10/24-29, Phoenix, AZ / Miami, FL

Barely a week after getting home from a long vacation, and I'm back on the road again. It still beats being in the office, but I've got to find a better way to keep track of things while traveling. It really causes the same little kinds of disruption that a vacation would, making it tough to get things done, only without giving you a chance to relax.

I've never been to Phoenix, or anywhere in Arizona, before. It's a huge city, but the size is deceptive because everything is so spread out. The airport is smaller than you'd expect for a city that size, not at all what one would think big enough for a city of 3.7 million people.

It's a beautiful area, especially at sunset. The colors generated by the haze and dust (lots of dust) in the air are just spectacular, especially in the mountains surrounding the city. The sunset I saw while my plane was landing was breathtaking; I didn't have my camera out, and I couldn't have done the scene justice if I had.

This may seem trivial, but one of the neatest things about the Tempe, AZ area is the road signs at main roads. They're big, and lit internally so they're easy to read under any condition I can think of. It makes it very easy to navigate, which can be very important. I can't tell you how many times I've missed a turn when trying to reach a customer site, simply because the sign is concealed (by landscape, brush, or big truck in front of me), unreadable, or just not there at all. Funny how the little things can be important.

This trip and the trip next week are for upgrading Motorola locations; things have gone...eh, well enough. There have been snags on the cash register end of things, but it's not my fault, and the problems do get resolved. As long as the customer is happy, you know?

I managed to travel south into the mountains while in Phoenix, but it was late and I didn't get to take as many pictures as I'd like.


As for Miami, well, what can you say? The drivers here are pretty awful, worse than most places I visit, and the traffic is bad. It rained on me; it always rains on me when I come to Miami. At least my car didn't break down this time (Although the Check Engine light did come on, and the cruise control stopped working. I think it's a omen.). I had some down time this morning before my flight leaves (and I'm still waiting), so I drove down to Key Largo. It took me about twice as long to get there as I thought it would, and I got a crash course in road navigation, traffic, and how much it sucks to be on a two-lane road, in gridlock, with no way to turn around. But I got there, dammit. And then I turned right back around and drove to the airport, because I had no idea how long it would take to get back. I didn't even take time to take any pictures, not that much picture-worthy material presented itself.

It didn't take long, and I got to the airport far earlier than I expected. And now my plane is delayed, so I have time to write in my blog. The airport here is old; I think (I hope) they're doing some renovation, because it sure needs it. It's well laid out if you fly Delta, though; the distance from the check-in desk, to Security, to the gate area, is very short.

Next week, Chicago. Cold, windy weather, in stark contrast to what I've enjoyed in Arizona and Florida. It's a wonder I'm not sick more often.

Now I'm going to have to up my dosage of Vitamin C just for saying that.

2006 Vacation in Europe, Part Three

Day Three (10/8): We Can't Stop Here; This Is Wine Country

Sorry for the delay in updating. Sometimes it's hard to keep my thoughts organized while I'm on the road. Big Flickr gallery update today too.

After two days of airplanes and trains, the last thing a reasonable person would want to do is get back on a train. But we did anyway, and rode about three hours to get to Heidelberg. It is both a college town and a tourist hub, and is very lively for its modest size (roughly 140,000 people; smaller than Chattanooga).

It is home to the University of Heidelberg, as well as Heidelberg Castle, notable for having the crap shelled out of it during the 30 Years War. We took a very, very packed bus to Old Town, at the foot of the hill below the castle, and had lunch in the Marktplatz. It's a fountain square, surrounded by shops and restaurants, and the Heiliggeist Church, an impressive old church of which I never did get a chance to take a decent picture. There's a smaller square nearby, housing an open-air market with artwork, jewelry, and souvenier-style items.

After lunch, we walked up to the castle; 315 stone steps, individually numbered. It wasn't too bad for me--I wasn't carrying children--but it was still a climb. At the top of the hill, there's a gatehouse that opens to a bridge over a deep trench; it was probably a moat at some point, but there was no water in it (if there ever was).

The piecemeal construction of the castle is obvious; parts of it were built from the 15th century, all the way up to the early 20th century. In addition to the gift shops, there is a small apothecary museum (in which you can't take pictures, dammit), as well as a winery. There has to be a winery, after all, as the castle is home to the Heidelberg Tun, an enormous wine cask. No, really, it's huge. 58,000+ gallons of huge. There's A Dance Floor On Top Of It huge. Time, crowds, and relatively low light kept me from getting a good picture of it.

On the way out, there's a great view of the city and the bridges over the Neckar River; there's a yearly festival involving a reenactment of the attack on the city and castle, with fireworks launched from the castle and from boats on the river. Maybe some year I'll get to see it. The side of the castle facing the river has a steep cobblestone street winding down to the city; it's a hard decision as to whether it is an easier walk than the steps up which we came.

Coming soon: Part Four, in which there is down time, and Matt makes another stupid mistake.

Interlude / Travel Updates

Yes, I'll be posting more about Europe later today.

Upcoming trips are:
October 24th: Heading out from Chattanooga to Phoenix, Arizona.
October 26th: Flying from Phoenix to Miami, FL.
October 29th: Back home to Chattanooga.
November 2nd: Flying to Chicago, IL.
November 4th: Back home.

Should be interesting. All three of my trips are site upgrades for Motorola, and should afford me enough time to finish the job and still be able to go take more pictures.

All three cities are also home to NHL teams, but only the Chicago Blackhawks will be having a home game while I'm in town. Their opponent, well...that'd be Detroit.

Go Wings! Yes, I'm buying a ticket.

2006 Vacation in Europe, Part Two

Day Two (10/7): Well-Trained

Saturday morning in Brussels, Belgium comes a lot earlier than you expect when you're fighting a six-hour time difference. Despite this, I managed to roll out of bed, get cleaned up, and repack in good order.

European bathrooms are pretty nice, overall; bigger tubs than what we usually have here, and most hotel bathrooms have these neat towel-warmer things on the walls; like the Internet, they are made of tubes, and work by circulating the hot water through them. The Hilton we stayed at also had big fluffy towels.

Brussels is a big city, and big cities look pretty much the same wherever you go. However, areas typified some common trends in the parts of Europe that I saw: the streets are narrower and more twisty (lots of one-way streets, and streets that should only be one-way but aren't), everyone loves having flower boxes below their windows, brighter color schemes in general. There's a "closer" feel to the towns, for lack of a better word, and it only becomes more pronounced the smaller the towns become. There are many small restaurants and businesses*, and pubs everywhere you turn. The part of Brussels I saw must have been the Irish sector, because every little bar advertised itself as an Irish Pub.

On our way back to the train station, we stopped at a small food market and picked up some cheese, some damn fine salami, and some bread. This would be carried onto the train to serve as breakfast/road munchies. Once again, confusion in the Brussels train station led to frayed tempers and delays, but we managed to catch our first train heading south into Germany.

The tickets we had were open passes, good for six days traveling through Belgium, Germany and Austria. The more countries a ticket includes, the more expensive it is; the more days it's good for, the more expensive it is. First class, more expensive. The days that the ticket covers are not set in stone; if you travel on a day, you write the date on the ticket, and the conductor validates it. Thus a day is used. If you write down the wrong date, you are out of luck, as you will then have to write down the correct date, thus using TWO days.

Guess how I discovered this.

The Eurail trains are a mix of old and new; the one we started out on was older. The first class cars are of the sleeper variety; my first thought, sheltered geek that I am, was that the interiors looked a lot like the train cars from the Harry Potter movies. I should get out more. Traveling with kids like we were, first class tickets were a must; everyone gets more room, and fellow passengers don't have to put up with us.

The trains, old or new, are quite comfortable, and it's a great way to see the countryside. If you're traveling anywhere except between major cities, you will have to make a few connections; you may occasionally need to make them very quickly. Fortunately, the trains do run on time (with rare exceptions), and all of the stations are laid out in the same fashion. You may not get to the platform in time, but you won't get lost while doing it. All of the platforms have schedules posted for the entire station, and once you get used to reading them, you can quickly figure it out. The schedules are all online as well; plan your route ahead of time.

We made several stops on the way to Landstuhl, most notably Aachen and Kaiserslautern. We would make many more connections in "K-Town" over the week, as it's the closest large town to Landstuhl, and where many of the personnel from Ramstein Air Force Base live.

However cool you may think traveling by train is, it will wear on you after a while. We arrived in Landstuhl and walked a short distance to the hotel, ready for some rest. The Hotel Merkur is a deceptively large place, with suites in the main building, and larger apartments in a newer annex behind. All of the rooms are well-appointed without being crowded, accessed using RFID tag-embedded proximity cards. Those same cards are placed in a slot near the door in order to turn on power to the room; when you leave, you take your card, and everything turns off to save power. Very neat. The windows are big, and can be opened either by tilting them inwards, or swinging them wide. The window opening is shuttered by powered metal slats which, when closed, admit no light whatsoever; great when you intend to sleep in, but if you expect the sun to wake your jet-lagged self up in the morning, you will be out of luck.

The weird thing, from an American standpoint, is the lack of air-conditioning. I can only assume that things get pretty warm in summertime, but it worked out well for the time of year I was there; it was cool enough outside that I could simply open the windows and render the room comfortable in a few minutes. There was also a oscillating fan for air circulation.

We met the owner, Garrett, an old friend of the Chipmans. He was an excellent host throughout the trip; all of the staff there were very courteous, friendly, and helpful. The bar at the hotel is small but well-stocked, especially with beer, especially with Kostritzer (a dark beer), Paulaner (a white beer), and Bitburger (beer beer). I'm not a beer devotee by any means, but I found the Kostritzer to be particularly good. The small restaurant off the lobby, where we ate most of our dinner, had very good and reasonably priced food. The menu lists items in both German and English, so it's pretty easy to tell what you're getting.

So we settled in, had dinner, had a few beers, had a few more beers, washed it all down with beer, and made our plans for the next day: a trip to Heidelberg.

*(From what I can tell, the tax laws over there heavily favor small business; witness Wal-Mart's recent full withdrawal from Germany.)

2006 Vacation in Europe, Part One

The Devil In The Details

The overall layout of the trip was as follows:

• The participants: Myself and Sarah, and her friends, Bill and Lydia Chipman, and their children, Roan (9 years old), Bronwyn (4 years old), and Liam (2 years old).
• The destination: Landstuhl, Germany, and points beyond.
• Stayed at the Hotel Merkur, a most excellent four-star hotel, which I highly recommend.

Day One (10/5-10/6): I'm So Worried About It

On Thursday, we drove down to Atlanta to Hartsfield, checked in, and met up with the Chipmans in the airport. After a slight delay, we boarded the British Airways 777 and took our seats in the business class section of the plane (which explains the cost). I've never flown anything but coach, so this was kind of new. The legroom is better, and there are little TVs in the backs of the seats in front of you, but other than that there wasn't much difference.

After an eight-hour flight (and losing five hours to the time difference), we touched down in London, England on Friday morning at Gatwick airport, thereby avoiding any concerns I might have had about the baggage-retrieval systems they've got at Heathrow. One of the first things I saw at the airport was a W.H. Smith's bookstore, which prompted some irritating Monty Python-quoting on my part (the bookshop sketch, yes).

We took the metro trains to Waterloo station, where the Eurostar trains arrive and depart for Paris, France and Brussels, Belgium. The Chipmans went ahead and took their train to Brussels for the first leg of our journey, while Sarah and I stayed in London to meet up with her friends Brandon and Gilly, themselves on vacation. Happy chance led them to find us, rather than us having to stumble blindly about seeking them.

Since they were far more familiar with London than we, they led us on a rather soggy whirlwind tour of some of the high points: Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge. It pissed down rain most of the time we were out, forcing us at one point to seek refuge in a pub. Good beer, bad food.

This is an important point to remember about London: Good beer, bad food. Maybe I'm being a little unjust, but the food was uniformly bland, and not terribly appealing. Keep in mind, of course, that I speak from limited experience. As with all else, your mileage may vary.

After a ride on a double-decker bus, and a trip through the London Underground (which fans of A Fish Called Wanda will correctly recall is NOT a political movement), we made our way back to Waterloo Station to catch our own Eurostar train.

Here is another important point to know if you're going to take one of these trains: you go through a security scan more-or-less identical to that of an airport, but you cannot check any baggage. I had tossed my pocketknife into my checked baggage prior to getting on the plane: no problem there. It was still in my bag when I went through the Eurostar terminal. Problem. After a long-winded lecture from the pissant security screener, and a more civil discussion with the supervisor, I was presented with two options: allow them to confiscate my knife, or have them call the police to come confiscate my ass. Option One was the more favorable of the two, so I went with it.

I'm still pissed about the knife. But the incident did provide a useful education.

The Eurostar train travels to Brussels by way of the Channel Tunnel. This is cool only in an abstract sense, as the only thing you really see of it from the train is...well...a tunnel. And my ears popped continually as we traveled through it, which is no fun at all. Making the journey at night gives you no opportunity to enjoy the countryside. Should you find yourself doing this, avail yourself of the 2.5-hour travel time and catch a nap.

Arriving in Brussels, we were met at the station by Bill, who had some useful and hard-earned information about getting to the hotel at which we would stay the night (a Hilton Residence Inn). Thanks to him, we avoided the Chipmans' earlier ordeal of being at the wrong station, not being able to find restrooms for the kids, and generally being lost. We had an excellent dinner at a little Italian restaurant near the hotel, washed it down with a few more beers, made our way to the hotel, and slept like logs.

To be continued...!

PA082527

PA082527
Originally uploaded by Blackwyr.

Just to reassure everyone, I'm in Landstuhl, Germany and fully intact. I've got lots to report, and tons and tons of pictures to upload. None of which I'll do right now, but soon.

Watch This Space!

OK, at this point I've two trips lined up:

Germany, October 5th through October 14th.
Tempe, AZ, October 24th and 25th.

The Germany trip has been creeping up for a while, and now, suddenly, it's here. Dammit! Do I have everything? Especially my passport!* I've got extra memory cards for the camera (and I'll get more if I need to), a spare battery for the camera, and a power converter to keep everything charged and running, so I should be all right.

I won't really be far off the grid, even though I'm not taking my laptop with me. My cell phone will not be functional, and I doubt I'll be checking my email too often, but I'll try to update this blog a few times while I'm over there, and I'll be adding lots of pictures to my Flickr gallery.

So watch this space! It's gonna be a long flight.

*(I've got it. Forgetting it complicates things. I know all too well that getting into Canada without a passport is easy, but getting back into the U.S. without one is quite difficult...)