Like a glove...

Got the call this today that my car was dropped off at my dealer yesterday. I took the afternoon off and went down to pick it up. It may as well have been teleported directly from Amsterdam to my dealer. The EU license plates were still on; the shipping label was still in the dash; all the highway stickers were still on the windshield.

Needless to say, the car felt like a warm glove when I got back in and drove off.

Any day now

Got word from my sales advisor that my car was released to the trucking company this afternoon. It could be any day next week when it finally shows on his lot. Obviously, I am hoping for Monday.

Feet Dry!

My car was unloaded in Brunswick today. Now it's in the lap of the gods how long it will take to clear customs and get to my dealer. Some people have been reporting week-long customs delays, so it could still be another 2 weeks or so before the car shows up on my dealer's lot.

Bon Voyage!

It didn't make the boat on the 10th, but it did get loaded today on the "Elektra." 20 days until she makes port in Brunswick after stops in Gothenburg, Sweden; Zeebrugge, Belgium; Southampton, UK; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and New York, NY.

Some bad news...

Just got some bad news. Turns out my car will not be leaving on the big boat today. It looks like it will be leaving on the 16th, arriving in Brunswick on the 5th. Dammit!

I got an interesting phone call while in the McD's drive through line

So I was in the drive thru line at McDonald's this morning and got an interesting phone call. It was Doug, the gallery owner back in Winchecombe. We talked about that painting that we liked so much and he allowed as how he would get back to me regarding finding a shipping agent.

Sweet!

I really miss BA Club World

Our vacation is over.

Today was about as much of a waste as our adventure to Andechs was two weeks ago. Since our flight out of Heathrow wasn't until 3pm, we decided to get one more sight in on the way to the airport. Since we didn't get any word from the art gallery about that painting, our morning got freed up a little.

We had two choices: Blenheim Palace or a city walk around Oxford. We chose Blenheim Palace since we didn't want to get caught up in finding city parking in Oxford and whatnot.

After breakfast (have I mentioned the fried bread?) we loaded up and headed out. Blenheim Palace wasn't too far, but when we got there, it was complete chaos. Evidently, they host some huge triathlon this weekend every year. There were mobs of people trying to get into the grounds (both tourists and athletes) and people were parking in the fields. We made a strategic decision to give Blenheim a pass and head to Oxford instead.

Oxford wasn't very far from Blenheim, and since we weren't really prepared to visit here, I was completely unprepared for finding parking or what there was to see or anything. We drove into the center of town and made an attempt at parking in a public garage, but ultimately decided just to bail out and head to the airport. That way we wouldn't be rushed to find a place for lunch or to return our rental car or to check in.

Turns out, that we bumbled around a bit finding the car rental return (our EuropCar supplied SatNav system had issues finding the EuropCar Heathrow location, who'd a thunk it?), so having that extra time really helped out with the stress factor.

The only drama we had getting home was that Angela forgot to put her little picnic knife into her checked luggage. The people screening the carry-on baggage looked at her like "what were you thinking trying to bring a knife on the plane?" Of course, the had to confiscate it. The fight was OK, but after having come over in BA's Club World cabin, anything less is just plain uncivilized.

Our reentry into the USA was very smooth, by Hartsfield International standards; with the exception of the jar of jam that Angela bought at Heathrow that she tried to get through in her carry-on bag. See, in ATL, you have to collect your baggage, go through customs, then recheck it to the main terminal. Because of this, you have to go back through a security line with x-rays and metal detectors like when you first check in. Since the jam counted as a liquid, and since it was obviously more than the 3oz you're allowed, they took it, too. Thanks, DHS. Hope you enjoyed your toast with jam.

Another vacation over. This one was really fun because the weather was so good the whole time. We were able to do almost everything we set out to do.

I got word that our car is set to be shipped on the 10th; with a Brunswick arrival on the 24th. It's looking good that I'll get my car back by the 4th of July weekend.

Why are all of these villages so pretty?

Damn that Fried Bread is good! We had a full house in the dining room this morning and it was nice to chat with all the other guests over breakfast. The other Americans staying here were going to Stratford-on-Avon to do the Shakespeare thing, and the couple from Essex (who were visiting the Costwolds for the first time) were going to do like us and just go whereever their car took them.

Our first stop this morning was another National Trust property called "Hidcote Manor Garden." The garden was huge and segmented off in various themed "rooms" based on the flora planted in them. Thankfully we got there before the crush of people. Before we knew it, it was almost noon and we headed out towards Bourton-on-the-Water for lunch and more cute golden stone buildings and creeping rose bushes.

We enjoyed a couple sandwiches along the "-on-the-Water" part of Bourton with apparently the rest of the entire county of Gloucestershire. It was cute; with kids playing in the little stream throwing rocks at the ducks and whatnot. Ice cream was the treat du jour, with no less than 10 ice cream parlors along the High Street.

We went onward to the very small town of Bibury. Man, this was the quaintest little town we'd seen so far. And you know what? That same busload of asian artists that we saw yesterday in "The Slaughters" was there with their little stools and sketch pads and watercolors. Bibury is evidently a popular spot, since there were cars parked everywhere. We discovered that there is a rather large trout farm and there were tons of people fishing in the trout ponds. One guy was fishing downstream of the trout farm and caught a fairly good size fish. One woman asked why he didn't throw it back, and he politely said "because I'm going to eat it." Not unlike most every other Cotswold village, there isn't much more to Bibury than just the cuteness of the cottages, so once we took another hundred or so photos of the creeping rose bushes, we headed out towards Burford.

Burford was the furthest point we got from Nineveh; which is to say it was only like 35 miles away. It was also probably one of the larger villages/towns we visited. While we were enjoying our afternoon tea and scones (OK, Angela had the tea and scones and I had a really good strawberry sundae), we came to the conclusion that we really wanted to get that painting we saw in Winchecomb yesterday. We hopped back in the car and made a mad dash for the gallery, but got there just a couple minutes after closing time. Angela had the bright idea of asking one of the neighboring shop-owners if he had a cell number for the gallery owner. One of them took my mobile number and said that he would try to get a hold of him. Maybe he'll call and agree to open his shop tomorrow. Who knows?

Anyway, feeling a little dejected that we might have missed out on the painting, we headed back to Nineveh for a glass of wine before dinner. The sheep behind the hotel were baying very loudly today. They won't come very close to the fence, but they do all look up when you try to "talk" to them. It's amazing the different number of voices they have.

We had a really nice dinner back in Mickelton; and actually ran into the couple from Essex.

We head back to the states tomorrow. We're going to try to see Blenheim Palace since it's right on the way back to Heathrow. Our flight's not until 3pm, so we have a little time in the morning.

My God, it's full of sheep!

Damn it got cold last night! No A/C in the house, so we had all the windows open and it got pretty chilly overnight. Breakfast was traditional English style, including the mushrooms and stewed tomatoes (I opted out of the mushrooms and tomatoes) and something called "Fried Bread." Now, I was thinking something like French Toast, but in fact it was more like two pieces of white bread soaked in butter and oil and fried in a skillet. Mmmm....

We set out around 10:30 for the town of Broadway. Our hosts provided us with a suggested circle route through several of the more picturesque Cotswolds villages, and the first stop was Broadway via Mickelton (so we could make reservations for dinner at the "Three Ways House Hotel").

Broadway was a lovely little town with a very nice "High Street" of shops and tea rooms. We peeked into several galleries looking for a nice painting to bring home but didn't find anything that "spoke" to us. I am afraid that I will become completely desensitized to all the "cuteness" of the crawling rose vines and the gorgeous golden limestone buildings and the thatched roofs.

After a "down and back" of the hight street, we set off for Winchcombe by way of the "Snowshill Manor" and the small town of Snowshill. Snowshill Manor is part of the "National Trust" and up until the 40's it was an occupied residence. The gardens were stunning (and I don't even think this is a "big" garden by National Trust standards). We didn't get tickets for the house itself, but we were able to peek into a couple of the outbuildings, including the owner's residence cottage.

We had lunch in the small village of Snowshill at the pub that was about 50 yards away from the house, but required a long walk back to the car park and out in order to reach. Angela had what looked to be a very yummy baked camembert with raspberry jam and crackers while I had a delicious bacon burger with chips (fries). The Cotswolds is famous for its hard cider, so we tried some that was not very refreshing; it was hand-pumped and served cool but not cold.

We rolled out of town after a couple more pictures of creeping rose bushes and cute cottages and headed for Winchcombe. Winchcombe was a little more "working" than the other villages, and therefore not quite as picturesque. We did however manage to find a gallery that was showing a local artist's work that we really liked. We waffled around a bit and decided to walk around some while we thought about it. Not being able to make a decision on where to actually hang it, we left without buying anything.

None of these small villages is more than 10 or so miles from the next, and so we left Winchcombe and hit some small country "lanes" on the way to "The Slaughters" (Upper and Lower). We must have passed 2 or 3 villages so small that they weren't much more than a main square, a post office/general store/pub, and a small church.

Upper Slaughter wasn't much bigger, and our hosts back at the B&B strongly encouraged us to walk from Upper to Lower via one of the numerous public footpaths that criscross the country. It was a fairly short walk through a couple fields, past a burbling stream and fields of sheep making a terrific racket. There are actually quite a number of sheep everywhere. Lower Slaughter has a little more going on and when we got there, there was a whole busload of asian folks on some sort of art adventure with their sketchpads and easels find inspiration in the architecture of the Cotswolds. Still and all, there's really not that much to "do" here, and it wasn't long before we headed back to the car via the footpath.

By then it had started to get a little late (late by Cotswolds time, which is only about 5:45pm), and we decided to head back to Nineveh for a little vino before heading to dinner. We returned to a full car park and a gathering of people sitting out in the garden. Turns out they're from the states and finishing up their vacation in the Cotswolds just like us. We enjoyed a nice conversation and a little snack and then headed to dinner at "Randalls Brasserie" in Mickelton.

Now, the Three Ways House Hotel is home to the "Pudding Club" and specializes in both sweet and savory puddings. I had an unbelievable pudding consisting of chicken, ham, and sage all cooked in a pastry-type crust. It was so good, I don't even remember what Angela had. For dessert, we shared a portion of a Banana-Cinnamon pudding (that had more of the consistency of a grainy bread pudding than the "snack-pack" style of pudding that we are used to) topped with a warm custard. It was so good and I am still quite full.

More cute villages await tomorrow, after we visit the Hidcote Manor Garden, another National Trust property.

I wish I could be a British Monarch

We got a really nice tour of some of the more obscure places in Amsterdam this morning on the way to the airport. The hotel's airport driver was really friendly and pointed us out several areas of the city where we would have never gone otherwise.

The Amsterdam airport is this huge sprawling place, and our gate seemed to be the farthest one from the ticket counters. Our taxi-out took almost as long as the actual flight to Gatwick.

We rented a car for our couple days in England, and ours came in the form of a Peugeot 207 diesel (with a stick, no less). I have driven in the UK before, but not with a stick, so I did a couple laps around the car park (that what Brits call a parking lot) to get familiar with the different shifting movements and then we set off for Windsor Castle.

After seeing Windsor Castle, I can't decide if I would rather be a European Emperor or a British Monarch. Our first stop was St. George's Chapel since it was going to close at 3pm. Now, I've seen my share of Gothic churches, and this one is maybe the best one of the bunch. There is just so much history in that building; so many Tudor kings and queens are buried there; all of the heraldric symbolism with the Order of the Garter; etc.

The actual tour of the castle included the "State Apartments" and Queen Mary's "Doll's House," which was an amazing feat of art and craftsmanship in itself. The State Apartments were as richly appointed as one might expect from a royal line that extends back through several centuries. The main banquet hall was enormous; the dining table is one unbroken surface and they line up all of the serving pieces with rulers (and probably lasers and hyper-accurate GPS, too).

I think I made a mistake when we parked the car and I parked in a timed lot where they appear to boot cars with religious zeal, so after a quick bite at the McDonalds (purely filler), we headed out towards our actual destination in the Cotswolds. I had this vision of sort of a British version of Provence, and it was basically exactly that.

Our B&B is in this old farmhouse that dates back to the early 19th century, and our hosts remind me of some old family friends from back in my childhood as they served us tea in their very well kept garden.

We ate dinner in the smallish town of Chipping Campden and then strolled around the mostly abandoned streets. See, here in the Cotswolds, everything besides pubs and restaurants closes at 5:30.

I assume that we'll just drive around all of the little villages tomorrow; stopping wherever we see something interesting.

Who would have though you could find such good Indonesian food in Amsterdam?

I could get used to these breakfasts. We're getting fed very well, here. Despite being on a pretty busy canal, we're sleeping pretty well, too. Our room comes equipped with a white noise generator that does a great job of masking the street sounds.

Our canal boat ticket was good until noon, so we high-tailed it to the central station where we were going to catch the "Grand Circle Cruise" which took us around the perimeter of the city along the outermost canal. Most of the canal houses are starting to look the same by now; so the only really interesting part of this water bus line was the old-timey windmill that is now home to a local brewery. One other interesting thing along the canals is all the houseboats. There are over 2000 of them throughout the city. I think they are all pretty much permanently moored to the banks and the narration on the boat said that almost all of them have hookups to city gas and city water. It's kind of like a giant city-wide trailer park on water. Some of the boats look really nice; some of them are complete dumps.

After one "Grand Circle," our ticket had expired, but we decided to just stay on the boat until it made another half-loop around the city and got off at the Albert Cuyp Market. This particular street market had gotten some mention in our guidebook, but the reality wasn't nearly as nice as the description. The food stands were amazing; but the rest was like a big flea market. We had lunch at this little bagel place near the market and then began the long walk back towards the hotel via the floating flower market and the Leidsestraat shopping street. We came out of there relatively unscathed, with just a couple chunks of Dutch cheese.

Probably the most interesting museum we went to was at the "Amstelkring." This was a Catholic church that had been established in an attic during a time when being a Catholic was illegal in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, they were doing quite a bit of renovation to the actual church, so we couldn't see it in all its splendor.

Since there really is no such thing as "Dutch" cuisine (besides the omnipresent pickled Herring stands), we decided to have Indonesian food. Our plates (called "Nasi Rames") were just huge sampler platters of all kinds of dishes. My favorite one was the chunks of pork on a skewer that had some sort of barbeque sauce marinated on them. The whole thing was amazing.

Our final "tour" in Amsterdam was a semi-guided tour of the Grand Hotel Sofitel. Apparently, the hotel is located in a fairly historic building, and the concierge is all too willing to expound on the history of their "Marriage Chamber" and "Council Hall." They are rightly proud of their property there.

Early morning tomorrow so we can get to the airport in time to fly over to Gatwick. Pepijn is getting up early with us to cook up another yummy breakfast.

They don't call them the Dutch Masters for nothing.

We woke up to sunny skies and pleasant temperatures this morning. Breakfast was delicious with fresh cooked eggs and bacon and some of the best bread (or "brood" in Dutch) I've ever had.

Since Amsterdam is crisscrossed with all these canals, we decided what better way to get around than by a canal boat? We got a 24hr pass and proceeded to the closest stop before hopping on a boat for the "Rijksmuseum." Even though they are renovating probably 85% of the museum, the works they put on display in the "temporary" museum were amazing. Rembrandt and his contemporaries and students were truly masters of lighting and texture. The landscapes were stunning and Rembrandt's portraits were so lifelike; even up very very close. There was an amazing scale model of an old Dutch warship, made from small wood timbers and completely rigged out also. The only thing missing were the little guys manning the deck. If the "temporary" exhibit was this good, I can't imagine how good the whole collection is.

We were good and hungry after the museum, so we set out to find a sandwich shop. I can't believe how hard it is to find something that's not McDonald's or Burger King or a Falafel stand. As it happens, we ate at a falafel stand. My "Doner Kebap" was very tasty, but Angela's bratwurst was not and she only ate half of it. We spotted an "Australian Ice Cream" shop and had a couple waffles with chocolate sauce and fresh whipped cream. Yummy!

Not satisfied with our street art purchase from yesterday; we perused the artists selling their pieces on the "Leidseplein" and noticed something very curious. It appeared that they weren't "real." In that I could not see the brush marks on the paper; nor could I see where the water in the water colors actually deformed the paper. Some of the artists didn't even sign their pieces. Very curious... Unfortunately, we had to race to catch the canal boat so we didn't have the chance to look at them very closely.

We took the canal boat to the end of the line and switched back to get back to the Westerkerk and the Anne Frank House museum. After walking around the Jordaan neighborhood (and getting pretty cold doing it, since the clouds moved in and the wind picked up), we took our tour of the Anne Frank House. I don't remember reading her diary when I was in school, but I need to now. Her family's story is pretty amazing. I will say that their "hiding place" was bigger than I had envisioned it.

Walking through the Red Light District on the way back to the hotel was a trip. There are so many sex shops, sex theaters, and women posing in their little private fishbowls that you become completely desensitized to it.

Amsterdam has so much potential, and a goodbye

We must have gotten luck yesterday afternoon, since when we woke up it was raining and gross again. We decided to try to drop the car off today to give it a little head start, so I emailed the agency in Amsterdam to make sure we could. Angela hadn't gotten any post cards of Brugge yet, so we set out in the rain and wind to find some (and to find that waffle from last night, too). While we were out, the weather started to break just a little, reminding us a lot of yesterday actually.

We said goodbye to Brugge around 11:30 and made haste for Amsterdam. I had to get to the dropoff agency by 3pm and our SatNav told me we would get there around 2:30. Pretty close should we hit any traffic (which we did). I wound up getting there just in the nick of time at 2:45. We got all of the turn-in documentation filled out and had a taxi take us to our hotel; right on the back side of the red-light district and facing a nice, quiet canal near the Neuwe Markt.

By the time we checked in, the weather was awesome: predominantly blue sky and a nice temperature. We decided to do an exploratory walk down the "Damrak" to the Dam Square and down a small shopping street to the floating flower market.

We ate dinner on the "Zeedijk" at a hole in the wall Chinese (chinees in Dutch) place. Apparently, there really is no such thing as "Dutch" cuisine, since the only restaurants we can find are Asian, Italian, or Argentinian steakhouses (or all 3 in one).

My initial impression of Amsterdam is that if they would care that it looks like a dump with trash all over (including floating in the canals) and do something about it, that this would be the prettiest city in the world.

400 different beers? Seriously?

Today started like yesterday ended; cold wind and light drizzle. We decided to try to make lemonade out of lemons and find Angela a 240V curling iron and some band-aids at any store that might be open on a Sunday. We were assured by the desk clerk at the hotel that Carrefour would be open and we could find what we were looking for there. We found the Carrefour, but it was "ferme, geschlossen, chiuso, closed." Awesome. Angela was almost in panic mode, so we drove around some more hoping beyond hope to find an "Apotheke" or some other place to find band-aids to no avail.

Back at the hotel, we learned that the Carrefour that we went to _used_ to be open on Sundays, but since the new one towards Zeebrugge opened, it isn't. That would have been good to know when we left. Whatever. By the time we got back, the rain had stopped, so we set out to see some of Rick's recommendations. The Groening museum had a pretty amazing collection of Flemish works; but no _Flemish_ tapestries. WTF? While we were eating our lunch from the frites vendors on the Markt square, the sun came out and the clouds went away and that was it for the museums. We immediately set out for a canal boat ride and just strolled around the city basking in its glory.

For dinner, we went to the place called "Cambrinus" which prides itself on its beer collection (all 400 of them) and its traditional Flemish meals cooked with some of the same beer that they serve. 400 beers? The beer list read like the wine list at Bern's Steakhouse in Tampa. All kinds of different beers, including Lambics. We struck up a conversation with a British couple who were in Brugge for the 9th time. By the time we left, it was almost 10pm (and still bright as day outside), and none of the gelato stands or waffle stands were open.

Oh, we did wind up getting Angela her curling iron and band-aids at the "new" Carrefour.

Why does it always have to rain when we get to the "Pretty" cities?

After our double-dip dinner last night; we both slept fairly well. That is until all of the gear heads that were staying in our hotel decided en mass to saddle up and head out at 7am. Breakfast was quite good; with scrambled eggs and bacon to accompany our staples of granola/yogurt and croissants with jam.

We had scheduled a helicopter tour of the 'Ring for 10am, and had to pack up and check out in time to get to the airfield. It was a perfect morning for flying, and the aerial views of the Nurburgring complex really added a whole new dimension to what we drove through yesterday.

I had wanted to see a couple WW2 sites on our way to Brugge (Bastogne and the cemeteries around Liege), so after our flight we set the SatNav for Bastogne. We had some sandwiches on "Place McAuliffe," named after the 101st Airborne commander who basically told the Nazis to piss off when they demanded his surrender. We visited the Bastogne Historical Center; a small, if well done, museum dedicated to the siege of the city, along with a monument sited at the furthest advance of Nazi forces. It was then that the weather started to turn cloudy, windy, and cold.

Since I could not find accurate information on how to find the cemeteries in Liege, we decided to just make for Brugge. We found our hotel around 5:30 or so with a light drizzle falling and a cold wind blowing. The hotel receptionist gave us a couple good restaurant recommendations and after we unloaded, we set out for an "orientation walk." Brugge is not a big city; and it gets very quiet in the evenings. We both like that. We had our customary dessert of gelato and are now consulting our good buddy Rick Steves on what to do tomorrow with our only full day in Brugge. The weather is not supposed to be good; nice.

I can now officially call myself a "Ringer"

We knew going in that today would be a marathon driving day. Vienna, Austria to Nurburg, Germany for a couple laps on the famed Nurburgring Nordschleife. It started off badly; I could have gotten run over by a Vienna tram by turning the wrong way down a one-way street trying to leave our hotel parking garage. Then, it took us almost an hour to get out of town and onto the autobahn. Then, once into Germany, we could never really get into a driving rhythm since there was one construction project or another seemingly every 10 miles. We finally got to our hotel in Nurburg around 6pm.

The 'Ring was scheduled to be open for tourist driving until 7:30, so we had plenty of time to unload the car and get a 4 lap ticket. Fortunately for us, there were no track closures this afternoon, and the traffic seemed fairly light. There were tons of motorcycles, but generally if you pick a line and stay on it, they can maneuver around you. We wound up each doing 2 laps and on my second lap I was almost the last car out on track. It was great being able to go around with very little traffic. Hopefully I'll be able to find a picture of me going round posted by one of the folks that does it as a semi-profession.

We ate dinner at the "Pistenklause" restaurant in our hotel. It's pretty popular among the "regular" crowd at the 'Ring, and it was very fun. Angela and I ordered rather pedestrian pizza and pasta (since the place purports to be an Italian restaurant), but after we got our plates, we noticed almost everyone (and almost all of them Brits) getting these raw steaks being served on hot stones. Apparently this is their specialty. Well, we got to chatting with these two Brits who are also staying here, and time went on and we got hungry again (after our pizza and pasta and sharing an apple strudel) so we ordered one of the steaks. Oh my lord was it good.

Tomorrow, we're going for a helicopter tour over the 'Ring and then heading to Bruges by way of the WWII battlefield sites in Bastogne. I can't wait to try some Belgian Chocolate and Belgian Beer.

I wish I could be a European Emperor

Seriously, those imperial families knew how to collect stuff. Today we spent most of the day wandering through the various galleries of the "Kunsthistorisches" museum at the Hofburg palace compound. The collections were just spectacular. There was a whole gallery dedicated to medieval arms and armor; one dedicated to medieval and renaissance musical instruments; one to Egyptian, Roman, and Greek artifacts, and two huge painting galleries dedicated to the Austrian, Belgian, Italian, and Dutch masters. I'm not lying when I say that this set of museums rivals the Louvre in Paris in scope and size.

During the morning, we also took in some of the daily morning practice/workout for the Lipizzaner Stallions at the Spanish Riding School. Waste of money if you ask me, since all they did was prance around in the dirt with music playing over the P.A. system.

We had lunch at this awesome outdoor market called the "Naschmarkt," just outside the "Ringstrasse" near St. Charles' Church. Imagine a 4 block long farmers' market interspersed with vendors selling everything from bratwurst to gyros to fish sandwiches. Had it not been raining, it would have been really fun to walk around.

Speaking of rain, this is the first day where rain has had any material impact on our vacation. It rained for most of the afternoon from lunchtime until we turned in tonight. The forecast calls for good driivng weather over to Nurburg tomorrow, though. That's a good thing since it's going to be a loooong drive up there.

I still hate opera, but they really know how to do it here in Vienna

Today was great. Got a good night of sleep last night and woke up bright-eyed and bushy tailed with a big day of sightseeing ahead of us. Today we had planned to take a Segway tour around the city; then do whatever Rick Steves told us to do.

The Segways were a blast. We rode around the old town and saw, albeit briefly, all the major sights from the outside: the Opera House, the Hofburg Palace, the Austrian Parliament building, the Vienna City Hall, St. Stephen's Cathedral, St. Charles' Cathedral, StadtPark, you name it.

The one drawback about Segway touring is that you can't stop for more than a couple minutes and really don't have the time to soak in the sight at which you're gawking. The one cool thing about Segway touring is all the people looking at you like you're riding on some device from space. So, after our tour, we set out to tackle all of Rick's "Three Triangle" sights in Vienna. First up was the Hofburg Palace. Let me tell you: those Habsburgs knew how to build a palace. This place rivals the Louvre in size and the royal apartments were spectacular. We also saw the Imperial Treasury; home to some of the most amazing pieces of royal accoutrement I've ever seen. Among these were the coronation mantle of the Holy Roman Empire, woven in 1100AD. Simply amazing stuff.

After the Hofburg, we enjoyed a grilled sausage from a street vendor and went over to the Opera House to check on the tour schedule. As luck (or unluck) would have it, there was a performance of Verdi's "La Traviata" tonight. Rick mentioned that the smart tourist will buy their tickets in the standing room only section for EUR3 per person. That's what we did and when the curtain went up, the set was simply amazing. I really hate opera, though, and Angela and I decided to pack it in after 30 minutes. It didn't help that our seats were literally at the top of the theater and therefore as hot as hell. I am not a convert to Opera, but at least I can appreciate the effort that goes in to staging a performance.

We returned to the hotel via the tram that follows the "Ringstrasse" around the old town and had an awesome gyro (called a "Durum" here) wrap and gelato for dinner. Not sure what we'll do tomorrow, but it probably involves some shopping.

Why have I never had a blue car before?

Today was the big day. We slept horribly last night. So badly that we both were awake at midnight and decided to watch the season finale of "Caprica" on my laptop. I think I maybe got 4 total hours of sleep.

Good weather continues today. It was a little cooler this morning than yesterday, and there was a healthy breeze blowing. No real chance of rain, though. We got ready, checked out of the hotel and got down to the Welt by 8:20 for a 9:10 appointment. It was nice that they were able to accommodate our early arrival and rescheduled our delivery.

After signing all the requisite paperwork like the insurance, registration, etc., we had a couple minutes to grab a quick bit of breakfast before the "Main Event." I went with my delivery specialist downstairs to a special "virtual tour" of the car and its safety equipment and then we picked up Angela for the actual handover. The car is a "Le Mans Blue" 335i sedan. I think I love blue cars now. Why have I never had one before? My specialist showed me how to work the new-fangled SatNav system and then we were off... to the valet where we parked the car while we toured the BMW Museum across the street.

The museum was fantastic. All manner of BMW's throughout their history; clay design models; BMW motorcycles; you name it. I was disappointed that neither the "Gina" nor "Vision" concept cars were there, but what can you do? We spent 45 minutes or so in the museum and then went to collect our things.

We were on the road to Vienna by 1:00pm or so and made a stop in Salzburg at this really cool shop that sells hand-painted eggs. I have no idea how many eggs there are; but there are a whole bunch of them. We pulled into Vienna around 7:15 and just got back from a very nice dinner down the street from our hotel. More wienerschnitzel for me; and Hungarian Goulash for Angela. Both dishes were excellent.

Tomorrow, we have a Segway tour around Vienna. We went on one in Atlanta, and they're loads of fun to ride around. Vienna is a perfect Segway town, I think.

If I had known I was going to go hiking, I would have worn different shoes

Holy crap did we sleep in! By the time we both woke up it was already noon. Well, there's a couple hours of perfect weather down the tubes. We have such bad luck with weather over here that it's a crime to waste even an hour of it. After rushing to get ready, we hopped on the subway to the hauptbahnof (main train station) where we had to get our tickets for the S-bahn to Herrsching, which is near Andechs. After about an hour ride down to Herrsching, we started the trek to the monastery.

It was quite a hike, let me say. It was my fault that we got so turned around and by the time we got to the monastery not only was it already 4pm, but Angela worked some blisters on her heels. We enjoyed a beer and some pretzels before walking through the church, and after snapping a couple photos, we enjoyed a couple bratwursts on bread, with another Russ'n.

Having had our fill of the monastery, we decided to make our way back to Herrsching where we could hopefully spend some time by the lake there, the Ammersee. Well, as luck would have it, we watched the last bus of the day to Herrsching pull away just as we were about to cross the street to sit at the bus stop. After doing some thinking about how important it really was to see the lake, we decided to take the bus to a different train station where we hopped back on the S-bahn and came back to Munich.

Sitting in our hotel now and will probably just watch some TV shows I bought on iTunes before we left. Tomorrow is our delivery and drive to Vienna.

Wienerschnitzel is really, really good

We got in to Munich and got to our hotel without any issues at all. After a short "freshening up" period, we set out for the Augustiner Keller biergarten downtown. The weather was about as good as it gets, so we sat outside under the chestnut trees. The biergarten was enormous; maybe 200 tables or more. Angela had a Radler and I had a "Russ'n," which is weissbier with some lemonade mixed in. She wasn't so hungry so she just had a bowl of cream of white asparagus soup while I had a plate of Wienerschnitzel with a green salad and some, wait for it, german fried potatoes. It was heavenly. We split a piece of apple strudel for dessert and came back to the hotel satisfied and very very tired. Tomorrow, we're going to take the train down to Herrsching and the Andechs monastery.

BA Club World is AWESOME!

Our flight was smooth as can be. BA Club World has spoiled me for anything else. The lay flat bed/seat; the 2 course meal service with actual glass glasses; actual stoneware dishes; and actual metal flatware. I can't imagine how much better First Class must have been. Sitting here in BA's main Heathrow lounge and it is way, way, way nicer than the one at Hartsfield. Angela will be availing herself of the complimentary spa treatments before we depart for Munich. The weather here in London is perfect; I hope this isn't the best weather we encounter for the trip.

In the lounge...

Well, the BA lounge at ATL is underwhelming. It's a little cramped and the chairs are a little on the "Cort" side. On the plus side, it's quiet and there's free snacks and beverages.

I am so ready for a vacation!

Back to Europe this year! I'm picking up another 335i in Munich, and then we're going to drive over to Vienna for a couple days. After that, a blast back across Germany to the Nurburgring for a few laps on the way to Brugge and then Amsterdam for 3 nights. We're dropping the car off on the 2nd, then flying over to England for 3 nights in Chipping Campden on our way back home.

We blew tons of miles this year and are flying Business Class on the outward leg. I am afraid that we will spoil ourselves, but what are all those miles for, anyway? What exactly goes on in those "lounges?" I guess I'll find out.