As anyone who tries to be a regular reader knows, I haven't been putting much up here lately. That is mainly because I really haven't gone anywhere. I did a quick trip to London last week, more on that in a little bit, and I have quite a few travels coming up soon. But after that, my extensive galavanting of the world will come to a pretty abrupt end as I move into a new job. So, that begs the question, if I am in Bonn 90% of the time, does "Where in the world is Paul?" make sense? If anyone has any ideas, drop a comment.
Getting back to my last trip though... It is one of the cool things about Bonn, you can literally go to London for the day just as if you were living in Trenton NJ and went into Philadelphia for the day. There is a 9 AM flight over and then the option of a 3:15 or 7:20 flight back. The flight over is just an hour and with the time difference you basically arrive the same time as you left giving you a good 5 - 9 hours in town depending on your return.
As this was a Friday, I really wanted to get back as early as possible and only had a 4 hour meeting scheduled, which was just short enough to book the early return. Now the drawback to this plan is you have to fly into Heathrow, one of the worst and busiest airports in the world. It all started to go south when we got into London Airspace and the pilot announced we were going into a holding pattern. After flying around in circles for an hour, we finally landed. At this point I knew it was hopeless to think about catching my flight back so I switched to the later flight. I had my meeting and then went back to the airport early to avoid London traffic. A good plan since the lounge is decent and there are some good bookstores to pick up something to read. The plan was thwarted by the fact that the plane to take me back had been flying between Bonn and Heathrow all day, thus picking up more and more delays as the day went on. After about an hour and a half delay, we finally left at 9:00.
Moral of the story, Avoid Heathrow at all costs!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008
iTunes Rocks!
This Christmas was definitely the Christmas of money in terms of gifts. It ships well and travels light, which was important since we stayed in Germany this year and friends and family are 6000 - 9000 miles away. This year I decided to devote some of my gift money to adding to my music collection.
Now I know there are probably a lot of people with larger electronic collections than I have, but I am pretty happy with my 1500+ song library on the iPod. And you never really can have enough, can you?
So, this brings me to why I love iTunes. There have been several individual songs I have wanted to get as well as some artists I wanted to expand my collection on. I spent about 2 hours in the iTunes store searching for album collections and songs and ended up walking away with 71 songs for $31 from 6 different artists!
My favorite find definitely has to be the Huey Lewis and The News Greatest Hits. It actually has all of the songs I used to love (and probably played too loud). The sounds are great too. Huey Lewis never sounded so good as he does playing through the speakers of my car on my way to or from work!
Now I know there are probably a lot of people with larger electronic collections than I have, but I am pretty happy with my 1500+ song library on the iPod. And you never really can have enough, can you?
So, this brings me to why I love iTunes. There have been several individual songs I have wanted to get as well as some artists I wanted to expand my collection on. I spent about 2 hours in the iTunes store searching for album collections and songs and ended up walking away with 71 songs for $31 from 6 different artists!
My favorite find definitely has to be the Huey Lewis and The News Greatest Hits. It actually has all of the songs I used to love (and probably played too loud). The sounds are great too. Huey Lewis never sounded so good as he does playing through the speakers of my car on my way to or from work!
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Happy New Year!
Wow, what an intro to 2008 we had.
A few years ago we were out in Idaho for the Fourth of July where normally it is illegal to light off fireworks privately, but for just that one night, anything goes. For about a week before, there were stands set up in just about every parking lot around selling anything and everything that you can blow up. It was kind of like Christmas Tree Lots. And then on the 4th everyone blew it all up. There were explosions everywhere and the heavy cover of smoke was overwhelming. It was like nothing else I had seen before ... until now.
During my last few trips to the grocery store I had noticed people checking out with some nice packages of fireworks, of course everything being in German I had no idea what they were. I figured it was your usual US styled bottle rockets and noise makers. I was very wrong. When midnight hit last night the entire hill we live on came alive with explosions and the resulting show was amazing. There were fireworks like you would find at a professional show. All kinds of colors, changing colors, sparkly things that twirled. And the haze, well actually smoke, was amazing. It was a very heavy thick fog that enveloped the air. This went on for about 30 minutes straight.
I guess it makes sense, to me fireworks are a 4th of July thing and although in the US we use them for other events, that is the big one. Here, although there is a 4th of July, it just doesn't have the same meaning. Of all of the celebratory holidays New Years makes the most sense of any to blow things up. Christmas and Easter just wouldn't be right.
A few years ago we were out in Idaho for the Fourth of July where normally it is illegal to light off fireworks privately, but for just that one night, anything goes. For about a week before, there were stands set up in just about every parking lot around selling anything and everything that you can blow up. It was kind of like Christmas Tree Lots. And then on the 4th everyone blew it all up. There were explosions everywhere and the heavy cover of smoke was overwhelming. It was like nothing else I had seen before ... until now.
During my last few trips to the grocery store I had noticed people checking out with some nice packages of fireworks, of course everything being in German I had no idea what they were. I figured it was your usual US styled bottle rockets and noise makers. I was very wrong. When midnight hit last night the entire hill we live on came alive with explosions and the resulting show was amazing. There were fireworks like you would find at a professional show. All kinds of colors, changing colors, sparkly things that twirled. And the haze, well actually smoke, was amazing. It was a very heavy thick fog that enveloped the air. This went on for about 30 minutes straight.
I guess it makes sense, to me fireworks are a 4th of July thing and although in the US we use them for other events, that is the big one. Here, although there is a 4th of July, it just doesn't have the same meaning. Of all of the celebratory holidays New Years makes the most sense of any to blow things up. Christmas and Easter just wouldn't be right.
Monday, December 31, 2007
The next two years
Ok, so I skipped the post about Finland... it was cold, very nice, but cold. I should be going back in March and get a chance to see a little more and post a little better about it.
The big news in case you haven't heard is we are staying in Germany another two years. I have been offered a job with another department which is going to give me a great amount of experience and the family decided it isn't all that bad here, so why not.
We will be moving to a new place, a house instead of an apartment. Officially it is the same size as this place, but the floor plan is much better. There isn't a lot of wasted space and the rooms are shaped a little better. There is also a basement for storage and the most important part, a yard to let the kids loose in.
We have also decided that I have done a great job taking public transit for two years and since I sold the motorcycle with the thought of returning to the US, it only makes sense that I should get a set of wheels, in this case a set of 4.
It was a really easy decision for me, since our first trip here I have fallen for the BMW 1-Series, not the sedan that they are now selling in the US, a better one. Fortunately the dealer had a 120i that they had been using as a demo, so it was a done deal really quick. Now the hard part is going to be figuring out how to get it imported to the US in two years!
The big news in case you haven't heard is we are staying in Germany another two years. I have been offered a job with another department which is going to give me a great amount of experience and the family decided it isn't all that bad here, so why not.
We will be moving to a new place, a house instead of an apartment. Officially it is the same size as this place, but the floor plan is much better. There isn't a lot of wasted space and the rooms are shaped a little better. There is also a basement for storage and the most important part, a yard to let the kids loose in.
We have also decided that I have done a great job taking public transit for two years and since I sold the motorcycle with the thought of returning to the US, it only makes sense that I should get a set of wheels, in this case a set of 4.
It was a really easy decision for me, since our first trip here I have fallen for the BMW 1-Series, not the sedan that they are now selling in the US, a better one. Fortunately the dealer had a 120i that they had been using as a demo, so it was a done deal really quick. Now the hard part is going to be figuring out how to get it imported to the US in two years!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Coming Soon...
Ok, it has been a while since the last posting, but I did say it would happen...
Anyway, to put out a teaser, in addition to the new posting regarding the trip to Berlin (below), I will be getting two more up in the next few days, one about Finland (it is absolutely freezing here) and about the next two years. Then, right around Christmas, I will get one up summarizing the Christmas Market extravaganza we will have next week.
Enjoy!
Anyway, to put out a teaser, in addition to the new posting regarding the trip to Berlin (below), I will be getting two more up in the next few days, one about Finland (it is absolutely freezing here) and about the next two years. Then, right around Christmas, I will get one up summarizing the Christmas Market extravaganza we will have next week.
Enjoy!
The Wall that once was...
For those of you that read my wife's blog, she covers the topic of the trip to Berlin a lot better and you might want to just go there for the Berlin update, I completely agree with all she says!
But if you are still here, Wow! what a trip. I really did not know what to expect. I had read that there were bits of the wall still around to see, which I really wanted to, but knowing how my colleagues in Western Germany react when you bring up the war, I did not know if it would be easy to find or if it was a "hidden" thing that you had to search out. I was very surprised to see how much Berlin has memorialized it. Although I know it was a horrible time and a lot of people lost their lives, it would be just as bad to not recognize the Holocaust or the existence of the wall and what it meant in the lives of the residents of Berlin. The city has done a great job of marking out where the wall was and in some areas including plaques which talk about the impact of the wall to the residents and the lives that were lost when people would try to get to the other side.
In addition to the wall, the city itself is just great. You have the Reichstag (basically the equivalent of the capital building) with it's neo-classical architecture and right across the river is the ultra modern central train station. Speaking of the train station, a visit to it is a must! There are 16 tracks, however unlike older train stations (like Köln) the tracks aren't lined up side by side, instead they are on 3 different levels, two of which are above ground level. One level goes North/South and the other two go East/West. Throughout the rest of the city you have structures from the post war - pre reunification era, one of which is the TV Tower which made me think of Sputnik, as well as others that have been built within the last few years.
The area around Potsdamer Platz was really cool. They had a Christmas market going on and a few Lego displays as well. In addition, there was a sledding hill set up in the middle of the Platz! Little man and I took a ride down the hill. I will try to get a video of it up in the next few days. It was great. The hill was rather steep and it went really fast and bumpy. After we got going I looked over at him and he looked like he was totally freaked out, then as soon as we got to the bottom and stopped he had a smile from ear to ear and yelled "THAT WAS SO FUN!!!" It was really cool.
Finally, there is so much history here and so much to be learned from the history, I can not wait to get back and learn more.
But if you are still here, Wow! what a trip. I really did not know what to expect. I had read that there were bits of the wall still around to see, which I really wanted to, but knowing how my colleagues in Western Germany react when you bring up the war, I did not know if it would be easy to find or if it was a "hidden" thing that you had to search out. I was very surprised to see how much Berlin has memorialized it. Although I know it was a horrible time and a lot of people lost their lives, it would be just as bad to not recognize the Holocaust or the existence of the wall and what it meant in the lives of the residents of Berlin. The city has done a great job of marking out where the wall was and in some areas including plaques which talk about the impact of the wall to the residents and the lives that were lost when people would try to get to the other side.
In addition to the wall, the city itself is just great. You have the Reichstag (basically the equivalent of the capital building) with it's neo-classical architecture and right across the river is the ultra modern central train station. Speaking of the train station, a visit to it is a must! There are 16 tracks, however unlike older train stations (like Köln) the tracks aren't lined up side by side, instead they are on 3 different levels, two of which are above ground level. One level goes North/South and the other two go East/West. Throughout the rest of the city you have structures from the post war - pre reunification era, one of which is the TV Tower which made me think of Sputnik, as well as others that have been built within the last few years.
The area around Potsdamer Platz was really cool. They had a Christmas market going on and a few Lego displays as well. In addition, there was a sledding hill set up in the middle of the Platz! Little man and I took a ride down the hill. I will try to get a video of it up in the next few days. It was great. The hill was rather steep and it went really fast and bumpy. After we got going I looked over at him and he looked like he was totally freaked out, then as soon as we got to the bottom and stopped he had a smile from ear to ear and yelled "THAT WAS SO FUN!!!" It was really cool.
Finally, there is so much history here and so much to be learned from the history, I can not wait to get back and learn more.
Monday, November 19, 2007
MOSCOW!!!
St. Basil's Cathedral
I am here! It is great to finally make it. I have been waiting for this trip for quite a while and am glad it has happened.
I arrived yesterday and entered with the Visa without any problems, which was nice, and had my luggage really quick and was off to the city. After checking into the hotel and settling in, I made my way into the downtown. By the time I got to the Red Square it was dark, but that made it really cool. St. Basil's Cathedral was lit against a black sky which just looked awesome. I unfortunately did not have my camera at the time, but will get back at night again to take some pictures.
Today I went out with a tour guide to really make the most of the trip. She took me on the Metro to the Chinatown section and then walked to Red Square from there. Again, seeing St. Basil's come into sight was breathtaking. Once in the square we talked a lot about the history of the buildings, the Kremlin Wall and Lenin's Mausoleum. Next it was a walk inside St. Basil's. This was good on two accounts - first the building is really amazing, each of the 9 domes is actually the top of a chapel, second, it was freezing cold (14°F/-9°C) and being out of the wind was very nice.
From there we walked along the square to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the eternal flame. We were just in time to see a changing of the guard. Those guards are very limber, goose stepping as high as they do for as long as they do!
Next up was the Armory Museum inside the Kremlin. Here there are several Faberge eggs Tsar Nicholas ordered for his wife, plus a ton of gold, silver and pottery the Russian Empire acquired through the years. On the first floor is an exhibit of coronation dresses, religious vestments and carriages. In all it wasn't overwhelming, but that is probably because a lot of the national treasures were sold under Soviet Rule. It is said the Queen of England has a more valuable collection of Russian Heritage than The Kremlin has.
From here it was a very cold walk to The Cathedral of Christ the Redemeer. This is an amazing looking building with a horrible history. In the early 1900s it was torn down to wipe out buildings built to honor some previous rulers. Then for a period of time in the late 1900's it was an Olympic sized swimming pool! Fortunately, by 1997 President Yeltsin had had the Cathedral rebuilt based upon photographs to look exactly the same. They did a great job!
Here are some pics - I am sure I missed a lot of things, but in 5 hours, I feel like a covered a lot. I may try to get back into Red Square on Thursday when Lenin's Mausoleum is open to the public, we will see though...
High Stepping!
Christ the Redemeer
Friday, November 9, 2007
Umm... Been a while
Yup, it has been a while since the last post. Sorry about that. After all the excitement of the around the world trip and then the motorcycle ride, it has been hard to come up with an event that tops them. Plus it has been really busy with work and two kiddos running around the house.
Anyway, since the last time I wrote I have been on a few trips. I went to Slovakia again last week. Just like last time, I could not get a direct flight, so it was into Vienna and then a car ride over. It is a nice ride though through villages and farmland. I didn't spend much time in Bratislava again so it is hard to really write much about it.
This week I went to Warsaw again for two nights. A lot of work so no sightseeing, but I did see something cool - my first SNOW of the winter. Yeah, snow on November 5! I can not remember the last time I saw snow that early in the year. It wasn't much, but it was still kind of cool.
Other than that, it nothing big. The big trip is coming in a week though. I leave on Nov. 18 to go to Moscow. I am really excited about this trip, although right now it looks like it will stay below freezing the entire trip, plus with the sun going down by 5:00, it will be really cold. I will have to see if the vodka really helps ;).
Anyway, since the last time I wrote I have been on a few trips. I went to Slovakia again last week. Just like last time, I could not get a direct flight, so it was into Vienna and then a car ride over. It is a nice ride though through villages and farmland. I didn't spend much time in Bratislava again so it is hard to really write much about it.
This week I went to Warsaw again for two nights. A lot of work so no sightseeing, but I did see something cool - my first SNOW of the winter. Yeah, snow on November 5! I can not remember the last time I saw snow that early in the year. It wasn't much, but it was still kind of cool.
Other than that, it nothing big. The big trip is coming in a week though. I leave on Nov. 18 to go to Moscow. I am really excited about this trip, although right now it looks like it will stay below freezing the entire trip, plus with the sun going down by 5:00, it will be really cold. I will have to see if the vodka really helps ;).
Saturday, October 6, 2007
The Happiest Place on Earth
No, for the last few weeks of September and beginning of October it is not Disney, it is Munich, Germany and the great Oktoberfest! Again, taking advantage of my current situation, I hoped on a plane Thursday morning with a buddy from work to go check out what the big deal was, and it was great.
We arrived at the fairgrounds about 1:30 on Thursday afternoon and it was packed. We made our way through a few tents without finding a place to sit before settling for an outside table to get started. I had been offered tickets to join a vendor who had a table starting at 5:00 so we made our way there and enjoyed the atmosphere, the beer and the music inside. Knowing that we had more friends coming in on Friday and that we would want to put on a good show for them, we called it a night relatively early and went back to the hotel.
On Friday we struck out into the city center area. The buildings were just amazing. It was a really nice down town area, so much different than Cologne. It seemed bigger and cleaner.
After finding a place to get some good schnitzel, we made our way to the festivities again. We capitalized on our experience from the day before and found a table outside to start. At about 4 we went to a tent and met Caren, one of the waitresses, as soon as we walked in. She asked if we had a table, when we told her, "No." She told us to wait right there. Two minutes later she came back and led us to a table that was just big enough for all 10 of us.
This was completely different than the night before, since it wasn't a corporate thing, the people were much more relaxed and, um, lubricated. The band played a larger variety of music (I never would have guessed I would be singing John Denver songs in the middle of Munich!) and Caren made sure we were never too empty or hungry.
Unlike Thursday, we gave a much better showing on Friday and stayed until they turned the lights off on us. The really great thing was that with very, very few exceptions, no one got out of hand, the place was very clean, and when it was time to break it up for the night, it was just a bunch of happy drunks finding their way to where-ever they needed to be next, so unlike most events like this in the US.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Next year they will wonder what happened
It happened, I have hit the top of the ladder, the frequent flyer ladder that is.
I have officially earned 100,540 qualifying miles and that is not counting my flight to Singapore which hasn't been credited yet. About 30,000 of these miles aren't actually flight miles, but instead are bonus miles for flying in business (thank you DHL).
The kicker of this all is next year whatever job I go into, I will definitely not be traveling half as much and I will go from being Chairman's Club (good until March 2009) to, um, well, they don't have a name for that club, maybe I will make Silver again, but I doubt it. In any case, if I'm not traveling, does it really matter if I belong to an elite travel club? Membership does have it's privileges, but it does come at a cost...
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
A sad day
No, it isn't the rain, or the cold weather. I did something today which may shock some people, in a way it shocked me. I sold the Harley. (For my other motorcycling friends, don't worry, I didn't go entirely off the deep end and buy a BMW or anything like that.)
I say it shocked me in a way because this is something I have been talking about ever since moving here mainly due to the economics of it all. Harley's are inherently worth more and with the dollar doing as poorly as it has recently, it made the difference even more pronounced. But it was always talk. Actions are much harder to do.
I started this process on Saturday when I took it to the car wash to clean all the dirt and grime from the trip through the Alps off before going to the dealership to get a quote from them, which was pretty decent, I really wouldn't have sold it for too much more if I had done it myself and the whole language barrier with buyers would have been a real pain.
All the rest of the day and a lot of Sunday I thought about it and tried to figure out why it was a big deal to me and why I didn't just hand over the keys, but instead said, "Let me think about it and come back on Tuesday". Knowing dang well what the outcome was going to be.
Some theories I have come up with:
1. It is a part of my identity. Not as much as other parts, but when put together with all of the other parts, it is a very unique combination. Many of the people I work with know about my passion for motorcycles and frequently bring it up when I meet with them. Especially here, not many people ride Harley's let alone commute in a suit on them.
2. It was my first bike. After riding at the police department I knew I wanted one. It took a few years to be able to work it out and when I did I thought for sure it would be my only bike and with me for a very long time.
3. I worry about what the bike thinks. I know, crazy thought. But I read a book last year by Jeremy Clarkson, a personality on BBC's Top Gear. The book was titled "I know you got soul" and was about machines - mainly vehicles - and that although they were inanimate objects, they had a soul to them. The Concord was one of the great vehicles he highlighted and as he felt sorry for the plane when it was grounded he wondered if the plane thought "What have I done, why do they not want me to fly anymore."
So in the short term, I am not a biker by ownership, yet deep inside I will continue to love Harley's and will always look for the dealerships in the odd cities I end up in. I will also very likely walk away from those dealerships with a shot glass or t-shirt in hand. And one day, in the not so distant future, I will most likely ride out of one of those dealerships with a little more than a T-shirt...
I say it shocked me in a way because this is something I have been talking about ever since moving here mainly due to the economics of it all. Harley's are inherently worth more and with the dollar doing as poorly as it has recently, it made the difference even more pronounced. But it was always talk. Actions are much harder to do.
I started this process on Saturday when I took it to the car wash to clean all the dirt and grime from the trip through the Alps off before going to the dealership to get a quote from them, which was pretty decent, I really wouldn't have sold it for too much more if I had done it myself and the whole language barrier with buyers would have been a real pain.
All the rest of the day and a lot of Sunday I thought about it and tried to figure out why it was a big deal to me and why I didn't just hand over the keys, but instead said, "Let me think about it and come back on Tuesday". Knowing dang well what the outcome was going to be.
Some theories I have come up with:
1. It is a part of my identity. Not as much as other parts, but when put together with all of the other parts, it is a very unique combination. Many of the people I work with know about my passion for motorcycles and frequently bring it up when I meet with them. Especially here, not many people ride Harley's let alone commute in a suit on them.
2. It was my first bike. After riding at the police department I knew I wanted one. It took a few years to be able to work it out and when I did I thought for sure it would be my only bike and with me for a very long time.
3. I worry about what the bike thinks. I know, crazy thought. But I read a book last year by Jeremy Clarkson, a personality on BBC's Top Gear. The book was titled "I know you got soul" and was about machines - mainly vehicles - and that although they were inanimate objects, they had a soul to them. The Concord was one of the great vehicles he highlighted and as he felt sorry for the plane when it was grounded he wondered if the plane thought "What have I done, why do they not want me to fly anymore."
So in the short term, I am not a biker by ownership, yet deep inside I will continue to love Harley's and will always look for the dealerships in the odd cities I end up in. I will also very likely walk away from those dealerships with a shot glass or t-shirt in hand. And one day, in the not so distant future, I will most likely ride out of one of those dealerships with a little more than a T-shirt...
Sunday, September 30, 2007
German TV Sucks
As many of you know, we haven't watched much TV here because all we get is German Cable. We could have spent a decent amount of money to buy a satellite dish and then Sky TV from the UK, but when we thought about "writing the check" it just didn't seem to make sense to spend all of that money just to watch TV.
This means we are relegated to watching only two English speaking channels, BBC and CNN. We occasionally watch Eurosport and other channels that sometimes carry sports because you don't really need to understand the commentators to get the enjoyment out of the game. Then there is the occasional Bloopers show, again, you don't need to understand the host to laugh at a guy getting whacked by his kid with a wiffle ball bat.
Today it got worse. The World Championship for Road Racing is being hosted in Stuttgart, Germany today. It is only a 1 day race, but all of the big names come out for it to win the honor of being the World Champion and wear the rainbow jersey all next year. According to the TV listings, it was supposed to be on two channels, RTL and Eurosport. Well, RTL had the Formula 1 race from Japan on. The race must have been seriously delayed from rain. When it was supposed to end, it was just at lap 7 of 67. Cycling was pre-empted. So off to Eurosport. YES! They had the race - live!
So here I am having lunch, doing some work on the computer, listening to the iPod and watching the race. After the 7th lap ended, the TV goes to commercial. Time to get up to get a drink. I come back to find Eurosport has changed their programming in the middle of the race to the Women's World Cup Final between Germany and Brazil! What happened to the race? I flipped through all 30 channels and found the soccer match on twice, F1 still going strong and some other auto race as well. But no cycling. Oi!
UPDATE: After RTL finished the F1 race, they did not go to Cycling, instead a dubbed version of the A-Team - Go Mr. T!
This means we are relegated to watching only two English speaking channels, BBC and CNN. We occasionally watch Eurosport and other channels that sometimes carry sports because you don't really need to understand the commentators to get the enjoyment out of the game. Then there is the occasional Bloopers show, again, you don't need to understand the host to laugh at a guy getting whacked by his kid with a wiffle ball bat.
Today it got worse. The World Championship for Road Racing is being hosted in Stuttgart, Germany today. It is only a 1 day race, but all of the big names come out for it to win the honor of being the World Champion and wear the rainbow jersey all next year. According to the TV listings, it was supposed to be on two channels, RTL and Eurosport. Well, RTL had the Formula 1 race from Japan on. The race must have been seriously delayed from rain. When it was supposed to end, it was just at lap 7 of 67. Cycling was pre-empted. So off to Eurosport. YES! They had the race - live!
So here I am having lunch, doing some work on the computer, listening to the iPod and watching the race. After the 7th lap ended, the TV goes to commercial. Time to get up to get a drink. I come back to find Eurosport has changed their programming in the middle of the race to the Women's World Cup Final between Germany and Brazil! What happened to the race? I flipped through all 30 channels and found the soccer match on twice, F1 still going strong and some other auto race as well. But no cycling. Oi!
UPDATE: After RTL finished the F1 race, they did not go to Cycling, instead a dubbed version of the A-Team - Go Mr. T!
Monday, September 24, 2007
The Ride Details
Friday Evening
I departed from Bonn around 3:30 on Friday afternoon. My trip took me West towards Aachen and then through Liege, Belgium to the French border. The trip up to this point was rather bland. Nothing but highway and weekend traffic starting early. Plus, I have driven most of this route before, so it was nothing new. I was delayed by a few accidents, but that was about it.
Once I crossed into France, it was flat farm lands. The road was really nice, 2 - 3 lanes, and not a lot of traffic. What was really cool was that as you looked to the side, you would see villages off in the distance. Each one had a church steeple sticking up above it.
After a few stops for gas and to stretch, I arrived to the hotel just after 9:00. Now, I was trying to do this trip on a small budget (more on that not working later), so I found what looked like a half decent hotel for 40 Euros on the internet. I learned what budget is. The room was clean but there was no phone or soap or anything! It did have bunk beds though.
Saturday
I started Saturday relatively early. I wanted to get into Paris to take some pictures before it got too busy. I have been to Paris many times in the last 18 months, so the only purpose of the visit was to take some photos. The plan worked, I was able to get a photo in front of the Louvre, riding down the Champs Elysee, and in front of the Eiffel Tower. I was then out by 8 and on the road to Lyon.
The first 45 minutes out of Paris was mainly highway working through the city and suburbs. After that, it was mainly farms - wheat, corn and other plants for the next 1.5 hours. Then some of the real scenery started to pop up. The flat lands gave way to rolling hills and several Chateaus were visible right along the road. The really cool thing was that when something like that was visible, there was a huge brown road sign with the name and an arrow pointing in the direction you should look. After another hour, there were more rolling hills and the country side gave way to vineyards and cattle farms.
At about 1:00 I rolled into Dardilly, a suburb of Lyon and found the Harley Dealership. They had a group ride for their local Harley Owner's Group (H.O.G.) earlier and many of the bikes were still there. It was the largest group of Harley's I have seen since being here. The dealership itself was great. The inside was laid out and decorated just like a dealership in the States. In addition, the staff was wonderful. After buying a shirt, I pulled the bike around front to take a picture, they immediately ran out to take it for me and then went back in and brought out a locally branded lanyard as a gift for stopping. From there I went to a restaurant, B-52 Cafe. The name and outside looked like it would have American Diner type food. Looks can be deceiving. The menu was very French, but good.
From Lyon, I had about another 30 minutes on the highway before I got to the big payoff for the highway riding when the Alps came into view. I exited off of the highway in Grenoble and then worked my way to the bottom of Alpe D'Huez. Once I started the climb, it was about a 15 km ride with 180 degree switchbacks and 10 - 15% upgrade. It was amazing. Then at the top the navigation lead me over the other side. The ride down was even more amazing, the road was very narrow and there was not a sign of civilization around at all. For a moment I wondered if it was actually a road, but the view was great and, it was a road.
The side of Alpe D'Huez le Tour does not ride on!
Once down, I had a great ride along a nice winding road, until I got to a roadblock. Not an official one, but one caused by an oversized vehicle getting stuck in a tunnel. No officials were on scene yet, so who knew how long it would take. According to TomTom it was another 2.5 hours to Torino, so I decided to see if there was an option. The navi said 3 hours if I turned around and worked around another way, it seemed like a safe bet.
What ended up happening was going through another mountain pass, except the sun was going down and it was the middle of nowhere. The only light I had to see the narrow winding road was that of the bike. It was here I learned another benefit of the navi, it showed the layout of the road, so even though I could not see the sharp turns until I was on top of them, I saw them on the screen - really cool! Because of the technical ride, I stayed between 10 - 20 km/h for almost 15 km. It was actually rather exciting to be challenged like that and the time just flew by.
With all of the delays, I ended up arriving in Torino at about 10:00. I ended the night by going to a little restaurant and having a nice bowl of Linguine.
One last note on Saturday's ride, the French really put New Jersey to shame with Toll Roads. In total, I spent about 50 Euros on tolls. This included a 21.40 euro toll for going through the 12 km tunnel "Tunnel du Frejus". In the middle is where the sign was for crossing into Italy.
Sunday
After a long day on Saturday, I decided to skip some sightseeing and get a little extra rest. I headed out from the hotel (this one had a phone and shampoo) just before 10 and went into the historic district to take a few photos and mainly just ride around to see it. I was then on the road by 11 after gassing up.
It was only about an hour north of Torino when the Swiss Alps came into view. I would then spend most of the next 3 hours in them. The hardest part of this ride as well as the day before was not stopping every kilometer to take a photo. The scenery was breathtaking.
One of the great things about this ride was that the way into Switzerland was not a highway but good secondary roads that climbed about half way up the mountain before a tunnel (again, border crossing in the tunnel). This tunnel was awesome though, it was Tunnel du Grand St. Bernard. It was just as long as the other, but almost half the price.
Switzerland
Once exiting the tunnel the ground was very lush and the air was so fresh it was great. I worked my way down and found a place to have lunch. While here, I saw something I never expected to see, people wind surfing on a little lake in the middle of the Alps. For about another hour I worked my way out of the mountains. Along the way I passed a huge lake by Lausanne, Switzerland before heading north towards Basel. After this, there wasn't anything too exciting to see along the way. There were more farms and then city riding approaching Basel.
At about 4:00, I crossed into France again for about 10 km before crossing back into Germany for the final 400 km, arriving home at about 9:30.
Summary
After not doing a lot of riding since being here (work and back mainly), it was really great to get out on the road for so many kilometers. By the end of the day on Saturday, I was feeling more comfortable on the motorcycle than I think I have ever felt. Especially after tackling the mountain passes.
In the last few weeks I had debated not going on the ride, knowing that it was going to be a lot of time in the saddle and would take up an entire weekend. I am so glad I decided not to skip it. It was really amazing and very, very relaxing. The only bad part of the ride was the second half of the day on Sunday. Once I crossed into Germany, for a moment it felt good to be heading home. Then I realized there wasn't much there waiting for me, but they will be home soon enough.
Something I never thought I would see in the Swiss Alps!
I departed from Bonn around 3:30 on Friday afternoon. My trip took me West towards Aachen and then through Liege, Belgium to the French border. The trip up to this point was rather bland. Nothing but highway and weekend traffic starting early. Plus, I have driven most of this route before, so it was nothing new. I was delayed by a few accidents, but that was about it.
Once I crossed into France, it was flat farm lands. The road was really nice, 2 - 3 lanes, and not a lot of traffic. What was really cool was that as you looked to the side, you would see villages off in the distance. Each one had a church steeple sticking up above it.
After a few stops for gas and to stretch, I arrived to the hotel just after 9:00. Now, I was trying to do this trip on a small budget (more on that not working later), so I found what looked like a half decent hotel for 40 Euros on the internet. I learned what budget is. The room was clean but there was no phone or soap or anything! It did have bunk beds though.
Saturday
I started Saturday relatively early. I wanted to get into Paris to take some pictures before it got too busy. I have been to Paris many times in the last 18 months, so the only purpose of the visit was to take some photos. The plan worked, I was able to get a photo in front of the Louvre, riding down the Champs Elysee, and in front of the Eiffel Tower. I was then out by 8 and on the road to Lyon.
The first 45 minutes out of Paris was mainly highway working through the city and suburbs. After that, it was mainly farms - wheat, corn and other plants for the next 1.5 hours. Then some of the real scenery started to pop up. The flat lands gave way to rolling hills and several Chateaus were visible right along the road. The really cool thing was that when something like that was visible, there was a huge brown road sign with the name and an arrow pointing in the direction you should look. After another hour, there were more rolling hills and the country side gave way to vineyards and cattle farms.
At about 1:00 I rolled into Dardilly, a suburb of Lyon and found the Harley Dealership. They had a group ride for their local Harley Owner's Group (H.O.G.) earlier and many of the bikes were still there. It was the largest group of Harley's I have seen since being here. The dealership itself was great. The inside was laid out and decorated just like a dealership in the States. In addition, the staff was wonderful. After buying a shirt, I pulled the bike around front to take a picture, they immediately ran out to take it for me and then went back in and brought out a locally branded lanyard as a gift for stopping. From there I went to a restaurant, B-52 Cafe. The name and outside looked like it would have American Diner type food. Looks can be deceiving. The menu was very French, but good.
From Lyon, I had about another 30 minutes on the highway before I got to the big payoff for the highway riding when the Alps came into view. I exited off of the highway in Grenoble and then worked my way to the bottom of Alpe D'Huez. Once I started the climb, it was about a 15 km ride with 180 degree switchbacks and 10 - 15% upgrade. It was amazing. Then at the top the navigation lead me over the other side. The ride down was even more amazing, the road was very narrow and there was not a sign of civilization around at all. For a moment I wondered if it was actually a road, but the view was great and, it was a road.
The side of Alpe D'Huez le Tour does not ride on!
Once down, I had a great ride along a nice winding road, until I got to a roadblock. Not an official one, but one caused by an oversized vehicle getting stuck in a tunnel. No officials were on scene yet, so who knew how long it would take. According to TomTom it was another 2.5 hours to Torino, so I decided to see if there was an option. The navi said 3 hours if I turned around and worked around another way, it seemed like a safe bet.
What ended up happening was going through another mountain pass, except the sun was going down and it was the middle of nowhere. The only light I had to see the narrow winding road was that of the bike. It was here I learned another benefit of the navi, it showed the layout of the road, so even though I could not see the sharp turns until I was on top of them, I saw them on the screen - really cool! Because of the technical ride, I stayed between 10 - 20 km/h for almost 15 km. It was actually rather exciting to be challenged like that and the time just flew by.
With all of the delays, I ended up arriving in Torino at about 10:00. I ended the night by going to a little restaurant and having a nice bowl of Linguine.
One last note on Saturday's ride, the French really put New Jersey to shame with Toll Roads. In total, I spent about 50 Euros on tolls. This included a 21.40 euro toll for going through the 12 km tunnel "Tunnel du Frejus". In the middle is where the sign was for crossing into Italy.
Sunday
After a long day on Saturday, I decided to skip some sightseeing and get a little extra rest. I headed out from the hotel (this one had a phone and shampoo) just before 10 and went into the historic district to take a few photos and mainly just ride around to see it. I was then on the road by 11 after gassing up.
It was only about an hour north of Torino when the Swiss Alps came into view. I would then spend most of the next 3 hours in them. The hardest part of this ride as well as the day before was not stopping every kilometer to take a photo. The scenery was breathtaking.
One of the great things about this ride was that the way into Switzerland was not a highway but good secondary roads that climbed about half way up the mountain before a tunnel (again, border crossing in the tunnel). This tunnel was awesome though, it was Tunnel du Grand St. Bernard. It was just as long as the other, but almost half the price.
Switzerland
Once exiting the tunnel the ground was very lush and the air was so fresh it was great. I worked my way down and found a place to have lunch. While here, I saw something I never expected to see, people wind surfing on a little lake in the middle of the Alps. For about another hour I worked my way out of the mountains. Along the way I passed a huge lake by Lausanne, Switzerland before heading north towards Basel. After this, there wasn't anything too exciting to see along the way. There were more farms and then city riding approaching Basel.
At about 4:00, I crossed into France again for about 10 km before crossing back into Germany for the final 400 km, arriving home at about 9:30.
Summary
After not doing a lot of riding since being here (work and back mainly), it was really great to get out on the road for so many kilometers. By the end of the day on Saturday, I was feeling more comfortable on the motorcycle than I think I have ever felt. Especially after tackling the mountain passes.
In the last few weeks I had debated not going on the ride, knowing that it was going to be a lot of time in the saddle and would take up an entire weekend. I am so glad I decided not to skip it. It was really amazing and very, very relaxing. The only bad part of the ride was the second half of the day on Sunday. Once I crossed into Germany, for a moment it felt good to be heading home. Then I realized there wasn't much there waiting for me, but they will be home soon enough.
Something I never thought I would see in the Swiss Alps!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
I'm Back
The one piece of art you will not find in the Louvre.
Some might say it is bad for a married man to spend a wonderful weekend traveling through Europe with the voice of another woman in his head, however, when that voice is Jane (with a UK accent) and all she does is whisper sweet directions in your ear, it is ok :)
Jane directed me through the weekend. I only made a few deviations from the original plan. I skipped Zurich mainly due to a lack of time. I found I was stopping to take pictures more often than planned which seriously extended my days.
This isn't going to be much of a post because I am thoroughly exhausted and need to shower and sleep before going to work tomorrow, but I wanted to get a few pics up to whet your appetites. I will write a more detailed post about my adventure tomorrow night as well as upload photos. I will upload all of them to Snapfish. I will put a few more on the blog tomorrow as well, but if you want to see all 80+ of them, send me an e-mail or leave a comment (I won't publish it if you don't want me to) and I will send you the link once they are uploaded.
Here is the trip by numbers:
Distance Traveled: 2425 KM (1506 Miles)
Gasoline: 134 L (35 gal)
Kamikaze bugs: Too many to count
Friday, September 21, 2007
The Weekend Plan
This November it will be 3 years since this photo was taken. At the time I dreamed of cross country rides or rides along Skyline Drive in Virginia. However with a family, there are other priorities which come before hopping on a Hog and disappearing for a few days. But alas, opportunity presents itself...
Since my family is in the US still and I am still (technically) a bachelor, I can go for a little motor tour. Now, never in my dreams would I have thought I would be doing the tour I am about to do though.
Here is the plan: We have become addicted to our navigation system and have already decided that we need one when we move back to the US. Luck would have it that TomTom released the second edition of their Motorcycle Navigation System. This second edition works with a car mount, unlike the first edition, so... we now have a Navi :) I spent some time this week getting it set up. The wonderful thing is that it came with a RAM mounting system for the handlebar of the motorcycle. It also came with wiring to hard wire it into the electrical system. The downside to this is that you connect the mounting bracket to the power, so if you hard wire it, it is permanent (or a lot of work to take the bracket off). Fortunately, my bike has a cigarette lighter. A quick trip to the local auto store and 15 minutes later we have a removable power cord.
So, tomorrow I am going to ride to Charles De Gaulle Airport, just outside of Paris. The Rugby World Cup is in France, so all of the hotels which are normally ungodly expensive in Paris are even more. But, the cheap ones at the airport are still cheap and a short 30 minute ride in. The purpose of this stop is to get some photos of the bike in front of some good landmarks.
After getting some early pics, it will be off to Lyon for lunch. From there I am going to make my way to Torino by way of Alpe d'Huez and spend the night in Italy. On Sunday it will be a nice ride back to Germany passing through the Swiss Alps, Basel, Mulhouse, and Strasbourg.
I may take the computer just so I can keep the iPod charged, but it might not fit on the bike. If it doesn't, you will have to wait until Sunday for photos.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
The second half of the world
Ah! I know, I haven't posted in almost a month. It has been rather crazy since the last post. We picked up our daughter in Taipei and then traveled to the US with her. The days were a lot busier than expected and not much of anything got done that did not include feeding, chasing or cleaning a kid. If it wasn't one of those it was catching some rest.
Then, after the US, I completed my around the world trip and arrived in Frankfurt after a 5 hour delay in Philadelphia. I had about 4 hours to get home, unpack, repack and get back to Frankfurt for a 3 day meeting in Prague. I was then home for Saturday and most of Sunday and then back out again for 3 days in Paris, from where I just returned.
So, here are the stories you only get here...
After being in Taipei for a little less than a week, we learned we could leave 6 days early. Unfortunately all of the flights from Taipei to anywhere in the US were sold out until 4 days early. Even then, the flights that we could get had a 9 hour layover in Seattle before flying to Spokane. We thought about it a little bit and figured it was only a 5 hour drive with stops. So, when we checked in we convinced the ticket agent to only check our luggage to Seattle. She objected saying it would be a hassle to have to check it back in and get tickets again. I said, "I have two kids to take care of and 9 hours to kill. I am sure I can work it in. (he he he...)"
So we arrived in Seattle and hopped in a minivan. The first 2 hours of the ride were beautiful. The mountains and the lakes were just spectacular. The last 3 hours, flat baren, open and boring. It reminded me of driving across Indiana and Illinois on I-70.
Now, fast forward to this week. Most of you probably know I am a Jeckyll & Hyde when it comes to Paris. The tourism committee didn't decide to play off of the stereotype of the rude Parisien for no reason... For me, if I can avoid a lot of locals, I usually like it, but if I have to deal with a lot of them, well, my wife can fill you in on thosse phone calls.
The part I love is the food and the architecture. The buildings are just amazing! Well, this week I discovered a new way to see a lot of the city and quick. They have installed Velib', a network of a few thousand bicycles that you can rent really cheap and ride through the city. What you do is subscribe for a day 1 Euro($1.37) and then you take a bike from it's electronic lock with your pin code. Your ride it to another (or the same) station and put it in the electronic lock. The first half hour is free and then each half hour is another Euro.
So, at about 8:00 last night, a colleague and I picked up two bikes at Gare du Nord and then rode through the Opera, to the Louvre, along the Champs Elysee and then to the Eifell Tower to the 7th district. It was a great fall evening. A little cool, the smell of falling leaves, just nice. And some of the side streets that we rode through were just great. Buildings from when Napoleon was ruling.
Finally we locked them up and found a really good Japanese Resturant that had a great Sushi menu. I topped the night off with a taxi ride along the Sienne to get back to my hotel. The way the buildings were lit up and reflected off the river was great.
Then, after the US, I completed my around the world trip and arrived in Frankfurt after a 5 hour delay in Philadelphia. I had about 4 hours to get home, unpack, repack and get back to Frankfurt for a 3 day meeting in Prague. I was then home for Saturday and most of Sunday and then back out again for 3 days in Paris, from where I just returned.
So, here are the stories you only get here...
After being in Taipei for a little less than a week, we learned we could leave 6 days early. Unfortunately all of the flights from Taipei to anywhere in the US were sold out until 4 days early. Even then, the flights that we could get had a 9 hour layover in Seattle before flying to Spokane. We thought about it a little bit and figured it was only a 5 hour drive with stops. So, when we checked in we convinced the ticket agent to only check our luggage to Seattle. She objected saying it would be a hassle to have to check it back in and get tickets again. I said, "I have two kids to take care of and 9 hours to kill. I am sure I can work it in. (he he he...)"
So we arrived in Seattle and hopped in a minivan. The first 2 hours of the ride were beautiful. The mountains and the lakes were just spectacular. The last 3 hours, flat baren, open and boring. It reminded me of driving across Indiana and Illinois on I-70.
Now, fast forward to this week. Most of you probably know I am a Jeckyll & Hyde when it comes to Paris. The tourism committee didn't decide to play off of the stereotype of the rude Parisien for no reason... For me, if I can avoid a lot of locals, I usually like it, but if I have to deal with a lot of them, well, my wife can fill you in on thosse phone calls.
The part I love is the food and the architecture. The buildings are just amazing! Well, this week I discovered a new way to see a lot of the city and quick. They have installed Velib', a network of a few thousand bicycles that you can rent really cheap and ride through the city. What you do is subscribe for a day 1 Euro($1.37) and then you take a bike from it's electronic lock with your pin code. Your ride it to another (or the same) station and put it in the electronic lock. The first half hour is free and then each half hour is another Euro.
So, at about 8:00 last night, a colleague and I picked up two bikes at Gare du Nord and then rode through the Opera, to the Louvre, along the Champs Elysee and then to the Eifell Tower to the 7th district. It was a great fall evening. A little cool, the smell of falling leaves, just nice. And some of the side streets that we rode through were just great. Buildings from when Napoleon was ruling.
Finally we locked them up and found a really good Japanese Resturant that had a great Sushi menu. I topped the night off with a taxi ride along the Sienne to get back to my hotel. The way the buildings were lit up and reflected off the river was great.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Around the world in 24 Days
The trip around the world has begun!
I am blogging from a free internet terminal in Singapore Changi Airport. The journey so far has been a trip, pun intended. I missed my connection in Singapore so now I have an extra flight. If you are following my trip, here it is:
Aug. 23 - Frankfurt - Singapore - Hong Kong - Taipei
Sept. 6 - Taipei - San Francisco - Seattle - Spokane
Sept. 10 - Spokane - Phoenix - Philadelphia - Frankfurt
More to come!
I am blogging from a free internet terminal in Singapore Changi Airport. The journey so far has been a trip, pun intended. I missed my connection in Singapore so now I have an extra flight. If you are following my trip, here it is:
Aug. 23 - Frankfurt - Singapore - Hong Kong - Taipei
Sept. 6 - Taipei - San Francisco - Seattle - Spokane
Sept. 10 - Spokane - Phoenix - Philadelphia - Frankfurt
More to come!
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Blog Tracker
Ok, I admit, I am not the most reliable blogger. I keep the blog so that I can write about new exciting things going on over here in Germany or where ever in the world I may be, that way friends, family and anyone else can live vicariously through me. :) But this means that if I am staying in Bonn for an extended period of time, chances are, I do not update the blog at all.
In addition, I like reading some blogs, but I don't check them all every day, mainly because there are others like me that do not post every day (sometimes every week). If I haven't looked at it recently, I usually forget to look at it.
But, I found something that helps me and wanted to share it with you, to help you avoid looking at my blog and realizing, I didn't write anything recently. I use Blogarithm, you sign up, give it the URLs of the blogs you want to follow and it sends you an e-mail daily for any of your blogs that have been updated in the previous 24 hours. There are probably other similar services out there, and they may be better, I just settled on the first one I found that did what I wanted. The can be found at www.blogarithm.com
In addition, I like reading some blogs, but I don't check them all every day, mainly because there are others like me that do not post every day (sometimes every week). If I haven't looked at it recently, I usually forget to look at it.
But, I found something that helps me and wanted to share it with you, to help you avoid looking at my blog and realizing, I didn't write anything recently. I use Blogarithm, you sign up, give it the URLs of the blogs you want to follow and it sends you an e-mail daily for any of your blogs that have been updated in the previous 24 hours. There are probably other similar services out there, and they may be better, I just settled on the first one I found that did what I wanted. The can be found at www.blogarithm.com
Single Again (updated)
So, for the first time in many years, I am (un)technically single again...
I drove my wife and son to Frankfurt Airport today to send them on their way for the beginning of what is just short of a three month trip. First they are going to her parent's house to drop off luggage and set the house up for the baby. Then I will meet them in Asia to pick our daughter up and return to the US with them. Then, if we want to continue to eat and have a place to live, I have to return to Europe to work while they wait for certificates and passports. Which leaves me on my own in Europe for most of the next three months.
To be fair, it works out, especially as it has enabled me to over schedule implementation projects for work. Normally, I wouldn't have scheduled so much because of the travel required, but since they aren't going to be here, might as well make sure the target objectives for this year are met and exceeded [finally bonus eligible this year:)]
Well, it was sad to see them off, but the bachelor life beckons... catch up on e-mail, go for bicycle ride, defrost the freezer... Oh yeah, the good ol' days.
UPDATE:
So, for the first meal, I figured nothing says "family is gone" like fries, chicken nuggets and a Kölsch Beer. Speaking of Kölsch, I am going to miss this stuff when we move back to the States... I used to like Sam Adams and Yuengling Lager. On recent trips to the US I have had both, but they just don't compare to the German Beer...
I drove my wife and son to Frankfurt Airport today to send them on their way for the beginning of what is just short of a three month trip. First they are going to her parent's house to drop off luggage and set the house up for the baby. Then I will meet them in Asia to pick our daughter up and return to the US with them. Then, if we want to continue to eat and have a place to live, I have to return to Europe to work while they wait for certificates and passports. Which leaves me on my own in Europe for most of the next three months.
To be fair, it works out, especially as it has enabled me to over schedule implementation projects for work. Normally, I wouldn't have scheduled so much because of the travel required, but since they aren't going to be here, might as well make sure the target objectives for this year are met and exceeded [finally bonus eligible this year:)]
Well, it was sad to see them off, but the bachelor life beckons... catch up on e-mail, go for bicycle ride, defrost the freezer... Oh yeah, the good ol' days.
UPDATE:
So, for the first meal, I figured nothing says "family is gone" like fries, chicken nuggets and a Kölsch Beer. Speaking of Kölsch, I am going to miss this stuff when we move back to the States... I used to like Sam Adams and Yuengling Lager. On recent trips to the US I have had both, but they just don't compare to the German Beer...
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Wonderful Week!
Well, I did it - made it to Platinum. The flight to Miami put me over the top. Once I get the return miles added in, I will be 17,000 miles away from Chairman's Club - still can't wait to see what the color of that e-mail is...
This isn't what made last week wonderful though! It did start with travel related wonderfulness...
I flew to Miami and reserved a rental with National. They have the Emerald Club, which, if you are a member and reserve a mid-size car through your account means you can take advantage of the Emerald Aisle. You just walk up to any car in the Emerald Aisle, hop in and drive off - no counters! Plus, most sites have better than mid-size cars there. As I was on the shuttle bus I was scouting for the Aisle - spotted it and saw a PT Cruiser Convertible - BINGO! It was a really nice drive from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale with the top down!
Then, to end the work week, I booked a quick flight to Philly to see family. Good ol' US Airways came through for me. Once you are a silver member, you can get free upgrades to First Class on domestic flights if it is available. The higher your status, the earlier you can upgrade. The great part is if you book with your DM number, you don't have to do a thing! 3 days before the flight I received an e-mail telling me I was upgraded - Bingo #2!
In addition, on Friday we finally got the word that we can go pick up our daughter from the orphanage in Taiwan in a few weeks - #3.
Finally, the wonderful week ended by spending the weekend at my Mom's house and seeing all of the family in NJ that I could. Plus some friends who have a little boy I haven't met yet. Of course, for all of the wonderfulness of the trip, it was great to get home too!
Well, the "Where in the World" spot will be changing as things are finalized, Chairman's will get here very, very soon...
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