Oliver Drobnik

Here is what we had planned: In the first week we tried to cram in as much amusement park action as possible. The second week should serve as a much quieter retreat with only minimum planning. I had the idea to use disposable cameras only in the second week, therefore the first one is next to not documented.

We were not so lucky with the weather. A tropical depression and a fully grown hurricane messed up the weather quite a bit but careful considerations and constant monitoring of the Weather Channel allowed us to avoid the roughest places.

Week 1- Funtastic Features (girlfriend and brother)

• Walt Disney World

• Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon

• Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Islands of Adventure

Week 2- Romantic Escape (girlfriend)

• Seaworld Florida
   
  Lots of shows in Seaworld, the most impressive being Shamu and the killer whales.

• Kennedy Space Center

• Everglades National Park
  
  We toured the Everglades on Billie's Swamp Safari. The stars:aligators.

• The Florida Keys and Key West. There we stumbled across Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

Interesting activities we where considering

• Dolphin World, swimming with Dolphins. This we actually did but at the Theater of the Sea.

• Other activities, an enormous list

(Update Oct 2nd 2007: I recovered this report from the Internet Archive to put it in its rightful space in my blog.)

The days before the 11st of August I did my homework and certainly it paid: we ended up on the best spot to view the eclipse going on in the central zone. We left at 8 a.m. and where avoided the traffic jam leaving Vienna while it was still forming. Like us thousands of Austrians were traveling to the zone where you could witness the total eclipse. Heavenly forces truly where smiling upon us Austrians this day. Germany for example did not see anything because of the clouds.

The target viewing area turned out to be very nice at 606 meters above sea level. It really seemed to be a special place because of a small private star observatory as well as some satellite dishes and broadcasting antennas. Also from the few people who were there you could deduct that this place is insider's choice. The panorama presented itself for a nice - almost 360 degrees - view of the horizon. We arrived at the viewing area at around 11 a.m. and made ourselves comfortable for the viewing pleasure that we should experience over the following 2 hours.

Apart from occasional small clouds that passed in front of the sun the view was undisturbed. Again we seemed  extremely lucky because shortly after the totality the clouds densed immensely. Also because of a person nearby who used a aluminum rescue blanket for a filter I made the switch too which rewarded me with sharp and clear pictures. Before I was using the foil that came with eclipse viewing glassed which made for ugly distorted and overly exposed pictures.

What a view!! The seconds before the eclipse the ambient light changed into an eerie unreal tone because of the moon's shadow that engulfed us. While we saw the Venus the horizon dimmed to look like a beginning sunrise. The sun's corona was not like I expected it to be from pictures I had seen before. It was more like a necklace of pearls than a bulky shine. It had god-like grace and elegance. The light intensity allowed for viewing with bare eyes.

We left at half past one deeply moved by the image that the eclipse had burned into our hearts.

The animation below are the good pictures I have taken in succession during the event with the time (CET) annotated. Enjoy!

(This "video" is heavily compressed which changes the colors of the totality a little. The uncompressed 0.5 MB version is also available.)