trace evidence

San Francisco, Summer 2009

2009-08-16T09:25:16Z

This summer's excursion was to San Francisco. Although the travel books and several people said that San Francisco was cold and foggy, and we did have fog, as you can tell in the photos, the weather was actually very nice. We stayed near Union Square, which is, I guess, above the early morning fog of Fisherman's Wharf, so most days were comfortably warm. (I should have brought sun screen!)

On the first day, we took a walk down to the Ferry Building, where I was greeted by a friendly seagull posing for a picture:

We headed back to the hotel for a quick nap, and took the cable car up, and down, and up, and down, and up, and down, to Fisherman's Wharf. It was getting cool and foggy, and the wind picked up. After a meander, we got in the long line for the cable car:

The car right before ours broke down, so we had to wait until the special cable car tow truck (a) came and (b) towed the car to the top of the hill, so it wouldn't roll back down and crash on the next car. What was most entertaining was watching all the people in line who either forgot or didn't know that San Francisco got cold and windy in the evenings.

The next day, we toured the city with Tower Tours. Because the fog was higher than the water, we could only see the bottom of the Golden Gate Bridge:

Also, because the fog was high, we couldn't go to Twin Peaks to take pictures of the city (all we would have gotten was fog), so the driver took us to the coast instead - to Cliff House, overlooking Ocean Beach, the old Sutro bathhouse ruins, and Seal Rocks.

After that, we took a tour through the fancy areas of San Francisco, and stopped to take some pictures of the Painted Ladies on Steiner Street, right across from Alamo Square:

We rolled by Lombard Street, and a cable car kindly positioned itself at the top of the street for a photo op:

After a bit more touring, (pictures weren't great because of the windows on the bus), we ended up at Fisherman's Wharf, ate our first lunch at an offshoot of the Boudin sourdough bakery (clam chowder and a grilled cheese sandwich on sourdough for me), and then took a trip to Alcatraz. The boat trip was fun, but I'll have to admit I wasn't too impressed with the history of the place. This was a neat shot of some of the old ruins, though:

Also, this man, J.B. Albright, was there signing his book about being the last guard off the island when it closed:

(I thought he looked too kind to be a guard.)

We then headed back to the hotel, this time using the F line - the trolleys, rather than the cable car.

The next day, we took the cable car once again to Fisherman's Wharf (this time, in a cable car reported to have been used by Humphrey Bogart when he was in the city - this information was carved in the rafters at the front of the car). We took a spur-of-the-moment tour on a cable-car wannabe (a bus decked out like a cable car), which was better than the other tour, as the windows were open for better pictures, and he took us to different locations, including over the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped first to look up at the bridge from the south side:

and also took some pictures of the city from this vantage point as well:

Then we went over the bridge and looked at things from the other side, including a nice shot of the Bay Bridge:

This is a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge, looking directly at it from the north side viewing area:

We toured through the Presidio (nice forests) and wandered through some more streets and looked at some impressive mansions along the way. Afterwards, we ate lunch at the original Boudin bakery (this time, clam chowder and a turkey-havarti sandwich on a sourdough roll; MUCH better than Cobbs!).

We headed back to the hotel, and I took a meander to Macy's, although I wasn't impressed with their selection, which was probably good as we only had carry-on baggage.

On Thursday, we took the cable car up to the top of the hill and then walked over to Chinatown:

After poking through some of the tourist stalls along the street, I did some more shopping (again, not too much in terms of selection), and ended up at the bookstore. I bought Wicked, which a friend had said was better than the musical. (So far, I'm half way through it, and not only is it better than the musical, it is entirely different. Entirely. (But I digress.)) We then went back to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner.

Friday morning involved wandering around the Union Square area and relaxing until our 12:00 checkout time, followed by a walk to BART and a journey through Oakland back to the airport. After an hour's wait because a mechanic had to come and check the plane following its bird strike (the plane won), we headed back to Bellingham, and back home.

San Francisco, Summer 2009 remains copyright of the author tracebc, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Oregon Coast

2008-08-18T17:36:01Z

Here are my photos from the Oregon Coast. Just a few of them!
(See my photo gallery for larger pictures: http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/gallery/users/tracebc/ )

Newport

The beach:

The beach again:

I got my feet wet soon after this next picture:

I figured an art deco bridge should be in sepia tones:

Closeup of a sea lion hanging out on a pier in Newport:

Lighthouse

Agate Beach, a wonderful little beach with mini sand dunes:

Bandon - the not-so-nice zoo (Animals are in small cages, making for great photos, but sad animals.)

A sleeping lion:

These guys run around in a little "gang" amongst the people. They're very skittish: the bear, in a cage, will lunge at them to try to catch lunch, and they'll take off, thinking he can catch them:

Baby panther, waiting to be petted:

Winston - the good wild animal safari park (Well worth the visit - you drive through it in a car, and only have to have the windows down when you go through the bear section.)

Antelope-like guys - I love his expression:

Baby buffalo, guarded by mommy's hoof (and an abundance of flies hanging around mommy). One of her friends got in front of Darrin's car and licked his bumper. We got stuck in the middle of the herd for about five minutes before they moved enough to get through. They seem to enjoy this immensely:

Near the duck pond:

Zebras:

A black bear exploring the bulrushes:

Can you find the giraffe? He's hiding:

Emu? Ostrich? Hmm. Whatever he is, he tried to stick his head in the car to check out the interior.

Cannon Beach

Haystack Rock and the beach:

Another shot, a little less foggy:

My mark in Cannon Beach:

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Back Home

2007-08-31T21:57:28Z

As some of you know, the bout of ecoli at the end of the trip hindered my updates on here.

In the penultimate evening in the UK, we did end up seeing Wicked, which was worth it.

The last day in the UK was great...up to a point, that is. We went to Warwick Castle and the sun emerged along the way. Warwick Castle is a perfect spot for a family day - there are medieval displays and demonstrations throughout the day (think jousting, archery, falcons, trebuchet, etc.), and is very picturesque.

The Peacock Garden is just that - a large population of peacocks lounging around a sunny, manicured garden.

From there we went to Shakespeare's birthplace along the Avon. Very touristy, but I did manage to get some Macbeth finger puppets (doesn't everyone want these?) and a wonderful mug inscribed with a variety of Shakespearean insults (doesn't everyone want this as well?). This is Shakespeare's home growing up. They figure this was his bedroom window.

We stopped at a pub for lunch, and visited with a very curious horse with attitude in the field beside the pub.

Then we went to Oxford and visited Christchurch College.

The dining hall there was the inspiration for the dining hall in the Harry Potter movies. We were fortunate to be able to go into the secret gardens as (a) students were on holiday, and (b) the flood damage had finally been repaired. Our tour guide said that one month prior, the college was surrounded with over a foot of water. The real Alice (from Alice in Wonderland) used to peek into the gardens from a keyhole, but she was never allowed in. Her father was some sort of professor, as was Lewis Carroll; the latter based his characters on people in Oxford College and around Oxford. Here is the door Alice peeked through:

On the way home, I got sick, which made the next 24 hours, including the plane ride, rather not so pleasant. However, I'm now home, and can share some other pictures that I was unable to upload before. Here they are:

Chillon Castle:

This is the dungeon that Byron visited, then wrote his famous poem: "The Prisoner of Chillon."

Berne (or Bern):

One member of our tour group asked, "Are those really birdhouses up there?" to which Darrin, his mom, and I could hardly hide our giggles. They're chimneys.

A group of matching houses.

Along the highway from Berne to Lucerne

Trummelbach Waterfalls:

The falls inside the mountain were unphotographable due to low light and no tripod.

Lucerne:

The covered bridge in Lucerne. There are pictures painted in panels amongst the eaves of the bridge (and, apparently, even nicer ones in the other covered bridge that I didn't visit)...along with millions of spiderwebs!

A nice shot of Lake Lucerne

I loved the clouds in this shot!

Prague:

This is a detail of the most beautiful stained glass window I've ever seen, in St. Vitus' Cathedral, Prague Castle. It was done by Alfons Mucha, the Czech Art Nouveau painter, in the 1930's. OK, so it's not old stained glass...but it's beautiful! (Go to this site for a larger version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mucha_window_in_St_Vitus.JPG)

The view from our hotel window at night.

Statues on the Charles Bridge, surrounding Prague Castle in the background.

Saint Wenceslas (not actually a king!) is Prague's patron saint; you find his statue everywhere. This is a particularly nice one; in this shot, he is looking at Prague Castle.

An early morning shot across the river from the Charles Bridge.

Details of some Prague buildings.

Budapest:

The Fisherman's Bastion. This area of Budapest was nice.

A statue and tower at the Fisherman's Bastion.

A nice shot of the fireworks on August 20, the main holiday of Hungary - St. Stephen's Day. We chose to skip going to St. Stephen's Basilica at 5:00 to view the mummified hand of St. Stephen that was going to be paraded around the grounds for his special day.

Another nice fireworks shot.

London:

The bell - Big Ben - is silent right now, as he is being fixed.

Not the best picture because of the weather, but this is one of the views from the London Eye.

That's it!!!
Later,
Trace

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London, Day Two

2007-08-23T15:20:05Z

Well, the weather here is still wet! It apparently has been all summer. We did have a reprieve when we went on the London Eye - it was cloudy, but still an experience. You could have done it, Mom, as it goes so slow that, unless you look directly down, you don't feel like you're moving. Just really high. In a glass bubble. That's all. I waved at the queen, but she's rumoured not to be home. After the Eye, I left Darrin and his mom as they did not want to spend hours at the British Museum and the National Gallery. They were going to try to join the crowds at Buckingham Palace instead (and also buy tickets for Wicked tonight) (and probably shop some more).

Avenue Q was stupid. It's an obscene parody of Sesame Street, with people moving the puppets on stage. Don't bother with it! Luckily, the tickets were half price.

The British Museum has changed its exhibits since we were there last. The Rosetta Stone, for instance, is in a major doorway and has crowds of people all around it. It was still interesting to go through it and admire all the Greek, Roman, & Egyptian things. There were tonnes of "Don't Touch" signs around, but I still managed a quick handshake with an Egyptian statue. It was warm...others, I guess, had done the same. The museum is still free, although they suggest a donation amount..."to keep it free."

The National Gallery (also "free") had a (not free) display of Rembrandts (and other Dutch painters) that was worth paying for. After that, I wandered through the rest of the (free) exhibits and revisited the Monets.

So long as Darrin managed to get tickets for Wicked, that's where we'll be tonight. Don't worry...I'm only going out alone during daylight, and I must successfully blend in with the locals (unlike everywhere else I've been) as several people asked me for directions today. I was able to help one of the three.

I'm now on my third 2MB photo card. Which means I've taken about 1000 pictures already. Who's up for seeing them all in a digital slide show next week?!!! It'll be free, but I'll suggest a donation of $10, to keep it free. (So long as I get my computer back.)

I shall go and hang out at the hotel room (which, come to think of it, reminds me a little of Fawlty Towers, except the "hired help" is Russian, instead of Spanish) and read (I conveniently timed the finishing of the book I brought with the purchase of my new book from Foyles, so have started that one) and perhaps watch something from a selection of eight - yes, a whole eight! - English television stations! Four of them are NEWS!!! After this trip, where CNN or BBC World was the only English station in the majority of hotels we've been in, I am never watching CNN again. Not that I did before, anyways, mind you.

I have nine minutes left (I like this 30 minutes for one pound thing...on an English keyboard!), so I should be signing off. I think I might be back before Dad has his appointment. Wouldn't it have been easier for them to have called you?! Darrin, by the way, had Dr. Belle when he was a baby because his feet were all twisty and he needed to wear one of those metal bars attached to his shoes. His mom told me.

Cheerio,
Trace

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London

2007-08-22T14:30:56Z

I am sure glad to be out of Budapest! I think the people that suggest that Budapest is perhaps prettier than Prague must have been on some serious drugs. I would not recommend travelling there for any reason. There were a couple of nice buildings, but they were few and far between. The weather was lousy, too...during the days it was unbearably hot; during the nights, it was unbearably thundery. This led to some nasty headaches. The fireworks our last evening were impressive, though. They followed a severe natural fireworks display (thunderstorm), and spanned the entire horizon from our little itty bitty hotel window. They were then followed by more thunder which delightfully lasted until our plane the next morning was supposed to take off, leading to a delay in takeoff. Luckily, it only added a half hour to our time. As per air conditioning, our room DID have it, if you can call a three-speed fan air conditioning.

I should go away more often, Mom, as you seem to be winning lots while I'm away. And Theresa, I am ignoring all mention of the "S" word.

Now we're in London! We had fish and chips near our hotel for dinner and then took a quick walk through Hyde Park. Our hotel appears to be a converted apartment and is full of corridors and staircases. There is a lift, but as we are on a 1/2 floor between the main floor and the first floor, we can't take it. Our three beds are lined up in a row like the beds in Goldilocks...except they're all too hard!!! At least it's quiet, mind you, as our last few hotels have been on very loud thoroughfares.

This morning we did a tour of London with a tour guide that, surprisingly (!) had a very dry British sense of humour. I think we were the only ones laughing at his wit and wisdom in the entire bus. I also bought myself a book at Foyles today. The weather's not great. After the stinking heat of Budapest (literally stinky!), the wet, windy weather is a bit of a shock to the system. I think tomorrow the weather is supposed to improve slightly. This evening, we are going to a musical that we got half price tickets for - Avenue Q, as The Lion King and Wicked do not sell half price tickets, and they didn't want to go see The Lady in Black.

There's no internet at our hotel, but I can get 30 minutes cheap at an internet cafe about two blocks from our hotel (I am currently sitting beside a display of teddy bears wearing London sweaters).

Tomorrow we are going to ride the London Eye (I'm hoping the weather will improve!), and I am going to go to the British Museum for as long as I can. The next day is our Cotswolds trip.

I'll write again tomorrow or Friday.

Luv
Trace

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Budapest

2007-08-19T18:31:56Z

We arrived in Budapest yesterday. It reminds me of downtown Vancouver or Seattle...dirty, dingy, dusty. NOT my favourite city! Nice to hear from you, Theresa! And mom and dad of course.

I am in a McDonald's right now. they have the cheapest internet. Today we went on a city tour. A little more impressed with Budapest than my first impression, but still not my favourite city.

i've tried to typethis message three times, so hopefully this one will go through!

It's hot as Vegas in August here, but there's no aircon anywhere! Tomorrow's a holiday, so everything will be closed. There will also be a loud airshow along the Danube (we've seen and heard the previews) and fireworks that we will be able to see from our (tiny!) window...we think. We will be no where near the river. This is Hungay's biggest holiday.

I should go, though. To make sure this works!

Have fun, hope the rain stops for the PNE (although on the one English station we get - BBC World - they say it will rain forthe next few days), and see you in less than a week!

No more messages until London Tuesday or Wednesday.

Luv,
Trace

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Prague

2007-08-16T18:43:31Z

As the internet sucks here, this is it until at least Budapest.

Thanks for doing the keys...I'm psychic, that's all! (No...I checked my email & noticed one from Lynne.)

Prague is beautiful. We go on a 6 hour tour tomorrow.

Later,

Trace

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Lucerne

2007-08-16T03:01:22Z

Hello again!

As you can see from above, I didn't write yesterday...thought I'd save my franks for today.

Say hi to Norma for me & tell her I'm thinking of her. I'm glad you got the post cards...I was worried that birdie's post card would get there before yours, mom, and thought that would go over well!

Two days ago we went to the Trümmelbach Waterfalls. It was very pretty, but you had to go up an elevator in the mountain and then hike up a bunch of stairs inside the mountain to see them. I made it to waterfall number 8 (out of ten) before I turned around and headed down.

Then we travelled to Lucerne. Darrin & his mom (along with more members of our group) went up Mount Pilatus, but I just went to the teeny tiny hotel room instead. Then we had our folklore dinner...more alphorn blowing and a variety of other instruments and, of course, yodelling. I never saw any slap dancing, though. I don't know if I mentioned the giant cow bells, though. Imagine very large, very loud cow bells. Then imagine 50 people walking with them, clanging them with every step! That was in the parade. They only had two (thank goodness) in the restaurant.

Yesterday we did a morning tour of Lucerne (there really isn't that much here), and then wandered around town. What was good for the minimal franks I had left was that yesterday was a bank holiday in Switzerland, so most stores were closed. I opted to go on a one hour cruise on Lake Lucerne...that was worth it. We saw Sophia Loren's and Audrey Hepburn's summer home and (Brad will like this!) the summer mansion of the Heineken's (I took a picture for you!) And, Brad, of course I've had a beer here! It's as cheap as soft drinks in most places, and it's way better than the water!

Then we had our farewell dinner. It's sad to say goodbye to some of the group...the two sisters (84 and 82 years old) from Ottawa (the oldest reminded us of Aunt Clara from Bewitched), the retired principal and his wife from Pennsylvania, the 56 year old (very funny) guy from Australia, the social worker and his librarian wife from Boston, the retired optometrist and his wife from New Jersey, the two widows from Tennessee and Oklahoma, and even the back-injured construction worker and his wife from Boston. The others...it's a more fond farewell! Overall the group was nice, except for the three that I didn't mention, who were very loud, opinionated, and vied for attention all the time.

We're up early this morning as we have to take a limousine (!) to Zurich airport. It's cheaper than a cab, and we're splitting the cost with the woman from Oklahoma (who has bought out Austria and Switzerland, I'm sure!). Who knows what the internet is going to be like in the Czech Republic and in Hungary! So long for now...

Luv
Trace

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Bern

2007-08-14T04:48:37Z

We journeyed for a long time today. As I said, yesterday morning I shopped. Then we took the train back to Tasch and boarded our bus for yet another long journey. Everyone is getting very tired...I think most of us slept for at least an hour along the journey. The castle of Chillon (in French-speaking Switzerland) is beautiful...if I remember correctly, it was pictured on my lit text from high school, and it's still exactly the same! We took a tour of the inside, saw where the Prisoner of Chillon was held and where Lord Byron signed his name on a pillar inside the prison. Here the tour group cheered me for hopping into teacher mode and keeping naughty children (and parents) quiet while our local tour guide was giving us a tour.

Then we travelled to Bern (back in German-speaking Switzerland...zut, alors!) and went to our hotel fairly late and tried to figure out how to make the lights work. After several minutes of trying, we exited our room, only to find the other members of the group out in the hall as well, wondering the same thing. It turns out that the key card that opens the door (and also, we found out later, controls the elevator) fits in a little slot by the door. You need to leave it there in order for the lights to work. (Whatever.)

Today, we take a quick local trip of Bern, stop in Interlaken to go to some waterfalls somewhere, and then go to Lucerne. I can't believe that this part of our journey is almost over! We need to leave our hotel around 5:30 the day after tomorrow to take our flight to Prague.

Not much else to say today. I'm glad you guys like the pictures...that is only a VERY small percentage of the volumes of pictures I have taken. If I showed you a slide show of all my pictures, at 5 seconds each, you'd probably be sitting for half a day! (Perhaps I exaggerate...a bit!)

Later,

Trace

PS...I tried to call again this morning, but have no idea how telephones work here. I have a feeling you won't be hearing from me via telephone this trip.

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Picture update

2007-08-13T08:55:44Z

Ah, an English keyboard!!!

Darrin and his mom have gone up the Klein Matterhorn today with the group but I stayed back in the city...too many high altitude trips for me in a row! Of course, now I've spent around 150 francs instead...bought a pair of eidelweiss earrings...that was the most expensive part!

The bonus was that another Globus traveller wanted me to look after his computer while they went, and he said I could use his internet if I wanted to!

This means I can upload a whole bunch of pictures.

So...here they are!

Salzburg:

Salzburg castle

Salzburg castle again, with statue

Salzburg sunset

Way from Salzburg towards Switzerland

Chur

Matterhorn sunset, first night

Matterhorn sunrise number 1 (I went with another avid photographer from our group!)

Matterhorn sunrise number 2

Matterhorn in daylight (from our trip up the cogwheel railway to Gornergrat...beautiful!)

Zermatt folklore parade...these alphorns sound neat, but I think they only know two songs, and after hearing them all day, they can get a little tiresome! (We even went to sleep hearing them!)

That's it!

I'll try to call soon. (And as you may have noticed, the weather has improved this afternoon!)

Trace

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Quick update

2007-08-13T04:31:40Z

Now, everyone, quit telling mom about Pogo!!! I want my computer back on the 25th of August, 2007!!! Nice to hear from you, Sharon.

I tried to call home, but couldn't find a pay phone, and I have 3 minutes left on line.

Yesterday's weather was beautiful and we went up the mountain and took great shots of the Matterhorn. Then we wandered around the city. Switzerland is expensive, but they have great stuff!

This morning, the weather doesn't look too promising. That's OK as I've seen the Matterhorn in all its glory.

Off to Berne...hopefully they have good computer access.

Trace

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Zermatt

2007-08-12T04:13:28Z

First of all, thanks for writing your message with the top post...it's much easier to find! Now, if the punctuation would just stay the same on every keyboard, I'd be happy...I think I'm almost too used to the y in the z position now...I'll need to adjust when I come back. When is Dad actually going to type a message?!

I have to pay here for the internet, so this will be shorter.

We drove away from St. Moritz in the fog. Some of the more neurotic people on the bus were afraid, but it was beautiful...you could see about 20 feet, and the rocks and cows and sheep in the foggy distance were magical. However, that broke up soon and we were again under the clouds in amazing valley after amazing valley. At one point, on a narrow bend around a cliff, we passed another bus at about 1km/hour, with centimetres between us. We all cheered our driver Stefano when we cleared that! The ever-growing lineup of cars behind us didn't cheer, however.

We reached Chur, and our tourguide got us our first class tickets for a panorama car on the Glacier Express. Until about half way it was cloudy, but then the sky cleared and lent itself to even more beautiful scenery. It has to be one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world! Our tour guide ended up sitting with us, so we got even more information about the surroundings (and a couple interesting scoops on other tours where he had to break up fights for seats!). It's absolutely amazing how some of the houses got where they are, so high up on the cliffs. Very often, the church is the highest building in the little villages.

Once we got to Zermatt, the weather was beautiful, and we saw the Matterhorn for the first time. Of course I've already got tonnes of pictures of the Matterhorn, Mom and Brad! I'm known on the bus as the woman with the camera at her face constantly...although I'm still on card number one.

We had a wonderful dinner and our hotel is just absolutely adorable. We have a balcony with flowers and two bathrooms (which meant I could do some washing and hang things up in my own private bathroom!). The only problem is that for the three beds, two were bunk beds, and no one wanted the top bunk! The main bed was king-size, though, so we put pillows in between the sides and Darrin's mom and I shared the bed.

We took a walk later and took pictures of the Matterhorn in the evening light just before sunset.

Today, we take a trip up one of the mountains and in the afternoon enjoy some leisure time. There is a folklore festival going on this weekend (which meant very busy streets last night), and a parade, we think, goes by our balcony at 2:00 this afternoon...should be fun!

Running out of time now, so I should go.

I DO want my computer back eventually, Mom. Don't listen to Brad. Pogo is not fun...nope, not at all.

Luv,
Trace

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St. Moritz

2007-08-11T03:55:16Z

We spent most of yesterday driving towards Switzerland. We stopped in Innsbruck of Winter Olympics fame (which is very pretty) and took a quick walk around. Our tour guide is not allowed to give tours on the streets, so he filled us up with information and just told us to follow him. Apparently, if they're not official city tour guides, they could get fined. When we got to Maximillian's Golden Roof, the sun popped out briefly for pictures.

I noticed that Mom is using computer slang now...uh...am I going to get my computer back when I get back home? And yes, I realized that it was your message, mom, that won the prize! You were first, anyway, even if wirt does mean worthy as well.

We stopped for lunch at another roadside self-serve restaurant in the mountains. I don't know how many castles we have passed. Then we hit the Swiss border, and I found a German book of pixel puzzles, so was happy. What seemed like forever later, we arrived at Pontresina, which is near some glacier. We hopped on horse drawn carriages that took us up the mountain for an hour to a little viewpoint. The sun peeked out on occasion on the mountain while we were there...it's very good for those picture ops!

After that, we arrived at our hotel in St. Moritz at 7 and had dinner. I'm glad dinner is included here, as this seems to be the haunting ground of the rich and famous. The streets are lined with Versace, Ballys, Rolex, etc. stores.

This morning we're off soon after breakfast as we have to catch the Glacier Express into Zermatt. We've got two nights in Zermatt. One of those days we will go up the Grogneratt and one of them the Klein Matterhorn (not the Matterhorn itself) - although I myself might just opt for one of the mountain ascents.

I'd better go as I do have to pay 1 swiss franc for 20 minutes here...

Later, folks!

Trace

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Full Salzburg Day

2007-08-10T04:26:02Z

Congratulations to Bingo Lady for winning the contest...yes, wirt means host! However, it is not determined if it is Bingo Lady number one or number two...the message wasn´t signed.

Also, please try VERY hard to put your post after the top-most message so I don´t have to search for them. I´m sometimes limited on time!

Yesterday, we did a city tour (walking) in the morning with Veronika as our guide. Lots of the shop owners and guides wear traditional Austrian clothing. She showed us around the city including inside the Dom Cathedral, which is beautiful even without any stained glass anywhere. We also walked through the cemetery where the Von Trapps hid in the movie (although they couldn´t actually have hidden there, as there is nothing to hide behind!). We also saw Mozart´s birthplace, statue, house where he grew up, and lots of other Mozart memorabilia. It was drizzling off and on throughout the day.

After the city tour we walked around on our own through the "old city" (the "new city" is only 400 years old) and I bought a hand-embroidered little tablecloth. It might be too expensive to use as a cover for the bird cage (!), but we´ll see! (It really wasn´t that expensive!)

In the afternoon we went to the Eagle´s Nest (in Germany; we passed through Bavaria), the only part of the Nazi headquarters that was not bombed to smithereens. It was too bad that it was foggy as you couldn´t see the view, but the historical part was very interesting. Some parts along the drive we were on the edge of the mountain and you couldn´t see anything but white on the open side past five feet away! You still knew it was a long way down, though!

For dinner we went to a little restaurant in the outskirts of Salzburg (where I saw a car with a designer license plate "HA WIRT 1" - yes I took a picture!) whose food was a lot better than the night before, and then we went to Hellbrunn Castle, which is an amazing place. Some archbishop with a lot of money and a cruel sense of humour built it for fun just so he could tease his guests. There are surprises around every corner, including trick fountains that could be coming from anywhere! The technology was amazing, considering it was built 400 years ago and was just powered by water coming down from the mountain.

Anyways, I should be going, as we need to have breakfast and leave to go on to St. Moritz. We stop along the way there to go for a horse-drawn carriage ride up to a glacier.

Don´t know when I´ll write next!

Later,

Trace

Full Salzburg Day remains copyright of the author tracebc, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Our Arrival in Salzburg

2007-08-09T02:07:00Z

Well, here we are in Salzburg! And no one has won the contest!

This could be because I forgot to include the link to the hint!

Click on the burgundy words above, scroll down until you see the little box, click in the little box, type "wirt", and hit the button that says either "send," or "search" - I forget what it says. Wait, and scroll down to the definition. When you´re done, you can hit the back button (the left-facing arrow button in the grey part) to get back to this screen.

http://www.ego4u.com/en/dictionary

No, it does not mean "worth" but something else. And happy anniversary to my favourite cousin who lives in Calgary!

I think I know what happened to your posts that "disappeared," Mom - you posted them under a different entry! I just did a search and discovered a whole bunch of comments I´d missed before. Are you doing anything but the computer, Mom?! I guess the instructions worked!

To update the journey, the morning started out with beautiful weather in Vienna, and we travelled to Krems to hop on our boat cruise of the Danube. After waiting in the heat crammed together with little pushy senior citizens and equally pushy bicycle travellers on a little dock (once again, the concept of a line seems foreign to people here), we boarded our cute little cruise ship. The weather was beautiful for the cruise; just enough of a breeze to keep things refreshing. We docked briefly at Dürnstein (didn´t get off the boat) which has to be the cutest village ever - there is a gorgeous blue cathedral right on the water, surrounded by little homes, and above the village on the cliffs are the ruins of a huge castle.

Then we went further to Weissenkirchen (White Church) and disembarked. What took us 55 minutes by boat took our bus driver 20 minutes by bus...but we had the better view! As soon as we got off the boat, it started to cloud over off and on for the rest of the day.

We then visited the Melk Abbey, which was impressive, and stopped at a little cafeteria-style restaurant at a gas station along the highway for lunch. This doesn´t sound impressive, but I guess they have a chain of these restaurants, and this one was in a beautiful country area surrounded by little villages in the distance. Later we stopped at Mondsee which reminded me very much of Leavenworth (the most touristy place we´ve been so far), but had the cathedral which was used for the wedding scenes in The Sound of Music. It doesn´t look as gaudy in the movie as it does in real life. The building itself is very plain - painted pink and white on the inside - but the "extras" they have all around the inside are dark, dark wood and dark, dark paintings...and they´re huge!

Then we went on to Salzburg. It rained along the way, but dried up by the time we got there, although it was still cloudy. The tour guide said that the saying in Salzburg is, "If you can see the castle, it´s going to rain. If you can´t see the castle, it´s raining."

Our hotel room is right by a bunch of train tracks. Luckily, the windows cut a bunch of the sound out, because even with me living near the tracks, the sound of what must have been 15 trains thundering by (just little ones, but they didn´t sound like it!) every 15 minutes was rather deafening.

We went down for dinner in the hotel´s restaurant (salad, boiled beef and potatoes - blech - and curd dumplings with stewed plums - at least the dumplings were ok). Then we went for a walk through the park just prior to 8:00.

You know the scene in The Sound of Music when they are getting married and there are bells ringing everywhere? That´s what Salzburg sounds like. Or at least it did at 8:00. There were bells ringing all over the city for around 10 minutes straight before they rang the bells for the time. It was beautiful. As if on cue, right during that time the sun came out briefly and lit up the cathedral and castle in the distance, which led to some pretty impressive shots of the two landmarks...I wish I could share them with you now! We walked around the fountain pictured in The Sound, walked across a footbridge to the "old" city, and then headed back through the park where a young orchestra was giving a concert right near the fountain mentioned earlier.

Then we went to bed. I´m sure I was asleep by 10:00, which leads me to the realization I just had about 15 minutes ago. What I thought was 5:10 when I got up this morning was actually 2:25. So, here I am typing in the lobby at 3:30 in the morning. I´m sure I´m going to hear from Darrin and his mom when they wake up. And again later. And later after that. At least this gives me lots of time with no one else wanting the computer!

Anyways, I´m wide awake now after four hours of sleep. I´m not too worried, as the anti-motion-sick medicine made me fall asleep several times on the journey yesterday. Today, we are doing a walking tour of the city in the morning, and then taking an excursion to the Eagle´s Nest, of Hitler infamy. Apparently it has wonderful views. We go through the salt mining area as well on this out trip. Then, in the evening, we go for dinner at Helbrunn Castle, a castle known for its "trick" fountains. Water spurts out from unexpected places, apparently!

Well, I should probably head back up to my room and hope they didn´t notice me getting showered etc. in the middle of the night. (I was wondering why the sun hadn´t come up yet!)

Night, and talk to you later!

Trace

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Minor photo update

2007-08-08T04:23:03Z

As I want to be able to get up early enough to see the sunrise on the Matterhorn later in my travels, and as Darrin & his mom go to bed at the ungodly hour of 10:00 (who does that?! the day is still young!) I´ve decided to get up at 5 every morning. Seems to be working.

This site only allows a certain percentage of space for pictures, and the first ones I took were huge, so was taking up about 11% of my allotment for August each picture. I finally remembered the website for resizing pictures, so now I can post way more!

Here are some examples:

1. The parliament buildings just before sunset two days ago

2. Bratislava - the castle is in the background, and a very old stone double staircase (you can just see the two walls of the staircase) is in the front - I looked at the staircase and recognized it from an old dream (freaky, huh?) The staircase is right by St. Martin´s church that I talked about last blog.

3. Neudorf sign - you might not be able to read it, but it´s on the arrow pointing to the left

Last night´s dinner was fun. I´m sure no locals go there; it´s just too "Austrian" and too filled with tourists! It was in an old winery house dating from the 1500s (1527, if I remember correctly) - I think the house itself was a bit younger, but the wine cellar that we toured in the basement was pretty darn old! We sat cafeteria style with the "lady of the house" directing us each where to sit..."Nein, nein, seet HEERE."...we ended up with Jerre from Oklahoma and Frank from Australia (Frank is currently doing a world tour). We had an appetizer of cold cuts and bread (Darrin got my ham; I got his cheese), then a meal of sauerkraut (I tried a spoonful - it was very good and very different from sauerkraut at home; less salty...but it was still sauerkraut!), potatoes, something that resembled stuffing but had egg noodles in it, and a variety of meats - chicken wiener schnitzel, sausages, roasted pork, and cooked ham. I haven´t seen beef on any menu! Dessert was apple streudel (the best I´ve ever had - mostly apples and cinnamon and other spices, and very little pastry). Oh, and they kept putting full pitchers of their own wine (both red & white) and beer on the table, so you could have as much as you liked. We were pretty modest, but some tables were quite liberal with their intake of wine (not from our tour, but the other one!) There were two musicians, a violinist and an accordion player, playing polka music and drinking songs all evening (everything from Eidelweiss through Einz Zvei, Zufa (sp?), through The Saints Go Marching In), and many people - most of the drunk ones - sang along badly.

The storm, by the way, lasted an hour, and it was so hot that the rain dried within a half hour after that. Now it´s sunny again!

Oh, and a quiz: The first person to answer the following question in a comment will win a fabulous Austrian prize, specially bought just for you:

What does "wirt" mean in English? (I learned from Eric, our tour guide, when I asked him after seeing the word on a sign near our restaurant!)

(I´m sure you don´t need a hint, but if you do, go to the following link (click on the burgundy words below!), click on the little white box and type wirt into the box, then click on the word "search.")

Later,
Tracy

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Bratislava & Vienna

2007-08-07T14:15:55Z

Wow, Mom - the computer skills are improving! Pretty soon your entries are going to be longer than mine!! Here´s the church I should have downloaded earlier.

It´s only 4:00 here, but I´m taking a break before we go off into the countryside to a restaurant that includes "Austrian merrymaking."

A little more about Vienna. There are very few cars, considering the size of the city. The transit system was extremely well thought out, and most people take transit. They have "city bikes" (not that I´ve used them) around like shopping carts...you put in your coin and ride away on the bike. Lots of younger people use them.

This morning we went off to Bratislava, which was verz (this "z" where the "y" should be is verz annozing! Now I know how Bill felt when I switched his M and N keys!) interesting. They are much more impoverished, but the architecture is still superb. There are dilapidated buildings, interspersed amongst the buildings in the old city; they are homes that, after the war, no one has reclaimed. They are still waiting a certain amount of time before the state declares them theirs. St. Martin´s church and the city´s castle are picturesque. I tried out my Slovak on the lady that we had to pay to use the "water closet" - dyun-kyu-yen - and she looked at me with a puzzled look. I repeated it, and she finallz understood and corrected my pronunciation... dyun-KU-yen.

One interesting note...we passed through a little town called Neudorf on the way to the Slovak republic. I tried to take a picture of the town´s name on the way back, but I only got the top part of the sign. I did get a little arrow sign in the previous town, though, pointing the way to Neudorf. I think that Neudorf Saskatchewan is bigger than this Neudorf in Austria. I believe there is another Neudorf closer to Salzburg, though.

Anyway, I should be going. Speaking of Salzburg, that´s where we head tomorrow. I don´t know if I´m going to have as frequent access as here to the internet, so I don´t know when I´m going to update this next.

Have fun, everyone! Miss you! (Oh...I think now it´s thundering!)

Trace

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Update 3

2007-08-07T03:39:58Z

Hello, all!

Yes, I´m getting your messages - all four of them! Congrats on winning at Bingo and good fortuitousness, Bingo Lady, for tomorrow. Or maybe it was today. Also, to read your messages, you have to click on the box and pretend you´re going to leave a comment, and be logged on.

We went on a city tour today, and saw everything there is to know about Vienna. I took so many photos that I have to recharge my battery already! Haven´t used up the data card, though.

We walked around after our tour and got lost...we ended up by the Danube when we thought we were farther south on the map. It was easy to find our way back, though. After a nap, we went and visited the parliament buildings and then went to dinner.

Tomorrow our optional excursion will take us to Bratislava (in Slovak) - luckily I took the dictionary that includes a section on Slovak with me! We have the afternoon free, then we go into the countryside for a dinner with our tour.

Tomorrow it´s supposed to rain off and on but it should be OK...we had hot weather today. The only thing that went wrong today was Darrin flicked chocolate sauce at his mom after dinner when he tried to shake a fly away.

Here´s a picture - it was supposed to be of a church but I downloaded the wrong one, so it´s one of a little staircase near our hotel that I took using my mini tripod, while Darrin stood there waiting "patiently"...not!

Bye for now!

Trace

Update 3 remains copyright of the author tracebc, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Update 2: Vienna, Day 1

2007-08-06T03:59:09Z

Hello, all!

I will be able to update each day here (as long as I remember that the "z" key is switched with the "y" key, and the punctuation is all in unexpected spots!) as the internet connection is free. It even has a USB port, so later this evening I´ll post some pictures.

As it turns out, we probably would have made the plane from Heathrow to Vienna, as our flight was late in leaving by almost 2 hours. The flights were fine...the second one flew low enough to see the countryside unobscured bz clouds for the entire journey. We flew over the English Channel, Belgium, and Germany. There are a lot more forests once you hit Germany! We could see the alps off in the distance once we hit Austria. By far, though, Vancouver Airport is tops when it comes to organization; both Heathrow and Vienna have an "every man for himself" policy when it comes to lines and instructions (lines? what for?). Everyone speaks English here, even the taxi drivers.

Nevertheless, we arrived at our hotel just shy of 8:00, and took a quick walk around the immediate vicinity. Vienna is a lot more built up than I thought; there are a lot of industrial areas out by the airport, and outside the "traditional" city, you see lots of graffiti. How is it that everywhere you go, graffiti artists have seemed to have gone to the same art school?! In any case, the city is extremelz clean.

We haven´t met our tour guide yet as we arrived late, but his name is Eric, and our itinerary has been posted in the hotel lobby. We met one woman from the tour already, Jerre from Oklahoma, who told us that our tour has 19 people, five of which are Canadian and the rest American. She filled us in on the scoop for the day. There is an optional excursion that leaves at 7:30, but we´ve opted out, as we thought we´d like a more relaxed start to the day. As it turns out, I was awake at 4:30 and up at 5 because of the time switch. (Imagine that, huh?!) I may has well try to stick to this schedule as it will give me time to blog, before the others wake up.

The posting times will be wrong: it´s almost 6:00 right now. I´m going to sit in the lobby and read up on some of what Wien has to offer.

How´s it going with the computer, Mom? Say hi to the bird for me! Say hi to dad, too!

Later,

Trace

Update 2: Vienna, Day 1 remains copyright of the author tracebc, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Upate One

2007-08-05T12:40:11Z

We're now waiting for our flight to Vienna. If we would have stayed on our other flight, we wouldn't have made it as that flight was delayed! Got to go...time's running out on this computer.

Trace

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Picture test

2007-07-28T20:51:44Z

Just seeing how hard it is to upload pictures!

From a couple weeks ago, behind City Hall (New Westminster):

A closeup from the same day:

Picture test remains copyright of the author tracebc, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Prague, Budapest, and London

2007-07-28T19:57:59Z

The same as the last post, but for the rest of our trip:

In Prague:
Rott Malé náměstí
Tel.: 1-866-899-8039 toll free
http://www.hotelrott.cz/

In Budapest:
Mercure Nemzeti
Tel : (+36)1/4772000
http://www.mercure.com/mercure/fichehotel/gb/mer/1686/fiche_hotel.shtml

In London:
Quality Crown Hyde Park
Tel: (44) 20 7262 6699
http://www.qualitylondonhotels.com/london_hotels_hydepark_info.html

One week to departure!!!

Prague, Budapest, and London remains copyright of the author tracebc, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Austria-Switzerland

2007-07-28T19:46:28Z

Here's a close-up of the tour part of our travels (from Globus: http://www.globusjourneys.ca/gl/templateAction.do?tourCode=ZC&versionDate=2007-01-01 ).

Where we'll be (at least according to the itinerary!) during this time:

In Vienna:
Hotel De France
Tel.: +43 1 31 368
http://www.austria-hotels.at/en/hotel-de-france/virtual-tour/360-view/Hotel/Hotel-Lobby---Atrium.html

In Salzburg:
Best Western Stieglbräu
Tel.: +43 662 88992
http://book.bestwestern.com/bestwestern/productInfo.do?propertyCode=89051

In St. Moritz:
Hotel Monopol
Tel. +41 (0) 81,837 04 04
http://www.monopol.ch/index.php?id=1&L=1

In Zermatt:
The Pollux
Tel.: 027 966 40 00
http://www.reconline.ch/pollux/

In Berne:
Hotel Allegro
Tel.: +41 (313) 395500
http://www.abnet.at/hotel-ch/bern/allegro/index.html

In Lucerne:
Grand Hotel Europe
Tel.: +41 41 370 00 11
http://www.europe-luzern.ch/

Stay tuned for more!

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Upcoming Travel Plans

2007-07-28T20:24:11Z

Roll over the yellow dots with your mouse for details:

See the itinerary of this trip, and details about each destination.

Saturday, August 4: Vancouver - Vienna, Austria
Sunday, August 5: Arrival in Vienna
Monday, August 6: Vienna
Tuesday, August 7: Vienna
Wednesday, August 8: Vienna - Melk - Salzburg, Austria
Thursday, August 9: Salzburg
Friday, August 10: Salzburg - Innsbruck - St. Moritz, Switzerland
Saturday, August 11: St. Moritz - Chur - Zermatt, Switzerland
Sunday, August 12: Zermatt
Monday, August 13: Zermatt - Berne, Switzerland
Tuesday, August 14: Berne - Interlaken - Lucerne, Switzerland
Wednesday, August 15: Lucerne
Thursday, August 16: Lucerne - Zurich - Prague, Czech Republic
Friday, August 17: Prague (happy birthday, Uncle George!)
Saturday, August 18: Prague - Budapest, Hungary
Sunday, August 19: Budapest
Monday, August 20: Budapest
Tuesday, August 21: Budapest - London, England
Wednesday, August 22: London
Thursday, August 23: London
Friday, August 24: London
Saturday, August 25: London - Vancouver, Canada

Upcoming Travel Plans remains copyright of the author tracebc, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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