Travel diary 1

I suppose that I ought to be documenting the World Tour, so while I am on the train to München, I’ll briefly cover the past few days.

This train travels so fast that light is bent on the way to the iPhone…

I met Jenny in Venice and we had a lovely time walking my legs off (OK, I’m not suited for walking. Silverback gorilla, remember?). I spent time in San Marco Basilica, although I was more interested in the Doge’s Palace next door. In Rome we went to the Pantheon, Coliseum (or Colosseum, depending who you ask), Forum, Palatine Hill and so on. Also we saw the usual sights: the Spanish Steps, Trevi fountain (I threw a coin in, which means romance, apparently). We stayed in the apartment of the Italian ambassador to Greece, who rents his or her apartment out to visiting Australians, near the Piazza San Silvestro.

Me with computer in Murano.

The Basilica of San Marco on the left, and the Doge’s Palace on the right and some fat guy with a cheap t-shirt in front.

Jenny finished her World Tour and is flying back to Brisbane as we speak, and I spent the night in Basle (or Basel, depending who you ask) in a nice hotel only fifteen minutes from the Bahnhof. Well, it would have been if it didn’t take me an hour and a half to find it… still I saw a lot of Basel at night. On foot. Dragging The Luggage. Did I mention that The Luggage got lost en route to Venice? No? I had to buy cheap t-shirts to not smell too badly. It turned up a couple of days later, looking, as Luggages are wont to do, sheepish.

Italian trains (Treni) are excellent. I even had a power outlet next to my seat. Swiss trains are less salubrious. But the train to Berlin from Basel is lovely, and they even exchange Swiss Francs. Which is good, because until I get paid Wednesday, I’m skint, and living on the credit card. I need every coin to work for me.

I’ll spend the night in München (or Munich, depending who you ask) and then meet blogger and historian Thony Christie in Erlangen, before I get to my conference in Göttingen. It seems that I speak German well enough to elicit long conversations in response, none of which I understand. But so far I haven’t made Australians look all that silly, mostly by keeping my mouth shut and nodding knowingly. I may meet Bob O’Hara in Göttingen if he can make it down from Finland (which is the place where I want to be, according to Monty Python).

I managed to do a lot of work on the train from Rome, which was good. I have some papers that need revision and resubmission. And two papers have been knocked back; one for being incoherent (and I can’t fault the editor for that judgement), and one for being two papers that need to be divided. That I can live with…

More to come, of course. Just try to shut me up. I hope you are all well in your ordinary lives. I will think of you as I sip German wine.

Err… well I missed the changeover for Munich. Here I am in Frankfurt. Oh well…