I can report that, without question, Fiat produces the ugliest cars in Europe right now. Renault produces *strange* looking cars, but Fiats are just poorly done.

We made the mistake of heading the wrong way out of town this morning, and then trying to wind our way back around to the highway. No dice. We ended up spending an hour and a half, returning more or less to where we started, and then finally onto the M3 going east towards Romania. Lesson learned: consult the map before setting off. Ahem.

Right now we’re making 180kph towards Debrecen, making up a bit for lost time. We’ll see how long the good road holds out; this may be our last piece of “autopalya” for quite a while.
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I think I just figured out what happened to Pearl Jam. After their career fell flat in the US, they realized that since the Italians love cheesy pop rock, their best strategy was simply to learn Italian and attempt to become the next Zucchero. Unfortunately for us the void they had occupied was quickly filled by whatshisname, Dan Robinson? Right, Dave Matthews. And what a void it is. I can’t wait for him to learn Italian too. Please.

We had been headed east from Munich thru Linz towards Budapest, with the intention of stopping at ARS Electronica on the way, but instead detoured south to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Wow. Beautiful small city, beautiful country. Try Hotel Emotec, ask for a room in the new wing. Restaurant Sokol served up an amazing Slovenian feast, complete with local “Teran” red wine. Very classy. Yesterday we drove around the countryside a bit, found a nice swimming hole, drove down some “Class 5″ one-lane dirt paths through the forest, and then back over the mountain to the city. All in all, Slovenia seems like a real hidden gem. Definitely worth a visit, and going back to.

This morning we drove SSE to Zagreb. So far not anywhere near as impressive… We might stay here this evening, or just move on to Budapest… I’m still trying to settle into this trip. I’m finding that I’ve got a bit of travel anxiety this time around, and also that my mental picture of the East is not pretty. In my head it’s literally scorched earth, dust, no green in sight. So far the reality is proving otherwise, although of course we haven’t really gotten that far yet.

Whatever you do, don´t try to use a French map to traverse Germany. I suppose that goes without saying. We left Strasbourg yesterday morning and stopped for lunch in Freiburg. Lovely town, although their sandwiches left a bit to be desired. Drove east from there through the Black Forest, thinking that we could cut across more or less directly to Munich. No chance. Great views, but it was very slow going, and near Lindau the road came to a complete halt. We spotted a sort of German Best Buy/Home Depot thing and stopped for a new iPod FM transmitter and a beer. I took a photo of fish in the pseudo-upscale “La Scala” Italian restaurant built into the big box, next to the entrance to the electronics store. Very strange. We got back on the Autobahn at about 7pm and after a few more detours finally made it to Munich about 10pm.

Today we burn the French map and replace it with a better one. Loren wants to stop at some monastery for beer and pork shoulder. I want to go to Linz to see the Museum of the Future. Good news: it turns out the Peugeot rental thing _does_ allow us to go to Odessa! At least, I think that´s good news.

When I booked my flight to Europe a couple of months ago, the only award tickets available were in first class. Fair enough, I thougt, it’s a free ticket, and I’ve never flown in the front of the plane.

Now that I’ve seen what’s on offer, I have to say you’d be crazy to pay for first class, at least on united. the service was fair at best, and no different from transcontinental business class. Food was the same as well - not bad, but nothing special. I have to believe that First on a European or Asian carrier would have been notably different. One amenity that I did appreciate to the fullest was the lie-flat bed - I slept 7 hours or so and woke up in frankfurt feeling not half bad.

A couple of *very* close train connections and now I’m on the TGV, almost to strasbourg!