Sunday, November 29, 2009
Who shot J.R. Ewing?
The train-ride out was once again Courtney’s opportunity to read extensively through our guidebook and plan at least some of what we would accomplish in our brief trip to Vienna. This time the ride lasted 8 hours – a bit long, and going forward we’ll probably look into flying that distance. We departed Heidelberg at 7am and the train ride again took us across Bavaria. We passed well to the north of Salzburg this time, however, and across the rolling hills and plains that dominate northern Austria, arriving in Vienna around 3pm.
Arriving at the Vienna WestBahnhof, we found our route to the hotel with help from the info-haus in their now-familiar brusque manner. The U-bahn in Vienna is well laid out and easy to navigate. It’s also quite clean and free from vagrants, despite the “honor code” which governs paying for travel. We purchased a 72-hour Vienna card, which permitted use of any of the local means of mass transit -- U-Bahn (subway), Strassebahn (street car), S-Bahn (regional train) – of which we primarily stuck to the U-bahn.
We stayed, in our traditional manner, out of the touristy part of the city at a convention center hotel lacking a convention. This strategy has allowed us to stay in some pretty nice places at cheap rates, although you have to go a couple stops on the U-bahn to get downtown. By the time we got to the hotel it was already dark (still on central Europe time but considerably farther east than Heidelberg). We spoke with the concierge about a couple potential evening plans, cleaned up, and headed out. Vienna in Advent is full of Christmas markets, and on Thanksgiving evening we got a jump on all our stateside “black Friday” participants. Lots of fun local crafts filled the simple displays; every fourth or so booth sold Gluhvein and other warm drinks or food.
We had dinner in a traditional Austrian restaurant, although this one was plagued like many in Austria with a thick cloud of cigarette smoke; unlike Germany and France, Austria has no public smoking ban. I had what appeared to be a local specialty, a wooden platter of short-ribs served on a bed of potato wedges garnished by red onions – it’s funny because I saw this on the table of many men in the restaurant and it seemed more like Outback Steakhouse than what I’d read of Vienna. Anyways, I enjoyed it. Courtney ordered Schweinefillets, which turned out to be yet another way of saying Wiener schnitzel. It was good, but Courtney barely dented the large portion.
Friday was our day for Vienna. It was foggy when we first left the hotel, but that lifted into a thick blanket of low-lying clouds until nearly sunset – late in the afternoon, we managed to get a few pictures with direct sunlight. This didn’t stop us, but it certainly helped our prioritizing. Vienna has magnificent architecture throughout but the weather steered us indoors. First stop was Josefplatz at the Imperial Palace where the Spanish Riding School is located. Here we watched the morning exercises of famous white Lipizzaner stallions. The large dirt practice ground was in the middle of what would otherwise be a ballroom – the audience watched from balconies and three large crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling. Unique to see, but overhyped – the horses didn’t jump through fire or anything.
Afterward we walked a couple buildings down to the Albertina, an art museum contained within the Imperial Palace. Here we walked through a large special exhibit of painters involved in varying degrees in the Impressionist movement – Monet, Manet, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, and others. I enjoyed this even more than the usual museum exhibitions because it included quite a bit of history about the Impressionist movement. For instance, it was the relatively recent creation of more portable pigments and paints that allowed Impressionist painters to paint on location and capture landscapes and other natural objects in the moment.
After this we walked across the street and enjoyed a drink at the Mozart Café – it definitely had nicer chandeliers than Starbucks and the baristas wore tuxedos instead of green aprons. The weather continued to improve, now only mostly cloudy in the strictest meteorological sense, so we started exploring more of the city. We saw a great deal of the downtown area, walking from the Natural History Museum to the Imperial Palace, over to St. Stephan’s Cathedral, up to the Danube Canal, concluding at the Rathaus for the largest of Vienna’s Christmas Markets. When it started to get dark, we retreated to the hotel to prep for dinner.
Friday night we went to a restaurant called “Wrenkh,” named for the family of chefs who run the place. It used to be a vegetarian restaurant but recently included a few meat dishes on the menu, plus it was non-smoking. We thought this meant it would be more creative and certainly lighter than traditional Austrian food. We weren’t disappointed. Courtney and I agreed this was the best dinner we have had in Europe to date. In addition to a tasty Gin and cucumber fizz to “elevate my appetite” we split both a fantastic house salad with polenta and smoked tofu and a bowl of pumpkin soup. For the main course we both had a seared tuna steak served on purple glass noodles; it’s been a while since I had a tuna steak, but I still love it.
Saturday was our day for Bratislava. We initially planned to take a riverboat ride up the Danube but apparently you need reservations for that sort of thing. Instead, we saved 60 Euros and took the train – crisis averted. The train ride took an hour and we got to Bratislava at 130pm. Luckily the weather had cleared up and plenty of sun and blue sky lit the old town until the sun went down around 4. We scurried to the old town, stopping to snap a photo of Slovakia’s White House. In Bratislava, like most European cities, there is a castle on a hill overlooking a river and an old town. The old town in Bratislava is beautiful – main arteries with small windy streets branching off under archways and converging with another main artery. The palace is beautiful, or will be once the renovation is complete – the government of Slovakia appreciates your patience as they restore the building to the height of its rich cultural heritage. From the castle, you have an elevated view of St. Martin’s cathedral, a coronation site for a Hungarian or two while the Ottomans ruled Budapest.
In addition to its well-maintained (and restored) old town, Bratislava also met the stereotypes for Eastern European cities. Peering over the landscape from the castle you could see the decadent old town, polluted industrial area, massive rundown tenements, and a modern wind farm in the hazy distance. On a walk outside the old town over to the “Blue Church,” we passed by many run down and graffiti-ed concrete buildings, vestiges of central planning and echoes of the communist-satellite past. Now an EU member and included in the euro zone, I expect by the next time I visit even more progress will have been made to catch up with the West.
After sunset we warmed up with some coffee at a café, relaxed with a Slovakian beer at a bar called “Verdict.” Apparently, everyone in Europe learns English by watching the western soap opera “Dallas.” Our waiter at “Verdict,” asked us in fitful English where we were from. I responded “Colorado.” He asked, “Texas?” I told him Courtney was from Texas. “Dallas?” Courtney smiled. He asked, “Who shot J.R.?” (I didn't understand this at the time, but apparently Courtney got this in Paris quite a bit when she studied there during undergrad.)
We then wandered to a restaurant in the old town for dinner – Courtney had blue cheese gnocchi and I had roast rabbit. After a quiet dinner, we rushed to meet the train back to Vienna – faced with the choice of waiting an hour for the next train or taking up a light jog to meet one that leaves in 20 minutes, two American soldiers choose the latter.
I’m writing this on the train-ride back, although I’ll post it when I arrive home in Heidelberg. And shortly thereafter I’ll hop in the car to Geisenheim-Marienthal for a week-long conference on tax law. I’m sure it will be more fun than I’m sure it sounds.
Arriving at the Vienna WestBahnhof, we found our route to the hotel with help from the info-haus in their now-familiar brusque manner. The U-bahn in Vienna is well laid out and easy to navigate. It’s also quite clean and free from vagrants, despite the “honor code” which governs paying for travel. We purchased a 72-hour Vienna card, which permitted use of any of the local means of mass transit -- U-Bahn (subway), Strassebahn (street car), S-Bahn (regional train) – of which we primarily stuck to the U-bahn.
We stayed, in our traditional manner, out of the touristy part of the city at a convention center hotel lacking a convention. This strategy has allowed us to stay in some pretty nice places at cheap rates, although you have to go a couple stops on the U-bahn to get downtown. By the time we got to the hotel it was already dark (still on central Europe time but considerably farther east than Heidelberg). We spoke with the concierge about a couple potential evening plans, cleaned up, and headed out. Vienna in Advent is full of Christmas markets, and on Thanksgiving evening we got a jump on all our stateside “black Friday” participants. Lots of fun local crafts filled the simple displays; every fourth or so booth sold Gluhvein and other warm drinks or food.
We had dinner in a traditional Austrian restaurant, although this one was plagued like many in Austria with a thick cloud of cigarette smoke; unlike Germany and France, Austria has no public smoking ban. I had what appeared to be a local specialty, a wooden platter of short-ribs served on a bed of potato wedges garnished by red onions – it’s funny because I saw this on the table of many men in the restaurant and it seemed more like Outback Steakhouse than what I’d read of Vienna. Anyways, I enjoyed it. Courtney ordered Schweinefillets, which turned out to be yet another way of saying Wiener schnitzel. It was good, but Courtney barely dented the large portion.
Friday was our day for Vienna. It was foggy when we first left the hotel, but that lifted into a thick blanket of low-lying clouds until nearly sunset – late in the afternoon, we managed to get a few pictures with direct sunlight. This didn’t stop us, but it certainly helped our prioritizing. Vienna has magnificent architecture throughout but the weather steered us indoors. First stop was Josefplatz at the Imperial Palace where the Spanish Riding School is located. Here we watched the morning exercises of famous white Lipizzaner stallions. The large dirt practice ground was in the middle of what would otherwise be a ballroom – the audience watched from balconies and three large crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling. Unique to see, but overhyped – the horses didn’t jump through fire or anything.
Afterward we walked a couple buildings down to the Albertina, an art museum contained within the Imperial Palace. Here we walked through a large special exhibit of painters involved in varying degrees in the Impressionist movement – Monet, Manet, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, and others. I enjoyed this even more than the usual museum exhibitions because it included quite a bit of history about the Impressionist movement. For instance, it was the relatively recent creation of more portable pigments and paints that allowed Impressionist painters to paint on location and capture landscapes and other natural objects in the moment.
After this we walked across the street and enjoyed a drink at the Mozart Café – it definitely had nicer chandeliers than Starbucks and the baristas wore tuxedos instead of green aprons. The weather continued to improve, now only mostly cloudy in the strictest meteorological sense, so we started exploring more of the city. We saw a great deal of the downtown area, walking from the Natural History Museum to the Imperial Palace, over to St. Stephan’s Cathedral, up to the Danube Canal, concluding at the Rathaus for the largest of Vienna’s Christmas Markets. When it started to get dark, we retreated to the hotel to prep for dinner.
Friday night we went to a restaurant called “Wrenkh,” named for the family of chefs who run the place. It used to be a vegetarian restaurant but recently included a few meat dishes on the menu, plus it was non-smoking. We thought this meant it would be more creative and certainly lighter than traditional Austrian food. We weren’t disappointed. Courtney and I agreed this was the best dinner we have had in Europe to date. In addition to a tasty Gin and cucumber fizz to “elevate my appetite” we split both a fantastic house salad with polenta and smoked tofu and a bowl of pumpkin soup. For the main course we both had a seared tuna steak served on purple glass noodles; it’s been a while since I had a tuna steak, but I still love it.
Saturday was our day for Bratislava. We initially planned to take a riverboat ride up the Danube but apparently you need reservations for that sort of thing. Instead, we saved 60 Euros and took the train – crisis averted. The train ride took an hour and we got to Bratislava at 130pm. Luckily the weather had cleared up and plenty of sun and blue sky lit the old town until the sun went down around 4. We scurried to the old town, stopping to snap a photo of Slovakia’s White House. In Bratislava, like most European cities, there is a castle on a hill overlooking a river and an old town. The old town in Bratislava is beautiful – main arteries with small windy streets branching off under archways and converging with another main artery. The palace is beautiful, or will be once the renovation is complete – the government of Slovakia appreciates your patience as they restore the building to the height of its rich cultural heritage. From the castle, you have an elevated view of St. Martin’s cathedral, a coronation site for a Hungarian or two while the Ottomans ruled Budapest.
In addition to its well-maintained (and restored) old town, Bratislava also met the stereotypes for Eastern European cities. Peering over the landscape from the castle you could see the decadent old town, polluted industrial area, massive rundown tenements, and a modern wind farm in the hazy distance. On a walk outside the old town over to the “Blue Church,” we passed by many run down and graffiti-ed concrete buildings, vestiges of central planning and echoes of the communist-satellite past. Now an EU member and included in the euro zone, I expect by the next time I visit even more progress will have been made to catch up with the West.
After sunset we warmed up with some coffee at a café, relaxed with a Slovakian beer at a bar called “Verdict.” Apparently, everyone in Europe learns English by watching the western soap opera “Dallas.” Our waiter at “Verdict,” asked us in fitful English where we were from. I responded “Colorado.” He asked, “Texas?” I told him Courtney was from Texas. “Dallas?” Courtney smiled. He asked, “Who shot J.R.?” (I didn't understand this at the time, but apparently Courtney got this in Paris quite a bit when she studied there during undergrad.)
We then wandered to a restaurant in the old town for dinner – Courtney had blue cheese gnocchi and I had roast rabbit. After a quiet dinner, we rushed to meet the train back to Vienna – faced with the choice of waiting an hour for the next train or taking up a light jog to meet one that leaves in 20 minutes, two American soldiers choose the latter.
I’m writing this on the train-ride back, although I’ll post it when I arrive home in Heidelberg. And shortly thereafter I’ll hop in the car to Geisenheim-Marienthal for a week-long conference on tax law. I’m sure it will be more fun than I’m sure it sounds.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
The City of Salt
Salzburg was a great weekend trip. We left on Saturday morning; a five hour train-ride through Bavaria, pretty and relaxing in itself. After walking from the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) to our hotel, we decided to ditch our bags and start exploring the Altstadt (old town). Salzburg is surprisingly similar to Heidelberg (castle overlooking a well-preserved Altstadt, scenic river and surrounding highlands). We had lunch at a small Italian cafe (Salzburg has tons of Italian influence) before walking up to an old monastary on the hill facing the old medieval castle. After watching the sunset at around 5pm we headed back to the hotel for a bit. That evening we attended a chamber concert (violin, viola, piano) at the Mirabell Palace. The palace was originally built in the 17th century by the Prince Archbishop. During the 18th century the palace burned, leaving only a marble staircase and marble chamber -- the performance was in the latter. After the concert we walked downtown and ate a traditional-inspired tapas restaurant -- quite a lot of variety on the menu and very delicious.
On Sunday we took a commerical tour up through the surrounding area to the nearby salt mines. On the way, we drove past scenic overlooks of the valley and stopped to take pictures of Eagle's Nest. We stopped in Berchtesgaden to stretch our legs on our way up to the mines. The tour of the mines was entertaining -- especially considering I've seen pictures from when we did the same tour while Dad was stationed here, but I remember nothing independent of the photographic record. The train ride into the mines and the slides to its depths were fun and the history lesson accompanying the tour provided lots of insight into Salzburg's history and importance.
Sunday afternoon we explored more of the Altstadt (baroque architecture leading to lots of very funny jokes about how everything looked "broke" -- read: Courtney rolling her eyes frequently) and toured the medieval castle. Lots of military history exhibits in the castle museum -- mostly WWI. Saturday evening we found another traditional dinner at a restaurant in the Altstadt -- Austrian food is a lot like German, but there's also a more eastern European influence (Hungarian).
On Monday morning we toured Mozart's birth house -- lots of family history and a broad-strokes portrait of his life in Salzburg. The rest of the morning was spent eating: a small cafe near the hotel for breakfast prior to Mozart, another cafe in the Altstadt for lunch before returning to Heidelberg on the train.
Off to Vienna on Thursday -- I think we'll spend most of the time exploring there, but there's potential for a riverboat trip up the Danube to Bratislava (so long as the weather and the off-season tourism industry cooperates).
On Sunday we took a commerical tour up through the surrounding area to the nearby salt mines. On the way, we drove past scenic overlooks of the valley and stopped to take pictures of Eagle's Nest. We stopped in Berchtesgaden to stretch our legs on our way up to the mines. The tour of the mines was entertaining -- especially considering I've seen pictures from when we did the same tour while Dad was stationed here, but I remember nothing independent of the photographic record. The train ride into the mines and the slides to its depths were fun and the history lesson accompanying the tour provided lots of insight into Salzburg's history and importance.
Sunday afternoon we explored more of the Altstadt (baroque architecture leading to lots of very funny jokes about how everything looked "broke" -- read: Courtney rolling her eyes frequently) and toured the medieval castle. Lots of military history exhibits in the castle museum -- mostly WWI. Saturday evening we found another traditional dinner at a restaurant in the Altstadt -- Austrian food is a lot like German, but there's also a more eastern European influence (Hungarian).
On Monday morning we toured Mozart's birth house -- lots of family history and a broad-strokes portrait of his life in Salzburg. The rest of the morning was spent eating: a small cafe near the hotel for breakfast prior to Mozart, another cafe in the Altstadt for lunch before returning to Heidelberg on the train.
Off to Vienna on Thursday -- I think we'll spend most of the time exploring there, but there's potential for a riverboat trip up the Danube to Bratislava (so long as the weather and the off-season tourism industry cooperates).
Monday, November 16, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Joie de vivre
Still don't have internet at the house. I'm trying to work out the contract details to make sure that I can cancel the contract when I need to -- it's kind of a pain because the normal mechanisms which allow service members in the States to cancel contracts due to military orders don't apply in Germany. All the internet providers like to lock people in to 2 year contracts. Hopefully I'll get something going in the next week. Until then I have to use the internet in the office and rely on my iPhone.
Car is here, but the battery died so it's in the shop. Should be able to get it inspected and permanently registered next week.
Household goods will be delivered on Friday -- exciting! No more air mattress!
Made a fairly significant investment in furniture (sofa, chair, tables) yesterday. Got a great deal from AAFES so I figured I should jump on it.
Enough admin notes, time for the highlight of this post...
Paris was amazing. We took the ICE train from Heidelberg and we arrived in Paris in about 3 hours changing trains once in Manheim. Once in Paris, Courtney and I walked pretty much everywhere (aside from taking the metro in from La Defense where our hotel was located).
On Friday when we arrived, we took the opportunity to do some really touristy stuff: Eiffel Tower climb (took the stairs to the second level and the elevator the rest of the way) and the Louvre to see Venus De Milo, the Mona Lisa, and some others. The Eiffel Tower was great, although a bit cloudy. The Louvre was a surgical visit. We knew what we wanted to see and knew we didn't have time for a thorough examination of everything. For dinner we ate at a great Moroccan restaurant -- lots of lamb, couscous, and Algerian wine.
Saturday we walked up the Seine from the Bastille to the Arch de Triomphe. Along the way we visited the Pompidou Center, Notre Dame, and the Musee d'Orsay among other things. I enjoyed the museums and the landmarks, and loved walking around and soaking up all the other beautiful architecture, parks, people, and views along the way. Lunch was crepes in a small French Cafe in the Latin Quarter. For dinner on Saturday we went to Courtney's favorite Thai restaurant near the Bastille -- the Blue Elephant. Great food here too, plus amazing atmosphere and indoor garden.
Sunday was a little slower pace, but still lots of walking. We started the morning at the Moulin Rouge and walked up to Sacre-Coeur; kinda funny walking through the red-light district to get to the Basilica. Then we walked up to a canal in a gentrifying area and had lunch at the Hotel du Norde--a great cheeseburger and pommes frites. From here we hopped a metro to Lafayette to browse some french department stores that were open on Sunday b/c of their huge sales to purge the out of season stock. Finally, we headed back to the Seine for dinner at an Italian cafe before taking a bottle of wine to the river to watch the light show at the Eiffel Tower.
Monday was a sleep-in morning with an afternoon train back to Heidelberg. From start to finish, an amazing trip.
I think next up is Salzburg (first week of November), followed by Thanksgiving in Vienna.
Car is here, but the battery died so it's in the shop. Should be able to get it inspected and permanently registered next week.
Household goods will be delivered on Friday -- exciting! No more air mattress!
Made a fairly significant investment in furniture (sofa, chair, tables) yesterday. Got a great deal from AAFES so I figured I should jump on it.
Enough admin notes, time for the highlight of this post...
Paris was amazing. We took the ICE train from Heidelberg and we arrived in Paris in about 3 hours changing trains once in Manheim. Once in Paris, Courtney and I walked pretty much everywhere (aside from taking the metro in from La Defense where our hotel was located).
On Friday when we arrived, we took the opportunity to do some really touristy stuff: Eiffel Tower climb (took the stairs to the second level and the elevator the rest of the way) and the Louvre to see Venus De Milo, the Mona Lisa, and some others. The Eiffel Tower was great, although a bit cloudy. The Louvre was a surgical visit. We knew what we wanted to see and knew we didn't have time for a thorough examination of everything. For dinner we ate at a great Moroccan restaurant -- lots of lamb, couscous, and Algerian wine.
Saturday we walked up the Seine from the Bastille to the Arch de Triomphe. Along the way we visited the Pompidou Center, Notre Dame, and the Musee d'Orsay among other things. I enjoyed the museums and the landmarks, and loved walking around and soaking up all the other beautiful architecture, parks, people, and views along the way. Lunch was crepes in a small French Cafe in the Latin Quarter. For dinner on Saturday we went to Courtney's favorite Thai restaurant near the Bastille -- the Blue Elephant. Great food here too, plus amazing atmosphere and indoor garden.
Sunday was a little slower pace, but still lots of walking. We started the morning at the Moulin Rouge and walked up to Sacre-Coeur; kinda funny walking through the red-light district to get to the Basilica. Then we walked up to a canal in a gentrifying area and had lunch at the Hotel du Norde--a great cheeseburger and pommes frites. From here we hopped a metro to Lafayette to browse some french department stores that were open on Sunday b/c of their huge sales to purge the out of season stock. Finally, we headed back to the Seine for dinner at an Italian cafe before taking a bottle of wine to the river to watch the light show at the Eiffel Tower.
Monday was a sleep-in morning with an afternoon train back to Heidelberg. From start to finish, an amazing trip.
I think next up is Salzburg (first week of November), followed by Thanksgiving in Vienna.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Paris
Long week of work. Off to Paris for the weekend. Taking the train -- three hours away. Lots of pictures to come, I'm sure. I should be back Monday evening for those skypers who are interested.
P.S. I love four-day weekends.
P.S. I love four-day weekends.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Doing Lawyer Things
I executed a will yesterday. It was pretty straight forward, but I gotta admit, it felt good preparing documents for my own signature after years of passing things off at the conclusion. The bulk of my clients so far are wills, separation agreements, and immigration issues (although pretty much all the immigration issues in the office get funneled to me now; we had a day-long seminar on immigration and I told the scheduling paralegals to send those my way because that was where I felt most prepared...)
Heidelberg Herbst was this past weekend--all autumn long the German cities celebrate the harvest with various festivals, and this was Heidelberg's. They close the Aldstadt (Old Town) to vehicles and the whole area is swarming with people. Near the main Platzes (Squares) you could barely walk through. It was a lot of fun -- street vendors everywhere, some fun local art, and of course lots of beer, wine, brats.
Notre Dame won another close one. The game didn't start till 8pm EST (thats 2am CET!) but I woke up to watch the 4th quarter on my iPhone via the slingbox. I turned the game on just as Purdue scored their go ahead touchdown, and had enough battery on my phone to watch through the end of the game, including Jimmy Clausen's late game heroics -- not quite what Farve did for the Vikes, but close.
This week I'll have appointments again today and tomorrow. Then Thursday we have our monthly Leadership Development Program training -- not sure what that entails yet. Friday we have an office trip to Stuttgart for its harvest festival. It's supposed to be a lot like Oktoberfest, but a tiny bit smaller -- it's only the second largest harvest festival in Germany.
I'm loving Germany.
Heidelberg Herbst was this past weekend--all autumn long the German cities celebrate the harvest with various festivals, and this was Heidelberg's. They close the Aldstadt (Old Town) to vehicles and the whole area is swarming with people. Near the main Platzes (Squares) you could barely walk through. It was a lot of fun -- street vendors everywhere, some fun local art, and of course lots of beer, wine, brats.
Notre Dame won another close one. The game didn't start till 8pm EST (thats 2am CET!) but I woke up to watch the 4th quarter on my iPhone via the slingbox. I turned the game on just as Purdue scored their go ahead touchdown, and had enough battery on my phone to watch through the end of the game, including Jimmy Clausen's late game heroics -- not quite what Farve did for the Vikes, but close.
This week I'll have appointments again today and tomorrow. Then Thursday we have our monthly Leadership Development Program training -- not sure what that entails yet. Friday we have an office trip to Stuttgart for its harvest festival. It's supposed to be a lot like Oktoberfest, but a tiny bit smaller -- it's only the second largest harvest festival in Germany.
I'm loving Germany.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest this past weekend -- an absolute blast. We drove down to Ansbach on Friday (1.5 hrs from Heidelberg) and crashed at a friend's house. Then to Munich early Saturday morning -- this took another couple of hours. We arrived at the Fest-grounds (a local park) around 9am and it was already very crowded, so much so that we could not sit inside at any of the the Bier-tents. We did manage to find a table for the 7 of us outside -- which is good because you can't get served beer/food unless you're "seated."
At noon they start serving Bier and lunch/dinner. The Bier comes in liter mugs -- ridiculous. The food was great too -- very traditional German food -- we had sausages, kraut, sweet mustard for lunch and meat, potatoes and veggies for dinner. Definitely a great time -- everyone should experience it. Hopefully next time 'round we'll make it inside. It looked like it was even more fun in there.
I missed the ND game, but found out the next morning that we won thanks to a game-saving interception.
Sunday saw the assembly of furniture -- I bought a buffet table / bar kind a thing, a coffee table, and a couple cabinet things for the bathroom. They were all from Ikea style places so that means lots of assembly time. The place is coming together nicely -- still waiting on the household goods shipment to arrive though.
Had my "first day of work" today. Sat in a few legal assistance client appointments with another attorney. He has a lot more law to spit to clients needing information than I will -- I think for the time being my success will be determined on my organization and ability to look up answers quickly. It will certainly be a steep learning curve.
At noon they start serving Bier and lunch/dinner. The Bier comes in liter mugs -- ridiculous. The food was great too -- very traditional German food -- we had sausages, kraut, sweet mustard for lunch and meat, potatoes and veggies for dinner. Definitely a great time -- everyone should experience it. Hopefully next time 'round we'll make it inside. It looked like it was even more fun in there.
I missed the ND game, but found out the next morning that we won thanks to a game-saving interception.
Sunday saw the assembly of furniture -- I bought a buffet table / bar kind a thing, a coffee table, and a couple cabinet things for the bathroom. They were all from Ikea style places so that means lots of assembly time. The place is coming together nicely -- still waiting on the household goods shipment to arrive though.
Had my "first day of work" today. Sat in a few legal assistance client appointments with another attorney. He has a lot more law to spit to clients needing information than I will -- I think for the time being my success will be determined on my organization and ability to look up answers quickly. It will certainly be a steep learning curve.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Hittin' the Autobahn in a Mini
Last week I finally got my driver's license and promptly went to the nearest rental car agency. I got a Mini Clubman -- lots of fun.
The first night with the car, Courtney and I drove to the top of the Philosopher's Way to the ruins of an abbey from the 11th century.
From here you have a great view of the Heidelberg Schloss.
Watched the Notre Dame game last night -- it's tough to lose like that. Hopefully the Cowboys will do better -- we're off to The Dubliner to watch the NFL games soon.
Three more days of in-processing activities -- Thursday may be my first day in the office, although more than likely it will be next Monday. Some of my stuff will get delivered Friday, with the rest hopefully not too far behind.
The first night with the car, Courtney and I drove to the top of the Philosopher's Way to the ruins of an abbey from the 11th century.
From here you have a great view of the Heidelberg Schloss.
Watched the Notre Dame game last night -- it's tough to lose like that. Hopefully the Cowboys will do better -- we're off to The Dubliner to watch the NFL games soon.
Three more days of in-processing activities -- Thursday may be my first day in the office, although more than likely it will be next Monday. Some of my stuff will get delivered Friday, with the rest hopefully not too far behind.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
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