Trip preview: Oktoberfest in Munich - 1 day to go!

You heard it right - it's time for Oktoberfest!  Not at the local bar, not at a local German festival.  Tomorrow, we're going to the heart of it all - Munich, Germany!  It's the last weekend of the 200th anniversary of this fine festival.  Alex, Mo, and I will slip on our liederhosen, blend in with the German-speaking locals, and consume some large steins of amber-colored beverages.

If you look in the distant left of the photo above, you'll see a large, white tent.  That's an Oktoberfest tent, when I was in Stuttgart in 2002.  Unfortunately we could not stay long - it was a work night, so I think we only popped in for one drink and then left.   Munich on a weekend will be much more crowded and lively. 

I've never been to Munich, much less Oktoberfest in Munich.  But I'm very excited!  We have been told that you need to get into a beer tent by maybe 8am to get a spot.  Is that scary or what?  That's worse than St. Patty's Day!  I hear people can get pretty pushy for spots at the tables too.  I am not sure how long I will last in the tent.  Might have to take a German siesta at some point...

Oktoberfest may be an old tradition in Bavaria, but it has gotten hip too.  Case in point - there's an Oktoberfest iPhone app!  It's a great way to guide drunken tourists to tents of more beer.  But even better - I hear the app can help you remember how many beers you have consumed, and then it can post it to your Facebook or Twitter accounts! 

Although Oktoberfest in Munich is the main purpose of the trip, we will actually be visiting several cities in Europe.  We were a bit slow to book travel (oh yeah, so prices for flights got expensive.  The best deal we could find had us flying into Zurich and out of Madrid.  Which meant that we were in for quite a bit of transit during this trip.  The plan: Zurich, Munich, Prague, and Berlin by train.  Finally fly to Madrid, enjoy some tapas for a couple of days, then fly home.  Fun, eh? 

I should mention that these plans are hardly set in stone. In fact, we still don't have train tickets or hotels beyond Munich. Maybe we'll go to Austria instead, and see if the hills are truly alive with the sound of music? Or to Poland, to check out... umm... WWII concentration camps? Or to Italy, to eat some yummy pasta and drink fine wine... Well hopefully our plan will work as it is. We'll see...

The photo above is from Zurich, also from 2002 (when I couldn't take any good photos apparently).  Spent a day there.  Really pretty and peaceful.  It seemed like a smaller version of Paris, but probably not as fun.  For this trip, we'll only be in Zurich for a few hours. 

I haven't been to Prague and don't have any photos of it, but here's a sight that we'll get used to - the train station.  This "haupbonhof" is from Stuttgart.  We will have taken two long train rides (plus probably a bunch of metro rides) by the time we get to Prague.  I'm very excited to see Prague too, even if it's just for two days.  It'll be my first visit to the former "eastern Bloc" region.

I haven't been to Berlin either, so I have no photos to share yet.  But when I think of Berlin, I think of the Berlin Wall.  And when you think of the wall (and the wall falling), you just have to whistle that tune to "Wind of Change", no? :)  I hope this songs stays in your head for the rest of the day :) 

Take me, to the magic of the moment
of that glory night
where the children of tomorrow dream away
in the wind of change

Actually, the real reason we're going to Berlin is that Mo's brother lives there.  Yes, these crazy Mexicans are everywhere! :)  Maybe they'll be able to point us to a good taqueria that makes a special "schitznel taco" or "chips con sauerkraut". 

Finally, we'll hop on a plane from Berlin and fly to Madrid.  I spent half a day there before - this last April, in fact.  It's a beautiful city.  This time, we'll have almost two days to hang out there.  And I'll be with Spanish speakers!  Woohoo!  And after a long weekend of drinking beer in Munich, Madrid will be a great way to recover - by drinking sangria instead!

After a long 11 days in Europe, I will probably be looking forward to relaxing back home in the States.  But life is not so gracious.  Looks like October and November will be quite the road trip for me.  The following week, I'll need to hop back on a plane and visit Texas and/or South Carolina.  Also Connecticut, New Jersey, California in the following weeks.  Not to mention, my next vacation starts at the end of October - in Japan!!  So peeps - stay tuned for hopefully lots of travel photos on this blog :)

In a strange twist of events, I've become a Mac, not a PC!

Warning: this will be a fairly geeky blog post.  But hopefully it'll be entertaining too :)

Yes, it's true.  I have joined the Dark Side.  Or is it the Light Side?  Several of you will laugh at the irony.  Yes, I've built many PCs from piece parts over the years.  Yes, I'm the guy that said that iPads are waste-of-money toys.  Yes, I'm the one that said I would never get a Mac because they are too "user-friendly" and way overpriced.  I even bought a PC Netbook on the day the iPad became available in stores.  But lo and behold, strange things have happened since.  First, I gave away my Netbook to my parents a couple months ago and bought an iPad to replace it.  To top it off, today I received this brand new Macbook Pro as my official laptop for work - bye bye Thinkpad.  No, Steve Jobs didn't bribe me.  I think I just may have officially become a Mac!!

This was my arsenal of compu-weapons before.  Very black.  Very PC.  I got good mileage out of them.  As a technologist working for a technology company, you kinda need some techie gear, you-know-what-I'm-saying? I have a desktop PC, which is my most powerful computer and contains all my data and runs major applications.  For work, I had a Lenovo Thinkpad W500, a top-of-the-line laptop.  The laptop is my IBM "office" (I don't have a real office) - containing data and applications for work. 

When you're traveling for leisure, carrying a 5 lb laptop with a 15" screen (with all your work data on it) is not very desirable.  That's why I bought this cute ASUS Netbook.  It's about the size of a hardcover book and only weighs 3 lbs.  Works great for Internet surfing, e-mail, streaming video, etc.  I took it to Turkey and wrote a few blog articles on-the-fly. 

Over time, however, I realized that the Netbook was only useful to me when on the road.  I do not travel all the time.  I hardly ever used it at home, since the desktop or laptop was always available.  I ended up giving the Netbook to my parents (who wanted a second laptop/netbook so they wouldn't fight each other for dibs at playing online Sudoku, hahaha).

Since I no longer had an ultra-portable compu-device, I started paying attention to the iPad.  It wasn't serious for a while.  Aside from email/internet, I thought, why else would I want an iPad?  All the apps were just cute little games.  No "real" use case for them.  Nothing a desktop or laptop could not do.  Didn't justify the fancy $600-1000 price tag.  But one day I stumbled this video of an iPad accordion application and was amazed.  Then I realized that the iPad isn't just a toy.  You can actually do some really neat things on it, like playing/composing music!  How cool!  You can't play a piano or accordion live on a desktop or laptop.  That was something very unique to the large touch screen on the iPad.  If people wrote more apps like this, the uses could be boundless!  A couple days later, I walked for the first time to the Apple Store on Michigan Ave in Chicago and walked out with my very own iPad!

I admit, the iPad may not be worth the price tag for most people.  You pay a bit for the newness factor, the sex appeal, the cute toy aspects.  But hey - now I have my own iPad accordion video! :)

I've had some kind of IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad since 1996, when I was first hired into IBM. They have always been solid, reliable machines. I've taken them all over the world. Even my old cat enjoyed hanging out with the Thinkpad.

At work, we folks in sales have to show off our enterprise software to customers all the time.  Having powerful, reliable machines for sexy demos is very important.  There has been a push to try out Macbooks as our platform for doing this.  That's why I'm getting one.

Several people have asked "hey, don't you work for IBM?  Isn't it an oxymoron for you to have a Mac?"  You may be surprised by the answer: not at all.  Yes, it's true that IBM invented the PC.  But what many people don't know is that IBM doesn't make PCs anymore.  That's sooooo 20th Century.  In fact, no PCs, laptops, printers, or hard drives.  We sold off those businesses years ago, because they didn't make enough profit.  The Thinkpad is now made by Lenovo, a Chinese company.  What we sell is enterprise hardware and software - stuff that most normal people don't see, like in the photo above.  Apple is a consumer electronics and technology company.  Unlike in the 80's, we two companies don't compete anymore.  On the other hand, a real competitor these days is actually Microsoft, since they sell software to enterprises too.  So using Mac OS may be better for us, since we wouldn't be paying our competitor Microsoft for Windows and Office licenses...

  

Looks like 2010 marks my new journey with Apple technology.  The iPad has been fun so far.  Hopefully the Mac will be productive too.  Don't get me wrong - I'm not becoming a Mac bigot (and I wasn't a PC bigot before).  I still wouldn't buy a Macbook with my own money, unless they got 50% cheaper.  But hey, I will try it out for work since it's free to me :)  Actually, this reminds me of the first computer I used - the Apple IIe in my 2nd grade classroom.  Can you believe I learned to program on one of these things??

Related links:
- This article on my blog
- My blog

Utah 2010 Trip Intro: Salt Lake City to Moab

A business trip brought me to Salt Lake City on a Friday in July. The meeting was set up with little notice; we only had a week to make plans. Luckily, I didn't have anything huge going on the following weekend, so I decided to make a mini-vacation out of it.

You know it's going to be a gorgeous weekend when you get to see the sunset above when your plane is landing. Aaaaaah.

Utah is an amazing place - there is so much beautiful scenery and nature nearby. It is loaded with national parks. You can't visit them all in a single weekend, so I had to choose. I had already been to Yellowstone & Grand Tetons (to the northeast - and these parks are actually in Wyoming, but close enough). I had not visited Zion & Bryce (to the south) or Arches & Canyonlands (to the southeast). Since Zion/Bryce are kind of close to Vegas, which I visit at least once a year, I figured it would be a good opportunity to check out Arches and Canyonlands.

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks are located in southeastern Utah, near the Colorado and Arizona borders. When my meeting was done, I headed down there in my rental car. The drive was about 300 miles one-way - about five hours (depending on traffic). I would have two full days (Sat & Sun) to go sightseeing. I began the return trip to Salt Lake City on Monday morning, flying home that evening.

The drive started out quite dull and full of Salt Lake City/Provo Friday evening traffic. It was very hot too! Temperatures reached around 100F or more every afternoon that weekend. But once I started traveling east on I-70/US-50, the drive became very scenic. There were all sorts of mountains, cliffs, rock formations, farms, poofy white clouds, and even scenic viewpoints to stop and check out.

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks are only about 30 miles apart. The land is part of the Colorado Plateau. This highland region that spans four states (CO, UT, AZ, NM) and features the mighty Colorado River running through it. Although Arches and Canyonlands are so close, their landscapes are very different. Arches National Park features all these crazy rock formations that stick out of the ground: arches, buttles, spires, etc. On the other hand, Canyonlands National Park features huge canyons dug into the earth by the Colorado and Green rivers.

Located just south of Arches National Park is a town called Moab. It's the perfect base of operations for travelers. I stayed at the Apache Motel there. It was nothing fancy, but all I needed were a bed, a shower, and some air conditioning :) Moab is a rather large tourist town. There are many hotels, restaurants, and stores. The downtown area is cute and clean, great for grabbing a bite to eat or buying a souvenir.

Moab is also pretty cool because it's right in the middle of all this beautiful scenery. You can see the mountains and rock formations in every direction.

After a long day of business, driving, and sightseeing along the way, I got to bed early to prepare for a couple days of communing with nature. My next article: a morning in Arches National Park.


Check out this article and others from my blog:
- This article
- All articles on Utah 2010 trip
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A Morning in Arches National Park

Arches National Park is a beautiful place, with a unique geology that features crazy rock formations everywhere.  You can see over 2000 monoliths, rock fins, spires, balanced rocks, and natural arches in the park.  Here's a cool interactive map of the park, from the official park website.

I made two trips to the park: one on Saturday morning, and the other on Sunday evening. I took siestas at the hotel in the early afternoons - noon sunlight isn't that cool for photography, and it was pretty darn hot in the afternoons! Morning sunlight is quite different from afternoon sunlight. Also, certain landmarks at the park are better oriented for either the morning or evening sunlight. For example, the famous Delicate Arch is shot best at sunset (which I did!). This article covers my morning experience at the park.

Sunrise at the Windows

I have resolved to get up for sunrise photos on many trips in the past.  However, this trip was the first time in which I followed through on the idea.  I woke up at 5am, got my gear ready, and arrived at the park by about 6am, just before the sun rose.  There are several areas of the park.  I went to the Windows area to catch these sunrise photos.

The following shots were taken at the South Window:

Facing the Windows is Turret Arch. Turret Arch is really neat in the morning because the sun shines right on the face of the arch.

Just a short hike away from the Windows is Double Arch. It's pretty neat because the two arches share a common foundation pillar. Double Arch was in some scenes of the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Devil's Garden Area

The Devil's Garden Area is located at the end of the 18-mile scenic drive through Arches National Park.  Devil's Garden contains several trails that lead to a bunch of arches.  The first part of the main trail is about a mile long and is an easy hike.  The scenery on the trail is great, especially with all the large rocks protruding from the ground.

The easy part of the trail ends at Landscape Arch. Landscape Arch is the longest arch in the park and one of the longest natural rock arches in the world. The photo at the beginning of this article is also of Landscape Arch.

Beyond Landscape Arch, the Devil's Garden Primitive Loop begins. The loop itself is about 7 miles long, plus a few side trip hikes to see specific arches. It's a difficult hike. You have to hike up and down sandstone slabs, and sometimes along high rock ledges. The views are amazing though. Just make sure you bring plenty of water!

Partition Arch is one of the side trips off the Primitive Loop. You can see the arch from afar on the main trail (you can barely see it in the photo above). But the side trip takes you behind the arch, and you can walk under it. You can get a nice view of the Devil's Garden area from under the arch.

Navajo Arch is another landmark you can see on a side trip from the Primitive Loop.  While the hike around its back side is rather dull, the front side is kind of neat because it looks like you're hiking in a cave or ravine.

In Conclusion

Arches National Park is a beautiful, unique place.  It's totally worth it to get there early to enjoy the sunrise and the morning light.  After an early start and over ten miles of hiking, I was hungry for a nice lunch and then a siesta.  I ended my morning adventure at this point and headed back to Moab.  Articles to come: Canyonlands National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park, and Evening in Arches....

Check out this article and others from my blog:
- This article
- Part 2 of my Arches experience
- All articles on Utah 2010 trip
- Slideshow of Utah 2010 trip photos on Flickr
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Dead Horse Point State Park

It was late Saturday afternoon in Moab.  I had just woken up from a peaceful air-conditioned siesta in the hotel, while the sun was bearing down outside with 105F temperatures. Hopefully it had cooled down a tiny bit. Time to head out again and do an evening hike.

The original plan was to go back to Arches National Park.  But as I went outside to the car, I noticed that the sky had gotten rather cloudy, just in a few hours.  All that heat and humidity builds up weather systems so quickly!  I figured that all the clouds would prevent good evening sunlight from shining on the arches. So it was time to head elsewhere. I decided to go west to Dead Horse Point.

Before arriving in Moab, I had never heard of Dead Horse Point State Park.  And even if I had heard of the park, why would I go all the way to Utah to visit a state park??  There are all sorts of national parks around, duh!  But I spoke to my buddy Rob, who had been here a week ago, and he recommended going there.  Taking a look at some pics online, going there surely made sense.  It looked spectacular!  I guess when you're in the Great West, even a state park can blow away anything you see in the flat, corn-filled midwest.

Dead Horse Point State Park is about a 30 mile drive from Moab.  It's right next to Canyonlands National Park.  I actually don't understand why they didn't make it part of Canyonlands.  The scenery/geology is pretty much the same.  

The drive to Dead Horse / Canyonlands is very scenic.  There are viewpoints for you to pull off and take photos or have a picnic.  There are some great views of the La Sal Mountains to the east (first two photos below), as well as nearby rock formations like Merrimac and Monitor Buttes (third photo below).

Here's a more detailed map of the park, from the official park website.  The park is pretty small and simple.  There's only one road in the park.  The road overlooks canyons on both sides.  It ends at Dead Horse Point.  Sounds like there are some great hikes, especially if you want to go down into the canyons.  But if you are lazy like me and just want to snap photos, there are several great overlooks.

Looking to the east, you can see Pyramid Canyon and the Shafer Basin.  The La Sal Mountains are in the distant background.  Here are some shots, the first two from the Basin Overlook, and then the Pyramid Overlook.

The true gem of the park, as the name suggests, is Dead Horse Point.  Dead Horse Point sticks out into the canyon.  You get a beautiful panoramic view of the area, which includes the Colorado River curving in a "gooseneck" shape.

Finally, I leave you with a panorama photo of Dead Horse Point.  Click on it to view it in full screen mode.

Check out this article and others from my blog:
- This article
- All articles on Utah 2010 trip
- Slideshow of Utah 2010 trip photos on Flickr
- Blog home