day 3 - Heidelberg and Stuttgart

So, you know those annoying tourists who are either driving down a crowded pedestrian street and/or going the wrong way on certain streets? that was us today. We were attempting to get to the Hard Rock Cafe to get a souvenier glass. The GPS recommended certain streets but those were not open so we improvised. Maybe not the best idea. With my brother driving we were probably within about 3' of a couple cafe tables. And there were plenty of pedestrians having to move around us as well. In the end though we made it to the Hard Rock and got what we wanted.

I also got up early this morning (7AM) and went for a run along the river in Heidelberg. It was a great run. The weather was perfect - sunny but not too warm, and the trail was in great condition and right along the river. I did 5 miles just looping out and back. All felt good and my time was <11min miles on average. Still a bit worried for the Medoc marathon and being able to finish it. Then I went back and met up with my dad & brother for breakfast. I enjoyed a bit too much of the bread and nutella :)

After breaktfast we packed up and headed out. We then had the aforementioned driving experience. And then the intention was to follow the river instead of heading right over to Stuttgart. This provided a much more scenic route for us and a bit longer but relaxing drive. We drove through a number of small towns and were somewhat trying to find a castle my dad had been talking about. Supposedly there was some knigh who lost his arm and had one made up of metal. And this arm is on display in his old castle. But dad couldn't recall any other info about it and couldn't find the details in his books. So we tried but no luck. We did find another neat castle though up in the hills. We went up there and found a neat little restaurant with an amazing view. We had a nice lunch there and then got back on the road to Stuttgart.

When we got in we decided to go to the Mercedes museum first, instead of the hotel. We were worried it would close at 6 and it was already 4:30. Luckily they were open until 9 tonigh. That was a good thing since we were there for over 2 hours. There are some neat displays not only of the cars but also just of technology, the history of the businesses that made up Mercedes Benz, and just general goings on in the world. Of course there were very rare and cool cars too. I took so many pics my camera battery died. I will have to post them up soon.

Day 2 - Munich and Heidelberg

just a placeholder here, I'll come back and write more later...

Day 1 - Zurich and Munich

Apparently we like cities that end in ich. For reasons still not quite clear to any of us, we flew in this morning to Zurich and then almost immediately drove over to Munich. I think the original plan was to explore Zurich but then we were unable to really find much to do. Not that there is a lack of sights and exploring in Zurich but more that none of us had taken, or found, any time to decide where to go. After driving around for about 30 minutes and getting plenty of side and backseat driving I decided we were bailing on Zurich and headed to Munich. The drive was a good 3 hours even with a number of no speed limit sections on the autobahn. An Opel Zafira does not have too high of a top speed. I think the most I hit was about 110mph (according to the GPS). I wish I had the Boxster instead.

Once we arrived we had a slight issue with the GPS. Somehow the destination got changed from our hotel to some random place in the northeast section of the city. We did not notice this until we arrived at said place and were unable to find the Sheraton hotel. Once the destination was corrected we were then all set to go again. And the GPS got us their quickly. We checked in, dropped off the bags, and then decided to get lunch. Not to complain too much, because I know my lack of sleep is impacting as well, but it's a bit frustrating with my dad & brother. There is severe lack of communication and understanding and so we always end up somewhere different that I expected. For lunch I suggested we ask the concierge for a good place to go for sitting outside and people watching. This somehow translated to 'lets eat at the cafe here downstairs at the hotel'. No biggie though, so I go along with it. But their service was so slow that we didn't want to wait any more. My brother was going to take a nap so my dad and I just had our drink and took off. Dad & I found our way on the u-bahn and successfully navigated to the area we had inteded. We wandered a bit and just explored while kinda heading towards a restaurant we wanted to consider for dinner. We ended up liking the menu and made reservations for dinner. Now we'll see if we can make it back there with a more direct route than we took this time.

Tomorrow morning we'll do more exploring here and then head out early afternoon to Heidelberg. With all of today's driving 'advice', I think I'll let someone else drive tomorrow.

On the running side, my rib pain is not decreasing. I'm now actually worried about not finishing the marathon. After having looked forward to this for so long I do not really want to consider the possibility. I'm too beat today to go run but tomorrow night I plan to get in a easy 5 mile run just to make sure I feel ok.

been a while

Well, it's been a while since I last posted. The running has had its ups & downs. I missed the Vancouver 1/2 due to being in Berlin & Wales on vacation. I then missed the Seattle SeaFair 1/2 due to oversleeping (though I'd like to blame the shuttle busses). And, due to injuries from an ATV accident on July 4th I was unable to participate in the Napa 1/2 Marathon. But, I'm now getting set for the trip to France and the Medoc Marathon. My goals have been adjusted to 12min/mi pace and a finish time of 6 hours or less.