Take a Vacation

[Bo Diddley]

No shame in eating at five guys in europe as long as it's infrequent. After a week of new food I'm usually ready to have a good American burger and you can only find those at five guys....plus it's the only place I know of with free refills on soft drinks

More often than I liked, but we had plenty of local food.

It was Hofbrauhaus we ate last night. I had something called Bierbratl "a slice of crisp roasted pork belly served with homemade natural gravy, Bavarian kraut and bread dumpling". It was delicious!

We ate a couple of times at a place called Landgasthof und Pension Hartmann, not far from our hotel. Really happy with their offerings as well.

[Bo Diddley]

Great trip, BD. I'm curious when the two you wrote of served in Austria (I was there '71-73) and loved the places you mentioned.

My bro in law was in Munich something like 93-95. His father kept saying he served in Austria 60 years ago. I'll find out for sure. We went to church in Vienna. He says the church was built a couple of years before he got there. He mentioned because they spent money putting in a nice pipe organ that it wasn't well heated. They've corrected that since.

[PaloAltoCougar]

My bro in law was in Munich something like 93-95. His father kept saying he served in Austria 60 years ago. I'll find out for sure. We went to church in Vienna. He says the church was built a couple of years before he got there. He mentioned because they spent money putting in a nice pipe organ that it wasn't well heated. They've corrected that since.

Austria and Munich weren't part of the same mission until the '90s, certainly after my time. After the two areas were combined, an embittered Viennese sister wrote me that "where Hitler failed the Church has succeeded." I attended that church building for nearly a year and remember the very nice pipe organ. When I was there, the ward chorister and organist both played for the Vienna State Opera, and the branch president (wards and stakes came later) was head of the Burgtheater, Vienna's finest venue for plays. Not your typical branch.

[Bo Diddley]

Austria and Munich weren't part of the same mission until the '90s, certainly after my time. After the two areas were combined, an embittered Viennese sister wrote me that "where Hitler failed the Church has succeeded." I attended that church building for nearly a year and remember the very nice pipe organ. When I was there, the ward chorister and organist both played for the Vienna State Opera, and the branch president (wards and stakes came later) was head of the Burgtheater, Vienna's finest venue for plays. Not your typical branch.

After the Sacrament and the PH's went to their seats with the congregation, the organist played a sort of Sacrament hymn reprise, except it was a different hymn altogether. Is that an Austrian thing?

I used Google Translate to help understand the speakers. Imagine my surprise to find the youth speaker used the equivalent of something something F***ed up.

[beefytee]

It's been a long time since I went in High School, but Freiburg was probably my favorite stop around Germany. I did spend a while in the Black forest. I'm sure it has changed a lot in the last 25 years and I don't remember everything I liked about it, but it was a super picturesque city nestled in the hills and the main cathedral was cool. I was there as an exchange student so I didn't do a lot of the tourist stops in Germany.

[Bo Diddley]

It's been a long time since I went in High School, but Freiburg was probably my favorite stop around Germany. I did spend a while in the Black forest. I'm sure it has changed a lot in the last 25 years and I don't remember everything I liked about it, but it was a super picturesque city nestled in the hills and the main cathedral was cool. I was there as an exchange student so I didn't do a lot of the tourist stops in Germany.

That must have been amazing.

We stayed on the hillside in the Hotel Mercur. They had a really good breakfast buffet with the best pretzels we had while we were there.

[Bo Diddley]

Austria and Munich weren't part of the same mission until the '90s, certainly after my time. After the two areas were combined, an embittered Viennese sister wrote me that "where Hitler failed the Church has succeeded." I attended that church building for nearly a year and remember the very nice pipe organ. When I was there, the ward chorister and organist both played for the Vienna State Opera, and the branch president (wards and stakes came later) was head of the Burgtheater, Vienna's finest venue for plays. Not your typical branch.

Yeah, he says 64 - 66.

[Northwestcoug]

Australia/New Zealand coming up soon. Here is our itinerary:

SFO to Sydney - 18 hours non stop!
4 nights in Sydney. Wife wants to see Taronga Zoo because of some stupid animal show she watches on TV Have tickets for La Boheme at the Sydney Opera House. Probably take the ferry to Manly and walk the beaches, Australian Museum, Royal Botanic Garden, art galleries, restaurants, historic walks (The Rocks), etc. - all the typical Sydney stuff.
3 nights in Cairns. Fly in Saturday night, go to church on Sunday morning and do laundry at the AirBnB, Great Barrier Reef tour on Monday.
Fly to Auckland via Sydney.
2 nights in Auckland. Auckland Museum, art gallery, harbor sail - typical Auckland stuff
Rent a car in Auckland on the 3rd day and drive up to the far north part of the North Island. It's far from the hurricane/flood-torn area so hopefully we don't have road closures and hurricane damage and stuff like that to deal with.
3 nights in a bed and breakfast in a small farm town way up north. Coastal hiking, sea kayaking, Waitangi treaty grounds
Church on Sunday in the small town (there are LDS churches seemingly everywhere in New Zealand) then drive to Auckland and fly to Wellington.
2 nights in Wellington - Te Papa museum, other Wellington stuff.
Fly back to Sydney stay at a hotel near airport.
Sydney to SFO the next morning.

BFM, did your New Zealand arm of the trip happen? I remember you reporting about Australia but not NZ. if you did, any must sees? We are planning a trip in February.

[Copelius]

Both New Zealand and Australia have terrific War museums.

[BigFatMeanie]

BFM, did your New Zealand arm of the trip happen? I remember you reporting about Australia but not NZ. if you did, any must sees? We are planning a trip in February.

It happened. My take on New Zealand depends on what things you want to see and do. Lots of people said, "Oh you have to go to the South Island - that's where they have mountains with mountainous hiking and snow and even volcanoes!". We like hiking - day hikes, but lots of people do multi-day backpacking/trekking stuff and that didn't appeal to me because 1) I already live in a mountainous area with snow and 2) I hate sleeping in a tent or on the ground. Also, Mrs. Meanie and I watched the documentary on the Whakaari volcano before we planned our trip, which freaked her out, so anything even remotely close to a volcano was out for the Mrs.

Thus, we stayed our entire time on the North island. There are nice coastal hikes and if you like bird watching there Tiritiri Matangi island off of Auckland is pretty great as there are no mammals/predators on the island (and they aren't kidding when they say they take bio-security seriously, you have to go through a scrub down process on your shoes, and they bring sniffer dogs to sniff your backpack before you can even get on the ferry). Because the bird life is unafraid of humans, there are a couple of locations where if you sit still for a few minutes near the water all kinds of birds come up to the water and bathe and sing. There are nice hikes around the island as well but it's basically a full day trip by ferry to get out to the island and back so if bird watching isn't enjoyable to you then I wouldn't recommend spending an entire day on it.

We also enjoyed the Auckland War Memorial museum, so +1 on Cope's suggestion if museums interest you. The Waitangi Treaty Grounds were pretty great as well - they are far up North in Bay of Islands area but that's where we stayed outside of Auckland. We did a tour which included a Maori song/dance/haka/warrior performance kind of like they do at Polynesian Cultural Center - it was good but nothing better than what you get at PCC if you've been there before, The museum, exhibits, history, etc. were all really great and it was very even-handed on the controversy over the treaty, how it came to be, and the differing interpretations between Maori and English that continue to this day.

We also went to Wellington, rode the famous cable cars (honestly, they're nothing special but it's the easiest way to get up to the Botanical Gardens) and enjoyed the Botanical Gardens as well as the Te Papa museum which is the biggest Maori/pacific islander museum there is. They also have a massive giant squid preserved in a tank at the museum which creeped me out. It was impressive, but creepy to think about that beast.

Random thought about NZ: It takes forever to get around. Very little freeway outside of Auckland and roads are narrow two-lane deals and traffic is slow and there are perpetually construction delays and big traffic jams - even in rural areas.

[Northwestcoug]

It happened. My take on New Zealand depends on what things you want to see and do. Lots of people said, "Oh you have to go to the South Island - that's where they have mountains with mountainous hiking and snow and even volcanoes!". We like hiking - day hikes, but lots of people do multi-day backpacking/trekking stuff and that didn't appeal to me because 1) I already live in a mountainous area with snow and 2) I hate sleeping in a tent or on the ground. Also, Mrs. Meanie and I watched the documentary on the Whakaari volcano before we planned our trip, which freaked her out, so anything even remotely close to a volcano was out for the Mrs.

Thus, we stayed our entire time on the North island. There are nice coastal hikes and if you like bird watching there Tiritiri Matangi island off of Auckland is pretty great as there are no mammals/predators on the island (and they aren't kidding when they say they take bio-security seriously, you have to go through a scrub down process on your shoes, and they bring sniffer dogs to sniff your backpack before you can even get on the ferry). Because the bird life is unafraid of humans, there are a couple of locations where if you sit still for a few minutes near the water all kinds of birds come up to the water and bathe and sing. There are nice hikes around the island as well but it's basically a full day trip by ferry to get out to the island and back so if bird watching isn't enjoyable to you then I wouldn't recommend spending an entire day on it.

We also enjoyed the Auckland War Memorial museum, so +1 on Cope's suggestion if museums interest you. The Waitangi Treaty Grounds were pretty great as well - they are far up North in Bay of Islands area but that's where we stayed outside of Auckland. We did a tour which included a Maori song/dance/haka/warrior performance kind of like they do at Polynesian Cultural Center - it was good but nothing better than what you get at PCC if you've been there before, The museum, exhibits, history, etc. were all really great and it was very even-handed on the controversy over the treaty, how it came to be, and the differing interpretations between Maori and English that continue to this day.

We also went to Wellington, rode the famous cable cars (honestly, they're nothing special but it's the easiest way to get up to the Botanical Gardens) and enjoyed the Botanical Gardens as well as the Te Papa museum which is the biggest Maori/pacific islander museum there is. They also have a massive giant squid preserved in a tank at the museum which creeped me out. It was impressive, but creepy to think about that beast.

Random thought about NZ: It takes forever to get around. Very little freeway outside of Auckland and roads are narrow two-lane deals and traffic is slow and there are perpetually construction delays and big traffic jams - even in rural areas.

Thanks for that BFM. We're planning on spending ~2.5 weeks in NZ. Most of the time will be on the north end of the island. We are still mulling flying to the south island for a couple of days, but we've heard like you said that car travel is pretty slow. So we're not sure how much time we want to end up there. I haven't heard of the the bird watching island and that sounds right up our alley. I'm not huge into the Maori performance but that sounds like something Mrs. NWC would like. And I'll keep the war museum on the list.

We're considering a fly fishing excursion, and I'm keen on just being near spectacular scenery.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Curious to see how it works out. Seriously considering a NZ trip next spring.

[Bo Diddley]

How much traveling is too much before it gets old? We typically make one major trip overseas each year. In retirement, I'd like to up that to maybe 3-4. Mrs. Diddley is not as interested. In fact, the two week trips we take are at the limit of her tolerance. I'd love to spend a couple months exploring the UK.

Several years back when I was doing more traveling at work, I gave my seat to the DOMREP to another soldier because I'd traveled to Azerbaijan, Germany and Morocco in the preceding year, and I had travel fatigue. So maybe my tolerance is lower than what I think it is. But traveling for work isn't quite the same.

[Pelado]

How much traveling is too much before it gets old? We typically make one major trip overseas each year. In retirement, I'd like to up that to maybe 3-4. Mrs. Diddley is not as interested. In fact, the two week trips we take are at the limit of her tolerance. I'd love to spend a couple months exploring the UK.

Several years back when I was doing more traveling at work, I gave my seat to the DOMREP to another soldier because I'd traveled to Azerbaijan, Germany and Morocco in the preceding year, and I had travel fatigue. So maybe my tolerance is lower than what I think it is. But traveling for work isn't quite the same.

Two weeks at a time is probably a good target. Being at home isn't terrible.

[Moliere]

I’m hoping to spend a lot of time traveling when I retire. I’d prefer longer trips to Europe so I don’t have to deal with the flights and jet lag. I think MJ would be down for 3-4 week vacations in France. It’s different if you are just “living” over there and not on a tight timeline. In fact, my first trip to France when I retire will be to follow the Tour de France around a bit. Not every route but some of the bigger climbs and hopefully the finale in Paris.