Monthly Archives: August 2008

A day off? what?

Today I had a typical Neuschwanstein tour, well sort of. It happens for a few weeks every year and a few other random times throughout the year where I have to go one hour, switch trains, go another half hour, go to a bus, go another half hour, go to another bus, then then make it to Fuessen 5 minutes later. This is what happened today…and of course the same thing in reverse to get home.

Everything works out, it always has. During the world cup here in Germany in 2006 was the worst version of it. At the time, the trains were at absolute maximum capacity, standing room only, and no attempting to breathe. Of course, they would only send two buses for the extremely full bus…and I’d have to warn the group at the office before boarding the first train that it would be like that…and how they’d need to run, etc….but ya know what? It really did always work, even with the number of elderly people I get on my tours…it always worked, everyone was always happy, and at the end of the day, we all got back home. (er, at least my home, Munich)

So, we had to switch to buses in Marktoberdorf (market over the village…they’re creative with the names around here). On the corner of the train station is a lil statue of Saint George and since I take pictures of georgie boy wherever I go, here he is in Marktoberdorf:

…and here he is in one of my favorite churches in Paris, Saint Severin:

…and here he is in my favorite church altar that I’ve ever seen, in Kloster Weltenburg, which is up near Regensburg…and done by the Asam bros. :

Anyways, tomorrow I get a day off…then launch into another 7-day run with nearly all Neuschwanstein or Salzburg tours.  More fun.

[Listening to: Tornado Love – Kepi Ghoulie – American Gothic (3:38)]

End of Summer

It’s that time of year again, when tour numbers have hit mid-winter numbers, yet we have pretty darn nice weather. It makes for some great days as a tour guide, but it also means the company is not that happy, as they’re not making hardly anything, if anything.

Then of course there’s the new plague of beggers trying to extend their vacations by becoming “free tour guides”, learning a script and telling all kinds of factually inept tales….but let’s not get into that.

Today was the first day in a long time that I had to cancel a tour, as no one turned up. Oh well, it gives me time to listen to Groovie Ghoulies cd’s, as the singer will be doing a free acoustic set of Groovie Ghoulies stuff and his own solo cds, of which he released two this year. They’ve been a favorite of mine since I was about 16 (seen the ghoulies manyt imes), so it’ll be fun seeing him doing his thing in Munich.

[Listening to: 2000 Man – Groovie Ghoulies – Project: GHOULIE (1:59)]

Morning of “direct marketing”

As many of you know, when I first moved to Munich, before I started actually doing tours, I worked for a bike tour company and basically was their PR person to all those coming in at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) in Munich. *sigh* thankfully, I’ve moved on from those days. The work isn’t bad, it’s just that I don’t function that well at 6am. Anyways, today I had to train in a new girl on how to do that while dealing with the typical cast of characters around the station…I swear we should make a movie about it….I’ve got many fond and not so fond memories.

Other than that, tours have been going well for me, though our tour numbers are drastically down. Personally I think it’s just that we’re at the end of August and there just aren’t many tourists out and about until the Oktoberfest. I like small tours (5-15 people), but at the same time I understand the company needs good numbers (20+) at least ~4 months of the year. If I could have 10 people on every tour, I’d be one happy tour guide.

[Listening to: An Open Letter To Boston – Mark Lind & The Unloved – The Truth Can Be Brutal (2:55)]

More thoughts on Paris

Paris’s metro (subway) is LOUD.

15 euro menus are even better.  (see part one)

Why the HELL would anyone want to do the Paris sewer tour?

The only real line we’ve stood in at all is at the Eiffel tower, even Versailles on a Sunday was just a walk right in experience.

Trips in August are great, everyone’s afraid of the non-existant crowds.

Zemanta Pixie

Checking in from Paris

Here’s a few thoughts on Paris:

 Munich’s subway is better, no question.

The Eiffel tower is standing in line non stop all the way up, all the way down.

I was expecting Paris to be more expensive than Munich, it is not.

10 euro menus are excellent.

It’s my birthday.

Our feet REALLY hurt.  The A/C works great at the hotel…so does the internet access.

After 2 1/2 days in Paris, we’ve taken over 500 pictures.

Pictures to follow….going to see Jim today, then St. Denis….then who knows.

Paris in August

Tomorrow Petra and I go off to Paris for a lil over a week and we’re going to attempt to see everything. (of course)

Day trips from Paris include Versailles, Chartres, and Disneyland Paris. Fontainebleu might be able to fit in there too…we’ll have to see.
After talking to many tourists about Paris over the last few months, we decided to book a dinner at the Eiffel tower as well as a boat cruise. As usual at this stage in the game, we’ve really started to worry about running out of time there, but I think we’ll do alright, even if she collapses on me a couple times 🙂

I want to thank everyone who chipped in for our honeymoon, I’m sure it’ll be awesome.

[Listening to: Until The Day… – Off With Their Heads – From The Bottom (2:42)]

Bus tour to Salzburg?

Yesterday was a new one.

Apparently the train we normally take to Salzburg literally is non-existant for a week or two, and so yesterday we took a bus instead. Despite years in this business, I’ve never done a bus tour, so it was weird…and nice. First of all, we had air conditioning, which is amazing for this country. Second, the bus driver was nice and it went very slick as far as the tour was concerned. Unforunately, to use the bus regularly, I’d need to find at least 30 people a day, and that’s just not possible. Also, groups of 30 in Salzburg really suck anyways, so I guess I’ll just be happy with the train-bus-bus-train method I normally use.

Today, on the other hand, I have to start the tour an hour late…which means after the walk around with me, they might only have about 2 hours in town…which I doubt is enough time, but I’m going to try skipping a couple of the lesser sights that they wouldn’t notice anyways, even if I do enjoy showing them normally.

*sigh* Anyways, doing the bus tour was fun. I better head over to Salzburg by train in like 5 min…

[Listening to: Let’s Go To The Moon – Teenage Bubblegums – Let’s Go Ghoulie-A Tribute To (2:19)]