Monthly Archives: August 2007

Finally a half day off

Well, the weather isn’t that great at the moment…but I’m still very happy to have a half day off.  I had a Munich Highlights walking tour this morning, which turned out to be 10 people…americans, indians, australians…and a few that live in Munich, CLAIM to be from Chicago, but definately sound like they’re from Russia or some eastern european country…if they’re “from”chicago, then my name’s Phil.

Anyways…not a bad tour, I was just damn happy it didn’t rain.

Yesterday I was supposed to have a (2-hour) city tour as well, but I traded up for a Neuschwanstein tour, which of course is more money, but it’s also over 10 hours of work.  …and the forcast was for rain all day…turns out it only rained about 30 min of the day, so it was pretty nice.

When I got home today, I uploaded the rest of the pics from our trip to Rome…and some other random ones from my phone from this month.

That reminds me, I’ll try to write my “monthly update” for friends and family today…which is sorta like this, but without the fluff. *cough*

Petra bought me a few books, so I think I’ve got a lot of reading to do…it’ll probably take me the rest of the year at my usual rate, haha.  Anyways, here’s what I’ll be reading next: (by the way, you can buy these from amazon at my associate store, here:  http://astore.amazon.com/theproftour-20 )

  1. Planes, Trains, & Elephants by Brian Thacker
  2. No Shitting in the Toilet (the travel guide for when you’ve really lost it) by Peter Moore
  3. The Naked Man Festival (and other excuses to fly around the world) by Brian Thacker
  4. The Wrong Way Home (London to Sydney the hard way) by Peter Moore

Paracelsus and Neuschwanstein

Ok, you got me…they have nothing to do with eachother.

…but anyways, today I had one of the most boring groups I’ve ever had…and that’s impressive after a few years of this.  The only thing that was odd was that one of the guys on the tour who…well…was very odd…also had an odd question.  He asked about a sign he saw that said Paracelsus.  He knew all about Paracelsus (but had no idea of a Salzburg connection) and was definately going to go see his grave & house in Salzburg….apparently his friend wrote a book on Paracelsus!

OK, so most of you have no idea who he is, here’s a lil reading for you, then: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus

Anyways, the sign was for a clinic, but I also mentioned the connection with Salzburg, of course.  More beer.

Salzburg with Petra & Susann

Well, today was a weird one for me.  Petra and her friend Susann decided to go with me to Salzburg, which means it’s a weird one.  Petra and I had been together in Salzburg only once before and that was well over a year ago…in the spring…trying to see everything in a day.  This time, she took my city tour and got to see and hear something new. 

We also did the castle, which I hadn’t been up to for a good year as well…but apparently nothing has changed…I still love that castle. (by the castle, of course I mean Hohensalzburg)

We had lunch at an Irish bar in Salzburg….the Shamrock, which was an interesting experience, the barman was seriously hungover and was very vocal about it. My cheeseburger was a bit burnt…the bun was black.  Not bad though.

Two of the guys on my tour, from Dublin, were there for a quick drink too….very odd.  So to finish off the day right, after the tour we went with Susann to Ned Kelly’s Australian bar in Munich for some kangaroo.  Good stuff….we like skippy.

City tour & visiting puppies

Well, today I just had a city tour of Munich, which means I’ve got at least half the day to attempt to relax…didn’t work today.

The tour itself went great, had a couple kiwis, a couple scots, a russian, and a couple dutch on the tour…though the glockenspiel is not being nice lately.  We definately were early enough, and waited for it to start for 2-3 min, then it started…but it had skipped the best part (you know…with the knights…and if you don’t know, come to Munich…)…anyways, they only got 1/3rd of the show, in my opinion…oh well.

So, after that Petra and I went out to her Aunt’s place to check out their 2 week old puppies….they were damn cute.  We ended up biking and feeding all sorts of animals…and petting a pig for a while.

Go figure.

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Another day at Neuschwanstein

For some reason I feel like I’ve been working 10 days in a row already.  The fact is, I’ve only been working for 4 days since my last break, this is odd.  The sad thing is that I’ll be working 7 more days before I get a break again. 

However, that break will be Rock Am See…NOFX & NIN…should be good.

I just “talked” to Chaya a few min ago, looks like we’ll have a visitor for at least a day for the Oktoberfest.  So, if anyone wants our couch, it’s taken on Sept 24th. 

Here’s a random shot from my phone today:
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First real post

Hello everyone, this is the first of many posts I’ll make to this site.  Let me explain.  For months I’ve been writing monthly updates for friends and family which include what I’ve been up to.  The thing is, nearly on a daily basis someone tells me I should write a book…easier said than done.  One thing which is much easier to do is write a little here whenever I’m home.  So I would expect this to include all kinds of random things such as how recent tours go, people I’ve met, maybe some statistics, beer reviews, or really…whatever’s on my mind.

The first version of this site is very unprofessional, mainly because everything I can think to do with it would just make it more cluttered.  However, if you want to help with the design, send me an e-mail, I’d appreciate it.  Currently I have no plans for anything that would require someone with a slow internet connection to swear at me….though that does sound appealing sometimes. (the swearing, not the content)

I will be adding some advertisements.  Why?  Well…tour guiding is great fun and I meet hundreds of people every year from all over the world…but it doesn’t pay that great.  If the ads on this page pay for setting up the site, then I’ll be happy.  If I actually MAKE money off of this site I’ll be amazed.

So, anyways…Petra and I recently took a trip to Rome, I’ve been pretty slow on posting the pictures from the trip, partly because the deadline that I set for myself was the monthly e-mail update…which is at the end of the month.  However, I’ve posted the first few days on photobucket, so you can go there and have a look:  My photos