Mission Hills Bike Ride

On a beautiful Saturday morning in San Diego, I put my bike on my car's bike rack and drove to my friend's house to go for a casual bike ride with him and his girlfriend. Our plan was to ride to and explore the Mission Hills neighborhood of San Diego. I've never really spent much time in this area, but once we survived the non-bike-friendly streets of Hillcrest, mostly Washington Street, we arrived in a very nice, quaint neighborhood, with very nice houses that had plenty of curb appeal.

The styles and colors of the houses were very diverse. Some looked like small cottages, some were huge mansions, and some looked like a house you would see in Germany or some other European country. And the colors were blue, pink, yellow, green and every shade in between. Not only were the houses unique, but so were the streets. We explored many "Not a Through Street" streets and found ourselves biking down steep hills just to have to ride back up again. In these areas were houses built on steep canyons, some with views of San Diego and the Pacific Ocean.

After about an hour we decided to ride down Juan Street, the steep road that takes you in to Old Town. We got a little turned around (not lost), and I actually had to use my Android phone and Google Maps to find our way to the street. So we road down Juan Street, which is steep and narrow, but not as steep as I thought it would be. Once at the bottom we found that the roads into Old Town were closed to cars. But we could ride our bikes, and to our surprise, we found a Cinco de Mayo street fair celebration taking place. We had no idea, so this was a bonus. We just wanted some tacos.

We locked up our bikes and walked around, quickly finding a taco stand where we each bought one very delicious, and hot, taco. So after a taco you need a beer. We found that too, and drank a beer or two while watching all sorts of interesting people walk by. Then we headed back out to explore the festival. Along the way we watched a wrestling demonstration, which was very popular, based on the crowd, a lowrider car show, with lots of brightly painted, custom cars, and then some kind of equestrian event with women in bright, colorful dresses riding horses, side-saddle of course.

Knowing we had to ride back, we walked back to our bikes and headed home. I opted to ride my bike, not walk it, up Juan Street without stopping, which I did, but the two tacos and two beers sitting in my stomach made the ride more challenging. We took the most direct route back to our starting point, completing a very fun and physical bike ride.

Spring Training 2011

I've been going to watch Spring Training baseball in the Phoenix area with my friends almost every year since '93, 1993 that is (inside joke). This year we had eight people along for the trip, six of us on the same flight from San Diego. We actually got to the airport earlier than normal, just to find the security line for Southwest about an hour long! By the time we got through security we only had time for one beer!

We arrived in Phoenix about on time, after a short flight where everyone got a free drink for St. Patrick's Day. Before checking into the hotel, we made a stop at the Tilted Kilt for some beer and food. This location was having a huge party out back, which cost $5 to enter, but for some reason, even at 10PM, the DJ was packing up his equipment. However, we got seated inside quickly and all had a nice meal.

We then checked into the hotel and got ready for our four-day adventure.

We had tickets for every day except the first day. We wanted to see (and did see) the Dodgers at San Fransisco in Scottsdale, and these tickets sell out very quick. So we had to buy them the old fashion way - from someone outside the stadium. Luckily the person who organizes the trip, Steve,  is very good at buying good seats at a decent price, and he didn't let us down. Regular scalpers, and there are always tons of them, were asking $100 for lawn seats. We bought our tickets from a man who had extra tickets at face value, so for $30 a ticket the seats were pretty good.

The stadium was sold out, and they announced that there was a new attendance record, which still doesn't make since to me how you can keep having sell-outs AND break attendance records. Do they keep adding more seats?

After the game, which I really watch very little of, as usual,  we jetted back to the hotel. Back when we were young, we'd go straight to the happy hour for our free drinks from 5:30 to 7:30. Now days most of us need a quick nap in between. A quick shower to wash off the sunscreen helps too.

On Saturday our game was in Peoria to see the Cubs at the Padres. Almost every year our trip coincides with the first weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament. With about 48 games played over the four days, there is always some good college basketball games to watch before and after the baseball game. But this year we had the Aztecs in the tournament, and they played Saturday at 3:40. So when we got to the park Saturday morning, we went to go watch the beginning of the UCLA game at McDuffy's across the street, just to find that it was gone, just like the one in Tempe. But luckily there was a sports bar next door that had beer, food and lots of TVs showing all the games. So we had some food, beer and even played checkers! I'm embarrassed to say that it had been so long since I had played checkers that I forgot how. But somehow I won the first game and lost the second.

As the baseball game start time approached, most of us left to go see the Padres play. We stayed through the end of the game and then returned to the bar to see the Aztecs win! Yes, the Aztecs finally won a NCAA game. Since this bar was near the Padres ballpark, there were lots of San Diego fans cheering for SDSU.

Saturday is our traditional night to get "dressed-up" and eat at a nice steakhouse. In years past, we went to a place called Fresher's. This year we tried a different place, the Stockyard. It was located in the middle of nowhere, near the airport, but was very crowded so apparently well known by the locals. Their food was good, I got the 12 oz Filet Mignon, medium well, and it was satisfying, but I guess I'm just not a big fan of steak, because I don't think the steak tastes better the more you pay for it. The highlight of the meal for me was the dessert, a root beer float with Jack Daniels. It was surprisingly good.

For Sunday we had planned a very full day. It started with waking up at 6 AM so we could get in a hike. In previous years, we had hiked Camelback mountain, alternating our hike up the east and west sides. This year we explored a new mountain, South Mountain, described at the largest urban park in the US, or something like that. I own an apology to the guys in the next room, because they wanted to hike also and due to poor planning they got left behind.

The nice part about this mountain was that is was easier to get to and there was plenty of parking. Also, the park was very large, I'd say 20 miles long and 5 miles wide. There were tons of trails, so you could spend your whole day hiking, or just hike for an hour or two. We took a trail that followed a ridge, which took us up some really steep trails. Unlike hikes in the past, it was not not. In fact, it was quite cold and in places the wind was blowing our hats off. I think we hiked for about 90 minutes before heading back to the hotel.

Our third game was at a new ballpark in Scottsdale to see the Rockies play the Angels. This park was actually on an Indian reservation, which made in convenient to go to a casino before the game. We had about an hour to lose money. I just played some video poker and slots, but wished I'd played the new roulette table. They now have automated roulette where the wheel spins automatically and you place your bets on a computer screen, taking the human and group-play element out of the game.

The new stadium is nice, like most of the new ballparks, but they need to work on better access and parking. We did get a good parking spot, and our seats were also good, as can be seen by the photo above. I believe this game was tied after 9 innings, so we left and went back to the hotel.

After the shower/nap/happy hour, we headed out to dinner, this time we went to a place we had not been to before, Four Peaks Brewing Company. They brewed their own beer, and I, of course drank the darkest Stout. For dinner I think I had a bacon cheeseburger.

After our meal, we made it too our second destination for the night - bowling! A quick shout-out to Rick, who was our designated driver for the trip. Just a few weeks before I ate at a place near home that had a bowling alley, and mentioned that it had been over 15 years since I had bowled, and I said I didn't need to ever bowl again. But even though I only scored 99 on my first game, I had tons of fun. In fact, we all had fun bowling.

After bowling, most of us went to another bar, where we stayed until 2AM, well past our bedtimes. But hey, we were on vacation, and this was our last night.

Waking up before 9AM on Monday was hard, but getting my free breakfast was important. Nothing better than a cook to order omelet. It's always nice when the cook remembers you and says see you next year. Pam has been working there for a long time, but she gave us a warning - wear a hat because the rain expected on Monday would be radioactive. OK, good advice.

It is always sad when we have to pack up and check out of the hotel. It means the fun is over. We had planned it well to have our last game in Tempe, to see the Angels play someone, at the ballpark closet to the hotel and airport. We arrived in plenty of time to hang out at the van and finish the ice cold beers, at least for those of us who could still drink after our bender of a weekend. The forecast was for cold and rain, and rainy and cold it was. The game wasn't canceled, so we went into the stadium, but since it was raining the whole time, I never even got to sit in our seast. We ended up leaving before the third inning, and drove back into town to have some food at Dave and Buster's.

After eating, and playing some games, we returned the van and checked-in at the airport. The line for security was very short, however, three of us got in the wrong line for scanning. Apparently they were training someone new, and our line moved VERY slowly. We still had plenty of time, ever more so since our flight was delayed 50 minutes. When we finally boarded the plane, after some time of sitting the pilot announce that we were waiting to be de-iced! Yes, in Phoenix. They explained that the plane had been on a long flight, and that caused the fuel to get cold, and since it was humid outside, the wing was icy. So another 20 minute of sitting. Then there was an incident that most people didn't notice, a passenger a few rows in front of us did something to cause the flight attendant to get in her face. So even after taxing away from the gate, we stopped and sat some more. Then they announce that we needed to return to a different gate to take care of a situation. Meanwhile, some man starting yelling something about voting to have that person kicked off the flight, and then another man yelled at him to stop yelling because nobody cared what he thought. When we finally reached the gate, a woman showed up (not an armed security) to escort the passenger off the plane, who was also a woman. This woman then began to yell at the flight attendant saying "why are you doing this to me? I didn't do anything wrong!". It wasn't until we finally landed in San Diego, two hours late, that we found out what happened. The woman who was kicked off kept complaining that she had a headache from the smell of exhaust fumes and had demanded that she be given oxygen. Like that was going to happen.

So we got our luggage, took the shuttle to the parking and I was home by 10:30 PM. Did I have a good time? Yes. Too good of a time. I worked for one day before getting sick and missing two days of work. Now, six days later, I'm still recovering from my cold, and yes, I can't wait until next year.

Mt. Woodson Snow Hike

Six days after my last hike up Mt. Woodson I was once again hiking up the trail to the summit. This time the snow level was supposed to be down to 2000 feet, so I was hoping to actually see some snow on the trail. Around the halfway point, I started to see some snow, or frozen hail, in shady spots along the trail. But as I got higher, there was more "snow", even where it was exposed to the sun.

There were young people hiking the mountain faster than me, and I let them pass as I took some photos. Soon, they were throwing snowballs at each other.

As I got higher, the snow was on the trail, and I actually was glad I had my hiking boots and poles. Once I hit the pavement, there was a shady spot where the ice was slippery and I had to walk slow.

Once I made it to the top, where there were pine trees with melting snow dripping on me, I once again, like last week, headed to the east side where there were great views of the snow on the mountains to the east, like Cuyamaca and Luguna. I took a short movie that covered about 270 degrees of visibility.

Even though there was lots of snow at lower elevations, I believe that the snow level was lower in 2008, as can be seen in this link taken from Iron Mountain in Feb. 2008 - by me!

As I hiked back down from the summit, I felt really good about life in general. I was relaxed and not worried about anything - just enjoying the moment. I started the day at 8:30 AM, started hiking at 10:30, and got home at 2:30 PM. The hike took more or the entire day, but it was well worth it.

Mt. Woodson President's Day Hike

I thought it would be a perfect day for a hike. The storm was over, the clouds had parted and the mountains were covered in snow. Assuming that Iron Mt. would be too busy due to the President's Day holiday, I chose to hike Mt. Woodson from Lake Poway for the first time since last June.

I arrived at the parking lot at 10 AM and was surprised to find it mostly empty. Seems that the local schools didn't have the day off, so there were fewer people out than I expected. Also, it was warmer than expected. Even though it may have been "only" 60 degrees, I didn't need a jacket, just my hiking pants and short sleeve shirt.

I might have started hiking too fast, because I quickly ran out of breath (as the expression goes), but that didn't slow me down. I passed everyone on the trail. Everyone including two ladies with three dogs (not on leashes), a father, son, grandfather trio, and a man with a mustache.

I wasn't in a hurry, so I stopped as often as I needed to take photos of the surrounding snow-covered mountains, blue lakes and green valleys. I did take a break at the "shady tree" to eat a protein bar, rest and stretch my leg muscles. While there a couple passed by and asked how much further to the top. I told them about 30 minutes, which later turned out to be way off, as I encountered them on my hike down as they were still headed up. They too had a dog, so they must have taken more breaks, or got lost because I never passed them again on the way up.

Once I got to the summit, I took a short detour down the other side just far enough so I could get a good view of the mountains in the east which also had lots of snow. I then took about a ten minute break to eat, adjust my boots, check-in on Foursquare and upload a photo to Facebook. It had taken me just over 90 minutes to hike to the top, but I knew I'd get back faster as I planned to not stop on the way down, and not stop I did. Along the way I encountered almost all the people who I passed on the way up, some were still hiking up, others must have turned around before summiting. There were also lots more people, most young people, hiking up as it was now afternoon.

I got back to my car about 1 PM, so the total hike time was three hours, just as I had estimated. I was prepared this time to not get blisters by putting blister pads on my toes before hiking. I was a little sore and tired, but nothing that an afternoon nap and good night's sleep can't cure. If it is not raining this weekend, another hike would be fun, and they expect the snow level to get even lower. How cool would it be to have it snow on me at the top of Mt. Woodson?

Iron Mountain Valentine's Day Hike

I hadn't planned to take Valentine's Day off work, but due to contractual issues with the government, I was forced to take a day of vacation. So what better way to spend a day off than to climb Iron Mountain on a beautiful, clear, sunny day? I was surprised at the number of cars in the parking lot considering it was a work day. Also, for some reason, there quite a few school-aged children with their parents on the trails, so they most have taken some family time off. There was a mother hiking down with her two small kids and as the 4 year old boy saw me he said "Happy Valentine's Day and enjoy your hike." How nice! Apparently he was saying this to everyone on the trail. His mom seemed to tolerate it and his sister accused him of steeling that line from her.

Butterfly or alien in center.

Even though there were more hikers than I expected, there were a lot less than my last hike up. And to avoid the horrible blister I got on that hike five weeks ago (that are still healing), I put blister pads on before hiking. I didn't plan to hike very fast, but somehow made it up in 55 minutes.

Along the way I saw a poor women being helped down by two people. She twisted and sprained her ankle and was making very slow progress. In fact, I passed her on the way down, about 45 minutes later, and she had only made it maybe 1/8 of a mile! At that rate she'll be lucky to get down by sunset. Hope she is OK.

Looking East

Once I made it to the top I saw how crowded it was. There must have been 20 or more people, including a large group of what sounded like British citizens. After stretching, eating a snack and taking these photos, I headed down. My timing was bad because I left a few minutes after the large group of hikers left. So I had to pass them all on the way down, trying not to run them off the trail (they were all in their 50s or 60s).

Looking West

Speaking of trails, I noticed that the trail had been improved since my last hike. Many of rain-induced ruts were filled in with fresh dirt, making the trail much safer. As I neared the new trail junction, I saw about 15 people in bright red coveralls hiking up. I assumed they were headed up to do more trail improvements. And back at the new trail junction, there was a bright red truck that belonged to the California Department of Corrections. So they were low-risk prisoners performing services for what ever crime they committed. They were not wearing chains, so I assume they weren't from Arizona.

It was a good hike and I plan on another one soon, perhaps Mt. Woodson on President's Day?

2011 San Diego International Auto Show Photos.

2011SD_AutoShow

2011 San Diego International Auto Show Photos. Much busier this year. Good sign that the economy is improving. 

Star Trek Enterprise and Futurama Series 9

Went to the local post office today to pick up a package I missed when it was delivered to my house. It contained two items I bought from Entertainment Earth. The Star Trek Movie Enterprise Vehicle, pictured above, I bought because it was on sale, 60% off. However, I thought I was buying the 2010 Hallmark Star Trek ornament, which looks exactly like this model, except this model is 10 times bigger! I'm still happy I bought it, but now I have to go find the ornament and hope the stores has not sold out.

I also bought the Futurama Series 9 figures, even though they were not on sale. I guess that's how they make their money, but I was going to buy the Bender and URL figures anyways. Now I just need to find space on my walls to display them.

Foursquare Cache on Phone

FQ_Cache

I was exploring the files on my Android HTC EVO phone today and stumbled on a folder that contained thumbnail photos of over 300 people from the Foursquare application. My guess is these are all the people who had checked-in to the same place I had. So that means there are people out there with MY photo on their phone. Google does like to collect and save personal data.

Vienna Photos - Best Of

Vienna 2010 Enhanced

Vienna 2010: Trip home via Frankfurt

Me in snow at ruin.

 

Our flights out of Vienna weren’t until after noon, so we got to sleep in a little and not rush to the airport. We met in the lobby, except for my sister who wanted to get more sleep, and made one last walk to the café. Another two pastries and a coffee was my last meal in Vienna.

Back at the hotel I finished packing and we all met downstairs for you pre-arranged taxi ride. When we asked for taxi the night before, they were worried that the standard taxi car would not hold luggage for four people, especially Americans, who tend to over pack. We insisted that we didn’t have too much luggage, but since a van picked us up I guess they didn’t believe us. At least it was the same price and we had plenty of room.

We arrived at the airport over three hours before our fight left. My brother and his wife headed toward the British Airways check-in and my sister and I went to the United counter. It took almost no time to check in and get through security. We walked to the Star Alliance club, where we found a comfortable seat and grabbed from free food and more coffee. I was happy to find out that they provided free Wi-Fi Internet, so for the first time since I left San Francisco I was able to check my e-mail and Facebook accounts.

Frankfurt Dom

As our boarding time got near we headed to the gate and boarded the plane. I believe that we once again had to take a shuttle to our plane and then walk up the steps from the tarmac. I wasn’t dressed for the freezing temperatures, but it was a short walk between the shuttle and plane. On this leg we were in coach, and this plane had very little leg-room, but since the flight was only one hour it really didn’t matter. Even though it was a short flight they still served a sandwich and drink.

We arrived in Frankfurt on time and once off the plane we followed the signs to baggage claim. But once we reached the airport exit, we realized that we made a wrong turn. After walking around we retraced our path and found the door to the baggage claim that somehow we missed. We saw at least one other man do the same. At the baggage carousel our bags were waiting for us to pick them up.

Now we walked to the exit and got a taxi. It was about a 20-minute ride to the Westin hotel. Along the way we looked at possible sites to see later. Inside the warm hotel get got in line to check in, but apparently a woman with her husband had decided that they were more important than us and rudely cut in front of us. At the same time another man walked up to one of the hotel clerks who was busy with a customer and started demanding something. It was at this point that I realized that people in Frankfurt, at least at this hotel, were not as polite as they were in Vienna. So we just had to wait a little longer to get to our rooms.

Christmas Market From Dom

It was already 3 PM so we made a quick turn-around and headed outside into what became the coldest part of the trip. If fact it started to snow shortly after. Our first destination was the large cathedral that we saw on the drive there and I could also see from my hotel room window. However, once there, we saw that it was not that large and not very picture-worthy. So we continued our walk to find the Christmas market that was near-by. Yes, this was our fourth country and fourth Christmas market. As we walked along the crowed pedestrian shopping area, I spotted a church down the street. We walked there and even though we really never figured out the name (I think it is just called the Dom Cathedral) of this church, it was defiantly the biggest one around. Plus, as a bonus, it had a dome – and it was still open! We paid our 3 Euros and entered the door to the tower. It was starting to snow harder and the sun had already set, so I guess I felt the need to “run” up the steps so I could get some photos before it got too dark. I don’t know how many steps there were, but I’m sure there were more that the dome in Vienna. At this dome we were able to walk to the very top, where there was an outside walkway with 360-degree views of the city. I walked around, taking as many photos as possible, but since it was snowing and getting dark, most of my photos turned out hazy, but still captured the old city below and even the new skyscrapers that were all build after WWII. Much (or most) of Frankfurt was destroyed in the war, and this building was one of the few that survived.

Christmas Tree.

There were only two other people at the top crazy enough to be outside in this weather. After we had our fill of the view, we walked back down the narrow passageway, and I was surprised to find at least one person climbing up. Once outside, we walked back towards the Christmas market which was very busy, but then again it was a Friday night. Thanks to my sister for buying a cone of fries. Hot food was what we needed to keep going. We did have plan for the evening. My sister and arranged to meet the creator of a “my.flightmemory.com”, a web site she uses to track her airplane trips around the world. We need to be back at the hotel by 6:30 to meet him. So after exploring the market and listening to yet another local band (of singers) sign Christmas songs, we meandered back to the hotel. My sister kept in contact with Sam and when he said he was in the hotel she told him to look for her brother, the tallest person. So as soon as I stood up, a man looked at me and yes, it was Sam.

Sam was very nice had happy to meet us. He actually lived about an hour away from Frankfurt, so it was very nice of him to make the drive to hook up with us. We were relying on him to take us to a local German pub where we could drink some good dark beer. Outside the hotel he said we could either walk or take the subway. We decided to walk, not realizing how far the walk was. We had to walk to the other side of the river Main. The walk actually went rather quickly as we talked to Sam about his web site and Germany. Sam spoke perfect English and understood everything we said. Our destination was an area of Frankfurt known for its bars. This place had a name, but I don’t know what it is.

Snow at Pub

Once we arrived, we looked at the menus of some of the bars and walked into one that looked promising. Sam asked the bartender what dark beers they had, and I opted for a dark hefeweizen and my sister got a dark bock. We sat and talked as we drank our beers. It was rather quite as we were the only ones in the bar. Also, the bartender was smoking, and Sam was surprised because smoking is not allowed in any German bar or restaurant. After we finished our first beer, I made the decision to try a different bar. This may have been a bad choice because we at the next stop not only did they have less of a selection of beers, the employees and customers were smoking even more! So much for having smoke-free clothes to wear on the flight home. We asked for dark beer, and they basically told us to just to order beer, meaning drink whatever beer they had on tap. We did and the beer was pretty good.

Our next stop needed to be a place that served food. We looked at the menu outside a nearby place and all agreed that there was something on the menu we could eat. Once inside I was happy to see that this place was a very casual restaurant where you sit on a bench at a long table. Also there was no smoking and a man was playing German songs on his guitar, or some other instrument. For my meal I finally ordered the Schnitzel. I’m not sure if was veal, but it was breaded and fried, and included a local Frankfurt green sauce, which had a unique flavor.

After our meal, we were ready to go back to the hotel. Sam used his phone to find the nearest subway station, and it was far enough away that it would have been shorter to walk back. But with it being so cold, we just took a taxi for a 10 minute drive back. At the hotel we thanked Sam for meeting us and said goodbye, as he had a one hour drive back home in the snow.

Christmas Market

Once again, our flight the next day didn’t leave until after noon, so we were able to get more sleep. We met downstairs in the morning, checked out and took a taxi to the airport. This time the taxi, after asking us, took the autobahn to the airport. Sam had told us that all freeways in Germany are called autobahns, so the term does not mean a road with no speed limit. However, our taxi drive hit 160 kpm at one point, and we got to the airport much faster that the trip from the airport.

We checked in and made the usual trip to the Star Alliance club where we got food and coffee. Unfortunately, there was no free Internet. While we were waiting, we could see the runway and gates, and saw our place arrive and be blocked by another air plane that needed to be towed for some reason. Then our plane sat, apparently waiting for an open gate. Turns out that there was less than a 30-minute delay in our departure time. Once we boarded the plane and found our business-class seats (this time we had to pay to upgrade), we were served our champagne, just to wait some more. An unfortunate event took place near us that caused another 20-minute delay. A man didn’t quite make it to the lavatory before he got “sick” all over the floor. It took a long time before the situation was taken care of, but eventually we departed.

The flight was from Frankfurt to San Francisco, an estimated time of 11 ½ hours. This was an unusual day, as we left Frankfurt on a Saturday and arrived in San Francisco on Saturday. During the flight, I saw the sun set, rise and set again. The flight took the polar route, so we flew over Greenland and down through Canada. At the beginning of the flight we were fed dinner. During this time I watched another movie called “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale”. This movie, which I had never heard of before, starred Richard Gere, and was “A drama based on the true story of a college professor's bond with the abandoned dog he takes into his home” (via IMDb). If you have not watched this movie – you should. It is a very touching film which draws you in. It helps if you like dogs – and who doesn’t?

Cheers!

 

After the movie was over I listed to music on my iPod. As I started to get tired, I played my self-hypnosis CD “Confidence building”. Side “A” takes you though a self-hypnosis session, and side “B” is just some very relaxing music with soft, almost subliminal suggestions. After it was over I not only fell asleep, I slept for four to five hours! I didn’t wake up until they started serving breakfast, about on hour before landing. However, since it was 3 PM local time, it was actually lunch, once again making this an unusual flight.

We landed about 30 minutes early, despite leave late. This was my first time entering the US in the San Francisco airport, and the first time using my global entry pass that I was granted a few months before. With this pass, you can bypass the line for customs and just use a kiosk, where you look into a camera, answer some questions and get your fingerprints digitally scanned. We got though very quickly, but for some reason, it took over 30 minutes for our luggage to arrive, and by this time everyone on the plane had cleared customs. Once we got our luggage, we had to re-check it and then go through security again. So for this first time I got selected to go through the new x-ray scanner. I wasn’t worried about radiation and the who process took less than a minute.

With one leg left, we had almost two hours before our flight. So after taking the long way to the club, we eventually made it to the lounge and found a spot to relax, watch some college football, and read e-mail. Our plane departed on time and this time we had first-class seats for the 90-minute flight to San Diego. Before long we landed in San Diego, departed the plane and walked to the shuttle pick-up area. I said goodbye to my sister, who was leaving for American Samoa in a few days.

Karen in Dom with Snow

I had another bad experience on the shuttle to the parking lot, as the driver let too many people on the bus and was rude to the many who wasn’t happy about the driving putting someone’s luggage on his backpack containing his computer. At the parking lot, I quickly exited the bus rather than waiting for it to take me to my car. I got home by 10 PM, but as usual, as tired as I was, I could not just go to bed. I had to unpack, take a shower, turn on my computer and check e-mail and then relax in front of the TV.

Around 11 PM I “hit the hay” and slept in Sunday morning, knowing that this was my only day to sleep in before returning to work. On Sunday I just relaxed, watched football, took a long jet-lagged nap, relaxed some more and then went to bed with the alarm set for 6 AM.

This was a whirlwind of a trip four countries in eight days. I’m glad I took so many photos so I could remember what I saw and did. So what is our destination next year? Perhaps the Maldives, a small island nation off the southwest coast of India. Now that will be a long journey.

Vienna 2010: Thanksgiving Day

Palace Gardens

For the fifth year in a row I celebrated Thanksgiving in a foreign country, where they, of course, do not celebrate the holiday. If you watch BBC or CNN International they’ll talk briefly about Thanksgiving, but mostly in conjunction with it being the day before the biggest shopping day of the year in America. Our goal today, other than see the rest of the sites we wanted to see around Vienna, was to have a nice dinner for Thanksgiving.

We had a few specific plans for they day, but none that required us to wake up really early, but as usual, we wanted to get an early start to maximize the daylight. So we met in the lobby at 8 AM and rather than going straight to the café, I wanted to see the gardens and Gloriette at the Schönbrunn Palace. We made the short walk and found the entrance to the gardens, which were free, and at this time in the morning, cold and not very crowded. About the only people there were joggers and a few other tourist. We wandered around the gardens where there were a few statues to look at before we started the climb up the hill towards the Gloriette, which sat at the top of the hill behind the palace. The sun was out so it was a good time to snap a few photos.

Us above Palace

Before we entered the gardens we were going to eat at the café in the palace, but it didn’t open until 9:30. We were surprised to find that there was a café in the Gloriette, but when we walked in we saw that they had a very slim choice of pastries, and even though we were hungry, we decided just to wait for breakfast and head back to our usual café. So we walked back down the hill, noticing a few very bushy squirrels that wouldn’t stand still long enough for a photo.

Back at the café we had our pastries and coffee. From there we planned to take the U-Bahn to a site (I forget what site) outside the city, but before we boarded the subway we realized that it was closed. So our backup plan was to go to the Vienna Opera house. Once there we were “accosted” by men dressed up in “opera” outfits trying to get us to buy tickets for the opera. We told them that we had no time to see an opera but wanted to tour the opera house. They were very nice and told us that the tours started at 2 PM and tickets went on sale shortly before then. This gave us time see some more sites.

Piano

I think it was my brother that suggested going to the Ephesus Museum, which included the Collection of Arms and Armor and Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments. Include was an audio device that you could enter the number listed on each exhibit and hear a story about it. For some of the instruments, you could also listen to a short audio of it being played.

Most of instruments in this museum were very rare; some were one of a kind. There were all sorts of very early pianos, the most interesting one called a harmonium, I think. The most striking feature of this piano was that there was a different tone for B# and Cb, and E# and Fb. I would have loved to play this piano, but of course the keyboard was protected by a Plexiglas cover and there were the usual swarms of museum personal watching everyone. I didn’t realize until I was almost finished looking at the instruments that you could take non-flash photos. So I only have a few photos of the exhibits.

Armor

They next section of the museum consisted of old arms and armor, the kind used in jousting and other such battles. I was less interested in these artifacts, as I am not into arms and armor, but it was still fun to see all the exhibits, some of which were very rare. There were more swords and armor to see than musical instruments, and I think we all got tired and were ready to leave.

We still had time to grab a quick lunch before heading back to the opera house, so we ordered some pizza to go, except we ate it in the restaurant, which may have been against the local customs. When we were in Rome, I remember that if you order food and drinks in a café, you pay extra if you sit at a table, as the locals ate their food at the counter and then left. Either way, I’m sure they knew we were tourist and didn’t kick us out.

It was time to walk back to the opera house, or maybe we took the subway – I forget. Wait, we did take the subway and actually got back too early. Now I remember that we ate the pizza on our first day, and today we had our lunch down in the subway station tunnel, where there were lots of shops and palaces to eat. After lunch we walked back to the opera house and found it was already open and there was a line to buy tickets. Luckily the line went quick, and once we bought our tickets we walked to the section labeled “English”. There was at least a hundred people or more waiting for the tour, lined up in their native language section. There were so many in the English section that they stated that tour early. We were in the second English tour.

Opera House in Vienna

Our tour guide was a very nice woman who spoke very good English. As she led us to our first stop, I was wondering how they were going to handle up to eight different groups at once, but they had a semi-efficient plan where each group took a different path through the opera house, except where sometimes two or even three groups ended up in the same room and once. Photos were allowed, but some of the rooms were too large to photograph, so most of my photos ended up in the “reject” folder on my computer. Our group was lucky, our last stop was the actual opera house, where we sat in the prime seats for an explanation of the opera. We were told that they never play the same opera two nights in a row, so they have to change the set every single day. In fact, we saw the workers building the set for this night’s opera.

The price of the seats for an opera varied from very expensive to very cheap. The cheap seats were actually standing room only, but for just three Euros, I believe, was a great deal. Kind of like getting the lawn seats at Petco Park for a Padre game.

As expected, like in an episode of The Simpson's, the tour ended in the gift shop. We quickly exited the shop, but since the tickets included entrance to the opera museum, we decide to check it out, despite having a hard time finding it – as did others. It provided a few good photos, and there were pictures of all the famous singers that performed at the opera, none of which I knew except for Pavarotti.

Christmas Lights in Vienna

It was now starting to get dark. That meant it was time to head back to the shopping pedestrian zone to see all the Christmas lights turned on. I was disappointed at first to see many of the light not on, but as we continued along, I was happy to see that the lights strung above the street were shining brightly. Even thought it was difficult to take good photographs of the lights, I was satisfied to see them in person. I’ve loved lights, especially Christmas light since I was a kid, and even at the age of 44 seeing these decorations brought back happy childhood memories.

So now it was time to find a restaurant for our Thanksgiving dinner. We had a book that suggested good placed to eat, but find these places proved difficult to find. Finally, after much walking around in neighborhoods that we had not been to before, we found a restaurant that had a menu that we all agreed we liked. The downside was that smoking was allowed. Austria still allowed smoking in some bars and restaurants, but we were not going to let that stop us. My Thanksgiving dinner was pasta with larger chucks of turkey. It was one of the best meals I had on the trip so far. Add to the meal a local beer and the Thanksgiving experience was complete. The smoking wasn’t too bad, but apparently most people wait until after eating to smoke, and somehow everyone finished eating at once. This meant that what ever clothes we were wearing would not be worn again on this trip.

Thanksgiving Dinner 2010

After dinner we walked around a little more along the way to the subway. Once one the subway we were quickly back at our hotel. This was our last night in Vienna, and the next day, Friday, we were flying to our next destination. My sister and I were headed to Frankfurt, and my brother and his wife were off to London. We arranged for a taxi ride to the airport the next morning, even thought our flights left one hour apart. Back in my room I packed all my dirty and smoky clothes in my checked luggage and all my clean clothes in my carry-on bag. I quickly fell asleep after a long day of walking and was ready for the trip home via Frankfurt, Germany.

Vienna 2010: Bratislava Day Trip

We had planned a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia back when we decided to go to Vienna. Bratislava is only a one hour train ride away from Vienna. But since daylight was an issue, we wanted to get an early start. So we met up in the lobby of the hotel at 7 AM and made our daily trek down the street to the café for pastries and coffee. There was a subway station near the café, and we bought a two day pass, knowing that we would be using the subway for the next two days.

So looking at the map of the subway and where the train station was that we needed to get to for the ride to Bratislava, we determined that it was rather simple to take two lines to get to the train station. However, at the second stop, we looked at the map and thought that the train station was within walking distance. So we took the stairs up to the streets and quickly found ourselves lost amongst a construction zone. We saw the train tracks, but no train station. Eventually we asked a construction worker where the train station was but he did not speak English nor did he know where the station was even after looking at a map. So we retraced our steps and got back to the U-Bahn. Once there we followed the signs that led us to our stop and soon realized that we needed to take the S-Bahn (Stadtschnellbahn" (meaning "urban rapid railway")).

Lucky the subways and trains come at least every five minutes, and when the S-Bahn arrived our stop was just one stop away. This time we saw the train station and quickly walked there and bought four round-trip tickets to Bratislava. The train was leaving in 10 minutes so we didn’t have long to wait. Once on the train we found some nice comfortable seats. There were plenty of open seats as the train was not crowded at all. The trip to Bratislava took about an hour. This was the express train, which did not stop at all stations, but we did stop several times to allow other trains to pass by on the shared tracks.

We arrived in Bratislava around 11 AM, I believe, and once we left the train station we knew that the city center was a short 15 minute walk away, mostly down hill since we were waling towards a river. Our first unusual experience in Slovakia was a mentally disturbed man who was walking along and yelling and spitting on the ground. We purposely walked fast to avoid him. Soon we found our first stop, a bright-white palace. At this time the weather was cold but the sun was out. After taking a few photos we continued towards the city-center. The night before, my sister-in-law had mapped-out a few sites to see, so we at least had a destination – the oldest street in Bratislava. Along the way, there were many interesting buildings to see.

Our first destination was “the oldest street in Bratislava”. Now that may not sound too interesting, but just the journey of trying to find the street turned into an adventure. We found the general area, and the streets defiantly looked old, but we never know for sure which was the actual oldest street. Along the way we took many photos, and in some cases had people walking by looking at us strangely.

Our next stop was a castle on a hill. Reading up on the site, we knew it was under construction and not open, but still worth visiting. The castle sat atop a hill, so we walked up steep streets to reach it. Once there, the views of the city were spectacular. We could see the river below, the “UFO” tower and the brightly painted Soviet-style buildings across the river. Once again, these sites would have looked much better in the sunlight, but it was actually starting to get colder and darker. We ended up in souvenir shop where I bought my standard magnate to add to my collection on my refrigerator.

It was lunch time and we were all hungry. So we walked back down to the historic city center and looked for a place to eat. We wanted to eat at a restaurant that served local food, but somehow ended up at an Irish Pub. As it turned out, the food here was excellent! The meal was much better than the one in Budapest, and even the local beer was slightly better.

When we left the restaurant we realized that the weather was becoming dark and cold. We once again ended up in a Christmas market, when it started to rain. We all had umbrellas, which kept us dry but not necessarily warm. It was starting to get dark, so we knew we had limited daylight. We found an information center where we finally got a local map. Reading the local guild book we had, we knew there was one more site to see – the blue church. There were actually signs that were labeled “Blue Church” that we followed and soon found the church that was very indeed, painted blue. We took many photographs of the church and its blue paint, and even though the church was closed, the front doors were open and inside we saw that it was just as blue and took more photos.

At this point we knew we had seen all that we needed to see. So we headed back to the train station. The rain stopped and we put away our umbrellas, but it was still cold. The walk back to the train station was all uphill, which wasn’t that steep, but after days of walking made our legs feel quite tired. Once at the station we found that we had just missed a train, and had to wait for over an hour for the next one. Surprising, the wait went by rather quickly, and when our train arrived it was on track #1, so we were able to walk to the train directly from the first floor of the station. We had expected that the train would be busier since it was “rush hour”, but once again there were plenty of open seats. The train left right on time, and like before, we had our tickets checked twice.

The train seemed to make less stops on the way back, and we arrived in Vienna in less than one hour. Now that we knew the how to get back to our hotel, the trip took less time. Take the A-Bahn to the U-Bahn, two stops and transfer to another line and pretty soon we were at our hotel. Having eaten a hardy lunch, we didn’t need a dinner. So our plan was to meet down in the lobby at 8 AM the next morning. This allowed us time to sleep in – somewhat. I was surprised at how tired I was and found myself falling asleep by 8:30. Tomorrow was Thanksgiving day, and we had no specific plans other than to see sites we had not yet seen and have nice Thanksgiving meal.

Vienna 2010: Budapest Day Trip

Two days before we verified that the trip to Budapest was still on. If there weren’t enough people signed up then the company could cancel. We were told that the shuttle would pick us up at our hotel, and that we needed to be at the Opera House meeting point by 7:30, but we were not told when the shuttle would arrive. We assumed that 6:30 was early enough, so we planned to meet in the lobby then. However, at 6:15 my phone rang and it was my sister telling me that the shuttle driver was downstairs waiting for us. Luckily I was ready to go, since I had been up for 90 minutes. I ran downstairs to make sure the drive didn’t leave without us.

Once we were all ready, we boarded the shuttle, which made one more stop to pick up more passengers before we got to the tour bus. We arrived in plenty of time and the bus left once everyone was on board. There were about 20 people on this tour, which isn’t a lot unless you consider that it was a Tuesday during the off-season. The tour guide was a nice woman who apparently spoke English, Hungarian, Spanish and German. All but two of the passengers spoke English, so had to repeat everything in Spanish. There was one man from Russia that didn’t speak English very well, but his wife ( I assume it was his wife ) translated for him.

The bus ride to Budapest takes about two hours, and during that time the guide spoke about Budapest and Hungary. Once again it was information overload. I’d say that the two most important facts I remember is that Budapest is made up of two cities, Buda and Pest, and Pest is pronounced “Pesht”. Plus, once we arrived she pointed out that the Buda side was on a hill and the Pest side was completely flat. They were separated by a river Duna (or Danube). During the ride she also played a DVD about Hungary, which she called a “special surprise”, but we had read the reviews of this trip, all of which were positive, so we knew about the DVD. Many of the passengers either slept or listened to their iPods during this video.

I enjoyed the ride. It was nice to just relax and look out the window at the countryside. There were lots of farms, many with power-generating windmills, and small towns with small houses sitting amongst the green hills. I tried to take some photos out the window, but most turned out blurry.  Once we arrived in Budapest the guide once again pointed out sites of significance. In some cases, she repeated herself two and even three times. Our first stop was, well, even after being told three or four time, I can’t remember the name, but there was memorial, music house and perhaps a museum. As we drove through the center of Budapest the guide kept pointing out buildings that you could only see briefly if you looked down “the next street to the right”. Not much opportunity for photos.

At our first stop we immediately headed to the bathrooms. The bus had a bathroom, but it was very small like in an airplane, so I opted to wait. We only had about 15 minutes to walk around, so I took as many photos as I could of the buildings. Unfortunately, it was once again cloudy, with the sun poking out from behind the clouds occasionally. Lots of the buildings in this city were brightly painted and would have looked better with more sunlight. After our 15 minutes everyone boarded the bus for our next stop – lunch!

We crossed the river again and drove up a hill where the bus had to stop because large buses are not allowed to drive on the top of this hill because there are cave underneath and the buses could shake the ground and cause a collapse, I guess. So we walked five minutes to the designated restaurant for the lunch that we pre-paid for on the bus ride there. We had a choice of the standard Hungarian meal or a vegetarian substitute. Most people got the standard meal, which included Goulash soup, chicken with rice and a desert. My sister and I had a Hungarian beer because our goal was to have a local beer in each of the four countries. The beer was just another yellow fizzy beer, not much better than Budweiser. Overall I was not impressed with the food, and the family that skipped the lunch had the right idea.

After lunch the next leg of the trip was a one-hour walking tour of the area with a local guide. She led us around the streets, once again pointing out site of interest and also allowing us time to take photos. We ended up at a place that had a great view of the river and city below. There are quite a few very large and uniquely designed buildings, none of which we got to see up close or go inside, but were able to take photos of. At this point I think we all realized that it might be worth a return trip to stay a few days in Budapest. There is a lot to see and our time was limited on this trip.

After the walking tour ended, we got on the bus and continued the bus tour of Budapest. We drove back over the river to the Pest side, drove by more buildings, including the second largest Synagogue in the world. Who know that the second largest Synagogue would be in Hungary? The area we drove around was pretty near where we were dropped off for our two hours of free time, so we had an opportunity to explore some of these sites later.

Around 3:30 in the afternoon we were dropped off and given two hours to explore the city. The guild was pushing everyone to check out the Christmas market and the Café next door. With the sun setting fast, I did my best to get us to some sites before it got too dark for photos. We headed for the nearest Cathedral, or in this case a Basilica, which I can’t remember the name of, because they always make for good photos and have a climbable tower. I believe this one had a tower, but like most places in Budapest, they only took the local currency and not Euros. We could have exchanged some of our Euros, but decided it wasn’t worth it. So walked into the Basilica where I took my token photo of the pipe from the pipe organ. As we walked around we found the room that contained a mummified hand that belonged to someone. While we were looking, someone paid the 2 Euros to have the small case lit up. I snapped a few photos not realizing yet that someone had just paid for this, but I’m sure they didn’t mind.

Once outside the church, we looked at our map to see what else we could visit before we needed to head back. We walked down the street to the Opera House, but it was a rather boring building, so we started our walk back to the Christmas market. Along the way we took an underground tunnel where there was a train museum, but they didn’t take Euros so we skipped that site too.

Back at the market, we walked around some, but this market was not as good as the one in Vienna. They were selling more “made in China” merchandise and less homemade crafts. There was also a band playing what I assume was Hungarian Christmas music so we listened to them for a few minutes. It was starting to get very cold, and about that time a man that was on our bus walked by and said the café did serve good coffee, plus it was warm. So we went in and eventually ordered some coffee or cappuccino. We were getting short on time so we paid the bill and walked back to the bus. By now it was getting dark and many of the buildings along river are lit up very brightly at night, which provided great photo opportunities.

We then boarded the bus, which was comfortably warm. Everyone made it back on time except for the family with the rather well behaved son, who they must have taken 100 photos of. Once they made it to the bus, we headed out. The guide continued her commentary until we were outside the city. She promised that she would talk less on the way home, which she did. Since it was dark outside there wasn’t much to see. Luckily I brought my iPod and listened to music. I even fell asleep for at most five minutes, but that was long enough to give me a second wind. The ride seemed to take forever, but soon I recognized the Vienna airport, so I knew we were just 30 minutes away. The bus dropped a few passengers off before returning to the Opera House. Once there we boarded the smaller shuttle which took us to our hotel.

Even though it had been a long day, we were hungry and needed some food. So off to Wienerwald we went. I ordered the same beer and food as before and we had the same waitress. As I said before, the people in Vienna are very nice, but the people who worked in customer service were also very professional and took their job seriously. There was no small talk, just take the order and serve the food, but in a friendly way.

We got back to the hotel near 10 PM. Having been awake since 5 AM, it had been a very long but fulfilling day. I knew I would sleep well, even though we had another semi-early wake up time. Wednesday was our day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia. We wanted to maximize our time in the daylight, so we planned on a 7 AM meeting time in the lobby. Once I was in bed, I fell asleep quickly and into dreamland I went.