Rick Rambles – A blog

London 07-28-2010
Finally people speak English… and that accent :>  interesting hotel, not too small and has ac, a must.  I figure out where I am and start looking into a flight home.  First stop, food, fish and chips of course!!!  it was not wrapped in newspaper though.  A little disappointing.  It was good though.  And they had free wifi.  My phone stopped working, so I needed to find a phone store and try to replace my charger for my laptop…  success on the phone, not so good on the charger.  It said it was charging, but lied…  no laptop, very sad!
I loved the writing on the streets, “Look Right”!  They should just admit that they drive on the wrong side of the street!  There is actually one street in London where you have to drive on the right.  I forgot why…
Of course I have to do the hop-on hop-off bus…
Buckingham Palace, Big Ben (it’s actually the bell, not the clock tower), London Bridge, London eye, and all that.  There is a lot to see.  It was nice to be able to actually talk to people.
When we started the bus tour I was the only one on the top and there was a live guide.  I had a private tour for a while and then a bunch of people joined us.  It was rather amusing.  He kept welcoming people to Rick’s personal tour of London :>
I went to a place called “The Spice of Life” for some food.  How could I pass up the spice of life?!?!  I met a guy in there that was waiting for his blind date…  he met her on-line.  I did not wait around to see her, but he was looking forward to it…
The on and  off bus in London actually included a boat ride too…  that was cool.
I did go to the national museum.  It was one of those “no pictures allowed” ones…  so the pictures are not-so-good :>  Had to sneak them…

I got really lazy at the end and booked a hotel right next to Heathrow Airport.  It was very nice and I was ready to go home and did not want to mess with travel in the morning.  The train station was attached to the the airport so I was all set.
The hotel was really nice.  For some reason I always judge a room by the bathroom…  this one had a cool glassed in shower and a tub…
I hung out in the airport and the hotel and chatted with a bunch of people.  The food was good and I recognized it all.
Now, when you book a flight the day before, you don’t get a lot of choices…  when I went to book it I would hesitate and the flight would be gone…  I was getting a little antsy so I ended up getting a flight that went to Boston, to Philly, and then to New Haven…  ok, a round-about trip, but I made it.  I got a taxi from Tweed.  I had never flow into Tweed…  it worked.
Being home was nice…

Prague – Dresden – Frankfurt – Brussels 2010-07-27

Lots of trains.  The problem with these trains is that you can’t get there from here.  It took me several attempts to figure out how to head towards London.  That explains the stright-ish shot to Brussels.  I could have stopped in Amsterdam instead, but thought that a bad idea… me in Amsterdam all by myself, unsupervised…  even I know better than that!
I had several hours in Frankfurt so I figured that I would wander about and sit down and get some real food.  So while in Germany I ate at an Australian restaurant.  Why you ask…  it was there and I wanted some meat!  I have Australian beef and it was good!  There were a bunch of business people from the financial district eating there, so I figured that it was a good choice and I was correct.
Oh yeah, very important…  go the bathroom on the train if you can.  It cost $ to go in the station.  And there is a long line.
This was a tricky train.  Fortunately I had read about them.  The only way that you can determine what train that you want to be on is by the departure time.  The train number is often unknown, the track does not show up on the board until 10 minutes or so.  So I am to get on the train to Brussels and there are two trains leaving at the same time on the same track!  What up with that…  then I remembered.  Some trains actually split at a station with the front going to one destination and the back going somewhere else.  Make sure you are on the right half and don’t fall asleep…  the couple next to me, actually the women was very concerned about the train splitting thing and asked every person that went by.  We were in the correct car.  They had been traveling for several weeks and he was tired of sleeping in strange beds.  They were from the UK.  They were off to some friends house to stay for a couple more weeks…  they get lots of vacation time over there…


Prague 2010-07-25
Off to see the sights…
I saw the sights…  all the major highlights were hit.  I did not, however, go into the national museum.  Ya know, I really don’t care that much about the Czech Republic.  I did check out the castle (Guinness’s world’s largest castle) and saw all the hysterical sites.  I walked and walked again.  I did take the metro once to get started to go to the castle, but Prague’s metro is a little odd… for 26 koruna (just over $1) you can ride the metro up to 5 stops after where you got in or 30 minutes on a tram.  If you overstay your welcome, it will cost you 500Kc.  First of all this is odd that you can only go a certain number of stops and it is just a pain, BUT a whole group of people apparently did overstay their welcome and got busted for it… a little scary.   I also saw some tourists pull over for driving too fast… I behaved on all counts…
It rained…  I did not have an umbrella.  I thought of bringing one, but opted for my rain jacket that I did not take with me on my walk-about.  I bout an umbrella for 99 Kc ($4)  things are pretty cheap in Prague.
I went and toured the castle and, of course, had to climb the stairs in the south tower…  I just can’t help it.  If I see a way to go up, I have to take it.  375 steps or something like that…  child’s play compared to St. Pete’s…  the view was good and I got my bearing on my next destination…  the Charles bridge.  Very famous…  it was just spiffy…  the funny thing about it is that it is only a pedestrian bridge and it is home of many vendors and artists…  I stopped in a the Hard Rock Café to hear some English.  I went to the top of the Astrological clock tower and met a very nice woman and her bf from Brussels…  they were one of those couples that don’t actually walk together anymore…  I give them 4 more months…
This all let me to Charles square, the largest square in Europe don’t ya know…  then I decided to wander into Wenceslas Square.  at the top of the square is the National Museum.  They are having a classical concert there tonight.  If I were here with someone, I would certainly want to go, but alas no…
There is a market right down the street where I could gather supplies while I rest up for tonight’s outing…  I have not decided what do to do at this point.  It is a Sunday night…  I might just wander around and grab a nice dinner.  Since things are inexpensive it would be a great place to splurge a bit…
Some good news… my feets be much happier now.  They have finally reached equilibrium with the gel insoles and the letting of the blisters seems to have done the trick!
Some bad news… I have traveled so much that the wheels came off…  my luggage.  We are at the point where one wheel does not turn at all, it just drags… :<  I looked for a replacement bag but did not see anything comparable.  It looks like I will have to use it as a backpack instead of a wheeled piece of luggage…  the good news is that I think I only have 3 more stops to go…
Yes, three more stops…  those of you who though from the beginning that there is no way I could hit all the countries that I wanted to do in the beginning were so right…  northern Europe is out as is Ireland I think…  I currently plan to go from Prague to Frankfurt, to Brussels, to London and then probably fly out of there…  I will probably spend at least a couple of days in London…
One strange thing about this hotel…  they use very hot halogen lights in the bathrooms and the elevator.  Standing under the lights in the lift if very warm… hmmm.

Innsbruck-Munich-Prague-2010-07-24
After dinner I went back to my very nice room in the Hilton.  I started to relax a little and flipped around the “dial” on the tv.  After food I got my second wind.  I opened the window that at first would not close.  That was bad because there was a common balcony right outside my window…  I figured it out.  Also my room was right in front of the lift.  I liked that, but that adds to the noise and traffic.  There were screaming me-me’s running around the halls…  harrumph…
As I sat and relaxed for a few and watched tv I could hear music in the distance…  calling me… I could also see flashing lights and excitement in the city…  my strength was renewed.  I cleaned up (a little) and left the hotel seeking the sight and sound.  I wandered and kept listening for the music…  there was also Limerick Bill’s Irish Pub to check out… since I was out.  The bad news is that it was raining a bit…
I walked semi-aimlessly listening for the music.  Finally I could hear it and determine the direction or origin…  good thing I have good ears… it turns out that there is a New Orleans Festival going on in the middle of Innsbruck Austria… what are the odds?  The music was really good, it was free and the beer was reasonable!  I started talking to this group of women next to me.  One had red hair, a pale freckled completion and green eyes.  I decided to strike up a conversation…  I asked if she was from Ireland.  She said no, she was from Innsbruck…  wow, would not have guessed.  We chatted and enjoyed the concert and then they went off.  The concert was great and in English and fantastic jazz.  What a find!  Did I mention that it was also free :>  after that I decided that the Irish pub had to be visited.  After all I was going to be leaving in the morning especially considering the rain…  I went into the pub and ordered a black-and-tan…  not to be had so I pointed to another guy’s beer and stated that I would have one of those to which a guy next to me declared that is was called a beer…  thanks :>  not only do I not speak the language, but at this point I am not certain what language it is that I am not understanding!  So I chat with these guys for a while and then meet the boys from the band… the band turns out to be a classical Austrian band with full dress…  you can look up what that looks like, but it is a bit fance…  I start discussing world politics and they buy me a beer.  They appreciate practicing their English and they are amusing…  we talk for a while.  They are going out and about and by now, I need to head back to the hotel.  I found it without use of a map or phone!  I AM getting better…  the room was cool and nice.  I figured out how to close the window and the bed was comfy!  I slept…
I awoke at my usual 8:00 or so time frame…  I did go to bed before 2:00am after all, so I woke up fairly early.  I contemplated my next move.  I knew I needed (wanted) to get to Munich to get to Prague.  I knew that the Munich train ran every 2 hours… and there were only 3 trains to Prague.   It turns out that the 10:26 for Munich might just be able to make the 12:44 to Prague… so far so good, but I think I have to change trains in Schwadolf for Pague.  The cool thing is that these trains are not crowed and I don’t have to make reservations.  I just pick the train hop on first class and away I go.  The conductors hardly even look at my pass as soon as they see first class, nice.
I had a very nice chat with a guy from Zürich.  He is originally from Washington, DC.  We talked about travel, the states the good thing and bad about the states and Europe.  He works in research at an insurance company, so we had lots to talk about.  He told me that in order to maintain his US passport he had to pay income tax to the US even though he pays Swiss taxes…  it did not seem right.  We talked about Boston, and New York.   It turns out he went to school in Boston… a little place called Harvard… you may have heard about it… hmmm.  When I left the train he gave me his card…  Dr. Brian Rodgers…  Swiss Re…  I may have to hit him up for a job :>  he was very pleasant to talk to and put me on to a great pair of shoes that I have to look up… apparently Panama Jack makes some really nice shoes!  I need some good walking shoes… although my feets are feeling better thanks to the needle and the gel insoles… I think I walk 500 miles in each place I visit, so I still have 2000 miles to walk…
My phone is funny.  Every time I enter a new country I get a txt welcoming me… I also get some txt’s from the originating company, Greece.  All of the other ones are in English…  I have many messages that I in Greek that I have no idea what they mean.  As long as the phone keeps working I will be happy…  less than a week to go…
I have a whole business-class (better than first class) cabin to myself!  I hope the next leg is as good…
I arrived in Prague right on schedule and still had not made reservations.  I wanted to physically see the place before I committed.  I also figured that I might even get a better price than on-line.  I gave up walking and grabbed a taxi.  My big guide book told me that taxi drivers in Prague are not to be trusted, so I asked him why he did not have a meter and asked him ahead of time how much it would be.  He told me 20 Euros, which was way too much.  Then he proceeds to drive me around in circles.  I know this because I am tracking him with my phone.  I am sitting right next to him, so I show him that I know what he is doing…  he laughs… hmmm.  We get to the destination and I try to give him 10 instead of 20 and he starts to get pretty miffed, so I relent :<
I get to the hotel and it is really nice, and in a good location.  It is a 5 star hotel of the Eurostars chain.  I stayed in one in Madrid.  This one is the Thalia.  I get to the reception desk and ask him how much for a room.  Well he quotes me a price significantly higher than it was on the internet!  I let some other people go before me that had reservations and I knew my issue would take a little more time.
I offer the man at the desk of giving me the internet rate, or I will just go outside and book it myself.  He goes away for a bit and then returns and give me the room at the rate I want and includes breakfast :>  the room is only $75/night and it is one of the nicest rooms I have stayed in.  It has hardwood floors, three skylights, flat-screen tv, etc.
I ventured out down town to check things out but it was getting late.  I went to a TGI Friday’s…  I know I should be eating Prague food.  I had a nice Prague breakfast this morning.  I had a nice chat with a couple from a neighboring country and they both spoke English.  They had just moved in together they used to live 2 hours apart…
I wandered back to my room and crashed!  I don’t know why sitting on a train for 9 hours is so tiring…
Off to see the sights!

Bern-Zurich-Innsbruck 2010-07-23
For those of you who want the short version.  I had a nice dinner, The “Come Back Bar” was closed, caught a train from Bern to Zurich.  I went to the Switzerland Museum of natural History and then another train to Innsbruck.
For those of you who want the details and can read without moving your lips….
Ok, so my mission was to go back to the restaurant that I was denied lunch…  it took me a couple of tries and I did have to resort to the droid…  I was literally 50 meters from it before I turned away.. uggg..  Dinner was very good.  I had pork cordon-blue.  It is very interesting with the German, the French, the Italian and all.  Switzerland is truly neutral.   The waitress remember denying me lunch so they gave me a free appetizer, that was really nice.  On the way some Indian man told me that I was a very luck person.   He could just tell by my face.  He also said I thought too much.  I informed him that I am lucky and I do think too much…  I was thinking a lot at the time because I was trying really hard not to get lost…  he told me that he was a face and hand reader.  He then asked me what I thought about that.  I told him not much and he went away :>
At the restaurant there was one waitress that spoke some English and German.  The other one (very hot btw) spoke French and very little English.  We managed.
I then sought after the “Come Back Bar.”  Now there are holes-in-the-wall clubs, but Bern brought it to another level entirely.  They are actually holes in the ground.  They are basement bars right under the shops above.  The problem was it was closed for renovations :<  a little disappointing.  I went to another hole-in-the ground bar for a bit but it was stuffy and no one spoke any English.  I hoofed it back to my room and watched Le tour de France…  another travel day ahead…
Breakfast was the same.  Check out was fine.  I got to the train station without any problems (‘cuz I practiced… maybe I do think too much).  The schedule told me that I did not need reservations so like a mad-man I did not make any…  well, the train was nearly empty so it worked out just fine.  Now this is the type of train that you see on TV.  One of those sleek comfy ones.  It had WiFi and ac power and the seats were nice and there was lots of room.  It only went about 90mph, but that worked for me…
We arrived in Zurich at 11:06 and I decided that I wanted to make reservations for my Innsbruck leg.  There are only three a day and I did not really want to spend the night in Zurich and forfeit my stay in Innsbruck.   I waited in the international travel line for about 10 minutes.  It would have been shorter but this Asian man was asking the ticket agent several variations of schedules and destinations…  get a guide dude!  I asked him if I should get a reservation.  He highly recommended it.  It is a Friday after all.  It turns out that the train is less than half full and I am sitting in a row by myself with a table and two ac plugs…  could have saved those 5 franks…  on that note… francs are ONLY good in Switzerland.  I made some effort to make sure I did not leave the country with a bunch of money.  I ended up with 25 cents worth of franks, success!  I did have to use some Euros to assist in the effort.  They really don’t like the Euro much.  When I went to the museum it was 10 francs to get in.  I tried to give him 5 francs and the rest Euros.  He said it was too complicated and gave me a free ticket!  Too funny!
The museum was ok.  I have seen a lot of them.  I was reading lots of stuff and taking some good pictures and wham, my camera memory card is full!  After years of use and 1000’s of miles of travel I finally filled it up.  Now I had to decide… delete lots of pictures one at a time or format the thing….  I had only taken a few pictures today and because I dutifully copy my pics to my laptop and upload them I was not overly concerned…  it was kind of an achievement.  I have taken 8 gig worth of pictures.  I know, several people wish I was more selective with my picture taking and maybe I will take some time when I get home (and have a fast internet) I might just go though the pictures and delete the REALLY bad ones…
I have had a lovely conversation with a couple of people that both speak English!  Thank god!  The guy is going home to visit his mother and help her with the house and the other was on holiday in Bern and has to go home for  a wedding.  He is the third person that works on the railroad that I have seen in one day.  The three of us chatted the whole time.  It was very nice.  Almost at Innsbruck…  then I have to find my hotel.  It should not be too hard…  famous last words… :>
Oh yeah, the girl has the new netbook like mine… I am a little jealous.  The other not-so-good things is that my wonderful trip though the alps was thwart with bad weather…
It rained; I had a very nice dinner of pork schnitzel.  It was pretty reasonable also.  I had a nice discussion with a philosophy about the problems of the world.  He seemed a bit old to be still going to university, but I was not going to point that out…
Off to Munich tomorrow and then Prague.  I hope the weather improves…

A women saw me having trouble with the change machine and offered to give me change next to the lockers…  it was very nice of her since it cost 1.50 frank to pee in the train station.  Note to others pee when you are still on the train before you get to the station.

Bern 2010-07-22 – still
Huge news!!!  I washed my clothes in a washing machine and am drying them!  That should make them all clean and shiny again.  I have been washing them in the tub and I don’t think it has been really doing the trick…
The fact that the church bell woke me at 6:00 (I left the window open hoping for some air) and I got a wake-up call at 7:00 which was a wrong number, I slept fairly well in the heat.  It felt like camping…  my hotel in Innsbruck has AC, I made sure this time!
At least the windows in the hotel so one can hope for a breeze, the problem is that it would be SO easy for someone so inclined to climb from the next room hanging on to the drain pipe and climb along the ledge into my bathroom…  I have seen it in a movie so it must be true…  I lock my windows when I am not here… I like my stuff…
The hotel that I am in has a sister hotel across the street that has free internet, terrace, and laundry.  The place is much nicer, but alas I am across the street with no ac.  I plan on marching up the cathedral tower today because I cannot leave a hill un-climbed…  breakfast was typical;  Scrambled eggs, bacon, croissants, etc.  but the surprising part was that I gravitated toward the multivitamin juice instead of coffee or soda… and I drank a lot of it.  I felt re-energized/hydrated.  I was then on the mission to climb the cathedral tower.   I was glad it did.  It was a great view and I also discovered a new vista.  It is where the river enters the city through the control gates… I thought it was cool.  Anyway I hung out there for a while climbing the 100’s of stairs and took some pictures… really I took a couple of pictures.  By the time I got done it was just after 14:00.  I was really hungry and decided to be an adult and sit down and have a nice lunch at this place I have been eye-balling.  It was the Kroner  or something.  I sat down and ordered my beer and asked for a menu in English.  She was sorry but the kitchen was closed!!!  All kitchens in Switzerland close at 14:00 for several hours!!!  Somehow I just figured this out… anyway back to Kauffmann’s for deli food…  it took me two tries to find it but I did.  This leads me to another point…  first of all my directional abilities are getting better. I read an article that even if you do not have a natural tendency you can train your mind to do change.  We I have figured out that the key is to have a land mark that can be seen from a distance or just keep the reference in your head every time you turn.  I know many (I think at least 3 people read this) of you are thinking well yeah, duh… but I never really thought about it that way.  It has been working fairly well.  I even came out on the other side of a store on the wrong block and knew fairly quickly what had happened.  By the time I get home I won’t have to use my gps to get to the grocery store!   What does not help is that there is a McDonalds, a Burger King, and a Coop (pronounce cop) on every corner, so those are useless land marks…
After my less than satisfying lunch that I am now snacking on 4 hours later (it will be fine) I was not sure what to do.  I was a little disappointed that I did not leave today for Zurich.  After all it takes me about a day and a half to totally figure out a city now.  After the second day I firmly remember what city I am in and how to get around and have seen all the top highlights…  so I referred to Frommer’s  Europe by Rail guide that I fortuitously purchased 2 days before I left.  It has been very helpful.  It has city maps, metro maps, and lots of good advice.  Anyway there was a museum that I had apparently missed.  BUT it was the museum of natural history… let me tell you all the countries in Europe have the same natural history so I was not really looking forward to it.  It was only a 15 minute walk over one of the cool bridges and my feet have not start bleeding quite yet (more on that later), so I hoofed it across the bridged and ended up looking at a very auspicious looking building that I had spied from the cathedral.  I was wondering what it was and now I knew. (side note, it rains a lot in Bern then clears up. Yes, it’s raining).  I walk into this museum expecting the same-old natural history thing (btw Bern is one of the only city that has not been damaged by earth quake or war so their stuff is mostly original).
But what to wondering eyes should appear  the Bern Einstein museum!  Finally a museum that I can really get into.  I read every single exhibit.  I really enjoyed it and was no longer disappointed about spending the extra day (of course I could have done that yesterday too, but hey)
I decided that it was time to do a dry run for my “adventure” of travel tomorrow.  I was pretty sure at this point where the train station was.  The huge RAIL CITY signs helped a lot with that and I geo-located a picture when I got off the train confirmed it.  That place is huge!!!  It is a major European hub, it is a huge mall, and it is the center of transportation for Bern and surrounding areas…  it is big.  I figured it all out though and I just have to catch a train to Zürich that run every half hour in time to catch a train to Innsbruck that only run 10:00, 14:00, and 16:00.  No reservations required so I want to get there early because I am a worry wart…  it should be just fine…
So now a little side note about my poor feet.  If you don’t want to hear about feet stop reading now…
My left foot has a really good blister in the top middle.  I had to pop it once with my nail clippers because it was spreading and doing bad things… they were the sharpest things I had.  That helped for a while.  I also have a fairly impressive one on the inside of my little toe, and a small one on the tip of my second toe.  On my right foot I have a good one (read filled with blood instead of that nice clear stuff) that does not hurt too bad and a similar one on the bottom of fourth toe.  So the first thing I did was get some gel insoles.  Now I am gellin like a felon!  They seem to help.  They are Iron-man brand.  That has to be good… anyway the pressure of these guys have to be relieved at night so they can be happy by morning.  Now I have many little sewing kits at home that I collect from the nicer hotels… do ya think I brought one?!??! No!!!  I was going to wait until Innsbruck where I am staying at a Hilton (I wanted ac!) and could have probably gotten a kit there, but 1) I had time and 2) how hard should it be to find a needle in a big city… it should be easier then the hay stack, no?  well I tried the Farmcia, and then the Coop, and then Rail City all for not…  I kept asking people and at this point it became a mission…  finally this one guy, who spoke fluent English, told me that I had to go the big grocery store.  I thought I had, I thought it was the Coop.  Well apparently in between the Coops there is a Fumeka (totally not spelt right) just outside of the train station.  I enter with great hopes.  I ask the first person I see for a need and thread or a sewing kit…  I used Google translate to get the right language…  she confidently sends me upstairs where I enter the women’s lingerie department.  Now, generally I don’t mind hanging around this department, but my feet hurt and I am on a mission to find a needle (nedal).  I ask the next person I see and they point me to another section.  The first thing I see in this section is yard, a very good sign!  This store is like a super Wal-Mart.  Has everything, but finding it might not be so easy… so I am now confident that I am in the right area…  the only problem with this is that I am still quite male and can’t find my shoe on the end of my foot… but since there is no one here to help I boldly pursue and my persistence in my quest rewards me with a vast selection of needles.  I am pleased with myself.  Then I leave the store though a completely different exit and have to find my way back.  I navigate quickly.  Minor operation tonight before bed…  yes, I will sterilize it first… licking it and wiping it on my newly washed shorts count, right :>  no worries.  After that my feet should be much happier.  Tonight is good because I will be sitting on a train most of tomorrow so they can rest up.
My last mission in Bern (except to leave) is to find the Come Back Bar.  It is in the Frommer’s guide so it must be good.  I will let you all know.  And don’t worry it closes at 12:30, not 6:00am :>  found it… Droid does! And it is not a gay bar, just tolerant.  I can be tolerant, and sometimes even tolerated…

Bern 2010-07-21
Well,  I got here at 8:30am and could not check in for 6 hours…  I heard that there was a good walking tour  of the town so I asked about it.  In the next 6 hours I did lots and lots…  I toured the bear pits (sans bears), I visited the rose garden high on the hill.  I visited the cathedral and yes at this point, yes, I have seen them all…  I visited the parliament and then it caught my eye…  the park on the river…  I just started walking down and down and down.  There were several hectors of sun bathers and lying next to the fast running Aare River.  This river had a very fast current.  Three times faster than you can walk and it was deep and the banks were steep.  It was also a gorgeous green.  It flows throughout the city.  In fact they redirect it into the city for fountains and other waterways.   I scoped the thing out.  It was a little scary.  The sighs that stated that you would die and it’s not our fault come to mind…  but at the same time they provided escape points along the river so that when you were foolish enough to walk two miles up the river and jump in, you would have half a chance to get out…  my favorite sign was …  last exit 240 meters…  not sure what would happen after that…  I scoped the whole thing out and then came bad to my small, un-air conditioned hotel room (apparently most are not in Bern… some research required).  I grabbed some money, a towel and my flip-flops and set off on my adventure….  Well I sorely underestimated the taxi fair and determined that I would be walking back…  did I write down the name of the hotel? No, did I write down the address, no;  did I bring the map, no… how was a mad with a memory as long as a rabbit’s … and no directional ability going to find my hotel after thrashing down the mad river… I decided to see if I survived the river first before I would worry about that…  so I took ky towel and my shoes and hid them away like 100’s of others and began the walk up stream.  I did not want to go to far.  I still had the hotel key in my shorts and 18 franks (very heavy by the way) in my pocket… I went to a fairly safe point and plunged in… it was cold… and it was fast… all you had to to is tread water and you were flying down the river… it was really exciting until you go to the point where the exists started…  warning, last exit 240 meters… and after that I am not sure of the fate… anyway, I chose a fairly conservative exit and managed to hang on… now when I say hang on, I mean it.  When you grab the exit rail your body flies flat out down current and you have to crawl hand-over-hand to the shore.  It is a little unnerving until you see 70 year-old women doing it… anyway it was scary…  so I had to do it again… this time I went further up the river to one of the bridges that crosses the river… some very ill-behaved people were actually jumping off the bridge into the swirling peril…  I did not see any getting hurt hurling themselves 5-6 meters off the bridges so, yes, I did it too…  it was a bit of a rush.  Not only were you jumping off a bridge into water, but the water was moving at 15 mph… or so…  I lived…  my stuff was still there when I got back.  I decided that I did not bring enough money get to a ride back to my hotel so my feet paid the price again.  There is a hill so steep on the way up that there is a tram that rides up it… the line was too long…  long (yes I know long) story short.  I managed to find my hotel.
More later if you can stand it…

Madrid/Barcelona/Bern 2010-07-20
Well I woke at my usual 5:30 and started thinking exactly I was going to navigate the next several hundred miles.  I had it pretty much figured out, but there were a lot of moving parts…  pack everything, I should be good at this by now and I am pretty much, but it is so easy to forget something.  The only causalities so far are my Athens visor and a towel that followed me from a hotel…  I think they said on a bus when I got off…  I have a new towel now and a pretty good tan…
So in order to get to where I am currently headed it takes this:
The 161 bus to macore station.  The yellow metro line to Sol and the blue line to Ataco train station… don’t get that confused with the other train station.  Many of the big cities have two.  So I had to buy a ticket to Barcelona to make the train to Bern.  When I get to Barcelona I arrive in Saints train station.  I have to get to Franca train station to get my train to Bern.  I think I can take them metro for 1e or a taxi for 15…  we will see my mood when I arrive.  I have over an hour and I already have the ticket…  I might even walk.  I have walked less than 500 miles in the heat so far, so I am due for a long walk… and it is ONLY 81 as opposed to the 99 it was in Madrid.  Once in Franca station it should not be too hard to find my train.  Like I said, I should be good at this by now…  but I only have one pair of eyes and a horrible sense of direction.  But I do have my phone!!!  I have already put in the pertinent locations…
Ok, a little whines here about this really nice wicked (185 MPH) train.  They played a move, Sherlock Holmes in fact.  It is a very good movie…  two bad things…  one, no English…  I miss English…. Second the guy next to me spent 20 minutes yelling into his cell phone.  I finally told him to go to the dining car because I could not hear the movie that I could not understand!!! :>  I could follow it because I had just seen it a while ago.  The only English tv on in Madrid is news uggg!  Btw it was hot in Madrid yesterday, and Boeing introduced the 787…   my internet was not so good, AND that is the cable that I forgot.  I will have to acquire one, but most places are wireless only so…  my bad…  AND most us sites won’t stream outside of the US…  what up with that…  I tried the Comcast site, where I am a member, but alas I was denied by my bad connection.  I have not relaxed and watched tv for some time now…
The train to Bern is like nothing you have ever experienced before… unless you have been very poor with many, many children.  With the bunks up there is no room for the luggage it is crowding us.  I have a father, his son, and a Sweed who’s friends did not quite make the train.  I met some more Ausi’s and this was their first train ride unfortunately they did not get their Europass stamped properly.  After waiting for hours they were sent away and I am certain that they did not make the train.  This train trip is already long.  Fortunately I got some food and water as they said I should and will be fine.  Also they take your passport when you get on and give it back when you wake up.  I don’t like not having my passport.
More when I get to my hotel….

Barcelona was pretty good.  The Fin’s and I went out again.  We hung at their hostel.  I took the city tour again and saw the rest of the city including the interesting buildings.  Then on a whim I decided to go to Madrid.  I could not get to Bern until Tuesday so this worked.  The hotel is nice, but it is outside the city and it is Sunday.  Europe closes on Sunday.  I had to get Chinese take-out to eat tonight because everything is closed…  I will cruise Madrid tomorrow and then back to Barcelona for my train unless I can change my ticket…  we will see.
It was funny.  When we went out in Barcelona there was supposed to be a pool party that we could not find and the club that we went to would not let us in because the Fin’s had tee shirts and shorts.  The place we ended up in was fun enough though.  For some reason I ended up in about 8 different pictures with random people… not sure how that happened…