I spent the rest of the day shopping. I have decided that the best order of a vacation is this: First day, fly in, preferably in the early afternoon. Check in to your hotel and then get acquainted with the area. Pick up bottled water and things you couldn't bring like razor blades. Find an Internet cafe if you need one. Buy a phone card. Basically spend the first day doing the things you don't want to have to do in the middle of an otherwise good vacation day. Get the chores out of the way. Day 2 on should be spent doing the vacation stuff - sightseeing, museums, activities, etc. On the day before you have to leave, go shopping. During all of the other days you will see things you want to buy. Don't buy anything until the last day. Chances are you'll see the same thing in multiple places and can then get the best item at the best price from the best store. Also, you might choose something earlier and then find something you'd rather have later.

This strategy works really well for souvenirs. Don't buy one early in the trip, buy one at the end of the trip when you know what you really want. Also, as far as souvenirs go, I recommend buying something that you will use regularly but will last a long time. Don't buy picture books and post cards and decorative plates. On this trip, I bought something I had been wanting for a long time - a miniature tripod for my camera. As anyone knows who has seen my night photos on this site, I like taking nighttime and natural light photos without flash. Trouble is, typically these photos require a longer exposure time, i.e. slower shutter speed, and the slower the shutter, the less you can move the camera. Moving the camera with a short shutter speed results in a blurred picture. So the smart photographer puts his camera on a tripod where it can take the picture without any movement. But I didn't want a big tripod because I like to travel very light with everything, including clothes, fitting in a single backpack that can go on the plane as a carry-on. So I found an excellent tripod at a photography store here. It's a German-made Cullmann tripod which is about 1 inch wide, 1/4 inch deep, and 3 inches tall unextended. German engineered things like tripods tend to be very precise and durable and this tripod is no exception. It weighs only a few ounces and could fit in a shirt pocket easily (more than I can say about my Pocket PC). It screwed into my camera perfectly and with my camera on its strap around my neck, I don't notice any extra weight.

I went round and round the town taking different routes each time. I now know Innsbruck by walking about as well as I know Buffalo Grove, possibly better as I know each of the street names as well as how to get to a particular store. Innsbruck is small enough that it is easily learned in a few days. I would love to spend a month here in the summer, hiking in the hills, eating good Austrian and German food, drinking beer, and learning German immersively. Ah, if only I had the time.

I also bought a couple of pairs of socks at a stored called Marco O'Polo. I stumbled onto a main mall area where they had everything from Timberland to Prada. I was fortunate that my current pair of running shoes lists the shoe size inside the shoe in US, UK, and European measurements. I am a 43 in Eur and was thus able to find socks that fit. I also found a wine shop called Solo Vino on Universitats Strasse which appears to sell many different wines by the glass. It looks very warm and comfortable but my wine tasting partner is in Istanbul so I will refrain.

I am now back at the Altestube Cafe where I am once again having Sacher torte and Darjeeling First Flush tea. This time the owner is serving me and he offered me whipped cream with my torte, a major upgrade. It is around 7:15 PM and, yes, I am having dessert before dinner. The plan is to head to the Restaurant Schwartzer Adler - which is just down the street from Solo Vino - and see about getting some roasted wild boar. It's either that or Tafelspitz, whichever I can find. I wanted to try both while in Austria but I have run out of meals. Before I ended up at the Cafe Munding this afternoon I tried to get into the Steigl-Brau restaurant by the Hauptbahnhof for Tafelspitz but it was closed.

As much as I enjoy the Austrian meals I have had, I am starting to get a real jones for some favorites back home. I miss Chipotle and for some reason, I crave sweet-and-sour chicken, although I only eat that once every six months or so. Strange the cravings one gets in foreign lands. Right now what I miss the most is my wife so not much I can do about that.

Will finish this article upon return to the U.S.

I am sitting in the Cafe Munding now and trying to figure out how I will finish my "lunch". I ordered something that sounded pretty good but has turned out to be an Ahu special. The "Hausegemachte Kasenocken mit brauner Butter und Parmesan" (I translated this to Homemade something-or-other-with-cheese with brown butter and parmesan) turns out to be a seriously stinky cheese dish. Typically this would be where Ahu and I would switch plates but since she is not here, I am stuck attempting to down this nasty stinky-cheese thing myself. I've had two big bites so far and have finished only a quarter or so of the dish. I was actually thinking that I ordered the cheese dumpling dish that Ahu had for our first lunch. Would have had no problem with that. My waitress does not speak English (I've been pointing to items on the menu) and the menu is purely in German without any of the English or Italian helpers that are fairly common here. I spent 20 minutes deciphering this thing only to succeed in ordering something I don't want. Lovely.

I think I have figured out what this thing is... It is a dumpling - actually two really big dumplings - filled to the limit with some sort of stinky cheese. The whole thing is soaked in "browned butter" (which sounds like "slightly burned but still edible" butter to me) and sprinkled with parmesan cheese. Hmmm... I'm eating this at a pace of about 1 bite every 5 minutes. Pretty soon it will be congealed and achieve the level of truly disgusting. I already drank all of my tea. I just asked for a "Cola Light" which is what they call Diet Coke. The good thing about Diet Coke is that, like battery acid, it washes anything down.

The up side of being alone here is that I can take all the time I want to write this play-by-play experience in the cafe. My Diet Coke has arrived. The service is pretty quick here but not quick enough to save me from the "dead milk" taste forming in my mouth from this cheese. A few quick scours with the Diet Coke should save me. Now for another bite... Yuck. I'm not eating anything with cheese in it or on it or around it for a long time.

A revelation!!! I have figured out how to not each much more of this thing and still somewhat save face and avoid being scolded for not eating all of my food! I have taken the two separate dumplings and applied Sieg's First Rule of Smooshing and created a single dumpling. This is sort of like that law of energy and mass where energy can be converted to mass and mass to energy without loss of anything in the change. It's like that except you can take two large pieces of unwanted food and apply a hearty smoosh and give the impression of a great loss of mass. Perfect for this situation. I'll take another two bites and bid it a good day. Then it will look like I just got full instead of sick. Bonus.

Okay, on this bite I tried eating only stuffing. Big mistake. It appears that the stuffing is the generator of the stinkiness. Almost passed out on that bite. A couple of people were looking at me as my eyes were watering and I strained not to choke. I'm already drawing a fair amount of attention to myself being the only person typing on a laptop in the cafe and certainly the only one snapping action photos of his food. Time for the magic words "Zahlen, bitte." Well, after another cleansing Diet Coke.

Bummer. I just saw the dessert menu. An excellent selection of premium ice cream awaits those who finish their meals. As I have not finished mine I am weighing the pros and cons of ordering a dessert anyway. Ah, I should pass, I have other things to do before the stores close. Best to get the heck out of Dodge while I can.

Well, I was prepared when it happened. The waitress came to pick up my plates and there was this mass of cheesy-dumpling stuff looking about half-eaten. She started spouting off in German about blah-blah-blah-nicht-blah-nicht-blah-blah??? I figured that meant something like "What??? You didn't finish your food? Didn't you like it or was it not good???" Therefore the response I prepared (doing the Boy Scout always prepared thing) was "Nein, Das Essen war sehr gut!" and rubbed my tummy and sighed as if in bliss. In other words, "No, it was very good! I'm quite full and happy!!!" As if.

Getting up this morning was strange. I was getting up first the first time in a long time, by myself. I showered and did the usual thing and headed to Cafe Katzung for an Austrian pasty (Indianer) and a cup of Earl Grey. After this quick breakfast I decided to walk to the Bergisel - the Olympic ski jump. It's quite a walk as its over 2 kilometers across town from the hotel. It took about 30 minutes to walk to the area. In the area were also Wilterner Basilica and the Stift Wilten. I realized upon getting to the area that the last mile or so was straight up a hill. I took several pictures of this as there were signs showing adults walking hand in hand with children. I'd like to see a child walk that hill. Man, what a hike. Upon getting to the top, it was worth the work. The Olympic torch braziers were there and at the base of the braziers is a list of the medal winners in the 1976 Olympics. The USA did not do too well but it was pretty cool seeing D. Hamill for the gold medal in women's figure skating. Very cool. I took a lot of pictures of the ski jump. It's more crazy in person than on TV. Not only do you have the 130 meter jump but at Innsbruck you have the backdrop of the city below you, adding to the vertical feel. I took the tram to the top of the hill and then the elevator to the top of the slope tower. I looked around the observation deck and then went to the cafe for some food. I had potato soup and orange juice. Don't ask. Then I walked myself all the way back down and back to the hotel.

Today was a bright and sunny day in Innsbruck - the perfect day for us to go up on the slopes. Breakfast again at the hotel was identical to the day before except that I had English Breakfast tea and Peppermint tee. After some busywork in the morning with Devry and my website, it was already lunch time so we went to the Restaurant Ottoburg at Herzog-Friedrich-Strasse 1. The restaurant has been in business since 1745 and is inside a 13th century building which some people say is the oldest in Innsbruck. When we went inside we were asked if we wanted to sit in the "old rooms". Old sounded good to me so we proceeded up a flight of stairs to an ancient room wrought completely in carved dark woods. Apparently there are four of these dining rooms scattered over two floors. We each ordered Diet Coke to start. The Diet Coke over here is much sweeter that it's American equivalent. I decoded the label and it seems to have a combination of three artificial sweeteners, only one of which is aspartame. The others are "cyclamat" and "acesulfam". I ordered a veal goulash and Ahu ordered the classic Wiener Schnitzel. Neither of us really knew what to expect from this meal. The goulash was very different from similar dishes in the United States. Instead of noodles there are those ever present dumplings. I suppose that dumplings are basically clumped-up noodles so they are pretty similar. The veal was in several 1 or 2 ounce cuts and drowned in a thick, paprika sauce. I eventually figured out that the sauce and meat are to be mixed in with the dumplings giving an approximation of the goulash I've had before. I've come to the realization that traditional Austrian form the base of inspiration for numerous Betty Crocker dishes. Its very interesting noticing the substitutions Betty Crocker makes to enable a quick and easy dinner. Pasta noodles for dumplings and ground beef (Hamburger Helper!) instead of veal cutlets. Ahu's schnitzel was very good with fries. Wiener Schnitzel is apparently a big piece of veal smashed into a thin steak-like layer, breaded, and fried. The closest thing back home would be a chicken fried steak. I don't know where they get the "Wiener" part of the name as it looks nothing like any wiener I've seen. It was a very good lunch and fuel for the trip into the mountains.

We took a long walk from the restaurant to the Hauptbahnhof (main terminal) and to the adjacent Busbahnhof. We eventually caught the right bus to the Olympic Express stop. The bus was crammed to the max and I almost didn't get on. The bus ride was about 20 minutes long and went by the Bergisel and through the tiny towns of Igls and Lans. Igls is called "Olympic Innsbruck" because it was really the base camp for the alpine events in the 1964 and 1976 Olympic games. A lot of the lifts start in this area. Ahu and I got out at the Olympia and realized that there isn't much to do up there except for ski. In retrospect this should have been pretty obvious. Oh well. As it turns out, the coolest experience of the whole trip was to be had here.

Looking around, we found that the bobsledding track was next to the lift. Neither of us had ever seen a bobsledding track so that was pretty cool in itself. But then we saw the "Gastbob" sign, which translates to "Guest bob". Apparently they allowed visitors to go down in the bobsled! We found the guy selling tickets and he said to come back in 50 minutes for our ride. We set out walking up the mountain taking pictures of various angles of the track along the way. I got a couple of shots of bobsleds coming down the track. Pretty tough to do considering the speed at which they are moving. The ticket guy said we would be going off of the women's start (the men's too fast and dangerous) and that the track was 746 meters long and would be covered in 44 seconds at a speed of approximately 90 kilometers per hour. Sounds good to me!!! At the appointed time we showed up, paid our 30 euros each, and were sent to the brake area to catch a ride in the "blue truck" which takes the bobsleds back up the mountain to the beginning of the track.

We met the blue truck and climbed in the back with a Swiss bobsled and its pilot and pusher. It was a bouncy ride up to the top. Unfortunately, it was to the "top" and we didn't realize until 30 minutes later that we were at the men's start. Here were a bunch of elite athlete types doing run after run while Ahu and I stand there wondering why no one is taking our pink guest bobsled tickets. Eventually, the loudspeaker solved it for us. My face flushed when I heard the following announcement, repeated about 5 times: "The two American people, go to the brake area or the ladies' start now." Great. Of course everyone knows who the American idiots are standing in the wrong place. So we muster some self-respect and walk down to the other start area where we find people waiting for us to go. There were three other people waiting to go on the run. Each of these guys had multiple piercings, shaved heads or other weird adornments. I was starting to wonder what kind of extreme sport we had signed up for. The bobsled we get is modified to hold one driver and 5 guests. The driver sits in front, then Ahu, me, and the three stooges behind me. Somebody pushes us and all of a sudden we are off. It was hellishly rough, like driving a car down a backcountry dirt road, bumps all the way. Of course, this is happening at increasing speed until you feel like the guy who first tested out the wind tunnel. You know that picture where the guy's face gets more and more pulled back until his lips are blinding him and he looks like he belongs in the movie Alien? That's us when we get to full speed and hit the kreistle turn. That's the 360 degree turn where you are perpendicular to the ground and the blood is in your feet and hands. Crazy speed for the distance between turns. And to top it off, the turns have these tarps pulled across them to keep out the snow. It looks like each turn has its own roof. But when you come flying up to the turn, it feels as if you're about to lose your head. We are, of course, wearing helmets but I'm starting to feel that's just for show. Finally we are going up this hill, losing speed, until we stop. My eyes are completely watered from the wind and my hands and feet itch because of the blood rush. It was totally intense - a great and memorable experience.

We didn't want to wait around for the bus so we thought we would just walk to the next little town back towards Innsbruck. So here we are, walking on the side of a 2-lane highway in the Alps of Austria. After about a mile or so we end up in Lans. All we want at this point is a cafe or something to rest in and wait for the bus. No luck here. Lans is a town made up of barns and small, old houses. It's a rural town. The smell of manure is everywhere. So strange that this place is on the bus route from Innsbruck to the Olympia lift. So we keep walking. This time its more like 2 miles and we finally find a bus stop. There are no benches or places to sit so when the bus comes - going up to Olympia Express - we get on and ride all the way back up the way we came, then all the way back down, and then, finally, all the way back to our hotel. By this time we are completely tired and ready for dinner. As it turns out, that was not to be. Ahu finds out that there is an emergency going on back home in Istanbul and we decide she needs to be there. So we spend two hours booking flights and making arrangements and remembering little things like how I need the Long Term Parking ticket from her purse so I can get the car out of O'Hare when I get back home. It is decided that she will take the 6:15 Tyrolean Airlines flight to Frankfurt, Germany and then a Lufthansa flight to Istanbul. After all of this, we go to the Restaurant Goldenes Dachl and have dinner. Ahu has a disappointing cheese plate and a Zipfer. I have a large Zipfer and a strip steak with herb butter and potatoes. My food was excellent. We finished off by sharing a banana split. We then went back to the hotel and Ahu got packed up to leave. We went to sleep and then I went with her to the airport at 5 AM. I am now in a foreign country by myself for the first time in 4 years. I went back to the hotel and went back to sleep.

Am writing in the very early morning hours of Monday.

Another whoa. I was not expecting the airplane that we are taking to Innsbruck. I started to get the feeling it might be a smaller plane by gauging the number of people waiting to go there. But I did not explain a 30-seater with twin props run by Air A!lps (correct weird spelling). Even when I went to St. Lucia from Puerto Rico, the plane was bigger than this. In fact, it is so small they had to check our carry-on suitcase because they had no overhead compartment space. The plane is apparently a Dornier 328. When we got on the plane, Ahu made a beeline for the front-most two seats. At first glance this appeared to be a good idea. By takeoff I was thinking it was crazy. Turns out, those first two seats have exit doors on both sides of the plane. Ahu was sitting next to one door, I was sitting next to the other. Apparently it happens where one or the other door blows open and the cabin loses pressure. To avoid the unfortunate loss of the two front-row passengers, those passengers where special seat belts which go over the should and across the lap. Not really dissimilar from a ride at Six Flags Great America. There was slight compensation in the additional leg room and the fact that I had a great view of the cockpit until they closed the door for takeoff. I even got some pretty good pictures. Take off was pretty cool because smaller planes gain altitude faster. We went right into the clouds and then right out of them into a brilliant sunshine.

The flight to Innsbruck was 1 hour, 23 minutes long. About twenty minutes out you could see peaks in the Alps sticking out above the clouds. Every thing below us was overcast. It looked like an infinite field of snow drifts (clouds) with these little mountain peaks sticking out, very much like icebergs sticking out of the ocean water with the massive buck hidden below. As we made our descent, I realized we were landing in a narrow valley between two fields of towering mountains and yet you couldn't see anything below you except clouds. Then, all of a sudden, there were the mountains and the towns below. Not a lot of room for pilot error but we landed without incident. It was, in fact, one of the most stable landings I've been one, a fact due mostly to the lack of crosswinds (blocked by the mountains).

Innsbruck's airport is a throwback to the airports of the 70's. The plane taxis to an easy stop. The door opens and you walk out, grab your luggage, and walk into the airport. Down the runway, two hot air balloons were getting ready to lift off. At the terminal, people were standing outside on a balcony waving at incoming passengers. Everything felt laid back, safe, and friendly.

We took the F bus to the Alstadt, or Old Town, part of Innsbruck. Since it was overcast and I could not tell north from south, and because I was functioning on no sleep, I proceeded to get us lost immediately. We eventually rectified this and found our hotel, the simply named Hotel Innsbruck, shortly thereafter. After checking in, we decided we needed to have lunch before we retired for a nap. We referred to our Frommer's guide and chose Jörgele. We were getting pretty sleepy at this point. Ahu ordered spaetzl and I ordered a strip steak garnished with onions and bacon and served with roasted potatos. This was, of course, accompanied by beer. Spaetzl turns out to be a sort of macaroni and cheese-like dish except that the macaronis are little cheese-filled dumplings. Both meals were very filling and Ahu did not finish hers. When the server came to clear the tables, she admonished Ahu for not eating all of her lunch. I guess the Clean Plate Club is pretty populate over here. Needless to say, with the heavy lunch and beer, we were lucky to make it back to the hotel without falling asleep in the street.

After napping for several hours we found we were again hungry and it was dinner time so we went back out on the town. Before dinner, though, we decided to go find Ahu's conference center and go through early check-in. The Congress center turned out to be a 5 minute walk from the hotel and the lounge area had free high-speed Internet connections. After signing in, we went looking for dinner.

We ended up at the Gasthaus Hapt. We ordered beer again. Ahu got a Zipfer klein (small Zipfer) and I got a Radler klein. Ahu's beer wax quite good but mine was like a Sprite with a little beer added for coloring. Very weird. So I guzzled it (so as not to waste it) and order a Zipfer groß (large). Something a little bigger than a pint came back and then we ordered. Ahu had a mixed grill with beef and veal, pork, and a mystery meat which was served with French fries and vegetables. I ordered the Tyrolean version of beef stroganoff and got a surprise dish. Unlike the Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper version back home, this beef stroganoff came with several cutlets of veal, a sauce, and a pile of peppers, onions, and other things cut into tiny strips and piled on the meat. There were pomme frites on the side. The stroganoff was not like anything I had ever had before so it is now clear to me why "crock" is a part of that particular American brand.

We walked around a little longer after dinner, took some nice night shots, and went to sleep.

Woke up this morning around 4 AM Innsbruck time and could not get back to sleep. Took a loooong hot bath and finished reading Excavation. Even in this hotel which we are paying 80 euros a night for, has a fantastic bathroom. A nice long, deep tub for soaking. Lots of chrome and marble. However I noticed a very strange omission from the bathroom. To my dismay, there is no fan. I thought about this for a moment and realized that the lack of fan is just further evidence that Europeans think their *stuff* don't stink!

Eventually the sun rose and we could go downstairs for breakfast. Ahu was quite happy to find a lot of cheese and bread in the buffet. Not one to mix my lunch foods with my breakfast foods, I chose scrambled eggs and bacon and a large bowl of corn flakes. No breakfast cereal for me in 10 years and now corn flakes twice in as many days. We also both had tea.

After breakfast we went back to the room where Ahu got ready for her presentation. She is quite prepared and practices speaking her presentation to ensure proper duration. Upon arriving at the conference center I immediately procured a table with an Internet connection and Ahu went about finding the keynote speaker room. I uploaded the Day 1, Part 1 content and images. Ahu came to get me around 10 and we went to the room that she was to present in and waited for the time to come. We had to watch 3 other presenters before Ahu's turn came up. Each presented was supposed to take around 15 minutes and then have 5 minutes or so for questions afterwards. Let's just say that some people were completely unprepared for their presentations. Ahu did very well and created considerable interest in her research. I filmed the whole presentation and took some pictures as well. I originally didn't think I would be able to get in to watch her but there was no security and, in the end, no one cared. They were probably happy to have one more person in the audience.

In the end, we both couldn't wait to get out of there. We went back to the hotel to change into comfortable clothing and then went walking around. We had only two goals for the day. One was to get in a lot of sightseeing. The other was to find some items we needed: bottled water, disposable razors, and a phone card. Since we had only carry-on luggage for this trip, we were not allowed to bring any razors with us. We also had thus far had much difficulty in finding bottled water. We found water but it was mineral water and was fizzy. Charlie no likey. Mineral water is like a flavorless Sprite. Yuck. The phone card was for calling home to say hi.

We found the phone card easily enough but the first few tries we couldn't get it to work. Kind of a trial-and-error sort of thing with numbers, PINs, and country codes. We had lunch at a pizza and kebabs place that was packed with teenagers. Couldn't find a seat. I had beer and doner kebab. Ahu had Diet Coke and doner kebab. While we were standing there waiting for our food, one of the guys who was working there asked these two teenage girls to make room at their table for us to sit. Imagine a table with 4 chairs in the United States. You and a friend are taking up two chairs. Now a waiter comes up and asks you if two people you don't know can join your table. Wouldn't happen. Over here, whatever it takes to get everyone a seat. That was the way is was in Australia too. Americans must really value that personal space.

After lunch we went looking for a teahouse called Alte Teestube which is the only teahouse in Tyrol. It has been around since 1978 and is run by an expert in teas. They have over 70 kinds of tea for sale imported from India, China, Kenya, Indonesia, Russia, and Japan. Ahu and I had a Sacher torte and two cups of Darjeeling First Flush, a very rare tea from India. The tea was excellent but the torte was not all that good.

Then we went to Dom zu St. Jakob (Cathedral of St. James). The church dates back to the early 1700s and has a beautiful Baroque interior. Apparently it was heavily damaged in World War II but I couldn't see where anything was amiss. There was an amazing pipe organ in the back. The chief treasure of this church is the Maria Hilf (Mary of Succor) painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Admission was free and the church is open from 6:30am until 6pm.

We stopped to take more pictures of the Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof). The Golden Roof is supposedly the most popular landmark in Innsbruck. There are 2,657 gold-plated tiles composing the roof. The roof covers a balcony where Maximilian I would watch tournaments in the square below. The roof was completed at the beginning of the 16th century.

We then went to the Stadtturm (City Tower). A small fee gets you into this tower where you climb 148 steps to the top. The top of the tower used to be a prison cell but once you get there you can climb through an old window out on to a narrow balcony that goes around the outside of the tower. I took a lot of pictures from the balcony. I even got a few shots of a Tyrolean Airlines plane landing. It passed right by us, close enough that we could read the name of the airline off of the plane. And to think that was us the day before.

Heading up the street we found the Hofburg, the 15th-century imperial palace of Emperor Maximilian I. The structure has 4 stories and a two-story hall painted in white and gold and filled with the portraits of Hapsburgs. We wandered through the museum taking pictures along the way. It was quite difficult to get good pictures as flash photography was not allowed and it was very dim inside. On top of that, I had no tripod and so I had to hold very still to get a good shot. Nonetheless, I got quite a few good pictures of paintings and rooms as we made our way around the palace. There was a very interesting portrait of Marie Antoinette who I believe is the Hapsburg that was married off to Louis XVI (?) in France and who is attributed to the "let them eat cake" statement. The portrait says she died in 1793 so it could be her.

After the Hofburg we went back to the hotel. We took an hour nap and then Ahu worked on her Devry stuff. Even over here she still has to go online and grade assignments and other work. After she finished we went out again looking for water and razors. Unfortunately it was around 7pm and everything was closed again. We did manage to find a wasser haus (water store) which sold only bottled water, lots of different kinds of bottled waters. We bought two bottles of Wattwiller and went back to the hotel to put them in the mini-bar to get cold. Then we went to dinner at the Restaurant Goldener Adler.

This restaurant serves hearty, cold-weather fare and Ahu and I both ordered solid meat dishes. Ahu ordered lamb with red wine sauce and potato croquets. I had a beef filet with pepper sauce and potato croquets and a salad. Ahu had a Zipfer and I had a large Kaiser beer. The beer I had seems to have had a higher alcohol content that usual as I was buzzing along quite well with only a few drinks. When I finished that I also had a dark malt beer to finish. Ahu ended her meal with an Austrian cheese plate and I finished up with vanilla ice cream wrapped in a crepe and drizzled with chocolate sauce.

We then came home and went promptly to sleep. However I am once again sleepless and am writing this at about 3am Austria time.

I have decided to keep an online journal for our Austria trip. We are going to Austria for Ahu's conference. Ahu is presenting a paper and speaking at a conference on artificial intelligence in Innsbruck.

The trip got off to a crazy start. We drove out to the house to see if they had made any framing progress in the last week. As you can see in a previous posting, progress is not the right word. There was a complete transformation in the last week from "hole in the ground" to "70% complete framed house". Needless to say, we were pretty excited and spent a little too much time there looking and taking pictures.

We got to the airport around 2:45 PM for a 4:10 PM flight. Getting to Economy Parking we found that the main lot was completely full. We had to then drive to an alternate lot and then race to the train that takes you to the terminals.

Getting to our terminal, we found that everyone else was already in line. We thought we were going to be able to avoid the line because we were taking only two carry-on bags but as it turns out, you need a boarding pass to get through security and you need to go through the main check-in line to get a boarding pass. That is, unless you have an e-ticket, which we didn't, and which wouldn't have mattered anyway since the e-ticket machines were all out of order (all 6 of them). Lovely.

Anyway, the line took a good hour because of all the crazies in front of us who had decided to get on the plane with 7 oversized pieces of luggage. In addition to have too much luggage, their luggage was also too heavy. We saw people taking things out of one bag and re-apportioning them to other bags. We saw people getting stuck with extra fees for oversized bags, etc. I think they need to start assessing a few against these passengers which is based on how many minutes they delay me and everyone else and goes toward a discount on my ticket.

We flew KLM, by the way, which apparently means Royal Dutch Airlines in Dutch. Or is that Hollandaise or Netherlands-ese??? KLM is a partner of Northwest Airlines, or should I say "Northworst"? After getting our boarding passes we had a 5 minute speed lunch and while Ahu was finishing hers, I went to the store and bought Almond Joys, Reese's Pieces, and 2 bags of Peanut M&M's. We had heard bad things about KLM food and I do not like to risk going hungry on a 7-hour flight in the "cluster" class (which is what I call the sardine-like package most people call economy class).

The flight to Amsterdam goes on a Boeing 747 which holds 476 people in the KLM configuration. It's a huge plane and even has two floors. Apparently the top floor used to be a piano bar but in a stellar lapse in judgment it was turned into normal seating. Actually it might be first class but I'll never know because you won't see me spending $5,000 on a $500 ticket.

First, I have to say that flying KLM was great. Great food, excellent service, and a few other niceties really made an impression. They went around a couple of times offering hot, moist towels for refreshment. Dinner was a cheesy pasta (quite good), with warm rolls and butter, a fresh salad with creamy Italian dressing, Monterey Jack cheese with crackers, and cake with lemon frosting for dessert. Dinner was accompanied by a nice cabernet sauvignon and merlot combination. The wine comes in a small bottle which holds about a glass and a half. I had two? bottles throughout the evening. They played Master and Commander (Russell Crowe) and Out of Time (Denzel Washington) as movies. The movie monitors show flight statistics when movies are not playing. The stats include current speed, current outside temperature, distance and time until landing, and current altitude. It's always interesting to ponder the engineering behind a plane with 476 passengers going 618 miles per hour at 36,000 feet in -85 degree temperatures. Quite impressive, really. Breakfast was a bowl of corn flakes with just the right amount of milk, some sugar, orange juice (not good), and some other stuff I didn't eat.

The flight would have been great except for the one thing I hate most about cluster class - the cluster. In a large plane like the 747, you always get someone else sitting next to you other than who you are traveling with. This is where the "luck 'o the draw" comes into play. Take you pick of any number of "colorful" individuals. I pulled the short straw on this ride, though, and got a real piece of work. I always give Ahu the window seat so I get the middle seat. That's right, Mr. 62-inch around shoulders sitting in cluster class in the middle seat. It's a great fit. The guy sitting next to me was already drunk before he got on the plane and had not been on a plane since 1972. He was constantly leaning forward and leaning over to attempt to look out the window. Of course in doing this he blows his nasty drunk-beer-smoker breath all over me. That lovely characteristic by itself was enough to churn my stomach by the end of the flight. But it gets better. He paid no attention to the invisible armrest borders. So constantly he has his arms bumping me way over in my seat, his legs rubbing up against mine, generally making me very "compressed". On top of this, he's popping some prescription pills every hour or so. He tells us later on that he has an acquaintance who is a doctor and who, in a bout of insanity, gave him a prescription for something that "helps with his nerves". So he passes out (legs and arms in my space) every hour or so for 15 minutes. Twice he bolted upright with bulging eyes, unable to breathe. Pretty scary… Anyway, when we landed in Amsterdam, I was soooooo ready to get the heck off the plane.

Amsterdam airport is great. It's a lot like O'Hare in that it is really big and spread out, and in that it has a ton of great shops, cafes, and places to eat. We wandered around a bit and then got a real breakfast. Ahu got her typical European bread, cheese, and tomatoes fare, and I got pancakes from Mickey D's. To my surprise, however, instead of maple syrup they have this stuff called stroop. Stroop is somewhere between sugar syrup (with no maple) and molasses. It's not thick and it's dark brown. It was quite tasty.

In the Amsterdam airport, Ahu has informed me that there are male attendants in the women's bathroom. Whoa.

I am sitting here writing this while waiting for our next flight to Austria.