HOWe Things Are…

So finally got around to looking up EU license plate codes. “A” Austria… which makes far more sense than our initial determination of “A” Andorra. And the Norway I was hoping for? Not on the list. Maybe on today’s road trip “H” Hungary? I’m really not holding out hope for CY Cyprus or EST Estonia…

As advertised, it’s warm in southern France in August. I think the German chocolate I purchased for some folks who sent me over with euros to purchase chocolate may not fare well (or have fared well on its two day trip from Germany to here). C’est la vie.. So today, I woke up at 5:30…

So we went to Lyon today. There’s a funicular. The big plan was to park and take the funicular to the top to see the church and the view but the GPS just directed us straight to the church. So we saw the cool view and the seriously cool church at the top of the…

Traveling yesterday and today. Yesterday, more German countryside, entered France, all while playing fun find new countries on license plates (okay, understanding I am way too amused by some things, plus I’ve never been to Europe except for a couple short day trips outside airports (London, Frankfurt, Zurich). So all/some/most of the EU countries have…

Visited a town south of here: Calw. Rhymes with salve… or possibly calf… I really don’t know… I’m calling it Claw. Claw has a city center, which has a German name I knew recently, and looks like the German portion of Epcot Center. The buildings with the criss-cross-y timbers, cobblestone streets… and for added Disney-ness,…

Yesterday’s successful venture: got to an ATM, got cash (to mitigate the whole VISA without the chip issue why I can’t use a credit card because the little machines expect a VISA card with a chip). Unfortunately I don’t know how much cash I need. Now I’m feeling good about ATM’s are okay with my…

My two forays into the village (one for food and one on my run) made me want to wander around possibly with a camera. The village is on a hill and there are little pathways and stairs all strewn about that probably go interesting places. I started out with an aim to take pictures of…

Again, I’m mostly just working…  but I did visit the grocery store at lunch. I’m super proud of me for completing a transaction in German. She probably knew I couldn’t speak German but she said everything in German: “Hello”, “whatever the total price was”, “whatever my change was”, “would I like the receipt”, “some parting…

No problems at all getting to the conference place (which is very adorable, not as movie-set like as England but pretty close, only I don’t know so many movies set in small villages in Germany…). We (meet at San Fran Coffee Company colleague and I) kind of forgot that we had said we would get…