Day 1: Rain? What rain??

We made it from Toronto to Gananoque yesterday through ZERO rain. We made it from Gananoque to Montpelier, VT through ZERO rain. We're very happy campers. ;)

Our adventure started by crossing the Canada - U.S. border at the 1000 Islands bridge. While we were waiting our turn, a friend of ours pulls up behind us and joins our line! Darlene had spent the night in a local B&B. After crossing the border, we stopped in Watertown. We would meet up with the rest of the group at the first gas station off the interstate. Or so we thought. As it turns out, they got off one exit before us and were waiting at a different gas station! We eventually met up for lunch after Darlene received a text message from the other group telling us their location. Once we met up, we rode together until we arrived at the hotel at 8pm. Once there, we had to leave quickly for dinner. Montpelier is a fairly small town. The restaurant we had dinner at closed at 9pm. Unfortunately for us, we arrived late enough on a Friday night that they actually ran out of several menu items. The majority of us ordered their clam chowder and spinach ravioli entree. A few of us also sampled some of their local beer.

Tomorrow's forecast for Bar Harbor, ME: 10% POP. Hahaha. =)

Good night!

T - minus 30 minutes. Destination: Bar Harbor, ME

Ride or drive? Ride or drive?? AAAUGH!! Hurricane Earl has been the bane of our existance for the week or so. Every night, we would come home and anxiously peer at the weather forecast websites that were predicting Earl's path of destruction.

We're riding ;)

Salt!

No. Not the movie. Though, the movie *does* look interesting ;)

We picked up some salt while we were at the Wieliczka Salt Mine. We have never had the need for a salt mill before, so we don't own one. Shortly after we returned home, we went into one of our local kitchen stores to see what was available. Since we already own a Peugeot pepper mill (http://www.swissmar.com/product_images/PM90401_large.jpg), we thought we should get a matching salt mill.

Who knew that getting a salt mill could be complicated? The staff at the store asked us if the salt was sea salt or rock salt. We were pretty sure it was rock salt. As it turns out, there are different mills for different types of salt. We were informed that for rock salt, we would need to get a mill with a ceramic grinding mechanism. Since we were not 100% certain what sort of salt we had at home, we decided to hold off on purchasing anything until we had all of our facts straight.

Stay tuned!

Update on Sunday, August 1, 2010 at 2:07PM by Cess

I've poked around Peugeot's website (http://www.peugeot-saveurs.com/Accueil/) a bit more. All the salt mills they manufacture can only handle salt crystals with a maximum diameter of 5 mm. Seeing as the salt we got is waaay bigger than that, we will have to look at other brands. Darn!

Update on Sunday, August 29, 2010 at 3:08PM by Cess

Despite the fact that our rock salt is most definitely larger than the recommended maximum of 5 mm diameter size, I picked up a Peugeot salt mill. I have included a comparison photo of the different salts that we have right now. The salt that came with the mill resembles the pieces of salt that you would find on a salted soft pretzel. The Wieliczka salt is probably bigger than road gravel. And our fleur de sel is the most delicate of the bunch. It looks quite similar in size to like refined sugar.

I am a little apprehensive about just sticking the rock salt, as is, into the mill and seeing what happens. We might have to go through the troublesome exercise of breaking them down into smaller pieces (probably with a mortar and pestle) before hand. Who knew salt could be so complicated?? =(

Day 20: Last minute details

We left Stuttgart and drove to Frankfurt. We had much less trouble getting out of the city than we had anticipated. We did, however, encounter quite a bit of road work on the autobahns. We arrived around noon and checked into our final hotel. Quite by happy coincidence, the hotel is located on a main street with a tram line directly to the main square at the city centre. We consulted the gentleman at the front desk of our hotel and he assured us it was far easier to take a tram to the city centre then to drive and park. Armed with his advice, we set off for the closest tram stop (which was right across the street). We had a bit of difficulty trying to figure out how the ticketing system worked at the ticket machine. Once we sorted that out, we purchased our tickets and hopped on the tram. Away we went!

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the downtown and doing some last minute shopping. We eventually returned to the main square and met up with a fellow World of Warcraft player from our guild, Elysian Conclave. We had no pre-knowledge of why Jaime (a.k.a. Gaudi) would also be in Frankfurt while we were there. As it turns out, he had just relocated to Frankfurt a few weeks ago and had simply kept quiet about it. We went for drinks (beer!) and then dinner (beer and sausages!). Ok, I'm the only one who had beer and sausages. =) Jaime had schnitzel and Matt had pork knuckle. Great company, conversation, and food. Thanks, Jaime! We'll be sure to let you know when we will be in your neck of the woods again!

Day 17: Audi revisited

We returned to Audi today to attend the plant tour that we had signed up for on Monday. We started with a little film before moving on to the tour itself. I learned that there are 2 plants in Germany, one in Hungary, and lastly, one in Brussels. The one in Hungary produces engines for all the cars. Unfortunately, we were unable to take any photos while we were inside the plant. We were able to see a small portion of the pressing plant where sheets of metal blanks were formed into various car components. Blanks went through 3 or 4 pressings before the desired component was completed. All scrap metal pieces are gathered and pressed into cubes. The cubes are returned to the supplier to be recycled into new metal blanks.

We watched as car frames moved slowly from one line to the next and robots assembled parts and attached them to the frames with spot welds or adhesives. We were able to see manned assembly stations with people at work as they attached components or performed quality assurance checks. Although we didn't get to witness the entire assembly process, we did get to see the final vehicles as they rolled off the end of the line and their engines were started for the first time. Each car is accompanied by a "black box" as it travels through the assembly lines that gives details of all the features ordered by the customer. Also, a binder for every car is produced; it gives detailed information of tests and checks done during the production process and kept for a 15 year period.

One of the things you can do is request to pickup your new vehicle at the Audi plant. In the lounge area, there are screens listing names of people picking up their new Audis and the time of their scheduled appointments. They offer free refreshments in the lounge to new Audi owners. An espresso and an R8, please! =)

After our plant tour, we took a very scenic drive to our next location, Hopfen. Hopfen is a very picturesque little town beside Hopfensee Lake at the base of the Bavarian Alps. The skies got darker and darker as we drove closer and closer to the Alps. Luckily, we managed to get to our hotel just before the downpour began. We stayed inside until the rain stopped. We ventured out for a short walk before returning to the hotel for dinner. Matt had a pork roast with red cabbage and I had a grilled lake trout with potatoes. We tried the local beer, Hefeweizen. Matt was shocked that I finished my 0.5 L of beer. ;) Once we finished dinner, we went for another stroll. All and all, a fairly relaxing day.

View from our hotel room's balcony:

The town of Hopfen at dusk:

Post downpour Hopfensee, at dusk:

Town of Hopfen and Lake Hopfensee in the background:

Day 15: Fun, Fun, Fun on the Autobahn

The last time we were in Munich, we were hurrying from one gate to another so that we could catch our plane from Kraków to Dresden. Matt had done a little bit of research into the Audi factory tour. As it turns out, they only do one English-speaking tour per day. We estimated that it would take about 3.5 hours to travel from Chemnitz to the Audi plant which is located 1 hour north of Munich. Since the tour was scheduled for 11:30am, we planned to leave at 8:00am to ensure that we would arrive before the tour started. Yes, you guessed it. We didn't arrive at Audi until 12:30pm and missed the tour.

Although we travelled along several Autobahn, the traffic slowdowns on the Bundesstraße (they were mostly single lane roads) cost us a lot of valuable time. Our GPS also took us unexpectedly into the Czech Republic! Luckily we were able to drive across the Germany/Czech border freely and without stopping. So now I can say that I have been to the Czech Republic. For about 20 minutes. =) We also managed to pass a transport truck that was emblazoned with the Yamaha Tech 3 team logo on it.

When we arrived at Audi, we were resigned to the fact that we would probably have to return the next day to attend the English-speaking tour. As it turns out, our race to Audi would have been in vain: today's tour had been completely booked full. In fact, they would not have room for us until Wednesday. After a quick consultation with our calendar, we signed up for the Wednesday tour. We would delay our travel to Füssen. Since we were already at Audi, we opted to tour the Audi Museum so that we would be able to continue our travel to Füssen right after the plant tour finished up on Wednesday.

We finished strolling around the 3 levels of the museum and had a very late lunch at the Audi complex. Then we headed back to the rental car and continued on to Munich. We had one more stop planned for today: Munich's Dainese D-Store. Dainese Heaven. We did a little bit of shopping. Good thing there are still a few more days before we head home. We will have to do a bit of rearranging of luggage to make sure everything will fit inside. =)

1938 Audi Wanderer:

Audi motorcycle, Isle of Man TT winner:

Day 13: Vroom vroom!

We woke up to the sound of a fierce rain storm beating against our hotel window. Would it continue? Would it end? It finally ended and we ventured outside. To our surprise, it was fairly cool outside. It was, in fact, extremely comfortable.

We opted not to have breakfast at our hotel this morning. Instead, we went to a local bakery located just down the street. We picked up some freshly baked goods and a coffee for Matt. Yum!

We also picked up our rental car this morning. It was really nice that the streets were practically empty. Matt was able to recall most of the basics of driving a manual transmission car by the time we got on the highway to Chemnitz. Drivers in Europe are so polite. They get into the passing lanes for passing only, and then return to the driving lane (the far right one) immediately. We arrived in Chemnitz and were able to check into our hotel early. Once again, our hotel room was a pleasant surprise. It is very spacious and has a very nice view. We unpacked a little and only took what we needed with us back to the car and headed out to Sachsenring.

We have only gone to one other MotoGP race before, but the experience today was completely different. Ridiculous numbers of motorcycle fans were everywhere. The task of finding parking was an interesting challenge. Parking lots 1,2, 3, and 5 were for buses. Parking lot 4 was for cars and motorcycles, but the entrance to it was very far from the track itself. Once we managed to park our rental car, we started walking to the track to find our seats. I think it took somewhere between 35 to 45 minutes to finally arrive at our seats. We walked passed thousands of cars, hundreds of camp sites, and many many food and drink (beer, beer, and more beer) stands. There were even carnival rides! It was quite surreal.

We arrived at our seats about halfway through the MotoGP qualifying session. The noise of the bikes racing around the circuit was fantastic. When the session ended, Valentino Rossi basically did a slow parade lap. The crowd went crazy: they were standing, jumping up and down, screaming, and clapping for him. Welcome back, Rossi!

We took our time getting back to our rental car in order to leave.  As we walked, we schemed about getting to the track earlier so that we could get a better parking spot. We got back to our parking spot easily enough, but actually leaving was a whole other adventure. The good news: parking was free. The bad news: everyone else was trying to leave at the same time. I think it may have taken 45 minutes to an hour to get out of our spot and leave from the parking lot. It took so long that I fell asleep in the car. 

Tomorrow will be another day full of driving challenges. Wish us luck!

Update on Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 6:10PM by Matt

Shot during qualifying:

Cess at her first European Gp:

Day 12: Guten Tag!

We were in the lobby of our hotel at 5:15am to catch our ride to the airport. By 10am, we had arrived safely in Dresden after a quick transfer in Munich. Goodbye, Poland. Hello, Germany.

We actually had absolutely nothing planned in terms of sightseeing when we arrived in Dresden. I had booked the hotel purely on the proximity to the car rental office that we will be picking up our rental car tomorrow morning. Not only did the hotel take us by surprise, but so did the city of Dresden. First off, the hotel is quite eclectic. All of the featured artwork was produced by a single artist, A.R. Penck. The other hotels in this unique hotel chain feature works by other artists. The funkiest feature in our room is the window between the bedroom and the bathroom. With a flip of a switch, it will change from opaque to transparent. Silly, but totally neat.

The Old City is quite picturesque. The entire city was rebuilt after it was destroyed by Allied bombings during WWII.  Some of the historical buildings that we looked at today included the Zwinger, Semper Opera House, and the Dresden Fortress Museum. We noticed a sign regarding UNESCO but we had no idea what it meant because it was in entirely in German. It turns out that Dresden had lost the World Heritage Site status in 2009 due to the construction of a highway bridge. Wow.  http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1156

Over the next two days, we will be attending the MotoGP at Sachsenring. The return of Valentino Rossi to the track after a 6 week absence! Oh, the drama! 

Update on Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 2:48AM by Matt

Zwinger:

Zwinger minotaur:

Semper Opera House:

Dresden fortifications:

Day 10: Bad Places and Close Encounters with "White Gold"

When we were planning our trip, we came across two places that we thought we should see while we were in the vicinity of Krakow: Auschwitz and Birkenau (http://www.auschwitz.org.pl), and the Wieliczka Salt Mine (http://www.kopalnia.pl). Both are UNESCO world heritage sites.

Auschwitz and Birkenau are the German names of the camps. The Polish equivalents are Oświęcim and Brzeźinka. They operated between 1940 and 1945. It was quite surreal to walk through the compound buildings and view the exhibits while being told of the horrifying details of what happened there. It was a very dark period in Europe's history.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine was opened 700 years ago. Mining operations ceased completely in 1996. Although only about 1% of the mine is open to the public, the tour takes 2 hours to complete. One of the highlights of the tour is the Chapel of St. Kinga.  Not only does it feature numerous figures and chandeliers carved out of salt, it has an active congregation with a regular church service every Sunday.

We ended our day with dinner at a local restaurant called Miód Malina (http://miodmalina.pl/). Matt was so happy with his knedle dish that he actually took a photo of it with his iphone. =) 

Auschwitz gate:

Auschwitz sign:

Auschwitz Birkenau gate, taken from within the camp where prisoner selection took place:

Auschwitz Birkenau stable remnants.  Prisoners were housed in converted stables:

Gas chamber and crematorium:

Cess doing a taste test at the Wieliczka Salt Mine:

St. Kinga's chapel at the Wieliczka Salt Mine:

Day 7: Memories

Today we walked down Matt's "memory lane". We visited two of Matt's childhood neighbourhoods. His first home is quite dim in his memories as he was very young when he lived there. The second one was still quite clear in his mind. We visited the building that he live in, and also strolled around it. Matt pointed out some well-remembered landmarks: his dad's parking spot, the path to where the sandbox used to be, and the tree that he spent time climbing all over. We even spent a few moments in the church (gasp) that he had celebrated his First Communion in.

Matt's grandpa passed away in 1995. Matt was not able to say goodbye to grandpa at that time. We spent a bit of time at his gravesite today. After paying our respects, we travelled to another cemetery. The Jewish Cemetery at 40 Bracka Street is the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe. We saw some very impressive family vaults (many of these families are intertwined in Łódź's textile history), but also a number that were clearly vandalized and many others that were in very poor condition.

Our next destination was the Poznanski Family Mansion which now houses the Museum of Łódź. Coincidentally, the Poznanski family vault is located at the Jewish cemetery that we had visited in the morning. Much of Łódź's history is tied with the textile industry. A number of former textile factories located behind the mansion were converted into a modern shopping area called Manufaktura. We purchased some ice cream and strolled around Manufaktura until we finished our ice cream.

We finished off our day with a meal at Ania's home.

Jewish cemetery:

Museum of Łódź:

Manufaktura shopping centre: