European Vacation

Ethel and I just got back from vacation in Austria (and unexpectedly Germany - more on that later). All in all, it was pretty good - by definition vacation is, and spending it with Ethel makes it that much more enjoyable.

For those that don't follow soccer, this year the Euro2008 Soccer championship was held in Austria and Switzerland. I'm not the world's biggest soccer fan, but I do enjoy watching the games. The Europeans thought - they're totally into it. In fact, they're so into it, you might even call them Euro-pee'ins based on what I saw in one restaurant bathroom:

It's a pity there is no scorekeeping though the electronics to make it work would probably be a problem. After a liter of Gösser, I was ready for a few penalty kicks.. A goalie would be nice too.

The other thing I noticed - after the Josef Fritzl thing a few months back, they're taking child welfare much more seriously. I saw several signs like this when we were out and about:


I think this is their equivalent of the Amber Alert; I can easily imagine the little girl pictured shouting "you are not my daddy!"