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
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