Pictures from the train

The countryside of India.

One of Many of the Indian Villages we passed. If we could get the plastic bottles out of this world everything would look so much better.


This is a Hindu temple.

View looking back

Welcome to India

Well I am now in India. Things are good so far. The airport is crazy. We arrive and there are no jet ways; it is down the stairs, get onto a bus and get a ride to the terminal. Once we get to the terminal there are 3 people standing at the door before you get to customs. They are handing out these forms about H1N1 flu. These 3 men are wearing surgical masks. A very welcoming site. These forms need to be filled out; the problem is that there is no place to complete this task. No tables, no chairs, no counter no nada. They do not even supply something to fill the forms out with. Just nuts. So I fill this form out and get in line. A man borrows my pen so he can fill out his form (he did find me in baggage claim and return my pen). A quick aside, I needed to get shots to prevent me getting diseases when I came to India, don’t you think they should be worried about those diseases instead of H1N1? Just a thought. They have these heat cameras that are checking everyone out and I passed so that was good. I have no idea how they could tell because there was not so much a line as a bunch of people standing there. It took forever to get my bag but it was there and all is well. The other awesome thing is that India sells duty free stuff before you leave. How great is that, just get it at your end destination and you will not have to worry about forgetting it on the plane.
Oh did I forget to tell you, India is on a half hour time difference. Who does that? That should be outlawed. The streets were very quiet when I got here because it was 2:30 in the morning. On our way to the hotel we did not abide by one traffic law. We kept the speed down but went through every stop sign and every red light. The other reason for the streets being so quiet is because there is a festival on Sunday. This is the Holi festival. You are not supposed to drive from 6:00 am until 2:00 pm. So that is great fun. When I woke up this morning there were really no cars on the road. I guess they can control 1 billion people.
I am doomed here because it is just like Brittan where they drive on “the other side” of the road. I will forget to look the correct way or go the correct side of the car, something stupid. I would do ok here because I am left-handing, so shifting would not be a problem, but getting around is a different issue.. No photos just yet, but there will be some I promise. Also, it is very nice and sunny here. Probably about 25 or so. I am going to enjoy the day. From what I have seen so far (the drive to the hotel and out my hotel window), India is one crazy 3rd world country. I did see 4 people on a scooter already and there are a lot of stray (or wild (what is the term if they never had an owner?) dogs. India is really growing and doing a lot of projects. It looks like the whole place is under construction. At this point it reminds me of Venezuela. I will let you know if my feelings change. More to come.

Trains

On Friday I took the train from Salzburg to Frankfort. I really love taking the train in Europe. It s a great way to see everything and it is very relaxing. The train stations are so awesome and huge as well. They are all old buildings with great architecture. It is good that all of them did not get destroyed in WWII. I think there is something more romantic at a train station than an airport. Recently I was in the Munich train station and it is massive. It is right up there with the Paris train station. The first thing that is great about train stations are that they are usually in the center of the city so that is nice and easy to get to and get around. The other thing is that there is so much hustle and bustle going on. The trains are very fast; they reach a top speed of about 220 kmh (135+ MPH). The train I was on was 17 minutes late. I thought German trains were not late. Oh well. I really wish that America would do more trains so I could spend less time in airports and on airplanes and more time on crossing the country on a train. I think after riding the trains in India I might have a different opinion. We shall see. More to come.

Southern Germany

The town of Inzell Germany was great. I think every ski town in North America is a rip off of the towns in the mountains of Europe. Inzell is a great town that reminds me a lot of Colorado. Or is it Colorado reminds me of Inzell? The way the trees look the way the houses look. It is also the place for the 2011 speed skating world championships. They also have the world championship for Biathlon near by. There are nice rolling hills that would be a beautiful place to go for a Cross Country ski. The house is amazing and it was very nice place to stay after a week of travel. Anita & Hans were so welcoming it was a real pleasure to be there.


Hans is a huge fan of all things Olympics. It was great to speak with someone who loves the Olympics as much as I do. We were chatting about Austria and how great a winter Olympic country it is. They usually win at least one medal for every million people that live there. If America did that we would need to win 300 medals. A huge haul of medals is anything over 30 in the Winter Olympics. America now you have a goal to achieve, one medal for every million people in 3 (2 Summers and 1 Winter) Olympics.
The other thing is the medal count. Hans and I had a good laugh on how the medal count is displayed. In America it is displayed so that the country with the most medals is on top. That way America is on top almost all of the time. In Europe it is the country with the most gold medals that is on top. So for a while Germany was on top. As Hans says, “what does it matter if you win a lot of medals, you want gold ones, correct?” He does have a point and maybe we should get on the same page so that there is no dispute on who is the winning the Olympics. More to come.

#14

Once we were finished with our meetings and our long driver we arrived in Inzell, Germany. The next day we went to Austria for the day. It was a lot of fun and country number fourteen on my list of countries visited around the world. At the start of this trip I thought I was going to only go to one new country and it turns out I will be in two new ones. That is way cool. When we left Germany we were headed to Wagrain Austria. It is a town that is very popular in our circle so it was good to see what everyone was talking about. It is a great little ski town where the atomic headquarters are.
Austria is a great place. It is very steep. When you enter the country it is about 500 meters above sea level. It stays that way for a while and then gets steep quickly. It is very rocky. Very different than any place I have been. One of the places we went was to Hans’s mother’s house. She has lived in Wagrian for almost her whole life. She is in her 80s and she still rents rooms to people. That is a big deal in Austria, to rent some of your rooms out so that you do not have to pay the full amount of the taxes on your house. She knows no English and I know no German so needless to say we solved a lot of problems. She is a great lady and very fun.


We did not go skiing/snowboarding but we did have fun. We drove up to the middle of the mountain and had some lunch. While we were at lunch there is a very fun game that everyone plays. The game goes like this; you hammer a nail into a stump using the small end of the hammer. It is very hard. The game is used to determine all kinds of things like, who pays the bill, who gets the next round or even who is better at bar games. The game was a lot harder than it looked but it was played by all.


















We took the scenic way home and it was only about 15 minutes longer than the highway. It is crazy to think that even with all of the tunnels through the mountains it is just as face to drive around them. Plus there are no trucks which makes the drive a lot nicer. It was one of the best days to spend a day off in Europe. More to Come.

McRib is back

On our drive yesterday we stopped at McDonald's. It was the same just like they want you to believe. I could not get the ice machine to work but the coke was cold enough. The best part about our experience, it was 2 things. One that they sell beer there right off the highway. 2) They still sell the McRib. How great is that? Enjoy this sandwich of boneless ribs.

seeing the country

Well in the last 2 days we have traveled over 2000 kms. It was a lot of driving for a few meetings. The meetings went well. One of the places we stopped was Bitburg. It was a very cute town and it was really great. The food was really good and cheap. So good. Hans and I had 2 beers each and a dinner each and it was about 22 Euros. So good. While we were there we had some Bitburg beer. Hans told me that it takes 7 minutes for them to pour the beer. We were the only 2 people in the restaurant so that was good. I have no idea what the do when it gets busy. The Beer was pretty good. I do not know if it was worth 7 minutes but it was good. Just crazy.

While we were there We are the World came on and it is just brilliant. It still makes me think about all of those starving kids in Ethiopia when I hear it. I used to watch the beta tape (not VHS we were one of 5 people that had beta) of it. We recorded off HBO when it was on. I know that they remade it with new stars this year, but if it does not have Dan Aykroyd than it is no good.

The hotel we stayed in was very nice but the internet was really crazy. The internet worked but only for google sites and a couple others. I could not figure out what worked and what did not. So that is why there was no post yesterday. Al Gore if you could look into this and get back to me that would be great.

For the whole drive we saw one Porsche and one Bentley. We saw them within 5 minutes of each other. Yes, it is crazy driving in Germany and everyone follows the rules. No passing on the right, drive the speed limit (when there is one). It is the reason why the roads are safe. People follow the rules. Off to country #14 tomorrow at Austria which should be a great time. There will be pictures. I promise. More to come.