Vacations

Started today by getting breakfast from the motel, hadn't tried that yet, then we got the hotel shuttle to take us to the nearest subway station, which is a service they provide, that also happened to have a Post Office near by.  The motel just charges 5 Euros to shuttle us around like this.  That post office happened to be closed for repair, but he was nice enough to take us to the next, nearest post office.  We took a number and waited unfortunately, and when we were called, found out we could have just bought the box at another counter.

Today was a packed day, we got up early and called a taxi to take us to the Plaza Del Popolo.  We met our tour guides for the Pompeii tour and Mt. Vesuvius hike at the obelisk, in the center of the circus.  Our guides walked us through the gates and explained that the St. Magdeline? church to our right housed a sculpture by Raphael.  The bus took us to Cassino for our first rest stop.  We went into a nice stop with higher quality food and gifts.  We took a look at the cameos, which they hand make in the area, the area is known for this.

Bus tour and colosseum, crazy bus driver. hit the driver side rear view mirror, then got in wreck with another car. We're not sure if the other car was trying to pass us, cut us off or didn't see the giant bus behind him.

They don't use lanes or acknowledge parking spots.

Woke up on the City Night Line train in Italy, we got some sleep but I think we both were jostled around a lot last night.  We passed several stops during the morning hours, and after we took a look at a clock, could see that we were a little late, about an hour or so behind schedule.  We got to Roma Termini about 10:00 or 10:30 AM.  Outside the train station there was a long line for cabs so we started walking around and went on the other side of the station and on the other side of the street and got a cab after we could tell where the cab lanes actually were.

Got up early and took a cab to the Gard L'Est train station.  Since we couldn't get the night train the day before, we had to lose about half a day for travel, from Paris to Munich.  We boarded the train on time and got to see some nice country side coming in to Germany.  The first stop was at Mannaheim and we had assigned seats to this location.  We changed trains here and saw more people who were in traditional dress and going to Oktoberfest.  Several of them were Americans, but most spoke German.

We walked over to the main hotel to get breakfast.  We just barely made it before they stopped serving.  On the way back Kristi got a shot of the brick building we pass every day to get to the main lobby.  After we got our bags together, we called the front desk to get us a cab and headed over to the main building to check out.  The cab took us to the train, on the way I was able to get one shot that looked to possibly work for my photo project.  Got to the train station and we rented a locker to put our bags in.

Had the motel call us so that we could wake up early, they also got us a cab for 7:00 AM.  We had a 8:00 AM train to Freilassing with a change about 10:00 AM for Berchtesgaden.  Made it to Berchtesgaden around 11:30 AM and walked around the area finding the actual Hofbrauhaus across from the train station.  They only take cash, so we asked a couple outside for the nearest ATM and they said there's a bank in the center of town.  A little more direction from a gas station attendant got us right into the heart of the historic district of Berchtesgaden.

Started the day trying to find a self service laundromat nearby.  We had to come back to the room a couple times to get our navigation straightened out.  We were thirsty, so Kristi and I got a can of Peach Tea and I got a can of Spicy Jamaican Ginger Beer (Like Creme Soda). As we waited for the laundry An art director and his two assistants introduced themselves to us.  They were looking for the owner of the laundromat who eventually arrived.

Had to get the laundry done again this morning to be ready for the next trip.   Also located another post office to get our souvenirs shipped off and any extras we don't need to be carrying with us.  We also had them stamp our passports to show we were actually in France, they didn't do that at the train station.  Checkout for the hotel was noon, and we just got that done in time.  We walked along Sebastabol and checked out some larger shops along this street.

Today was mostly a travel day unfortunately since we couldn't get the overnight train. We started the day early and checked out from the Reims. Rode by train through the French country side and finally crossed the Rhine into Germany. We had a train change in Mannheim in Western Germany, and took this new train from Mannheim into Munich. We had to stand for part of the way because it was so packed. When we arrived in Munich, we got a cab and took it to the Motel. Our motel/apartment is disconnect from the office building and was hard to find, we walked around our area for a while.