First Week in Europe
As most know I am in Europe with youngest son. I flew out last Friday to Denver and spent the day with my number two son playing golf and just hanging out. On Saturday I drove up to the Denver airport to fly non-stop to Frankfurt on United.
I was a little bummed out that it was a Dreamliner 787 instead of a 777 since business class is in a 2 2 2 arrangement on the seats instead of the 1 2 1 on the updated Polaris class. But it was still business class and nice to have a lie flat bet. It was only a 9 hour flight so I read one book and watched three movies.
I had a few hours of layover before catching the train to Prague. The Frankfurt airport is not tiny. There are at least six hotels tied into the airport and it always fun to see all of the 747s and 380s lined up at the gates.
Finally I was on the train to Prague. It took 9 hours to get there with a two hour layover in Dresden. The trains in Europe are awesome. Even 2nd class is still better than most First class on US airlines.
Prague is a very interesting city with lots of history. The people are of Slav descent so their language is more Russian than German. The first day we walked the city and I know I got my 10,000 steps in. The second day we took a tour of the Pilsner beer factory in Pilson. It is currently owned by a Japanese company and has been really modernized in the last 10 years. They use a triple malt process in making the beer.
We then headed off to Salzburg for just an overnight stay then finally to Vienna the next day for two nights. Vienna was the main capital of the Holy Roman Empire for many centuries and it shows. Many museums and other interesting buildings but the main thing I noticed was how many people were eating outside. The main shopping street (think Rodeo Drive) easily had over 1,000 people eating outside. Several streets have no cars allowed.
That is my recap of the first six days of the trip. We headed to Budapest and then off to Paris and Basel and then I will head home. My son will hang out for a couple more months before he heads home for his brothers wedding in July (oh to be young and not married).
Many of you have probably taken taxi rides in the US that might have scared you a little. They have nothing on European cab drivers. There appears to be no speed limit for them and they like to see how close they can get to hitting another car, bus or person. I also think I picked up some swear words in German during the ride.
I apologize if this post has some grammar errors. I am writing it on an Ipad and it is a little clunky.
The best part for me is that I have already read six books on the trip so far. Jet lag seems to only allow me about five hours of sleep so plenty of time for reading.
Paul Neiffer is a certified public accountant and business advisor specializing in income taxation, accounting services, and succession planning for farmers and agribusiness processors. Paul is a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen in Walla Walla, Washington, as well as a regular speaker at national conferences and contributor at agweb.com. Raised on a farm in central Washington, he has been immersed in the ag industry his entire life, including the last 30 years professionally. Paul and his wife purchase an 180 acre ranch in 2016 and enjoy keeping it full of animals.
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