Where in the world is Scott?!

Norway

2008-08-25T09:33:00.007+01:00

This past August Marina, myself and some friends of ours took the "Norway in a Nutshell" tour. It is basically a package tour that encompasses a journey from Bergen to Oslo via Flam on the Bergen railway, Flam Railway and a Fjord cruise.

Marina and I flew into Bergen a day early so we could do a bit of exploring. It is a very picturesque harbor town. We enjoyed wandering around the old wood frame buildings and shopping at the fish market. I had been to Norway before, but I forgot how expensive it is; I was reminded very quickly when I ordered a pint of beer and it cost $18 USD! That is by far the most I have ever paid for a beer!

Bergen has a funicular that takes you up the hill behind the town. We decided a trip to the top would be fun! There are hiking trails all over the hill so we wandered down after we tired of taking in the views of Bergen.

The next morning our friends Eric and Alexis arrived and we all headed out for the fjord cruise. The cruise took us through the Aurlandsfjord and Naeroyfjord (a UNESCO world heritage site) to Flam. The fjords were amazing. I think the pictures speak for themselves...

We arrived at Flam early in the afternoon and checked into our hotel. This is a view from our window.

After we settled in a bit we decided to take a couple of little hikes in the surrounding villages. We hiked to a small village that had a really old wooden church. The "hike" was a bit of a let down because it was all on paved roads, which the brochure failed to mention! Nonetheless, the church was very pretty.

Here I am standing on a fishing bridge along our "hike".

On the way back to Flam we were so disappointed with our paved road "hike" that we took a detour and hiked up to some falls outside of town. We were pretty sure it wouldn't be paved!

When we got back we did a little shopping in town... Eric found himself a new hat!

The next morning we boarded the Flamsbana. The journey on the Flåm Railway is regarded as one of the highlights of the Norway in a nutshell tour. The 20-km-long train journey from the mountain station of Flam up to Myrdal takes around 55 minutes. On the journey, you have views of some of the most magnificent mountain scenery in Norway with an ever-changing panorama of tall mountains and cascading waterfalls. The train moves slowly or stops at the best views.

Once we got to the top we changed trains to the Bergen railway - Northern Europe's highest-altitude railway - to make our way to Oslo. The views out of the train were amazing, but didn't make for very good pictures.

We arrived a Oslo late that evening checking into our hotel and grabbing a quick bite to eat. The next morning we toured Oslo before our flight back to London that evening.

Here is a picture of Alexis and Marina in front of the Palace in Oslo.

We wandered through Vigeland Sculpture Park, then took a bus out to the Norsk Folkemuseum (Norwegian Museum of Cultural History), after which we walked to the Viking Ship Museum.

Here is one of the three wooden 9th century Viking ships in the museum.

All in all, I have to say this was one of the best trips I have taken while I have been living in Europe (and it was very nearly one of the most expensive!).

Mother Russia

2008-07-31T09:32:00.018+01:00

In July Marina and I visited Russia. It was Marina's mother's birthday and she had planned a visit and I tagged along. We spent a few days in Moscow then rode the train out to her parents town, Kostroma. While we were there we visited some nearby towns and villages. I have to appologize, this entry is going to be more pictures than words. I am really behind in my postings!

Red Square! (Saint Basil's)

The Kremlin... (behind Marina) and the next few pictures!

The 40 tonne Tsar Cannon (still in the Kremlin).

One of the Kremlin's entrance towers.

About town in Moscow...

Christ the savior cathedral...

The Russian white house...

KGB headquarters... (at one point at least)

In and around Kostroma...

A little trip down the river...

A view of a small village from the top of a hill we hiked up...

The hikers - Marina, Galina, Scott, and Vladimir.

A church up on the hill.

A trip out to the country house for Galina's birthday party.

The back porch of the country house.

Scott cooking some shish-kabab's.

A toast with Marina's cousin.

Russian country life...

... for those who doubted Marina's country background!

When in Rome...

2008-06-15T17:08:00.017+01:00

Like young people the world over, when I first heard the saying "when in Rome..." I wondered, what exactly is it that the Romans do in Rome. Well this past June Marina and I had our chance to find out!

It was quickly explained to us, that in 387 AD, when St. Augustine arrived in Milan, he observed that the Church did not fast on Saturday as did the Church at Rome. He consulted St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who replied: "When I am at Rome, I fast on a Saturday; when I am at Milan, I do not. Follow the custom of the Church where you are." The comment was changed to "When they are at Rome, they do there as they see done" by Robert Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy. Eventually it became "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

We figured this meant we should start our quest at church... so we were off towards Vatican city!

When we caught sight of Saint Peter's Basilica we knew we were getting close. Saint Peter's Basilica is situated in Vatican city and has been the residence of Popes since 1377. The dome is clearly visible from many areas of the city and dominates the view of Rome; it was designed by Michelangelo, and is one of the most famous buildings in the world.

... wait! What's that? Saint Angel's Castle? We decided a little detour wouldn't hurt.

Know what? We're pretty close to Piazza Navona - let's go see that first!In the piazza there are three fountains: the central one, the Rivers' Fountain made by Bernini with an Egyptian obelisk added later (unfortunately this fountain had scafolding over it); the others are Moor's Fountain and Calderoni's Fountain. There are also plenty of artists in the piazza, selling their creations to the tourists - I do believe we bought a little something.

After wandering the PiazzaNavona for a while we were starting to get hungry. We decided it was time to head for lunch over by Piazza di Spagna. The piazza is famous for "the Spanish steps" a big flight of steps up to the Church of Santa Trinita (under scafolding, wouldn't you know it!). We climbed to the top for a panoramic view from the terrace of Pincio. The area is famous for the large number of "made in Italy" botiques: Armani, Versace, Valentino, etc. Needless to say, lunch was temporarily postponed while we shopped for, though it proved to be elusive, a reasonably priced designer bag that appealed to Marina.

We finally sat down to a pleasant lunch of pizza and wine on a pedistrian street. After lunch we wandered around and did a bit more shopping, finally deciding to call it a night relatively early.

The next morning we remembered our quest.... back to Vatican city! This time we actually made it in and promptly bought tickets to climb the steps to the top of Saint Peter's Basilica. Here are some pictures of the view from the top.

And the inside...

After our tour of Saint Peter's we toured the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel - but you can't take pictures inside. You will have to take my word for it, but the Sistine Chapel is a bit overwhelming! I knew the ceiling was painted but I didn't know the whole inside was nothing but floor to ceiling murals.

After the Vatican I need a break. We decided to wander, at a leisurely pace, over to the Fountain de Trevi. Along the way I saw some of these funny little public busses. Later I saw this tiny moving truck. I know the Italians are not big people but sheesh…

Further along the way we spotted these sisters looking in a window. I wondered what they were looking at… Oh, of course, a religious store! I had never thought of nuns shopping before!

We finally made it to the fountain! Here is a picture during the day and one at night when we went back to see it with the lights on.

Later we went to the coliseum and took the tour, then moved onto the Roman Forum, which was interesting, but quickly became one of my proverbial piles of rocks.

Here is a picture of the Piazza Venezia. We just walked past as it was too hot in the sun to hang around long!

Well I am sure I left something out … but I hope you enjoyed the photos. We didn’t ever find out what the Romans do, but I guess that just leaves us with a reason to visit again someday!

Cheers!

Brugge, Belgium

2008-05-31T17:08:00.003+01:00

This my friends, is Brugge. It is often billed as the "Venice of the north" - for good reason as you will see in the photo's. It was my second visit... and Marina's first. It was a short trip, via Eurostar and a commuter train, staying just one night in the city, but we made the most of it. Brugge is definitely one of my favorite city's in Europe, purely from a perspective of scale and charm. Enjoy the photo's!

Bordeaux, France

2008-05-19T17:07:00.008+01:00

Late in May, Marina and I spent a truly memorable 4 days in Bordeaux touring the vineyards and chateaus. We stayed at Chateau Pitray, an amazing chateau built in the Victorian Gothic style, that is surrounded by a park of century-old oak and cedar trees and vineyards. Pitray has been owned by the same family for the last six hundred years and is filled with family heirlooms and artifacts! Just by luck we were the only guests at the chateau for all 4 nights, so it was just us and the owners! They were extremely gracious and gave us a tour, letting Marina play the old piano and me peruse the century old books in the library.

Here are a few pictures of the chateau... no I am not kidding.

The first night we expected silence but were greeted with a strange symphony of beeping noises. It sounded like people hitting the wrong key on a computer keyboard all across the meadow outside our window. Come to find out it was little frogs! Marina was annoyed when I continued to imitate them for weeks after our trip. Boop! ... Boop! ...

Here are some pictures of the surrounding fields and vineyards - beautiful!

One day we made a trip into the town of Bordeaux and did a bit of wondering. Here are a few photos:

The next day we drove around the region and stopped to visit the winerys and chateaus. It was a good time... we couldn't taste too much wine as I had to drive - but it was still amazing!

Chateau Pitray is not a chateau in name only - it actually continues to produce wine of its own label! We were lucky enough to be there for the bottling of the current years vintage, so we were given a tour of the process.

Some of the vintage is labeled and shipped right away, but a portion is kept and further aged in the bottles. It is labeled right before it is shipped so that the labels don't get dirty while the aging takes place.

Here is my souvenir! I wish... this big boy was being shipped to Beijing for an Olympic kick-0ff party!

Lanzarote?!

2008-05-05T18:23:00.005+01:00

Lanzarote is situated just 79 miles off the coast of Africa and is the most easterly of the Canary Islands. The island is 37 miles long and 12 miles wide, making it the fourth largest island in the Canaries.

As with the other Canary Islands, Lanzarote is Volcanic in origin. Due to the recent eruptions during the 18th and 19th Centuries, many parts of Lanzarote appear to be from another world, often described as 'lunar' or 'Martian'.The dry climate (and lack of erosion) means that the Volcanic Landscape appears much as it did just after the eruptions.

Despite the Volcanic nature of the island, Lanzarote has several beautiful white beaches such as at Playa Blanca and Papagayo. (http://www.discoverlanzarote.com/)

Marina and I went to Lanzarote with a relaxing holiday in mind and we weren't disappointed; there wasn't much to do besides sit by the pool or look at lava formations! Nevertheless, we did a bit of both and managed to bring home a couple of sunburns!

Here is a view from our hotel balcony:

Here I am at the beach. The water was too cold for my taste so I stuck with the pool!

One of the days we took an excursion to the Montañas del Fuego (Fire Mountains). The Fire Mountains were created between 1730 and 1736 when more than 100 volcanoes, covering more than 50 km², rose up and devastated this part of the island (including several villages). In 1968 the area was declared a national park, Parque Nacional de Timanfaya.

In the middle of the national park there is a tourist center where they perform "experiments" or demonstrations about the temperature of the island just below the surface (temperatures just a few metres below the surface reach between 400°C and 600°C). Here you see what happens when they pour water down a pipe that goes about 12 feet into the ground. They also have a restaurant at the center where they cook the food over an open hole in the ground using geothermal heat - no fire necessary!

Somehow they manage to have agriculture on the island, and we stopped to visit the "vineyards" on the way back to the hotel. They somehow use a "waterless" irrigation method; essentially the plant beds are covered with a thick layer of lava pebbles, overnight the pebbles somehow capture condensation and it trickles to the plant, the pebbles protect the soil from the sun during the day, and small half circle walls are built around each plant to protect it from the wind. Magic!Somehow they manage to grow enough grapes to squeeze out commercial production of a sweet white wine.

Here is a photo of Marina soaking up a bit of the sunshine at the vineyard:

Here is a picture of "emerald cove"... or something like that! There is some sort of green stone in the rock that causes the water caught in the cove to appear green.

If I didn't know better I would think that some construction equipment had a radiator leak!

... and that my friends was Lanzarote.

Malta!

2008-04-29T13:28:00.008+01:00

I am way behind on these posts... so I had a little help from http://www.visitmalta.com/ on this one.

Megaliths, medieval dungeons and Calypso's Cave – The Maltese Islands are positively mythic. The narrow meandering streets of their towns and villages are crowded with Renaissance cathedrals and Baroque palaces. As the countryside is dotted with the oldest known human structures in the world, the Islands have rightly been described as an open-air museum.

The Maltese archipelago lies virtually at the centre of the Mediterranean, with Malta 93km south of Sicily and 288km north of Africa. The archipelago consists of three islands: Malta, Gozo and Comino with a total population of 400,000 inhabitants over an area of 316sq km and a coastline of 196.8km (not including 56.01 km for the island of Gozo).

Malta is the largest island and the cultural, commercial and administrative centre. Gozo is the second largest island and is more rural, characterised by fishing, tourism, crafts and agriculture while Comino is largely uninhabited. With 7,000 years of history, the Maltese Islands are steeped in culture and heritage. The Islands went through a golden Neolithic period, the remains of which are the mysterious megalithic temples dedicated to the goddess of fertility. Later on, the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, the Romans and the Byzantines, all left their traces on the Islands.

In 60 A.D. St. Paul was shipwrecked on the island while on his way to Rome and brought Christianity to Malta. The Arabs conquered the islands in 870 A.D. and left an important mark on the language of the Maltese. Until 1530 Malta was an extension of Sicily, the Normans, the Aragonese and other conquerors who ruled over Sicily also governed the Maltese Islands.
In 1798 Bonaparte, on his way to Egypt, took over Malta from the Knights. The French presence on the islands was short lived as the English, who were requested by the Maltese to help them against the French, blockaded the islands in 1800. British rule in Malta lasted until 1964 when Malta became independent. The Maltese adapted the British system of administration, education and legislation. Malta became a Republic in 1974 and a member state of the European Union in May 2004.

I loved the local buses!

The village of Mdina

On our way to Comino.

The Blue Grotto...

"Popeye village" Where the film Popey was filmed in the 50's(?). The islands are used for filming quite a bit from what we were told.

Here we are standing on the island of Comino.

This is the boat we chartered to get there.... ok - along with about 30 other people.

There are loads of Jellyfish in the water - luckily I forgot my swim trunks!

Edinburgh

2008-04-14T16:07:00.005+01:00

Trying to stay dry in Edinburgh... Is this a working cannon?

In April Marina had a event to attend for work on a Saturday in Edinburgh; having never been there, I decided to tag along. I scheduled a tee time at the local course, but as you can see I was rained out! Dang! In liu of golfing I wandered the city most of the day, on my own, ducking into pubs when it started raining too bad. Unfortunately, I didn't wind up with many pictures due to the weather, but I thought I would share what I have.

I was thinking about buying a traditional kilt, just for a bit of a laugh, but after seeing the prices for the real thing I thought again. A decent quality kilt cost around $800 with the full getup running right around $1,200. That would have been one expensive Holloween costume!

We toured a tarten factory and these were some of the cheaper tourist type kilts; they were still up around $150 so I left them on the rack.

Rain, rain, go away... awe whom I kidding, this is Edinburgh! Anyone fancy a pint and some haggis?

Portugal

2008-04-10T18:49:00.018+01:00

This Easter, after not travelling for a few months, Marina and I started to feel a little stir crazy. We scratched our heads a bit about where we wanted to go, but ultimately we decided on Portugal. The whole country you ask? Well… no. We didn’t visit Faro or the islands, but we did spend some time in Porto and Lisbon and a few towns in between the two.

We started our trip in Porto, the country’s second largest city, not knowing what to expect – thankfully we were pleasantly surprised! The city is famous for its port wine, named after the city and not the other way around, which is a fortified desert wine, meaning brandy is added during the production process to cease the fermentation process. The city of Porto made much of its fortune on the wine, beginning with trading with the English who promptly took over most of the industry- bloody imperialists, starting as early as the 13th century and lasting right through to today.

Marina booked a nice hotel on the river, on the Porto side, with a view of Vila Nova de Gaia and its port wine aging warehouses. Here is a photo of our hotel and one of the views westward from our balcony.

Here Marina poses in front of some port wine aging barrels during our tour of a wine warehouse.

Here are some random churches- in addition to wine, it seems the city was big in the Jesus business. We climbed to the top of the tower of the one church and were blessed – pardon – with a great view of the city. (sacrilege Scott, sacrilege)

Here I am sitting in front of the Dom Luis bridge and some of the old port wine transport boats which are now only used as decorations.

This is a view of Porto from the Dom Luis bridge -designed by a student of Gustave Eiffel.

This is an eastward view from our hotel balcony of the Dom Luis bridge and the monastery. Nice huh?!

In order to stick to our itinerary it was time to leave Porto, so we rented a car in the morning and started to make our way down the coast. Here is a light house at our first pit stop

We eventually made our way to Obidos, a small picturesque village. Unfortunately, it was raining at the time so we don’t have many pictures from our stop there.

On our way to Nazare, a beach town about half way between Porto and Lisbon, we made a wrong turn and ended up at Pedro do Guilham. It turned out ok because we got out for a look around and saw this nice church, and after looking over the cliff we saw Nazare down below!

Near the end of our day, and right outside Lisbon, we stopped at the town of Sintra. It was a pretty little town and apparently draws big tourist crowds, but as it was late in the evening I don’t have any good pictures. Dang!

Eventually we made it to Lisbon, the biggest city in Portugal. While I enjoyed Lisbon it was a bit of a let down after the charming towns before. Here are the Lisbon photo’s!

Nice hair Scott!

the Torch!

2008-04-06T18:08:00.001+01:00

If you had been watching the news at all in April, you probably know that the Olympic torch made its way through London. Having missed the Tour de France while it came through London (no you didn't read that wrong!) as I was out of town, I resolved to at least make an effort to see the torch. It wasn't exactly reminiscent of the time I saw it in California ...

... circa 1984

There were as many protesters as there were people chearing... and so many police you almost couldn't see it. Nonetheless, here it is going past the British Museum:

Switzerland!

2007-12-27T18:46:00.028Z

Christmas 2007 was one for the record books for me. It was the first Christmas I didn't spend with at least some family. What did I do you ask? Well if you read the title of this entry you probably have a pretty good idea! Marina and I spent a week skiing in Saas-Fee and Zermatt Switzerland. Here is a picture of the mountains in the village where we stayed.

This is a sign from the metro alpin in Saas-Fee- the worlds highest (altitude wise) underground trainline. To get to the top of some of the ski runs you would ride a gondola and then change to the train which took you up most of the rest of the way!

Here is a photo of Marina at the top ready for her first run of the trip.

Here is me... I didn't spend all of my time in this position!

We got a little bored of skiing/ snowboarding after a while so we spent one day sledging. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. There was a designated lift and a very long zig zag run specialy for the sledging. I was run off the trail by some young-uns but it was a blast!

Here is a view of our village from the window of our hotel. It was a car free village which made it much more enjoyable I think. The nicer hotels would run golf-cart like vehicles to take people fom the bus station and or car park to the hotel and lifts.

We took a day trip from Saas-Fee to ski in Zermatt. It was a much bigger and busier village and we only were able to ski half a day. Getting there and back invloved a 2 hour bus and train trip each way. In case you didn't know, Zermatt is where the Matterhorn is... and there it is pictured below.

One of the mountains in Zermatt had an overground train instead of a gondola lift. There were some chair and pull lifts to get you the last bit up the mountian but the train did most of the work. In order to keep the trains from sliding on the tracks there is a third rail that is geared!

One afternoon we took a gondola up the mountain without our ski's so that we could explore the ice caves near the top. They were very... cold? yes. strange? yes. I really didn't know what to make of it. Nonetheless here are a couple of photo's.

Here is an actual picture of us together - imagine that!

We scheduled a half day's worth of time into our trip back so we could wander around Geneva a bit. I didn't take many pictures but here they are:

Prague Christmas Markets

2007-12-10T15:25:00.004Z

In December I took a trip back to Prague to check out the Christmas markets. Christmas markets are open air markets, typically on the main square where vendors sell trinkets, Christmas decorations, and perhaps most importantly food and drink. There also may be caroling and music performances. Many cities in Europe have Christmas markets or festivals with those in Germany, Vienna and Prague being the more famous for their own reasons.

The Prague markets didn't let me down. The square was dressed up with a huge lit tree and there were plenty of market stalls. There was chestnuts roasting, mulled wine flowing and plenty of cinnamon & sugar breads being baked over open coals. The air was very cold but the atmosphere was warm and friendly and the scents amazing. The caroling was confusing because I recognized some tunes, but obviously they weren't singing in English!

I enjoyed some roast pig and plenty of mulled wine. The most common treat was cinnamon & sugar breads. They basically take biscut dough and roll it into a long strand, then wrap the strand around a wooden dowel the size of a closet rod until about four inches of the dowel is covered. Then they roll the dough-dowel in a cinnamon & sugar mixture and twist it over coals until it is baked. Once it is cooked they slide the bread off the roll and hand it to you in a napkin while its still steaming! Mmmm... tasty!

Here is a picture of the square at night. I am not going to explain the rest of the pictures, they are mostly just buildings that I thought worthy of a picture.

British Language & Culture

2007-12-04T17:18:00.000Z

Back by popular demand! It is time once again for me to share some of the idiosyncrasies of British language & culture!

I'm not taking the mickey, these are the correct pronounciations:
Borough - 'Burah', not 'buroh'
Decade - 'DEcade' not 'deCADE'
Era - 'eera' not 'erah'
Fillet - 'fill-it' not 'fil-ay'
Jalapeno - 'jal-a-peno' not 'hol-a-penyo'
Pasta - 'pass-ta' not 'pah-sta'
Schedule - 'shedyual' not 'skedyual'
Vitamin - 'vitt-a-min' not vite-a-min'

My spelling was a right laugh before, but now?
Centre
Theatre
Colour
Labour
Finalise
Terrorise
Aluminium
Speciality
Draught
Tonne

Sorry. What?
Want a band-aid. Better ask for a 'plaster'.
Suspenders? Those are 'braces'.
Baby crib? Its a 'cot'.
"Have my secretary check my diary." Your what? Americans would call it a calendar, or appointment book.
"She's really got her knickers in a bunch." (i.e. she's upset) They are talking about womens underpants... not knee length trousers.
Speaking of trousers... here is a joke for you: What's the difference between a man and a dog running? The man wears trousers and the dog pants.
Speaking of pants... I suggest not ever saying "I am not wearing pants" even if you are wearing shorts. It will elicit giggles I assure you. Pants = underpants
Car rental = car hire
U-Haul = self drive hire
Looking for the elevator? Try asking for the 'lift'.
"Blimey. There sure are a lot of punters out today!" What am I... on the river Cam now? Punters = roughly shoppers
Looking for a napkin? Try 'serviette'. (where am I France?!!)

That's it for now guv.

Food for thought

2007-12-02T16:49:00.001Z

This was an email I was forwarded and found quite interesting. I forwarded it to a few, but I thought I would post it here as well. It is pictures from families around the world standing in front of the equivalent of a weeks groceries. Listed above the pictures is the country, family's name, city's name and the amount the "groceries" cost in local currency and US Dollars. I found the variety in types of food and cost amazing.

Germany: The Melander family of BargteheideFood expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07

United States: The Revis family of North CarolinaFood expenditure for one week $341.98

Italy: The Manzo family of SicilyFood expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11

Mexico: The Casales family of CuernavacaFood expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09

Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-JeziornaFood expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27

Egypt: The Ahmed family of CairoFood expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53

Ecuador: The Ayme family of TingoFood expenditure for one week: $31.55

Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey VillageFood expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03

Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing CampFood expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23

Milan

2007-11-25T18:37:00.007Z

I'm too sexy for Milan, too sexy for Milan, New York and Japan! Well maybe not, but if you've heard the song, forever woven into fabric of popular culture by Right Said Fred... well then you know what goes through my head every time the name of this fashion mecca is mentioned. Gucci? Prada? Versace? Dolce & Gabbana? Lamborghini? Ferrari? We didn't bring enough Euro's it seems. Ah well... at least we were able to enjoy some pizza, some wine, a cappuccino and some gellato!

Marina and I made a weekend trip to Milano this past November... something to do with shopping I think. I don't know but Marina does like her shoes and handbags! Though I seem to remember coming back empty handed.

We did some shopping at the Galleria Vitorio, a 19th century covered shopping street on the Piazza Dumo. It is pretty impressive huh!?

This is part of the Piazza Dumo which is the large square in front of the Dumo (cathedral).

... and this is the Dumo. Strangely the tour includes walking around the roof. The views were great. The Dumo is one of the largest cathedrals in the world. It was built over several century's and is a bit of a mash up of architectural styles.

There are over 2000 sculptures on the cathedral and when that is the case apparently you have to start getting imaginative in where you put them.

The building in the background is the Castello Sforzesco. The monument in the foreground I am not too sure about. The guy wearing the cape? Pretty sure that is a formal military or police uniform.

This is street car, as I am sure you figured out.

That's it? Yep. It wasn't a long trip. My greatest regret? I didn't book a ticket to see The Last Supper by Da Vinci. It is painted on the wall of a church in Milan, but you need to book tickets a couple of months in advance! Dang. I guess I will be visiting Milan again....

Cheers!
Scott

The Netherlands

2007-10-13T14:58:00.007+01:00

I decided to do some sight seeing in the Netherlands with Marina after a meeting we had in Amsterdam. The meeting ended on Friday and we stayed through Saturday. Admittedly one day is not a lot of time to see a country, but it isn't very big!! I had been to Amsterdam several times so we headed straight to Rotterdam on Saturday morning. It was about an hour train ride from Amsterdam. It is one of Europe's major ports and is well known for its modern architecture.

Once off the train I headed for the most important place I could think of... anyplace to fill my belly! I found a nice little cafe that overlooked the citys famous bridge, a little harbor, and one of its more famous residential complexes.

These are the houses... One of them was converted into a architecture "museum" so we were able to go inside. I can't even begin to describe the layout for these "houses" but I will give it a shot. Each cube is one residence and the "stem" has a front door in it at the ground level. When you open the door you are faced with a steep spiral staircase. Once you are up the stairs it opens into a first floor living/ dining/ kitchen area. The next level up is the bedroom/ den type area. All of the cabinets, shelving and most of the furniture is built in to maximize space (and presumably reduce the need for lugging furniture up and down the stairs). There were a couple of them for sale... but I wasn't tempted. :oP

I think this was a bar or restraunt. I don't remember, but the theme struck me as funny....

This is what the dutch refer to as a pissoir (that's urinal to you). This one is quite fancy and very permanent looking, most of them were plastic. They seemed to be everywhere... the dutch must have small bladders. Yes. You do just use them in broad daylight, out on the street, or wherever they may be. I found it quite humorous at first... but as the day drug on... they came in handy on a few occasions!

After skipping about town in Rotterdam we headed for The Hague. When you first exit the train station this is the sight that greets you.... and you thought you had trouble finding your car in the wal-mart parking lot!

We mostly just wandered around, but at some point we took a tram down to the beach. I didn't wind up with any beach pictures for some reason... here are some pics of random places of interest. I wanted to track down the International Criminal Tribunal... but we were pressed for time and it was pretty far down my list (I'm not that nerdy!).

Yea... I finished another post! Now I am only three months behind...

Germany!

2007-09-29T21:05:00.000+01:00

This past September I had training in Athens for three days. I had decided it was the perfect opportunity to take a few days off and travel around Germany before a meeting I had in Amsterdam the end of the next week. A few of my colleagues decided to join me on the trip as part of the itinerary called for a stop in Munich for Oktoberfest! Unfortunately it was cold and rainy in Munich while we were there so we didn't see much of the town... but we didn't let the rain keep us from the festival!

The festival is like any other fair or carnival but it is best known for the "beer tents" where German beer and food is served to a chorus of German folk songs.

On our first morning in town we had to rush to the festival tents to stake our claim to a seat at a table. We were there by 9am and geared up for beer and brot's. Here is a picture of Marina, Alexis and myself trying to decide on breakfast. Hmm.. beer and sausage? Beer and potatoes? Beer and boar? We were a little apprehensive but our excitement made up for it.

Here we are at 9:30... still bright eye'd! Our first of four liters!

Ashley decided to make friends with the locals.

This is one of my only pictures of the town outside of the festival... but no worries, I heard my groups annual meeting will be in Munich in 2008!

After all of our fun in the beer tents we wandered the streets, ate some dinner, and then headed for the train station where an overnight train to Berlin was waiting! After a little sleep (very little) we arrived in Berlin!

I didn't know what to expect with Berlin as I had heard both good and bad things about the city. I have to say it isn't a tourist mecca but it definitely didn't dissapoint. Like other German cities I have been to it was clean, well organized and the people were friendly.

We focused our attention on the last remaining section of the wall, the checkpoints and guard towers as well as the wall museum. It was very interesting but also obvious that a lot has changed in Berlin since the wall fell. Without the map it was very difficult to tell where the east - west division was.

This is the last remaining section of the wall. It was left as a reminder and it cuts right through a cemetary!

Checkpoint Charlie

The ruins of a bombed out cathedral, again preserved as a reminder.

This is a well known monument in Berlin because the wall ran right in front of it.. and it was considered symbolic as a gateway to a wall.

After a couple of days in Berlin Alexis and Ashley headed back to London and Marina and I continued on to Hamburg. Below is a picture of the city hall.

Hamburgh was hit pretty hard during the blitz and so here is another bombed out cathedral preserved as a reminder. The city was very pretty but I don't seem to have many pictures for some reason. Yes the people of the city are called Hamburgers. Oh.. and no this isn't where hamburgers got there name... though there is some argument that it was German sailors for whom the first hamburgers were made in the port of NY.

After a night in Hamburgh we took the train to Dusseldorf which is a very small but cute town. We saw pretty much everything we wanted to see in the city in about half a day but it wasn't a let down. The old part of the city probably wasn't much bigger than a football field.

So for those of you keeping score I have been to most of the bigger cities in Germany with the exception of Frankfort. Not sure if I will make it there or not... I only have about a year and a half left living in Europe and time fly's!

Cornwall

2007-08-20T17:58:00.000+01:00

This August I went to the Cornwall area of England with Mike and Darrin a couple of friends from work. Cornwall is considered one of the nicer regions of England because it typically has warmer weather and good waves.

We rented a car and Drove from London on Friday after work. It took about five hours to get to our hotel "Hotel California" in Newquay. When we got up in the morning we took a drive out to Lands End, the western most tip of England, just a bit past Penzance (yes as in the Pirates of Penzance). We shot a few photo's and hiked around a bit. It was a beautiful day as you can see.

After the breif trip out to Lands End we headed back to Newquay for a little bay fishing. It turned out to be a pretty good fishing trip....

We made some friends... though they seemed more interested in our bait than being patted on the head.

I caught the biggest fish of the day, a Pollock as well as a nice sized Black Breem.

Mike and Darrin drove the boat back to the marina while the Captain cleaned up our catch.

We spent the evening exploring the town... which is a haven for stag and hen nights. There were quite a few parties roaming the bars acting silly. All in all it was some good entertainment. The next morning (Sunday) we drove back to London. Then we got cleaned up and had a BBQ at Darrins. Here is a couple of Breem.. which were really tasty!

It was good fun and I am looking forward to another trip at some point....

Venice!

2007-07-20T17:55:00.000+01:00

Marina and I took a long weekend trip to Venice in July. It was amazing... all of the fairy tale views you would imagine. The only bad thing is it is a bit of a tourist trap.. nothing goes on there but selling clothing and trinkets... and charging tourists a fortune to eat!

Early morning on the Piazza San Marco, a picture of the Basilica... and the omnipresent pigeons of Venice.

A close up of the face of the Basilica di San Marco.

A view from the tower in the Piazza. The views were amazing...

A picture of me blocking the spectacular views....

Your average canal... Nice huh?

Another picture with me blocking the view.... and with a funnly look on my face this time. Bonus!

Ah.. this one is better. Marina poses by some gondolas.

A postal boat.

A police boat.

A construction boat.

Not pictured.... water taxis and the water bus!

This is Palazzo Ducale the command centre of the Venetian Republic. The Doge's Palace, a rare example of civil Venetian Gothic, was home to the doge (duke) and all arms of government, including prisons, for much of the thousand or so years of the Republic. Two magnificent Gothic facades in white Istrian stone and pink Veronese marble face Piazzetta San Marco.
Established in the 9th century, the building began to assume its present form some 500 years later. From the main courtyard, you ascend several stairways to reach the Appartamento del Doge (Duke's Apartments).

A trail of corridors leads you to the Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs) that connects to the Prigioni Nuove (New Prisons) built on the east side of the canal to cater for overflow from the Prigioni Vecchie (Old Prisons) in the palace itself. Among the latter were the Piombi ('the Leads') in the roof, where legendary 18th-century philanderer Giacomo Casanova did some time.

I can't remember why I am sticking my finger in this poor guys mouth... something to do with secrets from what the sign says. If you look carefully you can see that the inside of his mouth is shiny from all of the tourists putting there finger in there... mmmm good thing I am not a germaphobe.

Marina poses in front of some more gondolas.

We took a side trip to Murano to see some glass making. We weren't dissapointed. The island is very tiny, and there isn't much to do but shop for glass! At least it is quiet and very pretty.

Why is all the glass making in Murano? Becasue in 1291, the Venetian Republic ordered glassmakers to move their foundries to Murano because the glassworks represented a fire danger in Venice, whose buildings were mostly wooden at the time.

This is the church of Santa Maria e San Donato on Murano.

Visit the ubiquitous glass shops on Murano, and you'll find countless paperweights, glass beads rings and necklaces. Some are amusing, 0thers are pretty but many, in my humble opinion are tacky!

All the pictures should you be interested: Pictures from Scott Stewart

Oxford

2007-07-05T17:55:00.000+01:00

In July Marina and I made a trip to Oxford.... not to much to say about it except the timing was good. Not but a few weeks later they had a lot of rain and flooding! Enjoy the pictures...

Scott the expert punter.... experienced in both Cambridge and Oxford punting now! :o)

Normandy!

2007-06-20T17:53:00.000+01:00

In June I decided it was time for another road trip. Sooo... Stephanie and I made our way to France for a trip through the Normandy region. We took a train from London to Dover. Then boarded a ferry to Calais, France. The train took a bit over an hour and the ferry took a bit over two. When we arrived in Calaic it was pouring rain!! Not a great start for a road trip. Luckily they upgraded our car to a mid size and it had a nav system. After about an hour we figured out how to get the nav system to speak english... but it never could pronounce the French street names. :o)

This is a picture from the ferry.... not a pleasant start!

Luckily the weather improved rather quickly and we were able to make some pleasant stops in some smaller french towns. They all seemed to have markets so we made the best of it by browsing and sampling the foods...

Of course a trip to the Normandy region wouldnt be complete without stops at the battlegrounds, museums and the American Cemetary... so as you can see from the pictures we made those stops.

These are the remenants of the artificial harbor which was constructed in and towed from England to faciliate a landing on non-protected beaches. It is pretty surreal how it has all been left as is..

Mmm.... chocolate and pistachio ice cream!!

The American Cemetary.... the land was actually given to the US by France..... so this is on "American soil"

The next few pictures are the battle ground that was featured in Savin Private Ryan. All of the crevasses are bomb craters!

This was a charming little costal town. I really enjoyed the market. There was lots of fresh cider as this part of France isn't wine country..... but rather cider country.... due to the apple orchards.

We made a trip to the town that Claude Monet lived in. We saw his house, studio and the family graves. We also saw the garden where there is the water lilly pond that was the inspiration for many of his water lilly paintings.

Another nice picture of one of the costal fishing villages..

Me with an arm full of fresh cider....

One of the very cute country hotels we stayed at...

A cathedral.... the name of which I can't currently recall. I need to check the guide book...

Another country hotel which we stayed at..

Me in front of the abbey of Mont St Michael...

One of the streets in the abbey.

The church in the abbey.

After all of the fun and games it was time to head home.... we just made the same trip in reverse order... below is the white cliffs of Dover on our way home..

It was well worth the trip.... especially if you are a history buff... but even if you just like small fishing villages and fresh jam and cider. :0)

Cheers!

Scott

Paris and Versailles!

2007-06-10T17:53:00.000+01:00

In June I went to Paris with Marina.

We took the Eurostar train from London early one morning. It goes straight under the english channel and travels at speeds of up to 190 miles per hour! When you go under the channel there is pressure in ones ears similar to taking off in a plane.... the channel tunnel is about 20 minutes of the entire 3.5 hour trip.

I wasn't going to go to Paris and not go to the Louvre so it was one of our first stops. It was really impressive to see all of the anchient artifacts and of course the Mona Lisa!

I didn't care much for the food in France but the sweets and pastries were good! Ok I can't complain about the wine and cheese either.....

Another required sight seeing destination of course!

Next stop the Arch de Triumph. It is massive!

I don't remember what this building is .... ugh. I need to take notes!

This was along the river near Notre Dame.

Notre Dame de Paris. We climed the stairs for a view from the top. It is one of the best views in Paris.

Marina takes a break in the park near a fountain.

We took a side trip to Versailles and saw the fountains at the Chateau de Versailles. The fountains were pretty impressive.....

I sure do like to take pictures of funny stores!

That's it for Paris! A quick but enjoyable weekend trip.

Till next time... Cheers!

Prague and Budapest

2007-05-20T17:40:00.000+01:00

In May I went to Prague and Budapest with Stephanie a friend from work.

We flew into Prague in the evening, checked into the hotel and had dinner nearby. The next day we did some sight seeing in Prague. We stayed in Prague for two nights total so we were there for two full days as well.... it turned out to be just enough time to see the city.

Below is the famous clock in the main square. Every hour it chimes and the little windows above the face open up and little dancing puppets come out. We had a drink and a snack nearby so we could watch it happen.

After some wandering around we were pretty hungry. We found a nice little cafe by the river and had lunch. Here is Stephanie concentrating hard on figuring out what is edible!

After lunch we took a little river boat tour on a boat that looked like this... it was good timing because as soon as we were in the boat it started to rain... lucky for us it quit by the time the boat tour was over!

After the boat tour we wandered around some more and I took pictures of random buildings that I found interesting.

The building below is actually quite famous.... but I need to get my guide book out to remind me what it is!! I will update this with a bit more info someday...honest! It is on the main square.

I thought this one was pretty.... not sure if it is significant or not. It was near the main square too.

Cheeky Scott. Very cheeky.

The next night we boarded an overnight train to Budapest. Because we went through a few countries in the night we were woken up to show our passports! Not a pleasant experience to say the least. We had a cabin on a sleeper car. I took a picture of the outside of the train but I never did get a picture of the inside.... dang! It was actually pretty comfortable and I would have slept fine if it wasn't for the passport police.

Budapest is actually two cities on opposite sides of a river.... Buda and Pesht. It is a pretty place but bigger than Prague and thus missing some of it's charm.

If you are dying to see more pictures of Prague and Budapest that I haven't labeled here you go: Pictures from Scott Stewart

That's it for now..... more soon I promise!

Ireland!

2007-04-20T15:42:00.000+01:00

I love a good road trip... and I recently had one of the best.

In April there was a three day weekend and so my friend Ashley and I took a road trip in Ireland. We flew into Dublin and stayed the first night there near the airport. We picked the car up in the morning and we were on our way...

I rented a manual shift car and they drive right hand drive cars so that kept us on our toes. Luckily Ashley is a good navigator because she can't drive manual (oops)!

It seems as though the whole country is divided up by walls made of rock. In fact the rock walls are along both sides of most roads.... and the roads are very narrow in many cases. It seemed like the speedlimit was 100 on every road even if it was a two way road that was 12 feet wide!

We headed south west towards Limerick making side trips and stops along the way to see castles. The countryside was beautiful. It was very green with little white sheep everywhere!

We came across our first castle relatively quickly.... then our second... then our third.. We quickly realized there are more castles in the country than we cared to look at. Every picture on this page is a different castle and this isn't even all of the ones we saw!

Luckily when we tired of castles we got to where we drove through Connor Pass. It is two way trafic but only one lane! We stopped near the top and enjoyed the breathtaking views.

Somewhere in this time period we stopped at the cliffs of Mohr. There was a bit of mist but it was a very clear day making for some impressive pictures.

Another castle... or at least whats left of one. I thought it made a nice picture anyway. We had breakfast or lunch (I don't remember which) at a little cafe overlooking this beach. It was a very pleasant break from being in the car.

Here is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. A pub/ funeral home.... what an interesting combination of specialties!

The famous Blarney Castle!

Scott kissing the Blarney stone! I don't seem to have received the gift of elequence despite this germ filled act...

By the end of our trip we had visited quite a few places including Cork, Waterford, Killarny, the Dingle Penensula, and many smaller towns. All in all it was a great trip.

See all of my pictures from Ireland:Pictures from Scott Stewart

That's it for now...

Winter update!

2007-01-25T21:15:00.000Z

Hello all. I hope you are well!

Its about time for an update the last one I sent was on December 5th..…and quite a bit has happened since then. I had a great Christmas. I spent the holidays at my mom’s house in Utah. My brothers and my Uncle were able to make too. We had a very relaxed Christmas after several days of running around doing last minute shopping. We took a short trip up to Park City one day to do some site seeing. Here is a picture of my brothers and uncle and one of my brothers girlfriends.

I played some paint ball with my step brother and some of his friends… ouch! My brother Jed and I were able to snowboard a couple of times during our visit… but no golf this year!

When I got back in January, before it got busy at work I made a couple of trips to Oslo, Norway and Copenhagen, Denmark. I loved them both but why I decided to go in January is beyond me! Dang it was cold.

While I was in Oslo I took a tour of Vigeland park (photo above), the Olympic ski jump museum, the Viking ship museum and the Nobel Peace Institute. Just by chance I was there during their winter festival. There was a snowboard exhibition in the middle of the street downtown! They would pull the snowboarders by a rope tied to a four wheeler. They were jumping over a car. Yikes! I was hoping to see the Northern Lights while there, but it was not meant to be.

You can see all of my Oslow pictures at: Pictures from Scott Stewart

Copenhagen was cold and windy! Probably a city that is best to visit in the summer. At least it wasn't snowy. Copenhagen is best known for this little mermaid statue...

Every Danish sailor who ever stood on a deck knows that the Øresund used to be full of Mermaids. The legend tells us that the home of all Mermaids was the Mermaid Banks in Øresund. The banks are no more but Copenhagen's own Little Mermaid is.

The sculptor Edward Eriksen, sculptured her in bronze and his wife Eline Eriksen modelled. The story says that she is a sea king's half-human and half-fish daughter, who must wait on her rock for 300 years before she can enter the world of humans. She's been sitting here since 1913 so she still has a few more years to go.We can only wait and see… The Little Mermaid attracts almost one million tourists every year.

While I was wandering around I managed to see the changing of the gaurd.

I spent most of the day wandering around looking at the more significant parks, buildings and squares. One of the squares had an outdoor ice skating rink in it!

After all of the outdoor sight seeing I was ready for a fireplace and a hot drink! I found the drink but no fire place... I wandered into a pub and ordered dinner. After a few minutes I noticed John Mayer was being played on CD, one of my favorite singers. They went on to play the whole CD while I ate!

You can see all of my Copenhagen pictures at: Pictures from Scott Stewart

Somewhere between January and April I found some time to take a Jack the ripper tour in London. I also made a trip to Greenwich to see the visual marker of the ball drop at precisely 12pm GMT. MMmm.. That's fascinating Scott.

Oh yes.. And I moved. It's a 10 minute walk to the office! :o)

That's it for now…
Cheers!
Scott

Posh - yes they really say it. Here is a little background for you:
Something posh is elegant or stylishly luxurious; in Britain it also means somebody or something typical of the upper classes.

The best known and most widely believed story is that it comes from old-time ship travel from Britain to India on the packet boats run by the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company. It supposedly stood for "Port Out, Starboard Home". It is explained that somebody who had a cabin on the port side on the outward trip, and on the starboard side on the return trip, had the benefit of the sea breeze, and shelter from the sun, on the hottest part of the journey through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. Such cabins were reserved for the most wealthy passengers, we are told, and the P&O company stamped their tickets with POSH to show their status. The trouble is there’s absolutely no evidence for it and P&O flatly denies any such term existed. It’s just a legend, though a very persistent one.

Happy Christmas!

2006-12-21T21:13:00.000Z

Wow.. It has been a while since I wrote last!! Here is the catch up...

25/08 I headed to Spain! I made a side trip to Buno near Valencia for La Tomatina (the tomato festival). Mostly this consists of a huge tomato fight in the streets with dump trucks full of tomatoes they bring in. It was disgusting!!! Once was enough. I also made a side trip to Pals and drove up Costa Brava with some friends. Valencia was beautiful! We spent a fair amount of time on the beach and drinking Sangria… I somehow also made it to Seville on this trip… It turned into almost a week before we were done.

02/09 Tony and Cheree (some of my friends from Dallas) came to London to visit! While they were here we went to Cambridge and "punted" on the backs. It was good fun and nobody fell in! We also got to go to "Wicked" the musical while they were here… it was very good! Unfortunately Tony and Cheree lost their luggage on their way from London to Paris. They finally got it back close to 30 days after it was lost… and it was damp and mouldy inside! Thanks BA!

16/09 and 22/09 I spent in Greece before and after my annual 3 day group meeting in Athens. I rented a car the first weekend and drove around Greece seeing lots of ruins. More than enough really…by the time I was done I was referring to them as "piles of rocks." (what an ingrate!) Athens is a dump… I didn't care for it much… Driving there was horrible!! Scarier than driving on the wrong side of the road in the UK and scarier than Manhattan! The weekend after training some friends and I went to the island of Santorini and then to Crete. In Santorini we rented a villa with a and spent most of the time there or at the beach. The sand was black! (volcanic sand!)

30/09 I went to a town outside Amsterdam for training… can't say I did anything so I shouldn't even mention it! I walked out of the hotel and stood on the beach for about 10 minutes (does that count?).

Sometime in October/ November was "bonfire day" in London. It is the equivalent of the fourth of July as far as celebrations go (not the meaning though!). Lot's of fireworks every weekend for pretty much the whole month! I had a good time going to a few displays with friends from work.
I saw Kevin Spacey on stage in "A Moon for the Misbegotten" at the old vic recently. That was pretty neat.

I haven't been taking any trips for a while… hoping to do some snowboarding trips when I get back from the US for the holidays.

I have been working in Basingstoke UK recently. Not that interesting but being out of the city let's me rent a car. Driving a manual on the wrong side of the road is exciting! (for my passengers especially!)

I am headed to Boca Raton for training for a week here in a bit…(rough life I know) then going to Houston and Utah to see the family. Looking forward to seeing family and getting in some snowboarding!

Anyway… here is wishing you and yours a very happy holidays and a spectacular new year. I hope to hear from you all!

Cheers,
Scott

Accounting terminology differences
"Accounts Receivable" = "Debtors"
"Accounts Payables" = "Creditors"
"Revenue" = "Turnover"
"Inventory" = "Stock"
"send Confirmations" = "Circularize"

Food differences
Omelettes are for lunch.
Waffles are for desert.
Beans with breakfast!
Beans go on baked potatoes.
The purple Skittles are currant flavour rather than grape.

Phrases
"Bits and bobs" = A little of this and that
"Brilliant" = a most overused phrase… like saying perfect.
"Bollocks" = "Nuts" (Typically used as a negative phrase)
"the dogs bollocks" = Strangely this is used to describe something good!
"Happy Christmas" This is used just as much as "Merry Christmas."
"gone off" = Gone bad. Not quite right.
"sorted" = figured out ("is it sorted?" "You sorted?" "sorted!") Used quite a bit!
"potter around" = mess around..do a little of this and that

London week 9

2006-08-08T20:21:00.000+01:00

Hello!

Well, it has been a whole five weeks since my last update e-mail. I hope I am not going overboard! I am assuming they will be a little less frequent in the winter when I have less to tell you about, but for now you will have to bear with me, this is a long one!

WINDSOR & ETON
I looked at the last update I sent and I am glad to say that I finally made it to Windsor! I still haven't made it to Greenwich though. It's so close I just keep putting it off.

It was just a short (30min) train ride from London. I visited Windsor and Eton (town just across the Thames ("Tims") from Windsor) on 24/06 which was during Royal Ascot (the week or so the queen goes to the horse races). During Royal Ascot people get very dressed up to go to the races and lots of fancy lunch and dinner parties. The men traditionally wear coats with tails and top hats. The women wear fancy dresses with fancy hats. I saw quite a few couples in this dress before I finally figured it out. Before touring the castle I watched the changing of the guard. It is quite a process! It includes a full marching band playing in front of the guard as they march up the street from the barracks to the castle.

The castle is why everyone goes to Windsor and for good reason. It is very impressive! It is a sprawling complex and much of it looks straight out of a movie set or Disney park. After touring the castle I visited Eton which is famous for the Eton boys school. It is a very traditional private boys school. The pupils wear coats with tails and top hats. Princes William and Harry attended as did some absurdly large number of past prime ministers. The campus is very old and the students have carved their names in every imaginable place over the years, including in the stone walls! I guess they want to leave their mark one way or another. After a bite at the Royal Oak pub I hoped on the train back to London.

WIMBLEDON
The next weekend (01/07) the Wimbledon 2006 championships had started so some friends from work and I decided to go. Going to the Wimbledon championships is a process that involves getting up quite early and standing in line ("queing") for hours. Luckily the British have queuing down to a science. We showed up and got in line at 6:30 or so. By 6:45 we had been handed a queue card with our number on it (as well as an " I've Queued at Wimbledon 2006" sticker) which let us know where we stood in terms of getting in. Based on our number and the number of people they allow in we knew we would get in. (Even if we were past the cut off we could get a card and wait for people to leave so that we could get in.) This makes all the waiting less anxious because you know it is for good reason. We had breakfast in line. Played some toss with an "American Football" my Nerf - much to the interest of the Brits in line! We got in around 11am or so and went to watch a match. Wimbledon is huge!! I had no idea! We watched some lower qualifier women's singles match then had lunch. After lunch we were wandering and sat at an empty court for a moment. Andy Rodick (sp?) wandered on with his coach to warm up for his next match. He was the American hopeful and the girls in my group were mesmerized! When he served it was so fast you could hardly see the ball (in the 130-140 mph range). After that I was pretty tired out and some of us left to watch some more world cup football at a co-workers. I don't have any good Wimbledon pictures sorry to say..

SPAIN
As if on some marathon travel adventure I headed to Spain for my Madrid and Pamplona visit 07/07. I arrived in Madrid Friday night but just checked in and headed to bed. I had arrived to the airport a bit to early Friday then my plane was delayed by about 3 hours so I was tired just from doing nothing!

Saturday I wandered a bit in the morning just admiring the architecture of all the old buildings. I wandered through El Parque Del Retiro - a very large and old park just east of downtown. There are so many monuments and fountains in Madrid that you don't need a map to see the sights.. I seem to have wandered across many without knowing where I was going. After the park I visited the Prado museum. It was great! I had seen many of El Greco's, Goya's and many others paintings in books but there is no comparison. They have to be seen to be appreciated! The museum had a Picasso special event for which they had flown in Picasso's from around the world. I was able to see many of his works that I had never seen before in books or otherwise. Quite an experience. That evening I did some more wandering and later on a whim went to a dance club. About half the music was American and half the remainder was Shakira as far as I could tell. Dancing is universal and I had a good time for an hour or two. I got bored after a while and headed back to my room. One thing to note.. The Spanish are night owls. I guess after taking a nap or break for two hours in the afternoon (which they really do) you have more energy. The streets were packed even at 1 or 2 in the morning. Bars don't close until 3am and clubs will stay open until 6 or 7 in the morning!

Sunday morning I wandered and saw the Palacio Real (Royal Palace),

then headed to the Reina Sofia museum. This is a contemporary art museum and it had some very interesting works.

Some modern art does nothing for me but much of what I saw here was very beautiful, thought provoking, and interesting. Sunday evening I rested in the park near my hotel and read a book for a while. Then I took a nap in preparation for my bus ride to Pamplona.

Monday I took a taxi to the bus station and boarded my bus for Pamplona at 1:30am. We arrived at 6:30 with me having gotten far less sleep than I anticipated. As soon as I got off the bus I attempted to follow a group of like dressed individuals (white clothing, read neck and waist

scarves and trainers) only to wind up at a bar. Yes, a bar!! Talk about getting an early start! I decided to try again and eventually found the start of the bull run. The way it works is this. The police barricade off the route other than the stretches which are just narrow streets so the bulls have a defined path.

Then at 7:30 am if you are in the route you will be running and they force everyone else out. They herd everyone down towards the bull pen. It gets a little crowded with a few hundred people trying to run.

The run is about a half mile or less and probably only 12-15 feet wide in a few places. At 8 they let the runners spread out down the path and take their positions. I took mine on Estafeta street which is the second half of the run on a narrow but long and straight portion. There is only two ways out from there. A cross street if you jump the barricade or the last few yards before the bull ring at the end of the street. When they release the bulls they fire a starting gun or cannon and that is when the apprehensiveness you were feeling before starts escalating to panic levels. I eventually saw the bulls round the corner at the bottom of the street and start heading my direction. I started jogging, then running as they got closer. I was careful to look forwards once in a while.. And at the last moments when they were coming up on me I noticed a few people had fallen in front of me.. So it was either go around them in front of the bulls or press my back against the wall right before the group that had fallen. I decided on the latter and it worked out. The bulls ran past in two groups. They might as well have been two animals though.. One with 4 heads, 8 bulging eyes, 8 horns and 16 hooves and the other with 2 heads, etc. At the moment they went past it was as if nothing else was present but the bulls and me. It was over in just a couple seconds from when they were close to me to when they were gone, but what a rush. They fired another cannon to let us know the bulls were in the ring and another to signify they were in their pens. I don't have pictures during the run as that is not allowed and I don't think I could have managed anyway.

Ok. It was now 8:30am. I did what I wanted and my bus ticket back was at 1:30am the next day. The first thing I did is go to the bus office and change my ticket to 6:30 pm the same day. I was tired! The town was a disaster. Trash everywhere. People sleeping in cars, in the park, people looked like they hadn't' bathed for days! Now that is some festival! I wandered the town and spent the morning at the festival. Took some pictures of the Gigantes ( people in costumes that make them look like giants).

I ate some Tapas with cold beverages. Followed tradition and took a nap in the early afternoon on a bark bench overlooking the valley below. The bus ride back was nice as I was able to see the countryside. Lots of hilly farmland. I was back to my hotel by midnight.

Tuesday… yes I am still going… I headed to the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum and spent mid day there. I then checked out of my hotel and headed home. I learned a lot (like the Spanish eat lots of ham), saw a lot (art, architecture, people), I took up smoking (second hand only as everyone there smokes), was able to practice my Spanish and I had a great time doing it!

DUBLIN
I decided to take a short weekend trip up to Dublin 22/07. I arrived at 8:30 Saturday morning and dropped my bag at the hotel. After scheduling the trip I had found out the University of Texas UK Alumni group had planned a trip for the same weekend. It's not my school but I asked them if I could tag along and I did. I met up with them at 11am and we went for a tour of the Guinness store house. It is the #1 tourist destination in Dublin believe it or not.

It is basically a museum which explains the process of making Guinness. At the top is a bar (the Gravity Bar) where they serve you a free pint (well you pay for the entrance so…). The views of the city were spectacular. Almost a full 360 degrees of visibility.

You can see from the hills almost to the shores. One thing that caught my eyes is the vast number of construction cranes. There were so many you couldn't count (or maybe that was the Guinness?). Actually, London and Madrid have a fair number as well. I guess this is no different than Dallas and other big cities in the states right now… interest is low I guess is the reason? Afterwards we went to St Patrick's Cathedral for a tour.

The Cathedral was interesting but filthy… They must have some tradition of not cleaning? They charge €5 for entrance and have a gift shop set up. A priest in training or something was working the till. I guess the Catholics have to pay those lawsuits and retirement costs somehow. That evening we had dinner at the Clarence Hotel restaurant which is owned by Bono. The food was good. I have to say the music they were playing was awful!! Not what you would expect from a member of U2!

Sunday I wandered Trinity College and the Temple Bar area.

Then we all met up and went to the all national Hurling quarter finals. We saw a match between Clare and Wexford. Hurling is a sport similar to field hockey and Lacrosse.

It is a fast moving game and very aggressive. After the match we headed for some dinner at a local pub near Christ's Church and then I caught a cab to the airport and headed home.

LONDON
So what do I do when not travelling... As little as possible! A co-workers birthday dinner and dancing. Playing "football" and rugby with co-workers in leagues (as a sub). Visiting the local pubs. I went to a gallery opening (how snooty!). Reading. Cleaning, laundry… Continuing to be entertained by the British culture. Taking more pictures of things that amuse me (pictures from Windsor, Madrid, London mostly shops)… it doesn't take much.

So now the part you been waiting for.. Or the part you scrolled down to see. Scott' list of funny London words, phrases or terminology differences and my attempt at their meaning:

Rubbish = Trash
"Uni" / University = College (so you say "where did you go to Uni")
"Tele" = T.V. Television
Queue = the line you wait in
Push Chair = Stroller
Nappy = Diaper
Nappy Disposal Unit = Diaper Bin
Dust Bin = Trash Can
Jacket Potato = Baked Potato
"Kit" = Uniform/ Gear for playing sports
Mail Shots = Those flyers people put in your mail
Sacked = Fired
Hen Party = Bachelorette Party
Stag Party= Bachelor Party
Straight Away = Right Away
Buds = Q-Tips (then again I think they are buds in the US?)
Lemonade = Lemon flavoured soda

Fun social differences:
"Sorry" is a substitute for excuse me and is a very commonly heard word in the Tube
Beer is a substitute for water. I heard that Europe's 12% of the world population drinks 50% of the worlds alcohol. Their Darwinian excuse: way back the water wasn't suitable for drinking so watered down beer or wine was drank by everyone. This eventually caused a preference for people whose body has a good ability to break down alcohol.
Letting ladies go first only happens occasionally (through doors or elevators)

There is no 1 pound note. Only 1 and 2 pound coins. The smallest bill is a "fiver", then comes the "tenner." 100 pence make up 1 pound. It's only "pence" if you have multiple, (1 is a penny) but everyone just says "P". So a soda would be 65P or lunch would be 5 pounds 50 (no need for the P).

If you want Jalapeños you better pronounce the J.

Indian food is just referred to as "curry" and it is the number 1 meal eaten out in London.

There are some ridiculous number of languages spoken in London. I understand 1 total. (I understand 90% of British and 10% of Spanish)

Required Tube gear: I-Pod & a book. (striking up conversation is not normal!)

NOW WHAT?
Between now and the end of the month I am trying to figure out if I am going to do anything..and what it might be. Probably just a short trip.

25/08 I am headed to Barcelona and Valencia for a long weekend. I will make a side trip to Buno near Valencia for La Tomatina (the tomato festival). Mostly this consists of a huge tomato fight in the streets with dump trucks full of tomatoes they bring in.
02/09 Tony and Cheree coming to London to visit!
16/09 and 22/09 long weekends before and after my annual 3 day training/group meeting in Athens. I will see Athens one weekend and probably go with co-workers to the start of Oktoberfest in Germany the other. Still undecided.
30/09 long weekend before 3 days more training that is in Amsterdam. Not sure what I am doing yet as I have been to Amsterdam before. May just rent a car and drive in the country.

Sorry if I have written too much but a lot has happened!

Know that I am thinking of you.
Kind Regards

London week 3

2006-06-21T18:38:00.000+01:00

Hey you lot!

I have been promising an update…. So here it is!

I made it to Salisbury and Stonehenge as planned! Stonehenge was amazing and the weather couldn’t have been better.

Salisbury has a large and beautiful cathedral and the best copy of the 4 remaining Magna Carta's. The town is famous for the market square and the cathedral. I was there on a Market day so I got to see the hustle and bustle…after a bit wandering with my ice cream cone and I headed home.

I have not made it to Windsor or Greenwich like I said… but I plan to this weekend!

I moved out of my temporary flat and into my new place on June 8th. I only had 2 suitcases so it wasn't too much trouble! The rest of my things from the US (a shipment of about 20 boxes 430 lbs!) was to be available for delivery on Friday the 9th… but it didn't arrive until the 13th! I had to start work on the 12th so that meant time for shopping!

I spent the weekend getting to know the neighbourhood relaxing a bit. I am close to a shopping "mall" (Whitley's), Hyde Park, Notting Hill, etc. There are many restaurants nearby including Indian, Brazilian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, American (even a soul food place called "Harlem"!), Jamaican, Pakistani, even a Mexican Taquria! (it's really good!), and of course plenty of English Pubs. Sometimes they have funny names… (well at least funny to me!)

Just around the corner I have a grocery, dry cleaner, shoe repair, library, gym, etc. which is good because I have to walk everywhere! I took a lot of pictures of my flat as I knew some of you wanted to see it… so here they are:

A couple of times recently I stopped by the Ten Bells pub. It was very close to my temporary flat. It is famous for being the place where Jack the Ripper used to pick up prostitutes. Yikes! The area is pretty up and coming these days. It is right next to a big church! Weird.

Oh. Here is a picture of how cool I am standing outside the Tate Modern. Pretty cool huh!

I am trying to write things down that I see or hear that are funny to me… because I figure soon it will sound normal! Mom suggested a journal..and I think that may be a plan… maybe I can just print these e-mails and paste them in… (wow very accountant like Scott!)

Here is some funny words or phrases and their translations:
1) A-"zed" = A-Z
2) "Splash Out" = spend lots of money on fancy things
3) "Petrol Head" = "Gear Head" - US person who likes cars
4) "Flash Car" = fancy car
5) "New Joiner" = New Hire - what they call a person who just started at a company
6) "Hash Key" = this is the pound sign to us!
7) "Top Up" = add to
8) "Dressing Gown" = robe
9) "Jumper" = sweatshirt
10) "advert" = commercial, advertisement
11) "you lot" = "ya'll" -Texas, "yoos guys" - New York, you all - the rest of the world
12) "Junction" = intersection
13) "Bird" = girl, girlfriend (just girl works too.)
14) "Bloke" = guy (guy doesn't work for this one!)

There are many others but most of them you have probably heard before, so I wont bore you.
I have been watching a lot of world cup football… go England! It is quite the experience at any local pub! (well America is out already…) Not this weekend but next I am going to watch the matches at Wimbledon!

My next big adventure is in July. I am going to Madrid and Pamplona Spain for a 4 day weekend! I will be visiting Pamplona during the San Fermin festival, where I will take part in the running of the bulls! Cross your fingers for me! :os In Madrid I will visit the museums (world famous!) and just wander around the city. In Pamplona, besides the bull run, I will try to attend a bull fight and just wander the festival.

Work is going well. Mostly because I haven't had to do much yet! It is just like starting a new job, the workload will ramp up. I have had lots of paperwork, and training, etc. to complete. The strange thing in the UK (that will kill some of you in the US!) is a standard workday here is 7 hours! The extra hour seems to be taken in the morning because the normal work arrival time is 9-9:30am… my colleagues consider 8:30 early!! Granted I will probably not be working 7 hours, but when I have little to do I have been! :)

My big excitement for work is our annual global offering services (my group or "service line") meeting in September. It is a 3 day training in Athens, Greece! They were kind enough to schedule it on a Tue- Thursday, that way you can stay a long weekend and make a trip of it. All of the people who work in our group from around the world will be there. It will be very interesting.

Now what should I do in August…. Hmmm.

Anyway… that's it for now. I hope all is well with you and yours!

Cheers!

London week 1

2006-06-06T18:14:00.000+01:00

Well.. I made it to London and survived my first week. Despite not always remembering to look the correct way when crossing the street. Thankfully the British have had a few visitors before me with this problem so they paint directions on the ground!

My wallet is a bit lighter and I get the feeling it is going to stay that way. The prices on pretty much everything looks the same as you would expect; Fast food combo meal 5.50, Bottle of water 1.10, Starbucks blackcoffee 1.45…. But then you remember that it's in pounds so youhave to multiply by 1.9 to get to US dollars. So a plain black coffee atStarbucks (or any of the competitors) cost me about $2.75 - ouch! I havehad to stop converting otherwise I think I would starve to death. (I saw aTGIFridays.. A burger=10.95= $21 US!)

My first couple of weeks I am not working. I am staying in a serviced apartment paid for by Deloitte while I look for a place. I have toured the neighborhoods a bit. Then went out with estate agents looking at places. They quote the rent here in weekly amounts (even though you pay monthly). I think it is a way of making it sound cheaper as a small weekly diff can add up to a big monthly diff when you multiply by 4.33! Additionally occupants get to pay "counsel tax" which as far as I can tell is like property tax..but they may have that too. The fun starts again when you convert to US dollars!

All of the estate agents spoke English, and were young… but hell if I could understand everything they said, between their accents, different terminology, slang, etc… I started getting a little frustrated with the process by the end of the week, because every agent will listen to your particulars then show you 3 (always 3 for some reason) properties that are the closest they have to what you want… even if the closest they have doesn't match at all! Argh! Salespeople!

I eventually wound up "letting" (renting) a "flat" (apartment) in Bayswater which is next to Notting Hill. It is within a 10 minute walk of 4 tube(subway) stations servicing 5 lines. It is also about a 10 minute walk from Hyde park or the shopping, bars, clubs and cinema's of Notting Hill and not too far from the west end. My flat backs up to a beautiful communal garden(to which I have access), and faces a building across the street with nowindows facing my direction and a big tree! (A surprising amount of privacyfor the city) I am guessing my commute to work will consist of a 10 minwalk to the tube, a 10-15 minute tube ride and a 5 min walk to the office.

My flat is furnished (many are), somewhere between 400-450 sq ft, and a third floor walk up. To you that translates as 4th floor (they start with Ground here) no "lift" (elevator). Anyway.. all those stairs offset the price of being in a desirable area to a mere 300 ppw, plus annual counsel taxes of "only" about 800 per year. For those non-accountants that's about:1,365 "quid" (bucks) a month or about $2,600 US. Now ask me how I am coming up with a6 week deposit and the first months rent?!

What else have I been up to besides calculating how much everything costs in $$? I went to the Tate Modern (museum) yesterday. Today I wandered around the Portobello street market in Notting Hill and saw the house where George Orwell lived. Monday I am going to the Templar church for a tour and talk on the Da Vinci Code. Tuesday I am going to Greenwich to visit the observatory and see the point where 0 longitude was established (woo hoo!). Wednesday I am going to Stonehenge. Thursday/ Friday I am moving in to my new place! Anyway… I have bored you all enough.. Expect an update when I feel like I have something to say or some pictures to share.

Until then,

"Cheers"