Individual and Community

Travel Log

2009
Saturday, September 26 – Tuesday, September 29
Germany

Mannheim, Heidelberg , Speyer
Brother-in-law Ryan and his wife Sonia live in Mannheim, Germany right now. Sonia works for BASF which is based in Mannheim where she is a product manager. Ryan is a teacher, master trip planner, and adventurer. Ryan has planned the entirety of our European trip, which will conclude in Istanbul, Turkey around October 16.

Erin and I flew in for the start of our trip into Frankfort, met Ryan, took train to Mannheim, and stayed in Mannheim with them. We have been basing our travel from there and taking really cool trams and trains to nearby towns. We take these high speed trolley cars and trains everywhere. Pedestrian Traffic, Bicycles, and Mass Transit everywhere in this part of Germany. I am keeping a list of the amazing beverages we are sampling in Europe in a separate post.

Heidelberg
Went to a Oktoberfest/ New wine celebration in Heidelberg Saturday night right when we got here. Food, beer, ‘new’ wine, which is apparently unfermented fresh from the vineyards and winepress – and champagne. Lots of food – we had fresh made crepes – some with chocolate and banana and some with french cheese and tomato like a quesadilla; and the others had sausage called bratwurst; and really good french fries; There were at least 4 outdoor bands along this long street of the festival in Heidelberg. Very, very crowded by the end of the night. At several points as we headed down the Hauptstrasse back to the tram we were surrounded by people, basically being carried along with the crowds.

WeMadeItToGermany

Sunday, we took tram from Mannheim for about 20 minutes to go to Speyer to see a Jesuit Church — a 1,000 year old church. The church had an amazing carved door at the main entrance which provided a pictorial history. There was also a crypt containing the coffins of four emperors and four kings. There is also a room with Holy Relics in it, including the gold encased Head of a pope. Then we went to the remains of an old Jewish synagogue and ritual bath. During our trip we also stopped at the Cafe Hindenburg for some spaghetti ice cream.

Mannheim

Walked & trammed around Mannheim Monday and saw the few remaining buildings that survived World War II. Had lunch with cool bunch of Europeans that we later learned were Ryan’s students.

Heidelberg

Tuesday we returned to Heidelberg during the day to see the town and the castle. Walked back along the Altstadt, a pedestrian area between the river and the castle. Visited the Heiliggeistkirche, a Gothic 14 century church, and the Jesuitenkirche. Walked the 314 steps up to Heidelberg Castle. Castle is mostly ruins, but beautiful.

Prague

4:00 am train Wednesday AM to Prague.
Wednesday, September 30

Gare sick for 2 days with a cold; Erin and Ryan toured many many places. We had most wonderful hosts who tolerated me sick in their apartment for two days.

Budapest

October 5 2009

• Hungarian Baths are amazing.
• Ryan and erin get a little sick but mainly shake it off and tour 8 hours / day.
• Find a Great turk restaurant
• we rent an apartment for three days instead of hotel room. Saturday, sunday, monday WwII apartment building.
• Gundel lunch buffet. Very good, very expensivo. Gundel is a 3star Michelin restaurant.
• McCafe – nice place to play Race For the Galaxy!!

Belgrade , Serbia

Oct 6 2009

arrive 6:30 am Belgrade. 2 passport checks in middle of night Hungary and Serbia on the train. nice but compact sleeper car.

at Hotel Royal.

Belgrade does not appear to get many tourists.

Sophia

Istanbul Turkey

Turkey Notes in next Posts

Beers and other libations found on our trip in Germany and Eastern Europe and Turkey

Germany

• Heineken
• Das Schwarze
• Beck’s Gold
• a Pils in Heidelburg Bier Garden
• a German Champagne in Heidelburg street fair
• a Pils in Mannheim at Dinner
• a white wine with dinner at Ryan’s – Edenkonber Riesling – Monday night
• a Eiswen (Ice Wine) riesling tasting at Castle Heidelburg

Prague

• Pilsner Urquell
• Budvar /Budweiser – the original Budweiser

Budapest and Istanbul

• Staro Praneer
• Jelen Pivo
• Amstel
• Efes Pilsen

View Vacation – Germany to Turkey in a larger map

Google Maps Link Here with cool list of Cities on left side

• Links to Ryan’s Map Profile and all of the “Walking Tours” we have planned??
• Ryan and Erin Used Google Documents to Plan Trip: Spreadsheet | Calendar in Document format (Ryan afraid of spreadsheets)
• Fun Notes for Erin: What to wear when visiting a mosque
  

  Things you should know : All visitors must remove their shoes in mosques.Women should cover heads;sleeveless shirts,shorts,and very short skirts are inappropriate.

• TSA 3-1-1 Air Travel Guide

• Updated:Travel Diary of our Trip Moved to this Entry

September 20 2009
Epilogue:
After accidentally locking myself out of Evony for 72 hours due to a faulty password reminder form, I returned to find my 2.5 months of diligent clicking totally for naught. Two of my cities – both with level 10 walls and 13,000 archer towers – had been completely destroyed by a rival alliance so that they no longer existed at all. The third had been reduced to 0 population and 100% discontent. I teleported this city to a state closer to my alliance, and gave the account to an alliance member, and bade farewell to Evony for Good.

Town View of an Evony City

update Sept 13 2009

I was initially hesitant of this game and read several controversies about it, which I blogged about here . Evony is a resource management game where you develop your city and grow it through building new buildings, resources fields, and population, all while defending yourself against others in the world who may do you harm.

I started out skeptical and refusing to pay any real $ for playing the game. But after a couple of weeks of dedicated building, my attitude changed as I grew invested in my cities. I continued to play and grow my town, eventually to build a second city, and now a third. To gain the third city, I bought the $30 ‘free package’ to get medals for the next rank that allows you to control more cities. You gain win medals by attacking nearby valleys and cities, but the ‘drop rate’ for these is very low in my game and I have only gotten a few medals from victorious combat.

I am lord named anomie on my server.

There is a fine balance between maintaining defenses while continuing to invest in your city’s growth. This varies according to where you find yourself in the world – whether in a hostile environment or in a relatively quiet environment where you can peacefully grow. You get 7 days of ‘beginner’s protection’ where you can build your city in peace without worrying about being attacked.

The game has a great market dynamic where you can sell resources you manufacture or buy resources from other players. It has been interesting to watch as the prices have slowly risen as more players have come to my server and the demand has increased .

The Alliance play is engaging and have met some interesting people through my alliance. I have recently learned how to raid NPC ‘barbarian’ cities for resources, so am just building resources right now, with no real fighting of other players.

Am curious what the end game of this thing is. I am even more sold on the Flex / Flash based interface as a way to deliver games.

In order to make the game completely portable for me, I use Google Docs spreadsheet to keep my game notes, so my gaming experience with Evony is completely “in the clouds”, and am able to play anywhere at anytime.

Evony

On the POSITIVE side:

• The game has a Great user interface.
• Responsive support team with active forums.
• Fun as hell resource management game.
• I have survived off of the 7 day beginner protection.
• Challenges our concept of Intellectual Property. These guys have created an awesome game. yes the concepts are borrowed from other games, but they are first to build THIS game.
• Diplomacy and alliances play important role in this game.
• The owners are constantly refining the game to improve balance and playability. They are really trying.
• Sex sells. The ads worked for me, got me to try the game. The game itself has nothing to do with sex. Can’t fault someone for using tried and true marketing approach.
• This has the making of a great 4x browser-based game.

City View of an Evony City