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08/14 Heidelberg, Germany
11/26  Ephesus, Turkey
11/01  Crete, Greece
06/16 Southern Ireland
06/21 Northern Ireland
08/12 Eiger, Switzerland
05/31 South Wales
10/11  Pompeii, Italy
09/12 Lausanne, Switzerland
09/30  Freiberg, Germany
06/17 Cliffs of Moher, Clare Ireland
10/03  Venice, Italy
06/27 Oslo, Norway
06/15 Dublin, Ireland
08/09 Burn, Switzerland

08/14 Heidelberg, Germany

It was a perfect day for drinking beer.  We found shade within the Hafbrouhaus.  While we downed a few beers alongside a couple of pretzels, our waitress dropped a hand full of mugs behind me and they shattered on the floor.  A few pieces of glass had jumped up and cut her ankle.  Since I’m a man, it was  my job was to rescue her.  I picked her up to the humming of the crowd and carried her into the kitchen.  They brought Jim and me a free beer. 

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11/26 Ephesus, Turkey

When I woke I could not shake that dirty feeling.  I had felt cleaner waking up on the floor of train stations.  It was early.  The sun hadn’t come up yet and Jenni was planning on sleeping in, so I headed off to the ruins of Ephesus.  That trek started out as a long dark walk.  Luckily I eventually hitched a ride.  When I reached the front gate the sun began casting long shadows but it was still very cold. 

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11/01 Crete, Greece

A bunch of us from the night before had agreed to gather for a late breakfast and had earmarked today as a moped day.  We all kinda wandered up at the same time around lunch.  Brad and his sweetheart, Elspeth and Dave were all I managed to convince that it would be a worthwhile experience.  Elspeth had never been on a moped before but wasn’t shy about taking on new challenges.  During her learning phase either Dave or I would tag along side.  

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06/16 Southern Ireland

The gentleman that leased us the car was extremely nice.  I am naturally suspicious of people who are too nice and I usually create a bit of a buffer until I’ve figured out their motives.  We ended up talking a bit over a cup of tea before we departed south.  The agent’s nervous habit of looking out the window was distracting. 

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06/21 Northern Ireland

It was raining a bit and we had a couple of open containers.  The roads were narrow with no extra space to speak about.   I knew if we got stuck behind another logging truck we could be here for weeks.  Once we managed to pass a couple of these trucks we began to make up for some lost time.  Jim began complaining that his bladder couldn’t take much more of this abuse but before I was willing to pull over, I wanted to put enough distance between ourselves and the logging trucks. 

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08/12 Eiger, Switzerland

With the crack of dawn we were up to conquer the monster.  We had taken the first train into the heart of the Jungrau region, Grindelwald to the base of the Eiger.  We surveyed the landscape against a local map and selected the West slope since it was opposite from

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05/31 South Wales

We proceeded down through the middle of Wales, heading south toward the coast.  We followed the hedge groves that lined the road as it meandered like a large serpent, forcing the adjacent hill to bow to its will.  

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10/11 Pompeii, Italy

I rose early to get a head start on the tourists and encountered a thief with a taxi.  Once we reached Pompeii he tried to double then rate we agreed on.  I wouldn’t give him a dime more so the argument continued until I was imposing on his next victim.  A few impolite gestures and more than a few choice works as he sped off.  I looked around and noticed I was the only person wandering about the ruins but it was still early in the day, which was kind of a weird feeling.  After about an hour or so I saw another individual and then two young men wandered up to me and inquired if I had any hash to sell.

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09/12 Lausanne, Switzerland

I enjoyed traveling on trains through the darkness of those mountains.  When there was nothing else to do and I was tired of writing, I just stared at the passing shadows from the darkness of my compartment.  I reached Lausanne early in the morning and walked into some confusion.  Apparently the airport in Paris was on strike and that had a domino effect across Europe.  Every form of information service had a line leading out its door.  I noticed a young Finnish girl waiting in one of those lines. 

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09/30 Freiberg, Germany

I found a gorgeous room in Fribourg that overlooked the main square that surrounded the church.  It had a lovely café out front and was an ideal location to watch foot traffic and to catch up on my journal.  There was a gentleman who showed up playing the harmonica and really put on a show.  Talk about envy, “I wish I could play like that”. 

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06/17 Cliffs of Moher, Clare Ireland

This world was filled with small narrow roads hidden by hedge groves, secluded lakes, isolated rivers, hills to climb and valleys to explore.  Tracking down a castle, graveyard or whatever we had earmarked on our map of antiquities was like our very own secret treasure hunt.  Then at the end of every one of these little adventures, we found ourselves staring again at a wonderful pint of local ale, in a small pub in the center of whatever it was the center of. 

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10/03 Venice, Italy

Took a morning boat to Giudecca to visit a glass shop and took advantage of the weather and the sand.  The hostel I went to check out was over crowded with mostly children running about, so spent the remains of the day back on the main island.  Before dark I had gathered up my things and boarded a train towards Padova.  Across from me sat a beautiful young lady with a twinkle in her eye and I caught a smile or two.  Sex was in the air so I broke the ice.

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06/27 Oslo, Norway

We ended up in Oslo’s train station an hour and a half earlier than we had originally planned.  We had eaten and kind of ran out of touring options and found ourselves debating on which train to depart on.  One train left at eleven and the other at midnight.  Jim was having another one of his bad days, randomly complaining about everything and anything that came into view.  I wasn’t up for spending much time sitting in this vacant station with only Jim’s attitude to entertain me.  When the first of the two trains arrived, Jim walked the length of the train while I watched the gear.  “There’s no first class, so let’s wait for the next one” Jim demanded. 

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06/15 Dublin, Ireland

The clouds were telling no lies, this time they opened up and delivered rain.  Bicycles were now out of the question, so we planned on thumbing our way south.  We were hardly out of town when Jim started whining again.  He’s like one of those thimble banging monkeys.  Once his key gets turned there’s no way to turn him off, until his springs loosen. 

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08/09 Burn, Switzerland

Jim joined the hostel attitude.  He didn’t want to go anywhere, see anything, he just wanted to stick around the hostel and wash his clothes, so I sought out on my own.  I checked out Albert Einstein’s home and then the modern art museum.  “One man’s treasure is another man’s trash”.  I love art but sometimes.  I wandered the market and the local stops searching for Christmas gifts, but ended up buying chocolates to satisfy my taste buds instead. 

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