Year: 2008

Alternative titles: Bike 1000! There are two colors in my head The fog is changing colors When I was a kid we used to bike to concerts uphill both ways I was so excited to see Radiohead at the Outside Lands Festival — the first night concert in Golden Gate Park. I got home late…

I arrived at the Munich airport with plenty of time to spare before my flight.  Since I was flying business class I planned on taking full advantage of the lounge and my wifi access to slowly reacclimatize.  When I arrived at the ticket desk, I found out that an earlier flight to the US had…

After a bittersweet conclusion to my time in Germany, I was off to Italy to see my relatives there.  Though my mom grew up in a small town in the hills, some of her relatives had relocated to Roseto, a coastal town on the Adriatic not far from there.  On this visit I was staying…

No BMW European delivery trip is complete without a visit to the Neuschwanstein castle, rumored to be Walt Disney’s inspiration for Cinderella’s castle.  Unfortunately, my time with my new car was nearing an end as I had to have it returned by 4pm just outside of Munich so the castle trip had to be quick.…

After my last night at Michael’s house, I managed to lock myself out while loading my bags into my car. I called him at work and he said that his mother had an extra key at their family home.  The only complication was that Michael’s mother doesn’t speak English and has never met me.  I…

It was raining in the morning and I was exhausted so I slept in for a change.  After catching up on some online tasks, I headed towards the wine region along the Rhein river.  I stopped off in St. Goar and Rudesheim and enjoyed a nice break and some wine in both towns.  Unfortunately the…

The next morning we were bleary-eyed as we headed through the small town on the shore and went to breakfast. After breakfast we bid adieu to France and headed to Geneva. We parked at the Ritz hotel, gawked at the oil-funded cars from the middle east parked in front and took a walk along the…

The next morning we had another breakfast – large by European standards and approaching an American breakfast.  Michael and his girlfriend had to return to Frankfurt for work so we gathered for a group photo of the boys and their toys. After some fun antics with photos that will not be posted here, we parted…

The next morning we had breakfast and headed out to Lanslebourg.  Along the way we passed through Col de l’Iseran which is the highest mountain pass in the Alps. We stopped for a coffee in Lanslebourg and spotted a bunch of people in parachutes drifting off the winds from the mountain face. From Lanslebourg we…

Having made my way through St. Tropez, I was off to the French Alps to meet up with my Microsoft colleagues driving down from Frankfurt.  We arrived in Annecy, a beautiful town in the French Alps with a clear blue lake at its center. We enjoyed a lazy lunch and ran quite a bit over…