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.