There have been some adventures. One was spending a four hour train ride on the floor of a boxcar which was turned into an impromptu bar car when some wandering Austrians found themselves a wooden table in storage. Another was getting stuck in the maze of clear glass, which is harder to get through than a maze of mirrors, and a lot more fun ( Read more... )

In Munich, which is kind of like a cross between a small New York and Toronto. There's a lot to do and lots of bustling, but the streets are pretty wide and open and the buildings are small, so you never feel trapped. Speaking of which, we're taking a tour to the Dachau concentration camp tomorrow, where, according to the response I got today, it ( Read more... )

The Swiss like to laugh at images of Bush in television appearances. Apparently he's gotten himself into some things they don't agree with. Then again, he never stole any Jewish gold, so who's the pot and who's the black kettle? The conversation continues ( Read more... )

In Bern, halfway between Germany and Italy, and those two are playing each other in the football. People from both armies are watching on giant screens in public squares. Let's hope this ends well. Right now I'm in a hotel which provides free Internet access to its guests, which is a pretty good deal for people staying at this hotel, and an even ( Read more... )

Cesky Krumlov is apparently the most well-preserved medieval town in all of Europe. Meaning it's old and beautiful, but also that everything closes early. It's also been a little cold and rainy, but it's been fine, because the hostel we're staying in is warm and cozy with a kitchen and a balcony and a nice mix of national and international ( Read more... )

Prague has turned into an odd, sometimes surreal time. Mainly due to the fact that last night we decided to czech out some "black light theatre," which is a local flavor of stage performance with neon colors under purple lights. There are dozens of shows all over the city, but we settled on Cats in Prague, because it's a classic show with an ( Read more... )

So, it turns out Prague is the most beautiful place on planet home. Also one of the most culturally rich places on planet home, with some of the most ornate architecture and the oldest bridges and castles and all those old-world things. It's pretty impossible to describe what it looks like here. Google some images, they might start to do it some ( Read more... )

Stockholm is in fact quite epic, but I wouldn't call it ace. It's huge, old and beautiful, old-world architecture and hilly cobblestone streets spread over small, beautiful islands. Epic is definitely what it is. But it's also very touristy and expensive, the people haven't been very friendly (one woman at a reception desk refused to translate ( Read more... )

So, we're going to Stockholm because it is, according to our Australian aerospace engineer friend Dirk, both "epic" and "ace." Which could actually turn out to be very bad things, depending on the culture. Also, there are a lot of street performers staying in our hostel, so we're trying to escape that circus ( Read more... )

Copenhagen is such a wonderful, magical place. It's fitting that the first appearance of the sun in the entirety of this trip was on our train ride here, and it hasn't left since. Literally. The sky is light about twenty hours a day, and it never actually gets black. Just a bit dusky. Also, it's blindingly bright and, since it's up for so long ( Read more... )