Brussels/Frankfurt/Vilnius
April 29, 2011
Distance traveled today: 965
Total distance traveled: 8859
R.I.P. Mechanical Typewriter
The final factory in the world which was making mechanical typewriters – in Mumbai, India – has announced it’s not going to make them any more. Manual typewriters will go the way of the buggy whip, the slide rule and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
I learned to type on a monstrous, heavy, old battleaxe of a manual typewriter of my father’s. By my junior year in high school, I had figured out that touch-typing was a requirement for life as a modern adult, but I couldn’t picture spending an entire semester of school in a boring typing class. So I went to the typing teacher, introduced myself, and borrowed the typing training book from her and took it home and taught myself. One of the smartest things I’ve ever done. Of course, I didn’t get really good at typing until 1984 when I bought the very first Macintosh. Which, by the way, cost $2, 400, had no hard drive and could hardly do anything. But it was SO COOL.
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Today is my last day in beautiful Brussels! I’ve really enjoyed my time here and I am sure I could spend far more time exploring this lovely, friendly, and easy-to-navigate city.
I’ve also truly enjoyed working with the people in the Brussels office and I hope I get to cross paths with them again!
But now it’s off on the next leg of my adventure. Early this evening I fly to Vilnius, Lithania, were I will spend the weekend with my cousin John, his wife Milana and their new baby. It will be the farthest east I have ever traveled (beating Budapest) but not the farthest north (that’s still Inverness, Scotland).
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I got into Vilnius, the capital of Lithania, at about midnight. The plane was a few minutes late, and my tired cousin John met me and drove me to my hotel.
Most Northerly Places I’ve Been
- Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
- Inverness, Scotland, UK
