Touchdown Europe

Flying ranks up high as one of my least favorable things to do, right alongside going to doctors. Usually I consider a flight good if nothing extraordinary happens and there are no delays or, what happened a few years ago, pilots thinking they need a stopover in Amsterdam (foggy) for whatever reason (drugs? lover?) and citing bad weather in the actual destination Frankfurt (sunny).

Yesterday's flight I consider great, though - not because of the carbon credits that I was presented with at a good-bye party last Saturday that was unexpectedly thrown from my bike advocacy buddies in Roseville, but because I could actually sleep in the plane. This doesn't happen often, but I did notice that a night flight helps out a great deal.

I missed the start, the first meal and most of two out of three movies. Only in the middle was I awake long enough to see Ben Stiller fight it out in the NY Natural Museum of Living History. I actually almost missed the second meal, but I had dozed off lightly enough that that stewardess' tap on my arm woke me up. She probably was concerned that I hadn't gotten anything to eat or drink - they rarely realize that I always bring gallons of liquids since I have noticed in the past that the more I drink the less problems with jet lag I have. The meal was a shock as for some reason I expected breakfast, but of course by now we were close to landing and it really was 5pm already...They served potato cakes over a bed of tomato-marinated egg-plant with a side of broccoli. For dessert they offered a fruit platter with a variety of freshly grown or-can-ic ingredients. This first (or was it economy?) class meal was even served with a FREE roll of bread.

Well, enough about that - I enjoyed Munich last night. At around 86F there wasn't much of a weather shock to be had. That was about the same temperature when I left Roseville. We went out last night and I enjoyed my first bike ride in Munich ever, I think. I tell you, California is so much more fun riding your bike. You aren't restricted to side walks, which they call bike paths here, and are at times so narrow that you hit a railing with your left end of the handle bar and the pedestrians with your right end. It was the first time in a while that I was actually scared riding my bike. When bike paths are so far off the travel lanes of cars there is no way they can see you when they turn and there was also quite a bit of dealing with blind driveways and wrong-way cyclists. Sigh, I could spend another day writing about this subject...

But instead I should describe the last couple of days before I left. Besides the farewell lunch with my coworkers I had plenty of packing to do. I managed to ship 2 boxes and get most of the rest of my stuff in two other boxes, but I just wasn't able to finish the job completely, which luckily means that I will have an excuse to go back to California after the thesis in Africa (remember? This blog is really about my thesis...)

Anyway, after visiting with friends today I will head to Nova Gorica, Slovenia, tomorrow to finish up my work at hp.