Cappacino,Beers, and Burgers

Here's the sign outside of Loyd's bar that I spoke about in my earlier post about my trip from Brussels to Newcastle. They do seem to have the best prices in town and a good selection of beers. They also have a pretty good kitchen with daily specials. I got the "Beer, Burger, and Chips" special today.












My choice was a Lamb burger with a Pedigree Ale from Weston's Brewery. I chose the Pedigree Ale to go with lunch because I had been served the last pint of Geordie's pride while making my decision on what to eat. Pedigree is a Special Bitter style, and a wonderful example at that, but that's not what this post is about. If you read my post from earlier this morning you may have noticed the bit of a blue funk that started to creep in on me as I wrote. Well my knickers have been unbunched and I'm back in a much better mood!


As I walked out of Loyd's yesterday I remembered that I had a picture of this bridge from one of my earlier trips. It is now under rennovation and is covered with canvas. I tried to get as close to the same shot as I had tken previously, and the sky even has a similar appearance!



















I also decided to get a shot of my hotel from Loyd's. My hotel is the big building at the top of the hill, just through the bridge in this shot.












I also stopped just after crossing the draw bridge that I had to cross to get back to the hotel to take this shot. I was hoping to show the steep grade that leads up to the hotel. I'd estimate it at about 18%, although the phot unfortunately doesn't really show it well. It was as difficult to walk down as it is to walk back up, and if you were to lose your footing you could easily roll all the way down into the Tyne itself.






The last photo was taken from about half way up the hill. You can just barely see Loyd's, it's the white building with the red roof in the lower left of the photo under the bridge. I think this photo does capture the distance I've been walking a bit better, and possibly the steep grade of the hill.

As I snapped this photo I started to feel drop of rain. As I completed my climb up and around the building the wind had started to pick up, and as I write this now it is raining once again!

Well I intend to stay in and try to reduce the sypmtoms of the cold that I have caught by taking a hot bath and purhaps sipping on some tea, so that's it for now.

Cheers!

Photos of Brussels Architecture

Here are just a few shots of Brussels architecture. After we had concluded our business, I took advantage of the sunshine that we had on my last day there.

It became extremely windy, and then started raining again later that night.























I really do feel very fortunate to have a job that allows me to travel to Europe. the advantages are obvious, and I've tried to share them with you, it does have it's price though.

I've been traveling for just over a week now. It's cold and cloudy out once again and rain will be moving in later. I've cought a cold and am beginning to feel a bit of the depression that can set in when traveling alone. I do miss my wife, and wish she could have been here to share the experience.

I think that it's been especially hard this trip because it's the first time traveling since my surgery. My wife took time off to take care of me during my recovery, which is why she cannot be here with me now. I have three more days of meetings, and then it's home again. I can do it! I'll get out and get some fresh air before the rain comes. I'll write up my report from last week's meetings, and prepare for this week.

Who know's, maybe I'll find something else to post about!

Edits to Schloss Ronneburg

Ok, I'll just have to make my edits to my previous posts the hard way. Here are a couple of shots that I was trying to get into the post about Ronneburg Castle.

It was clear that people were much shorter bak in the 1300's that we are today. In attempt to show scale I had "Dude" pose on the opposite side of a door way so that I could sap the photo!


"Dude" stands around 6' 3"-6'4" tall, I'm 5'11", and I come to just over his shoulder, about to his ear. ANyway as you can see he clearly cannot clear this entryway.



Now, any normal person would remember that since I just snapped the photo to show how short the entry was, that it probablydidn't magically enlarge once the photo had been taken. I think you know where I'm goning with this!

Yep, I got a temporary reminder, a souvenir if you will of our visit!

The Largest Loaf of Bread I have Ever Seen!

Well what do you know? Blogger is finally letting me add photos to a new post at least. It's still not letting me edit my existing posts by adding photos. I may need to try something in a little bit. Anyway, back to this post!

My host Edgar, had to travel to Nuremburg on business while I was visiting. We weren't expecting him home until late, but he pulled into the drive while "Dude" and I were cooking dinner. In walks Edgar carrying this huge loaf of bread and a rather impressive hunk of cheese! I didn't think to get a shot of the cheese, but this was too big to not share with everyone!












The loaf is sitting on a full size cutting board, and the coffee cup sitting next to it is also a standard size cup. The loaf easily measured 18" across the diameter, and if you can read the scale above, it weighed in at 3.19Kg. That's nearly 7lbs! I think we shoud have called the folks at Guiness! (no, not the beer, although....)

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (Almost!) This one is also still under construction, I'm still experiencing Blogger issues

With successful meetings in Brussels completed, I head for the third leg of my trip: Newcastle, England. Why on earth would I expect this trip to be uneventful?

I get to the airport at a quarter to 6AM; to catch what I thought was going to be a 7:05AM flight. It ends up being a 6:00AM taxi ride. My KLM flight to Amsterdam (should be Amsterdamn!) was cancelled. Why am I not surprised, after all the last time I flew with them my flight to Frankfurt was cancelled. That’s a 2 out of 3 record for them with me; I don’t think they’re getting another chance!

Anyway, where was I Oh yeah, so myself and one other lucky KLM customer hop into a cab that the airline so conveniently provided and two hours later we’re at the Amsterdam airport! My flight from there to Newcastle starts to board in half an hour, oh yeah this is looking good now! I’m second in line and the person in front of me is leaving, boarding pass in hand. I approach and place my first bag to check on the treadmill, hand my ticket to the attendant; she looks at me and says (in a thick Dutch accent) exactly what I was hoping (NOT!): “I’m sorry sir, but my boarding pass machine has just stopped working, it will just be a minute for someone to come to fix”. I very politely point out that my flight will be boarding in 20 minutes now. She very politely responds as nearly anyone else would have, however she says it in a much lower voice than I was thinking: “Shit!” “Oh I’m sorry sir, let me see what I can do” She climbs over the tread mill to her colleague’s computer and they both work together to get me on my way.

So here I am again, 24 gates away from my flight, and I haven’t even cleared customs yet! With now 10 minutes to go I get through customs and rush to my gate. Thankfully, this time, the flight is delayed by the fog and rain. We begin to board about 20 minutes later than we were supposed to, but at least I wasn’t the one holding everyone up!

We take off, and the flight is amazingly uneventful Thank goodness! I arrive in Newcastle and the driver I had arranged to pick me up is patiently waiting. He is a talkative fellow, which to me is very welcome, because even though it is the Queen’s English, it’s English all the same! Now don't get me wrong, I'm very interested in relearning my ancestral languages, (und Ich kann Deutsche und Flemmish besser verstehen dan sprechen). It's just that it takes so much concentration that it honestly wears you out after a few days. He mistakenly asks how my flight was, and I oblige by telling him the story I’ve just told you above. By now we’re both laughing as we pull up to the hotel. “Here we are sir”, he states, “The weather is particularly nice today, so hopefully your stay here will be better than the trip”.

With those words he just double jinxed me. A simple phrase of good wishes and I’m doomed! It’s now 10:00AM on Saturday, the hotel is completely booked, checkout isn’t until noon, and my room will not be ready until 3:00PM. Damn, the bar doesn’t open for another hour, so I make a more logical decision; I have the concierge check my bags and I sit down for a traditional English breakfast!

Oh it doesn’t end there, but thank goodness it doesn’t get any worse!

I take my time eating, and if you’ve ever sat down to eat with me you know that I am slow anyway, but what else am I going to do for at least another hour anyway! I finish and decide to take advantage of the nice weather; after all it’s supposed to start raining again tomorrow. I take a walk down along the Tyne River. The sun is out, so is the wind, but I still enjoy a nice leisurely 45 minute walk.

I get back to the hotel and have now earned a taste of a good English ale and or lager! As I sit and type this story for you to read I am sun burned (my hat was in my baggage, which I checked with the concierge), and wind burned, but man does this Castlemaine XXXX (off the tap, of course) taste good!

Only two more hours to go before I can get into my room, hmm what ever shall I do? Hey, I know maybe I'll go down to Loyd's Pub where I can get a cask aged, hand drawn "Geordie's Pride" (produced by Mordue Brewery), for a mere 1.55 English Pounds per pint. (that's about $3.10 American, and don't forget it's an English pint which is 20 US ounces!). It's a wonderful example of everything that an English Bitter style ale should be! Besides the walk would do me some good! ;-)

Cheers mate!

Brussels Here I Come Once Again (Still under Construction; I'm Experiencing Blogger Issues)

Well with my weekend in Frankfurt concluded I now had a little work to be done! Hmm, those words sound familiar, oh well it’s off to Brussels I go!

As my son drops me at the baggage check in we see that I’m going to need to rush, that is run to get to my gate. I make it, but just barely. Luckily all of my intercontinental flights are business class, and I’m in the 4th row on this plane. As I’m falling into my seat the Lufthansa attendant asks if I would like a paper to read. As I wipe the sweat from my brow with my shirt sleeve I kindly reply with a smile: “Nay, aber ein bier bitte” (no, but a beer please!). She politely smiles and brings me a Warsteiner pils. I notice that they are closing the door, I’m the very last to board.

My hotel was conveniently located a mere 3-4 blocks from the Grande Platz, and by spotting the tower of records I knew which direction to go. As I enter the square I know where I’m at, and where I’m headed, by my favorite landmark. You got it, Leroy’s! It’s actually named LeRoy de Espania (The King of Spain). I’ve written about it before as it’s always my first stop when visiting this truly multi-national city.

As is normal for this time of year it was raining, so I was forced to go inside to drink. I usually like to sit in their courtyard, but then I’m usually arriving early in the morning because I’m coming directly from the states. This time, of course, it was an intercontinental flight and I arrived in the late afternoon/early evening.

Well as I sit and sip my Kreik (Cherry Lambic), and dine on tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, I see that the rain is letting up. Good, I might just stand a chance of doing a bit of sight-seeing before the sun goes down.
One thing that I do absolutely love about Brussels and actually Europe in general, is the architecture. The views are absolutely outstanding!

Blogger/Internet Issues

Ok, I'm currently experiencing Blogger/Internet issues, and have been for several days. Please hang in there and as soon as I can I'll get some more photos, and the stories that go with them, posted so that you can follow along with my travels!

I'll try to post what I can and then add what I can when I can so you may need to check back ina couple of days to see what has been added so that the stories will make sense once the photos are uploaded, and visa versa.

Hang in there!

Schloss Ronneburg (Ronneburg Castle)

Schloss Ronneburg is a 12th century castle not too far from Hanau-Stenheim, about a 20-30min drive through a beautiful countryside. We actually visited the castle the same day that we were wondering around Alten Steinheim, but the weather had turned on us during the drive. It was now cold, windy, and raining once again. That didn't stop us, and it actually helped to give a feel for how life must have been for those living during that time period.
The castle looks fairly unimpressive at first, especially compared to some of the other larger one's, but once inside it's beauty becomes apparent.
In this picture "Dude" is standing in front of the kitchen area. As we came near the room I could smell the aroma of old smoke from thousand's of years of wood burning fires used not only to cook with but with ingenius engineering skills were also used to heat the upper floors of the castle.





Just imagine having to dip a bucket 90
meters to get fresh water, and ummm how tasty that water must have been! I bet it even had colour (sorry color, languages you know) and opacity (I thought I'd throw that one in there) to it as well! (get it, well? Ok it's been a long day!) Just for the record I've been trying to post this since the day we visited the castle, but I've had a combination of tarvel, internet, and Blog Spot issues that didn't seem to work in my favour (sorry favor). Anyway, they have a bucket and a spigot that will allow you to thorw a bucket of water into the well to see how long it takes to splash. I counted 12 seconds. Now let's see, gravity accelerates at 32ft/sec/sec (if I can remember my physics correctly). You do the math if you want to, at any rate it was a deep well!












I thought this little item was pretty impressive too. Just in case you didn't recognize it, this is a replication of a catapult. It would have been used to cast large objects at the apporoaching enemy. You now things like large stones, lit hay bails, dead and rotting animal (and sometimes human) carcus'! (or would that be carcusi? Ok a litle science jargen joke) Oh yes, chemical warfare was invented years and years ago!

Hanau-Steinheim and Marienkirche

The weather held out long enough for Dude and I to take a little walk around Alten Steinheim (Old Steinheim). It's a wonderful little town that is nice to walk around. I've blogged about the Schloss Steinheim (Steinheim Castle) previously, but I don't think that I've blogged photos of the old church, Marienkirche.




One of the interesting things about this church is that it was pretty much destroyed during WWII, but was reconstructed after the war using the remaining stones from the rubble. That is also true of most of this town itself, as is the same for many cities and towns around Europe.

I also found the below picture interesting. This add was actually being displayed on the side of the church! I'm pretty sure it doesn't really need a translation.














More posts from Germany, and elsewhere coming soon.

Greetings von Deutschland (again)

I'm pretty sure I've used this title before, I guess I should go back and check my old posts every now and then to see if anyone has read them and responded lately. The problem is that I seem to always get tied up and don't get around to doing this as often as I like. I need to correct that issue!

Anyway where was I, oh yeah, I'm over her in Germany once again. I decided to take a few days off to visit my son before I head to work in Brussels, Belgium and Newcastle, England.

Not much to say, but wanted to share a new photo. Yes he really is that much taller than me now! The photo was taken in front of Eppstein Schloss (castle), we were near there in a small town (Lohrsbach) visiting some friends that we met when we were in Lima, OH (small world!).

It's been rainy over here, typical for this time of year, but it has been a bit warmer than at home (40-50F). The wind and moisture in the air do make it feel a bit cooler though!

Well, hopefully I'll have more to post later. We're planning to spend the day wondering around Old Hanau-Steinheim today in search of my wife's favorite wine!

Bis spater, tschues! ('til later, bye!)

Oh Yeah Before I Forget

One of the reasons we don't get back to KC very often is work. We work, and live, about 10-12 hrs drive from KC (depending on the weather). Of course it's not all bad, if you can somehow manage to earn enough travel points to get free flights. Now that I've brought that up.

Yep, I'm heading out on another trip to Europe tomorrow so hopefully I'll have something more to post, and a decent link to hook up to!

Bis spater, Hasta luego, Later dude's and dudette's

More Reasons to Visit KC in Winter

Just being silly with family and friends





















And of course I can't forget the beer and Bar-B-Q!














For you meat eater's out there, pictured left to right: Pork Ribs, Lamb ribs (above the beans), Beef ribs, and the big chunk of bread to soak up the sauce.















OK, I've got to admit it was well worth the trip! It's a shame we can't get back there more often.

Reasons to Vacation in KC During Winter

Here's few reasons to visit KC, even in the winter!

Our two older sons





















Our Daughter-in-Law















And of course the main attraction!















Of course we visited with our folks while we were back there too!
It might have been worth braving the weather to go back home.

How to Make the Best of a Winter Vacation

Well, the best thing I could think of was to rent a four wheel drive Jeep, grab my Son, My Grandson, and my Father-in-Law, and head to my Father-in-Law's farm to go and jump snow drifts!

Of course it helps if your Son owns his own construction company and has a 1 ton F-350 Super Duty turbo diesel, and tow chains, just in case you mis judge the depth of the drifts!

It was a pretty fun day, and we decided that no matter how old a boy gets, he can still take time to play!

Sorry FC, but the closest we could get to red was the burgundy one pictured above.

Winter Wonderland (my eye)

Well, If you saw my post from yesterday you would have sen the wonderfull work that Lightnin did clearing our drive. Unfortunately this is what we were greeted with this morning!

The sun is out, but the temperature has only raised to a nice 18F. Hopefully the ice melt will begin to work later on.














On the bright side of things, the ice sure make pretty sculptures out of the trees, power lines, light poles, etc.!

Man I can't wait for Spring!

I still Hate Winter

Well, here we are a week later and wouldn't you know it we get another storm. This time Snow followed by Ice and then Freezing Rain. The Freezing Rain is supposed to last most of the day, with a total accumulation of around 6 inches.

This time I was prepared. I copied over files to work on, and finally was able to get linked into my work intranet from home. I've been able to connect from every country that I've traveled to, but have never been able to connect from my house just 30min away. Well, that changed and I'm working from home today!

I thought I'd share a couple of photos of this experience. The first demonstrates the advantages of working from home: I'm still in my PJs and will shower during my lunch break, which is coming up very soon!














The second is why I'm working from home. You may not be able to see it, but the driveway was shoveled to remove the snow (Thanks to Lightnin! I still can't lift anything for another couple of months so she's taken on these type of duties). but there is now a layer of ice about 1/2" thick!

If you read my last post you know that it took me 3 hours to get home from work, just because of a little snow. Just think what traffic would be like today! I'll work from home thank you!

I hate Winter

Those of you that know me already know that I absolutely hate winter! Well, I'll let the rest of you in on the secret as to why:

1st - Cold! If you need to double your body weight in clothing to stay warm to get from the house to the car, and back, you live too far north!

2nd - Snow/Ice! You scrape the windshield to go to work, you scrape the windshield to go to lunch, you scrape the windshield to go back home!

3rd - Windshield Wipers! Oh yeah, you can knock all the ice and snow off of them while your still in the parking lot, but as soon as you get on the interstate they freeze up (but of course only on the driver's side) and you're forced to lean over at a 45 degree angle to see.

4th - People! It snowed this time last year, and the year before, and I'm going to make a wild guess here: It's proabaly going to snow again next year too! If you can't drive in this, then don't! Stay home with the kids, after all the schools are closed. I'd say that they should pass a law that one of your vehicles must be a 4-wheel drive, except for the idiots that think that 4-wheel drive means that they can still drive 70mph. Oh, you forgot about how to stop that thing huh!

5th - Scraping the windshield! I know I already mentioned this one, but I hate it the worst, so it's my list and I'll list it more than once if I feel like it! ;-)

Just so that you know why this post hit me, it snowed 7 inches in 6 hours yesterday. It took me 3 hours to get home, where on a good day it should take 30 minutes! I came in at my normal time this morning and was only driving 45mph at the fastest, and it only took me 30 minutes to get in (of course that's because most people took my advice on #4 above and stayed home, so there wasn't any traffic).

A few years back when we got hit with one of these storms, I sort of snapped and started loading the car to head for Florida. I had fully planned on quitting my job, and moving, and then looking for work down south. Ever since then if it snows Lightnin won't let me near I-75 with a full tank of gas, without her!

Ha, she's staying home today, and I filled up the tank on the SUV on my way in. Hmmm, I know a place to get a great cheeseburger in Ocala! I could be there by dinner time!

So the New Year Begins!

Well here it is January 2, 2007, a new year with hopes of improvement over the past one. I've made one single resolution for this year, and I really hope that I can stick to it, that is to spend less time in the hospital! ;-)

This past year ended a little rough for us and I'd just rather not see a repeat, if there's anything I can do about it. My insides have been repaired and seem to be healing rather nicely. I'm trying to exercise as much as I can. This of course is limited to walking for the next few months until all of the incisions, inside and out, have completely healed. But enough about that, this is a past year's issue and enough said.

I'm looking forward to getting back home to KC to see my grandson. That trip will be happening around mid February. We don't get back there often enough, nor do they come to see us as often as we would like. This unfortunately is an issue created by limited funds and work vs vacation scheduling. I do see an end to some of this in the near future (say around 7-9 years from now). So we'll deal with it as it is for now.

I'm also looking forward to some new responsibilities at work. During my off time in December I received a promotion, one that myself and several others felt was well over due, however it did finally come! So along with this comes some additional responsibility, and eventually some more $$$, but I'm up to the challenge. Hopefully it will mean a bit more travel to Europe during the new year, but we'll just have to wait to see what happens.

So far the start of winter here has been very mild with temperatures about 10-15 degrees above normal. Hopefully it will last a bit longer, but I fear that we'll pay for this during the end of January and on into February/March.

I really didn't have anything else to add at this point so I'll just end with a note to all who happen to stop by and read this: I hope the new year will find you, your family, and your friends happy, healthy, and prosperous throughout 2007.

Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit

I'm Baaack!

Well I took a bit of an unexpected vacation there, but I'm glad to say that I'm back! I'll spare most of the details, but will let you know that although colonectomy is an effective weight loss system, I don't recommend it!

I've been gutted like a trout, and now have a scar that goes from my rib cage all the way down to there!! Although I'm back on my feet and feeling really good it will still be about 4-6 months before I will be fully recovered. I've lost 20 lbs, and now that I can eat (and drink beer) again, will struggle to keep it off! (especially since I really can't exercise for another 4-6 months, other than walking, and of course it's winter in this part of the world so that's not exactly a fun experience)

But enough of this nonsense! I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm back and that hopefully I'll get someting more interesting posted for you to read in the very near future.

To all of you who knew what was going on, my sincere thanks for your thoughts, prayers, cards, flowers, and toys (yes, someone was in tuned with my child like nature enough to give me a couple of toys to occupy my mind during recovery)!

It's not the Beach, but it's Home

I thought I'd share a couple of shots of the Cincinnati Skyline. These were taken from the Kentucky side. You can see the Ohio side just to the left in the photos, and actual Cincinnati proper. The right side is Covington, Kentucky

The pictures were actually snapped by one of my colleagues who was visiting from the UK back in October.

We actually live about a 30-45min drive from downtown, towards the Indianna state line, in Ohio.




I hope you've enjoyed the view!