famous "Shot heard around the world", not for it's significance in
world affairs, rather for it's long travel distance. It occurred just
after I posted my latest blog this afternoon. Describe it? The "thud
heard round the world" best fits. Its cause? The one or two people
who bother to read this material went unconsious trying to make it
through the latest posting. I will endeavor to make a more lively
posting with today's
news.
Before I recount who went where when, allow me a discussion on a topic
I find dear to my heart (and my impending heart disease), chocolate.
While on Normandy a few weeks ago I found 5 100 gram chocolate bars in
a grocery store for 1.35€. They were on the bottom shelf below the
2.23€ single 100 gram bars with the fancy wrapping. Now, in my book
chocolate is chocolate be it 0.27€ per 100 grams or 2.23€ per 100
grams. A little embarrassed at the act I purchased the 5 bars and
immediately started consuming the first bar. I found it delightful.
Melted in my mouth, full rich chocolate flavor- all I could desire of
a chocolate bar. I continued through the other four bars over the
ensuing days and began to admonish myself for not buying a couple
dozen bars at that price, regardless of the painful reality of lugging
them everywhere in my backpack. But, fortune smiled on me as I found
0.34€ 100 g bars in the kingdom of chocolate, Switzerland. Gallus
informed me that this cheap chocolate was second rate after he
grimaced his way through a piece, so we stopped at a store and
purchased a variety of the higher priced brands for comparison taste
and texture testing. Hmmmm After carefully consuming and considering
about 500 grams of chocolate over the past day and a half I have
reached a conclusion. First, chocolate is really good. Second,
chocolate is really, really good. Third, unlike my mother's
preaching, I can eat a hell of a lot of chocolate in one sitting and
not get too sick. As to the taste and texture test - Hey! It's
chocolate. It all tastes fantastic! To prove my point I bought
another .35€ 100g bar and consumed it while walking to a restaurant
for dinner today. It was fantastic.
Cindy was up, showered and down to breakfast quickly this morning,
having a 10 o'clock appointment with the shuttle van to the airport
for her 11:55 flight home. We said out goodbyes at the hotel because
the shuttle was full and we were on the 11:00. Our plan was to make it
back to Munich by noon to see the Glockenspeil do it's thing. As we
watched the clock ticked rapidly towards noon and the train slowly
rolled towards town. At 11:53 we still had 5 stops, and being a nerd
I had been timing how long between each stop and how long we stayed at
each stop. The statistical analysis was not looking good to make it to
the plaza on time. But, as in gambling and the stockmarket, past
results do indicate future trends. Somehow the last 5 stops flew by
and we ran off the train at 12:01 sprinting for the plaza. Turns out
the Glock takes it's turn after all the other clocks in the plaza get
finished, so we got to see the show from start to finish. Not that it
is Star Wars or The Matrix, but it was pretty cool in a 16th century
kind of way. A big cuckoo clock without the coo- coo.
We found our train to Salzburg and were rolling thru the German
countryside in no time, arriving in Salzburg two hours later.
We talked to a nice girl at the information office, got tickets for
the Sounds of Music bus tour (more on that later) and got directions
to the campground just north of town. We rode bus three to the end of
the line, then promptly went down the wrong road and got hopelessly
off track in the hot sun. We asked 4 passersby for directions, but no
one knew where we were trying to go. A little judicious study of the
map and a redirect and we found the campground on a rise overlooking
the city from the north side. We pitched our tent and headed for
town, our goal: to get to the fortress. The bus took us to the base,
where we found tickets available in the front row for an outdoor
concert on the fortress grounds featuring the music of Mozart, his dad
and Bach at 8:30. We toured the fortress for an hour, then cooled our
heels at a pub in the fortress overlooking the town before going to
the concert.
The concert was wonderful. An hour and a half of wonderful music
featuring violins, cello and bass with a soloist French Horn and Swiss
horn.
Nerd attack!! I recorded one of the movements on my iPhone and found
it suprisingly clear.
Took the bus back to the campsite and hit the sack about midnight.
Chuck
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