West Palm Beach

5.8.-12.8.2013

One week's "holiday" in West Palm Beach, Florida

Dramatic skies welcomed our arrival on the "sunshine holiday."

Trotz täglich angekündigter Gewitter und auch "drohender" Wolkengebirge haben wir kaum Regen gehabt.

The hotel was nice, simple and quiet, situated miles from anywhere

Blick aus unserem Zimmer 

 

At least we had a swimming pool, since West Palm "Beach" does not have a beach, only a seafront with a high concrete wall.
West Palm Beach hat keinen Badestrand (der ist in Palm Beach- parken teuer, keine Strandlokale, keine öffentlichen Duschen) so haben wir nur unseren Hotelpool benutzt.

 

 Outside breakfast area
Frühstücksbereich

 

 ...even the palm trees are switched on and off (look closely to see the plug!)

Energieverschwender USA - selbst die Palmen haben Stromanschluß 

 

 

Our room was spartanly furnished, but large and sunny

unser Zimmer

 

Our day-and-night watchman was always on duty

Bewacht von s.u.

Shopping Centre in Downtown West Palm Beach. If you took the bus or walked far enough, you could actually find some action in this little nest.

Einkaufszentrum in West Palm Beach- ca. 35 min. gehen oder 5 min. Bus  

Saturday night - free band performance.... 

Samstag Nachmittag spielte eine wirklich gute Band

 

...with lots of active participation from young and old

bis in den späten Abend.

West Palm Beach waterfront, downtown

Uferpromenade 

Wednesday - a fated outing to Key West.  First of all, it was really too far for a day-trip, and secondly, our wonderful GPS Madame got us totally lost within about one hour from home, and we were lost in the wilderness for miles and miles.....

Key West

Below: ocean front, Key West (ca. 90 miles from Havana).

ca. 90 Meilen von Kuba entfernt.

 

The site of the original Sloppy Joe's Café, frequented by Hemingway.

in diesem Haus hat Hemingway viel Geld für Alkohol ausgegeben.

 

We did manage a quick look round Hemingway's house in Key West

Sein Haus ist heute ein Museum

 

The garden

The road out linking the Keys basically follows the original railway tracks.  After being destroyed twice in hurricanes, the rail connection was finally abandoned early on in the 20th century.

Die Zugverbindung ist nach 2 Hurrikans im frühen 20. Jht unterbrochen. 

Lost in traffic jams on the way back - which did give us the chance to see Miami from the city highway.
Miami von der Autobahn aus gesehen. 

On Friday, outing to the Everglades. Below follow photos of flora and fauna in Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve. The "Everglades" were not as we imagined - very open country.  The Cypress Preserve corresponded more to how we thought the famed everglades should be.  The highlights are specified (i.e. our few alligator sightings).

Everglades: der Nationalpark besteht zum überwiegenden Teil aus einem riesig breiten sehr langsam fließenden Fluß- zum größeren Teil mit Gras und Buschwerk bewachsen- im norden dann mit Zypressen- auch außerhalb des Nationalpark gilt das für den Großteil des Südens. (unten einige Fotos mit Flora und Fauna).

 Vultures

Geier

 

Alligator

another one

 

"Piano Bird"

 

Alligator number 3

 

 

last one!

 

 

 

  

Final walk along bridge across the cypress swamp

 

...resplendent in all our tourist trappings...

 

 

 

turtles

 

Tree scenes

 

 

 

 

 

West Palm Beach certainly takes good care of its four-legged darlings

West Palm Beach hat für Hunde einiges zu bieten

 

 

 

Final evening meal - crab sandwich, whereby you crunch through the whole creature... in a roll.

Unser Abschiedsessen: Krabbensemmel.

 

Monday morning, 12 August: farewell to West Palm Beach.

The Amtrak Experience. 

Abschied von West Palm Beach- unser Zug (Silver Meteor genannt) fährt ein. 

Having become fluent in some Florida place names (Okeechobee now trips off our tongues), we encountered more gems en route from the train.

Dieser Ortsname hat Ann besonders gefallen. 

 

Our "roomette" had more "ette" than "room" .... 

Unser Abteil...

 

...but it was reassuring to know it was ready at hand when you needed it (there was NO alternative!)

.....mit allem wichtigen ausgestattet. 

However, the food in the dining car was good, and this gave us three chances in 26 hours to change position and walk further down the train.

Das Essen war im Preis inbegriffen und ganz zufriedenstellend.