Happy New Year

I spent my xmas holidays with Laurie and the kids in Vancouver this year. It was very nice to be back in Canada, and being with friends and family again. The time between was awesome, but the flights back and forth have yet again supplied me with much amusement.

With my frequent flying these days, I have managed to get to Elite class for the star alliance group. Basically, you get free access to the lounges (very nice - healthy and not so healthy snacks, free drinks of all types, leather chairs, showers in some, etc....). Really nice. One benefit is the upgrade certificates which allow you, given space, to upgrade economy to business class or higher. Sweet!

So I figured, I will upgrade my flight from Frankfurt to Calgary, which was one of my stops on the way to Calgary. 10.5 hours would be much nicer in business class than cattle class. It was with a good deal of consternation that I found out there are many different classes of economy, and the certificates are only good for 4 types, not of which were on my tickets.

Basically, if you have a lot of nons i.e. non-refundable, non-transferable, etc... the grade of economy is reduced. Who knew? I tried in vain to upgrade to a higher level of economy, but the flight was sold out, and no room was left. Back to the land of plastic forks and knives for me.

It wasn't so bad though. I was excited about getting back to Canada, so I didn't let that bother me. Upon arriving in Calgary, I had to collect my luggage, go through customs, put my bags back on the baggage trolley, go out into the airport, and physically come back in through security. Ok, I can understand the customs part, where the baggage stays inside the "system", but why do travelers have to physically exit, then enter again. Everyone already goes through security at least once in any airport that can reach Canada, so it is just an inconvenience to travelers and airport staff alike. Anyone actually know the reasons for this?

Which leads me to the first amusing part of my trip. Well technically second as the first was the advertisement in the in-flight magazine for a "flawless" cubic zirconium necklace. Think about that for a moment. For when you want to give the very best. Marketing at its finest. The first serious WTF happening coming back in through security at Calgary. Let me say, there is probably no minimum IQ requirement for hiring security there.

Doesn't make me feel safe. What happened you wonder? Your jaw will either drop or you will laugh, but I swear this is true. I was picked out of the line for a "random" pat-down. Happened before but that was in San Francisco. I am standing there, arms spread wide, in a t-shirt. Gomer, or whatever his name was, starts patting down my arms. Remember, I am standing there in a short sleeved shirt. He is patting down skin. Did this on both sides. If I hadn't been so tired, I would have laughed, but I could only think, what the..... Scary, eh?

So I went to the lounge, and had a beer. The flight to Vancouver was uneventful, and thus I was able to start my holidays. My folks were kind enough to pick me up at the airport, and Laurie and kids came in the next night. -9 hour time zone change is a little rough.

More on the actual xmas break later.

So, the flight back. The US airways clerk didn't recognize or validate my elite status card (which I still couldn't use the upgrade certificates) but I can tag my bags priority and still use the lounges. I had to convince her that my card was correct and valid, the baggage tags I had were correct, etc...

I had to fly through Portland on my way back. Some of you may know this, but if you fly through a US airport, every bag will be opened and inspected. Every bag. If you put a lock on it, it will be cut off. Just an FYI (not that it happened to me). The initial flight in the Wright brothers plane, I mean the dash 8, was fun, as we flew at 11,000 feet through the cloud bank bouncing up and down. Lucky for me the Portland plane was delayed as well, as I wasn't sure if I would make it due to the Vancouver
flight being delayed.

After boarding, I was fit snuggly into my seat. I don't think I had been in a smaller chair yet. I had to put the seat belts over the arm rests before getting in, or they would never be reached. [Note to you smart-alecs out there, no my butt isn't getting bigger with all the german beer, thank you very much].

The one positive thing about this flight: real metal cutlery. Made a nice change.

The negatives. Well, lets just say it was a sequel to planes, trains, and automobiles. The older lady in front of me had a lovely habit of dropping her seat back with no warning, once during dinner. The man holding his baby sat behind me, either serenading me with colic crying, or kicking the back of my chair (hard to get mad at a baby, but boy is it frustrating). Then, I am not sure who it was, but someone near me must have thought it was a great idea to eat beans, high-fiber cereal, and other assorted roughage before getting on our flight. So to the person who was so generous with their ass gas, thanks. Really really did not enjoy that. Don't you love closed environments, not like you can just open a window. Lol.

So, I land in Frankfurt. I have a 4 hour layover until my flight to Düsseldorf. It's a 45 minute flight, and a 45 minute drive home. I could have driven to my apartment faster from Frankfurt rather than flying. Funny how that works sometimes. I headed over to the lounge.

Frankfurt airport has awesome lounges. This particular one I went to had a shower. That was most welcome, let me tell you. One word of caution, don't use the complementary shaving kits. I look like I went one-on-one with freddy kruger when I was done. May as well have shaved using a brick. The toilets in the lounges are cool. Never thought I would hear myself say that, but they are. The actual seat is attached to a motor, and once a person has finished using said commode, the motor spins the hard seating part, and applies a disinfectant to the entire surface as it rotates. Kind of like the hand sanitizers you see everywhere. Still, it's cool.

My last surprise was getting in my car and heading down the autobahn. I didn't notice until I was up at "close to" highway speeds, but my side mirror was dangling. Someone had broken off my side mirror, and didn't leave a note or anything. A long trip back to say the least.

Anyway, I am back in Germany again, and hope to hit a few places in the new year. Good money is on Dublin and Budapest, with Berlin also being likely. I will also put up pictures in the next few blogs as well.

Hope everyone has a great year! Laugh a lot, forget the bad stuff, and live life to its fullest. Cheers, and I hope you all enjoy the new adventures and stories to come.

Steve

Installment #6

Do I ever have a good yarn to spin this time. This tale has everything: thrills, chills, and even spills. A brief preview of what is to come: german engineering, more driving on the autobahn, the family vacation that was 2500km of driving and sightseeing in one week, London England , and generally weird stuff found on MTV here in Germany . But wait, there’s more, if you read now, I will let you in on a little known secret from the adult film industry. Intrigued? Read on...

Ok, since you are still reading, a friend of mine told me how adult film stars create their names. It is based upon the following formula: the name of a pet you have had (or still have) plus a street that you used to live on. That's it. Some of the more amusing ones I have come up with for myself have been Sweeny Mintwood and Kittyface Shelbourne. Anyone coming up with some funny names, send them to me and I will include them in the next installment. :-)

Just a warning: this is the biggest installment to date.

Ok, onto more interesting news. While it is still rather cool in Canada right now, where I live is in the middle of a heat way. No exaggeration, it is 28C right now. Combine that with no A/C and the lovely aroma of farmers fertilizing their fields equals a unique combination that doesn't rank too high on my list of favorites. At least there is nice cold beer in the fridge.

I am wondering if this will actually continue. We have had only 4 snowfalls this year, 2 of which occurred 4 weeks ago. I think it may be a very hot summer, made all the more enjoyable by the lack of A/C everywhere. My office is a concrete block type building with no A/C, my car (well you all know about that interesting piece of hardware by now) has no A/C, and neither does my apartment. I found that if I find a local autobahn, roll the windows down and drive as fast as I can, it is bearable. Carconditioning. Maybe I can coin a new catchphrase....

I did break down and by a fan for the apartment. Remarkably, it served two purposes. I drowned out the sound of the traffic going by all night, and kept me cooler as well. Probably should have bought one earlier.

My other purchase that I made recently, which I commented on in the last installment, was my GPS unit. I must admit, I really like this particular one a lot. The only problems I have had were the sudden warnings of 30kph speed cameras that surprised the hell out of me in France . As I was doing 130 on the autobahn, you can imagine my surprise. More on France later (trust me, there is more I have to say on France ).

The more I played with the Garmin Nuvi (GPS from now on), the more I appreciated the craftsmanship that went into this model. There are no buttons, and it is touch screen only. Some of you may be wondering about the ease of use with this setup. I will say this, no problems there. The designers must have really spent a lot of time thinking up what would be most important, and have it readily available. For example, the main screen zooms in or out depending on the length you have to travel to the next exit/roundabout/turn/etc... There is a small part on the screen to manually zoom in or out. You can get a list of all the next few instructions by clicking the top of the screen, you can manually scroll through the entire journey if you want. It also keeps track of total distance, current speed, max speed, etc. Very cool. It has a built in mp3 player, and the locations of hotels, restaurants, gas, recreation sites, airports, and a whole lot more. I find more things in it every day. Very cool from a technological point of view.

Though there is one thing I didn't like. The max speed calculation. Everyone knows I have the need for speed, hence my car purchase. Jumping ahead to the end of my families vacation for a moment, I let Laurie take the kids on the train to Düsseldorf’s airport (~ 1 hour) while I filled up the car with the luggage and drove to meet them there. I am thinking, hmmm, autobahn, wind at my back, big downhill stretch, let's go for it! The land speed record......yah baby. So I floored it. Imagine my disappointment when there really wasn't much change in my speed. BUT, it did slowly, ever so slowly increase (like my raises at Sierra). I watched as the needle climbed; 135, 140, 145, 150, 155.... The next 5kph took a few minutes. I managed the magical 160kph ! 100mph in a hamster driven Lada-reject. I quickly returned to my comfortable 130kph. Upon parking, I took out the GPS and looked at the stats. Suffice to say, my top speed wasn't 160 kph, or even 150 kph. It was 146. After I spent some time cursing the GPS for faulty programming, I came to realize that perhaps it was a result of automotive engineering and not my GPS. I figured there was no sense cursing the car anymore, so I have resigned myself to a life of grandparent speeds (here in Germany anyway) with my car.

Which also lead me to another train of thought. If I wasn't going what I thought I was going on the highways and byways, there is very little chance that I was (or capable of) speeding and getting caught on the numerous speed cameras all over the place. Have to look for the positive in everything! It definitely helps.

All righty then, onto german engineering. Most engineering here is organized, well designed, and usually has some creative thinking involved. Look at this urinal (urinal.jpg). While it looks fairly typical, what is different, is that there is a small etching of a fly (or something similar) near the base. This gives guys something to aim at (subconsciously) and reduces lets say splashage. Clever, absolutely.

While most german engineering is held to high standards, some Italian engineering is not held to the same high standards. Some Italian products are amazing, works of art even. Unfortunately, with art, sometimes form comes before function. As I don't have a camera right now, I cannot show you what I mean. I will only mention what it is, and send the photo with the next installment for those intrepid people who want to figure out what I meant by this cryptic message. The product in question is the toilet made by Pozzi-Ginori (Din 1385 - 6u) in my apartment. It looks very nice, but has a serious design flaw. More next installment.

As most of you know, Laurie and my boys came out for a 2 week visit at the end of March to the first week in April. It was wonderful for me to have everyone around. The kids were great the whole time, even in transit. They had their moments, but then again, who doesn't. I picked them up from the Düsseldorf airport on Saturday morning. Poor Laurie looked like she hadn't slept at all and was practically falling over. The kids managed to nap so they were a little more energetic. I had roses for Laurie when she came out of the arrivals gate. Yes, occasionally I can be romantic. The kids had some toys and treats waiting at the apartment as well.

By the time we finished the hours drive back to farm country here, I was pretty sure Laurie was seeing about 3 of me. I let her and the boys sleep for about 3 hours just to get over the main jet lag. I got everyone up, and we went for a little drive around town and then over to the base. I picked up some movies for the boys, and then we went down the street for some pizza. After that, we just settled down for the night. Sunday was pretty much the same, naps were taken, apartment destroyed (little boys tend to do that), and TV was watched. We did go over to my friend Romanus's house for lunch. That was a fun afternoon. Language is not a barrier for children who like to play. There was some nice garlicky food for me, and some chicken breast and potato salad for Laurie (who is a tad pickier eater than I am). Romanus and I planned ahead so that everyone would eat something.

The next two days, I had to work, so Laurie and the boys got over the remainder of the jet lag. Those two days went very slowly for me. But eventually the time was used up, and we were ready to start our vacation. We had a generic plan to follow with a few places being a "must-see" for the kids. In reality, we were the kid’s chauffeurs, but I like to refer to it as a family vacation.

The first day, we drove up to Madurodam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madurodam) just shy of Amsterdam ( Netherlands ). While I am sure the kids had a hankering for some brownies, we stuck to the more traditional McDonalds fare (if they were good). There is something to be said for feeding your kids really crappy food as a "reward" for good behavior. Anyway, Madurodam is a miniature city that was started in 1952. There are different representations all over the park, with miniatures of the Hague , airport, castles, etc... Extremely detailed, with some motorized components. (See all the pictures labeled madurodam#.jpg) I remember being here as a child myself, so it was definitely fun to return. The only real downside, is that you aren't really allowed to touch anything, so it is more of a "look at this" type of park. The only mishap that occurred was one of the qualifiers for this installment: the spill. Laurie didn't see a step off the bridge and had a tumble. Luckily, she used my camera to break her fall, and wasn't hurt. The camera got pretty banged up, and eventually went back with Laurie for repairs to Canada . That was it for the first day.

The next day, we decided to go to technopolis (http://www.technopolis.be/nl/index.php and click on the E for english) which is located between Brussels and Antwerp in Belgium . For the science geek in me, this was heaven! This is a place where kids learn, and don't even know it. There was a bicycle you could ride on a wire 30 feet above the floor. Laurie was the only one able to do it as the kids were too small, and I was too big/heavy. While I am sure the cable would have held, they adhere to the weight limit of 100kg. There were sections with water pressure, soap bubbles, telescopes, pulleys, inertia demonstrations (Justin moved a 5 ton rock by himself-movie available if you wish to see), physics involving lights, mass, velocity, etc... I will go back again myself. The one thing that made me laugh out loud was the signpost. They had all these big cities like Paris and new York i.e. 5000km but the only Canadian city was Sudbury ! Of all places, why that one? Absolutely fantastic, and we all had a great time.

Instead of going home that night, we decided to start for Legoland Germany which was in the opposite direction completely. We figured we would get a good start and head down early, rather than going back to the apartment for another night. As the kids were exhausted by running all over technopolis, they slept in the car for a good two hours. By the time 6pm was rolling around, we decided to test out the GPS's ability to find restaurants. It had been spot on with the directions we typed in, so we gave it more responsibility. Out of all the selections that were reasonably on our route, we picked a Mexican restaurant just off the highway. As just another example of the extraordinary luck we had on this trip, the restaurant had just opened for the night. No smokers in yet, and the kids were still well behaved. I had a nice steak, Laurie had chicken, and the kids shared a snitzhel. As we were finished, the crowd of smokers came in. Good timing. So off we went, and it got dark soon after that. We decided to find a place to sleep for the night.

The GPS got a little confused with the Deliverance county area we were in, and sent us on a small wild-goose chase about 500 feet from the actual hotel. As every road in Germany is built with the "if it is more than 20 meters long, make sure it curves over to somewhere" regulation. Small hint to the powers that be, straight can be nice once in a while. We managed to find the hotel after discounting the advice of a very confused woman trapped inside the GPS. Laurie bartered with the hotel staff and we got the room for a discounted price with breakfast included. You go girl! I think it took all of us 4 or 5 pico-seconds to fall asleep. Breakfast was a nice spread of food, and the coffee was fantastic. The one thing I will say for most places, is that you never go hungry at mealtime.

The only rain that we experienced the whole day was that previous day, which made it perfect for being inside at technopolis and driving. This new morning was cool, but sunny. Off to Legoland. As we had made good time in the Opel the day before, we only had about 2 hours to drive to Legoland. That was the plan anyway. Massive construction near Stuttgart allowed us to enjoy a 5 kph ride for 5 kilometers. Getting stuck in traffic, well, stinks. Believe it or not though, some good did come out of this. While not being in the best mood after being stuck in a car with no A/C, on a warm day, wasn't the most fun, we kept our spirits up. After all, if that was the worst thing that happened, then we should be glad.

We finally made it to legoland! (http://www.legoland.de/?lc=en) Not too many cars in the parking lot. Fantastic! We go to the gates to buy tickets, only to be told the park doesn't officially open until tomorrow. This is a "staff" and invite only day. Gah! Being slightly dejected, we bought tickets for the next day, and headed back to the car with the intent of finding something around the area. Well, remember when I said that something good came out of being stuck in traffic, something good did happen. A young man saw us walk away with the kids and came over to us. He had extra tickets as his parents couldn't make it, and gave them to us. If we had been an hour earlier, we would not have been in the right place at the right time. He didn't want any money or anything. It was a very kind act, and if he ever reads this, I want to thank him again.

Legoland is Awesome! Beats Disney hands down. Not because there were no lineups, but there is just so many things for kids to do that doesn't revolve around waiting in lines for rides. Many thrills were had by the boys and parents alike. Many are physical rides that you have to exercise to get the most out of them. Very clever thinking on someone’s part. The only ride we didn't go on was the bionical one. Basically it was a big metal hand that held you and spun you around, upside down, and all around. Too much sun and sugar pretty much guaranteed that I wouldn't be going on it. One thing I liked about Legoland was all the "hidden" stuff. The airplane has a guy sitting on the toilet reading a paper, the stewardess and the pilot are making out, etc... If the quality of the plane picture is too low, I can forward on a high res version later.

Like Madurodam, they have a miniature section that contains an airport, Newschwanstein castle, and a lot more. Amazing details to the sculptures. Just a fantastic day all around. The kids got lego treats at the end of the day, and were very happy about that. Not so happy when I told them not to open up all the toys in the car (little pieces have an easy time disappearing around little boys)

So, we completed a fantastic sunny and warm day at legoland. Now it was time to head down towards Newschwanstein castle. Now we were getting into the Bavarian region of Germany . We actually drove up into the alps. There is when I learned the true meaning of automotive power. Several times I was temped to drive off the highway on some hills, as 100kph was the absolute max speed I could muster up some of these roads. Didn't hamper those guys in the Audis, Mercedes, Ferraris, and lotus's.

We called upon our trusty GPS once again for a hotel room. The first one we found was nice enough, but they didn't have a big room for us. They offered 2 rooms to have a family night together. We found another place up the highway, which is normally a ski chalet near Edelsburg. Maybe not this year due to the poor winter they had, but it was still relatively cool. We had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant in the small village and retired for the night. As usual, Laurie had bargained with them, and we got the "apartment" suite. Two separate bedrooms, one for the boys, and one for us. Very nice!

We woke up to fresh snow fall, which was quite a change from the 18C day the day before. It was about 5C outside, and very little snow was actually coming down. That was our "chills" part of the vacation. It still made for a very nice moment, in a picturesque valley. We headed downstairs for breakfast. We met the only other people staying in the hotel, and had a very nice breakfast again. The owners actually made their own honey which was very good. I ended up buying a jar for myself. The part that I had not mentioned earlier, is that most of the small villages don't take visa. They have hookups to the german bank system but that's it. We had to pay cash a lot (I know, there are other reasons businesses like to take cash only). Not an insurmountable issue to say the least. So off we went, 20 minutes to the castle. Charge!

Screech to a halt. Another self correcting problem on the autobahn that we had to get across. Traffic was at a standstill for kilometers each way. We ended up backtracking about 5 kilometers and still got caught in the tail end of the traffic jam. Once we crossed under it and heading in the direction of the castle we were fine. With some initial confusion over parking, we set off on our castle adventure. Laurie got us the tour package to see both castles (Hohenschwangau and Newschwanstein). The Hohenschwangau castle was smaller than I expected but still impressive none-the-less. It had a beautiful view of the lake and of Newschwanstein castle as well. Our guide was entertaining and fairly knowledgeable. We missed riding up by horseback as the lineups were too long, and almost missed our english tour as there was no bus schedule posted. Luckily, we were able to ride up most of the way, and sprint the rest. In case you are wondering, yes, running uphill, pushing a stroller with a 40 lb kid uphill, dodging tourists, and trying to make the tour deadline probably pushed my heart rate higher than my car could ever go (160). The ironic part is, given the steepness of the hill, I probably could have paced my car if we were racing :-)

We decided to head up for Laurie's main stop of the vacation. the black forest region! There is a well known cafe there that is famous for its black forest cherry cake. So after the castle, we headed off with the intentions of driving 2 hours or so, then stopping for the night. We ended up above lake Bodensee (not far from Zurich Switzerland ). We stopped for dinner at a very nice place just off the water. I had the venison that was caught earlier that day, and the kids had the fancy equivalent of a hamburger or something. I can't remember. Anyway, the cost of the hotel started at 120 euro a night which is a tad expensive (~$160+) so we decided to keep going. After another hour it was dark, and we were evidently in the middle of an industrial area of Germany . Our GPS kept finding motels, but they were places that even Norman Bates would go. The first one was particularly funny for me, as we approached it, I sensed something in the seat beside me. It was Laurie shaking her head in that specific "no, no, not a chance, keep going" type of way.

So I figured, no problem, it is Saturday night after all. Let's just keep going. After another 2 hours of driving and searching, we finally came to a more reputable area to find hotels. One town we were in had 2 hotels. One seemed to have no-one working, and the other was in the middle of the nightclub section of town. Not going to work either way. So we kept going. By 11pm , we had actually reached Triberg, our destination. I figured, ok, short drive tomorrow. :-)

The first 3 hotels we found were closed, or no-one would answer. What hotel doesn't answer it doors on the busiest night of the week? At this point, the kids are already in a coma, and we are seriously contemplating sleeping in the car. The only thing I didn't like was it was 3C outside. So I continued on, shaking my head that I have to drive past where I wanted to go, only to return the next day. Luckily, I saw a best western out of the corner of my eye on the way out of town. Had to give my GPS a smack for not listing that one. Amazingly enough, they didn't answer the door bell either. I called the number on the door and got a voice message. Though tempted to test out all my newly acquired german swear words, I stated that we had needed a place to sleep and we were about to leave to find a new place. Luckily for me, as I was getting in the car to leave, Sparky showed up at the door. He only had two small rooms left, so I took them. I didn't care if I spent more as I was falling over anyway. I took Rhys with me and Laurie took Justin. The nice thing is that both rooms had a huge flat screen. Didn't matter as I was soon asleep.

Triberg is a neat town literally buried in a valley. Very steep roads and hills, with a small river running through it. Very picturesque when your eyes aren't bloodshot and crossed. We had the standard eat-your-fill buffet, then headed down to the cafe. Laurie's cake still had 30 minutes before it was made so we sat down and had some other pastries. The woman who ran the shop was about as rigid as a person could be. A big broomstick shoved somewhere, if you get my drift. Justin and Rhys had leaned in to look at the cakes behind the glass enclosure, and she barked at them. Then came around with a spray bottle and paper towel to wipe down the glass. Now, the kid’s fingers were clean. Oh well. Laurie’s cake finally came, and I must admit, it was very very good. Way better than what I had. I had taken a picture that would have been an instant classic of Laurie eating that cake, but she snatched the camera from my hands and deleted it. I will still have that memory, I just wish I could have shared it.

As we had traveled so far the previous day, albeit unintentionally, we decided to find a local attraction. There was a historic settlement village on the way our so we decided to stop there. On the way, we found out that Triberg is known for their coo coo clocks. Laurie stopped at one of the shops and got an impromptu lesson on clock building from the owner. After this, we stopped at the historic village in vojtsbraunstien. It was very interesting to see the ways of life for the settlers back in the middle ages. The part that struck me as interesting, was that none of the houses had chimneys. I will have to find out the reason for that. All the smoke just collected and filtered out of the roof, which was typically straw thatching.

The last part of our vacation was Euro Disney, or as it now referred to as Disneyland Paris. Or wait-in-line-all-day-schmuck-land as I may call it. Getting there was a real treat. For some reason, our GPS decided that the autobahn that was in a straight line, was not the fastest way to go. At one point we were driving south instead of west on toll roads. At this point, we were already frustrated with the GPS (given the earlier speed trap warnings of 30kph on the autobahn). Well, the prospect of finding a hotel, in the French countryside on Easter Sunday was a little daunting. I figured that, indeed, we may be sleeping in the car. We spied a roadside hotel at one of the rest stops. After being lead on a wild goose chase by a completely inebriated GPS unit, we were ready to take what we could get. Almost! The sign on the building said 39 euro for the night, which seemed really cheap, but it was a truck stop. Well, Laurie got the room and we went up to it. Our stay was about 30-40 seconds long, max. There was one double bed, a twin, a black and white TV in the corner, and a bathroom down the hall. Approximately 11 feet long, 6 feet wide. Sailors wouldn't stay there. It was a closet that they charged us 89 euro for. Needless to say, we got our money back.

So off we went with our now not-so-dependable GPS unit. Ignoring the occasional imaginary speed trap warnings, we proceeded to find hotel after hotel that were closed. We eventually found one near the big A4 highway in Commercy. Didn't look like a nice place, or a great part of town, but we were tired, and wanted to sleep. The hotel wasn't actually that bad, and since Laurie spoke French to the clerk/owner (and checked the room out first), we got a discount. We ended up with 2 rooms, since it seems that families never travel in France so each room only has one bed. The rooms were also very small, so no extra space for another cot or anything. We settled in for the night, as it was Easter Sunday. Of course, there was absolutely nothing open, including restaurants. We salvaged a "meal" from all the left-overs in the car. Not exactly filling, but better than nothing.

The next morning was nice. My car wasn't broken into (considering the neighbourhood), and it was a nice sunny day. We had planned the next two days, and did something smart. We booked our hotels in advance. Crazy, I know. Laurie had the pleasure of discovering the state of women’s washrooms along the highway (see photo).

We disregarded the advice from our GPS and made our own way to eurodisney. For some reason, going in a straight line to your destination doesn't take as much time, who would have thunk it? We got to the holiday inn Disney fairly early in the afternoon. Seeing as I was at about 2100km of driving in a week at this point, Laurie let me have a nap while she took the kids to the pool. Oh, glory days!

We went looking for a restaurant outside the Disney area as the prices either required a second mortgage on the house, your first born, or sitting through a time-share session. None really appealed to us, so we drove around and found a tex-mex place. Interesting place to find a tex-mex restaurant, but what the hey. I had a hankering for ribs and so did Laurie. The waiter basically forgot that he had sat us, and only remembered us when we got up to go. I realize that being the only people in the restaurant was probably a little confusing to him, seeing as we interrupted his play time in the parking lot. No word of a lie, but the staff were in the parking lot doing wheelies with a moped. Fun times. I passed on the Bison, and opted for the Texas platter. Better not hope for Texas tourists. Thumbs down is all I will say. Ended up being one very expensive yet crappy meal. A theme that was going to re-occur over the next few days.

We even stopped by the disney arcade/walkway which is open to the public. We let Justin and Rhys play a game of bowling, and did the family air hockey bit. That was fun. Video games were a bargain at $2/game . At that point we called it a night.

So, after a decent night sleep and only 3 hours of driving the previous day, we were ready to hit disney! Along with 35000 school kids that just happened to be off that week for Easter holiday. GAH! Even being there early didn't help. While Disney is actually similar to the park in Orlando , albeit a little smaller, it still had the same feel. The boys were excited, and we bought each of them a disposable camera so they could "make their own memories". We went on as many rides as we could, discounting the huge line ups and height restrictions. I figure we managed to get on about 7 during the course of the day. The average line up was about 40-60 minutes, and longer for rides like space mountain. It was a good day all in all. Sunny but not too hot, the kids were well behaved for the most part. Justin wanted no part of our $30 pizza for lunch. I did my best, and washed it down with a $5 coke.

We then headed to our next hotel, the hotel explorer, aka overpriced hell. The room was clean. That is about all I can say. There were two small adjoining areas to the room: one for a toilet with no fan, and the other for a sink and a shower. Now some of you may be thinking, why not put that it one bathroom? Good question. I have no answer for that one.

The hotel had a bunch of kids stuff to play in, like a massive jungle gym room. There were large kids running around doing the Jackie Chan bit, while smaller kids were basically getting knocked around. There was a pool with a large water slide. One may think that swimming under the outlet is not a good idea. In the morning, I saw a 10 year old girl swimming under there and I told her to move as she will probably get hit by someone flying out. She ignored me. She took a fat kids butt to the head for her ignorance. The funny thing is, you would think she learned her lesson. Nope. 10 minutes later, same thing. Sometimes you really have to wonder.

Back to the reoccurring theme of overpriced, god-awful food. This place topped the cake for underachieving quality. The dinner was a buffet. I think it cost the four of us 60 euro ($75). There was a small selection of salad i.e. lettuce and tomato, some breaded soggy fish, potatoes that were probably as old as I am, and 4 bowls of pudding. Rock and roll. You had to pay extra if you wanted juice or milk. Coffee or pop came with our interesting repast.

I really didn't think that buffet could be topped until I saw the breakfast buffet. There was 4 types of cereal, some orange slices, dry rolls which were left over from the night before, and not much else. If you wanted to, you could pay another 8 euro and get bacon and eggs. I figure I would wait on that. So, having enough of bad over priced food, and rude people, we headed back to the village of Geilenkirchen . The kids were pretty much done in by all they had done so we drove straight home and rested for the next two days.

On the Friday, Laurie and the boys took the train to the Düsseldorf airport. This was the day of my epic speed run. We stayed at the Sheraton (a tad nicer than most of the places we stayed), and had a really nice meal at the hotels restaurant. In the morning, I saw my family off, which was pretty hard for me. The boys were excited about being on a plane again, and seeing their friends. Laurie had a good time too, but doing that much traveling is tiring as well.

So I hopped into my car, and went to Weeze, where one of the economy airlines fly out of. I had a ticket for $100 return to London , so I decided to go see Mike and Janna, who were nice enough to put me up for the weekend, even though Janna wasn't feeling too well.

London is a crazy town! It is very large, with a real sense of history. I didn't have much opportunity to take pictures as Laurie brought my camera back with her for repairs. I did have my disposable and borrowed Mikes digital camera as well. Those pictures will be added later when I receive them.

Again, I was lucky enough to have had the best weather ever in London . Not a cloud in the sky, bordering on hot. I had dinner with Mike and Janna at a hole-in-the-wall Indian store that made some phenomenal curry. Yum. Then, Mike and I hit a pub for a few beer and a lot of talking. The next day, we spent walking around London , seeing things like the Abbey, Big Ben, the eye of London , etc.... I was able to meet a few of Mike’s friends from the Google office where he works. Cool bunch of people, and I enjoyed hanging out. Even got sunburned. Ever the trooper, we set off for another pub, the fox and something. Evidently the smallest pub in London . Even before we got there, we had a funny story. We were consulting the map, as the streets evidently were laid out by a dope smoking hippie freak. We happened to be in front of a store where there was construction work happening on the sidewalk. Granted this is 9pm at night on Easter Sunday at this point. This round woman, and I do mean round (bowling ball on legs), comes up to us and asks us what we were doing. While still marveling at the anatomical impossibleness of what we were seeing, none of us were quite sure what to say, besides looking at the map. She points to the construction again, and asks us what we were doing again. I guess we looked like construction workers, lol. We told her we were looking for the pub, which turned out to be 4 turns and 200 feet away. Cute little place. Reminded me of the small pub by the college next to the barber shop on Bank and Sunnyside (same building as the theater I think).

Well, the next day came, and with it another beautiful day. We had a nice breakfast and went on another walk to the park. Very nice parks in London . A few odd people here and there, but it did add character to the city. I had to catch the bus at 4 to head off to the airport. I got back to my door at 11:30 . Might have been a cheap flight, but it was a pain to make it to each remote airport. As for driving on the left side of the road, that messes with your head. I didn't know which way to look crossing the street.

As for the MTV strangeness, there is a cartoon that is played regularly here that is similar to "happy tree friends" called "100 squirrels who suicide" or something like that. Basically, each episode is a cartoon squirrel, looking impossibly happy, as he kills himself in disgusting ways. While I realize that everyone's tastes are different, kids can see this, and it is not really that amusing. Just my 2 cents.

Well, that's all for now. Hope you all enjoyed this installment, and I look forward to sending out the next.

Steve

Installment #5

Completely useless trivia: The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card.

Hey Gang,

It's time again for another rousing tale of adventure and intrigue. Let's start off with the most recent event: my attempt at the autobahn! That was an experience unto itself, let me tell you.

My trip actually started out with a plan to visit a small town called Kalkar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalkar) which is about 2 hours away from here. Kalkar is a small village that is over 1000 years old, and one of the few places left largely untouched by WW2. That was the plan anyway. Turns out life had more interesting adventures in store for me.

I know understand why everyone here swears by their GPS units. There is not one street sign, highway sign, marking, or indication of north/west/south/east to be found anywhere! I have always taken for granted 401 East means I am heading east. Imagine if you will....(special twilight zone reference) driving down roads that have more curves than Gina Lollabrigida and Pamela Anderson put together, when you come to 2 exits, both for highway B34 (one going to farfrompooping, the other to gogetinzielost). Two towns you never heard of, and are not found on any map. You know you have to take one of the exits. Which one? At this point, you make a swag (sophisticated wild ass guess) and hope for the best.

Did I guess correctly? Not even close. I had thought I was heading north, when, in all actuality, I was heading west. May be an idea to purchase one before Laurie and the kids head out here in 2 weeks. I do get to see quite a bit of the European country side. I did end up in Roermond , Netherlands though (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roermond).

Ah, but you all want to hear about the autobahn, and my experience on it. There were a few things that I didn't take into consideration. Google maps told me it was two hours away (my original destination of Kalkar). That is following highways speeds in Canada of approximately 100 kph. I also found that there is a massive difference between the "A" highways and "B" highways (labels i.e. A12 and B221). "A" highways are the autobahn roads. "B" highways, if you can call them that, are restricted to 100 kph, and you will never get that fast, as they wind through every village ever built. Last on my list of things not thought of was the car.

Now, I have heard various comments about my beautiful Opel Corsa from the peanut gallery, which may have had a detrimental effect to my ego. Ok, maybe not, but my lambormini, my fuel injected 1.2 litre rocket was up to the challenge. Sure, the 8 hamsters I have under the hood were really pissed at me for even attempted the autobahn, but even the little furry beasts had to be proud to get the car up to 140 kph. Felt a little like Andy Green (click here to get the reference --> http://www.roadsters.com/750/).

I set out on the road to Kalkar, and quickly hit the autobahn. Very cool, as I was finally, for the first time, able to actually pass a car! Probably those 800cc mini cars and not a glorious performance sedan like mine. Well, 140 is probably the fastest I would want to go in this car. The actual recommended speed is 130 kph, but there is no enforcement. You can think of this as a self-correcting issue, one that I very nearly found out (as a spectator, that is). So there I am, zipping down A44 towards Düsseldorf in the slow lane (don't really want to be in the fast one for soon to be apparent reasons). The trickiest part of driving on the autobahn isn't about watching what is in front of you, but rather what is coming up behind you. As I was passing a Fiat Punto, I glanced in my rearview mirror. About a kilometer back was some lime green vehicle. I didn't give it much thought until 10 seconds later as I am pulling in front of the other car, and glance again. About 300 meters back now, and going at least 200+ was this lime green Porsche carerra. I am pretty sure that was what the car was, but it went by so fast, I felt like I was parked. Up ahead, there were two cars side by side, and I didn't think the Porsche could stop in the next kilometer in time. He did, but it was close. I have never seen someone drive so fast on a public road. It was wild!

Granted, I had to turn up the music loudly to distract myself from the engine protesting about the speed. Let's just say, it wasn't a fast climb to that speed, and I am sure that there was a tail wind.

I ended up basically doing a large loop that started in Germany , through the Netherlands , and back to Germany . Definitely getting my driving practice in. I have included a picture of a speed restrictor like I had mentioned in the last installment. Combine these with round-abouts, and you don't get anywhere fast (unless you are on the autobahn where these structures don't exist). Lime green! What kind of masochistic person paints a Porsche Carerra lime green. There really should be a law!

I did do some actual site seeing as well. I missed my window to Zurich this time, but it will probably happen again in the near future. I found that with enough planning, you can get a flight pretty much anywhere in Europe for 89 euro. After Laurie and the kids head out, I am going to fly to London to visit Mike Jennings. I am hoping to get to Prague , Munich , Paris , Luxembourg , and many others during my stay here. As I mentioned before, if you want to live vicariously through me, let me know the destination, and I will try and get there for you.

I did end up last week in a small town in the Netherlands called Valkenburg. The reason I seem to end up there a lot, is that I am only 10 km from the border. Valkenburg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valkenburg_aan_de_Geul) was a very important site historically. This town has had the castle rebuilt 4 times over the centuries and is perched upon a hill that can oversee the surrounding valley. As the geography in this area is predominantly flat, it was a strategic position to be built.

During WW2, villagers were hid in the caves under the castle, which extends through a myriad of tunnels over 5 kilometers long. There were 5 "escape" exits from these caves. The caves are also used for markets during specific times of the year. I have included some photos with this email. As this area was a sea millions of years ago (I will have to take their word for that :-)), the rock that the castle is built upon is soft and easy to carve. This may be why the castle fell apart 4 times, but that is only a theory. The caves where a mine, where block breakers would carve out blocks to be used for the castle and other buildings.

The tunnels are full of loop backs and various heights in the ceiling. In some areas the ceiling is less than 6 feet high, in others over 12. Due to the permanent dampness in the caves, the drawings and art work on the walls remain in fantastic condition. I took the tour and pictures. The entire tour was done in Dutch, so it was a literal "lost in translation". Luckily for me, I did my own research before going on the tour, so I wasn't completely lost.

American soldiers are honoured in one part of the cave with a series of silhouettes and having their names engraved in the walls (with their signature styles). American and Canadian forces are generally held in high regard in this region of the Netherlands .

The town itself is very nice, with the old and new mixed together. Many cobblestone roads with lots of coffee shops and restaurants. Similar too many villages in this area. Enjoy the photos. I will actually visit some castles that are not in ruins :-). In 2 weeks time, my wife and kids are coming for a visit, so I plan to see this castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein) and with any luck a few more. That will be fun!

I also passed by Europe’s largest indoor ski hill in Landgraaf (http://www.snowworld.nl/default.aspx?ID=49&flash=true). I will have to do this sometime soon. From the outside, it looks like a very long building built onto the side of the hill. Funky!

Well that is all for now. Hope that everyone is doing well! Until the next installment...

Steve

Installment #4

Hey Everyone,

Time for installment four of the chronicles of Steve. Question of the day... What is a 1/64th of a music note called? Answer at the bottom of this email.

Well, I finally got motivated to write the next chapter of my adventures, so here we go. We have got adventure this time as I traveled to Cologne . Amazing city, with pictures this time. And spent (inadvertently) a great deal of time driving in the Netherlands . Note to self: buy a map you cheap bastard.... There is also Carnivale! Which I missed most of as I was in Canada that week. More on this soon. Also, the joy of driving in Germany .

The most amazing thing happened when I got off the plane this time. I didn't get sick! Such a nice change from hacking my lungs out. It is really something when being healthy is a big point in your life. The completely ironic part was that everyone (with one exception) in the office had some sort of cold. Go figure.

In the past month and a half, I actually had a small trip home. I had to be there to sign some paperwork so that I could allow Laurie out of the country with the kids. No, she isn't running away :-). In order to visit me, she needed the paperwork done. It was a very short trip in which I didn't get to see very many people at all. My apologies if I didn't get a chance to see some of you. I certainly wish my trip could have been longer.

Ok, Carnival. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival) This is an annual festival, with Christian origins, that is held annually on the west side of Germany (mainly) right before lent. Although the origins were stepped in religious roots, the party (for lack of a better word) is really an excuse to party. This is a family affair as children are everywhere. There are plays, shows, parades and parties. Where it becomes really fun is that most people dress up in costumes and most parties are in public (on the streets, downtown, etc...) Düsseldorf and Cologne (Köln) can have up to a million partygoers on the street at anytime. The best analogy I can think of is Halloween, in February, for an entire week, where you just have a boatload of fun. Since you can already drink in public anyway, this tends to become a fascinating spectacle.

As I mentioned earlier, I missed most of it as I was in Canada . Upon landing in Dusseldorf , I went to the train station to catch my ride back to Bumpkinville , Germany . I actually missed my first train as I couldn't literally get to it in time. There were probably 500 clowns coming down the stairs from the train platform in my way. No, I wasn't being derogatory. There were 500 clowns. Well maybe 300 clowns, 50 cowboys, and various ballerinas, gangsters, hookers, and assorted other strange folks :-)

Hard to get angry when people are having fun. Even though I was very tired, I understood how important this is in Germany . I wish I was here for most of it, but I wouldn't give up my family time for anything. Parties will come and go. Anyway, this Carnivale is as big as Oktoberfest in September (Oktoberfest normally goes from Sept to Oct 2nd). Septemberfest just doesn't have the same ring to it. On the same note, I AM going to Oktoberfest this year. Anyone that wants to go let me know so I can start planning!

So I bought a car. Canadian exchange rates as they are, plus insurance prices here, compelled me to find an "economical" car. Those who know me know that I like my vehicles to be big, or at the very least powerful. Well my black, fire-breathing, 2-door sports coupe does an incredible 0 to 100 kph in "pack a lunch". I can take a nap before getting up to that speed. I bought an Opel Corsa with a 1.2 liter engine. I can hear some people laughing right now. Yes, my motorcycle engine is 50% larger than this "car". I am not sure I can call it a "car", training car maybe.

All joking aside, I can't complain. I couldn't justify a huge expenditure on a vehicle to get me to work, and to get me around for groceries and the occasional excursion. Granted, when doing 100 kph, the engine sounds like a mosquito on steroids. And no, I am not going anywhere near the autobahn in this bad boy. Heck, even the kids laugh when I go through school zones. So much for my internal man of mystery status.

That leads me to the actual driving in Germany . Wow, what can I say? We are spoiled in the land that is known as Canada . So much open space and huge lanes. The only downside is the speed limits back home that are quite slow in comparison. There are many types of roads here: autobahn, regular highway, country roads, and towns. Generally on the autobahn, the acceptable rate of travel is 130 kph, though there is technically no limit. You have to slow down for certain areas (which is considerably more difficult when going 200+) but you can literally go as fast as your death wish allows. Most other highways have a limit of 100 kph. The other roads are usually 70 or 50 depending on where you are, and whether you are in a town or not.

Most drivers here are very good, with the sole exception, it seems, of Mercedes drivers. The typical driver of a Mercedes can be summed up like this "Bah, I have a powerful status automobile, which should be driven to its full capacity. It is not my problem that they built a school here...." Most Mercedes drivers don't care about the speed limits here. Granted a speeding ticket is usually only 20 euros so they can afford it. Doesn't make it right though.

Side Note: Mercedes are considered the “it” cars here. BMWs are just “ok”. Funny how perceptions are different where you live.

There are many small villages spaced out, on the average, about 3-4 kilometers apart. I pass through 2 towns on my way to work, which is only 6 kilometers away. Most towns and areas have two unique features to them that we don't see back home, round-abouts and speed swerves. Round-abouts are circular roads that form an intersection. No lights! You can only enter the round about if it is safe to do so. This is rather effective in keeping traffic moving believe it or not. The speed swerves (not sure of the actual name) are a set of raised bricks in the road to slow down traffic.

Most often found at the entrance and exit of villages. The usual setup is 2 embankments on one side and one on the other. There are two levels of this embankment: low and high. The low parts are sufficiently extended so that two cars cannot avoid it at the same time. The rise is only an inch or two high, so low speeds are not a real problem. You wouldn't want to hit these at high speed. The inner raised part is quite a bit higher. Most traffic lets one way go first and to the "obstacle" course. If you encounter a Mercedes driver, chances are you will have to drive onto the embankment to avoid being hit. I will try and take a picture of one soon for you. There are other types of traffic calming setups here as well. Mainly in villages and towns.

Think we have it hard back home, check here (http://gettingaroundgermany.home.att.net/zeichen.htm ) Talk about confusing. Driving here is not easy. Especially if you don't have a map. There are no signs saying east/west/etc.... Nor do most signs point out the larger cities. As it is very crowded, most signs tell what small town is next, or upcoming. Not that I care whether it is Brunssum or Maastrich. I had a real fun time getting home the other night from Sittard. I decided to drive over to the Netherlands for a movie. They have a stadium-style cinema (8 screens) with fairly recent movies. They also serve beer. Nice!

Anyway, I left when it was dark. Due to lack of map, light, and common sense, I started driving. I ended up at some major city in the Netherlands , which was odd as I don't live near any big city anywhere. I had a generic map I pulled out of a tourist magazine and that was it. Well, 12 villages later, I started to recognize where I was. Problem was, I had just left Sittard an hour previously, and now I was back. It is small wonder that everyone in the office swear by their GPS systems. Ah, it was fun anyway. Now I know the area better. Always have to look to the positive side of things!

So, besides having common sense and a map, I got to see more of the country than I planned on.

Another adventure that I had, was that I went to Cologne . Wow, what a city! I found that Cologne has that really interesting mix of old heritage and modern day feel at the same time. It is quite a site to see 1000 year old buildings next to shiny steel and glass buildings. Very unusual, but cool at the same time. Yes, pictures are included in this email.

Cologne has one of the most magnificent churches in Europe. As you get out of the central train station, you are literally as the base of the DOM. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne). This cathedral is huge, and you can literally see why it took hundreds of years to complete (started in 1248, and completed in 1880). It is simply an amazing work of architecture. I really enjoyed seeing this building. It is quite the site. In answer to many people’s questions, no, I didn't burst into flames walking in the front door. Though I was admonished for failing to remove my hat.

Next to this cathedral was the roman museum that show-cased many artifacts of the roman occupation that had occurred in this area. There were many items of jewelry, tombs, pillars, sarcophaguses, etc... Really amazing when you can see the advancements as the Romans progressed through the various ages (iron, bronze, etc..)

I also took the time to walk around the city. In total, I probably did a 10 kilometer circuit which I enjoyed immensely. Seeing various ancient buildings mixed in with the circus of life was very interesting. There are many "streets" in Cologne that do not allow motorized traffic. Think Sparks street on a huge scale across the city. Cologne has many of the same properties that we do. People begging for change, performance artists, really bad performance artists, colourful characters, and great food. I saw some guy who allowed you to pet his llama for a euro. Insert your own joke in here, I am leaving that one alone. I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of this pink pigeon I saw. I have never seen a pigeon this colour before (no, it wasn't spray painted).

The most disturbing thing was the replica of the statue of David outside yet another museum. The eyes and the colour were just plan wrong. Looks like a jaundiced sex offender.....

One of the fascinating things is seeing how old and new blend together to make this cohesive whole. I can't wait to visit other places soon. This weekend I believe I will be going to Maastrich in the Netherlands and one other place to be determined. If anyone has ever had an inkling to go somewhere around this area, or have a site that they always wanted to go to and/or see, let me know. I can let you live vicariously through me. Let me know the destination/site, and I will do my best to visit it and take some photos.

Laurie and the kids are coming out to visit me next month for 2 weeks. That will be great. The hardest part for me is being away from them. We plan on hitting many classic sites like Euro Disney and Lego Land (for the kids), Brugge and other cities for Laurie and me. I want to take a boat trip on the Rhine , maybe stay overnight in a castle, and ride the bullet train. Unlike Tom Cruise, I will keep my sanity in check and ride inside!

The next few months will be great, and I will hopefully have some amazing pictures for everyone.

All the best.

Steve

Installment #3

First and foremost, I want to wish everyone a happy new year and hope all your holidays were wonderful. So merry Christmas, Hanukah, Festivus, or kwanza, whichever you celebrate. 2007 is upon us now, and it should be a great year.

I apologize for being tardy with this installment of the adventures of Steve, but once again, I have had the exceptional luck to pick up something again on those flying disease tubes that people often refer to as airplanes. I have spent the last 12 days sounding like a 70 year old, 3 pack a day, asthma sufferer. This time around it was bronchitis and a sinus infection.

I did get to see the doctor on base. Several times actually. The first doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics and some other stuff that was supposed to work. Some did, some didn't. The next doctor, Mengeles or something, gave me this stuff for my incessant coughing. Good news, I am almost over it. Bad news was the side effect of this magic elixir. I would have to say the side effects were almost worse than the illness. I was warned that I would experience an elevated heart rate at times, profuse sweating, and paranoia. Let me tell you, there is nothing like waking up at 2 am with your heart trying to beat its way out of your chest while sweating like a fiend. To big guy like me, it feels like a heart attack. Lovely.

That being said, it has been an interesting couple of weeks, both back home and here in Germany.

I had a great 2 weeks back in Ottawa! I was able to see my friends, get lots of little things done around the house, see a few movies, and spend time with Laurie and the boys. We spent xmas over in Apsley and Laurie's mom actually provided me with 2 very important items: Tim Horton's coffee and an umbrella. Both are life savers.

Justin is now missing 6 teeth, all in the front. Looks similar to a professional hockey player. Justin is getting proficient at a computer game "Star Wars Lego II". That is all I ever hear about when I call, so it must be important to him. Rhys is just as cute and rambunctious as ever.

Getting all my visa information to the German embassy in Ottawa was fun. The embassy section for visas is open only 2 hours a day, and the lady helping me was not happy in the slightest about the fact that I have already been here. No siree, not happy at all. I was read the riot act about that each time I went back. Gah. Luckily it all ends well. Just received notice of my visa yesterday at the time I wrote this up.

Flying back to Germany was interesting. I was originally routed through Pittsburgh and had a 5 hour wait until my flight to Frankfurt was to leave. That left me with a lot of time to kill. The main concourse for international flights is rather boring on the main level. There are 2 pieces of "art"? A liberty bell made from Lego. Which I will admit was an impressive Lego sculpture, and some thing made from wire and hair. I have attached two photos, so you can judge for yourselves.

After I checked in for the flight, I found out the flight was 20% oversold. I was going to see how much an upgrade to first class was, as there were a lot of kids around. Flying a long flight, in coach, with a lot of kids, makes for a very very long flight. Well, when I enquired, the airline representative stated they were looking for volunteers. Me me me me oohh oooh pick me me.....

The only catch was the change in flights. I was now flying out 7 hours later to Paris, but in FIRST CLASS BABY! I was psyched about that, but the idea of spending 7 hours in a very boring terminal was not my idea of fun. Luckily, this upgrade came with a lot of other perks as well. In addition to my new 1st class ticket, I was also given a voucher to the 1st class lounge. See picture. That was half the lounge. Unlimited booze, unlimited food, they had football playing on the plasma TVs. Yup, drinking beer and watching football. It was tough for 7 hours, but I managed.

I even got a voucher for an additional flight anytime in the next year. Sweet!

All I can say is that 1st class rocks. Man, oh man. The chair itself was amazing. All electronic, 2 lumbar supports, 3 way settings for your legs, reclined almost vertical, built in lcd screen. Dang!

The whole flight was amazing. The menu was wild as I had a choice of filet mignon, swordfish, or some vegetarian meal. Served with real cutlery and table cloths, unlimited drinks, and private bathrooms. I am so spoiled! (or lucky depending on how you look at it).

Alas, all things have to end and the pilot insisted on landing. Pop. There goes that dream bubble. It was still wonderful while it lasted. Landing in Charles de Gaulle airport was weird. No other way to describe it. They have the most up way of handling connections. I am not a dumb guy, and it took me a few moments to get used to the signs. Also, while using the washroom there, I came across this sign. I personally believe that quality control should have caught this one. See photo.

I eventually got to Düsseldorf, and proceeded to catch the airport train (S7) to the Düsseldorf Banhof. If you see letters like this, HBf, it means the center, or main, stop in any town. Just an FYI. I caught a connector train that brought me to Geilenkirchen in about an hour, and I just missed my connection with the local bus. I had to wait until one of the 4 taxis in town decided to come by the train station.

I only had to wait 20 minutes, so I was grateful that I would soon be in my bed comatose. I literally carried my bags upstairs when the doorbell rang. Caught me off-guard as I couldn't figure out who would visit. Turns out to be my buddy at work, Romanus, who wanted to see if I was back.

In addition to wanting the laptop I brought back for him, he was also wondering where I was. There was evidently a mix up in the information my boss had, and I was expected at work on Monday. Seeing as it was 4:45pm, it just wasn't going to happen. The powers that be are a little jittery regarding me and my job. More the history, as 5 consultants have been here in the last 2 years. Not a great track record to be sure. The next morning, I got the same. "Give us lots of notice if you decide to stay back in Canada...." and other ridiculous statements like that. They don't know me too well yet, obviously. I gave my word that I will not run out on them.

Anyway, it was nice to be home (see photos). The next two weeks were fairly uneventful, due to my being ill and not up for much. Granted I am pretty much limited by my lack of vehicles here. More on that later. What I will cover will be my living conditions, and promise that the next installment will have more interesting stories of Germany with pictures.

Did you know that the dishwashers here have a container for salt as well? The water must be pretty hard for washers to require that. Lots of different ways of doing things as well. Stoves sometimes have fans inside them to circulate the hot air around. This speeds up cooking time. Most cooking directions have instructions for regular and fan-assisted ovens.

I have a Grill Master next door. This is a chain with a bunch of locations all around Germany. Think of a very tiny McDonalds with schnitzel instead of burgers (though you can have those too) and having the ability to buy beer with your meal. Side note: you can drink beer in public here, I saw guys on the train knocking them back, walking around town, etc...

To alleviate my boredom while home sick, I can do several things: watch TV, play computer games, watch movies, or pester my friends with phone calls. My boss was kind enough to let me hook up to his sling box. It is an electronic appliance that you hook up to your satellite or cable system. Then you load the viewer onto your PC/laptop. I get a virtual TV and remote that I can use anywhere. I can watch canadian TV here now. Fantastic stuff. Movies I either rent from the base, or find online. Now I get to the cool stuff. I have a vonage number. It is an Ottawa number, so if you live there, it is a local call for you. Calling my number makes my computer "ring". If I am home, I can answer and talk over the internet. Please remember that I am +6 hours from you. If you are not in Ottawa, I am sure the rates to call an Ottawa number are much cheaper than calling Germany. I also have voicemail setup, so you can leave a message. My number is 613-216-2347. I also have skype setup (http://www.skype.com). If you want a completely free way to talk with me, load skype onto your PC. I would recommend having high speed connections. After loading skype software, it will prompt you to create an account. My account here is "peurope". Add my account name to your contact list. Then just click to phone, and my pc rings again. Skype also allows video conferencing, so if you have a web camera already installed, then you can see who you are talking to. Anybody needing instructions or help to install and configure, let me know.

We had one of the biggest wind storms blow through here the other day. It was amazing to see. Most of the houses in this area are brick with terracotta shingles on the roof. Roofs were disintegrating everywhere, and you had to watch for flying debris. Here is a brief write-up from wikipedia. Note the wind speed.

January 18, 2007. In the wake of storm Kyrill, storm-warnings were given for several countries in Europe with severe storm-warnings for some areas. Schools in particularly threatened areas had been closed by mid-day, to allow children to get home safely before the storm reached its full intensity in the late afternoon. At least 32 people were killed as violent storms lashed northern Europe, causing travel chaos across the region. Britain was the worst hit with fifteen people killed as rain and gusts of up to 99mph (159km/h) swept the country. Sustained wind speeds of up to 73mph were recorded. Five people were killed during the storm in the Netherlands. In both Germany and the Netherlands the national railways were closed.

For my next installment, I am planning to go back to Aachen and over to Cologne. I will take photos, and try to absorb some history to regurgitate back to you. That’s all for now. Hope everyone is doing well, and I will be in touch soon.

Steve

Installment #2

Week 2.

Skill testing question of the week. What is the plastic piece at the
end of a shoelace called? Yes, it actually has a name. Answer at the
bottom of this email.

I will wrap up this, and following weeks, into a generic story rather
than splitting it up like I did the first week. I am sure I won't have
something everyday, but I will try and add as much as I can so that you
all can enjoy my adventure as well. If you do not wish me to include
you in this email, please let me know and I will remove your name from my
mailing list.

This week started off interesting. Besides not feeling the crushing
pressure of jet lag, or the ever present coughing sessions, I felt pretty
good this morning. Still coughing a bit, but nothing like last week. I
had picked up some apple juice for the morning, and discovered that the
Germans really like their carbonated beverages. Yup, that's right.
Carbonated apple juice. Must admit, it was a first for me. To be honest, it
isn't bad, but 41 years of flat apple juice leaves you a bit biased.
Made me laugh, which is a good way to start a Monday.

I believe that GeilenKirchin is trying its best to be the Prince Rupert
of Europe. It has rained almost everyday, and has that damp, Victoria
winter weather feel. At least you don't have to shovel rain (got to look
on the bright side, no pun intended). Even the cars have wipers on the
headlights. That may be a bad sign. Jury is still out on that one.
Grass is green but no leaves on the trees.

There was a tornado that touched down in one of London's suburbs last
week. We  felt part of that system this weekend with wind gusts up to
100 kph. Cars were hard pressed to stay in their lane. Pretty wild seeing
trees with no leaves waving back and forth.

European toilet paper. Man, what can I say. Did you ever think anyone
would invent a 0 ply toilet paper? I have used softer stuff to sand my
car. No wonder Germans always sound so angry! Reminds me of this
hilarious Australian ad for TP. Crikey, every strip is soaked in 200g of
Tabasco sauce, FOR THE REAL MAN!

Today was actually a good day at work. I was able to follow and
understand most of what was thrown at me. It is still like drinking from a
fire hydrant, but at least I retained some today :-)  I don't feel as
nervous about the job now. I still plan on having Laurie give me accounting
101, 201, 301 and 434 over the holidays. Leave accountants to make
counting difficult. Geeez.

On top of that, I have to give some courses on how to use the system.
How funny is that? I have 2 months to prepare so that I come off as the
expert. Yah, no pressure. Maybe by that time my security clearance will
go through and I can actually use something on the base.

I got an bunch of emails from my strongman buddies today. They are
doing great, lifting amazing amounts of weight, and doing really well with
the atlas stones. Kinda wish I was there. Guys, keep it up, you are
doing great! I am glad I am still part of that world. Went to check out
the gym I will be using (as soon as I am allowed to that is). Lots of
machines, but quite a few dumbbells and a power rack. I am looking forward
to exercising again. 2 weeks of being ill has made me really want to
get back to the gym. Can't let down my fellow MadDogs.

I may get a temporary pass in the next few days. I hope so, as that
would allow me to actually do some stuff around here. I have been using
the mess hall (though technically I am not allowed to), but everything
else pretty much needs a pass. Hopefully soon.

Had dinner at a sports bar just to have a taste of home. Had a big
burger and fries with a beer. The beer and fries were great, burger sucked.
Looked like one of the patties you get in a big box frozen patties from
loeb. Hope it was beef. The only real thing that sucked was everyone
smokes here. I am not sure, but pets probably smoke too. The air was
blue. Probably won't sleep due to the nicotine in my system.  Cigarettes
are as little as $2/pack so it isn't too surprising. At least at the
base, they instituted a no smoking in the actual office rule (instituted
last month). Most obey it, some don't. A bit of a throwback in that
regard when offices still had ashtrays. At the hotel, I can smell cigarette
smoke in the couch, bed, pillows, etc.... Probably why I have been sick
so long, and probably didn't help either.

My dinner had one high note. I talked with the older waitress who is in
her 50's, but looks younger. Had a great zest for life, and I chatted
with Linda for about a half hour. As I don't know anyone here, it was a
nice change to have a chat. My attempts at German were met with smiles
but no laughter, and her english was very good. Definitely put a
positive spin on the evening. Turns out she has an uncle who lives in Ottawa.
Small world for sure. Just goes to show that you never know.

At least on Thursday, I move into my apartment, which is smoke free.
The previous tenant to Sylvain actually trashed the place pretty badly,
so it was gutted and rebuilt. Between new appliances, and Sylvain buying
everything you need in an apartment, I am set. Kinda like divorce
Barbie (gets all of Ken's stuff). Want a neat twist, dishwashers here have a
salt dispenser. I haven't figured that one out yet either. Maybe the
water is too hard?

The apartment is a nice change. No longer do I have to sleep in a twin
sized bed. As you all know, I ain't skinny. The apartment is great,
quieter and definitely more comfortable. Met the landlord when I signed
the lease. Nice folks. They converted an old farm across the road into a
business, a house, and an apartment. Amazing what a little creativity
can do.

Most houses in this area are brick. It is actually nice to see the
variety of houses and how they are all laid out here. Everyone seem to take
pride in their yards/gardens. You are actually frowned upon if you
don't maintain your residence i.e. washing your windows, sweeping your walk
way, etc. Space is minimal so every bit of space is used. Heating a
house or apartment is usually done with oil, which can be expensive. Very
expensive if you like heat and staying really warm.

Recycling is very big here. Basically, you are rewarded for doing so,
and punished for not. Recycling is free here, but your garbage is
weighed. The more you throw out, the more your garbage pickup costs. Imagine
how you would live if you applied this to your own life. I am surprised
by how conscientious I have become just by thinking about this. You
definitely reduce your garbage output by doing this.

Each village is 3 to 5 kilometers apart. I found this out when I walked
home today. There are bike and walking paths everywhere. I may have to
get a bicycle. Lots of people drive here. There are vehicles that you
just don't see in Canada. I have seen 3 varieties of the smart car here,
Fords that would never sell in Canada, and many others. Mercedes seems
to be the car of choice here, where one person compared BMWs to Hondas.
Different points of view from north america, that is for sure.

You do have to play it safe though. The limit here is 0.05%, which is
almost half our limit. Basically, don't do it. Base personnel are warned
that they will be sent home if that happens, so it is taken seriously
here.

One thing that is different from home is that sometimes the churches
will ring the bells for 20 minutes straight. Even some of my German
friends couldn't understand it, as it was not for any particular holiday or
event. If anyone knows, please email me.

The local shops that serve breakfast always serve small breakfasts. It
is the norm to have coffee, some bread, and some cold cuts. I
personally like a little variety with cereals, or the occasion hot breakfast. I
can eat breakfast now at the base [I got my pass though my security
form is still coming through]. I just don't want to get up that early.

One thing I noticed, besides my inherent ability to jump trains of
thought mid-paragraph, is that trains have destination names not numbers on
the front and sides. This is a little confusing when trying to figure
out where you want to go. For example, to head to Aachen, get on the
train that is labelled Monshechan (sp?). I end up using this great web
site, www.bahn.de, to figure out where I am going. It offers very detailed
info. Good site. It ties in with the local buses everywhere as well,
and gives an itinerary. We could use this concept back home as well.

Over some local chinese food, Sylvain and I had a very interesting
discussion. Besides how the msg was giving me that lovely bloated feeling.
The main mural in the Sistine chapel (the hand of god) has some
interesting features. If you look at the entire mural, it looks like God is
surrounded by a black cloud. If you look carefully, it actually is in the
shape of, and has features of, the human brain. Michelangelo was
fascinated by the human body and its inner workings, especially the brain.
Since that was considered heresy, it had to be done subversively. Check
it out online. Very cool. The other murals also has his "competition" in
it as well. There is a circular path on one, with one corner being
heaven, and one being hell. His competition were all on the way down.
Sylvain is an amazing font of knowledge about Europe and has been travelling
here almost 15 years. Time enough to get a lot of stories. More on
those later.

The finance group decided to have a Christmas lunch on Wednesday. We
all drove over to the Netherlands (don't I sound cosmopolitan). Slightly
different set of rules of the road there. There are basically three
lanes in every city: a car lane, a bike lane, and a pedestrian lane. At
each intersection, each lane has its own set of lights. Lots of blinky
blinky. Downright confusing if you ask me. Anyway, we went to the
Netherlands, from Germany, to have a spanish meal. This would only be funnier
if the waiter was french, but alas, he wasn't. Really nice meal. A
modified tapas meal, with a nice pork or fish dish as the main
course. Thankfully, a lot of people smoked during the meal since I
was really missing the nicotine from the office . Nothing
ruins a good meal like thick cigarette smoke.

One thing that is truly amazing is how LOUD the AWACS are. If they are
taking off, don't bother trying to have a conversation. I am not even
near the runway. The AWACS have 4 huge high powered jet engines that
they run full out to take off. Way louder than any plane engine I have
been near. My office is interesting. I have these two large windows, a
decent desk, a meeting table, and a wardrobe cabinet. My door also weighs
more than 500 pounds, being made of steel with security bolts on the
side and top. Sucker is heavy! I am in a restricted building, so I have
to lock my door if I go anywhere. Makes sense.

Did everyone know that I did a brief stint for canadian airlines in
Beijing where I worked with the ticketing, plane greeting, and plane
hookups (for air conditioning and such). Those power outlets are huge!

I forgot to mention one thing (actually two) about flying into Germany.
One, the west side of Germany is bloody windy. The jet was bobbing all
over the place when we were landing. That makes a good segue into point
2, windmills. Lots and lots of windmills. They cover the country side
here. Makes sense with all the winds, and these are huge. Like the ones
you saw in the movie mission impossible 3. Come on, admit it, you saw
the movie. Anyway, the sheer size of these windmills are amazing. Very
easy to see even when you are up at 20000 feet.

After I landed in Frankfurt and before I took off for Dusseldorf, I did
see a strange site. I found out later that they had the European
bodybuilding championships or something like that, but there were a bunch of
completely roided up guys and girls waiting for the plane back to
Madrid. If stereotypes ever came from something, this was it. Every guy had
on a tank top, or a very tight t-shirt. The girls all work spandex
and/or half shirts. Except for the fact that is was 5C outside, this might
has seemed really vain. Of course, when you are orange, nothing bothers
you. No word of a lie, orange. Some worse than others, but still. I
won't go into details, but the one woman who I overheard speaking probably
had a deeper voice than me. Scary!

One thing that I am on the fence about is dogs. Lots of people here
have dogs and they go everywhere. Into hotels, restaurants, you name it.
On the plus side, you will never see any dogs more well behaved. They
rarely bark, don't run around, and are very well behaved. Like I said, on
the fence for this one. Dogs and food, not a great combo, unless you
happened to be at the chinese food restaurant I mentioned earlier (I'm
kidding!)

Well, that's all for now kids. Hope you all enjoyed my insights and
adventures. I am sure I will have more, but I only have a few days until I
fly back for Xmas. Next instalment will be mid-January. Probably won't
be as long, but hopefully as interesting.

Steve

Installment #1

Dec 3rd, 2006 Day 1

Well that was quite a trip. I haven't learned to sleep on a plane yet,
so I have basically been awake for 28 hours when I hit Frankfurt. Big
airport. Took about 45 minutes to walk to the other end (through customs
as well). The airport has designated smoking areas. Something you don't
see back in Canada or the US. I made my connection to Dusseldorf, but I
left my notebook on the previous plane. Luckily they found it, and I
will pick it up later. By the time I hit Dusseldorf, I was very tired.
Very windy part of Germany. Lots of windmills. It was a tad disconcerting
when the plane seemed to tip over by 30 degrees when we were 300 feet
off the runway. Between that and the onset of the flu, I was a little
queasy upon landing.

Sylvain St-Pierre met me at the airport, which was nice. We drove out
to GK (GeilenKirchen) in about an hour. Evidently the train makes the
trip faster and stops right at the airport. I will be taking this method
home for Xmas.

First stop was the apartment, which was way better than I thought it
would be. Bigger and cleaner anyway. Next stop was the hotel, if you can
call it that, basically is closed between 3:30 and 5:30pm. Then you
check in at the restaurant on the main floor.

So, seeing as it was that time when we arrived, we walked around in the
rain for a few hours. At 6pm, they still were not open. Welcome to
Europe. No rushing around in this town. There was a Christmas fair going
on, and food vendors everywhere. I had a bratwurst. Very tasty.

Eventually, they decided to open the restaurant, and I was able to
check into the room. The elevator was the smallest I have ever seen. It
stated a limit of 4 people and 340kg, and I felt crowded and
claustrophobic on my own. Floor area was 3'x 3'. They only have twin beds as well.
The stair wells are so narrow, they would never get a bigger bed up.
Evidently this is a European thing.

Decided to go to bed, and managed to get a whopping 3 hours of sleep.


Dec 4th, 2006 Day 2 Monday

Talk about jet lag. I arrived yesterday and basically explored the city
in the rain. I was able to stay up until 8pm, but woke up at midnight
with my mind racing at 100+ mph. Didn't really get back to sleep until
5. Woke up late at 8:30 and had to run around town like a madman trying
to find a razor (as I forgot to bring one with me)

I did spend my first day at work. I met with most of the financial
group and I think I will really enjoy the job. I will have a huge learning
curve with the finance data, and the new application I will be
managing. I know I will understand it sooner than later, but with the jet lag,
retention is a problem today. Learning German is not an issue as most
people can speak a little if necessary. Everyone at work speaks English,
so language is not an issue at least. I am still inclined to learn it
anyway. They do offer courses on base.

Decided against going to Belgium tonight as I knew I would be too
tired. Especially to get up "early" and drive 2 hours before work. I did
manage to figure out the wireless issue, but my converter does not accept
a rounded three prong adaptor plug (only 2). I will have to locate
another soon before my laptop runs out of batteries.

Went to the shop tonight for the first time. The local "superstore"
sells everything. I can buy a bicycle for less than 90 euros, though the
better ones are about 140 euro. I will most likely buy one when I
return. I doubt I will get a car right now. No need to.

The base is also closer to the dutch border than I thought. About 500m
from the far gate and you are in another country. Pretty cool. There
are no more border guards with the advent of the EU, so that is a plus.
Roads are a little confusing as signs are few and far between. No north,
west, south, east markings at all.

I decided to have a good dinner tonight. Pepper steak and a salad. Came
with a huge backed potato, and they even served some warm apple brandy
at the end of the meal for free. Very nice way to finish dinner.

So far, I think I will really enjoy it here. More later. Off to bed.

Dec 5th, 2006 Day 3 Tuesday
Dec 6th, 2006 Day 4 Wednesday

Wow, interesting turn of events. Turns out I have the flu. Add in the
time zone change for jet lag, and you got one sick puppy on your hands.
Typical of me, I still had to go in. I only have 2 weeks with the guy I
am replacing and need to learn a lot. There is a lot of accounting that
I have to understand and the challenge of doing it on my death bed has
been fun  There are times I feel fine, then others I can't
seem to focus my eyes. Got to love the effects of being ill coupled
with stress. My accounting knowledge is, thankfully coming back really
fast. I have remembered more than I thought I would, but I am definitely
not 100% yet. There is very little to do technically with my job. I am
currently being fast-tracked on the accounting procedures at NATO and
learning all the modules they use here. I will also have to learn the
back-end of the system so I can fix some of the more major issues.

I am definitely going to like this job. The staff here are great (even
if they are accountants --- Note to self: Laurie will probably kill me
for saying that). Very little stress for this opportunity. The biggest
bonus that I didn't expect is that I have an office! Two big windows
and my own cabinet for stuff. Moving on up to the east side! (bonus
points for whoever got that obscure reference). Still lots to learn before
Sylvain leaves, but I think I will be OK.

I have to catch the train to Dusseldorf on the 21st, so that should be
an adventure on its own. It will give me some practise for the weekends
to come. Turns out that there are some fantastic attractions not to far
away. There are castles, churches, memorials and monuments, etc...
Should be fun exploring.

More eye openers that you are no longer in Canada: hard liquor is very
cheap (about $5 for most bottles), beer is good (so is Canadian beer
but I couldn't resist the jab), very few preservatives in the food. Going
to the supermarket is almost a daily occurrence. Though that is not a
bad thing. Makes you watch what you eat.

I also visited the pharmacy (called apotheke here- reference is
apothecary). You can get antibiotics without a prescription here if needed.
Hopefully I got some flu remedy, and not Viagra or something else to do
other nasty things.

Gas is expensive here. Basic unleaded gas is about 1 euro per liter
($1.40). Unless I rent a car on base, I can't use the base gas station to
fill up. Which would be nice as it is subsidized and would be half the
price. There are some things on base that I can't use even after I get
my pass as I am not a NATO employee. They have some nice perks for
sure, besides the subsidized commodities. Every employee is entitled to 30
working days of holidays a year. How sweet is that.

Dec 7th, 2006 Thursday

Probably my worst day so far. Stayed up late so I could sleep
uninterrupted. That worked for about 5 hours. Then I had to go to work. The flu
is definitely knocking me down. I left work early today so that I could
get some sleep. I was able to nap from 2 until 5 and feel better. I am
still tired at the time of this writing (8pm) so I should be able to go
to sleep at a normal time tonight, and hopefully feel relatively normal
and not exhausted tomorrow.

Sylvain helped me setup a vonage line as well. I have a local number in
Ottawa that people can call, and it will reach me here. Even has voice
mail. Man, I love technology. I watched a movie last night as well. The
joy of laptops with dvd drives. It was a movie about spin control, or
distorting the truth for corporate ends called "thanks for smoking".
Funny part is that most of what happens in the movie is close to the
truth.

Coffee is very good here. We have a $1500 coffee maker at work, and it
is all the coffee I want to drink for $4/month. Nice! Even the small
coffee shops have good coffee here in GK.

One downside that I have found is that everyone smokes. Cigarettes are
cheap, and the smaller hotels don't have a "non-smoking" room
generally. I noticed the couch and cushions like smoke here.

Cars in general are small here. Much smaller than north american
vehicles anyway. I went by the "dead car" lot at work. This is were the
people going to another posting generally put there cars. There is a Nissan
in good shape for 900 euro or a very cool 1992 BMW 730i (leather heated
seats) for 2300 euro. Hard to guess which I would want!

Some of the windows are very cool. Turn the handle upwards, and the
window opens at the bottom (top comes towards you). Open the lever
horizontally, and the window swing in normally (ie pivots from the wall).
Lever down locks it. Pretty nifty.

Dec 8th-10th, 2006 Friday to Saturday

Well 13 hours of sleep seemed to do wonders for me. I am not hacking up
a lung nearly as bad and I seem to be much more alert. Had a good day
absorbing information, and feel better prepared for when Sylvain cuts
the apron strings. His last day is the upcoming Friday.He leaves, I get
the apartment, and a permanent internet connection. That will be a
relief. I almost feel withdrawl coming on. Serves me right for being an
internet junkie.

Did the typical bachelor Friday night. Yup, laundry. Party on! I
decided to relax and try and get over this cold. I rented a bunch of cheesy
movies and flaked out on the couch. Since the meals are so big at the
IDH (International dining hall), I wasn't all that hungry. A few beer,
some bad movies and I was asleep by 9. Living la vie da loca, that's
me....

Upon reviving from my coma on Saturday morning, I ventured out into the
world. Had a nice waffle breakfast at a local cafe. Everything here is
very reasonably priced. My breakfast was 3.5 euro with coffee included.
The waffles came with a nice berry sauce. After I finished up there, I
met Sylvain and decided to catch a train to Aachen, a town about 20 km
away. With my luck, the infallible german train system wasn't. Delayed
heading out, and delayed back. Pretty amusing if you think of it.

Anyway, we made it downtown Aachen in fairly good time. The train
station, according to Sylvain, was recently modernized. There was marble
everywhere, glass and brick. Very modern. And a McDonalds. I can't say I
was surprised. No, I did not eat there. We proceeded to the city center
where old King Carl used to preside. There was no separation of church
and state so the cathedral was the center of everything in Aachen back
in the not so ancient days. I believe that Sylvain mentioned that it
was the capital a very long time past.

The city still has some remnants of the old roman occupation. In the
center of town, there are 3 pillars connected like archways. To me they
look a lot like the ancient gate entrances. Event the stone work and
stained glass in the monasteries are amazing. Very intricate, and
fascinating when you think about how long ago they where made. The floor of the
cathedral has marble inlaid in patterns, which I understand was rare
back when King Carl ruled. Granted, it's good to be the king.

European cities are interesting as they mix the old and new, but also
seem to use up every little bit of space. A unique blend that we are not
accustomed to in Canada. I really enjoy walking down the cobble stone
streets, and feeling a bit like you were there. I plan on visiting Koln
and a few other cities soon. Sylvain has been an amazing source of
information regarding history and places to visit. I already have many
places in mind to bring Laurie and the kids. There is one stretch (on the
Rhine?) that is about 33 km long and contains 25 castles.

I was surprised, and happy to find a Thai restaurant in Aachen. I
didn't eat there (or anywhere in Aachen) as the city was in the midst of
their christmas festival. Every restaurant was filled to the brim with
people. Sylvain and I just has a snack at a local bakery and headed back.
I decided to have another steak at the restaurant below my hotel. Still
amazing. Yum.

I also walked over to the other hotel in town, the city hotel. I was
able to buy a 2 hour segment on the internet for only 4 euro with a much
better connection. I called Laurie and talked over my Vonage phone for
45 minutes. What is really cool about this, is that you can set up a
local Ottawa number, and connect to it via the internet. So, anyone can
call from ottawa to an Ottawa number, and my computer here will ring. I
even have voicemail. That is cool. I will still use skype so I can see
my kids as well, but the phone is always a good idea.

Today, Sunday, is the first really sunny day we have had. There has
been a large amount of rain and wind here for the past week. I am going
for a walk in the local park. Hope all is well with everyone, and I hope
you enjoyed reading about my first week in Germany.

Steve