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...Soporific Cocktails for the Cocteau Twins? |
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6/26/2008
Night before leaving to fly to Portland Maine and connect up with my family. Totally scrabbling to get packed. Soon to be in the land of beer and sausages. 6/29/2008 On 6/27/2008, flew to LaGuardia from Charlottesville. Flight 3054 got cancelled from LaGuardia to Portland. Had to hop to Manchester New Hampshire, where Dad and Bud picked me up. Drove back to Portland and got in around 1 am. On 6/28/2008, drove to Boston, got on plane to Heathrow London. 3 hour layover there. Baggage nazi was a total dick to us, in the guise of being secure. He needs to be fired. Flight on British Air was tasty for food but super uncomfortable for all of us. Got to Switzerland at ~1 pm. Tour guide was odd and nervous, and the bus ride to the boat was conducted without A/C, despite vocal complaints from entire bus. Turkish driver appeared to want to kill all of us with heat prostration. Got to the boat. Captain gave funny safety speech while wearing wooden shoes. Dinner was superb, including Cappuccino Mushroom Soup. Carrot souffle was gross. Dessert was chocolate "mouse", shaped like a mouse but made of mousse. Yum. Grand marnier as dessert wine and too much wine [with dinner]. 6/30/2008 Went to Strasbourg France this morning and saw more imnpressive cathedrals. It seems like a great college town with an incredible amount of history. Had Serge as our tour guide but he was a bit hard to understand. Then later we took a tour of the Black Forest. Stopped and saw traditional building styles there. Then went to Adolf Herr's black forest cuckoo clock store, plus other stuff and had free Schwarzwalderkirche and coffee. I bought a mini-sword there. Will not carry it on flight. Dinner was really good again. Walked across the new (2004?) bridge between Germany (Kehl) and France (Strasbourg) to say we had done it. Tomorrow is "German Dinner". Internet here [on the boat] totally sucks. 7/1/2008 Lolled around in the morning and then went on the hot march to Heidelberg. We saw the gate that Friedrich 4(?) built for Elizabeth. They were both 16 when married. He was stuck in circumstances that led to the 30 years war, due to his being a prince elector in the Holy Roman Empire, but also a protestant. The castle itself was partly ruined but still immense and beautiful. We went to a section of balcony where a knight had supposedly tried to leap to his death in full armor, but landed and left a huge footprint indentation before he rolled down the hill and survived. Stepping in his footprint supposedly means one will return to Heidelberg and life happily ever after, since his love's father lamented [relented?] and let the knight marry his daughter. The castle otherwise is huge and hangs over the city. We went into the city proper also and saw the bridge monkey. Also had a couple beers. Did I mention this was all done in insufferable heat? 7/2/2008 We walked into Mainz and toured the Gutenberg museum. Saw an old printing press and some original Gutenberg bibles (1.5 of them). We also went to the "Dom" church where they have a bishop associated. Later, we took a super hot little fake train to the mechanical music museum, which at least was cool inside. This was in Rudesheim. We also stopped at a nice cafe for Rudesheimer Kaffe, with brandy and whipped cream. Back to the ship by 4. Later we will have the German Dinner. German Dinner was quite good. Luckily they gave me salmon instead of pork. Lots of music during the whole meal, including schnapps x 5 chugging machine. Also an oompah congo line. 7/3/2008 Travelling through Rhine Gorge. Fantastic castles and beautiful little towns line the banks and climb up into the hills. Unfortunately, my camera got full so I'm down in the cabin now downloading it. Or rather, first deleting the pictures I had forgotten to earlier then will download. [d'oh!] Later we did a walking tour of Koblenz and saw the huge statue of Willhelm the Great (is that Kaiser Willhelm?). We travelled further and got trapped in a cathedral by the rain. We also learned the banana system, whereby an artist showed his approval of a museum or art gallery by painting a banana on the outside. 7/4/2008 Did a walking tour of Koeln, including the massive church constructed from 1248 to 1880. Most of the town was destroyed in World War 2, except for the cathedral. Dad and Bud and I managed to find a place that would sell us a Koelsch before 11 am. [Apparently German people don't start drinking before noon.] We had a nice break to take our naps, but since [our] room 315 had a defective door lock, it had to be replaced which interrupted the nap. Later, there was a play performed by the crew with multiple acts. The chef appeared to like dressing in drag very much, as he did it twice. Now we are a bit drunk and testy. 7/5/2008 Morning trip was to canals of Amsterdam. Saw many nice houseboats and floating garbage nests for water birds (coots?). Could not get good pictures due to backwards seating on inside away from window, plus the seats were super uncomfortable on the canal boot. The afternoon trip was to Zaanse Schaans for windmills and wooden clogs (klompen). Got up to deck around windmill, which seemed a trifle unsafe. They make natural dyes in that windmill. The klompen shop had machines that duplicated the rough outer shape of an existing shoe and another that copied the inside shape by boring out the shoe. Did not buy any klompen. Tonight is last night of tour... [posted April 25 2009]
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| Dysclaimer:
Rantose Rant Box is a conglomerate melange of opinion, satire, comedy
and grunting. If it serves to pop any tightly clutched balloons
filled with the hot air of accumulated prejudices and conformity gone
mad, then
its purpose has been realized. Anyone taking these rants very
seriously might just deserve the confusion and annoyance produced by
their own outrageous gullibility, but probably not. Reader beware. |
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