iPhone to the rescue (sort of)

I discovered a very nice benefit of the iPhone: internet during power outages! The storm knocked ours out at home. I was able to see the weather radar. Our car had a near miss with a downed tree branch today, too. We're now on the way to our friends' house for dinner. We already had dinner plans and it's a good thing since we can't cook anyway.

Of course, lots of phones can access the Internet, but this one looks cooler. :)

Flooded streets + tree branches + rush hour = really bad traffic! But since the worst is over, this is much better than being at home in the dark!

new gadget!

So, I'm not usually the first person on the block to get a new gadget (though I always wish I was), but this time around I lucked out. My employer got me an iPhone (and they're going to pay my cell phone bills). So what if the intent is to keep me better connected to office email? It's very cool. There were a couple of glitches in the set-up and activation process, but overall it's really easy to use, and it is going to be nice to check my email on the train on the way into the office.

Post-vacation recovery

I've been home for 3 weeks, and I think I have finally made it through all of the digital photos, receipts, piles of stuff, etc. that resulted from my trip. It would not normally take that long, but I've spent the last 2 weeks recovering from a cold/sinus infection. I only missed a few days of work, but if I hadn't had a huge project due, I would have missed more and probably recovered faster. Oh, well...it's good to be needed at work. :) I "only" printed 120 of the 500+ photos that I took on the trip, and managed to get them all in an album already. It's not the prettiest looking album I've ever created, but it works just fine.

Last post of the trip?

Who knows, we may find some wireless access at the airport, but I have my doubts. Anyway, London was great, though we didn't see half the things we wanted to. I guess I'll have to come back!

I wish I could post some photos today, but the computers we're using have everything disabled, so there's no way to do it. Oh, well. I'll upload the rest of the pictures later.

I need to get some sleep...tomorrow will be a very long day--it'll feel like a 30-hour day due to the time change. For those of you back at home, I'll see you soon!

Bad Wiessee, Germany

Today was a great day. We were able to see Bad Wiessee, the little town in Bavaria where our dad was born. It was a little more of an adventure than usual, with almost zero English speakers (no other American tourists). It was an hour train ride from Munich to Tegernsee, and then we road a boat across the lake to Bad Wiessee. We walked around quite a bit, sent a couple of postcards, took some pictures, and then unfortuately had to hop on a bus to Gmund to make our train back to Munich.

Bad Wiessee seems like the kind of place where one could really relax and have a peaceful, quiet vacation. More knowledge of German would be very helpful. The surrounding area is full of opportunities for hiking, biking, water sports, and just general relaxation. Lots of health spas. I imagine it would be a very different place in the winter; today, most of the people we saw were elderly, but I'm sure the ski crowd would be substantially younger.

Now we are sitting at the Munich airport, awaiting our flight to London. Not much time left! This week has gone so fast.

Munich

Somehow, we have ended up climbing hundreds of stairs everywhere we go. Cinque Terre was nothing but stairs to get anywhere (180 just to get to our room at night); in Rome there were lots of things to climb; and in Munich we climbed to the top of a church tower to get a panoramic view. And the view was great! It was worth it. I'm not sure my feet agree, but we at least enjoyed it after we'd made it up the 12+ flights. Tomorrow, we're hoping to get to Tegernsee.

There are so many things to see here, and even more things to see in the area that require a day trip (castles, other towns, etc.). I could probably fill 2 weeks or more with interesting stuff. The museums in Munich alone could take a week to even start to fully see.

Photos from Yesterday (Cinque Terre, Day 2)

Deutschland

Blogger knew I was in Germany...when I logged on, everything was in German and I couldn't figure out what to click!

The train ride last night was...interesting. It turned out that we didn't have beds reserved after all, just seats in a 6-person compartment. There was a lady who was loud, trying to smoke in a non-smoking compartment, opening the windows, and trying to talk to people while others were sleeping. Sean slept like a rock, but because of the lingering smoke smell and cold air, I didn't sleep much at all. It's ok, though, because I saw the sunrise over the Austrian countryside. Honestly, it was breathtaking. I felt like I'd been dropped into the filming of The Sound of Music. I haven't ever seen grass that green, or towns that picturesque. Later in the morning, I tried to take some pictures out the window, but this doesn't do it justice. The tops of the mountains were bare rock; I was trying to imagine the Alps in the winter---I'd love to see it sometime. Unlike Rome and Cinque Terre, I think I'd need a couple of weeks to see everything I want to see in Germany. Lots of castles and other attractions require a day-trip (or a half day), and unfortunately we don't have a whole lot of time here.

We are staying in quite possibly the world's greatest hostel...free wireless, private rooms, very clean, great location, quiet, free breakfast, and dirt cheap!! But now we're off to explore the old center of Munich and get some good food for lunch.

Ahh, Gelato

I'm so sad...I just had my final serving of gelato (we're leaving Italy tonight). Lots of good food here, among other things, of course! Sean went kayaking, I went wandering, and we have a long night of train travel ahead of us. We have to take 4 different trains to get to Munich. However, the last train ride is 8 hours and we will be able to sleep.