German Friday: Bavarian Castles and Munich
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
I was a bit disappointed when I got up the morning of Friday, July 18, 2008. It wasn’t that bad taking a shower in the bathroom with the glass door in our little room at the Hotel Kurcafe in Füssen, Germany…but I was a bit distressed when I went downstairs to use the internet only to find that the laptop that was there the night before had been disconnected. The girl preparing breakfast had no idea where it was. I soon got over it though when I noticed the magnificent breakfast spread that she was in the middle of arranging. Read the rest of this entry »
After we had seen the Playboy Mansion and had our chance encounter with Brian Wilson on the morning of Monday, October 6, 2008, Jimmy, Dick, and I – while in the Beverly Hills area – decided to stop by the Will Rogers Memorial Park and check out the surroundings. Yes, this park is best known for the incident in which Wham frontman George Michael was arrested in the men’s room for acts we won’t go into here – but to me, it was more significant as being the spot where Laurel and Hardy filmed the opening scenes of their 1932 feature Pack Up Your Troubles. 
I’d have to say that Thursday, July 17, 2008 was the least eventful day of any during the two weeks that we spent in Europe. This was mostly due to the fact that we used almost the entire day to travel from southern Switzerland back into Germany. And besides, it was crummy, rainy weather all day. However, this was the second of only two days in which we stepped foot in four countries: Switzerland, Austria (where we actually only stepped car tire), Germany, and Liechtenstein. Yes, I said Liechtenstein. 
The Wileys and I had gotten a fairly good night’s sleep in our separate rooms in Lyon, France and were up and ‘at ’em’ bright and early the morning of Wednesday, July 16, 2008. The hotel had been nothing to write home about, but the breakfast was once again outstanding. In fact, I became less impressed with the Disney breakfast after seeing virtually the same layout in the breakfast room of the tiny Campanile hotel. Lunchmeat, sausages, eggs, cheeses, breads, you name it. I was a little later at getting down to breakfast than the Wileys so I dined alone. I was so excited with the food that I left my water bottle at the hotel before I rushed out with my luggage to meet them in the lobby. 
I must confess that as I look at some of the photos from the 1986 Valley Forge Sons of the Desert convention, I get a little bit annoyed at myself for not spending more time with my family. As I was fourteen years old, it might be tempting for me to say that I thought I was a little too cool to hang out with them – but the fact is that they simply weren’t geeky enough for me. Whereas Mom, Dad, and Denise were hanging out together and snapping photos of Denise mingling with the celebrities (and the great family shot at left, which I missed out on), I was off alone hob-knobbing with the stars and club ‘bigwigs.’ So while my goal at that time didn’t involve getting pictures with any of them, Denise ended up with a whole slew of great shots. Dumb kid.