dag, that was cool

i really didn't expect to see to much of the last stage of the tour de france. unless you are a somebody there are no seats or bleachers so the rest of us nobodies are left to fend for ourselves along the champs elysees. i saw a few people with step ladders...a very good idea. i first showed up around 9am and there were a few people camped out with supplies for a long day...the race wouldn't be by for almost 10 hours. i was not willing to sit around for that long. i wandered up and down the champs a few times soaking things in and getting a feel for where i did want to try to see things from. so the last day is about 102 miles and it finishes up with 7 laps up in paris along the champs elysees with a u-turn at l'arc de triomphe down the quai de tuileries a left turn just before the louvre up rue de rivoli. the area around the place de concorde and finish line were pretty well taken with bleachers and tents so i figured the end towards l'arc would be best...smartly i chose the side that was in the shade. in the hours before i wandered around the city not wanting to get too far away and made my way back around 1ish. the pre-race caravan would be by around 2:45 and the race about 2 hours later. the pre-race caravan is about an hours worth of the sponsor's vehicles driving by slowly, blaring music and honking there horns.

as much as i wanted to see this i didn't even want to stay standing at or close to the baracades for hours on end. i perched myself on a ledge of a window of a store and chilled...for a long time. sitting there i had resigned myself to the fact that i really wasn't going to see much and then for some reason the sanitation workers who had been by a bunch of times moved a trash can closer to a tree. now when i say trash can what i mean is this large block of concrete on the ground from which a 2" diameter pipe rises vertically to about waist high on me and attached to this pipe are 2 metal hoops that hold trash bags. i got up and inspected the situation and felt that there was enough of a perch where the hoops met the pipe for me to get a good part of one foot on and i could lean on the tree for support. if it was possible i would be up there for 30-40 minutes. it worked!

i got up there as the first escort vehicles drove by and had a decent view...not great but not bad. they ride pretty close to the gutter (the champs elysees is cobblestone and the only smooth place is the gutter which is concrete...it's dangerous to ride there but that's how they do it) so when they were headed to l'arc i could see them but barely on they're way back. here's a 2 minute video...remeber, i'm perched precariously holding on to a tree so it's not going to make wide world of sports (even if that show were still around)

all in all a pretty good day. i saw more than i expected and leard alot for the next time i'm here and get to see the race.

oh yeah, the rest of paris is nice too...but i'll tell you about that later.

at the line of scrimage i called an audible...

at the beginning of the trip it was easy to get reservations at hostels...now not so much. also some of my train journeys require a reservation which also is harder to get. if this is what it's like traveling when the economy isn't so good i can't imagine what it's like when it's really busy. after a lot of time at the computer trying to figure things out i changed my itinerary a bit...i was supposed to leave rome go to nice, provence, normandy and then paris. besides the booking issues i had heard so many good things from fellow travelers about an area of italy called cinque terre (pronounced chin-qwa tear-ah). nice and provence are out...cinque terre is the new stop. very, very glad i did this juggling! on the train from rome i woke from a nap to look out the window to the sun shining, low in the sky over the medditeranean some where close to pisa. very nice. now in germany all the trains run to the second and in italy most of the trains run on close to on time but the lesser, regional trains seem to run on a clock of their own. at the rome station i had two options - take the 4:30 train and stand up for about 4 hours or wait to 6ish and ride in first class...didn't take a fraction of a second to decide that one even though i was going to be cutting it close to catch the shuttle bus to the camp ground i was staying at. do you see where this is going...cutting it close, trains that run at their leisure...missed the shuttle. it's 10:15pm and i have a 3 mile walk, in the dark ahead of me. the good things, it was a cool night with a slight breeze, i only had one street to walk on to get there and there was a side walk. the bad things i had 35lbs of backpack on me, it was dark and i didn't really know where exactly it was. i made it with the help of a woman walking her dog...we communicated mostly with sign language but it worked.

one of the big attractions of cinque terre is that it's actually a national park and has miles of trails for walking, bike riding, and horseback riding. the most popular is a 6 mile coastal hike. i took the train south to the beginning of the trail and started walking. there are a number of towns along the trail that defy logic in their location...to me it is beyond comprehession that anyone looked at theses places and said..."yeah, this looks good...let's build here!" don't get me wrong...it's beautiful but i can't imagine what the first people to settle here had to go through.

the local info says that the 6 mile hike is challenging but managable so the first mile or so had me thinking that i was getting up early and running and out and back for a really nice 12 mile run. luckily i didn't turn around right then and go get my running clothes...if that was challenging but managable i'd hate to see something harder. about half way through instead of rolling along the coast you start climbing up 100 to 200 vertical (sometimes very vertical) meters and then snaking your way back down...and then back up. again, don't get me wrong i was having a blast but it was crazy at times. at times there was hand rail but others not and there were places that if you would fall off the narrow trail it would not be good...not at all. my original plan was to walk the 6 miles and at monteresso eat and then go for a swim. there's a reason the map list the first 4 miles at 3 hours and the last 2 miles at 2 hours. at one point i counted going down 700 rock "steps" no lie, no exageration. to make it worse my change of plans was to stop and eat some food and drink a beer after the first 4 miles...it seemed like a good idea at the time and it was good spaghetti and bruschetta and the oh boy ain't the beer cold! it was a tough last 2 miles and i think as time was getting along the humidity was starting to increase. again still worth every minute and bit of effort. i'm sure there are places like this but i'm not aware of them the combination of the hilly terrain, the small towns and the views of the medditerranean made for a great day. if you look close at this picture it's a part of the 700 steps that i counted snaking their way down to monteresso. once i did make it to the end of the trail i really only had time to catch the train and shuttle bus back to camp...and even if i had more time i'm not sure that i had the energy to go for a swim.

at this point i didn't have a set plan on when i would leave cinque terre but i still wanted to get in my swim and what could a little beach time hurt? a little internet planning and i decided to take the night train to paris. unfortunately all the coucettes (6 berth sleeping compartments) were taken so i had to go with the more expensive but nicer double sleeper car. a few trains to get me to milan and the 11:35pm night train to paris. it was actually pretty comfortable but still i woke a number of times during the night and the weird thing is with the blinds drawn, the lights out and the door closed and so no visual cue as to the direction of travel each time i woke i felt as if the train had changed direction. and no i hadn't been drinking!

so as of 8:30am today i'm in paris. if you're wondering no i didn't skip normandy and the d-day beaches, i realized it's going to be easier for me to base myself here in paris and do some a day trip or two to see normandy.

i'll try to post one more time before i come home and then i'll work on getting some pictures to you. thanks again for all the comments...it's been fun doing this and know that you all are back there reading about my trip.

see you all soon.

happy trails,
dan

when in rome...

too many times while i've been here the line from anchorman and laughed...almost out loud sometimes.

on my way here from florence i stopped in the small town orvieto on the advice of my friends steve and annette. it was a welcome change from florence and from rome...it's not that it not a tourist trap - it is - but it's a friendlier sort of tourist trap. in the big cities you have all sorts of people hocking all sorts of crap from fake designer wares to toys to aprons with the torso of the statue of david. while orvieto clearly benefits from the tourist's euros it doesn't do it quite so obnoxiously. it's just a small town perched on a flat hill top (the easiest way for us tourist to get up there is a 2 minute funicular ride that starts right next to the train station) from that point there are a plenty of sights to see. at some point a few hundred years ago popes used it as one of their residences so you can imagine that it has a large and ornate cathedral. i learned something about cathedrals in italy...they don't have a lot of stained glass windows like some of the ones farther north in europe because of the heat. the window let in heat where as the very thick masonary wall do not and this was very apparent on the day i visited it was close to if not in the 90's and upon entering the cathedral it felt almost as if it was air-conditioned. also upon entering i thought it was interesting that the man who walked in just before me dipped his fingers in the holy water, crossed himself and then proceeded to take his camera out and take pictures - which was clearly marked as not allowed. a question to my catholic friends out there...is this a "confessionable" offense??? this place isn't like other cathedrals i've visited where there are large crowds and many church workers telling you not to take pictures...here there was no one like that. anyway, the town was very nice - quaint and rather enjoyable to wander around the twisting streets and working my way to the walls of the city that all offered great views of the umbrian country side. the only two sights i went in were the cathedral and st. patrick's well. the well was built by order of a pope to protect the water supply incase of attack and it's interesting feature - other than it's 250 or steps is that there are actually two stairwells built in a double helix so that one is used for descension and the other for ascension. the reason was so that mules carrying jars of water up wouldn't have to pass ones with empty jars on there way down. after climbing a number of bell towers with narrow stairwells and tourist climbing and decending at the same time i wish more engineers had thought of this idea. here's the view from almost all the way down.

after wandering around and eating some pizza and gelatti (which has been 2/3 of my diet for the past 4 or so days...and i feel great) i got back on the train to rome. my first train ride from prague to berlin the air-conditioning wasn't working that well for the first 90 minutes...but it got better for the last 2 1/2 hours. i thought that was bad...it was nothing compared to the 65 minutes i was about to spend traveling from orvieto to rome with absolutely no air-conditioning and a considerably hotter day...it sucked. actually it was only the last two cars with this problem but the rest of the train, not surprisingly, was packed full.

my first full day in rome was spent checking out the forum, ancient ruins and the colosseum. for me this was almost 8 hours, with few breaks and hundreds of photos (although upon my first inspection of them i probably have about 75 or so keepers). i look at these monuments and just marvel at the ingenuity and precision that went into these. and when you move from the forum to the colosseum it just boggles the mind. now it seems to me that some of the artifacts that are strewn about seem that they may have been placed there...that's fine but i would have like to see a picture of how they were found if that's the case. i took a long way around from the colosseum to the pantheon to walk along the tiber river and am glad that i did beause i came across some ruins that i didn't know about. it was the portico d'octtavia and was the first four sided portico built around 45 a.d. and rebuilt as it is now in the early 200's after fire.

unfortunately when i got to the pantheon there was mass being preformed so only pics of the outside and from the door. i'll try again because i want to see it from the inside...if i remember correctly it's the largest concrete dome ever poured and in fact it is the only ancient roman artifact to survive intact. also on the schedule is the vatican visit to see how the pope is and how his wrist feels.

in 10 days i'll be home...on travel days like the ones with no a/c train rides i'm ready for it to be over...on days like today wandering the roman ruins...i could use a few more weeks, months...


happy trails,
dan

it wasn't me

i swear that i had nothing to do with this! i just got to rome this afternoon!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31959319/ns/world_news-world_faith/

that's my story and i'm sticking to it!

bumps in the road

i was supposed to leave interlaken on monday afternoon...that didn't happen but first i'll tell you about what happened up to that point.

i got to interlaken relatively easily, that is i knew all the transfers of trains that i needed to make and successfully did so. the only hitch was that the train spent 24 kilometers in austria and my rail pass doesn't cover austria...cost me 9 euros! i'm still a little bitter about it...the pass cost me 528 euros and i can cover untold kilometers but they won't let me slide for a measly 24 kilometers! oh well. got to interlaken and if i can give one piece of general travel advice it's to not travel on sundays if possible. it's not all that bad the issue is with the public transport to and from train stations. the number 4 bus that runs from right infront of interlaken station to right infront of the hostel doesn't run on sundays so off on a 15 minute walk...not all that bad but had it been any other of the days of the week i could have had door to door transport for a euro. again, oh well. i really can't say enough about the beauty of the alps and i've lived in vail, co, climbed mt. rainier and seen most of the "big" natural sights out west...the alps have it beat.



i got to town around 3 and walked for a while marveling at the sights and trying to get a good picture of all the paragliders. like a lot of places in europe the restaurants don't serve food from 3 to 5 or 6 which was of particular dismay to me as i was pretty hungry. i waited and actually had a pretty good meal a thai restuarant next to the hostel and then back to the room for a bit of a nap. interlaken is still far enough north that the sun goes down quite late...still a good deal of light at 10. i was up from the nap at 8:30 or so and decided to go for a run. it was a great run...about 5 minutes on a road, anouther 5 minutes on some fairly hilly, rocky and rooted single track trail and then a wide gravel path that varied from flat to uphill to downhill. there was a loop that was probably a 1.5 to 1.75 miles that i ran twice before heading down. when i first came to the gravel path i was sure to take a stick and prop it up against a tree in case i wasn't sure where to turn off to get back down...it worked. i wish that i had taken a camera on the run because about half way around the loop there was a great view of the valley and the glaciered peak beyond it and while it was cloudy out the sun was shining a horizontal path across the middle of the mountain.

the next day my plan was to rent a mountain bike and go for a ride. what a ride. the ride was uphill of varying degrees on the way out. my goal was to get to the gondolas about 12 miles away take the gondola up about half way (it goes up to 3 different altitudes) have lunch up there and ride back. i took the gondola up to about 5000'. had i taken it all the way up i would have been where they filmed an old james bond movie and in fact the gondola company doesn't let you forget that. by lunch time the skies had cleared and it was quite the view. that first is me just after getting off the lift. after lunch i walked around a bit and then headed down. at first i was on a gravel downhill path. i was told of two ways to go down one being a bit harder than the other. that was the one i thought i took but apparently there is a third "nearly impossible on a mountain bike" option. i ended walking my bike down for about 75 minutes (not sure of the distance but it was about 500 vetical meters). while doing this i was passed by 3 sets of two riders on full suspension top-of-the-line mountain bikes with full helmets and crash gear...screaming down the mountain. they had to be either excellent riders, completely insane or suicidal as there were many sections that a fall off the trail would not only lead to death but they probably wouldn't recover your body. i was walking the bike down the ridge that was a good way above this cliff. i kept passing over these creeks that become the waterfalls like the one just left of center in this photo. plain and simple it was a bitch to get down but my only concern was that it would take too long and that i was going to miss my train out of town. i made it down and the rest of the ride was easy gently rolling almost all downhill gravel path. and i made it back with time to spare...cleaned up a little in the bathroom put on some clean clothes and got the next but to the train station (as it was not a sunday) here's where things go bad...time was tight, i made it on time but i made it. the train must have started there in interlaken because it was sitting there with 10 minutes to departure. i get on and i started to check the itinerary that i had on my computer...due to a few errors on my part i got OFF that train thinking that i wanted the one that was leaving in about 45 minutes...let me repeat that...i got off the train that was now leaving in about 3 minutes. back inside the station i realized my mistake. it was a biggie too as that was the last train out of town that day unless you count the night trains which i was about to find out were all booked except for a private sleeper for 170 swiss francs which even with the good exchange rate is $158...back to the hostel it is! normally i don't think that i would have minded but two things it was avoidable and the hostel was basically a frat house...which at one point of my life would have been jim dandy but today...not so much. the one silver-ish lining was i got to shower, do laundry and i met a couple on there honeymoon who get this...are both flying trapezee instructors. we talked for quite some time...so not a total loss.

i made it out on the first train to florence the next day. i didn't get much sleep that night but for one of the legs of the ride i was on one of the older trains which actually have their advantages. as i am over 26 years old my rail pass had to be a 1st class ticket. on the older trains 1st class is a bunch of 6 seat cabins instead of the newer all one cabin 2 seats on one side 1 seat on the other side arrangement. so far when i've been on these trains i've had the cabin to myself. so while i lose a bit of interaction with fellow travelers i gain quite a bit of comfort and can stretch out, close the curtains and door, turn off the lights, and nap away!

i've actually had nice weather the whole trip, not too hot and while there has been a fair amount of rain it's been mostly in the evenings and not for too long. now that i'm a bit more south and it's a bit later in summer it getting hot. florence is hot. it probably doesn't help that i don't think that i've seen a blade of grass here. it's pretty much buildings, about 14 inches of sidewalk that slopes into street of varying width from normal to you gotta be kiddin' they drive cars down this thing.

without being overly judgmental of florence...it's a bit dirty and at times sort of smells. that said, the people are very nice and there are some great sites. the uffuzi gallery with it's great works of art from the 13th to the 18th centuries, acadameia with michaelangelo's david, the duomo and more are all worth a visit. more than any other place yet i feel like i have to be extra-vigilant of pick-pockets and general neer-do-wellers but so far so good. i think it's really just a matter of always being aware of your surroundings. don't spend too much time looking up at some sight...the thieves love that and don't be affraid to turn around and look to see who is following you...the thieves don't love that.

so since i got here a day later than planned and since time...believe it or not...is running short i am skipping venice (those and a few other reasons) and heading to rome tomorrow. i'm leaving early in the morning and making a stop in orvieto for 7 or 8 hours on the advice of my friend, annette, who lives in rome.

so a few bumps in the road...whether the bumps are literally there as in the bike path down the mountain or figuratively as in my getting of the right train...eh, no big deal...it makes for good stories.

happy trails,
dan

welcome to the tent

so i didn't know about the tent ( http://www.the-tent.com/ ) until just a few days ago. i was in strassberg, germany and planning my stay in munich when i found out all of the hostels were booked. i almost threw in the towel on munich when i did one last online search and found...the tent. you'll get some better pictures if you go to the link above. it's really very cool, it's a big camp ground in the city with a place for you if you brought your own tent (6 euro) or a bunk in the big tent (10 euro) or if they're out of bunks you can get a foam mat and some floor space for (7 euro) if you look below the palm tree in the center you'll see some of the mats. there are lockers like at all hostels, bathrooms in a separate building that are actually very nice, a kitchen, laundry machines and a sink outside with solar heated water for hand washing clothes, a cafeteria where they serve breakfast, lunch, dinner and beer. it's really quite a hoot. i was at the same time excited and aprehensive to stay here but in general it's been positive. despite it being in the mid 40's last night i wasn't cold...they supply blankets of which they suggest you start with 4. there are a number of signs calling for absolute silence after 1 am...if only it were that way. i was amongst a bunch of french guys who were goofing around and giggling like little school girls until close to 2. every so often someone would "shhh" them and they would quiet down but then it would start back up. at some point someone - who i assume works here - came over and told them to be quiet and they basically did. i'll definitely wear some earplugs to sleep tonight even though the frenchies are gone.

so now to skip back to my time in strassberg, germany. i keep specifying germany because more people are familiar with strassbourg, france. it not that one it's this one. i stopped by here because when i first told people about the trip my friend vanessa emailed me telling me that her mom lives there and would be happy to host me if i wanted to pass through. it was well worth the stop...it's a small town in the schwabia region of germany and was just the respit i needed from all the rushing around the big cities. i got there in the late afternoon and rosi took me out to dinner in the next town over...just a few minutes away and i had an authentic meal that without rosi i would have never got to experience. the next day i went for a bike ride and despite the good signage and good directions that i got i still managed to go the wrong way. i say the wrong way because i ultimately got to where i was heading but with considerably more climbing than i was up for. where i was heading was the castle in sigmaringen. all's well that ends well. i got to see the castle and walk around the town a bit.

so my thanks to both vanessa for offering up her mom's hospitality and of course rosi for being a great hostess!

the tale of the voltage converters...
so my first converter i left at my friend oliver's in london. we were going to try to mail it to me c/o tom in cologne but time ran out and that wouldn't work so i just bought one in berlin. it was no big deal, i actually got lucky and went in to a large department store and they had one for 7 euros. when i got to strassberg and plugged my laptop in...no power! after messing around with things a bit i realized that i must have broken the converter. no chance of finding one in a small town like that. using rosi's computer i located the same department store in munich and figured out how to get from the hauptbanhof to the store and then to the tent...and pulled it all off without a hitch...other that this branch of the store only had a 25 euro converter...oh well, whatcha gonna do but fork over the euros. rest assured that i am being more careful with this one.

so i read in my guide book about this free munich bike tour to take if you only had one day to see the city. i took it and now i realize why i don't like going on tours. it was a good tour for sure and i probably found out some things that i wouldn't on my own but while we were on the tour we saw this orchestra practicing for a concert later that night...they were playing beethoven and we stayed for a few minutes but that was it...had i been on my own i would have stayed there for much longer. so for 9 euros i could have rented a bike and gotten a brocure that told me where to go or, as i did, go on the free tour that you pay for with a tip at the end (i gave him 10 euro). next time i'm renting the bike and going out on my own. now i will say that i'm not sure that i would have found the munich surfers without the guide so maybe that was worth it. the river that run's through town has this wave that occurs naturally and despite the signs that say surfing is forbidden it goes on anyway. click here for the surfing in munich video and you'll see what i'm talking about.

it's about 10pm and i have to get up early for a train to switzerland tomorrow so that's it for now.
thanks for all the positive feedback, glad your enjoying the postings.

happy trails,
dan

so some boring stuff first...i'm not writing this from my computer so i don't have pictures to insert and second if you are getting tired of checking in to see if i've posted something new there is - i believe - a way for you 'to follow' the blog...i'm not sure but check all the way at the bottom for the link to atom posts. you'll have to do some investigating to figure it out...now onto the good stuff.

cologne will go down as one of those pleasant surprises of the trip. when i was in england my friend oliver gave me the contact info of his friend tom in cologne and told me i had to get in touch with him. oliver was pretty sure i could crash at his place and that we'd hit it off. i wasn't sure about the whole thing because i left him a message and he never returned it. turns out tom can't always get his voicemail. so while on the train from berlin to cologne i tried him again - this time he picked up. he was out running errands with his girlfriend and said he would meet me at the train station.

once at tom and stephi's place we had a few kolsch - a beer that's only brewed here in cologne. tom and i stayed up late because he didn't have to be to work until 1pm the next day. tom's a bike mechanic and bike messenger so we had lot's of bike stuff to talk about so next thing we knew it was 1am...off to sleep. the next morning we were going to ride around town on a bike borrowed from a friend. that would have been awesome but it was locked with a key that tom didn't have access to...oh well. off on my own to see the town. the big attraction, figuratively and literally, is cologne cathedral. it's towers are about 400ft tall and it's just a marvel of construction that first began in the 12th century. the part i was most looking forward to is the climb up the south tower which is 530 stairs. the observation platform is 97 meters above the ground. it's an awesome climb...all but about 60 or so of the stairs are in a spiral staircase that as you are ascending others are desencing. my only complaint was the stopping and starting caused by all the traffic. in my mind it would have been fun to see how long, without stopping it would take me and if i'd have to stop at all because of tired legs. it's just amazing to me the amount of detail that they put into this thing even 300 feet in the air where the planners thought only caretakers would ever be able to see in detail.

i met back up with tom and stephi in the evening and now we had access to the bike that was locked up earlier so we headed out to go on a little scenic ride along the rhein and then to a little brewery. there are these small breweries around colonge that brew kolsch beer and other than some softdrinks that's all they serve in the way of libations. the one we were at had a pretty extensive menu and it smelled pretty good but we had eaten already. so in these breweries the waiters carry around these trays with beer. they are probably about 12-14" in diameter have a handle that comes up from the center and 10 or so holes cut out for the glasses to fit in. basically they walk around with a tray of beer and come up to your table and if you don't have your coaste on top of your glass they will pick up an empty and leave a full one. so here's the thing, the glasses are 0.2 liters or about 8 ounces and the beer is not particularly strong as german beer goes so it's pretty easy to just keep drinking. for us the end came at midnight as that's when they close which was probably a good thing because we were on number 7 by that time and we still had to ride the bikes home. the ride home went just fine and we stopped by the cathedral to see it lit at night...as amazing as it is in the day it's quite dramatic at night.

one more beer at home and then it was off to sleep. right now i'm on a train to a small town outside of stuttgart named strassberg. this is not the strasbourg that is in france and most people know of. it is the home of the mom of a friend of mine who has graciously opened her house to me and i believe is going to lend me one of her bikes to ride around the country side with.
a friend of tom and stephi's was with us drinking beer and when he heard i was heading to munich after strassberg he said that he would get in touch with his friend there and see if i could stay with him for my two nights there. if that works out it would mean 5 nights with out a hostel stay. don't get me wrong the hostels have been lots of fun but my time staying with locals...in london and cologne has been all that much better. if my stay in munich works out i think that i will feel better about trying the couchsurfing option...as of right now i'm having mental issues with contacting a perfect stranger - albeit one who expects to be contacted by perfect strangers - and ask to stay their home...we'll see.


happy trails,
dan