Everglades #2

... back again after a Key Lime Pie and about 9h of sleep :-D

So, we actually found a motel near to Miami and it was nice. We ate mini-pancakes in the morning and drove back to the Everglades train. We just caught the train before it was leaving so a little bit luck was included. We saw alligators and birds and a lot of other things that live in the Everglades. The tour guide was fun.

It was about noon when we returned from the trip. Our next target was the Alligator Farm in Homestead (if you believe the lonely planet, this is the best place alligators and to go on an airboat trip).
There were a lot of alligators and crocodiles and snakes on that farm! But it was more a zoo than anything else and I guess if anybody from greenpeace would see that place they would get a heart attack...
The airboat tour on the other hand was really funny. It is so loud that you have to wear ear plugs.

Since it was not that late after this, we drove further south where we reached Key West finally. This is were we are now.
We booked a Motel room which is reeeeeally cute.Unfortunately we are not the only ones that find this Motel cute. It is the only one in Key West that is booked out for the next night. So we could only be there for one night but that was fine.

Everglades

We didn't have Wi-Fi for a few days, therefore I couldn't write.

We have been to the Everglades. It's beautiful there - and hot. We started at the West coast of Florida where Everglades City is located. We started with a boat trip through the mangroves. It was really informative and fun. And since we had a speed of about 15mph, there were no moskitos present :-D (  the magic number for moskitos is 3... as long as you move faster than 3 mph they can't follow you :-D).

After that 2h trip we drove east. Near to Miami there is a Trail that leads to an observation tower. Unfortunately this trail was already closed the time we arrived. We decided to look for a motel and try it the next morning. Well this was a challenge :-D
Usually, when you drive into a town its always the same: Gas Stations, Super markets, Motels, City, Motels, Super markets, Gas Stations, out of the city... This is a bit different in Miami (or at least the way we came from). The Gas Stations were OK, but there were no super markets or motels anywhere along this road... We searched for 2 hours! That's crazy.
We drove back and took another road south, where we actually found a motel :-) - which was even really cute.

I'm going to eat a Key Lime Pie now... I'm going to write about today later :-)

Mobile - Tallahassee - St. Petersburg

The visit of the USS Alabama took longer than expected. It was really interesting and we could see almost everything that is worth watching on such a ship. We were in there for about 2 hours! And after that, we went to see the submarine.

At noon, we started our trip to Tallahassee. We took the highway along the coast so we could see the sea. It was beautiful! We drove until 9 p.m. which was a bit longer than we expected. We booked a room in a Motel and went to sleep soon. I was quite tired from driving all day long.

This morning, we started early and took once again the road along the coast. But this time, we didn't see the coast at all :-( But at least we could drive fast :-P We drove to St. Petersburg where the Salvador Dali Museum is located and took a tour in this museum. Some of you got a e-post-card from there ;-)
After the visit, we were drove further south for another hour or so where we went to the sea again and watched the sunset.

From New Orleans to Mobile

New Orleans was fun - and hot. When I exit any door, my glasses get fogged :-D

The first evening in New Orleans we went to Bourbon Street and its neighborhood. If you ask anybody what you can do in New Orleans, everybody says: Drinking. New Orleans and Los Angeles are the only two cities in the USA where it is allowed to drink on the street. It looks all a bit like the "Ballermann" or "Reperbahn" in Germany.

On Friday we went to a Mississippi Cruser. This was a 2.5h trip where we could see the skyline of New Orleans and some really big ships and really dirty water ;-)

At the evening we went to Bourbon Street again. There is live music in almost every bar :-) this was fun.

All in all, New Orleans isn't really big (the part where you are save). If you want to drink until you die, then New Orleans is great. Otherwise, 2 to 3 days is a great time to watch the city.

We left New Orleans yesterday. We took a taxi to the car rental and rent our car. Other than expected, only one driver is allowed to drive the car - and this is me ;-) If Woody wants to drive too we have to pay 13$ / day extra.

We followed the coast through Mississippi and then arrived in Alabama. Alabama has only a small part at the coast, and the only city there is Mobile. This is where we are right now.

We go to watch the USS Alabama and a sub-marine this morning. Afterwards we drive to Florida.

But first of all, I am going to eat some Waffles!

Flight, First Night and Jet Lag

Everything that can go wrong will go wrong :-) This is how it started. Well, it didn't go that wrong after all ;-)

We went to Zurich yesterday in the morning. Since we had to check in 3 hours before our flight, we took the train at 6.32 in Berne. We bordered the plane at 11.10 a.m. and the crew said that we were ahead of our schedule and we would land about 30 minutes earlier. 2 minutes later, he said, we would start about 1 hour late because the plane didn't pass the technical check :-P - promising... 

They had to change a tire. And they did it and we started 1 hour delayed. The flight itself was ok.

It was cold but we were prepared for that. The food was not so bad. The napkin we got was cool :-P 

We landed at 3.50 p.m. in Washington. The flight to New Orleans was planned for 5.04 p.m. so we had about 1h to go through immigration, pick up our luggage, check-in our luggage for the next flight, go through another security check, search the gate and board. Well hell...

Immigration wasn't that bad. I just had to give my fingerprints of my index fingers to compare them to the database. Where the hell do they have my prints from?! Everybody told me that you have to give all your prints if you enter the USA for the first time. This wasn't the case with me. I don't complain. It didn't take so long this way.

The security check was the same we did in Zurich. We were through that at 4.50 p.m. 10 minutes to find the gate and board :-D We asked where to go, went to the given location and boarded the plane 4 minutes before deadline :-D Yeepiee!

The flight to New Orleans was short. Only 2 hours, so we landed at 6 p.m. local time. 

We took a taxi to the hotel. When we exited the airport, we first felt the heat :-D it is about 34° C, the same as at home. But the humidity is much higher. My glasses went mist up when we went out :-D

 We went to the hotel. The taxi driver was fun. The Americans are definitively masters in smalltalk.

In the evening, we went into the city to get an impression of everything. We were both a bit tired but we wanted to eat and drink something before we go to bed. 

I had my first American Burger :-D They are huge! And great ;-)

We walked back through Bourbon Street and went back to the hotel. It was only 10 p.m. but after 24 hours up we both wanted to get some sleep :-)

And this is it until now. I woke up at 4 a.m. for the first time and went back sleeping after that. The jet lag isn't that bad :-D Now we're getting ready to start our sightseeing :-)

2 nights to go

Only two nights left until our flight leaves! I'm getting more and more excited. My bag is packed, my passport ready, the camera battery is getting charged and so is the netbook. I even cleaned our apartment today :-S.

I have no idea if my luggage is too heavy since I don't have a balance. But I guess I would fall back over and struggle like a turtle if the backpack was too heavy :-P

My backpack is not even full. This means I have still space left for shopping in New York! Great!

But there are still a few things left that I have to do before I go, e.g. sending emails with information to this blog ;-) Buy sunglasses, make a copy of the passport and load it into DropBox, go to the Stauffacher and buy some flight-literature (9'31 hours until Washington and then another 2'38 hours to New Orleans).

Everybody is asking me for postcards. I suggest you all read this blog instead of waiting for some non-digital-news from me ;-) this is cheaper, faster and I can write more. And I can even upload some pictures I took on my own instead of buying some crappy, corny postcards ;-)

I really intend to write a few times a week. We will see how good this is going to work ;-) But for now, this is it...