to check on him. The video game on the TV was rather loud an evening or two ago and I actually "shhhshed" D as not to wake the little guy.

habits,sigh.

Monday, July 30, 2007

t- 1 week (give or take)

Just a test post really. Will update from the road as we can, so starting next week check back often to monitor our progress.

the current plan is to go east from our presumed point of arrival-- to hit Berlin, Prague, and Vienna and then see we we are, how much time and money we've spent and how much longer I can stand being away from boyby (or how much longer the grands can stand chasing after him).

D's passport finally got here. Our railpasses came this week. Now, we're simply waiting for the Estonian phone chip. (There's a long story here, but fortunately said chip comes via Miami and not via Estonia)

We need to pack under 30lb. I currently have 12lbs to spare, but that's not including guidebooks, toiletries, and the various electronic equipment D won't leave home without. Who needs socks, underwear, or even a razor when you can have cell phones, mp3 players, and PDA's.

There's still lots of little things to do, but the important stuff is taken care off, including the tax return which goes to the PO tomorrow and will finance this here adventure.