Manchester -> Toledo

Short flight to Manchester and a quick shuttle ride to the Marriott Manchester Airport. Was a nice hotel and I only paid $92 through Priceline. Took the shuttle back to the airport and paid 1.40 Pounds for an evening return. One tenth of what it costs to get to Heathrow from London. Bah. I think I remember swearing off returning to London at one point in the past and I started to remember why. Anyway, Manchester looked bleak, like Trainspotting bleak. I got off at Oxford Road station and wandered around the city and university area stopping in various bars along the way. I talked to a few people in these places who took a little while, then said "Wait, you're from the States?" One guy said "We don't get many tourists around here. Apparently the guide books say this isn't a safe city." I can see why, although even the guys with all the ink were cool.  There really weren't any tourists, they had real ale (Old Peculiar, Old Speckeled Hen) for 2.50 Pounds ($4.60) as oppossed to the 3.20 for 1664 or Carlsberg in London (The Southwark Tavern did have Budvar and Staropremen for 2.95 which wasn't bad), and the pubs weren't packed because the students appeared to be mostly gone.

The airport was a mess the next day for my flight back. They have a nice space but people are everywhere and the layout sucks. They put two big planes to Chicago that depart 20 min apart at a shared boarding area. For an hour preceeding the flight, every 30 sec there were "DING DING!" and some boarding announcement. Very annoying as was the security before checkin. They had people asking questions about bag packing and other useless crap then had to pick a receipt for your trip out of a stack. Very lame when you have a full 767. Some combination of AA and the airport should make this better. AA kinda sucks for in-flight service and beer/wine were $5. I'll definitely stick with BA or Lufthansa or even United in the future if at all possible. O'Hare was its normal big crappy self and the flight back to Toledo was uneventful. After paying a $140 parking bill and an hour of driving, I was back in Ann Arbor. Yay. Now for Summer.

Wimbledon and London

Stayed at the Southwark Rose for two nights then moved to the Hilton Paddington. Two fine hotels. Nothing terribly special about them. No breakfasts included. Had dinner Sunday night at the Slug and Lettuce in Southwark. Was a big plate of fried things that were prety good. Had much better food including tapas at Brindisa in Bourogh Market and Vinology across the street. Also had good food at my Mom's hotel, the Zetter. The Hilton had the largest rooms of the three hotels. Watched a number of the World Cup round of 16 games including the 0-0 snoozefest that Ukraine won over Switzerland on penalties when the Swiss failed to score. Awful like that UCLA/Memphis Elite Eight game last year. I did talk to a guy the next night during Spain/France who turned 3 pounds into 178 with a parlay betting on the Ukraine/Swiss game to be awful.

Went to Wimbledon with the tickets from the lottery on Monday morning. It was cloudy and after 35 min of watching Kim Clisters it started to rain. We had great seats in the first row behind her coaches' box so we stuck around for a few hours hoping play would resume, but it never did. Very disappointing. Wimbledon was impressive as far as the courts, but the merchandise was weak and for a place that gets a lot of rain, there weren't many areas to stay dry. Oh well. I'll try again sometime in the future. Did make it to the Tate Modern for a mix of good strange art and bad strange art. They did have Steiglitz's "Steerage" in the photo exhibit which was interesting to see in person.

Instead of taking the tube to Heathrow for about $12, I opted to have lunch and a pint and take the $26 Heathrow Express. Figured I had only paid $50 for my LHR-MAN ticket and it was kind worth it. Hoped to find less tourists in Manchester before heading back to the US.

Paris

Catching up on blog entries.

Made it to Paris late Thursday and to the Hotel Metropolitan via RER and Metro. Tiny room with a huge king bed that was pretty close to a Westin Heavenly Bed as they claim. Met up with my Mom and one of her friends for a few days before heading to London on the 26th. Went to the http://www.musee-orangerie.fr and http://www.musee-orsay.fr. The Orangerie was impressive with the rooms of Monet's water lillies and the collection downstairs. The Orsay is huge and filled with school groups which detracted from the excellent and huge collection they have. I liked the Neo-Impressionism rooms. The paintings are made up of little dabs of paint that are impressive when viewed from close up.

Had some good food. There was a market Saturday morning on the Ave de Woodrow Wilson where I had some sort of Lebanese flatbread with tomato, herbs, and two kinds of cheese cooked on a convex metal grill. Had North African including a great Algerian wine at 404 and buffalo mozzarella followed by chicken paella then cheese with wine from Gascony at Le Kiosk (Place de Mexico) which had a great weekly menu featuring pyrenees specialties. Also had a few Belgian beers and some frites with dijon mayo at http://www.academie-biere.com.

On a rainy Sunday morning, cought the Eurostar for the three hour trip to London from Gare du Nord. Totally uneventful trip although I noticed that the tunnel pretty much puts everyone to sleep.

US v Ghana in Nurnberg

Took another lovely three train combo from Kitzbuhel to Nurnberg to see the US play Ghana. Met up with one of my brother's friends after a few rounds of "Where are your going to be when?" emails. He did manage to show up at the train station when my train arrived. Since I had already gone to the Czech game and I had to make a flight around 8:30, I sold my ticket for 50 Euro (+15 ticket scalping, -100 blackjack) and we went, had a few beers, and watched the game in the town square. Was pretty disappointing to watch the US lose and Ghana advance but whatever. We still have a long way to go in soccer. Should point out that the Rothbier from the Hausbraueri was very good despite what some others think. http://www.ratebeer.com/Beer/altstadthof-rothbier/35894/ 

 

We had checked luggage at the train station when we got in and when I went to get mine, it was in a room with a few thousand bags. I can't imagine how long the line was when people got back from the game. Made my flight to Paris on time and got a ham and swiss sandwich and a small bottle of red wine. On a 75 min flight. Once again, US airlines: You can do better. Also got a few pictures of the US team boarding their plane that I'll put up.

 

iPods take way too long to fully charge.

 

Ljubljana -> Kitzbuhel

Took a train from Ljubljana to Schwarch in Austria then an hour train into the mountains and Kitzbuhel. The train was delayed an hour arriving into Slovenia and we ended up sitting around Villach for two hour waiting to get hooked up to the next train through. Spent the time talking college baskeball with the UConn grad in my train compartment. Stayed at the Hotel Zur Tenne which was awesome at 95 Euro/night. Nice buffet breakfast with meats, cheeses, breads, and eggs cooked to order or ham and eggs depending on the day. Met a few Brits and a guy from Boston the first night and hung out with them watching World Cup matches. Took the Hannenkammenbahn gondola up one morning and did a three hour (round-trip) hike topping out around 6500 feet along the tops of the mountains. Was very cool to see the higher mountains (up to 12k ft) covered with snow off in the distance. Kitzbuhel feels a lot like what Vail has aspired to be. It's pretty expensive for food and drinking but a fun town nonetheless. The Londoner, an infamous apres-ski bar is pretty dead in the Summer.

 

Nothing else too eventful in this part. Just a few nice days hiking in the mountains.

Kitzbuhel and Paris coming soon

I can email OK using these French keyboards but typing in a blog entry is hurting my hands. I'll fill in more from London.

Slovenian Lakes: Bohinj and Bled -> Ljubljana

Q: Why did you go to Slovenia anyway?

 

A: I have liked the few Eastern European cities I've been to in the past (Prague and Riga) and Ljubljana reportedly is a nice one as well. I tacked on a trip to the mountains because I bought Loney Planet's "Walking in the Alps" for Austria and the Slovenia parts sounded interesting as well.

 

(Oh goodie, Kelly Clarkson just came on in this cafe and the waitstaff turned it up. Please someone shoot me.)

 

Anyway, stayed at the end of Lake Bohinj at the Hotel Zlatorog. Was a slight step above "rustic". There weren't many people around which was nice compared to Dusseldorf. Hiked up to Slap Savica (a waterfall) then around the lake for a total of about 12 miles the first day. The only minus was that after an hour of uphill hiking, I found two tour buses arriving at the falls. Gah. The next day I took a bus for about an hour to Bled ($4.50) and hiked to Vintar Gorge, doing the 30 min walk along the gorge walkway then back.  No real memorable food to talk of except for the Krema Rezina which is Bled's local cream cake which I had at the newly redone Hotel Lovec's terrace. About a half-inch of vanilla cream over an inch of custard with a light top and bottom. The picture will do it justice. They did have venison goulash at the hotel restaurant but I passed.

 

Attention Loney Planet: Two things. Your Bled->Vintnar route involes walking on a one lane road with little shoulder for 30 min on the way there, then along a road with a nice wide sidewalk for the 30 min back (after the hike out of the woods). Change the damn directions to avoid Podhom. Second, in Bohinj Bistreca, the bus to the lake picks up 50m down the road and across the street from the post office, not at it as the Bled/Ljubljana buses do. That only cost me an hour.

 

Friday involved a two hour bus to Ljubljana ($10) and checking in to the Hotel Domaine Grand Media which has 50" plasma screens with TV and internet. All run through an XP box. I confused IE about 5 min in but I think it eventually crashed and came back. I also got an ActiveX window around CNN last night. They have the right idea but it still needs refinement. This is a pretty small place (280k people) and the nightlife is more university than city. The bar with "beautiful people" was starting to clear out at 1am on Friday night and they were playing Whitesnake's "Here I go again on my own". Incidentally, I heard that on the bus yesterday when there were only a few people on it. It's just like Detroit. Went to try the Irish bar but I heard Freebird coming out the door and didn't see any people inside, so I went and found a cab. Ended up back at the hotel around 2am to find the casino was open (shocking), so I played a little blackjack (down 50 Euro. also shocking.) and went to bed.

 

Had some weak sushi Friday although I suppose I can't be too unhappy since they did actually have sushi and some OK pasta. Had a good mozzellera and ham on cibatta bread for lunch. Might hunt down a mexican place I read about for dinner or just keep drinking whatever Modri Pinot (pinot noir) they're selling here for $3.50/glass and have a salad. One more day here, then to Kitzbuhel on Monday.

 

Random bits:

 

  Germans know Eminem is from Detroit. They know that and cars about it.

  Germans appear to love Dog the Bounty Hunter. He's on a few times a week.

  In Slovenia they say Dober Dan for Hello. Every time I hear it I think of George Clooney's pomade in Oh Brother Where Art Thou? (Dapper Dan) and get a few of those songs in my head.

  They apparently only have two beers in this country: Union Pils and Lasko Zlatorog. Not bad, but I'm going to try to find at least one more before I leave.

 

Dusseldorf, US v Czech, Travel to Slovenia

Pictures coming whenever I find a computer with a USB port.

After the adventure getting to Dusseldorf, I went and watched the French Open with the five people in town not watching whatever blowout soccer game that was on. Proceeded from this to a few other bars trying different varieties of their Alt beers. Not one of them were particularly great. Oh well. Also tried their local (German?) speciality of Currywurst. Essentially a hot dog chopped up and smothered with ketchup mixed with curry powder. Served with mayo if desired (of course I got it with mayo too). Pretty gross.

Stayed at the hotel AtlDusseldorf which had a great location right in the AltStatdt surrounded by bars. The problem with that was (Duh Aaron) some of the bars were open until 5 AM. After three hours of sleep on the plane over 36 hours I slept pretty well.
 

Woke up the next morning sweating from the heat (felt like 90 at 10am) and went to Gelsenkirchen to watch the US v Czech match. Took a train that got crowded with soccer fans. Went to see all the US supporters at the bar near the station then hopped the packed tram to the other end of town to have lunch. Found a nice place with only a few Czech fans and had a great meal around 3:00 knowing that I probably wouldn't be eating till midnight. Had a big plate with pork schnitzel and two thin pork sausages served over roast potatoes, onions, peas, and mushrooms. Was awesome and only 6.5 Euro. Had a few Franzishkanner Weissbiers along with it then left for the game. Outside the stadium was hot, inside was roasting, and the only beer available was Budwiser. The US kind. I passed. The game was awful for the US. A 0-3 defeat that showed how far behind US soccer still may be. Had an uneventful trip back to Dusseldorf and some mediocre tapas for dinner.

 

Next day was a travel day. An ill conceived travel day, but trying to get to a specific lake in Slovenia required a little more planning effort than normal. Shocking that everything worked out.

 

8:45 Subway to the Dusseldorf Hbf

9:07 train to Cologne airport

11:30 flight to Klagenfurt (Austria)

13:00 bus to train station

14:42 Train to Villach (Austria)

15:55 Train to Jesenice (Slovenia)

16:53 Train to Bohinj Bistreca

17:30 Bus to Ukanc

 

Out of time again. More to come when the weather turns bad.

Ann Arbor to Dusseldorf

So I was suppossed to get to Germany by driving to Toledo, flying American TOL-ORD-MAN then Lufthansa MAN-DUS. Since I wanted to have my bag checked all the way to DUS, I showed up 1.5 hours before the flight and after a flury of key clicking, the AA guy got me all sorted out. I then got to wait in a basically deserted airport (Flights now to six cities!) for a boring hour. Plane (RJ EM4) arrives on time from Chicago. Boarding starts. Right as I'm handing my boarding pass over, the radio cracks "We're going to have a slight delay" and I feel a nightmare starting. Sure enough, two hours later after some furious AAgent key clicking and "We don't have a seat on any plane to Europe from any airport. What the Hell is going on?" I'm on my way. To Detroit. In a town car.

 

Fast forward an hour. I've got a paper ticket from AA to fly Lufthansa DTW-FRA-DUS which is the ticket I would have bought in the first place if it wasn't $1000 more than the AA ticket. It says FIRST next to the DTW-FRA portion so maybe that will be a good thing. Arrive at DTW at 5:45 ( 6.5 hours after leaving Ann Arbor) for a 6:15 departure to find two German women with stern looks on their faces at the Lufthansa counter.

 

"Are you Klink?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, we have a problem."

"Crap."

"We can't put you in first because AA won't pay for it"

"OK. Can I get on the flight anyway?"

"Oh sure, you're just in coach and we can't get you a boarding pass to DUS"

 

So thanks for freaking me out. After all this crap, I ended up in an exit row next to a guy heading to Beruit and had a nice flight. "Chicken or Pasta" for dinner. Free booze and wine (definite win over AA), hot towels a few times, and a turkey and cheese sandwich for breakfast (?). FRA-DUS was in business which meant pork medallions, saurkraut, brie, bread, mustard, and carrots. Was good. For a 30 min flight. Hello US airlines! Sort rail ride to my hotel and the drinking (I mean fun!) could begin.

 

I'm behind on this. It's too nice to sit inside though so it'll have to wait. Coming soon: Dusseldorf, US v Czech, getting to Slovenia, and hiking around Lake Bohinj.