Encounters with technology day 5

My grandfather had traveled in Europe in 1912 and kept a journal. Many years ago I had transcribed it in simple text and it sat. Now I am actually laying out the route he took on the continent and inserting parts of the journal as text at the appropriate locations: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=112894907586536329163.00046dd0d33388ec4c76f&t=h&z=7.

It is kind of like he is blogging, some new bits and pieces appear on the web as I find the time. I really like that I able to get the journal out there. Only a handful of his many descendants have seen the original. The original is nice, but it is written in a loopy cursive which is a hard read. The reading is much easier on the computer. The really cool part is how it opens the journal up. OK here is where I trumpet the power of technology. I read the journal as text but it is really much more enlightening to read about his train going through a valley and switching to satellite photos to see the topography. Then he visits a castle, I can search for images of it on the web and see what it looks like, and this is actually harder for others rather than me just embedding the images into my map.
We have a little plan forming which is retracing the trip in 2012 on its centennial. I am not sure the journal alone would engage my boys but the Google Maps form of the journal just may. More later.