One of the many pleasures of our September trip to Europe was the thermal baths at Szchenyi in Budapest. The building was beautiful and the number of baths was amazing. Hanging out in the enormous outside thermal pool as the steam lifted into the night skies was particularly awesome. Here’s a photo of me enjoying… Read More: Enjoying the Thermal Baths »
Maybe I just haven’t been noticing all along that major US airlines are flying rust buckets, but when I looked out the window of a recent United Airlines flight from Houston to San Francisco, I was pretty amazed to see the sorry state of the wing. A few patches of paint had peeled away to… Read More: More Proof of Airline Cost Cutting »
I went to the gorgeous Grand-Lake Theatre in Oakland tonight with wife and friends to see Quantum of Winter Solstice. I was totally expecting an educational film on astronomy, so the guns, car chases and boring villains were quite the surprise. However, I did take solace in the kick-out-the-jams performance of the organ player who… Read More: Quantum of Winter Solstice »
In September when we were in Bled, Slovenia, I spotted this ramp at the main intersection in town. While I’m, of course, happy to see that the main shopping area is accessible to people in wheelchairs, I was equally happy that bicycle racers are also welcome and accommodated for. Hopefully everyone queues up single file,… Read More: Bike Racing Ramp in Slovenia »
We take a train from Budapest to Vienna this morning. Budapest has been fantastic, though the weather was not always so great, chilly and rainy at times. We had a wonderful stay this week at the Danube Guest House. Bob and Zoli have been the perfect hosts. They were gracious, helpful, informative and kind. Our… Read More: Budapest to Vienna »
Saturday morning we leave for two weeks in Hungary, Vienna, Slovenia and Croatia. We also sneaked in a twenty-three and a half hour layover in Amsterdam on the way home. They wouldn’t let us make it more than 24 hours without charging us more. Our niece is spending the fall semester in Budapest, so we… Read More: Central Europe Vacation »
Some of wife’s and my greatest memories (and stories) come from our travels in Bolivia. Today’s NY Times has a really good article that focuses mostly on the salt flats near Uyuni and “The Death Road” from La Paz to Coroico. The Salar de Uyuni is so bizarre that I have always found it difficult… Read More: Salt Flats and the Death Road in Bolivia »
While in Orlando visiting a prospective client this week, I stayed at the Peabody Hotel. This chain of three hotels is famous for having ducks march down a red carpet and hop into a fountain in the morning. In the late afternoon, they hop out and head back up the red carpet to a more… Read More: Peabody Hotel Orlando »
I’m in the middle of a trip to Austin and San Antonio to visit relatives and get up close and personal with some BBQ. And Mexican food. And chili and chiles. A short version of all this is on my wombatnation page at Pownce. First up was a trip to the Texas Chili Parlor for… Read More: On the BBQ Trail in Austin »
When I first read about TripIt, I was interested. Now that I’ve tried it, I’m totally sold on the idea. TripIt automatically builds up trip plans for you from the confirmation emails you receive when you book flights, hotel rooms, car rentals, etc. All you have to do is forward the emails to a tripit.com… Read More: Trip Planning with TripIt »