We stayed really busy in Wrocław, a lot of stuff outside the apartment, which is what you do living in a small place in the town center. Anna likes sleeping in, so I snoozed in my stack of foam matresses in their living room with earplugs in and an eye mask on as long as I could. The first morning, after tossing and turning, I slept right through ( Read more... )

Yay, for Katie, who on Wednesday blew off her German lesson to go down to Pottsdamer Platz and the KultureForum with Russ and me to view the masterworks in the Gemäldegalerie ("Picture Gallery"). We got a late start so she had to leave early and couldn't join us for lunch, but it was fun. And she hadn't seen it before. Plus she made a point of ( Read more... )

Kudos to Chris Nakashima-Brown for arranging a special tour for Austin's science fiction/fantasy folks of the !!incredible!! Edgar Allan Poe exhibit at the Harry Ransome Center at UT. A dozen of us met last evening and got a tour of the "unusual topical and contextual approach to Poe's life and work ( Read more... )

One of the weird things about actually getting from the MARTA station to the Atlanta Hyatt hotel was taking the escalators. All I can guess is that the Peachtree train station is about 3-4 stories below ground. You take one ordinary escalator just to get to a floor with elevators and more escalators. Then you take the mother of all up escalators to ( Read more... )

Our bags packed and left with the bellcaptain at LQ, Russ (goulo) and I walk east on Chartres to the Arts District. It's actually not quite as humid and hot as it has been. There are lots of turn-of-the-century business buildings and stately trees. Except for that obnoxious and ubiquitious poop smell of New Orleans, it's quite a pleasant walk. There's a ( Read more... )

After the ceremony and when the steamboat came back to the Toulouse Street Wharf, I was so tired and hot that I was dreaming of a cool shower and long nap before we had the finale of the wedding events, the 8:00 p.m. dinner at Tujague's ("Two-jacks"). Russ, however, was jazzed and full of energy, especially relieved over his successful speech. He ( Read more... )

One of the problems of lodging in downtown N.O. instead of the French Quarter is that, no kidding, lunch goes away on weekdays after 2:00 p.m. and there is no food to be had. I guess they serve the business crowd and the heck with tourists. Russ and I had talked about getting lunch at the airport, since we'd had such an early morning, but that ( Read more... )