Rick Steve's Videos

Rick Steves has a video podcast with clips from his show. The download times are long, but they are all pretty interesting. The most recent episode talks about Salzburg and Hallstatt. It includes footage of a classical music concert in Mirabell Hall (where we saw a similar concert) and scenes from the town of Hallstatt (including a shot of our hotel).

Mass Chaos! (Ballon Festival: post 4 of 4)

Most of them haven't even launched yet...


Balloons everywhere


There's over 160 in this picture alone. 

In the Air (Balloon Festival: post 3 of 4)

Almost 700 balloons take off during a mass ascension.


In additional to the traditional shapes, there are lots of unusual ones. Find the basket underneath the dairyland cow.


Did somebody radio air traffic control?


Sunrise at last!

Liftoff! (Balloon Festival: post 2 of 4)

Almost finished inflating...


Liftoff!

Preparing for Lift-off (Balloon Festival: post 1 of 4)

Last Wednesday I was able to squeeze in a visit to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival, the biggest event of its kind in the world. We got there at around 6:30, and stayed for about an hour and a half. I apologize for the multiple posts, but Picasa seems to be limiting to me to 4 photos per post.

Laying out the balloon


"I love the smell of propane in the morning"- test-firing the burners


Large fans blow hot air into the balloon


Inflation in progress

Our Stay in Český Krumlov

Talking about our day in Český Krumlov, a town in the Czech Republic, is "out of sequence". But I wanted to put up a link to a news article, because I don't know how long the link will be valid.

The article explains "Disability Day- a Day Without Barriers." This was an event that took place in Český Krumlov while we were there. It's the reason why we had the surreal experience of wandering through a medieval town after dark, listening to the sounds of Pink Floyd's The Wall reverberate off the castle walls...

Still More from New Mexico

For some reason, my blogging software wouldn't let me post these photos all at once.

Red Hot Chili Peppers


View from our hotel last night. This is the first time I saw the Sandia Mountains without clouds.

My conference is now in full swing (I'm blogging this during my luch break), so this should be the last of my Albuquerque photography and blog posting.

More from Albuquerque

Yesterday my alarm went off at 5:00 am, and I staggered out of bed to go see the Albuquerque Balloon Festival. Unfortunately, I opened the curtains to my hotel room and saw nothing but rain. The good news is that I got to go back to sleep. Later in the day, I took a short trip to Albuquerque's Old Town area.

San Felipe Neri Church




Scenes from Old Town

In addition to wandering through the art galleries and a few gift shops, I also visited the American International Rattlesnake Museum, which is actually much more interesting than it probably sounds.

Hiking in Albuquerque

Fate, or rather work, took me to Albuquerque, New Mexico this weekend. My conference started this evening, but I flew out a day early to see more of the city. The flight from Denver was under an hour, and after grabbing my luggage and renting a car, I drove straight for REI. I walked in and told them I had one day in town and wanted a hike. The hike I had planned was to take the tramway from town to the top of the Sandia Crest and walk along the top. Unfortunately, the tops of those peaks were in the clouds, and, well, I know what the inside of a cloud looks like. The folks at REI were extremely helpful, gave me a number of options, and even helped me print out a map for my chosen destination.

I hiked up Embudo Canyon, on the south side of the Sandia Mountains. The trail started off looking like a city park, but after half a mile from an Albuquerque subdivision I was crossing into a National Forest Wilderness Area. I hiked up 3.2 miles up onto a ridge, with almost 1800’ of climbing. The lower stretches through the canyon itself had a running stream and lots of willow tree and other vegetation. Past the narrows, the canyon widened up into meadows of yellow Rabbitbrush and (unidentified) purple flowers. There were so many flowers that the air smelled of them. The birdsong was constant as well. The upper stretches were a more typical pinyon pine mix. Views were constant, and cactus was everywhere mixed in with the shrubbery. A very cool hike.

Lower Stretchs of Embudo Canyon


Me on the top - right before taking this picture, I managed to tip over the tripod and send my camera lens-first into the dirt

View down to Albuquerque


Flowers on the trail

After checking into my hotel, I had dinner at Los Cuates, recommended by my coworker Randy Mayes, who grew up in Albuquerque. Outstanding Mexican food. If this day was any indication, Albuquerque is a pretty cool place

Austria Vacation Log: Day 14, The Redemption of Wien

We were still wiped out and tired, in part because of the previous day’s travel, in part because of the hike 2 days before, and partly just exhaustion from traveling for so long. We got a late start and didn’t make it to the Hofburg until near 11, when the crowds were in full force.

The Hofburg Palace

Hercules statue at the Hofburg

The Hofburg was the royal palace of the Hapsburgs in Vienna, the seat of their power as they ruled first the Holy Roman Empire and then the Austria-Hungary Empire. We started the museum complex by wasting far too much time in the porcelain and silverware section of the museum- we didn’t realize that you could skip it entirely. The Sissy museum was also a waste. Sissy was the nickname of Empress Elizabeth, was basically a petulant and spoiled Barbie-doll type that was married to Emperor Franz Joseph. But the people liked her, and a cult developed around her, similar to the cult of Princess Diana in the late twentieth century. Finally we got to the Imperial apartments, which I found very interesting. Franz Joseph, one of the last emperors, was a real workaholic, but I guess that’s what you do if you take the job seriously. Sissy’s apartments were also interesting. They showed the room where she spent 2-3 hours a day to get her hair done. When she washed it, it took an entire day (it was ankle-length, and washed in raw eggs and brandy. Hmmm…)

After seeing those three museums, our feet were throbbing. We relaxed with a table at the Café Griensteidl and had a good lunch. I had fettuccini in a cream sauce with mushrooms and smoked salmon, while Dorinna had the cheese spätzel. We finished off the very good lunch with Esterhazytorte, my favorite cake in Vienna. Sweet and creamy, but not too heavy.

After lunch we headed for our next destination- the Neue Burg Museums, part of the Hapsburgs extensive art museums. The Neue Murg contained a large museum of armor and weapons. It was cool, but there was a lot of armor. I think we must have seen armor from every Hapsburg empero who ever lived. Unfortunately, the museum was very hot. We tried to look at the musical instruments collection, but I was just too beat to really enjoy it. Ditto with the sculpture. I just about collapsed into a small café opposite café Demel. Water and a Viennese coffee really helped. We then explored the fancy shopping streets back to our hotel for showers and a little rest.

Neue Burg Museums

We had dinner at Ferdinand Zwickl-Beisl. The food was good- I had goulash with sausage and beer. Unfortunately, a loud group of young Americans and Canadians moved in, and the atmosphere went to hell. We beat a hasty retreat to Brezel-Gwölb, a restaurant which Rick Steves describes as “an atmospheric place for a glass of wine.” He was right- picnic tables on the cobbles of a tiny alley. We sat at a table with a German couple (“Sind diese Plätze frei?”) I managed to speak almost entirely German with the waiter. It was fairly amusing: “Könnten Sie einen guten weiss Wein emphelen, bitte?” I asked, which means “Could you recommend a good white wine?” He babbled on in German for a while, far too fast for me to understand. I just pointed to one on the menu and said “Zweimal dieser Wein, bitte.” (“Two glasses of this wine, please”). But what made the evening magical is that it wasn’t long before the couple sitting next to us switched to English and started talking. Sabine was a social worker, working with deaf people. Frank does logistics for a catering company. They were from Köln (Cologne), Germany. We talked together for about 3 hours. Since we had just been lamenting our lack of personal contact with Europeans, so this really made our day. It’s hard to describe in words, but these experiences, chances to talk with people from different countries and cultures, are always the highlight of our traveling. It was a very late night indeed when we finally stumbled back to our hotel.