"The Tree" What is it? (and a hop update)

Well, here's the infamous tree! It was supposed to be a dogwood, but I don't think that it is. I tried to get a shot of it fullof blooms, but the spring storms beat me to it so all I was able to get was the picture of a few of the flowers that stayed on the tree.

I also got a good shot of the leaves so hopefully that will help too!

Can anyone out there in cyberspace help me identify this tree?















Oh yeah, I almost forgot in the fall it produces little hard brown berry-like fruit. They have never produced any new trees, until this past year, but the yard is full of little seedlings now.



I also wanted to give a hop update. This is what they look like now, only a week and a hlf after the last set of photos. They are awesome plants!

Manatee Springs Still Continued (just one more)

I missed this one in the other two posts and just had to get it out there. It's a Black Vulture in the classic vulture pose!










Just as a heads up I'm going to try to post the pictures of my tree later this week. I don't know what it is, but I've got some shots of the flowers and I should be able to get some shots of the leaves now that they are coming out. Hopefully someone out there will be able to help me identify it!

Hops, hops, and more hops!

My hops are out and looking better than ever!

It is the peak growing time for hops and I wanted to try to capture how fast they are growing right now. This picture was taken only 2 weeks after they first broke through the ground.










This photo was taken just 2 days after the first one. Sorry about the shading, but I snapped it as soon as I got home from work. The other one was taken on Saturday so I was able to pick better lighting.

Hopefully you can see the center vine and how much taller it has grown. also you can see many more vines climbing up through the bench.






This shot was taken the next day. You can really see the center vine shooting up now, and if you look to the lower right you can see the cluster of vines have also reached the top rail to the bench.









I thought that I should go back and try to catch the same angle as the original photo so that you can see how they are filling in underneath the bench.

The vines are growing at the rate of about 3-4 inches per day right now, and if we continue to get the good mix of rain and sunshine they should grow at that rate clear through June!

That's when the first signs of the flower cones will start to show. That's the part of the plant that I'm truly interested in.
If you want to see the full potential of these beauties you can always go back to my very first post, Sept. '05, to see them in full bloom! Each year the vines come in heartier, and more shoots pop up off to the sides. If things go well this year I might be able to get two harvests, and that means Good Beer for Next Year!

Manatee Springs Continued

Now that Blogger allowed me to add some more photos, I can continue with the visit to Manatee Springs!

To the left is one of the vultures taking advantage of a nice breeze that was blowing from the spring to the river. One after another they took to the air and soared on the breeze. My expert work with the lens captured this one (yeah right, I think I stood there shooting photos for about 20 minutes before I finally timed it right to get a decent shot like this)!




This one was just sitting there waiting for his photo op, and I obliged! I think you can see how they got the name of Black Vulture.

The Turkey Vultures I mentioned in the first post have less feathers on their heads and their skin is a reddish color.







The reptiles were out for viewing too. I think this is a banded water snake, but I'm not going to get any closer to find out!











I thought this looked like something out of either a John Carpenter or Stephen King movie. It's just evidence of the swamp reclaiming her own!






I hope that you've enjoyed the photo tour!
We had a great time and I really enjoyed re-energizing an old friendship! Like Buffet says: "The years grow shorter not longer", so it won't be long and we'll be down there for good!

Manatee Springs

This is Manatee Springs State Park. The spring itself is a haven for snorkeler's and scuba divers. The water is clear and cold, but diving into the mouth of the spring will lead you through caves that open up into ponds (sink holes) around the park. I'm not one for cave diving, but our oldest son and I snorkeled in these waters a few years back. The cold water felt good on our sun burns, and we were fortunate enough to see a beautiful blue eel! (sorry, no photo available)




There is a nice boardwalk that follows the spring down to the Suwannee River. It's a great way to catch a little exercise, some shade, and view some wild life among the cypress trees.

Do you see it in the photo to the left?
maybe the zoom shot below will help!








It's a Florida Deer, just standing in the swamp posing for the camera. They're a bit smaller than the Missouri variety, as Lightnin and fellow blogger Pablo (www.roundrock.com) can varify.









There was a vulture convention taking place while we were there. There were hundreds of these big birds in the trees and in the sky. I'm told by my Florida wildlife expert(www.pureflorida.blogspot.com) that they are Black Vultures. I'm familiar with Turkey Vultures, which are prevelant across the midwest and central states.




Well it looks like Blogger is done letting me upload images for now, so I'll sign off and continue this in another post. I'll try to get it out later this week.

Cedar Key Continued

Well I'll share some more stories from our trip, and hopefully some more photos.

It seems that it was spring break while we were down there, and just like the bikini clad CoEd's who were visiting the East Coast of Florida, these horseshoe crabs were struck with the "urge to merge" on the Gulf side. They are a primitive creature, barely changing since the beginning of time, but they are useful in various scientific studies. It seems that their blood is copper-based, rather than iron like ours (science notes courtesy of FC). Believe it or not, this stretch of beach is right near the shops and reataurants. I guess you just can't stop nature from happening! It was awesome to be there to witness this!
It might be hard to see, but this is the passage out to the Gulf from the Cedar Key boat ramp. That is a road that passes overhead, so it's important to know what the tidal schedule is if you're planning to go boating. Depending upon the draft of your boat you may run into difficulty getting in or out during either low or high tides!



Well, I think that's about it for Cedar Key.

I think I'll take you to Manatee Springs for the next part of the trip.

Cedar Key on St. Patrick's Day

I wanted to continue with some more tales of our trip to Florida. Timing is everything and Lightnin and I were able to spend our 23rd anniversary at Cedar Key, along with FC and Patience. It must be pure coincidence that it lands on St. Patrick's Day!

This was the 23rd anniversary of our first date, not our wedding. We always celebrate this date because for some reason my company always seems to find a reason to send me out of town on the date of our wedding anniversary. I think I have been home for that only 5 times in the past 15 years, not a great percentage. Besides, more people are usually out and about to celebrate with us on March 17th anyway!

We traveled to Cedar Key in the early evening so that we could kick around a little bit before going dinner. This also allowed for a few shots of the surrounding area. If Blogger permits, I'll share some of them with you here:

This is a "Bird Dog" boat (knowledge courtesy of FC). They're typically used for net fishing, where the net is let out from the stern as the boat travels in a cirlce and then is reeled back in with the winch (visible at top of photo). You may have seen this boat in the photo of FC and me from my post the other day.





To the right is a pretty good shot of the Cedar Key shops and restaurants. Below is a view of some Cabbage Palms from the front of the restaurant where we ate.

















This was the view from the back of the restaurant.











Well, it looks like Blogger seems to be telling me that enough is enough for today, so I'll try again later when I can upload some more images. I hope you're enjoying the trip so far.

This area of Florida is so beautiful, and still relatively untamed. To quote the infamous Jimmy Buffet: "I treat her like a lady, and miss her when I'm gone!"

What's wrong with this picture?

My poor baby is frozen!!

After a fantastic 10 day stay in the sunshine state, we awoke the first day back to a snow storm. We got hit with 4" of the "white death" on the first full day of spring. Well as I stated in an earlier post Ohio's seasons are: Summer, almost winter, winter, and almost summer. It seems to be holding true again this year.

We really shouldn't complain too much though because it has been a mild winter so far. I'm just afraid that this is the start of the payback and that we're likely to see snow in April or May too!

FC and Me

Like I said in an earlier post, I get to travel a few times a year as part of my livelyhood. Well Lightnin is in a similar field, and luck was finally with us when both of us were able to attend the same conference in Orlando. We took some time off before and after the conference to visit some dear old friends in the northern part of the state, you guessed it, Florida Cracker and his lovely wife Patience!

For me it was a chance to reunite with my old college buddies, for Lightnin it was a chance to catch up with some relatively new friends. If it's true what they say, that laughter is the best medicine, then we're some of the healthiest people on earth at this moment! I can't remember a time where I laughed as often or as long for days at a time. It was simply too much fun!

One thing I have noticed through my travels and meeting folks from different cultures is that we all still have a similar tradition that brings us together, the feast! Whenever people gather together, friends, relatives, what have you, there is usually a feast. in our case there was no difference. We all pitched in and created a Cuban food feast that consisted of a shrimp curry, pineapple saffron rice, black beans, MoJo pork, and corn cakes (we couldn't remember the Cuban name for these, but they still tasted great!), and of course a cold one to wash it down!

There'll be some more posts from our trip coming soon, so stay tooned!

Beer Snob or Merely Someone Who Knows What They Like?

The other day I was asked a question about beer that sort of prompted me to write this post. That person shall remain anonymous, but I’ll give you a hint: He has a blog spot about Pure Florida! (Sorry FC, but I just couldn’t resist)

Anyway the question was (paraphrasing here): Is it the hops that make beer bitter, and how do I know what styles to look for to get a beer that I will like?

To answer this question I may need to share some history and get slightly technical, but I’ll try to keep it as generic as I can. In fact here is how simple it can be. Beer (according to the Reinheitsgebout: German Purity law) is made from Water, Malt, Hops, and Yeast. Malt (usually barley or wheat) provide the sugar, Hops provide the bitterness, Yeast is what ferments the sugars to form alcohol and carbonation (both waste products from the yeast), and Water is the main ingredient and provides a medium for the others to co-exist in. The secret of course is in the proportions of each of the ingredients.

Yes, Hops do give beer its bitterness. Without them the beer would be far too sweet, by current standards, to be drinkable. However, hops weren’t the first choice of ingredients to balance the sweetness of the malt sugars. Things like Spruce Sprigs (you may have seen my post about the historic Scotch Ales), Juniper Berries, Bitter Orange Peel (as in a Belgian Wit), the list goes on. Anyway, somehow someone stumbled upon the hop plant and it stuck! Hops also provide flavor and aroma to the beer.

Ok, here’s a bit of science that is necessary to help explain. Hops are categorized by type, region, and bitterness. The bitterness units most commonly used are % Alpha Acid content. This is then used to determine the quantity of hops the brewer should use to balance the sweetness to create the type of beer that is desired. The calculation actually comes out with an IBU value (International Bitterness Unit) for the batch of beer to be made (I’ll spare you the math, but if interested please let me know and I can get you further information). Rule of thumb is that the higher the % Alpha, and the longer the hop are boiled, the more bitterness it will add to the beer.

So for example let’s say I want to make an American Pale Ale (Sierra Nevada is a great example of this style). I would start out with a grain (malt) build that will give me around 5.5% Alcohol content when fermentation is completed (this would take around 7 lbs of malt extract or 12lbs of malted grain). I would then choose a combination of hops to give the desired flavor, aroma, and bitterness. In this case I’d choose a mixture of 1oz Cascade hops (around 4.5% Alpha), 1oz Kent Goldings hops (around 5% Alpha), and possibly 1oz Willamette hops (around 3.5% Alpha). I’ll boil the batch for 1 hour total so I’d add the Kent Goldings at the beginning of the boil (for bitterness), the Cascade with about 15minutes remaining (for flavor), and the Willamette at the end and then remove from heat to allow them to steep for about 5min (for aroma). This will produce a fairly hoppy beer.

So now to the other part of the question: How do I know what style will be what I like?

Hoppy (sometimes bitter) beer styles would include: American Pale Ale, IPA (India Pale Ale), any style of Pete’s Wicked Ales, Pilsners (Urquel, Stella Artois, Miller Lite, etc.), and American Amber Ales.

Less hoppy (bitter) and sometimes sweet beers include: Belgian Abby or Trappist Ales (Chemay, Leffe, Grimbergen, Orval, etc.), Lagers: (Bud, Molsen), Bock Bier, Oktoberfest Biers, Marzen, Vienna (Dos Equis) English Amber Ales (Bass, John Courage), Swartzbier (Negra Modelo).

Some in between beers (might be bitter, might not): ESB (Extra Special Bitters, Fullers ESB is a good example), English Bitters (the name bitters is a bit of a misnomer), Cream Ales, Wheat Beers (Heffe Weizen, Dunkle Weizen, Belgian Wit-orange peel, not hops, but some can be sort of bitter).

Well, I hope that helps answer the question, and helps give you a few styles to look out for. I also hope that the answer wasn’t too long-winded!

Oh I did promise that I would address the fact that Dos Equis is a Vienna style lager, and why Negra Modelo is a German Swartz bier. It turns out that during the period leading up to WWII there was a lot of persecution taking place over in Europe, not just anti-Semitism, but included anyone not thought to be of “pure blood”. Well it turns out that many of the worlds leading brewers, at the time, were not of “pure blood”. These brewers moved to Mexico and Central/South America to escape persecution (Evidently to escape the German winters too, which is not a bad idea in my opinion!). So anyway once they relocated they started doing what they do best, which was to produce some of the world’s best beers!

Please let me know if you have any further interest in brewing, I’d be more than happy to share my experience and knowledge with you! And remember that the best beer in the world, at any given time, is probably the one you’re holding in your hand!

Is that Elvis, No just Frank Zappa!

I forgot to note a very important event in the post "The Old Guy Makes the Club Scene". While we were at the "club" I was just mindning my own business, sipping on a Binder Pilsner (side note: a nice German pils, and relatively cheep too!) when all of a sudden there he is. No not Elvis, Yes it was Frank Zappa! I'm not kidding, It had to be him!

I know, most people see Elvis everywhere, but you know he would be a bit hard to hide since everyone knows exactly what he looks like. Frank on the other hand could hide away in Europe and no one would know. So if you're ever in the Franfurt, Germany area remember to stop in at the Boschkapp club and look for Frank Zappa, He'll probably be doing a dance called the "Running Man". (That was for you G-Nerve!)

Farewell to Hanau, Deutschland

Well, it's time to leave for Brussels to start another work week.

In a feeble attempt to repay my hosts, I cooked the Sunday meal. It consisted of pork tenderloin (Schweinfleisch Filet), stuffed with spinach, pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese, and drizzled with a cherry and red wine sauce. This was served with butter and parsley potatoes, that were prepared by my son and his girl friend.



It was an enjoyable stay while it lasted! As usual it was hard to leave, but life goes on!

To my hosts: Edgar who made sure that I was never thirsty, and provided stories and laughter through out the weekend. Lovely Marena, who also possesses a nice sense of humor, and made sure that I was never hungry. Sabrina, better known by her father as "Translator!" is a wonderful young lady, who tries to keep my son in line. All three provide a nice sense of stability and surrogate family for my son AKA "His Dudeness", "Spc. Dude", "G-nerve". I can't possibly thank you enough and look forward to seeing you again when ever possible.

Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit!











This was a photo from July '05 when TJ and I were able to both be there. Pictured from left to Right: Front row - "Spc. Dude", Sebastian, Sabrina; Back Row - "Der Guila" (sp?), myself, TJ, Edgar, and Marena.

The Old Guy makes the Club Scene

We had a nice meal of Lasagna (expertly prepared by Marena) and Lamb’s Lettuce salad, and then it was time to sample my Christmas present. My son had purchased a sampler of Historic Scotch Ales and I was ready to sample. From right to left the Ales are: Heather Ale, Gooseberry Ale, Elderberry Black Ale, and Spruce Ale.
The Heather Ale was very much like Mead with the gentle aroma of the Heather flowers and a sweat, almost honey like, flavor. It was a mere 5% brew, and was fairly light in body.
The Gooseberry was mild with a slight tartness, obviously from the berries, but not over powering with fruit. It was also a mere 5% brew and was also light bodied and would be good in warm weather.
The Elderberry Black was rich and full of roasted grain, much like a good porter or stout. The Elderberry flavor was subtle and actually reminded me of my own Cranberry Stout. This beer however was 6.5%. This is the right kind of beer for cold weather!
Last, but not least, the Spruce Ale. This was to be served at room temperature, which wasn’t a problem because it sat out while we sampled the other three. It was similar to a barley wine, but with the definite influence from the spruce and pine sprigs that were used in place of hops. This brew packed a wallop weighing in at an impressive 7.5%. One was enough for us!

Well with that under our belts, and some time to rest after dinner and drink, it was time to head to the club. The kids took me to one of their favorite clubs “Boschkapp”. The name refers to the slapping down of the bill of a baseball cap onto the unsuspecting victim, usually a friend that you are joking around with. As we approached the door, with proper ID in hand (hey, they could ask for mine!), we noticed that it was their 30th anniversary. This meant that anyone over 30 was allowed in free! Hey, my lucky night! Now it is important to note that the Door Man was used to his routine, you approach and hand him your ID, he inspects it for authenticity, pats you down and allows entry. I approach (I put my ID back in my pocket feeling pretty confident that they would notice that I’m slightly over 30), he holds his hand out expecting to be handed my ID, I merely raise my arms to allow him to pat me down. At this point he looks up and his facial expression reveals his enlightenment. He and I both laugh and he completes the routine and allows me to enter.

Once inside we move to the back bar so that we can find a seat. Where we can look around and enjoy the view and the music. The music was surprisingly recognizable, mixing rock and pop tunes from 30 years ago to the present, and to my son’s surprise I knew a quite a few of the new tunes! We met up with one of my son’s buddies, a Sergeant from his old Unit the 69th Chemical Company. He was going to be heading back to Iraq on Monday, so we shared some laughs and drank some beers, and toasted to his safe return (Of course our designated driver drank only Coca-cola because driving is an even more serious business over here!).
Oh yea, I almost forgot, It seems that a few folks that were in line behind us when we first entered the establishment were somewhat impressed with the fact that I didn’t need to pay to enter (they obviously didn’t read the sign that officially declared this “Old Man” night!). They seemed to be following us around, trying to catch our eye with smiles, as if they wanted to find out just who we were! We could only imagine what must have going through their minds: Why did he get in free? It seemed like he and the door were joking with each other, could this old guy be the owner? Is he someone famous? It’s too funny how some people can so easily allow themselves to be misled merely by not paying attention to all the details. We laughed about it on the way home. It proved to be a very enjoyable evening.

Short trip to Wiesbaden, but with a Bonus!

This post was actually composed on Sunday January 15, 2006.

Yesterday was the coldest so far during my trip (-9C; 15F), but we braved the cold and headed into Wiesbaden anyway. The sun was out so it was a nice drive, even though it was so cold.

As we drove through town, looking for a place to park we noticed a sign that the Chinese Terracotta Soldiers were on exhibit at the museum, what luck. I have always had a fascination with Anthropology and had actually considered an offer to go to Australia and work on a dig site back in the early80’s. As luck would have it I met my wife during that same time and the rest is history. Anyway back to the trip. I had heard about these since the late 70’s early 80’s and was finally able to view them. You cannot believe how majestic these statues are.

This is an entire army, including horses and wagons, created centuries ago by the emperor to protect him in the afterlife. They are true recreations of his actual army, including the unique facial feature details of each individual soldier.
It took several hundred artists to accomplish this. They were discovered by a couple of farmers digging a well. Since then archeologists have recovered slightly more than an acre of the tomb, but they believe that the army actually covers nearly 5 acre of space. Currently recovery work has ceased until new techniques are discovered that will allow the artifacts to be better preserved during the process.
















We then headed into the main part of town to do some shopping, site seeing, and of course a little beer tasting. Der Andechser was a good place to stop. They offered some little sampler size servings (0.1L), and you keep the glass! We sampled the Hefeweizen and the Douple Bock. Both beers were excellent examples of the styles and the DB was decided to be the best. It was sweet and full of flavor, but had a very nice clean finish.




Well, time to head back home for the day. The kids are planning to take me out “clubbing” this evening. It should be an unforgettable experience!

Frankfurt am Mein

This was originally written on the morning of Saturday January 14, 2006, but as usual while I’m traveling, I needed to wait until I could link to the Net before I could post.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to travel into Frankfurt with my son and his girl friend. We walked through several historical areas of the town and she pointed out several other options that my son and I should check out while we waited for her to complete her classes for the day. The air was crisp and the wind was cold, but it wasn’t raining so it was a good day for walking around and checking out the sites.

When we first pulled into town I spotted this building. I’m not sure what it is, but I thought it was worth a picture.











We started with a view from atop the shopping center, where you can get an idea of the size of the city. It is also interesting to see the contrast of old and new architecture. (Sorry, but I'm having Image Uploading issues again. I'll add photo when possible!)

We then moved on toward the famous shopping district and paused in front of Paul’s Kirche (Paul’s Church).











This is the old Opera house (alte Oper), a pretty cool looking building and in a really nice open area. During the summer it would be a good place to hang out and catch your breath, but today the wind stings a bit so we kept moving.









We decided to stop at the Tower Bar to sample a brew. I had the Dunkel Weitzen and my son had the Radler (a mixture of Sprite and Pilsner). I know, but it actually wasn’t too bad and would have been a good choice during the summer, and the story of how this drink was created is kind of interesting. The story goes that a group of bicyclists (Radler) became thirsty during their ride and decided to stop off at a pub to quench their thirst. As they entered the pub the Braumeister realized that he did not have enough beer to serve them all, so he decided to dilute the beer with the lemon/lime drink so that everyone would have enough to drink.
This is the sign in the bar to let you know that the bathroom is on the upper floor and that it is a winding staircase with 44 steps! You need to plan your strategy carefully if you intend to stay there and drink beer on such a cold day!

We then wandered around past the City Hall and over to the Old Stock Exchange (Die alte Deutsche Boerse), and eventually ended up at Zwolf Apostel Brau Haus (the Twelve Apostles Brew House). This place lays claim to being the first brewpub (hausbrauerie) in Frankfurt! They have what looks like a 7-barrel system capable of producing two types of beer: Hefeweizen and Dunkelweizen. I of course chose the later, as did my son and we both agreed that it was one of the best we had ever tried.
Well, it’s time to meet up with his girlfriend again and then head back to the house. Tomorrow we will be heading to Wiesbaden to see more things of interest while I’m here in Deutschland.

Oh, you didn't think I'd forget to write about the beer did you?

Although France is more famous for wine than beer, you can find several choices from surrounding countries.

The one French beer that I have tried is 1664. It's a pilsner style beer, light, clean and refreshing.

Of course I already mentioned the Irish pub in a couple of previous posts, where I sampled Beamish Stout and Beamish Red, both very nice especially under nitrogen rather than CO2. The Stout is full flavored, surprisingly light in body, and actully refreshing (if you can find it on tap or in a Nitrogen widget can, try it. I like it better than Guiness.). The Red is a bit sweeter, heavier, and in my opinion is an example of what an Irish Red Ale should be!

Carlsburg Brewing has two entries here: Carlsburg and the infamous Elephant Malt. On tap these are both much better than in the bottle, I would bet you can find the bottled version somewhere near you almost anywhere in the US.

My favorite of course are the Belgian Ales. Three of these seem to be prevalent here (not to worry though I'll be in Brussels next week!). Blanche de Brug (pronounced: brooge), Leffe Blonde, and Grimbergen. Blanche de Brug is is your classic Belgian Wit (Wheat or White) with the mild flavor and aroma of citrous and corriander (You may be familiar with Hoegarden, which just happens to be Lightnin's favorite. Speaking of which I have to give a shout out to my Homegirl! Enjoy tooling around in the ragtop, I get to meet up with "G-nerve" tomorrow!). Leffe Blonde has a sweet taste and smooth body. Grimbergen is an Abby Ale, strong, full, smooth, and slightly sweet.

Well, I'm just waiting for my host to come get me so that we can leave work to head to the bar to have a beer while we decide where we are going to eat (you can see the rest of the nightly routine on my previous post). Even though it may take some decision making and dicussion to determine the restaurant, the beer choices have become pretty clear: He will have his usual Leffe, and I my Grimbergen.

Cheers, Prosit, Salud, or Strochen! A parting toast to Amiens!

It Must be the Coffee

Well, we completed our work in Amiens a day ahead of schedule so it looks like I'll hit the road to Frankfurt tomorrow and cash in a vacation day on Friday!
It was amazing what we were able to accomplish in such a short time, but unfortunately due to proprietary rules I cannot discuss that (besides many of you would probably delete this site from your list for subjecting you to such boaring things)!

I think I figured out how we were able to get ahead of schedule though, Coffee! Now it is important to note that I quit drinking coffee (in the US) almost 4 years ago. I switched over to a mixture of red and green tea (naturally decaff and full of antioxidants blah, blah, blah). Anyway, when I am over here I simply cannot resist the coffee. It's the real deal! Full of flavor, and really packs a punch. Also, you can't avoid it!

Here's an example of the typical day:

1. Wake at 6:00AM, have a lite breakfast (some sort of whole oats cereal with other things in there), a small pastry, a small juice, and of course coffee.
2. Arrive at work, and are immediately greeted with "How about a coffee?" (How they got to work before I did and already had coffee ready I don't know)
3. You work feverishly until precisely 12:00noon, go to lunch, then coffee, while discussing what happened in the morning and what you will do in the afternoon to correct it.
4. You work feverishly again until 5:00PM and then go to dinner (dinner is an experience all it's own: first you meet for beer to decide where to go eat, you then choose a wine for the starter which is usually champagne in this region, and a wine to go with the meal, then either dessert or a cognac, and then coffee).
5. At this point if someone else has just arrived in town, and either you or someone you are with knows them, you go for a beer or two to celebrate seeing them again and to wish them luck on their work.
6. You get back into your hotel room and catch a few hours sleep before doing it all again.

The day seems to fly by and before you know it your work is completed and you are ready to leave.

Well, I've got about a 5 hour drive ahead of me tomorrow, but I'm not going to be in any hurry. I'm a day ahead of schedule and plan to take my time and see the sites along the way. Hopefully I'll capture some of them for you to see too. You can be sure of one thing though, I'm gonna have a nice cup of coffee to make sure I stay awake during the drive!

Just Wondering Around Amiens

I needed to get out and stretch my legs, so I took my camera along with me. There’s a canal that goes through the town that is lined with shops and restaurants, so I thought I’d snap a few photos for you to see.

You can see the Cathedral Notre Dame de Amiens in the background of this one, which also helps to give scale to the structure.











The canal lined with shops, restaurants, and homes. I bet it is hopping during the warmer months.











Aunt Jeanne’s restaurant grabbed my eye.













On the way back to my hotel I spotted this and just felt the need to snap the photo.












That concludes the tour for today, and I’m sure you are all concerned as to whether I’ve managed to hydrate myself after walking around the city snapping all these photos. Not to worry, there’s an Irish pub strategically placed right on the corner at the end of the street that my hotel is located. So I popped in to sample a Beamish Stout. I mentioned in my post the other day that I had sampled Irish Ales along with the other local varieties, yep, that was in the Tower Pub. I was able to strike up a conversation with the bartender, well ok not exactly a conversation; however we did manage to communicate with each other with some effort on both our parts. It turns out, as fate would have it, that the other night that I wondered into the pub just happened to be the grand opening of the place. I guess they don’t hang balloons or streamers to make as big of a fuss over those sorts of things like we do at home. At any rate, the beers were good, the food was wonderful, and the service was excellent! Just for the record the menu consisted of French cuisine, not your typical Irish pub fare, however it went very well with the Irish Ales.

Things to Do of an Evening, When You Don’t Speak the Local Language!

Ok, one of the tricks to traveling in different time zones (no I’m not talking about time travel again) is to get acclimated to the new region as soon as possible. I’ve found that the best way to do this is this:
1. Try to avoid taking a nap right away after arriving at your destination. Despite the loss of sleep you may have encountered during the 6 hours of turbulence you experienced during the 8 hour flight! Try to stay up late enough to go to sleep at your normal time, but at the local time.
2. Try to walk around in the fresh air and sunshine as much as possible once you reach your destination. Ok right, its like -3C, 20 something F, here right now and it’s such a dry cold that it feels like the skin is peeling off of every part that is exposed (oh man was that my ear hitting the ground, whew, no just my keys jingling in my pocket).

Ok I kind of got side-tracked, but hopefully you get the picture. (did I mention the lack of sleep thing?)

Anyway back to the original subject, while trying to fight off the urges to take a nap, I ran across one of the most interesting (by interesting I mean strange, odd, and eccentric) things I have ever seen in my life: The Dakar Challenge!

Ok so I’m watching Euro Sport TV and this show comes on: The Dakar Challenge. Sounds interesting, let’s watch. I’ll try to sum this up as best as I can. Some people have entirely too much money and way too much time on their hands. This is a competition between different classes of vehicles racing across the Sahara Desert (ok, I think it’s the Sahara remember the title of this posting!).

There’s these crazed maniacs riding hybrid motorcycles (a cross between a, pardon my French…. he he…., a crotch-rocket and an endurance motocross bike), Baja style buggies, and oh yes full size delivery trucks, racing each other through hundreds of miles of deep sand and rocks. (Ok, I’m watching this and wondering why, but remember this: somebody funded this show, and every vehicle is covered with sponsor’s names!) I’m not sure if the object is to actually cross the desert, or to completely bury your vehicle in the sand. The later is a feat which I noticed a few of the competitors are very good at.

Well, I’d better get some shut-eye so that I can try to get switched over to my current time zone. More to come later!

Bonjour, Greetings from Amiens, France

I wrote this post on Saturday 1/7/06, but have been experiencing issues with my connection to the Net, so I'll try to add the rest of the images when I can, but I at least wanted to share with you what I can. I hope you enjoy following me on my trip through Western Europe, and will check back to see the rest of the photos.
Oh and, Mad Prop's to my Loving wife who was unable to make this trip with me! Honey, please keep in mind that I am actually working over here and that most of the posts that I am going to be putting out I composed while attempting to recover from Jet-lag! (I hope that got a smile out of you!)


Well, like I said in an earlier post, I get to travel a little bit in my line of work and this just happens to be one of those times!

I boarded a plane yesterday afternoon (4:10PM Eastern US time) and arrived in Brussels, Belgium this morning about 9:30AM (that’s 3:30AM Eastern US time), and then drove the 2+ hours to Amiens, France where I’m at right now. But hey, it was a nice drive through the Belgian and French countryside all the same (170Km/hr avg, you do the calculations to mph!).

No, I’m not going to go into the time travel thing again, just giving you some perspective so you can hopefully understand my current state of mind while I’m writing this.

Amiens is a small city in comparison to most US cities, but it’s got some interesting contributions to society that are worth mentioning. For starters it just happens to be the birth place, and home while he was alive; of Jules Verne (you know 20,000 leagues and the Nautilus and all). Ok, I have to admit that the Sci-fi part of me is pretty excited about that, but I’ll keep it to myself and spare the rest of you!

Amiens also has claim to one of the oldest remaining gothic cathedrals in Western Europe, the Cathedral Notre Dome de Amiens. This place is definitely impressive, and I don’t mind telling you a little eerie. I tried to capture a few photos for your enjoyment, but I have to be honest with you when I walked inside the cathedral I felt something that I really can’t explain, but I’ll try. If you’re Catholic, and in the US, then you’re probably familiar with the rather warm and friendly faces of the statue figures of the saints that are found in most US Catholic churches. Well, let me tell you a different picture was painted years ago! Theses statues are some of the most macabre figures I have ever seen! The hair on my neck stood up as I walked through. I felt queasiness in my stomach, and a strong need to get out and breathe some fresh air. Yes sir, a serious case of the Heebie-jeebies! I didn’t feel comfortable taking pictures inside, due to the need for flash, as the Cathedral is still an active church and some sort of service was in progress as I quietly toured through.





The outside is very ornate with figures such as these gargoyles, designed to protect the church from evil.











I took this next series of shots to try to show the scale of the building. I couldn’t step back far enough to get a single shot of the entire structure.
The past couple of times that I have been here the Cathedral was under renovation and was covered with scaffolding, so as you may have noticed, I went a little camera crazy since I had a clear shot this time.

But hey, the town’s got more to offer than that. It’s a wild mix of culture, even though Amiens is pretty much out in the middle of farm-land France. There are all kinds of foods, music, styles, and people.
Well with that behind me, as well as a few good French, Belgian, and yes Irish ales in me, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll be here in Europe for the next couple of weeks though so who knows what else may come up that’s post-worthy!