Lavonardo

1. Pick up a sword created by Hattori Hanzō.
2. Go see the biggest fishtank in the world, one that holds four whale sharks, the largest fish in the world.

Something to try out on the next visit to London: a canopy walk in the Kew Gardens.

In the era of having to leave luggage unlocked for TSA, these untamperable security seals ought at least give comfort that the airport personnel cannot break into the suitcases without the owner’s knowledge. Not that this has really been a problem (especially this spring, when the need to travel has been minimal).

Had dinner in Golden Adler, the oldest restaurant I’ve eaten in (the advertising alleged that it was founded already in 1390).

Ancient or not, the venison accompanied with spinach-knödels and chantarelles was very good.

Spent a few hours on a tour of the Swarovski Kristallwelten on the outskirts of Innsbruck.

Didn’t really expect anything. Apart from multiple renditions of the iconic swan.

And definitely didn’t expect a big-money modern arts show. Fourteen galleries packed with crystal-encrusted (or inspired) exhibits. Some of them worth a long look, all of them out of the ordinary.

The inevitable company store was located at the end of the tour. It catered mostly for the middle end punters - the big (and expensive) statuettes were absent, and the selection was firmly centered on jewelry. A sizable do it yourself-section was an unlikely addition - a largish chunk of the floorspace was devoted to crystals sold separately and necklaces you had to assemble yourself.

Ate twice in Cafe Sacher today. And that’s accomplished well before dinnertime, but I don’t really see the need for a hat trick.

The Utah reunion continued with a walking tour of the old town and capped the two hour stroll with a brunch in the most famous Austrian cafe (not the original, obviously, that’s in Vienna). Their schnitzel is pretty close to perfection, and a slice of the famous cake for dessert certainly hit the spot also.

Took a morning train to Innsbruck.

Which turned out to be a regional train that stops at every possible station and depot on the way.

And takes a roundabout way through an amazing pass, with steep mountains and deep river valleys alternating on the sides. The train’s route took it through Garmisch-Partenkirchen, so I’ve now seen two of the four jumps of the new year’s tournament.

Missed breakfast, but picked up three pretzels from the food court in the Munich hauptbahnhof. And those were premium pretzels indeed, not the common salted monsters, but bakery products much closer to bagels (and completely cocooned in different seeds).

Also picked up a few magazines in the Presse + Buch-bookstore, I’m still impressed by the almost monomanic intensity that is applied to hobbies in Germany.

The hotel (a Best Western) turns out to be even closer to the railway station than originally thought. Located in a quiet area, next to a park and equipped with an amazing view in the window (and a free wireless), this is definitely a bargain at 70€ a night.

Flew to Munich, to spend a night before moving on to Innsbruck.

This is my first visit to the city this year, and actually the very first trip abroad at all. Been strangely domestic lately.

Didn’t want to repeat the utterly harrowing adventure in December and left for the airport early. Very early. And enjoyed a leisurely glass of quality C.S. in the new wine bar in Seutula. Or Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, as the aerodrome seems to have lost its proper name.

Flight was mostly uneventful. Apart from sugar-rushed german schoolkids who clapped their hands throughout the trip. Breaking only for the nondescript meal.

The train ride to Austria tomorrow is early, so accommodated myself into the InterCity Hotel located upstairs of the railway station. Convenient, affordable and quiet. Not much more could be asked from a hotel.

A Whopper in the Burger King downstairs confirmed that we’re indeed no longer in Haaga, Toto.

• Kansainvälisen Seikkailijan Opas, the Madventures-guys’ travel book: Short on destination details, long on quality writing.
• Tropicana Red Berries: No mango, interesting taste, deep purple colour.
• Halo 3: Too many chapters with Flood, will go back for the vehicle scenes.
• Blink, off the third season of Doctor Who: Probably the best televised science fiction in ages.
• Sam & Max comic: Not as good as I remembered, and I’m glad I got the reprint instead of forking out megabucks for the original on eBay.

I seem to have ended up with TWO copies of Mondo’s Paris guidebook. Haven’t paid for either, so it would be only fair to pass on the book.

So the first one to comment this with “Me!” or to send equivalent e-mail gets the book. To be picked up in person or somehow transferred for free, I don’t intend to fork over shipping costs.

Countdown starts right now.

Visited the annual travel fair in the Helsinki Exhibition Center yesterday.

Plus:

• Picked up a cheap guidebook on Madeira.
• Visited two local quasi-adventure organizers: Aventura and Kon-Tiki.
• Was quite impressed by the tactics on how to avoid plumbing renovation: hit the Caribbean.

Minus:

• The big one: didn’t buy a cheap vacation for the easter holiday. And yeah, that’s on me, not the fair itself.
• Cacophony between folk musicians in adjoining booths.
• Didn’t see the U.K. booth and thus missed anything about Scotland.
• Missed also the Peter Pan booth.
• Crowds, and especially the inability to dodge passing people.

Following last year’s take on the meme picked up from Jason Kottke, here’s where I laid my head last year.

• Helsinki, Finland*
• Vantaa, Finland*
• Tampere, Finland
• Nivala, Finland
• Turku, Finland
• San Diego, CA
• Boston, MA
• New York, NY
• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
• Brussels, Belgium

Some locations might be missing, ping if you spot any such.

* = denotes multiple visits on non-consecutive days.

(I promise, the 2007 retrospect-o-rama will draw to a close soonest.)

Spent a long weekend in Brussels, Belgium.

And endured the most heart-rending bits before the SAS plane took off from Helsinki. Last wednesday turned out to be a Really Busy Day for the Helsinki cabs, weather being bad, and the day the eve before the independence day (and thus a good day for a christmas party). I was thus unable to get a cab. And the tram journey downtown took absolutely ages. Fortunately two things happened: the Finnair bus to Seutula was just leaving when I hit Elielinaukio (with a taxi queue stretching to the borders of eternity) and the SAS checkin crew was willing to let me board the plane even after the official check-in time had been gone for a long time. After that it was plain sailing to Brussels. But the two hours spent in traffic (and calling for a cab in vain) certainly rank among the worst this year.

The hotel, a Thon near the North Station, turned out to be big, faceless and surprisingly inefficient. Managed to break no less than three keycards and fought the odd heating/cooling system without no clear improvement in temperature for two nights. Sleeping with a window open is not really advisable next to a busy street - the traffic noises tend to be carried up to the 24th floor rather well. Adding insult to injury was the internet connectivity pricing - 10€ for an hour is robbery, pure and simple. And with 3G seemingly out of order (at least my trusty n95 was unable to open any connections), the weekend was spent without even booting Gromit.

Weather was wet and windy to say the least. A proper jacket helped, but it was by no means a perfect solution. The amount of broken umbrellas on the streets was testament to the force of the weather.

Missed out on Brügge on account of a “spontaneous railway strike” on saturday. Which just goes to show that there’s too much french in the badly divided country (still without a government, clocking in over six months as we speak).

Comics Museum was filled with pages from the Belgian authors, but being in french (with an occasional smattering of dutch), it was less of a time-consuming place than expected. The museum store, on the other hand, was packed to the brim with interesting albums and comics paraphernalia. Got off quite easy - the genuine Tintin statuettes might have cloven a big chunk off the wallet of an unwary visitor. The official Boutique Tintin next to the Grote Markt was interesting as well, though the selection of t-shirts was rather on the subdued side.

In addition to images of the best-known Belgian journalist, the city was packed with stores specializing in beer, chocolate and lace. The first was obviously out of reach transport-wise in the era of War on Moisture, the second attractive indeed (a chocolate fountain is just the thing for a livingroom) and the third variable enough to hold interest for more than two minutes.

Food was expectedly good. Mussels and flemish fries were actually the last meal in the city - the previous feeding times having been spent in various restaurants looking for less traditional offerings. By far the best meal was in Villette, on St. Catherine’s square. The best steak of the year (and doesn’t likely get beaten in the remaining two weeks), in sauce spiced with gueuze and local cheeses. Definitely a worthwhile place to visit, and heavily recommended to all but most steadfast vegans.

The trip out was uneventful, travelled out to the airport well in time and had a blast shopping for delicacies. The best deal of the day was a quartet of interesting beers coupled with late Michael Jackson’s guide on Belgian brews.

BBC Worldwide has bought Lonely Planet. Not the whole company, but a good 75% chunk of it.

Implications on the company that has published more than 500 guidebooks are unknown, and I certainly hope that the range of books remains as wide and eclectic as it has been. Even though I’ve succumbed to the middleclassian bug and been converted to Dorling Kindersley’s eyewitness travel guides, it’s always beneficial to have a second source for information.

And I’m certainly looking forward to this year’s annual Bluelist. guide. Even if a lot of the content is out of reach (though camel-trekking across Sahara certainly would be interesting), the well-written books are packed with data (such as that Rainbow Warrior, bombed in 1985 has been given a new purpose in the depths as an artificial reef).

Here we go again. It’s so hard to hold back the stream of links.

• M.C. Escher’s Relativity as interpreted in Lego.
• Gamasutra interviews Textfyre’s David Cornelson.
• Airport horror stories, part n: overstepping the bounds of authority.
• Why, of why there are so few comics in finnish bookstores?
  Monopoly of taste (or lack thereof).
• Beatdowns throughout history.
• How to characterize bottled water (with a selection of nifty symbols thrown in for good measure).
• The 2008 Linux Kernel Summit was not held in conjunction to the Ottawa Linux Symposium.
• Top 100 images from Hubble Space Telescope.
• Fake car sunroof. Presumably for people with fake cars.

After the +20C days in Netherlands, the taxi queue at mere +6C certainly felt cold.

Flight was uncomplicated, and Schiphol continues to be amongst the most pleasant of airports. Apart from a sudden lack of chewing gum on the premises everything went without a hitch. And at a good speed - it’s been a while since such a fast-paced yet thorough security check.

Had dinner at restaurant Elf close to the Central Station of Amsterdam.

The name refers to the floor the restaurant is located in, from the eleventh floor of one of the tallest buildings of the city the view across the harbour area and into the town proper is impressive indeed.

The view from the toilet rivals that of Torni in Helsinki. At least the male side, that is.

Visited El Hema an imaginary arabic version of the Hema store. To a neophyte the idea seemed interesting, but for locals this is a much bigger thing.

The reunion continued with a trip into the canals of the city, most of which are actually underground. Due to limited space within the city walls, the enterprising Den Boschers built their houses over the canals, creating a unique environment.

The tunnels taken by the boat were never too long, just dozens of meters a stretch at a maximum, but there were sidetunnels that disappeared into the darkness.

The city is built on swampland, and thus its symbol is a frog - but despite the lowly animal figurehead of choice the city was not a force to be trifled with, they held their own in many battles and sieges throughout the years.

Took a train to ’s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) to attend the Utah Europe Association’s annual reunion.

Train ride through the dutch countryside was nothing less than picturesque, lush green fields dotted with sheep and cows, a couple of windmills and a large freight canal running next to the track were just some of the attractions.

The reunion ran a familiar course: presentation on what’s going on at the university, running into old friends, making new friends and a big buffet dinner.

The city had a severe shortage of hotel rooms on account of ongoing festivities, largest of which was a boat festival - dozens of large boats filled some of the canals of the city. Others falling on the very same weekend: celebration of the 80th anniversary of garbage collection, women’s bicycle marathon and a car-free day on sunday.