At last, another post

Hey All

Finally after days of unnecessary delay (primarily due to laziness on my part, and lack of internet at home), I can now present the continuation of my last post - the European Road Trip.

We started in the town pictured below called Ur Bock, near Stuttgart - the home-town of the Bride in the wedding I talked about earlier. We had booked a rental car before we even arrived in Germany. It was supposed to be a VW Polo. Don't recognize the name? Its because the car is so small that its not even sold in North America. Luckily for us, the rental company didn't have one available when we arrived, so we had to 'settle' for an Audi for the same price. :)Its no sports car or anything, but I did manage to get it up to 205 km/h on the Autobahn with 3 hefty men and their luggage on board.

Our first stop was Strasbourg, France. It is a beautiful town about half an hour from the French-German border. It is one of the few cities in the region that escaped destruction in the second world war. The medieval city center is still completely intact, and utterly amazing. Walking through it almost feels like a maze - the buildings are continuous, about 10 floors tall, and the roads follow no recognizable pattern. Every now and again, you come across a thousand year old church, outdoor markets, city squares with fountains, and outdoor restaurants. Forget about the wide, straight streets of Toronto - this is the way to design a city.
I surprised myself by communicating with various shop keepers and restaurateurs in French. I thought I had forgotten it all from back in the OAC days. Justin, who's French is as bad as it gets, thought he'd bravely attempt to order a beer in French. I told him to say 'Je prends un biere pressant' which is equivalent to saying I'll take a draft beer. Unfortunately for him, his 'pressant' sounded more like 'poisson', and he got laughed at by everyone who heard.
We left Strasbourg in the middle of a violent thunderstorm, eliciting strange looks from passers by as we attempted to change clothes in our little car. We stopped by Freiburg (a small city back in Germany) for a night. Its another great town - similar to Strasbourg, but not quite as cool, so we'll move along straight to Switzerland to save time.

We drove through much of the north-eastern part of the country. Check out the picture below. It gives a pretty good idea about what the countryside looks like closer to the Austrian border. Everywhere you look, you see mountains with small villages situated surprisingly high up on the steep slopes.

We stayed in Zurich for a couple days. Its a fairly large German speaking city in central Switzerland. Its a great city with plenty of history. We visited a few of the museums and a cathedral. My only complaint was the fact that Zurich, as with anywhere else in Switzerland, is extremely expensive. If you ever head that way, be prepared to spend twenty bucks on a personal sized pizza for lunch.
This particular cathedral is quite old - parts of it were built around a thousand years ago. For those who (unlike me) are familiar with church history, this is the church where Ulrich Zwingli would have been found preaching on a Sunday afternoon in 1500 ad. Zwingli was a founding father of Protestantism (independantly of Martin Luther), and effectively the dictator of Zurich until he was killed in a civil war.

After a very costly, but enjoyable stay in Zurich, we headed for Austria via a little country which (I'm ashamed to admit) I'd never heard of before. Its about 50 km long and far less wide, and by the time we reached the Austrian border, we had pretty much seen all that there is to see in Lichtenstein.
Of all the places I've visited so far, I think Austria is where I'd live if I ever move to Europe. Its a bit more laid back than Germany, and as you can see in the picture below - the scenery is alright, and the prospect for hiking and outdoor related stuff is not bad, and will having you singing "the hills are alive" in no time. :)
The city we stayed in is called Innsbruck. You may recognize the name from when it held the winter Olympics a number of years ago. It is another town where much of the Medieval inner city remains intact. Unfortunately for us, the gondola service to the top of some of those mountains (part of their public transit system) were shut down for maintenance. Its all good though, Innsbruck is only about 1.5 hours train ride from where I'm at right now, and I'll definitely be heading back.

After Innsbruck, we headed to Munich - our final destination where we'd all part company. I stayed behind, Jordan headed back to Canada, and Justin, back to Stuttgart to fly home from there.

Munich is a fantastic city. Its not quite as pretty as Innsbruck or Strasbourg since over 90% of the city was destroyed in WW2 and was rebuilt with a more modern look. But the culture and history of this town can't be equaled. It has a beautiful central park over twice the size of New York's, tons of Biergartens (outdoor restaurants that serve traditional Bavarian meals along with beer, beer, and a little more beer), outdoor cafes, and some fantastic museums.
So, to bring you completely up to date - I'm now working on a research project at the Technical University of Munich. Its a great school with all the facilities we at Rye can only imagine. Its pretty laid back here - we drink alot of beer, barbecue up dinner a few times a week, and we get some work done occasionally - whenever we find time.

Alright, I'm heading out to the alps to get some hiking done. I'll be climbing a 7000 ft tall mountain on Sunday so wish me luck. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Later!