New posts coming

Not sure if anyone cares anymore but we are going to update the blog for the first time in 7 months. Facebook doesn't have to be the only place you post your pics. Egypt and Kenya coming soon!

We never posted about Simon's farewell gig....opps!

Simon was principle of the primary school at BIS and also one of the founding members of the Phunky Five. Which included members from BIS and APC coming together to perform such classics as "play that funky music white boy".

Summer Part Tre......Drei

Yes it's been three months! I am just going to post pictures and captions to get up to date as soon as possible. Part three of our summer trip took us back through France stopping off in lovely Provence.
P.S. A diet of red wine and crunchy yummy bread will start to show it's self by about week 2.

Then into Italy and round two for us in the Cinque Terra. Some of you may remember our rainy, windy, chilly visit to the Cinque last October. Mid July provided dry, mild weather and a campsite overlooking the ocean BELLA!

That's me playing with some local kids. We were trying to score on the chubby kid playing goalie. His skills were to great for me!

On to The Umbria Jazz Fest and the best "hostel" I've ever stayed at. It's called the Umbria Farmhouse Hostel and we think their using it as a hostel until all the renovations are done and they can start charging the big bucks. It had an amazing pool and view of the countryside. Mind you we had been camping the entire time up to this point and were all happy to have a bed and real kitchen to cook in.
Katie more afraid then the goose!

After a few days of R&R in Umbria we dropped John and Katie off at some Italian port town and said "beep beep caio". They were headed for Turkey and we headed for home. Our first pit stop along the way was Venice. We camped across the intercoastal from the city it's self and just had to take a water ferry in.


Cute door bell buzzers taunting you as you've passed them for the millionth time because now you have entered the maze known as Venice. Actually we had a pretty good map and didn't get lost........ we explored the unknown. It's a beautiful city but over run with people like us.

O yeah! In the morning we got a big surprise. Watch the video and you'll understand.



Next we crossed the alps and were back in Germany. We made our way to Neuschwanstein Castle. The prefab castle the Magic Kingdom's Castle is modeled after. The tour was interesting King Ludwig II really was mad.
Post card picture ours see below We decided to take a scenic route back to Bonn and drove the Romantic Road crossing paths with all the German cuteness the Bavarians are keeping for themselves. Rothenburg might win cutest town of all.............and they like Americans a lot there, we didn't completely destroy it.

A little more bread couldn't do any harm........................ IST DIE BESTEN!

Summer Vacation part Dos!

After our canoing adventures we packed up the campsite for Spain. We arrived in Zarautz to find a campsite overlooking the beach and the ocean. We hiked down to discover surfers and many Europeans who apparently forgot there swimsuits at home. We spent a few days trying to find a direction to look in. One night we went in to San Sebastian for tapas at a couple of very cool places. We also went into Bilbao (of the Pat Metheny song) on a rainy day and explored the Guggenheim museum.

After we experienced some culture we headed off to Pamplona for some carnage. We actually visited twice. The first day of the festival Sunday we arrived around 11 am to find hordes of people in white pants and shirts with red bandannas covered in what appeared to be Sangria. Having our fill of drunk Europeans and Australians we headed out of the city. We returned on Tuesday to watch the actual running of the bulls. We arrived a few hours early which apparently is not enough to secure a good viewing spot. What we did manage to see was several really fast bulls running over several people. You have to wonder what goes through someones mind as a thousand pound bull is stomping all over you. I hope never to find out. When it was over, the guy next to me turned and said, "is that it, thats what I waited hours to see!" Well to each his own. After the carnage everyone headed to the bars to watch the mayhem on TV. Perhaps the most showed clip was a bull smashing a guys head into the fence. Lucky for him the horns actually surrounded his head and probably saved his life. With apologies to PETA we left Pamplona.


Once we had our fill of small town Spain we headed off to the Pyrenees for some adventure. We stayed at a remote campsite near the Parc National and went for a short? 7 hour hike. Tanya and I took the "easy" way back which turned out to be a two foot wide path with no guard rails about 5,000 feet up! Safety not a big concern at the Parc. John, Katie and John had there own adventure which I sure you can read about on there blog.

Having gotten our fill of nature we went to Barcelona for some city life. We camped right outside the city near the beach. Which seemed liked a good idea but turned out to be the worst campsite we went to and the wettest after a rain storm swept in and trashed our campsite while we were in Barcelona. John Morgan was nice enough to let Tonn and I sleep in his dry tent while he bunked with the Douglasses. We saw the Sagrada Familia church again and explored the Gaudi parc that overlooks the city.

Vegetable Market in Barcelona.A dancing crowd !After the rain!and its off to Italy via France in our next installment!

Summer Part 1

Hello All,

We are back from our summer vacation, one of the perks of Tanya being a teacher, and we have a lot to share so we will break it up into a few posts. The summer vacation began, as every summer should, with a good concert. I saw the "Pat Metheny Trio" with Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez in Darmstadt which is just south of Frankfurt. John, Katie, John M. and Tanya hung out at a small wine festival where we left them. The concert was great except for the sound man who apparently needed to warm up. By the third song the sound was good. The band was flawless as usual. They played a mixture of old Metheny tunes and stuff off the new CD Day Trip and EP Tokyo Day Trip.


The next day we left in the red Toyota Corolla we rented from a teacher packed like sardines for France. We made a stop in Champagne and visited the Veuve Clicquot headquarters for a tour of the cellars and a history of champagne. We then sampled some of the bubbly for ourselves. In the interest of good will with them I did not bring up the empty bottle I purchased six months earlier (see earlier post if you have no idea what I am talking about). Due to budgetary constraints we did not indulge in the purchasing of any Gran Dam bottles although the "trilogy" was tempting.

We walked through "Champagne Alley" and checked out all the other estates.

Upon discovering an unfinished road we put Katie to work.


We camped that night and left for Dordogne valley where we canoed between towns. John M. decided to stand up in his kayak which was a bad idea for him but very entertaining for us.




Next stop Spain!

Bangkok Part 2

Part 2

Of course we actually did do some cultural things not associated with food, shopping or pampering. We traveled up the river to a few different amazing temples (one with a giant, and I mean giant, reclining golden buddha) another with stairs so steep you feared for your life and the palace which was full of artifacts. We also went to the building where they keep the royal treasures. A highlight (no pics allowed inside) was a giant wood carving the size of a large wall two stories high of a natural scene and all the solid gold thrones, boats, etc...





Speaking of royal, we found out it is illegal to bad mouth the royal family. Apparently they mean it and you could go to jail. Also when walking on the outside of a massive mall one day the strangest thing happened. Tonn and I were talking and as I walked down the stairs a woman standing in front of me caught my eye. The standing still part was not what caused me to wonder why something strange was going on, it was the way she was standing still, frozen ala x-men and time standing still. We then realized that the entire street had come to a frozen standstill. Conversations stopped mid phrase, transactions halted money in mid air and nothing moving only the sound of what presumably must have been the national anthem playing in the background. The second the song ended it was as if time started again.



We visited the home of Jim Thomson a former military intelligence guy who fell in love with Bangkok and Thailand and is credited with single handedly saving the silk trade. He literary took samples of Thai silk to the editors of Vogue in NYC and made it as popular as it is today. He also made it his mission to save traditional homes by moving them from various parts of Thailand to Bangkok and creating a compound of them. His legend solidified when he disappeared in the 60's in the Cambodian jungle while on holiday with friends. The three long lasting theories are he was eaten by a white tiger, kidnapped and killed or run over by a truck and buried out in the jungle.



Speaking of traffic and danger. Bangkok has some of the craziest traffic outside of Italy you will ever see. We stuck mostly to the sky train and an occasional cab but no trip to Bangkok would have been complete without a few rides in a tuk-tuk. A small three wheeled motorcycle (think motorized deathtrap). The drivers ranged from careful to, when do we get off this thing in daringness.



This summer we will be traveling with our soon to be ex expat friends John and Katie who will be moving to my old stomping ground, central Jersey.

One Week in Bangkok!

Hello All,

We just returned from one week in Bangkok. The trip was a big study in contrasts. We flew from Cologne/Bonn airport to Copenhagen where we purchased a 5 Euro soy latte and 6.50 Euro beer which translates to $7.50 USD and $9.75 USD. We then flew to Bangkok where the same latte cost 100 Baht or 2 Euros and the beer cost 50 Baht you do the math. We arrived to the expected barrage of taxi cab offers to town. Having been warned to insist on the meter we were not taken advantage of.

A twenty minute cab ride later we arrived at the Citi Chic hotel in Th Sukhumvit. It was pretty Chic and modern. The staff (yes an actual staff) greeted us with bright green tropical drinks and the porter took our bags up to the room which was very nice. That night we went out for Italian at a nice restaurant recommended by a friend. I know your thinking why in the world would we eat Italian food in Thailand. Because its good. Bangkok like NYC has great food of every ethnic variety. The next morning we had our "American Breakfast" minus the bacon or sausage and I walked Tanya to her conference at the New International School of Thailand. A very large school near our hotel. I spent that Saturday at the Chatuchak market, a massive market filled with hundreds of stalls. This was my first ride on the skytrain, a very nice clean and air conditioned train about fifty feet above the city. The ride all the way across the city cost 1 Euro. The market was full of clothes, furniture, nic-knacs etc. Not that exciting for a guy. I then took the train back to the Siam Paragon a 7 story mall complete with Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porche, etc dealerships, an IMAX theater and the biggest aquarium in South-East Asia. Quite a contrast from the local market with its trinkets.

I basically walked around all day for the next 3 days while Tanya filled her brain with teacher stuff. We then would spend our nights exploring the city and eating lots or great food. Our cheapest dinner complete with 2 beers and two full pad Thai dishes was 1.75 Euro for both of us. Our most costly meal included all the bells and whistles was 25 Euros. Needless to say your money goes a lot farther in Bangkok than in Germany. Tuesday Tonn was free of the conference and we explored together.

Trips to the Levis outlet (not that exciting), various malls ranging from super fancy to where the locals hang. Hundreds of sidewalk stalls many filled with bootleg movies which we did not buy, out of respect for intellectual property rights (we will probably kick ourselves later). We went to Brown sugar one evening searching for my old Floridian guitar teacher only to find he had moved to Bahrain. We got lost in Chinatown one of the days which is an even more hyperactive part of the city than we were in.

And of course no trip to Bangkok would be complete without a visit to a spa. We chose a fancy one to ensure its wholesomeness and we treated ourselves to 70 minute massages which were fantastic. Oh Yeah we both got hair cuts and Tonn had her toes and fingers done for 25 Euros. All in all a very great trip which I look forward to taking again some day. As Ferris Beuller would say "if you have the means, I highly recommend one".

It's Official!

Well after two years of classes and one year of paperwork being sent back and forth from Germany I have my Masters degree! I thought the Germans liked their paperwork but they have nothing on FIU.




Pics from Bangkok coming soon!

The Results are in!

Well it looks like by a fairly healthy margin we look Turkish to Turks and non-Turks alike. You learn something new every time you travel to a new place.

Istanbul

We are back from our Easter break in Istanbul. We arrived at Ataturk airport not knowing exactly what to expect. After paying 15 Euros each for our visa's we emerged to find our name scribbled on a white sheet of paper by the shuttle service. We drove
with several other couples into the heart of Sultanahmet which is the touristy and historic part of Istanbul. A mysterious stop at a fish market to pick up presumably a friend of the driver and we arrived at our location or did we? The driver stopped opened the door and got the luggage out and drove off. We looked around and didn't see our hotel so we walked into a hostel (safe bet they spoke English) and found out the hotel was a block away.




That night we wandered the streets looking at the mosques and restaurants. We got the tourist treatment in English, Spanish and Italian that night with every shop owner asking us to buy their stuff. The next day we awoke to the call to prayer at 5 am. I was under the misconception that it was "the" as in one, call to prayer, but it actually is a call from each and every mosque. We slept some more and had a great Turkish breakfast at the hotel which included Turkish tea or coffee both equally good. We checked out the Aya Sofya which began as the biggest Christian church and was later turned into a mosque by the Ottoman's. They covered the mosaics in plaster, but thankfully didn't destroy it. Ataturk turned it into a museum in the 1950's. We also went into the Blue Mosque which is as good as the hype. The tiles and ornamentation were beautiful. Finally we went to the underground Basilica Cistern. Built by the Byzantines and recently renovated they were OK. A "one seer" but worth it. That day we discovered the first of four Starbucks, which although nice for me immediately down graded the "exotic" rating of Istanbul.




We spent the next two nights in the old part of the city seeing the sights. Another highlight was the Topkapi palace which among other things featured a huge harem as well as some interesting artifacts. No trip to Istanbul would be complete without going to the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market. Exactly what you might imagine plus an amazing amount of knock off goods (Prada, Guchi, Converse, etc.) We did not partake.







After the third day we crossed the river to stay in the new part of the city. It was like jumping ahead a thousand years overnight. We went from being woken up by the call to prayer to being woken up by the drunks leaving the clubs at 6 am. The streets were crazy crowded and alive. There were a couple of narrow streets crammed with great seafood and Turkish restaurants. You stroll down being enticed by the waiters who like everyone else in Istanbul spoke 10 languages. We mainly ate a cafeteria style place with great seafood for no money, especially enjoying the fried clams on a skewer. Talking about food, we also took full advantage of the baklava and the fresh fish sandwiches by the river caught and cooked on the same boat.

Speaking of Turkey a strange phenomenon started to occur about the third day. The salesmen stopped speaking to us. A couple would be walking ahead of us and they would get the hard sell and then we would walk by and nothing. I finally said to Tonn we either look really poor or Turkish. When I started walking into the Turkish music stores I got my answer. All the owners would speak to me in Turkish and give me a puzzled look when I didn't respond. I would, in English, say I didn't understand and they would give me a startled look. Apparently I look very Turkish, even to the Turks.

On Saturday we took a relaxing cruise up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea. The last day we attended Easter services at a 150 year old church. It was a very nice service and we met a cool couple from Hamburg. We hung out and went to the Asian side of Istanbul. Not really knowing where to go we got bored and returned to the European side. We grabbed out last good Turkish dinner and had the required Turkish tea after with our new friends.


Our last surprise was when the plane landed in Bonn and there was snow on the ground. As you can see Tanya was not amused.


See you soon.

SNOW?

I guess needless to say I took the bus to school this morning. The strange part was that it really wasn't that cold. At lunch time I was able to go on my jog and all the snow had melted.

Where are we?

Well Tonn and I woke up at 5AM to howling wind, pouring rain, blinding lightning and thunder claps Saturday morning. For a second I thought I was back in Pompano and it was a hurricane. Oddly enough that is the first lightning and thunder I have seen in the seven months we have lived here. When morning broke I looked out my kitchen window and noticed the 50 foot tree that used to be in the yard was now gently nuzzled against the window. The tree blew over and was resting on the roof. Lucky for everyone, especially our upstairs neighbors, the roof was at precisely the right angle to catch the fallen tree leaving it unharmed. The roof that is. I watched today as a very brave or crazy man scaled up the 50 feet with a chainsaw and systematically cut the tree down 2 feet at a time with nothing but a couple of guys with ropes making sure the tree didn't tumble sideways. It was quite a sight.


The second interesting discovery was one tied to the saying "if it seems to good to be true, it probably is". I found a bottle of 1995 Le Grande Dame champagne. Being a fan of Veuve Clicquot champagne, hey it's good, I had read about this vintage. It is only made on years that the maker deems that the champagne is extraordinary. Shocked by the 25 Euro price I asked the store clerk if the champagne was bad. Maybe it had sat next to a radiator for ten years or something like that. He explained that it was fine. Knowing a bargain when I see it I bought it. We were going to open it on a very special occasion when Tonn noticed that, despite it weighing a ton and being factory sealed, it was empty. Yes empty. I will let you know how returning goes when I round up an angry German to talk to the store. Sometimes only an angry German can get things done around here.

Football Mania! (Soccer to everyone at home)

A teachers and spouses and friends outing to a football (soccer) game. FC Koln, our home team, against the hated rivals Bayern 1860 (Munich). We left school in a hurry to catch the bus, tram, train back to the U-bahn to get to the stadium in Koln. We arrived just as the cheerleaders, yes they have them, were leaving the field. FC Koln was kicking butt until one of their best players got a yellow card followed quickly by a red card. With much questionable officiating, and Germans shouting unknown taunts at the officials, the game ended in a 0/0 tie. No OT because it was not a tournament game. As expected the Germans were very organized in their cheers waving certain flags at certain times and saying certain phrases at specific times. A highlight was the call and response portion from across the entire stadium end zone to end zone. After the game 50,000 fans streamed out of the stadium to the U-Bahn all at the same time. We eventually packed in to one (think NYC or Tokyo during rush hour) and made it home after a great Indian dinner celebrating our good friend Katie's acceptance into the Doctoral program at Princeton (Yes the one in NJ). Tonn got an OFFICIAL FC Koln scarf and we all had OFFICIAL FC Koln beers and pretzels at the game. Well, thats all for now.

Sicily

Well after a long hiatus we are back. We traveled to Sicily over Tanya's February break. We arrived in Palermo, picked up our rental car (with the extra insurance) and proceeded to drive into the city. Having dinner with some friends recently we wondered why Italy was in a bit of a post Roman empire slump. Now I know why. Any group of people who drive the way they do are doomed to lose many of its best thinkers. Imagine a two lane road packed with 5 lanes worth of cars. Scooters and bicycles weaving at high speed in and out of the cars, sidewalks and medians. I think I saw a total of 2 traffic lights and the circles are basically "European Vacation" with more cars. We finally arrived after much stress to our Bed and Breakfast. A beautiful refuge located in the city and next to a sprawling empty park. Resolved not to brave the roads again that evening we walked to a great neighborhood restaurant. The wine and food were great, even better than we have come to expect when in Italy. There actually was more of a language barrier here than we ever had in Germany. No one speaks English in Sicily. When asked what the second language they learn in school was, the Sicilians replied, "Sicilian"! Then some French after that. The nice waitress was kind enough to bring a cook out of the kitchen to explain the menu to us.



The next morning, we awoke to a traditional Sicilian breakfast. Just picture homemade desserts made by a nice Sicilian woman. No nutritional value what so ever but it was good. We explored Palermo all day. Finding some very cool art galleries, cheap shopping and great food. We made the obligatory trip to the opera house where Michael Corleone's daughter was tragically killed in the "God Father 3"


We proceeded out of the city at dusk. We drove to Segesta, home of an ancient Greek temple. Apparently in Greece the first son got it all and the other sons went elsewhere to live it up. Sicily was the place. We then proceeded to Sciacca. A resort town on the south end of the Island. Palermo is on the north end. Sicily is about the size of Vermont. You can cross the entire Island in 2 hours or so. The town was pretty quiet, most of the spas were closed since it was off season. The next morning after a quick look around we drove to Caltagirone.





Caltagirone is famous for its ceramic shops. Tonn got a big plate so she was happy. A very cool city with Ceramic tiles adorning every nook and cranny. The stairs were particularly amazing. Even the town hall where all the old people hung out was like a ceramic museum with beautiful artwork.

That night we drove to Piazza Armerina we went to a bakery and asked if they knew of any inexpensive B&B's. They didn't but they went in the rain down the street to write a number down and contacted one for us. The owner drove to get us and we followed him back to a nice place just outside the city. Everyone we came across was very warm and patient with the language divide. It was nice to see people smiling for what seemed the sake of smiling, different than Germany. The next day after yet another amazing, but more nutritional breakfast, including home made jam from the owners mother, we set out for Villa Romana Casale (Think Bill Gates house two thousand years ago). The floors were all amazing ceramic tiles. Each room had a theme. Fishing room, hunting room, sports room, etc. The place was being restored so unfortunately there was a lot of dust on the floors. Well worth a visit once it is finished.



That same day we drove to Mount Etna. The largest active Volcano in Europe. Fortunately relatively quiet for about three years now. After driving up the volcano we hit the snow line and after a few slides on the ice decided to call it a day before the darkness hit. But not before getting out and playing with some lava rock. It was very creepy seeing half buried housed encased in lava rock.


We then proceeded to Taormina, a beautiful city with Mount Etna views on one side and the Ocean on the other. We stayed in a pensione owned by a very old Italian woman, who amazing climbed some of the steepest stairs I have seen in a while. The city was full of great cafes, views and restaurants. It also has a Greek/Roman theater which in the summer has concerts. It must be something to watch a show with mount Etna as your back drop.






A quick trip through Cefalu where we discovered a protest going on. I guess they are talking about privatizing the water company and the Sicilians are not amused. Then it was back to Palermo to our favorite restaurant and B&B. The next morning we flew back over the Alps to Germany.

Derick's Birthday!

Okay so it's a month or two late but here are the pictures from an evening spent with friends in celebration of Derick's Birth. We started the evening at our house with wine and middle eastern nibbles. Amanda our resident Betty Crocker by request made Derick's birthday cake which was a 4 layer peanutbutter/chocolate.


Next the PE Dept. (Charlotte & Cory) took over the festivities, so we headed out to Derick's favorite pub The Quiet Man. Cory felt it was his mission to have the bartenders fill one of the many rugby trophies on display with beer and as the entire bar sang happy birthday have Derick Chug it. Oh Yeah while wearing beer goggles of course!

Sorry but I forgot to charge the camera and it died taking this last picture. The next part of the evening was spent taking a brisk 20 min walk to the other side of Bonn, which was pretty funny considering the amount of drinking that had already gone on. We spent the rest of the night/morning at most likely the smokiest bar in Germany. Derick emerged with one quote. "Hanging out there has taken five years off of my life because of the amount of second hand smoke". He is very concerned for the health of the staff that work every weekend.