Starting to process the images — putting up higher resolution/higher quality versions now.

So… what’d I miss?

As you know, I´m not exactly a big sports fan, but I´m glad to see
Australia won their first match in the Soccer
(Futbol/Football/Fussball depending on where you´re from) World Cup
against Japan.

3-1 … all three goals in the last 9-10 minutes. Thats what I call
cutting it fine.

Hope everyone´s good. Seeya soon!

Only a few more days left until I fly out…

Anyway, now I´ve got halfway decent net access again, I´m doing a bit of maintanence on the site, and trying to upload some photos…

Attention: Kumuka People
See the kumuka photos page for direct links to the photos I took whilst on tour…

On the PDA front, I did get a call from someone when I was going to
catch the eurostar… but they didn’t understand much english, and the
call dropped out after a little while… so not sure what’s going to
happen there… No callerID either, so couldn’t call back.

Anyway… off to find something else to do.

Anyway, I was promised I’d be woken up at 5:20 (since the train
arrived at Cologne at 5:45) and given breakfast (Tea, breadroll, and
jam).

Because of the very cramped conditions, I didn’t sleep very well. I
didn’t get breakfast or the wakeup call either… so I ended up in
dussledorf with another german guy who was sharing the same cabin, who
was also supposed to get breakfast and a wakeup call to get off in
Cologne.

Luckily they’re not too far apart (45mins via the S-Bahn), so we
caught another train back…

Then I got myself kinda lost… well, *I* knew where I was, but the
maps near the Underground station were crap (The maps didn’t have up
as north, they were oriented some random direction) – So I spent about
2hrs wandering around this empty suburb, with almost noone around,
trying to find my hotel.

Somehow I managed to lose my PDA (Handheld PC) while I was at it – I
was using it to look at the directions on from the hotel’s website…
so, not sure where it is now, and I can’t find a police station either
to report the loss.

The two things that might get it back are (1) The “Ownerdetails”
sticker on it, saying to go to a website and enter the number on it
and (2) the password-lockout screen has my mobile number and email
address on it. (They can’t use it without knowing the password, or
reformatting it if they know the right set of key-combinations)

If that doesn’t help… well… I’ll try claiming it on my insurance.

Anyway, I’m now in Cologne, with a headache, and nothing to read (all
my books are on there, but they are backed up). *sigh*

Hope everyone else is having a better time.

Met up with a bunch of nice people on a walking tour of Munich on my
first morning here… ended up having lunch/dinner with them, and then
the next day going out to uhh (I’ll get the spelling wrong for this,
but here’s my attempt anyway) Neuschwenstien Castle … the one Walt
Disney based the Disney logo/castle off… built by King Ludwig the
second… a rather insane person.

I was planning to go to Frankfurt, but there’s no space available on
the train when I tried booking… and it only takes about about 4
hours (it’s not an overnight train like I had thought).

So, instead I’m going to Cologne (Koln, as spelt here) and I’ll be
there over the weekend…

From there, it’s on to Brussles, and then back to London…. probably
Wednesday sometime.

Anyway, off now.

Ciao.

Not certain where I´m going to after that, but I´ve still got a few days left on my eurail pass (which is only valid for italy, austria, and germany) so I’m probably still going to cruise around germany for a few more days.

BTW: Non, I found the place you’re getting your minestroni from in Rome(kidding), I swear it tasted just like how you make it… yum

Arrived in Vienna yesterday, and I’ve just spent today goign through the Schönbrunn Palace and surrounds.

The train trip from Rome was… weird. Ian, what was that movie we watched, umm… Road Trip (Eurotrip?) the “Oh, mi scuzi!” scene… well… it definitely wasn’t like that, but there were some weird things going on… like the people that didn’t actually have tickets, still cramming onboard… they sit in the corridors (there’s fold out seats in the corridor walls) and just pay whenever the conductor comes around, and then if a seat is vacant, they jump into it.

All in all, got very little sleep.

Had lunch/dinner yesterday in a nice little pub hidden away in some small street. Schnitzel (Veal?) and Potato Salad (very much like the potato salad Yvonne and you make, Non — no mustard that I could see though, and had green shallots on it). Yummy.

There’s no great abundance of signage as to where the Underground stations are, which makes it interesting trying to find the cloest one without a map.

Thinkgeek needed to bring out the Will Return Clockbefore I went on Holidays, it would’ve been very appropriate for me to hang on my cubicle at work right now.

I’ve found that I can go direct from Vienna to Berlin, so thats what I’m doing Friday night, not sure how long I’ll be there – probably Monday/Tuesday at this stage. Looking for hotels/hostels right now…

Oh, and X-Men 3 starts tomorrow … I don’t want to know how it goes, or how good it is, or anything like that…

PS: Brad, re “you’re in ROME. the home of good food, good clothing, good football and lovely ladies.”, you can have the football and clothing, but the rest I’ve noticed in abundance (and in Nice too)… Aiee! Warm Weather!

I’ll be in Vienna from Wednesday morning until sometime Friday
atleast… depending upon when I can get a train to Germany (not sure
exactly where I’ll be going in Germany, but Berlin is a goal.)

I left the tour yesterday, but those continuing on for longer trips
are staying in Rome for 3 nights, so I’m still seeing them around a
bit (eg, at the Colluseum)

Anyway, off to find some dinner… something that’s not pizza or pasta…

The breakfast available in the hotel was as cruddy as yesterday, so when we stopped for a walk around an old town/fort about 40mins from Prato, we all descended on the local caf.

The place was like heaven — rows upon rows of all sorts of pastries, cakes, and various other goodies… Photos were taken by some (me included).

The hot chocolae certainly delivered a heck of a punch too — Very dark, almost strong enough for the spoon to stand up on it’s own. My first taste of real hot chocolate.

A few hours later, we stopped at a wineryfor a great tutorial on how to drink and taste wine properly.

I now know why the expensive restaurants serve small-ish amounts of wine in those gigantic glasses.

Finally, we got to rome right on 6pm, when the tour officially ended for me, and 9 others. The remaining people were joined by 9 more, all bar one of which were couples.