Leaving Palm Springs

Yesterday we spent a whole day shopping, yes a whole day!

Helen hit the Desert Hills outlet mall, a short drive from where we're staying. It's just off Interstate 10, quite literally in the middle of what is otherwise desert. This place is huge and actually did consume an entire day of looking at clothes and handbags. Helen's in her element here, me not so much.

For the evening we drove about 20 minutes in the other direction to a Best Buy, it's the best Best Buy I've ever visited, a large and well stocked store. I purchased some nice headphones there.

Palm Springs and the surrounding cities continue to treat us well with a relaxed pace and today a little cooler with a gentle breeze blowing.

Our trip is now coming to an end. Our wallets are almost empty apart from badly bruised credit cards. Our baggage is full. In fact Helen bought a hand-held baggage scale to check how we're tracking. Ironically this adds 0.5kg to the payload. Maybe I should use it to see if the laptop has become heavier with all the trip photos on it? :-)

Today we drive back to LAX, to drop the rental car off and make our way to the airport for a late flight. Next stop after that is Auckland and from there back to reality.

Palm Springs

Yesterday afternoon we drove to Palm Springs.

In some ways, this is like any other American desert city (think Phoenix, Los Angeles). Grid pattern roads, big roads, lots of big shopping malls, big car parks, big cars and trucks, dry and brown, with certain areas of well watered green grass.

Helen booked us into an Inn which at first glance looks like something out of a Quentin Tarantino movie. The reception looks like it hasn't been renovated since the 70s and there's an old Cadillac parked out front. On further inspection it's just decorated to look retro (to fit the aging style of the building itself no doubt).

What makes this town different is that it isn't so busy. The traffic is light, driving around is easier than LA and not as aggressive. There's money around, along Highway 111 there are large dealerships for BMW, Audi and Mercedes but also Maserati, Aston Martin, Bentley. Also some amazing dealerships for classic American cars which are all glistening chrome and vinyl. There are old people everywhere, some scary with facelifts, too much suntan, old ladies dressed up like teenagers, and so on. There are country clubs at every turn. Plenty of blue rinse here. Very entertaining and great for people watching.

The town is set right on the edge of mountains (not Switzerland type mountains, just California type mountains, like brown hills to us New Zealanders) but it's a nice setting and the silouettes at sunset are beautiful especially with the ample palm trees all over town.

So plenty to see as we cruise around in our gas guzzler. Shopping wise, we have everything we need yet don't have the traffic hassles. We easily filled in our day and our remaining baggage allowance.

We stay here again tonight. Tomorrow Helen wants to visit an outlet mall nearby, which we passed yesterday and it looks gigantic. That could be tomorrow spoken for I think. It's our second to last day in America before heading home to NZ.

Paramount Pictures

Today we went to Paramount. Helen booked us on a tour at 11am. We didn't know how long it would take to get there, so set the alarm for 7:30am. Jet lagged, we were both awake at 4am. While I cat napped until around 6:30am, Helen didn't sleep much more.

So we hit the road early, picking up the rental car about 7:30am. The Monday morning LA traffic was rather bad. We dialled up the address for Paramount on the GPS, and it said our travel time would be 20 minutes. Yeah right! The arrival time crept up as we crawled in traffic in our gas guzzling SUV. Mile after slow mile, our trip was well over an hour. Still we had plenty of time.

Usually the LA air is dense with smog. Mornings are foggy / smoggy, and the air is grey. The overnight rain washed all the pollution out of the air, and today we had blue sky. We actually managed to see the Hollywood sign clearly from multiple angles! I've only seen it a couple of times before, a faint ghostly image of itself through the smog. So I was impressed how clear and white it was.

We had some time to pass before our tour. Taco Bell for breakfast past some time, and the Paramount gift shop gave Helen something to look at - I sufffer from gift shop fatigue after weeks of vacation.

The studio certainly is a working one, there were plenty of live sets, Dr Phil even had his red light on. But this did not stop us visiting any area as far as we were aware.

We got to walk in behind facades in their "New York" streets and they're quite strong. Better than you would expect.

In an unexpected moment, we're sitting in the middle of a New York street when a bunch of what looked to me like kids, hoodies and skateboards, shuffle by. Like a nature documentary, our guide whispers "that's some of the Glee cast". All a bit surreal but made Helen's day. Moments later, another tour guide gives a thumbs up to our guide, obviously it was a rare glimpse. The Glee trailers were all parked up too, obviously filming going on.

We also went into Paramount's own movie theatre. Very nice, very comfy seats and is dead silent inside, acoustically dead apparently. It's used for staff screenings, test screenings, producer screenings, and even used as a movie theatre in movies.

Although interesting, in my opinion the Paramount tour was not as good as the Warner Bros. tour we did a couple of years ago. But it felt more authentic as when we visited Warners, the writers strike was on, so the place was very quiet. Paramount was certainly in use.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon making our way out of greater LA, via Burbank, towards Palm Springs where Helen has booked us in. The drive was typical busy freeways, although we got to use the carpool lane which helped, then suddenly the city was gone and we passed through some interesting desert with huge wind farms.

We arrived at Palm Springs late afternoon and haven't done much since arriving except venture out for a trip to Wal Mart. We will see what Palm Springs has to offer tomorrow (hint - nearby outlet malls).

Los Angeles

Hi, I am still falling behind on the blog, I am yet to write up some stuff so check back. But I thought it best I give you all an update.

We're now in Los Angeles. Our flight was OK, although we did get delayed. After our taxi onto the runway, we were about 1 minute from takeoff when our plane was called back to the terminal to unload a bag. A passenger had not boarded and their baggage had to be removed. Also the plane needed to have its fuel topped up again. So that added about an hour on the ground.

The flight was however comfortable and we were up for about 24 hours straight, getting us to bed about 11pm LA time but that was a painful 6am UK time. The trip from the airport to hotel was traffic mayhem due to rain, and took nearly an hour when usually it's about 15 minutes.

Today we are going to do the Paramount Studio tour, and the rest of the tour is Helen shopping. I will admit, that part scares me a little as she now knows exactly how much baggage allowance we have remaining.

We've decided to drive to Palm Springs to stay, but don't know what waits there. Time will tell I suppose!

Salisbury Day Three - Lyme Regis & Weymouth

Today we hit the road early and head to Lyme Regis. Helen only tells me once we're there that a Jane Austen book Persuasion was set here and it was used for the movie also. It is however the first time I have seen the English Channel.

It's a cute seaside resort, and it's a beautiful day. We spend a couple of hours walking around taking in the blue sky and fresh sea air.

Now that we're on the coast, we drive along, stopping at various small villages along the way. Each is quite different, even the type of sand or pebbles at each beach seems different. We're being real Sunday drivers today.

Eventually we stop at Weymouth, a busier centre. We park and walk around for a couple of hours. The beach sand here is beautiful, very fine, almost like powder and does not feel gritty. We walk up and down the "old harbour" and watch boats come and go. It's sunny here, but there is a cold wind.

A very nice relaxing day. And thankfully the weather has been beautiful. More of the same tomorrow please!

Salisbury Day Two - Chawton

Today we pick up a rental car for the week, starting with a nice morning walk across town. Today Helen wants to visit Jane Austen's House in Chawton.

We want to take backroads there, more scenic than motorway. So we dial up the destination on the GPS, then set a waypoint of Stockbridge. Then off we go then. 3/4 of an hour later, we realise we're going in the wrong direction, to another Stockbridge. There are apparently many Stockbridges in the UK. So we fix that and have just added 1 1/2 hours to our journey. The GPS is dumbing us down - we'll have to watch that.

Jane Austen's House is somewhat interesting, more so for Helen than me. Jane Austen did however actually live there and many of her possessions are still there along with possessions of her family. So it's informative and reasonably relevant.

Helen buys a number of items in the store, no surprise there!

For the rest of the day we head back to Salisbury, and have a restful afternoon. After our busy time in Germany and Switzerland, it's nice to get some real peace and quiet.

Salisbury Day One

Today we hopped on an early morning train to Salisbury. A simple mission, catch a bus with our luggage to Waterloo and get a train from there. Catching a bus is slower, but more interesting than the underground.

After the train ride to Salisbury, we walked to our B&B to drop our luggage. Then we went for a walk around town.

The Salisbury Cathedral is straight opposite our B&B, well its keep (ie grounds) is anyway. We went there first, and I decided to book in for a tower tour later in the day. To fill in time we found some lunch, and walked around the shops. In the middle of town is a fair, noisy and busy. But interesting all the same. We don't see this kind of thing much in New Zealand any more.

Helen wasn't keen on the tower, so I went alone. This tour is 1 1/2 hours long, very interesting, and more about the architecture and how its built. History is secondary. I totally enjoyed this tour, the views are the icing on the cake but it was one of the more informative I've done. Most fascinating is the giant "hamster wheel" at the top of the tower, which builders used back in the day to drive rope pulleys to hoist items up and down. Apparently 30 minutes walking for someone inside the wheel, to move one load up or down.

Salisbury is a nice town - and I can't get the Peter Gabriel song "Salisbury Hill" out of my head. But where is the hill?

Back to England

(Sorry I am falling behind in blogging, having too much fun - I will attempt to catch up!)

After finishing at the track, we had to make a beeline for the Eurostar.

First we drove through 3 countries. We blasted along the autobahn for the last time, and I'm really going to miss this. Then we crossed briefly through Netherlands, unexpected for us but suddenly the languages on road signs changed again, and we had to obey speed limits. After crusing at 180km/h, slowing to 120km/h seems so boring. About 1/2 an hour later, we crossed into Belgium and before we knew it, we were in Brussels.

We had to drop the rental car off, and did this about 1pm. From there, we went to the Gare du Midi railway station and locked our bags in a locker for the day, actually it didn't seems as risky as it sounds as the lockers are pretty strong and electronically secured.

For the remainder of the day, we walked around Brussels again. Like Germany, shops are closed on Sundays except those serving food, and a few tacky tourist shops. One last time to sample some Belgian Waffles (they are the best!) and some Belgian chocolate beer. We also discovered parts of the city we missed last time including Manneken Pis, an interesting fountain which is much photographed!

Sadly we had to make our way back to Eurostar, for a 7:30pm check in. We were lucky here, our train was the last to leave before Belgium railway workers went on strike. After our train, travellers were advised to delay their journey. We heard on the news that buses replaced Eurostar through to France, adding hours to the journey.

We arrived comfortably in London about 9:30pm, having passed through 5 countries in one day, and headed off to bed after unwinding. It's nice to be able to understand what's on TV even if all they did was talk about the pending UK budget cuts.

Tomorrow, we're off to Salisbury.

Nürburgring Nordschleife

Here we are! Helen booked us on the BMW Ring Taxi for this morning, for a lap of Nürburgring, and we're finally here. The forecast snow never arrived overnight, thankfully, but boy it is cold. The temperature was near freezing and the visibility very poor.

We arrived nice and early, so we wouldn't get lost and miss our slot. We sign our disclaimer, then wait for an hour or so. The Ring Taxi finally arrives and takes a few passengers. The cars are immaculate, like they have just had a valet clean. After a few laps, they are already beginning to look dirty. The track surface is obviously wet.

The entry to the circuit to drive one lap is easily accessible, via the carpark. As the track surface is still wet, and visibility very poor, the Ring Taxi is the only car going out. The carpark is filling up with cars, many track ready with roll cages, mostly Porsches, and in particular a Gumpert Apollo turns heads as he burbles in and parks up. These drivers are obviously here hoping the day will improve, before paying their toll to get on the track.

Finally its our turn. Once we hop in, we're through the toll gate, and we're off! The visibility is very poor, we cannot see the end of straights and can only see the corner we're on. This does not put our driver off, he's driven in Nürburgring 24 hour races and therefore not only knows the track by heart, but he has experience driving with only his headlights to see. So we're in good hands.

The BMW M5 does a fine job of powering us around, it's comfortable and quick and the driver occasionally drifts us through corners for fun. I could do this all day long, but sadly one lap is all we get and before we know it, we're back in the pits. The lap was around 10 minutes, plenty quick for us, especially given the low visibility. We had the track to ourselves, with nobody to pass (or slow us down) and also nobody coming up behind wanting to overtake.

This was a great "once in a lifetime" experience and well worth it.

A heads up to all back in Wellington- we will have a Nürburgring sticker on our car when we return - tacky or not (just google "Nürburgring sticker" and see the debates on forums about what "earns the right" to wear such a sticker, quite amusing).

Driving to Nürburgring

Today we leave Stuttgart and head to Nürburgring. This is meant to be about 4 hours and we hope to fill in the day as we go.

The drive is short, 5 minutes up the road we stop at a Hein Gericke store where I cannot resist some shopping. I end up buying some nice motorcycle riding pants for a lot less cost than they would be back home. 45 minutes later, the journey resumes.

The drive is very wet, the spray from cars on the autobahn makes for high concentration as the visibility is very poor. There is also a lot of road works on the autobahn, where they make the lanes narrow. It's always nervous times passing big trucks.

Anyway suddenly Helen sees two Concorde planes to our right, so we impulsively take the next off ramp to investigate. Turns out we've found Sinsheim Auto Technik Museum, an amazing place. Full of all sorts of motorcycles, cars, army vehicles, trains, planes, and more! Something for everyone. A huge collection, of famous cars and motorcycles, many working exhibits, and especially both the French/English Concorde plus the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144. They even have the Blue Flame there!

We spend a good 2 hours here, would have liked more. Moving right along, back on the autobahn. Slower today in the rain.

We arrive at our hotel late afternoon, it is cold and wet here at Nürburgring. The forecast is also bad, even mentioning snow. Tomorrow we are due to take a lap of Nordschleife in the BMW Ring Taxi early morning, and snow could wreck our plans. A nervous night ahead.

Stuttgart (again) and Mercedes-Benz Museum

We have some spare time in our itinerary, where Helen had not booked us into anything, not even accommodation. This is an opportunity to return to Stuttgart and see some of what I missed the week before.

First we have a long drive ahead from Lucerne. It started out OK, but for some traffic, until close to Zurich I realised I wasn't wearing my watch. A phone call to the hotel confirmed, I had left it in our room. By the time we doubled back to Lucerne to collect the watch, and returned to the same point, the morning was half gone. D'oh!

We arrived in Stuttgart mid afternoon. We headed to the hotel first, to check in, then Helen wanted to go outlet mall shopping. This easily filled in the remainder of the day and afterwards we walked around the local shopping area just nearby, and found a local restaurant to feed us. The food was reasonably priced, and amazing, and we did OK because the menu was not in English, and the waitress did not speak English either! Good stuff.

The following day, we had a plan. Get up early, get to Mercedes Benz Museum for opening, see that and hopefully get a booking on the factory tour, then visit Porsche Museum in the afternoon. This did not go according to plan.

The Mercedes Museum is incredible, very extensive, and full of interesting exhibits. It's very high tech, even the head sets are better than any guided tour we've done anywhere with colour LCD screens. The tour starts by taking us via lift to the top floor, where the first exhibit is a horse. From there, the building spirals downwards through 7 floors, where we go from the first motorcycle, and petrol engine, and car, through to the latest in Mercedes racing achievements, with everything inbetween including buses, ambulances, trucks, the Pope's bullet proof car, and so on. The museum chronicles not just the history of the company, but also the world, through each decade, and how various world events influenced the company and the products. Especially the influence of both World Wards, especially WWII, and globalisation.

Helen the bus driver! 

We also got a tour of the factory where the C class engines are assembled. Although our guide had limited English, and the tour was quite short, it was amazing to get inside the Mercedes factory at large. This is a city in its own right, with roads, car parks, buildings etc, and nearly every car in there is a Mercedes! They even have their own fire department. Inside a factory floor we see engines go through various stages, from boring and milling through to when they fill them with oil and start them in a sealed exhausted glass room. Fascinating. The factory robots are so graceful to watch, very precise and quiet too but incredibly strong.

By the time we finished here, and see all the new Mercedes cars in the attached showroom, it's too late to visit Porsche at all. So instead we ride the town buses, ending up in the city centre for more shopping and to find some dinner.

I really enjoy Stuttgart and will have to return one day to see the Porsche Museum.

Lucerne

The drive quickly crosses a river and into Switzerland. The scenery changes again now, the drive takes us along valleys and lakes, and the autobahn goes through countless tunnels. The tunnel system is impressive, multi lane all the way and crossing bridges also so that the road is reasonable straight.

We opt to pull off the autobahn and drive through Zug, but don't stop there, and then follow roads through many smaller towns to reach Luzern. The air is still a but misty today so visibility is limited but we see plenty all the same.

Once we arrive at our hotel, I get a new problem - hemorrhaging - of my wallet that is. I am blown away by how much everything costs here in Luzern, starting with the cost to park our car, and use the laundry (much needed now!!!), and even buy basic food.

Once settled in we head off on foot to explore Luzern. The city centre is actually quite compact and is a shoppers paradise, with plenty of variety, but the prices - whooah! Any swiss watch that is even vaguely in my price range, is cheaper to buy in New Zealand by far. Every shop, no matter what they sell, has a range of swiss army knives and swiss watches for sale.

The city however is beautiful. The obvious drawcard is the bridge, but the architecture is lovely and the streets are paved in cobblestones.

The following day we go up Mount Pilatus. I typed this up in detail, without saving as I went - but Windows 7 spontaneously restarted the laptop to apply updates, without asking me. What a stupid feature that is - thanks a lot Microsoft!!! I am writing this for the second time now - my enthusiam is weaning.

Lucerne is the gateway to Pilatus, and the reason why Helen has brought us here. She has been before and wanted me so see it. The visibility on the day is poor, the city in thick mist. We are assured there will be sun at the top however.

The ride up takes firstly a small gondola which transfers to a second set of wires half way. The ride is spooky as we can't even see the wires, they fade into the mist. It's dead quiet too except the clanging of cow bells all around.

Next we transfer to a larger gondola, which takes around 50 people, and break through above the cloud into sunshine. It's all blue sky above and white below.

We spend a couple of hours exploring the various viewpoints, some of which require climbing steep steps. The view across the Swiss Alps is incredible from here.

Eventually we have to get into queue to descend on the cog train. This is incredibly steep, we sit up front for a view, but as we drop into the clouds the view fades quickly. The ride down is very smooth and most enjoyable. Once at the bottom, the boat we planned to ride home across the lake is an hour away, so we opt to catch the train instead.

For dinner on our last night in Lucerne, we went to The Old Swiss House, a restaurant which Helen discovered on the internet as being reputed to serve the best Weiner Schnitzel in Lucerne. Cost aside, this was a good decision, the restaurant is beautiful inside, the cutlery and most other pieces are silver, and the service is amazing. They cook the schnitzel at the table, bringing out the raw veal, then dipping and crumbing it before our eyes, and cooking on a large copper frying pan in plenty of butter. This was fun to watch and they made it look so easy, and it tasted great too! Highly recommended.

Vaduz

We leave Feldkirch and drive towards Switzerland.

First we pass through the Principality of Liechtenstein, in particular the town of Vaduz just up the road. For this we cross a border, manned by guards but no need to stop. The first thing we notice is a change of currency on petrol station price boards, they use Swiss Francs. The air is thick with mist this morning, so we cannot see the castle on the hill that looks down on us. We stop to walk around for a while, and take in some window shopping, and during this time the mist lifts just enough for us to see the shape of the castle but not in detail unfortunately.

We then move on, towards Lucerne.

Austria

As we drive along the autobahn, we suddenly pass through to Austria and miss our opportunity to stop at the border and get a stamp in our passports. It's not much longer until we stop at our hotel in Feldkirch.

We are now also breaking the law, as we're on an Austrian autobahn and do not have in our possession a high-visibility vest in case we break down. Just not being in possession of this is enough to land a fine if caught, even if we don't find a need to use it! Boy are we living dangerously.

Feldkirch is a small town, of which the medieval inner is easily travelled by foot. It is very quaint, and looks like a postcard photo basking in the late afternoon sun.

 

It's also very quiet, and we struggle to find anywhere to eat. Most restaurants are closed and it seems the only service on offer is bars. Also we've just got used to understanding German and now the language has changed. And all the words here seem so long!


So it's a quiet night for us. This is probably a good thing, changing down a gear after Munich. We'll get some rest and tomorrow head to Switzerland. At least that's the plan, the town bell nearby ding dongs every 15 minutes.

Baveria and Schloss Neuschwanstein

Today we left early to head towards Schloss Neuschwanstein. Although we left during Munich peak hour, we were against the flow so it didn't take long to leave the city. Once on the autobahn, we had a good run. It was a fast road, 3 lanes wide and not busy. We cruised on about 190km/h and were still passed by a couple of cars. The speed just feels comfortable and so right!

As we climb into the hills a slight mist develops into thick fog, and our GPS takes us via some narrow winding roads to cross over between some B roads. Anyway by the time we reach the village of Hohenschwangau to park for the castle, the visibility is very poor.

We get tickets no problem, and have an hour to get to the castle. There are two options, long steep walk uphill, or take a horse and cart. We opt for the horse! Our ride is exactly two horsepower.

The castle itself is incredible inside. As the King died before it was finished, it was never lived in, so is in mint condition inside. Very impressive, and perhaps the best castle visit I've ever done (and I've done a few!). Due to the fog, I could not see the outside well at all. Here's what I saw from the nearby viewing platform!

Helen has seen it before in better conditions so it keen to tell me what I am missing.

After we leave the castle, we move on towards Austria. As we leave the castle, and presumably drop altitude, the sky clears and we have a beautiful sunny drive through Baveria. The stereotypical German buildings are everywhere - woodgrain, shutters, window planters in full bloom. The cows have bells on them, and when we stop on the roadside we hear them clanging. This is all so cute. I love this place.

Munich

We arrived in Munich in the afternoon after a pleasant drive along the Autobahn. We made a beeline for our Pension (like a B&B) and found a park right outside! We checked in, and dropped our luggage.

Our Pension was directly across the road from the site of Oktoberfest, which has just finished. With no fences to stop us, we walked through. Most of the beer tents are still intact, with some partly disassembled. They are huge, many of them have a larger floor area than the Wellington Town Hall. It must be amazing in full swing. Apparently this year there were 6 million visitors!

Over the next 1 1/2 days we spent all our time discovering Munich. Two unexpected turn of events - the first being that on Sundays most shops the closed, the only exception being bars and restaurants. Even supermarkets and convenience stores are closed. The second was that on the Sunday was the Munich Marathon, so the tour bus routes were messed up.

Munich is a fantastic city to explore on foot, with great underground trains although some do look old, like some old Soviet relic. They are however very clean, smooth and quiet, but somehow look really old and rattly. The shopping is out of this world and thankfully the shops were closed Sunday so Helen couldn't spend too much. But the architecture is incredible and there are some huge buildings around the wider city.

We went up the Olympiapark Tower for an amazing view. In particular this looks down on top of BMW Welt and BMW Headquarters, and the Olympiapark, the old Olympic village which is now a popular recreational area for locals.

We had just come from BMW Welt, this is in essence a large and high tech BMW showroom. They have every model of BMW, both cars and motorcycles, and innovative displays of how some of the new features in their cars work. Also the ability to individually spec and order your own car, and a delivery area where you can take delivery of your new car in front of visitors. An amazing place, and I would dearly love to be taking delivery myself!!! I got to sit on all the motorcycles except the K1300GT which was missing, perhaps because the new 1600 is about to be released. Unfortunately the factory tour was fully booked so we missed out.

The highlight in Munich is the Hofbräuhaus, a large and popular beer hall which serve beer by the 1/2 litre and full liter steins, and wholesome food like schitzel and pork knuckles. This place is loud, and happy, you grab a seat and sit at large tables next to strangers. A great experience, we went there for dinner both nights! Highly recommended.

I am disappointed we have to leave already as there is more to see. It is a shame I lost a day due to my hospital stay.

Tomorrow we depart and head to towards Austria. More autobahn time - good stuff :-)

Leaving RBK and Stuttgart

Today I was discharged from hospital.

After a night of no pain, and no sign of having passed a stone, the doctors decided to send me on my way. I am glad to be able to continue my holiday, and so happy to have the hoses disconnected from my arm. My arms are like pincushions!

I am still getting over the fact that I missed two of the drawcards of the trip in Stuttgart. I am quite upset, but what can I do? Today we drive to Munich.

Still in Stuttgart RBK

I awake feeling better today, and am subjected to a CT Scan where "Contrast Agent" is pumped through my veins. It feels horrible, and makes my arms cold, my ears crackle, and my tongue taste wierd even though nothing is in my mouth. This better be worth it!

As the day moves on I have no more pain and am no longer on a drip. I am confident that I will be discharged today and we can get our holiday back on track.

Alas, by 2pm I am told that the CT Scan has identified a stone which is going to be dealt to tomorrow, using ultrasonic treatment. I am going to be here until tomorrow.

Another day we're not going to Munich. Yippee!!!!!

(Written by Mike, posted by Helen)

Stuttgart - RBK

Today we have one day in Stuttgart, and I am looking forward to it. Unfortunately I wake at 4pm in serious pain. And it continues to get worse. After about 5 hours and Helen blaming something I've eaten, we requested some medical assistance through the hotel desk.

Soon we get a knock at the door. An ambulance has been called. One of the two speaks a little English. They recommend a trip to hospital but warn us it will cost €200 for a 4 minute journey. So we ordered a cab instead, the ambulance driver told the taxi driver where to take us.

I am admitted immediately with suspected Kidney stones. The remainder of the day involves me taking a number of tests, and being on a drip for both painkillers and a flushing agent. I end up staying the night wondering why, oh why, does this happen while on holiday? And the hospital are quick to make contact with our travel insurance provider.

So today I do not get to visit the Porsche and Mercedes museums.

The hospital (Robert Bosch Krankenhaus) is very nice, very modern and sits on a gentle hill overlooking the city with vineyards all around. The trees are autum colours, green with orange and yellow starting to come through. I am enjoying my view and otherwise might not have got to see the city in this way. Instead I have all
night to soak it up.

Tomorrow we are supposed to leave Stuttgart and head to Munich, our plans are now in disarray.

(Written by Mike, posted by Helen)

Driving to Stuttgart

We started the day with having to get to the rental car. This was too easy, we walked across the road and staight down an escalator to the Metro (underground train) and within minutes bought our tickets and hopped a train. Three stops later, we arrived above ground only a short walk from the hotel where our Budget branch was located. We got the car, and started out.

The rental car was a Ford Mondeo Diesel wagon. Quite a big car for just the two of us. Also it was a manual, and remember the stick is on the right! The next ten minutes were stressful as our GPS unit took forever to find satellites, and I kept stalling the car (too many years driving an auto). Eventually we found ourselves driving through long motorway tunnels (where we lost GPS again) and quickly left Brussels on motorways.

We had no idea what the speed limit was, but others seemed to be driving well over 100km/h so we joined them. 

Suddenly we crossed into Germany and hit the Autobahn. A couple of cars behind us took off into the distance and then it really hit home to me - WE'RE ON THE AUTOBAHN!!!!! Actually the Autobahn is a little underwelming compared to its legendary status, but overwhelming in terms of how well it is designed. Curves are long and the road surface is perfectly smooth, no bumps. Trucks are speed limited to 90km/h and many cars don't actually travel that fast, many between 100-120km/h. But if you want to go faster, you can. Also many sections do have speed limits, not all is unlimited. We drove for nearly 6 hours and mostly cruised at about 140km/h, and occasionally up to 190km/h. At one point, we were doing 180km/h and a BMW 5 series flew past like we were standing still. Good stuff!

Once in Stuttgart, we parked at the hotel which was just outside the city centre, found our room, then used the Metro to get into the city centre. Here there was another protest, much larger than yesterday's. It seemed to be something about nuclear as the famous nuclear symbol was on everyone's banners.

We walked up and down the pedestrian area, found some dinner, visited the information centre to get our next day planned, took a few photos, then headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow, the plan is to visit the Porsche and Mercedes museums.

(Written by Mike, posted by Helen)

Brussels

For our trip, Brussels is a one night stepping stone. We stepped off the Eurostar about 10:30am so had most of the day to see the city. We first found our hotel to drop our bags. That was an adventure in itself, we had to use coin operated lockers, no bell boy here! Then we set out on foot.

We had no idea where to start. Around the area of the railway station, and our hotel, it's rather bleak. We got a tourist map at the railway station and headed to where we were advised. The walk there was not through the best part of town. Around 40 minutes later we knew we were in a better location, having found a Marriot hotel with a McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Dominos all right outside. We spent some time finding the tourist bus so we could have a guided tour around the city.

The bus ride also started out a bit confusing, as they took our money and hoofed it across town to meet up with another bus on which we could start our tour properly. By now we weren't too impressed with Brussels, and first impressions do count.

Where we swapped buses, there was a protest happening as part of the "ASEM8 - BRUSSELS 2010" event. We're still not sure what that is. Not a large number of protesters were there, but the police were equipped with riot gear and barrocades. Actually on the rest of our city tour there were police everywhere. Roadblocks, cars, vans, motorcycles, helicopters, you name it the police had it in large numbers.

Once on the tour, it was very interesting. The parts of the city we toured did not seem overly easy to tour on foot. Large wide roads, big boulevards, large buildings, and large parks everywhere. Mostly, a lot of modern buildings making up the Euro parliament, all very clean, but sympathetic to the older architectures. Very impressive.

The bus then headed out of the city and suddenly we arrived at the Atomium. A relic of Expo '58, we had never even heard of it but as soon as we saw it wanted to hop off and go inside. So we did! There is a lift that takes visitors to the top sphere, and from there the view is quite amazing looking over the old Expo '58 site. There are also escalators, and in some cases long stairways, to the other spheres. It is very large and each sphere has three floors inside. Both inside and out, this is spotless clean as if it were built yesterday. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring this.

Next we continued on the guided tour, and hopped off just past where we started. From here Helen headed us towards the more central part of old Brussels. This is beautiful, with old buildings and also is a tourist trap.

As you all know, we love our food. On previous travels, we failed to find Mississipi Mudcake in Mississipi, and we failed to find Dundee cake in Dundee, and Scones in Scone. But here in Belgium we found Belgiun chocolates everywhere, and Belgiun waffles, and Belgiun Beers. We sampled all of them and weren't disappointed. Brussels is a great place to eat and drink! The bar we sat in to try our beers was mostly full of local folk and not expensive. A few beers later and we were ready for bed. We walked back to our hotel, only getting vaguely lost on the way home. A good nights sleep is required as tomorrow we get the rental car.

(Written by Mike, posted by Helen)

Eurostar

Today we caught the Eurostar to Brussels. This is the way to travel. We walked our bags across to St Pancras and checked in, a painless process that takes about 10 minutes. We've now left the UK and will be able to just step off the train with no immigration queues.

I am writing this while sitting on the train. We have our GPS unit on, and so far it has registered a top speed of 303km/h.

It's a beautiful sunny day here in France and the fields are lush green. The cute little French farmhouses shine in the morning sun. Am I missing being at work? No!!!

Foursquare

(warning - geek alert)

For those of you who don't know what this is, it's an iPhone application that is kind of like XBox Live achievements meets real life. You can register visits of certain places and earn extra points for visiting sets of places, or become mayor of a place by visiting it more than anyone else. Helen has become a foursquare addict.

The real reason she wanted to visit Louis Vuitton was not to see inside the store, but to register her foursquare visit. So we went there, only to find that foursquare wouldn't work.

Tom, one of the students from school who Helen knows, was also in London and texted to say he was at the Apple Store. So we went there to see him and also to earn another foursquare visit.

Again, neither him or Helen could connect to foursquare. Also the Apple store has free wireless and Helen stood outside trying to Facetime Tom. With no response, we walked around and found him. They stood next to each other and eventually got Facetime working, then proceeded to talk to each other's screens even though they were only a foot apart. Talk about sad!!!!

It turns out foursquare was down for maintenance at the time. Thanks for nothing foursquare. That's 2 hours of my life, and 4 bus fairs, that I will never get back.

Oxford and London

Today we went to Oxford. Because of the tube strike, we had to use buses to get to Paddington. We had it all figured out, and got the right bus number only to find out it only went to Euston. So we had to get another bus and were advised to catch a different number which would get us near Paddington, then walk the rest. It was crowded, and took nearly an hour as the traffic was crawling.

From Paddington we caught a train to Oxford. A pleasant enough trip. On arrival we jumped straight onto the double-decker tour bus (shameless tourists we are) and did the circuit.

So we were surprised to find there is no single Oxford University at all, rather a collection of colleges that combine to be the university. So the tour was "that's so-and-so college" and "that's so-and-so college" with the odd anecdote thrown in. Altogether quite interesting though and it is a lovely place.




We then proceeded to walk around and take in some sights for ourselves, plus look though the shops which certainly had some unique and interesting things to see.

By mid afternoon we decided to head back, but went another round on the tour bus. We had a different tour guide who provided us with a different set of anecdotes and was more informative so this was great fun.

After a quick train ride back, we found a bus to Marble Arch and proceeded to walk up Park Lane. Here we passed all the fancy car dealerships. I decided I'd take a Pagani Zonda, while Helen was fancying an Aston Martin DB9. All this was a distraction however as we were heading to BMW Motorrad to view the range of BMW motorcycles. Doing a straight foreign currency conversion, they are actually good value. We kicked the tyres for a while before heading out into a very busy peak hour London. The tube strike really created chaos.

Helen wanted to visit the Louis Vuitton store in Knightsbridge (I will blog that seperately) so went there via bus. This is an interesting ride and one I always enjoy. From there we doubled back to Regent Street by bus again, to see the new Apple Store.

After that we went and found ourselves some dinner at TGI Friday's before heading home for some sleep. We got to sleep around 10:30pm. Still a bit jet lagged, we thought getting to bed late would help us sleep through.

Postscript - We did get a good nights sleep, until I got a mobile call from NZ about 3am our time, after which we stayed wide awake. The only reason I had my phone on was to use the alarm feature, as we had to get up early to catch the Eurostar. Next time, I will put the phone in flight mode!

London

London Baby!

Our flight from LA went fine, although we arrived late after circling for nearly 45 minutes waiting to land at Heathrow.

We first came to McDonald Hotel, our favourite haunt, to drop our bags, then we went to Marble Arch to visit our bank. Unfortunately it was closed for Sunday but while in the neighbourhood we did some shopping up the Oxford St / Bond St area. Lunch was a Sunday Roast, ahh England!

Helen did most of the spending on clothes and Blu-Rays, I have still spent only £10! Helen also got her 02 SIM so she can use the internet on her iPhone. The shopping was busy for a Sunday afternoon. We caught a bus back to the hotel around 5pm, by which time I was nodding off. The gentle rocking of the bus, and a chance to rest by tired feet, was too much for me.

The weather has been wet and gloomy here in London today and may improve a little only if the weather report is correct.

We watched a little TV before taking an early night, as we'd been awake over 24 hours.

We're up early today, about 5am, after a reasonable sleep.

Today we're hopefully heading to Oxford by train but we have cause for concern. There is a major tube strike today, and many tube stations will be closed causing major disruption. TFL tell us "disruption is likely to most journeys". Specifically the Central, Circle, City and Waterloo lines on full suspension with most others on limited service. We have to get to Paddington Station this morning, traffic and buses are expected to be extremely busy as a result. So wish us luck!

LAX Koru Club

Here we are... we checked our bags in and made our way through security.

I can now confirm, having been through 4 metals detectors (Wellington being the easiest, LAX being the most sensitive) that the plate in my arm does not set off metal detectors. I ensured I removed all metal including shoes, belts etc and did not set the detectors off.

Anyway we had 2 passes for Koru Club via one of our credit cards. So here we are enjoying waiting for our plane, in comfort, with food and drink, and plenty of reading materials. Best of all there is wireless.

Oh what a tough life!