Parking Lot Snow

Parking Lot SnowNot actually as bad as I had expected given the forecasts on my iPhone before I left for Toronto. Instead of snowing as forecast, today was in fact beautifully bright and sunny. It was cold though. Very, very cold. The highest temperature I saw reported on the car’s external thermometer was -5°C. There was snow on the ground, but the roads were clear for the most part.

Right now I am sitting at Toronto airport, hooked onto the airport’s Bell hotspot Wi-Fi thanks to Boingo. I also have my Nokia N95 hooked onto the Wi-Fi through my Boingo Mobile account, allowing me to make Truphone calls to folks back in California for free. And, of course, Devicescape manages the login here from the N95 (and also earlier on my iPhone when I checked my email).

Leaf Frost

Leaf FrostFirst it was cold and frosty, then it was wet but milder and finally yesterday it actually snowed (though it didn’t last long and was pretty much gone from down here in the south east of England by the evening).

Today is overcast, but a lot warmer. Not good photo weather, but since I’m almost leaving it does give me a chance to get packed and ready.

Stansted, Kent?

Stansted, Kent?Seems that the folks at British Airways don’t know where Stansted is. What makes it perhaps worse is that Stansted is an airport town – you would have thought they’d know where the London airport towns were located. Let’s hope they don’t use these maps for navigation!

Schmap Maui and Molokai Third Edition

StarsThe folks at Schmap have chosen three of my photos for inclusion in the third edition of their Maui and Molokai guide. Unlike last year though, this year’s guide is available online.

The three pictures from my Flickr stream are the one to the right for the aquarium, and a couple from the sugar museum.

Check ’em out (and you can still download the guides if you want to take them with you).

The Saga Continues

So, having loaded us all on to the aircraft in Stockholm, Lufthansa then informs us that we’ll be delayed an hour because of bad weather at Munich (I can’t believe they didn’t know this before they put us on the plane, but we were on board by then). Sure enough, we’re late leaving and then have to wait a little outside of Munich too. The connection to London was already tight, but they keep telling us all departing flights are delayed too. Just before we land they tell us that passengers for the London flight should go as quickly as possible to gate G46 to get on the plane.

We land, and they park us at G02 – the opposite end of the airport. So, we rush all the way over to G46, passing through a passport control on the way, only to get there and be told the flight already left. Apparently, it never occurred to them to wait for the 15-20 passengers coming in from Stockholm.

Next, we’re told there’s no more planes to London. A little pressure though and they get us on the BA flight, leaving at 9:15pm, but also delayed until 9:30pm. The catch? It is in the other terminal and there isn’t time to process all of us and get us paperwork for the flight. So we’re sent over to Terminal 1 (a 10-15 minute fast walk from where we are, and return back through passport control) without any papers at all. At Terminal 1, we line up at BA checkin to get a boarding pass since we can’t get through security without one.

Then it is back through passport control (3rd time since landing at Munich) and security and we’re all waiting now at the gate for the BA flight to London. Hopefully this one will be uneventful, though it is only 10 minutes before it is due to leave and we’re still not boarding πŸ™

The Lift

The LiftIn Stockholm now for about a day (I leave tomorrow morning, early). The city here, or at least as much of it as I’ve been able to see so far, seems pretty amazing. Not sure it would be so much fun in the winter, but it is great at the moment.

The photo shows the lift in the hotel. Max 3 people, and it would be a tight squeeze at that. The room is not much larger. The bed pretty much fills it, which doesn’t sound too bad until you realise the bed is a 2’6″ single! I think the only place I’ve found rooms this small was Japan, and there they did include larger beds at least!

Watch The Hot Wash

Shrunk AudiLook what happens when you put your Audi through the hot wash at the local petrol (gas) station πŸ™‚ They go in as a chunky pseudo-SUV, and come out looking more like a Tonka toy…

I have a similar photo of a Mercedes that seems to have shrunk in the wash too – that is still in the camera though; I’ll upload it when I get to Stockholm.

Irish Harp Pub, Berlin

Irish Harp Pub, BerlinRather than any cliché photos of tourist attractions in Berlin, I present a urinal from an Irish pub. OK, I was in the pub for a reason: my laptop needed charging and they had a table next to a power outlet and a Wi-Fi hotspot on the premises for me to use.

The mens urinals though were equipped with little ball games (as shown in the photo). I’d heard of these before, but never actually seen one. The orientation seems a little odd on these ones – I can only guess they were designed for a different brand of porcelain fixture!

Still, the little red ball fades to a pale pink as the shooter hits; a feature no doubt intended to encourage more precise aim πŸ™‚

Remember you can keep up with the more serious aspects of my travels around northern Europe at the Devicescape blog.

ICE Train

DB ICE TrainFront of the high speed train from Aachen to Berlin. Unlike the Thalys train I took from Paris to Aachen though, this one did not have power outlets for every seat, nor did it have complimentary food & drink service. All in all, rather annoying for a 5 hour train journey, but, since all my electronic devices were pretty much out of power following a busy morning in Aachen hunting down Wi-Fi networks, it was a good excuse to catch up on some sleep.

Now in Berlin for a few days, and the weather here is glorious; total opposite of weather.com’s forecast – last time I trust them when planning what to wear on a trip!