The Magic Satchel

Wow, Dresden’s pretty damn cool! I’ve heard it was pretty much flattened during WW2 from Allied firebombing. They’ve sure done an amazing job restoring it though. The old city centre has some really amazing architecture and huge plazas. Hopefully some of my photos turn out well… with the overcast skies I’m not too sure the light will be friendly. I sure hope to come back though and spend more than one night here. So much to see!

Kirsten has caught a bad bug and hasn’t been feeling well for the last 2 or 3 days. Good thing we stocked up on Advil Cold and Neo Citran though – she should have this licked soon. We head to Prague for a week tomorrow, and will be able to unpack, relax, and actually sleep in for the first time in two weeks. Should be perfect medicine

I can’t upload any more photos to Flickr on this PC, but hopefully we find something compatible in Prague. Ran into a guy on the tram today who just came from there, and he was saying how much he wanted to just stay in Prague rather than continue travelling. I’ve still yet to hear a single negative thing about the city… can’t wait!

Who has enough time in their lives to call about a car being abandoned on a residential street?

more importantly, how is it a problem when the “abandoned” car in question is in front of MY OWN FREAKING HOUSE?!?!? I could maybe understand if it was parked in front of another house, inconveniencing that home owner and forcing them to park elsewhere, setting off a chain of events that could destroy the stability of the universe as we know it… but it is on the street in front of my house, in what I would consider to be “my” spot.

There was a sticker on the window saying the car would be towed if it hadn’t moved in 72 hours, and the tires were chalked, a single line at 12, and a double line at 4 and 7 if you think of the tire as a clock.

Biking to work today I happened to see a Calgary Parking Authority car parked on my route to work, so I stopped and had a chat with him. This guy said as long as the chalk is gone from the tire it should be ok to leave the vehicle on the street. I just got off the phone with the Parking Authority dispatch and they gave me a different story completely. Apparently I not only have to move the car so the markings are gone, I can’t have it parked anywhere ON THE BLOCK when the enforcement people come by or it will get towed, to the tune of a $200 fine.

@#%@#$

IF there was some problem with where the car was parked, wouldn’t most normal people knock on the door and say “hey, could you move this car? it is blocking my view of the mailbox” or whatever the @#$# motivation was to call about the car in the first place.

assholes.

Just a quick update from Berlin! Got in yesterday evening, and we’re taking off again tomorrow morning, so not much time to bum around. We got quite a bit done today though, including a bus tour, a bunch of wandering, and standing around with our mouths open at the Old National Gallery (Alte Nationalgalerie). We sure have been spoiled art-wise this trip!

We’ll be up fairly early again tomorrow, and head to Dresden for the night. We likely won’t have much time to get settled, so the next update will most likely be from Prague. Hope this nice weather holds – it was around 30 degrees today! Far cry from the 10 degrees and raining we’ve had for most of the trip. I’ve uploaded a few photos to Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/62446209@N00/sets/72157618456842667/. If this link doesn’t work it should link properly off Facebook. Bye for now!

Giant pancake for breakfast got the day started off right. The 45 mins we had to wait in line before entering the Van Gogh museum was totally worth it – some amazing pieces in there, including Starry Night! We went on a canal tour afterwards which took a completely different route from the last time I was here, so we got to see some new sights. Believe it or not the rain held up too, and some of my pics should turn out pretty darn well. After the tour we jumped out at the Rijksmuseum stop, and found that the huge lineup we saw earlier in the day had completely disappeared. Nice! Most of the building was closed for renovations, but there were still some incredible pieces on show. I’m so glad we were able to see both museums today – pretty much my #1 goal for this trip

Off for a night on the town now, and hopefully up early-ish to get some last-minute shopping done before heading to Coevorden. We’ve also taken the hint from our France & Belgium experiences and booked all our hostels for the rest of the trip ahead of time. One less thing to worry about from now on. Only 2 more nights left in Holland… gonna have to do another trip soon!

My blackberry is dead, the charger is broken, and we haven’t had much luck finding Internet cafes – definitely not conducive to regular blog updates. The “quick update” from the other day was supposed to have a few extra paragraphs too… I’ll add them now. Here goes a long one
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Tried to send this update yesterday, but the Berry died. Hopefully write more later today

Up early again today and took a train from Caen back to Rouen, then on to Dieppe. Really wanted to come here on my last trip but the timing didn’t work out. Unfortunately there’s not enough time to see much today though – the city buses only run every hour or so, and we won’t make it to the Canadian cemetary before the next train leaves for Arras. Got to see the beautiful waterfront though, so it’s been worth the stopover for sure! Photos likely won’t do it justice with all the fog hanging around, but the stoney beach, calm water, fishing boats and white cliffs are a sight to see. We could have easily fallen asleep down by the water and ended up spending the night I’m sure

Our train to Arras leaves in an hour or so… very excited to get back there and show Kirsten around. The weather sure hasn’t been cooperating much, but at least it’s not raining anymore. Hopefully it’ll continue to improve over the week, and maybe we’ll even see the sun poke through once we get to Holland. Wishful thinking?

aka Frankfurt, Rouen, Caen, on a French keyboard. So much for typing skills!

We’re in Caen today, after a pretty whirlwind tour of Frankfurt and Rouen. We’ve been taking a pile of photos but there’s no card reader on this ‘Net Cafe PC. Le crap! At least my Blackberry is charging so I can hopefully do more posts from the road. Wishing my USB plug-in would’ve lasted a few more days before frying! Anyways, on to the good stuff…
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All checked into our hostel, and back at the train station now to plan our trip to France tomorrow. It’s an 8 hour time difference, so almost 2pm here is almost 6am at home, and we’re sure feeling it. Time for lunch, coffee and fresh air, and hopefully we’ll stay awake until a decent hour. More from Rouen, France tomorrow

Five more days until we’re on de_plane.
Four more days of work (well, hopefully 3.5, but that doesn’t fit).
Three weeks travelling Germany, France, Belgium, Holland and the Czech Republic.
Two passports, backpacks & pairs of hiking boots all ready to go.
One great girl to share it all with!

Regular posts and hopefully photos to follow