Austin Ziegler

München is an absolutely gorgeous city, and I got to meet a really nice Rubyist there, Urban Hafner. Well worth the visit.

…but not a very pretty town. We spent two and a half days there, walking along the (former) Fan Mile to the Brandenburg Gate, wandering around, seeing the Jewish Museum and of course Checkpoint Charlie (with its amazing but overwhelming museum) and the Berlin Zoo. (We also saw the inside of an absolute dive where we saw The Who playing.) The transit system was absolutely amazing, though, and quite reasonable: a group transit pass (up to five adults) for just 14€. I’m not yet sure whether I’d go back or not.

Going in October with my parents and my lady. Looking forward to it. Anyone have any suggestions as to the places to visit in Montréal specifically?

It’s a good museum, but not nearly as good as others. I think that I’d go to the d’Orsay again first.

Yes, tickets are free, and it costs money to get them on-line. You want to go in at 10:00 or as close as possible. Get them on-line. Spend the whole day. It will take you that long just to get through the main exhibits.

It’s a very draining, but worthwhile, trip.

An almost perfect destination. We stayed at Playa Coco and would not recommend that as a resort (because of management issues), but the beaches and the people were wonderful. Tryp Cayo Coco or El Senador would probably be better choices, but Cayo Coco is definitely worth a visit in Cuba.

Having been to places like the Biltmore Estate (outside of Asheville, North Carolina), Casa Loma was quite the disappointment. However, the tale of the gentleman who built Casa Loma, and the audacity it represented is very interesting. The inside of Casa Loma is a disappointment, but the gardens are anything but disappointing. Parking is difficult, but it’s still a nice tour.

I visited Toronto for the first time. I loved it so much that I ultimately immigrated. (There were other reasons, but I had to like Toronto before moving here.)

There’s plenty of places to visit here in Toronto, and most of them are worth seeing.

Hamilton is a second-class city in Canada; it’s clean (like most Canadian cities), and it’s a solidly working-class city with some nice things that have been brought through political patronage.

If you’re a fan of Canadian football (I’m not), the Hamilton Tiger-Cats play here. Other than this, and the fact that we have people that we know who live in Hamilton, I don’t think I would have ever gone to Hamilton.

Or to inflict it on unsuspecting folks who have never been.

1. It is a decent stopping distance between the last remotely civilized place in South Carolina and the next remotely civilized place in North Carolina.
2. It’s so tacky, people will see it two states away.

The historical significance is its sales of cigarettes. If I recall correctly, at one point the price of cigarettes was much lower in South Carolina than in North Carolina. That’s when it was first created. It’s grown since then.