The flight continued through the night with little sleep attained by any of us.  We were met in Dublin by our guide and old friend Geoff Cooke.  Geoff now runs trail tours, having formerly owned and operated the luxury train that ran from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (see program 401)  .We chatted for a bit, and then all crashed for a mid afternoon nap.  I had no trouble getting three hours in.  We then headed down to downtown Dublin to get some city shots while the sun was still out.  You have to grab those shots when you can. We went top a city center that was really sort of set up for tourists, but had shopping, pubs, and loads of people.  We saw Trinity College and the Parliament House, and got some footage of the new trams.  We had the obligatory pint of Guinness at a pub, and went back to the hotel for an early rest.  I’m glad I’m not driving here, as traffic is very heavy and the roads are one way, dead end, or generally inaccessible.  Geoff’s wife Sheelagh is proving herself an excellent navigator.  Tomorrow we are up early and out to chase trains.

            I had a fairly restful night until 4AM, when a couple of drunks stumbled into the room next door.  They kept me awake for about 45 minute before they passed out.  But I had to get up at 5:30 anyway, so it wasn’t too bad/  John suggested that I should have set my alarm to go off after I left.  Next time, I’ll remember that.  As it was, I just hung a “Clean Room Immediately” sign on their door.  We arrived at Dublin’s Pearce Station around 7:30.  It required a bit of navigating, as the roads are one way, twist and turn, and seem to crop up and disappear at whim.  In fact, the entire day would prove that out, as well as the fact that the maps are all pretty useless.  The steam train arrived, along with the usual lot of rail fans.  We rode for about and hour down to Wicklow, and then got off to race and chase.  Fortunately, the sun was out, and the day was just beautiful.  I think we got some great footage of he steam loco hauling through the countryside.  The rail is extremely smooth, and so higher speeds were possible.  Sheelagh stayed on the train and would text message us with periodic updates of locations.  That really helped a lot, in our shot planning.  This having a scout and driver is an immense help.  The land is hillier than I thought (especially around the coast) and, as the gorse was blooming, and there is a lot of yellow in the green hills.  We stumbled our way across south western Ireland, and eventually ended up in Waterford, hometo Waterford Crystal.  Unfortunately, we were too late for a tour, but perhaps we will be I time tomorrow.  With no road signs, and only vague directions, it took a while to find the place, even though it is right in town.  My impressions of the day were very clean and prosperous looking houses, all throughout the countryside.  Geoff said that he thinks that there is a tax incentive to keep your place up.  If that is indeed the case, it is working wonderfully.  We had difficulty finding a place for dinner, as virtually everything in the city center was closed.  We ended up in a pizza place, which was good, and not as expensive as a restaurant.  With the strength of the Euro, things are pricey here. 

We flew to London.  We waited.  We waited.  We waited.  We got on the plane.  We waited.  We flew to Hamburg.  We hooked up with our friends, Wolfgang and Andreas.  We went to the hotel.  E had dinner.  We went to bed.  And that’s about it.  Admittedly, we did stop in at Miniatur Wunderland for a preview.  So that was the high point.  The model railroad (model eisenbahn) is pretty amazing, and I’ll detail more on it tomorrow.  We did discover that we have to modify the schedule to only have two days here in Hamburg.  And I had to rent a car that we will take to Poland.  Transportation is complex, but has been worked out by our friends.  Actually, this will work out fine, as I’d rather have the extra day in Rügen due to weather.  Baltic Sea weather can be very changeable. 

It was a short night.  We are far enough north that it is really pretty light at 4 AM.  Which was rather disconcerting.  But I managed and found myself at one of my favorite things in Germany – breakfast;  yogurt, cheese, cold meats, breads, cereals – all pretty much high in fat, but oh, so good.  The weather looked pretty good, so we headed down to the waterfront to get some shots of Hamburg.  The city is a major northern harbor, and one nifty thing was a harbor tunnel.  Built in the 19^th century (?), it has a dual, under harbor tube, which is connected via elevators at both ends.  You drive your car up, it goes down in the lift, and you then drive across under the water.  On the other end, an elevator takes you back to the surface.  We popped off some material around the waterfront, and then around Noon, went to Miniatur Wunderland.  This model railroad is open to the public, and attracts over half a million visitors each year.  And it is easy to see why.  The operation occupies a portion of the third floor of a restored warehouse in the dock district.  It occupies about twenty thousand square feet, and operated about five hundred trains.  There are fifty thousand trees, ten thousand vehicles, and just under a hundred thousand figures.  It is markedly lifelike.  Adding to the illusion, are the model cars and trucks on the roadways.  They move, their headlights come on as the scenes turn to night, the trucks turn off and onto motorways, and directional signals operate.  Accidents happen, police cars show up and block the roads, and emergency vehicles arrive and depart.  The lights on amusement parks turnon and flash, houses light up, and turn off.  The cars all have implanted microprocessors, and if one goes to fast, it will be stopped by the police.  Fires appear to burn, welding torches spark, and the visitor can activate various special scenes.  The day/night cycle is repeated every fifteen minutes, and as night deepens, the traffic slows, commuter trains shut down in their yards, and things go to sleep.  As dawn breaks, activities ramp up, and a daily routine goes on.  The operation is all controlled by computers and two operators.  They have some standard programs, but can simulate the environment at their desire.  There are parades, and a soccer stadium that is filled, complete with JumboTron and television lights.  There are several areas.  There is the Swiss Alps, fictional town, Hamburg, and a display devoted to America, complete with interstate and Las Vegas.  Freddie Braun and his brother are the masters behind this display.  They started out with dance clubs and are still in the music business, but wanted to do something more.  One day when Freddie was walking in the woods in Switzerland, he had the idea to create this display.  And the rest, they say, is history.  Now approximately a hundred and fifty thousand man hours later, it is an amazing attraction.  And it’s getting larger.  A display is planned of the Scandinavian countries, complete with a twenty five thousand liter water tank that will simulate tidal action.  And it will have a series of controlled ships which will lock into bodies of water of differing levels.  The vehicle control is rather interesting.  There is a metal wire buried in the road as a guide wire, and magnetic reed switches evenly spaced along the road.  An induction magnet in the vehicle follows the wire, unless the computer control activates an intercepting wire, in which case the vehicle goes in that direction.  Evenly spaced reed switches are tripped by the magnet in the vehicle, and serve to start, stop, and turn on/off the lights and turn indicators.  If the computer sense that the vehicle as running to slow, as evidenced by an increase in time between reed switches, it will send the vehicle to the battery charging station.  Eventually the system may be replaced with an interior version of a GPS system, using subsonic acoustical waves from ceiling transmitters, and vehicle receivers.  We finally burned out about 10 PM, and walked over to the oldest surviving continuous use restaurant in Hamburg.  And then we went to bed.  It was a long day.

I managed to sleep until 10 or so, and then discovered that we were all up.  To kill the morning, we went to Rendsburg, which was just west of Kiel, on the North Sea Canal.  The canal was built in the late 19^th century to allow the Kaiser to get his naval vessels from the North Sea to the Baltic, without having to come close to Denmark, and British interference.  The deal was that the any connections which were broken – highways, rail lines, etc. – had to be reconnected once the canal was completed.  The town of Rendsburg was right on the edge of the canal, and the canal company had to build a very high bridge over the canal.  They wanted to move the train station to the end of the bridge approach, but the town made them build a spiral approach to connect with the existing railway station.  Another tourist attraction, is a “flying ferry” that will haul cars across the canal.  It is suspended by cables from the base of the bridge, and runs on an overhead track, also supported by the bridge.  It operates like a ship, with the same rules, but never touches the water!.  And then it was back to Miniatur Wunderland and founder Frederik Braun.  He and his brother Gerrit are the forces behind the layout, and they have really accomplished an amazing job.  There are small vignettes everywhere you look, complete with seasonal, interchangeable modules.  The electronics are fantastic, and the overall effect is something that has to be seen to be believed.  We worked late getting the needed material, and finally finished about midnight.  Andreas, the cameraman from RioGrande Video, was indispensable in helping with lighting and setup.  He had also brought along a dolly, with about 18 meters of track, and of course, we just had to use it.  But all good things must come to an end.  So while Gail slept and tried to fight off her cold, the three of use went for a short walk to the Reepersbahn, a very famous Hamburg area.  And after I felt that I could add this of my “places I don’t need to visit again” we headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

Today we bid an Auf Wiedersehn to the Hamburger Wald B&B where we had been staying.  It was a nice place, in a small shopping area in Ahrensburg.  And down the road we went, this time to Rügen Island.  We traveled the autobahn (yes, there are speed limits, but not always, and generally common sense prevails).  You must understand that a concept foreign to most Americans – the left lane is for high speed traffic, and you MUST watch your rear view mirror ALL the time.  Left lane huggers, watch out, because cars running 220 kph can easily run up behind you.  Along the way we passed a great number of wind generators and field of Reep Seed, all in a brilliant yellow.  And before I forget it, I must mention the Smart Car.  This is a little two seat car, developed for urban driving by Mercedes Benz.  It is about the size of a golf cart, but very cute, and designed for urban use.  I’m not sure if it is still in production, as the cost was rather high, compared to similar vehicles, but it is a good idea.  Incidentally, our car is a Ford Escort MPV, with a high turning diesel, that has a lot of pep, and easily dispels the slow and sluggish feeling of a diesel.  We get excellent mileage, and have plenty of get up and go.  But enough on cars.  Rügen Island is an island in the Baltic Sea, and has been a tourist destination since the turn of the 20^th century.  And appropriately enough, there is a railroad here.  We obtained some shots of a special train, which had Deutsche Reichsbahn (former East German) coaches and cars, and then did a short standup with the owner of the line.  Then it was off to dinner at a local restaurant and internet café (the hotel wanted  five Euros per fifteen minutes) and then notes and bed.  It’s Friday night in Bergen, in the former province of Saxony, and the young people are out in force.

As I was up until 1 AM yesterday, I was a little foggy this morning.  We started out in the town of Putbus, which was originally a summer resort for the Prussian kings during the 19^th century.  The Rügenish Kleinbahn, started in 1895 and completed around 1905, is typical of the 750mm narrow gauge lines in northern Germany and Pomerania.  The town of Putbus is noted for it’s restorative air and climate.  The railroad was built for tourism on the island in the 1880’s resorts and was originally called the Bäderbahn, which is short for resort railroad.  One of the resorts it served along the Baltic Sea is Binz, which is sometimes called the White City on the Baltic, for the white hotels and resorts that line a promenade on both sides of the town.  The area fell into disrepair during East German times, but has since been restored in the style of the early 20^th century.  The 20 mile rail operation still offers mixed service and regular service today.  There are some private locomotives that were built for the Russian front and ended up here, and a roster of 2-8-0 Henschel locos from the 1930’s.  It was interesting that I have had most of these as LGB models, and didn’t realize where they were from.  We had some weather difficulties, as the climate is very changeable, with sun one minute, and rain the next.  But we pressed on, and completed quite a bit, even though there were some very intense rail fans here.  A note of interest to me was that we were the only westerners around.  This is apparently an undiscovered area, and familiar only to the Germans.  It was quite lovely, with the rural areas and seaside resorts.   Some of the roads are still cobbled, in the style of the 1930’s.  This adds to the charm and serves to slow down the traffic.  Additionally, much of the island is a nature preserve, with lots of walking and bicycle paths.  It is worth a trip and quite relaxing to stay here.  The roads are narrow, and closely lines with trees, just as they were at the turn of the 20^th century.  Of course, the cars are smaller, but then do Americans really need the giant SUVs?  If fuel went to the levels here of about US$6/gallon, things might change.  There are some really great vehicles here with tons of style and performance.  But nothing like the behemoths most American drive.  But I’ll get off my soap box.  We could have a Trabant, the old East German car which was made of resin soaked paper!  It had 26 horsepower, and seated four.  But you had to find your spare parts and carry them in the trunk if you were to make a trip.  We finished late today, and went back to the same restaurant as last night.  And we spent our time discussing the problems of the world.  We should finish this tomorrow, as long as the weather holds out.

I’m still not getting enough sleep.  I was up until Midnight again doing notes and this web thing, which I wonder if any one reads.  It rained last night, complete with thunder and lightening.  It was still drizzling this morning, so we went out to the two kilometers of ruins along the east coast.  These buildings were built by the Nazis in 1940, and were designed as vacation escapes for the German people.  The slogan, was Power through Fun, and these complexes were – along with the Volkswagen, several cruise ships, - designed to after fun experiences to the common man.  The complex was never completed, and while the Russians tried to destroy it after 1945, it is still standing.  After that we went out to the railroad anyway, figuring we could at least shoot the cab ride and some point of view from the train.  As the day wore on, the weather got better, and we finished with the railroad.  Of some interest was the addition of a diesel loco, which is rather unusual.  It was two engines, which are hydraulically coupled.  It is apparently rather difficult to drive, and the engagement of the coupling between the two motors takes some practice.  So while I got a cab ride, I didn’t even attempt to operate it.  We shot some material at a hunting lodge called the Jageschloss.  This was built by the Earl of Putbus in cooperation with a Prussian king.  Like most buildings in East Germany, it fell into some disrepair, but has since the reunification, has been restored.  Then the sun came out.  We went along the east coast to see the limestone cliffs, and then up to the northern tip of the island to view an old fishing village named Vitt.  This is just below the Cap Arkona lighthouse, and is an authentic village, with 13 houses and 22 inhabitants.  Think preservation area.  The people depend on tourists and fishing, and the houses are all thatched roof dwelling.  And from that point, it was 7 PM, still light, and we are finished with this segment.  I am still intrigued with the SMARTT car, and while I have seen a half a dozen roadsters, which was cute but not in production any longer, the basic two seat model is rather intriguing.  We will leave for Poland tomorrow, instead of Tuesday.

This was our first full day in Poland.  I have not been here before, so this is a new experience.  The weather started out a bit dreary, but it was great for steam.  Some of the shots were just gorgeous.  There are two trains running here – a 2-10-2 Mikado type, and a 2-6-2.  This is the only place left in the entire country which has a regularly schedule steam headed service, and people come from all over the world to see it.  In fact, the revenue generated by people seeking cab rides, round house tours, etc. helps to pay for the additional cost of the steam trains.  The operation here in Wolsztyn also has a hotel, so that if you book a week of cab rides, you can stay on the property.  It is heaven for steam railroad fans.  We chased the train to Posnan, which is the third largest city in the country.  The town was a mix of old and new, with light rail, new construction, old buildings, and remnants of what appeared to be the Soviet occupation.  The it was back to the roundhouse and an interview with the assistant manager of the steam operations.  Then off to Lesvno, and an attempt to stay with the train on the return route.  We were unsuccessful due to the traffic, so we’ll try a couple of shots tomorrow.  We had dinner in town, and turned in after a pretty productive day.  What are my impressions of Poland?   The small towns are exactly like the old pictures I’ve seen of the rural areas.  The houses are close to the road, the streets cobblestone, and you see a mix of horse drawn and powered equipment. The people are friendly and show evidence of lots of bike riding and walking.  The land is flat and mainly agricultural in this region.  For the rest of the country, I can’t say.  But it’s a place that you should check out if you come to Europe.  You won’t be disappointed.  Wolfgang speaks some Polish, so that has been a huge help.  That, coupled with Andreas’s knowledge of Russian and some Polish, has made our lives a lot easier. Of special note are the Polish Fiat autos, which were made under license.  They are small, but still running.

Today we had minor successes and minor failures, so I guess you could call it a balanced day.  On the plus side, we had beautiful sunlight.  For the rest, we had some negatives.  Initially, we thought we would have great luck in getting a short cab ride with the British guy from last night.  One engineer said yes, but the other said no.  So that was out.  Plus, I saw a bit of a different angle, as one of the British drivers was a woman.  First we stopped at a town called Rakoniewice, which had an authentic station from the turn of the 1900’s.  The place was complete, with outbuildings, the clock, and the levers to throw the cable driven signals and switches.  We continued to chase the Posnan train, and  obtained a pretty good low angle shot of the thing crossing a stone viaduct.  And them we went on into Posnan to see if we could find the engine at the Posnan roundhouse, see if we could get a short sound bite with the woman, and then attempt the cab ride again.  However, we got thoroughly lost, and never saw the engine after it left the station.  So we went back to Wolsztyn.  The town is decorated for a festival tomorrow, so we shot some of that Centrum and town market.  And then it was out into the boonies to catch a Mikado returning from Posnan, and the other train coming in from Lesvno.  This was at a place called Tloki, which featured the original old German station and outbuildings.  It was really out in the middle of a field, and just a small station stop.  And when the train arrived, there were people getting on and off.  It was really a relaxing area.  And that was it for the day.  Wolfgang has some minor difficulties with the general manager at the roundhouse, but that sorted itself out, and we are back at the hotel.  It appears that we do have a cab ride set for tomorrow afternoon for a couple of stations.  I hope that the British guy is on board.  The day saw more Polish Fiats and Trabants, mixed with S class Mercedes and even a Chrysler Voyager (which is pretty large over here).  The residents were all out and about, there were colorful baskets hanging in the towns, and generally, it was a lovely day.  Later.  We had dinner at a pizza joint with outdoor seating next to a playground.  It sounds horrible – like Chuck E Cheese (aka Hell on Earth) – but actually rather fun.  The children are all rather quiet, and while they run around like normal little kids, are actually well behaved about it.  It wasn’t like the States, where parents let their kids scream a lot.   Everything was quite enjoyable.  As we walked back to the hotel, it was really a great experience just being here – the atmosphere, the town and the evening combined to make this a memorable experience.

We left Wolsztyn this morning and started our drive down to Romania.  We dropped down in southern Poland, across the plains, and then into a very short – only about 20 km – mountain region between Poland the Slovakian Republic.  I hate to say it, the Slovak Republic between Poland and Hungary looks a little tired.  Apparently they are not doing as well as the Czech Republic, and it shows.  We tried to find a hotel room, but apart from one place that really looked pretty neat – walled town, with a castle on the hillside, there was literally not a single hotel to be found.  Well, we did find one place called the Presidents Hotel in some town, but the broken windows and guys aimlessly hanging around in the parking lot sort of said, “move on.”  And we did, until the Hotel Hunor, right across the border in Hungary.  So here we are for the night.  Just us, and about a billion mosquitoes.

We headed for the border between Hungary and Romania this morning.  We had to take a lot of back roads to detour around The Ukraine, and at one point ended up crossing a major river on a paddle wheel ferry.  The boat engine looked like it was new in WW2, but we did make it across.  We had heard tales of long, long waits to get through customs, as Romania is not yet a member of the European Union.  However, we sailed through with little difficulty.  And just when things were looking up, we stopped in Sata Mare to get currency, and my ATM card wouldn’t work.  I called home to see if I could get some explanation, but latter discovered that all US Master Card transactions in Romania have been suspended because of so much fraud from the region.  And unfortunately, my ATM, while a member of Maestro, Plus, etc, is still a US MasterCard.  So I’m destitute, and living on the munificence of the crew.  Euro MasterCards work, but no US.  So we headed on the Viseu del Sur, over some really bad roads.  A two hour trip turned until five, and I think that there were long range trucks lost in the holes in the roads.  We met a lot of horse cart traffic, and frankly, the villages were pretty humble.  It was very picturesque, but it was pretty primitive as well.  But there was electricity, and satellite dishes abound.  But visuals of old women dressed in black carrying bundles of sticks, hand scythed fields, and vertical hay racks will stick in my mind.  We arrived at our private rooms in Viseu, only to find that while we all did indeed have separate rooms, we had to share the one bathroom with – the family.  We opted for the town hotel, which isn’t even really a one star.  It does seem to be adequate, and since I only have to live here for three nights, it will do.  We stopped in at the railroad, and discovered a wedding in progress.  There was a small three piece band, and the group walked from the railroad, into town.  It was amazing how the women could walk in high heels on the cobblestones.  The weather has been hot upper 20-s low 30s.  I hope it is a little cooler when we get into the mountains on the logging line.

We hit the logging engine yard fairly early this morning and met with our two contacts.  Michael Schneeberger runs EcoTours, and owns one of the steam engines.  He is a Swiss national who fell in love with the area while hiking and decided to stay here.  The lumber company is R.G Holz, and Swiss company and the rep was Leopold Langtaler.  Leo and Michael work together to bring in tourists and preserve the railroad.  We did both those interviews, and then hopped on a train I had rented for the day.  I had been advised to do this, and trying to follow the working trains was time consuming and difficult.  I heard later today that one of the German networks tried to just work with the actual trains and it took them two weeks of shooting to catch all the points.  We could stop, do run bys, and had the line to ourselves.  There are three generations of engines represented here.  The one owned by Schneeberger is only driven by a now retired and rehired engineer.  And it shows, as it is polished and shined.  So we went up the valley about halfway to the end of the line, which was in itself a four hour trip.  Along the way we left civilization and really got into the middle of nowhere.  But it was a cast of thousands on my train.  And the car had a door at one end, two non-opening windows, and wooden side benches.  It was pretty rough.  The people “along for the ride” were railway workers, friends of friend, people going up and down the valley.  Apparently this is what happens with a special train and there was no way to stop it.  When we needed water, we just stopped and got it from springs or the river.  And the front end of the passenger car was filled with wood for fuel.  We pulled a string of empty log cars, and the tail end car was just a platform on two axles.  As the couplers are all link & pin, the slack was tremendous, the riding that car was an experience.  We stopped in Cozia, to find an spry 80 year old man milking a cow.  We got as far as the three tunnels and then started back, with the engine tail first in front of the passenger car.  It is better to back down with the load behind you.  But it was a miserable ride, as all the engine smoke came right into the car.  Some people went to the tail car, which was cut loose and then they rode it free down the valley, which can be exciting and pretty dangerous.  And we arrived back, with four loaded car, around 7 PM.  We all dead tired, and smell of smoke.  The locals don’t seem to note this, as they smoke cigarettes all the time.  So back to my room with a first stop to kill the half dozen or so resident flies.  Dinner was at the same restaurant as last night, as we are all too tired to go anywhere else.  The German speaking waitress was nice and was cute.  We learned that up the branch line several years ago, they had a mine accident, and a lot of mercury was released into the river.  It was contained, but I’m still drinking bottled water.  The area used to be about half Jewish and half German, and there were a lot of little towns up the valley.  When the Communists came to power, the little villages were wiped out and people resettled in Viseu.  Our train engineer was one such person.  We are tired.  An early day tomorrow.

We were up bright and early this morning.  We arrived at the engine sheds by about 6:30.  It was slow for about a half hour, and then people started showing up.  And it was pretty much mass confusion to the naked eye.  Whistles were constantly blowing, steam engines and the diesels were fired up and moved, cars were shifted, and it was generally pretty chaotic.  We were told that there was supposed to be one train out sometime between eight and nine.  It would take the workers up to the logging camps at the end of the line, where they would stay for a week.  It was supposed to be pretty picturesque, with people jumping on all along the line, people handing up meals and provisions, and the like.  The departure time was, “when ever they get ready.”  So we seemed to miss one train, which turned out to be construction workers.  Then the next train was the appropriate train, so John and Gail rode up with a bunch of guys, many of whom were still drunk from the weekend.  The cattle arrived after the train departed, so no cattle cars.  Wolfgang and I rode up to the first major stop of Cozia in a dryzina, where John and Gail were supposed to get off.  This vehicle, of which the railroad has a whole bunch of different types, is just a car body on narrow gauge trucks.  It isn’t a highrailer, as there are no tires.  It is your personal railcar.  And it was just as rough as the train yesterday.  The track is in really rough shape, but if you wanted to see how logging operations are done, then this is the place.  Because it really is rough and tumble railroading.  On the way back, we got sidetracked to wait for another train.  We heard that it was a diesel, and since we were focusing on the steam portion, just blew it off.  Big mistake, as this train was also filled with workers, several of whom had their lunches handed to them from trackside right where we were.  Plus the two cattle cars were on the train.  Damn!  We are all tired and dirty, and just missed the opportunity.  We then focused on the mill operation, and watched them cut logs into thick planks, sometimes using four or five reciprocating saws at one pass.  We needed some town shots, so we went to the old cemetery above the town, and got an overview, and then went back to Centrum and put the “scenic tourist filter” in the camera and tried to make things look good.  Hey.  This is a rough town, with lumber as the only major industry.  The roads are bad, the modern mixes with the new, and except for satellite dishes and cell phones, you would think third world.  But it is on the rise, and due to enter the EU in 2007.  But first, they have to stabilize the currency.  Next month they will drop three zeros from the currency, and the bootleg CD we bought today will be 120 lei instead of 120,000.  And it will still be about three euro.  So this piece is about wrapped up.  We may still try for a dryzina preceding shot tomorrow, and John wants a horse and cart on the main street.  Dinner is in the old German section, and a hitherto undiscovered German pension.  At least the hotel made up my bed today.  It turns out that there was only one key to the room, and I had it.

I woke up with another damned rooster trumpeting his evening’s activities.  For a large city, Cluj Napoca certainly is quiet.  We buzzed out of town across gently rolling plains, to the town of Turda, which is about 15 kilometers to the west of Cluj.  And all of a sudden, we were into the Carpathian Mountains, moving up a river valley to the town of Campeni.  The valleys are steep, with small villages and what appear to be varying lifestyles.  You see a mix out outhouses and satellite dishes.  Most farm work is still being done by hand.  Some houses appeared prosperous, others shabby.  And all along the road was a narrow gauge rail line, now really over grown in some areas.  The line ran between Turda and the mining town of Abrud, a distance of about 98 kilometers.  It was in operation until the 1980s, when the road was built, and was finally closed in 1997.  A local factory owner had an interest in narrow gauge railways, and even though the line was still owned by the Romanian government, came to the area with his restored 0-8-0 tank loco and a couple of cars, and started to restore the last 12 kilometers between Abrud and Campeni.  While this isn’t the most scenic part of the line, it was a constant stretch that didn’t cross the highway.  Now, he is trying to keep the government from removing the line.  He believes that the preserved line will be a major tourist attraction once Romania enters the EU in 2007.  He faces some big obstacles, one of which is the apathy of the towns who don’t have the foresight to see the treasure they currently hold.  And the second is the gypsies.  I’ve been around a bit, and have seen some things that I haven’t reported in this web narrative, but this was incredible.  The gypsies steal everything they can carry away.  Within the last week, they stole all the tie plates and spikes from the line for three kilometers.  The only reason they didn’t take the rail, is because of the weight.  The line passes through a gypsy village, and it was quite and event.  It was just like tapes I have seen of India, with people grabbing onto the moving train, trying to get into everything, and taking everything that wasn’t nailed down.  John and Gail were on the dryzina, and the platform was literally picked clean by kids and adults.  Fortunately, they were high enough and aware enough to keep their stuff, but anything else was just – gone.  The dryzina was of interest.  It’s an old Russian Volga, fitted with trucks.  As Andeas would say, “not a high railer but a high heeler.”  This car was the governmental car for mid-level bureaucrats.  We had some difficulties, with a jammed tape, but it cleared, and we got a sound bite with the assistant major of Abrud.  And an accomplished politician he was, as he gave a sound bite that said nothing definitive.  We finished and went on our way, back to Cluj.  First, we said goodbye to Andreas, who was driving back to Berlin.  He was closer at this point than returning to Cluj.  Once there, our driver departed for his hometown in southern Romania.  We are finished.  We shot the last tape, and celebrated a victory dinner at the Restaurant Ernesto.  Wolfgang knew of the place, and the food was fantastic.  It was a two and a half million lei meal, which is about $92 for four.  It was a perfect end to the trip.  As the evening bells tolled midnight, I looked out over the city of Cluj.  It has been a wonderful experience, and it has been a great deal of fun to work and travel with Andreas and Wolfgang.  There were no problems, the weather was great, and we all have the camaraderie that comes from having endured good times and bad.  Initially, I didn’t really want to come on this trip, but now would not have missed the adventure.

This morning we all met for a coffee at the Café Mozart, a coffee shop off the central area.  It was a recreation of a Viennese coffee shop, and a very relaxing break from walking the town.  Cluj is crowded but quiet, without the boom cars (well, a couple) and horn honking that is some prevalent is many cities.  It still shows it Austrian roots (it was originally Klausenburg) in architecture and style.  There were plenty of people about and the shops were doing a brisk business.  It is time for reflections of the trip.  When people ask me what I remember most, it will be the following:  One remembrance is how expensive Ireland was.  I was not prepared for that, nor was I prepared for the poor maps and narrow, unmarked roads.  On the other hand, it was pretty, but it certainly wasn’t a cheap date.  Germany was of course, fun for me.  I enjoy traveling there, and the Miniatur Wunderland operation and staff were fantastic.  Poland was fun, even though I really couldn’t figure out the language.  But the tons were quaint and charming, and girl watching was pretty fantastic.  But the biggest surprise was Romania.  I guess I didn’t really know what to expect, but it a beautiful place.  It was a place of contrasts – a smoky boxcar, and an elegant coffee shop.  I predict a booming tourist business here.  Romania has the reputation as being somewhat dangerous, but I found no problems.  Everyone friendly, and other than the gypsies wanting to take everything that wasn’t nailed down, I felt no danger or anything that might be construed as threatening.  Wolfgang has left for his plane to Frankfort.  It is time to go home.  I’ve confirmed our flights.  Tomorrow at this time (at least on the clock) we should be back in Milwaukee.