- Karl
Monday, December 21, 2009
One more day
I missed my flight and waited in line for 5 hours to re-route my transfer. Good side is I get free food and the best hotel of the trip for one night in Frankfurt.
- Karl
- Karl
Sunday, December 20, 2009
DATELINE: Amsterdam, Netherlands
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Author: Andy
Nick and I went to return the rental car at the airport (so we don't have to do it at 3am tonight) and got a great rate for the week (289 Euros!). Considering we drove it over 2000 km and through 8 different countries, that's a pretty great deal.
The problem is, the "giant" snowstorm that's been passing through has closed Amsterdam's train network, and as such we had to bargain with cab drivers to get a lift back into town. We wound up having to pay 50 euros and share a cab with 4 other people.
What's oddly coincidental is that apparently there's a giant snowstorm messing up travel in NYC too, except obviously it's a completely different storm altogether.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
DATELINE: Amsterdam, Netherlands
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Author: Andy
The next time you complain about difficulty parallel parking, try and imagine squeezing a manual transmission Volvo station wagon into a spot with about 2 feet (max) of total wiggle room.
Now try and imagine that instead of parking up against a curb, you were parking up against the edge of a canal. A canal that you could plausibly (albeit accidentally) back the car into.
Nick pulled this off earlier this evening, and it was so amazing it makes me sad we have to move the car tomorrow. I wish we could bronze the car in place and have it become a statue tourists would visit. They'd read a plaque about what one can accomplish with parallel parking if you're really good at it.
Reach for that star.
DATELINE: Zwijndrecht, Netherlands
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Author: Andy
Lovely afternoon in Belgium. Started off at a Braisserie in the suburbs, then spent an hour or two at Brussels' Africa museum. It's basically a big collection of stuff they plundered from the Congo in the early 1900s. Next up was the Atomium, a giant model of an iron crystal that you can go inside. It was built for a worlds fair in 1958 andnow serves as a peculiar observation deck.
Now we're off to Delft so Eliot can drop off his stuff, then on to Amsterdam
Friday, December 18, 2009
Drinking in the room
Went to the comic strip museum and lambic beer brewery today. Great beer. Comics, not so interesting. Although not a total waste as the comic museum was in a beautiful art nouveau building.
Right now we're in the room drinking the beer we bought at the Cantillon brewery. Pregaming for another night out at the Brussels bars.
Eliot
Right now we're in the room drinking the beer we bought at the Cantillon brewery. Pregaming for another night out at the Brussels bars.
Eliot
DATELINE: Brussels , Belgium
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Author: Andy
Just as we approached town last night, a snowstorm hit. Karl, on his last bit of energy, soldiered on and drove through it and into town. I can't begin to imagine how we could have made it without GPS. We met up with Eliot at the hotel, drank some beers and went out.
Now we're at a cafe on the Grand Place. I ordered a waffle, naturally.
DATELINE: Diekirch, Luxembourg
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Author: Ilteris
Almost on our way to Brussels. We visited chateau de bourscheid and Luxembourg national museum of military today. Both of them were head spinning experience for me. The chateau is actually 1000 years old and hosted high aristocracy of Luxembourg back in the day. It's aesthetically beautiful and just sits on a rocky hill. The first impression I got exploring it was "what kind of powers and money do these people have, so that they make the peasants build such incredible structures?" You can see the family trees going back a thousand year. What makes these people aristocrats? Is their ability to keep their family tree documented for so long? There's a lot more to be said about this.�
I had a similar experience visiting the military museum. This museum is built to show how luxemburg is liberated by the US troops in the WWII from German invasion. This could simply be the most extensive museum I have seen about the topic. They showcase almost every weapon used in the war by each sides. You can see how powerful and ambitious germany was in every way. The most interesting part was the propoganda leaflets that both sides �distribute on opponent sides to affect them psycologically. "dont risk your neck for $15 per hour, go back home to US and be a worker and get $45 an hour." Crazy crazy stuff. So much similarities with today's big corporations ways of messing with our own perception. The power uses the labour of the poor to gain more power economically and whatsoever. In order to achieve this, It uses the communication tools in hands to persuade. Now, what about people that are being used? Why was it like that at the time? What has changed as for us the humans go? Questions has been flying as I walk around both places.�
Finally, in all this I am trying to fit the technology somewhere here in the picture. Especially, with the advancement of Internet and the social networking tools that has been said to liberate us lately. Yesterday, �it was easy to get manipulated easily because the medium was controlled by manipulators. Today is it more difficult because of �said tools? � � � � ���
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
DATELINE: Luxembourg city, luxembourg
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Author: Andy
Greetings from our 6th country (and second novelty country) of the trip, the last remaining grand duchy on the face of the earth, Luxembourg!
for the record, i got the car up to 170 km/hr on the autobahn, a new personal record. And i didn't even know how to drive this car 2 days ago. I made it all the way to within a block of the hotel here without stalling out.
at a truck stop this evening, i saw a german toilet that cleans itself by extending a water-cleansing robotic arm and rotating the toilet seat underneath it.
i am now mixing german, italian and french words in a vocabulary that stands at perhaps 2 dozen simple words. The extent to which this facilitates meaningful conversation remains unclear. I've actually decided to start thanking people in turkish altogether.
Christmas market in wurzburg
OK, look. I really don't mean to be a Politically Correct dork about this. But i saw this display in a lovely christmas market in Wurzburg, Germany.
Of all the possible shape and color combinations one could use for the labels of products available for sale, i felt as though a six-pointed yellow star was not an ideal selection, given the geographical and historical context. This isn't a reflection on anyone i've met here, everyone's been fantastic. maybe i'm being hypersensitive. But really, c'mon.
DATELINE: Kehrig, germany
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Author: Karl
Closing in on Luxembourg on the autobahn, Andy just took the Volvo reins and is cruising at a moderate 98 km/hr. 24 hrs ago he didn't know how to drive stick. So far Nick has the record hitting 210. The gas station lady wasn't a huge fan of him since he smoked by the gas pump and pee'd on a truck, no biggie, he's washing it away with a 10% Faxe.
Esther took good care of us in Marburg and gave us the Marburg tour, was good to see her again. We retraced the stories of the brother Grimm and saw some amazing views of the city from the impressive duke's castle. Top that off with a few girthy w�rsts and rum hot cocoas from the Weinachts markt and we got a solid dose of German culture. Enjoying Germany's loose open container laws with a Warsteiner as we approach country #6.
on top of Duomo in Florence
21, disco at Florence
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
DATELINE: Giessen, germany
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Author: Andy
Stopped for a bit in wurzburg to visit a family friend of karl's. She took us to the town square, bought us mulled wine, showed us around the chrismas market, took us over to a nice lookin' Bavarian palace. A perfect host! It's a nice lookin' town. In the Christmas market there was even a choir singing songs by the big gothic cathedral.
Now we're flying down the autobahn towards Marburg and Karl is quoting chris rock.
DATELINE: Leutkirch
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Author: Nick
I always wanted to pass out & wake up in another country Today I passed out in Lichtenstein, was forced concious at the Austrian border, breezed through, then woke up At the German border with 2 passports ( mine & Karl's) in my pocket...
Vaduz
DATELINE: Vaduz, Liechtenstein
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Author: Andy
We're eating lunch at mcdonalds in Liechtenstein! Yes we are in the tiny ridiculous tourist trap kingdom made famous as a tax haven. The happy meal toy is sadly unremarkable, but the center of town is quaint. I gladly paid 3 francs for a souvenir passport stamp and another 20 for another set of souvenirs. I couldn't bring myself to buy the official liechtenstein golf balls for 7 francs.
In other news, I just learned to drive stick in the alps! I made it from a town in the very south of Switzerland all the way to Vaduz. I was in all 5 gears, and went up and down some serious hills. And to thank me, when I got out of the car, Ilteris clocked me with a snowball.
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Author: Andy
We're eating lunch at mcdonalds in Liechtenstein! Yes we are in the tiny ridiculous tourist trap kingdom made famous as a tax haven. The happy meal toy is sadly unremarkable, but the center of town is quaint. I gladly paid 3 francs for a souvenir passport stamp and another 20 for another set of souvenirs. I couldn't bring myself to buy the official liechtenstein golf balls for 7 francs.
In other news, I just learned to drive stick in the alps! I made it from a town in the very south of Switzerland all the way to Vaduz. I was in all 5 gears, and went up and down some serious hills. And to thank me, when I got out of the car, Ilteris clocked me with a snowball.
DATELINE: Chur, switzerlAnd
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Author: Karl
Nick just pulled a "Philly roll" across the Italian Swiss border, we were so focused on the GPS that we didn't pay attention to the armed guards and checkpoint and basically blew by. It was a small road crossing so guess it didn't matter much, Philly roll to the face bitches! The massive peaks of the alps lie before us. We're aiming to cruise all the way through to Lichtenstein.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Lake como
On our way up to lake como. Bright Eyes - Another Travel is in the background. Good times!
-ilteris
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