finito

thanks guys, for organizing, traveling the distance, and risking your lives for the common good. see you in a few, safe travels.

xo e

and away we go

well, don't forget your hoodies.., i hear germany is cold... but the beer, the beer,,, it will keep us warm. T-MINUS 26.5 hrs. well, sooner rather than later. see you in a minute guys. and thanks for coming, i'm really excited. to be out of work., to have some time, to hang out with my best friends, my brother... thanks

see you in amsterdam

and dennnnn!?

at this rate, it'll be 1:1 when we get there! don't convert yet....?, or is that a gamble?

first contact

and i've received this from our generous amsterdam hostess:

"Haai!

My address: Houtmanstraat 35

From the Central Station it's more or less a 20 min. walk to my flat. You will have to walk the Haarlemmerstraat to get to my flat, this street is really nice. There are a lot of bars and coffeeshops. You can go somewhere there. And just text me where you are, and I will pick you up there after work!

oh yeah, she's off work around 2:30 so we'll have to have a beer or something.... so get a nap on the plane over!

guess we have to find a cel that works for the txt. will anyone have one?
oh yeah, here's the map>>

oh yeah, and here's a real LINK to the map ap... oh yeah, and if you didn't figure it, the map and words on her map are color coded.. girlz.....

kolsh anyone?

well, so i have a few bits of information i thought i'd share here., i guess also it'd be a good idea to print some of this out., so in no order, i have on authority from a Kolnian:

"You should definitely go to:

GAFEL HAUS KOLN

Have some gaffel koelsch and authentic koelsch cuisine

Frueh braurei is also close.

Alter Markt is very touristy but one should see that
The Cathedral - of course!

BRUEGEL

In breugel is live music every night, I would make a reservation to make
sure that you guys can get in. (EDITORS NOTE, THIS LOOKS LIKE GIRL STUFF)

Breweries - Brauhaeuser are everywhere. Just hop to the next deli and check
out all kinds of koelsch and then ask where the brewery is:

* Reissdorf (ca. 650.000 Hektoliter Jahresproduktion)
* Gaffel (ca. 500.000 Hektoliter)
* Früh (ca. 440.000 Hektoliter)
That's the three biggest ones. They take 60 percent of the market

That's the smaller ones:
* Gilden (ca. 260.000 Hektoliter)
* Küppers (ca. 260.000 Hektoliter)
* Dom (ca. 180.000 Hektoliter)
* Sion (ca. 145.000 Hektoliter)
* Zunft (ca. 130.000 Hektoliter)
* Garde (ca. 60.000 Hektoliter)
* Richmodis (ca. 60.000 Hektoliter)
* Kurfürsten (ca. 55.000 Hektoliter)
* Ganser (ca. 50.000 Hektoliter)
* Rats (ca. 50.000 Hektoliter)
* Sester (ca. 45.000 Hektoliter)
* Mühlen (ca. 40.000 Hektoliter)
* Sünner (ca. 40.000 Hektoliter)
* Peters (ca. 20.000 Hektoliter)
* Bürger (ca. 10.000 Hektoliter)
* Päffgen (ca. 10.000 Hektoliter)
* Hellers (< 5.000 Hektoliter)
* Bischoff (< 1.000 Hektoliter)
* Grenadier (< 1.000 Hektoliter)
* Severins (< 1.000 Hektoliter)
* Bartmann's (Jahresproduktion unbekannt)
* Giesler (Jahresproduktion unbekannt)
* Hansa (Jahresproduktion unbekannt)
* Kurfürsten Maximilian (Jahresproduktion unbekannt)
* Lecker! (Jahresproduktion unbekannt)
* Schreckenskammer (Jahresproduktion unbekannt)
* Stecken (Jahresproduktion unbekannt)
* Traugott Simon (Jahresproduktion unbekannt)

Gruss
Jola"

bones in the dawghaus

OK, so after receiving a call from me bro earlier this evening, i figured to run some numbers to figure this shit out in EUROS:

Clint put in 612, Dan's in for 377 and I put 258. Now (for the moment) let's assume Fletch doesn't put in anything for lodging. That means, for Clint, Dan, SeJin and meself, we'd split:

[(612/4) + ((377+258)/5)] = 280 per dude

Fletch would throw in (377+258)/5 = 127

Now, some have already paid so:

Clint gets 612-280 = 332 back
Dan gets 377-280 = 97 back
I add 280-258 = 22 to the pot
And Sejin is out the exact 280

Just to check, Clint's 332 + Dan's 97 = 429
and my 22 + Sejin's 280 + Fletch's 127 = 429

So I think that's right. Since Fletch has offered something for sleeping, I figure he can buy a few rounds or somesuch.

And as far as awesome dollars and cents go there is also the question of how much the whole shebang is gonna run over what's already been poured out the coffers. To preemptively stem the flow, we can leave Antwerp out (shit) but let me run this by you:

Amsterdam to Cologne: 109 Euro vs.
Amsterdam to Antwerp: 65 + Antwerp to Cologne 70 = 135 Euro

And another of me coworker's said she has a friend that has a house in Antwerp that likes to party and could put us up (but she's also got a kid so...........)

Anyway, I'll find out how serious that is...
But anyway, that's like another 100+ Euro

Food: Dunno, I'll say 25 Euros a day (generous, if we eat donners the whole time, right?)

and then there's the question of beer. I guess a cheap beer from the store could be like 1.5 Euro but fancy in the city tourist places are more likely like 5 maybe. so I'll use 3.25 Euro per to guess cause we'll be all over. Just to be on the safe side, I don't think i could drink more than 15 beers per day so we'll use that as a top. 15 x 3.25 = round up to 50

food 25 + drink 50 = 75 x 5 days (i'll count Saturday and Thursday as half days) = 375 and i think this may include incidentals, trinkets, and whatnot.

SOOOOOO, the total is like:

280 + 110 + 375 = 765 Euro trip.

maybe i'm low, maybe i'm high - anybody want to dispute my facts? how much beer can you drink? Dan, you've been to Deutschland recently, are my beer prices off? Do you want to eat better? Anyway, there you have it. Shit, I gotta sleep.

peace out.
e

I'm movin

Well clint, not only does Africa sound great, the economy is no doubt in better condition. I'm workin, but didn't want your plea for a post to go unanswered. So without further ado, sac me:

Links are for Dinks

escusa the rash determination, i don't really mean it. i just like it when you get what you see.

CLINT!, !! THANK YOU!! : DAN, THANK YOU!!, !! SEJIN, FLETCH,!!, THANK YOU, ALL YOOS GUYS. , CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE SIGHTS!

best,
ed

scrooge goes to europe

now that i have been so unequivocally nominated for the "cheapest son bitch on this trip" award allow me to retort in my defense. it all boils down to the relationship between the quo and the pah. you see the three lending institutions that i am so undeniably beholden to account for the vast majority of my monthly income. this depressing fact renders me, yes, broke as a m.f.ing joke on a most regular basis. if i were financially capable to throw euro after euro at this trip believe me i would. that excuse being said i will do my best to pull my weight. thanks to whom ever it was who posted that oh so luscious picture of the german lasses swilling spaten. unbelievable. so if there is anything that i can provide (excluding a suitcase full of cash) that might expidite this whole venture please do let me know. peace. fletch

paging mr. burkholder

yo!, you didn't get shot your african work or some shit did you?! first off, let me congratulate dan-o!, not only on losing shit all over germany, but getting it all back! sweet dude, hope it didn't stress you out too much. now just don forget to bring it back...! (and also thanks much for taking care of the trains....) anyway, i sent an email, which i'm sure was visible, but i thought i'd reiterate... i got a friend in the DAM that'll put us up (or put up with us) during our stay, may even be a bit of a guide..., anyway, fletch and i'll stay there and the rest should come too - tho i don't know how fancy a bed yenz like. n to follow, fletch wants the ol floor discount for the continuation of the travels if possible (i prefer waterbed if available however). and so, what tha skizo w/ da sleeps? is clint stealth on this shit, or slackin, or on permanent safari?! hope yur kikin bra!

Buying tickets...my style

Alright, got the tickets...back!  As promised, I picked up train tickets in Germany last week.  I did get a discount for the 6 person group, and the guy did not care at all how many people actually travelled on it.  In fact, he was the nicest German bureaucrat I have probably ever met. He even ran out after me to give me back the bag of chocolate for Laura I had forgotten.  So the tickets I got just go from Cologne to Bamberg and Bamberg to Karlsruhe.  I figured Karlsruhe is close enough to any of the little towns around there that we should be able to get pretty cheap regional tickets when we're there (about 40km from Baden-Baden, if we go straight there).  The total cost for five tickets was about 377 euros, or about 76 euros each including both legs if my math is more or less right.  I didn't get tickets from Amsterdam to Cologne in case we want to go to Antwerp or something.  Unfortunately I had to hold off posting because there was a little kerfluffle with the train tickets.  I left them in the hotel.  But now I have them back, no problem!

lst nt

fierce

Executive desizions are fur excecutives

uh,,, well, while clint was in the bush (hope not infested) executives had to take control:

me at work, slaving away in front of me machine.... phone buzzes.

Dan: hey, i'm getting on a plane right now and will be at the german train station in a few hours to buy our tickets so we're going to Koln Monday, Bamberg Tuesday and Baden-Baden Wednesday, right?

Me: what?! should i know this, what would Clint do? wait, i'll call you back.

20 minutes later after rereading blog, researching intronet, and divining what the great clint would do if he weren't in BFE (for real), i call dan back.

Me: uh, yeah, that's right

And so the executives, sans the tru planner, have executed. even tho my podmate Jola from Koln told me that they call badenbaden "snore" in german or some shit. but she did say there's beer there so i'm pretty sure we'll find something to do.... Only thing left to determine is if we'd like to leave the DAM on sunday and hit TWERP on tha way to KOLN.... which i'm still keen on. and on thursday we can wander in the woods.



can't wait.
e

WOW

I don't know what to think anymore! After quickly, but not exhaustively, studying the European Beer Guide's Baden Wuerttenburg page I've come to the conclusion that we sadly won't be able to taste all the beers of Deutschland even in the whole week we've allotted for the task. What I did figure out is that I don't know where any of those places are, and, through clicking on a few German links, that I have absolutely no comprehension of the German language - go public education! Ok, that wasn't fair, go Frau Dete! Wow, she'd be proud and depressed if she knew how much she influenced us. In any case, spurred on by my lack of German geographic knowledge (paralleled only by my lack of German speaking knowledge), I attempted to find a map that would tell me instantly where all them beers are from. Having at first imagined I may have succeeded with a decent resource (at least the author of this map has verify that Bamberg is a must), I think we'll have to explore the Swartzwald near Karlsruhe all on our own. One thing I thought to myself was that it'd be nice to sleep where we drink though, so maybe this will help with that (there are little icons that show where they have lodging). Though I gotta say, Clint's suggestion of Alpirsbacher seems really idyllic, and maybe so much so that it isn't worth anymore searching.... In any case, executive decisions are really for executives so it's just my 2 cents. Really, I think it would be best if we work our way in a straight line and don't pay too much to sleep (I have a feeling I'll be able to sleep in a gutter a majority of the trip). Alrighty, hope all's great, we're under 2 months and I'm getting excited.

peace,

Sweet

All of those ideas sound good to me.  I would also note that although they seem intent on disguising it, Alpirsbach does appear to have an eatery.  (If it's worth the effort to you, you'll find it in the second to last sentence of the first paragraph in the "service" section.)  I've never been to Freiburg, but have heard good things about it.  Then again, if Baden-Baden itself is nice, why not just chill out there?  Although I'm not seeing it listed in the beer guide, but that can't be right...

and then some

fureal!

link

HAY

no ne of me bo ss es ar eh er et od ay.
\

i concur w/ me bro

hayk, i no no one wants to camp out in a little german bathroom,
but i think we should

wurk

HAY!

we don't fly til thrusday e venening
why you wanna get firdrid of BAMBARG!?

thasts dcool. hey, we can stiayl in a little wwod

Back in and Bad!

Sorry for the hiatus folks, I won't offer my wheedling excuses, but rather will get back to business.  So I won't try and address too much at once, but here is a little to chew on.    First, my reading of the airport is that it's 15km from Baden-Baden, a town with a cool name, clearly. It looks like we'll have to either catch a bus or cab from the Baden-Baden train station, and the buses run every half hour to an hour.

If we went Amsterdam, Antwerp, Cologne, Bamberg, we'd go from Bamberg to Baden-Baden on Wednesday to catch our flight.  It looks like by train, we'd have to leave at 9:30 in the morning to be reasonably safe about catching it (to get to Baden-Baden by 15:00).  Even that is a little risky, though, since trains inevitably get fucked up by an hour or two.  Right now it looks like it would be possible to get tickets for about 30 Euros a piece, but I assume there are additional fees not included in the price.  Even that sounds pretty cheap, but I also haven't done my in-country research yet.

Anyway, as I mentioned to Ed, I thought I'd throw out the idea of getting a little closer to the airport the day before our departure to minimize the chances of minor disasters like Ed being late for his wedding and putting his poor wife through what would be some understandable distress.  (I vaguely remember promising Barbara to deliver Ed in a timely manner, but I'm sure that was after a few drinks.)  Just one idea close to the airport is Heidelberg, a fairly picturesque southern German town an hour and a half away and 15Euros by train.  Of course if we did something like that, we'd have to adjust the itinerary.  I guess that would mean cutting out Antwerp, Cologne, or Bamberg.  In terms of distance, Bamberg would make the most sense, although that might also be some of the best beer.

At this point I'm not too attached to any one of the stops.  What do you guys think, exchange one of our stops for a city closer to the airport?  Keep the itinerary the same and go for a long haul from Bamberg?  And not to rehash to much, but rent a car (my tendencies are similar to Clint's here)?

Go Dahlhauser, the thin beast!

greetings from cyber blackout

fellow swilliers of the sacred nectar.

hello and greetings from the far reaches of the eastern shore where no man is safe from internet exclusion. please hold the applause and allow me to assure you that my abscense from contribution has been do to my lack of www access and not my lack of computer savvy (which also deters me from using these infernal machines) but not in this case. that being said and after reviewing several pages of postings i think i am up to speed on the situation as it stand. a big shout goes out to clint our double agent from the land of purple men for he hath obviously invested must more offort in orginizing this indeavor than the rest of us. or has much more idle time on his hands, which stands to reason by default of location. no offense clint. kudos to the rest of you for it is clear to me and i am sure you all as well that my proficiency lies not in logistics but in the embibing of world class brew. on that note i will admit that my life travels have been limited to this great continent we all call home, and that although alaska canada and mexico are all very interesting places none of them have anything to do with europe.(excluding france and spain but who really gives a f$#k.) so i will gladly bow out and defer to the better judgement of those parties who are well verses in the deutch and all of her nuances. (clint,dan ect.) i do have one request, which i have already divulged to my bro, that if it is at all possible i would like to venture off the beaten path if such a path still exists at this day in age. i have a dream. i have a dream that somewhere in the heart of bavaria lies a pristine village of unmatched authenticity. i have a dream that within this village lies built into a hillside an old school brewery made of stone and beam centuries old. i also have a dream that within these hallowed walls lies a tasty foaming beverage the likes of which no common yankee has ever laid lips to. not to say that the citys which we will invariably visit wont offer exquisite brew i have just had this notion since the inception of this whole sojourn that the cream lies not on the surface but deep in the heart of mother germany. crazy? perhaps, as i have no personal frame of reference. just a thought. once again thanks to all of the orange tie victims for your time, energy and knowledge on the planning and execusion of our mission. this being my virgin entry(tehehe) i will say no more. peace. fletch

yeah yeah

hows safri!? uh, yeah, i spoke with dan last night... he's looking into the best route/ costs for trains... dunno how to proceed with exactly where we go. munich looks really out of the way now cause our plane leaves from that weird place. dan, help me out!, what's the options again??

thx

oh yeah!

now i don't mean to invade the awesomest blog in the unisphere with girl stuff, but i forgot to tell you all that you're in the wedding party. uh, fletch is the best man, and the rest of you are the other best men. so you have to wear a suit. preferably black. with a white shirt. tie is TBD to match the fashion of the bride's maids. hopefully you'll have to match something like this:

have i done my part?!

so tell me if this is riktig:



and dan, you know, since you're gonna buy all them train tickets,,, make sure we end up somewhere around here to fly!! i know it's alittle fratha from bamgburghs, but it was cheapa (258 euro total stead of 600 which was the next best outta neidermeyer or something.).

anywa, belguim is a possible out, let's be smart about this, and not be too crazei. don no about the specdul,e... hey!, i know some folk in stamderamdan now, maybe i can hook us up with a freee sheet z for the first couple nights... doesn't bamberg have a free place f or us 2?

alright, dan, hope you look around here. clint, hope you didn't die at the hands of a lion., or in the ocean, with a speacil deedly fish!, oor with sdia in capewont hookerz!

in any case, i promote clint to prime sleep place booker and dan to prime train bigetti getter!

greeat, prefect!, and then we'll just roll around drunk in tha mud (looking up at really special old shit of course)!




good luck with the tix se....
hey fletch, did you connect?!

one way tickets bad...

thanks yall for taking care of this stuff.  all this planning ahead of time is new to me.  in fact, i goofed on my tickets by getting a one way ticket...so now i'm trying to cancel this one way ticket with this irish airline, which by the way does not have customer support people with nice irish accents.  instead they are mean people who sound american.

hey clint, is you offer for sharing a room still on the table? 

gotta get this shit together!

so i was just looking at the same flight i posted earlier, and it's now 91 vs 51 euros!!!! so i wanna book it, and i would but i need all yenz birthdates to do it. so email me your birthday or post it and i'll book before we're paying millions! speaking of which, we should book everything now. the fuking germans plan so far ahead it isn't fair fur us amricans!, but we have to try,... so let me know and i'll take care of a little (flight from germany to italy) and clint will too (hotels?) and so will dan (trians?!)... arrrrrrrrrrite, here we go!

just a joke fellas...

not to forgeert, this we still need to kind of organize! barbara tells me things are filling up in italy!, maybe we should begin to plan our stay in a foreign land like, where to stay?, i know i sound crazy, well, if we don't want to sleep in the car... , now wait a minute, that sounds ok, let's just rent a great big car and we don't need to find a place to stay!, we can bathe in bar bathrooms, little german sinks, or forget bathing altogether, unless we find a river or somesuch!, wow, i'm glad i started planning, this is really working out well. anyway, i found this to help us, that was hard, or maybe better, this! waddayasay fellas!? sounds about right to me!?., more money for beer, just bring a rainscreen! whoopei!, then we can afford a mercedes! wow, now i'm really excited.












yes, dan, that's the best photo i could find of you... maybe someone should bring a camera.


err,
maybe not.

quite monkey'n around!

Hi everybody.

Congrats on the planning of the trip fellas.  Looks like we got a mighty fine adventure here.  

I'm down with this predominantly german-euro beer trip.  Can't complain since we are starting out in the old amster.  Besides, riding around the country side and going to beer gardens sounds awesome.  Clint, please don't make me click another 80's music video...I liked the skating one though.

I was looking for a funny images to spice up my post post and found these.  Enjoy.

THe last lEg..

ok, so i looked around at all those links that you know who put over there and i think this is our best bet:



Airberlin flies from Nurnburg to Rome, later than any other flights i saw... the flight i'm looking at leaves at 4 something on thursday (don't think we'll do much better) afternoon and gets in just before 6 thursday night... if we take a train from bamberg to rome it's 20 hours, so we'd have to leave wed to get there on thurs.. plus it's more expensive fo so. so that's what i'm thinkin,, 84 euros ($131 today), not too too too much, tho the dollar does sok this daayz... maybe we should rint a car inside germany (esp if we go direct from dam) to split 5 wayz will sure be cheaper than trains. but who drives? alright, let the storm of replies ensue. !! here we go!!!!!

Na ja!

sounds pretty right to me... i think we can be flexible in the middle, but yeah, and i think we have to be in rome like thurs night/ fri morning latest!, and so,,,,,, i think we need to get to bamberg earlier rather than later. yeah, we should have planned a 2 week beer tour. well, maybe we can still get into a little bit of trouble, no? and can we fly from bamberg (or near) on any of those discount german airlines? and we don't haaaaaaaave to go to antwerp, we can maybe hightail it from dam to deutsch, if you have your heart set on another stop there... but yeah, looks like we have about 5 full days, so i guess 4 cities is pretty realistic. H!A can't wait to get there, i'm sick of work. hope this doesn't cramp any stiles too much, i'm sure we'll do fine. peace, e

Got em, guess that's figured out!

HA

looks like we start in the 'dam afterall.... let's see if we make it to bamberg!

OK, but....

there's

germannwings

and i guess mabye

easy jet

and uh...

air berlin

so there are a few discount airlines.... please pleaseeeee someone figuire this out. ok, i'll tell you what, i'm gonna stick to the original plan if it isn't too hard for everyone... fly into amsterdam friday night, chill out til someone wakes me up and puts me on a train, and hope that someone ordered some tickets from some german city to rome so i can get married.....

thoughts?

clint, i hope you haven't succumbed to the natives!

Correct me if I'm wrong

but looking at the ryanair map (which is hyperlinked):




looks like they don't fly amsterdam or munich. (they fly to rome, but ciampino - not a problem as that's barbara's home town!). but they only fly to rome from the other red cities on the map, making brussels, dusseldorf or frankfurt our only real options i think..... were we planning on going to any of them?, thoughts?

ps just looked at frankfurt to rome, cost is 40 euros for a flight on the 16th..... cheap!

Comment post

now i know why they have comments on these things. ha! anyway, i'm pretty well sold on bamberg, if for nothing else than the badass name. as far as belguim goes, i've heard really good things about Antwerp, another good name, which has some small cool beers and Duvel, which is also good too (thanks for the link dan-o). and dan's right, puffin pussies are really not the draw in amsterdam (less i'm a pussy!) - and i'm pretty sure se and fletch wanna stop there. clint, dan, i certainly trust your judgment when it comes to little german towns (but my 2 cents, berlin need not be on our list this time) so i'll let you figure it. oh yeah, and i really want to see the

Kölsch (beer)

i'm gonna get a ticket soon tho - so the decision about flying into munich vs. amsterdam is time sensitive. don't know why not start in the 'dam and fly ryan air munich to rome (or doesn't that work?). anyway, if we take a train down that way, we can pick up my swiss friends that'll be coming to the wedding (read: really drunk train ride through austria...). anyway, yeah, keep it comin!, i'm very excited!, and clint, don't worry, you didn't scare me off the links yet, i do think this is a useful resource (from the Times article):

WHERE TO TASTE

Berlin: Alt-Berliner Weissbierstube, Rathausstrasse 21; (49-30) 242-4454.

Cologne: Päffgen, Friesenstrasse 64-66; (49-221) 13-5461; www.paeffgen-koelsch.de.

Schreckenskammer, Ursulagartenstrasse 11-15; (49-221) 13-2581; www.schreckenskammer.com.

Früh, Am Hof 12-18; (49-221) 2613-211; www.frueh.de.

Scheinbar, Brüsseler Strasse 10; (49-221) 923-2048.

Päff, (49-221) 12-1060; Friesenwall 130; www.paeff.com.

Leipzig: Ohne Bedenken, Menckestrasse 5/Poetenweg 6; (49-341) 566-2360; www.gosenschenke.de.

Bayerischer Bahnhof, (49-341) 12457-60; Bayrischer Platz 1; www.bayerischer-bahnhof.de.

Cafe Sinfonie, Gottschedstrasse 15; (49-341) 9999-898.

Bamberg: Schlenkerla, Dominikanerstrasse 6; (49-951) 56060; www.schlenkerla.de.

Spezial, Obere Königstrasse 10; (49-951) 24304; www.brauerei-spezial.de.

italy out.

Berlin

Berlin is a great town, no argument there.  And you had me going until you brought up Berliner Weisse.  To that I say a thousand times NOOOO!!!!  It's weak ass sour beer with raspberry syrup for God's sake! I love Berlin, but I don't see it as a great beer town, and I think it might be a little big to only spend a day or so.   Berlin, Leipzig, Prague, Munich would make a good eastern tour, but I think it's hard to get that far east, get Netherlands and Belgium, and get to Rome too. Those are my thoughts on that one.

As far as Amsterdam goes, my sense is the vaginas aren't the real pull there (ahem).  I think it's a nice place and am happy to have it on the list, but I'll leave it to others to really advocate for it.

On another potential leg of the tour, I was thinking maybe another city in Belgium besides Brussels and off the beaten path like Liege, Antwerp, or Bruges might be nice.  Or maybe we can find some nice trappist brewery somewhere?  Check out the official tourist page for options.

One more city to throw out is cologne.  They have pretty distinctive tradition there with kolsch. They serve it on a tray with small glasses and you drink a bunch of them.  Sort of the opposite of munich where you probably shouldn't have more than four beers on the night.

Yo!

Okay, so just to throw out another concept...fly into Munich and drink some big ass beers, hit up bamberg for a variety of delicious brews and vicious gas, brussels for those of us that like all kinds of shit in their beer, and, well, Amsterdam.  From Amsterdam we could catch a cheap ryan air flight (looks like about 100 euros) to Rome.  The only long travel segment in that scheme would be bamberg to Brussels, which is about an 8 hour train ride that right now is listed at about 130 euros.  Not sure if that's too ambitious, but my thought was to save time on what would be a long trip south to Rome.  Also, might be good for some of us to end the tour on a chilled out note...you know, with cigars in vaginas and everything.

Nervous about new technology...

Hey guys, sorry it took so long to join!  So, this is my first post ever on a blog, and I'm feeling a little bit nervous.  I kind of skimmed over what you guys have written so far, but didn't look at the map in too much detail.  The first thing I'd say, is that Bamberg is fantastic.  My old Regensburg friend Ben Wilson lives there with his girlfriend Melanie and I've visited them a few times.  The beer there is freakin' awesome.  Seriously, best ever, and don't believe a word Clint says about the rauchbier.  It's delicious, but will give the worst gas you've had in your life.  If we can dig up some bikes, we could ride out to some great beer gardens out in the countryside too, if it's not too cold.  Okay, more later.

and a final thought

beer

and i quote the late great Michael Jackson (and i mean the Beer Hunter) when I say:

"Could I possibly arrange to be in Belgium on Tuesday?"

Now I know this is the German beer quest and all, but I embrace (as you may have noticed in the recent title shift) Clint's suggestion to open the can of worms so to speak. As I sit here, relaxing after a few long assed days at the office (not enough sleep), assisted by my Three Philosophers sipped from the namesake glass, which i procured in the not so distant past from the source, I think to myself, GRAVITY. and i'm not talkin newton, but high (and you better know what i mean) - Belgium is the Shangrala, no!?

Where's Dan when you need a real interjection?, Fletch, a thought? SeJin, i know you won't want to leave Amsterdam, but you can only see a Van Gogh so many times...

Well, I tried. maybe more later. hope you made it through the African night 00C.

by the way

i was so pissed about fuking up my post ( you know it's really weird how this shit comes out backwards? like you have to think in reverse if you want anyone to understand you ) that i got rid of comments, you'll figure it out.

so anyway

oh it was so elequent, and really, it was a great run on that wasn't so bad. shit, i can't blog, i knew it! i tried before and it sucked.





anyway,

i'll let Lezig speak for it'self:

"Leipzig hasn't had the happiest of times since German reunification, the heavy industry which was the main employer having been greatly reduced in size. After 40 years of perpetual labour shortages, mass unemployment was an unpleasant and unexpected phenomenon. Things haven't developed as hoped since reunification and economic uncertainty has left its mark on the city."

so i ask you, do you want to hang out with a bunch of whiners drinking (though noble) sour ass beer, or do you want to visit something truly worthy?

man i fuked my post up

serves me right. i had all this great stuff written out and i thought, well, i'll post a post about why we shouldn't comment, so i'll just cut all my great text out of this post and write another one and then paste my really witty shit into a new post and have 2 and that'd be great. and then i thought, what if i cut wrong and lose all this great shit i wrote?, then i'd be up shit creek! so i got smart, cut and paste into word i says to myself, that way, even if you inadvertantly cut or copy some other shit the clipboard curse won't matter!, just pick it up from word later - have the cake and eat it too!, it was really too gut. BUT WORD DOESN'T HAVE MY SHIT!!!! fuk

uh

well that was strongR than intended. maybe that's why they comment, no big title...?

Well I don nowe

So this will start with a thought, since there's no one here but us, fuk the comments, let's comment in posts cause then there'll be more of them and i hate going other places to read other things, too lay-z.

ruminations and potentialities

so i'm thinking about it.... here's the route (you can click the map-o):


don't know, should it be a night or two in each town or should we really focus on bavaria? not sure, want it to be fun but not tooooo crazy for travel....