dormouse1953

Set off Monday morning to go to the Worldcon in San Antonio.  I had a 10:05 flight so I worked it out that to get to check-in the obligatory 120 minutes before take-off I'd need to leave Guildford station on the 6:34 to Woking to get the 6:50 Rail-Air coach.  I set my alarm (well, two actually, just to be sure) for 5:15.

Of course, I was so worried about over-sleeping, I didn't sleep a wink but I got out of the house just after six to go to the station, just as it was getting light.  I was annoyed to discover that the ticket machines at Guildford station don't offer a senior railcard discount on tickets for the rail-air link.

As it happened, the coach got to the bus station in plenty of time and I checked in very quickly.  I even had time to find a café in the terminal where I could get bacon and eggs.  (I'd left home without breakfast.)

All went well until I got on the plane.  We left the gate on time and then the pilot came on the speakers to say we'd just had a circuit breaker go and we needed maintenance to fix it.  They parked us on the  tarmac somewhere whilst that happened.  We took off over an hour late.

I had to change planes at Charlotte in North Carolina and the previous time I'd done that was in 2006 for the Worldcon in Los Angeles.  That was just days after the clampdown on carrying liquids on planes and the security was so tight it took about two hours to get from the airport entrance to the departure gate.  The flight took off late, I missed the connection in Charlotte, got put on a later flight, and arrived at my hotel after midnight, having been travelling for 24 hours.

So I was following with interest the estimated time of arrival display that you could get on the screen at your seat.  Interestingly, although the scheduled arrival time was 14:10, the estimated time was only about 20 minutes later.  Lots of slack built into the schedule, I presume.

There was also a lot or turbulence on the crossing.  They suspended the lunch service for a while as it was too dangerous for the cabin crew to work in the aisles, and for the snack before landing they weren't serving hot drinks.

As it happened, we landed about 14:45 and my next flight was due at 16:14.  Seems like most of the passengers on my flight had connections, many earlier than mine.  Then, the next problem arose.  They were having trouble getting the baggage off the flight.  (People were speculating that the circuit breaker problem was connected with this.)  I finally got my bag, handed it in to the connections desk and dashed across the airport to the gate advertised for my next flight.  It was the other side of the airport, of course.  And the queue for security was long.  I got to the gate and was one of the last people to board, but still with about ten minutes to spare.

By now, I was pretty much out of it.  A blinding headache meant I had no enthusiasm for reading my book so I tried to sleep.  We seemed to land early at San Antonio (lots of rebuilding work going on in the airport) and although there seemed to be another delay for the bags to come out, there was no queue for taxis and I got to my hotel by six p.m. local time (midnight UK) which was about the time we were scheduled to land.

I checked in no trouble and got to my room.  Didn't even have the energy to watch some baseball so I got to sleep about 19:20 and slept for something like eleven hours.

When I was getting ready for bed last night, I discovered my nose was bleeding.  Now, when I was younger I got nosebleeds regularly, but then I was bleeding inside the nasal passage.  It was the outside of my nose that was bleeding now.  I guess my sunburn had got a bit sore and I'd scratched it a bit too vigorously.

So this morning I caught the train back to Munich and it was one of what appears to be the new Austrian Rail Railjet trains, very smart inside, unlike the train I'd got last Sunday.  I'd reserved a room in the same hotel I was in last week, and the guy on reception recognised me.  I always get embarrassed when that happens, I prefer to remain anonymous.

Not much time to do anything in Munich, although I did find the place in the English Garden where they do surfing, although it is almost not in the garden at all, where the road to the south of the park goes over the river.  But there were many people there trying the waves.

After that, there was time for a meal and it's back to London in the morning, although the actual trip takes quite a few hours - changes in Frankfurt and Brussels and home in about 24 hours from now.  I always get a bit sad when a holiday is over.

I said the weather had improved yesterday, and I realised how much when I got ready for bed last night.  My nose and forehead were sore and noticeably pink.  And I forgot to bring any sunblock with me.

The weather has been much the same today.  As you can see mountains all around, I thought I would try and walk in the direction of one of the gentler looking slopes and see how far I could get.  I got far enough to realise I shouldn't be doing that wearing trainers and without a map and on my own.  I had contemplated packing walking boots for the trip but never did in the end.  (If I had, of course, the weather would be terrible this week.)

After a meal this evening, I was walking back to my hotel through the Mirabellgarten when I heard the sounds of music.  I was expecting the Austrian equivalent of a German oom-pah band but it turned out to be an English brass band, the University of Warwick Brass society.  The locals seemed to be enjoying it, including a version of the Helston Floral Dance.  (Altogether now - fiddle, cello, big bass drum, Bassoon, flute and euphonium.)  They were enthusiastic, although not always in tune.

Took the train this morning (or rather, just after noon) from Munich to Salzburg, where I am till Thursday.  The weather here seems to be sunny and warm at the moment.  Hope it lasts.

It's only a short journey - not two hours.  Once more I'm in an hotel next to the main station.

Hadn't realised how much in the mountains Salzburg is.  You'll see a shopping street but behind the shops on one side is a sheer cliff face.

Only went out to find somewhere to eat.  Seems like every other restaurant was Italian.  Even the place I stopped, where they did schnitzels, also did pasta and pizza.  I'll have to find where the more traditional eating places are.

Went round the Stadtmuseum this morning, which was a bit disappointing.  Mostly just pictures, and almost all the captions are just in German, and as I'd had to leave my bag (with my phrase book) in the cloak room, I could pick out only the odd word.  Curiously, the bit with the most English translations was the section labelled "National Socialism in Munich".  Presumably that's the bit all the UK visitors want to see.

Round the corner is the Viktualienmarkt, and there is a shop on the edge of that called My Muesli, and it seems to be just that.

A bit later, a family of American tourists saw me consulting my map and asked me if I knew where the Hofbräuhaus was.  I knew this is claimed to be the oldest pub in Munich and I remembered seeing it last time I was here.  Then I noticed a shop across the road called Wagner Lederhosen, and that name had stuck in my memory and I suddenly thought the the Hofbräuhaus was up the side street we were facing, and turn right.  I don't know if they followed my advice, but I walked that way myself, and five minutes later I passed the place.  Amusingly, it is now opposite a Hard Rock Cafe and a Starbucks.

The weather seems to have improved a bit.  It is now warm and sunny.

I'm in Munich at the moment, having a short holiday here and in Salzburg next week.  I came by train yesterday.

I remember bumping into Chris Cooper at Heathrow airport on my way to the Japanese Worldcon back in 2007.  (He was already ill at the time, and died less than a year later.)  We decided to go and get a cup of coffee before our flight and I said I wasn't having anything to eat as my stomach was upset from nerves.  He asked me if I was a nervous flyer and I replied that I'm a nervous traveller.

Actually, I love travelling, I just hate setting off on a journey.  For a start, I'm always afraid I'll forget to pack something important.  (And it happens.  I turned up at an Eastercon once to discover I had no change of underpants.)  I'm afraid I'm going to be too late for a connection at some point.  (And that happens, too.)  I was just like that yesterday, right up to when I got to the Eurostar terminal. I'd hardly been able to sleep the night before (and I had to be up by seven).  I felt nauseous, I kept wanting to go to the toilet.  Then I felt fine.  And I had plenty of time to get my connections at Brussels and Frankfurt.  Got to my hotel just after nine last night.

Not done much today.  The weather has not been great, but I went for a walk in the Englischer Garten park.  I'd like to know why someone was carrying a surfboard through the park.  (Then again, there was a recent Mythbusters where they strapped a rocket to a surfboard.)

And I've just eaten at the Augustiner restaurant, which I remembered from last time I was here about seven years ago.  It's very popular, and therefore very crowded, but the beer and food was good.

Got back into the UK this morning on a flight full of fans - well five of us.

Had a short sleep this afternoon, and after a couple of hours woke up with a painful cramp in my right leg.  It felt like I'd been stabbed in back of the leg and I could hardly walk for half an hour after I got up.

I wonder what it is about cons that causes this reaction in me.  My left leg cramped up Tuesday morning after the con, and it happened after the Japanese Worldcon in 2007.  And after the Eastercon at the Birmingham Metropole last year, I woke up with a cramp in my leg, rolled over to grab the painful part, and rolled off the bed.  Fortunately, I landed on something soft - my head.

Monday morning I attended the Mark Protection Committee meeting in my new capacity.  It was mainly housekeeping stuff, such as how to organise a Skype conference for the committee later in the year when the majority of the committee is in the US and I'm in England and Stephen Boucher is in Melbourne.  I have to go online late at night, he early in the morning.

Did more or less the last shift on the membership table before going to the closing ceremony.  After a rest I went out for a fine meal with a few others before hanging around the Dead Dog party for an hour or so.  Ann Woodford produced a bar of chocolate containing hickory smoked bacon, which tasted better than it sounded.

Tuesday, and back to being the tourist.  Went over to the Fields Museum, which was full of fans.  It's a museum of natural history and ethnography.  So, there is a gallery on the history of human occupation of the Americas from the Clovis period 10,000 years ago up to the Incas and the Aztecs and the coming of the Spanish, which leads to a gallery on the North American tribes.  There was a reconstruction of a Pawnee earth lodge in which there was sitting a woman who I presume was Pawnee, willing to talk about how a lodge would be constructed.  She said there had been a lot of English people through lately - other fans, I presume - and she was a great fan of English sitcoms, especially Keeping Up Appearances.

Their star exhibit is Sue, the most complete specimen of a Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil discovered.  It had just been installed when I was last there in 2000, and actually I don't find it quite as impressive as some of the other dinosaur specimens they have on display.  But they do show a 3D film on the discovery of the fossil, plus reconstructions of how a Tyrannosaurus might have lived.  Sue apparently suffered from arthritis.

Between going into the film and coming out of the adjacent exhibit on dinosaurs and evolution, I appear to have dropped my glasses case, but not my glasses, fortunately.  I must had taken my glasses out of the case to put them on to read the description of an exhibit and failed to put the case in my pocket.  It had not been handed in before I left the museum an hour later.

There's an Italian restaurant just round the corner from the hotel called Giordano's.  I'd thought about eating there during the con, but it seemed to be popular.  Wasn't so popular last night and I went there and ordered a starter, a pizza and a beer.  I didn't need the starter.  It said on the menu that the small size was suitable for 1-2 people, but I struggled to eat just over half of it.  I was offered a box to take the rest away, but I can't say I'd have wanted cold pizza for breakfast, and I didn't want it smelling out my hotel room for the rest of the week.

It was raining when I got up this morning, but it appears to have cleared up now.  Thunderstorms are forecast for the day, apparently, but I'll chance going out in a minute.

Too tired to party much last night.  The queues for the lifts have started early this year - the London party was on the 34th floor.  Left after an hour or so and fell asleep in the bath.

Up in time for the business meeting this morning.  Advertised start time 10:30 but there had been plans to move it to 10:00.  However, the word didn't get around so they ended up starting at 10:30 anyway.  Despite that, and despite a certain amount of silliness, it was over by noon.  The real fun starts tomorrow.

When it was finished, I caught the train out to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play the San Francisco Giants.  A number of fans had made the trek from the con to see this, although it was worrying that for the first couple of innings I seemed to be in a row almost on my own.

The Cubs won.

Went to the Art Institute yesterday.  Not usually one for art galleries, but I am a fan of Stephen Sondheim and he wrote a musical called Sunday in the Park with George which is all about Georges Seurat and the painting of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.  Recently I noticed it was at the Art Institute and realised I'd passed the place several times since getting to know the musical but had never gone to see it.

The Institute is on the edge of Grant Park and to get there I passed what appeared to be a giant piece of modern sculpture, looking like a giant silver bean.  But you can walk right under it and it is mirrored underneath as well as on top, and the curve inside is such that if you look straight up it is like looking into a tunnel, and and there you are reflected so you are looking at the top of your own head in the distance, but reflected such that left and right are not reversed.

Well, first thing I got to see after queueing to get in was the Seurat.  It's big - about 2x3 m - but for some reason I thought it was bigger.  I suppose this is because in the musical, Act II opens with a tableau representing the painting.

Lots of other stuff to see in the institute, including that most parodied of American paintings, American Gothic.  I hadn't realised the models for the painting were the artist's sister and his dentist.

There was a Roy Lichtenstein retrospective, which was interesting.  He didn't just do those paintings based on comic books.

After about four hours walking around the place, my feet were tired and I did little for the rest of the day.