chase the light

Man, the last two days have been like an episode of The Amazing Race. I thought this morning was going to be a breeze getting to the airport. The airport is supposed to be 15 minutes away by train. Flight’s at 9:55, but Jill thought it was 9:30. Not sure where she’s getting these numbers but I’m glad she’s been wrong on the last two. So we get on he tram to get to Central Station and it takes a little while. It’s 8:30 and we still have to catch a train. So we ditch the train idea and just hop in a cab. The cabbie starts driving around the perimeter road of Amsterdam before getting on the highway that is GRIDLOCKED! ARGH!! Our flight LEAVES in 40 minutes and we’re no where near the airport! Ugh, I’m tired. So as we’re sitting in the traffic the guy fesses up and says, “Normally I work the night shift so I had no idea it gets so backed up.” Oh jeez, why, why why???! Ha ha ha, new problem, we’re sooo not going to make the flight. Maybe with the 2 hour layover in London we can catch a later flight.

Fortunately the traffic finally breaks free and the cabbie’s hauling ass now and we actually get to the airport with a short amount of time. Then bonehead cabbie drops us off at British “Midland” Airways and not British Airways. We’re doing the whole OJ Simpson thing through the airport and finally get to BA and we’re able to express check-in AND the flight isn’t until 9:55! OMG THANK YOU!! Something in our favor. We still have to get through customs and all the security but we have enough time to quickly grab a bite to eat and then get to the gate. Didn’t have time to change the Euro money though. Whew, sitting on he plane and on our way to London.

Landed in London and the nightmare of Heathrow has begun. We land and our terminal is 4 but we have to go to terminal 1 to fly to LAX. Heathrow is the size of a big country and has security and customs lines every 20 feet. Anyway, almost an hour later we get to the other side of the country of Heathrow. I have a few minutes so I cash in my Euros for Pounds and buy a huge bag of candy to get rid of the last of my money. Onto the plane we’re three rows from the back of the plane and I watch “8 Below” & “The Shaggy Dog” on the way home. Uneventful flight home.

After going through customs and baggage claim we catch a cab back to work to pick up our cars. On the way there it smelled so good out as everyone was having bar-b-ques for the 4th of July. What an exhausting final two days. And that was the European Tour 2006. Must sleep now.

For a day that was supposed to be a nice trip out to the country and back it seriously turned into the most problematic day of the trip. See, there’s this monkey zoo, and they let monkey’s roam free and interact with you if the monkey choses too. So I looked up the webpage and voila, the stop on the train is Amersfoort. Oh, I know where that is because we stopped at the station on the way in and I even wrote about it. Here’s a little problem, we rented the bikes for two days from Mac Bikes which has three locations in the city, but our flight out of Amsterdam is early in the morning before the bike shop opens. So we have to return the bikes before closing tonight. No problem, we’re leaving early enough and should be back by maybe 1pm or 2pm. We ride the bikes to Amsterdam Central Station, lock them up and buy the tickets for the train. We wait for about 1/2 and hour and finally the train arrives and we’re whisked off to Amersfoort. 45 minutes later, which is weird because it was supposed to be about an hour and 15 minutes, we arrive and get of the train and I’m kinda expecting to see a little sign or something that says Monkey Zoo this way or take this bus to this place, yadda yadda yadda… Nope nothing. I go back in ask the Information desk guy, who was really really nice and he says “Oh yeah the Zoo is down that road make a right, cross the train tracks, make a left and you’ll come across on the left hand side. You can’t get lost it’s easy. 15 minute walk!” Then he says, “It’s small but it’s the most beautiful Zoo we have, at least we think so!” Oh cool, that’s sounds great I’m thinking.

It’s kinda hot is what I’m also thinking. I have my backpack and a few cameras so I’m a little loaded down for walking but head out. The walk really wasn’t that bad but when you don’t know where you’re headed you question how far you’re going. So we finally arrive and it looks like a little zoo, lots of pictures of elephants, and zebras, and birds but not a single picture of a monkey. Hmmm… maybe the monkey part of the zoo is just incorporated into the main zoo. Something certainly doesn’t seem right. Anyway, finally go ask the girl standing out front, “Is this the Monkey Zoo?” Which coming out of your mouth sounds really stupid. Long story shortened, it’s not the freakin’ Monkey Zoo!! CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!! Where the hell is the freakin’ Monkey Zoo?!? She says the Monkey Zoo is in Apeldoorn. Ugh, what?! That means we have to get back on the train and go farther. First I’m not walking back to the train station so we waited for a bus to go by and picked it up. Then once back at the station we had to wait again for the SAME TRAIN WE WERE ON AND PAY THE SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY to go another 1/2 an hour into the country. It’s no longer a cheap day return at this point so this monkey zoo better be good. What are they odds that we would get off at a station that also has a zoo? Apparently pretty good.

We finally get to Apeldoorn and no sign of the monkey zoo. Crap. Something be easy today, please. I asked one guy and he says oh yeah the Monkey Zoo is about an hour walk or quick by bus or cab. Ugh, I’m soooo not walking. Anyway, asked a few bus drivers which bus to get on and they kept saying number 3 to Apenheul. Well the only one that looked close was labeled Ahuel. Which is not Apenheul if you ask me. But it was short for Apenheul and the driver confirmed it so we hopped on that and in about 15 minutes we arrived at the damn Monkey Zoo.

To be continued when my blood pressure lowers…

Ok, so where was I… We finally get to the Monkey Zoo and get our tickets. There’s a beautiful arboretum that surrounds the zoo and was really nice to walk through. Got to the gate and you have to remove everything out of your pockets and leave behind any bags because the monkeys will steal almost anything. I’ll keep it short. The Monkey Zoo is pretty cool. Look at the video.

So… now that we wasted all this time getting to the place and actually spending a few hours there we have to make our way back to Amsterdam. Which is now an hour and half away. It’s 3:00 and we have to turn the bikes in at 5:00pm. That’s according to Jill. I was thinking it was 5:45pm but wasn’t positive. So we come out of the park and grab a quick bite and I’m keeping an eye on the road for the bus. We go out to the street and the bus finally comes and we take it back to the main station in Apeldoorn. The bus of course is on a loop route so it takes its sweet time meandering through the little town. We get back to the station and people get off the bus and start running. Hmmmm… Over at the station is a train but we have no idea which one it is. As we get over to the crossing we have to wait for that very train to leave and go by before crossing to the station. We get up on the platform and realize that was the 3:28pm train we HAD to be on! Uh oh. Ok, when’s the next train. Half an hour, no problem I’m wishfully thinking. Half an hour goes by and still no train with Amsterdam Central written on it. Hmmm, checked the board again and really find out the train is another half an hour away. SHIT! We’re screwed! our flight leaves at 9:30am tomorrow, which is before the bike place opens, and we’re going to miss turning in the bikes tonight so we have to figure something out. FINALLY the train arrives and I’m not anywhere near Jill at the moment but I see her get on farther down the platform. I mistakenly got on a 1st class car and had to get off to walk down to a 2nd class car. Then the train pulled away and I walked through about 4 cars before coming to a dead end and I never saw Jill. More uh oh. About a half an hour later we stopped back at Amersfoort and I’m at one of the doors and a women starts detatching the train car I’m on. What? I ask her quickly and she says the part I’m on is going to Schipol, the airport. Ha ha ha this is nuts! OK, I hurry off and jump ahead one car and we start rolling. I walk through a couple cars and find Jill reading a book. She had no idea where I was either.

At this point at least we’re only 45 minutes from Amsterdam. That puts us at the station at 5:30, well past the bike rental place’s 5:00pm closing time. I’m still hoping I saw 5:45 correctly. That would only leave us 15 minutes to get the bikes unlocked and jam across town. We arrive at the station and knowing we don’t even have time to get the bikes I suggest we run over to the Mac Bike place that’s right near the station first to see if they’re open then to see if we can return the bikes there instead of the other one where we rented them. They are open so we go in and run up to the counter and we’re huffing and puffing trying to ask the guy behind the counter if we can bring the bikes there because we missed our train, our early flight in the morning, the other one’s too far away, blah blah blah… He gives us the look over and unfortunately takes a shine to me. Ya see, he’s what you call, gay. So he starts to mess with us by asking questions. He asks where we’re from. Then he asks Jill if her favorite color is pink. She says no, and he says, “Wrong answer!” Shit, he’s gonna be a dick. Then he asks if we live near West Hollywood. Jill says well in the area and then he asks her what her favorite city is. She answers something and he says, “Wrong answer!” Shit, Jill, get a clue he’s queer as the day is long! Answer his questions! I blurt out, “My favorite color is pink and my favorite city is West Hollywood!” He smiles and says “Correct!” We plead with him again about the bikes and he looks at me and says, “Well, he is kinda cute.” (Oh for God’s sake this is getting uncomfortable but I’m still playing along) He finally relents and says “Go get the bikes!” So we run back to the bikes, get them unlocked and haul ass through the traffic and maze of trams going by. Just as we arrive back they’re shutting the doors.

We bring the bikes in and there’s some guy who lets us in and doesn’t get that we just talked to this guy that said it was OK to bring the bikes there. Frick, this is getting out of control. We wave down the guy and he says yeah, it’s no problem and comes over and starts totally checking me out. I mean like just staring at me for like 20 secs and smiling away. I’m actually kinda freaked out at this point. Like, is he really thinking something is going to become of this? Anyway, he’s having a hell of a good time making me uncomfortable and knowing it. So we go back to the counter and he says, “no she can’t bring her bike back, she didn’t answer the questions right”. WYF!?!? You’re kidding me! Right then I almost blurted out “Screw you dude, I’ll deal with this some other way!” But I think he saw me get agitated and said it’s fine he’ll take care of it. After that things went smoothly and he really lightened up and was very nice. He was always nice he just finally stopped messing with us. So Jill paid with her credit card and then he asked if we were married and we said “No, we’re just friends, we work together.” Oh man, he smiled really big and looked over at me and said “Even better…” Oh man, this guy just won’t let it go. So after we’re done doing the paper work and finally ready to get out of there he says, “Hang on I have something for you.” Oh no, now what? He reaches into a box on the counter and gives me a bell for my bike. Ha ha ha… really all I can do is laugh and thank him. I guess today was all about a gay angel hoping to get his wings. I took my newly earned bell and as we made our way to the door he sincerely told us to have a nice night and enjoy our stay in Amsterdam. Whew, glad that’s over. So thank you gay bike fellow for helping us out of a jam. Now we can catch our flight out in the morning without having to deal with these stupid bikes. And that was the very long winded description of the hectic day.

Then we ate at an Italian restaurant and went back to the hotel and packed. Crazy day but he Monkey’s kicked ass.

Got up this morning and rented some bikes to cruise around the city. Great way to get around, you never have to wait for trains or buses, just hop on and you’re there in a few minutes. Amsterdam’s so small all the main sights are within 10 minutes of each other by bike. I wanted to check out this little art thing that goes on everey Sunday but it kinda sucked so didn’t spend but a few moments there. Then off to the museums, first the Van Gogh museum then the Rijksmuseum. The Van Gogh would be good if you’re really into him and I’m not so it was just OK. Only 1 or 2 real classics in the collection. Van Gogh’s like Madonna to me. I’m mildy ok with the hits but the rest of the catalogue, blech. Anyway, only for the hardcore, but then you probably know everything thing there is to learn at this museum anyway.

Then walked over to the Rijksmuseum which I really liked but was much smaller than I had envisioned. Lot’s of Rembrandts and three Vermeers. Three of around 35 total, which is saying a lot. After the Rijks we walked back over to the adjacent park and sat by this shallow pool for about an hour. Kids were swimming and people were sleeping all around it. Kinda nice. Not sure I personally would swim in what looked a bit dodgy on the bacteria side, but whatever. It was really warm today so there were lots of people out having a lazy Sunday.

Grabbed some ice cream and then unlocked the bikes and headed back to hotel and walked to dinner. The closest place to the hotel was little cafe that had tables on the water so we grabbed one and had a pretty good dinner. Another slow moving day.

Travel day. Train leaves at 12:28 so were going to get over there a little early since a 1300m section of The Wall is still in place near the station. Got over there and shot some photos. The previous day when we were at the Sand Sculpture place we asked the girl where the long section of The Wall that is still in place is standing. Her first answer was “We try and forget were it was”. Interesting. Then she asked if I was looking for the “East Side Gallery” and said it was near Ostbahnof.

Last thoughts on Berlin. I love it! What a great place. Berlin is very unassuming and might not have the landmarks of Paris or London but it’s a very comfortable city to be in. I think the Germans have a lifestyle much like the U.S. In fact while we were sitting at Fan Fest watching the game I was looking around and if you were able to drop all of these fans in the middle of a football or basketball game back home you wouldn’t know the difference. They really look American compared to France or the U.K. There are 4 things that make them different though. The German flags on their faces, the amount of smokers, the language of course, and all the chanting. Lots of chanting in Europe. Repeat after me like the Germans do… “Doitcheland (clap clap clap) Doitcheland (clap clap clap) Doitcheland (clap clap clap)”. I even saw people hi-five each other which is very American thing. So if you’re from the U.S. and want to go to Europe but are afraid of feeling out of place, Deutschland’s for you. At least Berlin would be.

Just before boarding the train grabbed some kebabs for lunch. Yum.
12:28: Left Ostbahnof. I believe that is East Station. We got on the train and there are little rooms. As I pointed out they’re like the Orient Express and as Jill pointed out like Harry Potter. We have the cabin for ourselves at the moment.
1:32: Arrived in Stendal. Some guy just joined us in our room. Hack agh cough wheeeeze… damn this guy reeks! I think he just smoked a whole pack of cigarettes before boarding. Oh man, now our little carriage has been tainted.
1:37: Announcement: In German. No english supplement. Countryside going by. It’s a very Pixar day out.
1:42: Ok, smell of smoke has slowly gone away. Whew.
1:55: Finally had to show the tickets.
2:04: Listening to the handful of songs I have by “Rainer Maria” on the computer. Gonna have to break out the iPod at some point. Ok, iPod’s out. Think I’ll disappear into John Lennon for a little while.
3:22: I wonder what John Lennon would be doing now if still alive. 26 years on.
5:00: Thought I’d visit the dining car. Ack. Too much smoke. Enclosed space. Can’t breathe, can’t move, can’t reach oxygen…
5:41: Smelly Smoker Man got off the train a few hours ago. I think we just stopped at Rotterdam. The english announcements are about 5 seconds long where the german ones are about 45 seconds long. We’re missing something. Now I’m thinking that wasn’t Rotterdam. Too small.
5:47: We’re definitely in the Netherlands as I just looked out the window and a building had the name Jan on it.
6:11: I think we’re in Rotterdam now. Nope, Amersfoort. I think that might be near Rotterdam as they keep saying Rotterdam on the speaker.
6:20: On iTunes. “Half Acre” by “Hem”. Lovely song. So is “Alabaster” by “Oh Susanna” which just played.
6:48: Arrived in Amsterdam. All the Rotterdam talk was for stations with connections to Rotterdam. Duh.

Caught the #16 Tram and walked across a little bridge to the hotel. Opened up the windows and there’s a nice picturesque view over the Amstel River. Where I’m sitting right now. Beautiful.

The hotel is in the central district so it’s location is perfect. Walked around a bit tonight and looked at the girls in the windows. Funny. They all have bad skin covered in makeup. There’s the occasional faint smell of pot that comes into the window when someone walks by but it’s not bad. That’s all. Amsterdam is beautiful and I think a bike rental is the choice of travel for tomorrow.

Today was all about The Game. The city is waaay busier today. Everyone’s in town for the Germany/Argentina game. First off though is a little thing that caught my eye on a poster. A sand sculpture exhibit near one of the stations. Headed over there first and checked out some of the remarkable work. I just wouldn’t have the patience for that.

The funniest thing is that when you walk in and come around the corner you’re face to face with the main sculpture. Problem is… is doesn’t look like what it’s supposed to look like. It’s supposed to be a a guy with his arm holding the World Cup on his head. Well, let’s just say it doesn’t look like that at all and looks much more like a very private moment between a man and his ‘lil buddy. [Judge for yourself.] Ha ha ha… that’s awesome! Everyone that came around the corner was funny as you see them smile really big when they realize what they’re looking at. Or not really looking at. Good fun.

After the sculpture thingy we headed over to Fan Fest in the Tiergarten. This was where the day was going to get crazy. And it didn’t disappoint. What a blast! Soooo many people just having a good time. Food, rides, giant TV screens, etc. I could write a thousand words and not really capture so tah dah… a video clip. 9 minutes of goofiness. There was also a map with pins where you could put in where you came from. Kinda interesting but since there was a guy from Easter Island attending the World Cup I think the accuracy might need some fine tuning.

After the game we walked through Fan Fest a bit more and then headed back home. Making it an early night as it’s a travel day tomorrow and have to get packed and such.

Took a little bus tour around the city today to hit the major sights. A couple annoying guys hopped on at the last minute and were really loud and talking during the english portions of the commentary. Annoying. Once again I started head bobbing while cruising around the city. I think I got hit with the Epstein-Barr virus or something. Exhausted.

Got to stop off at the old Checkpoint Charlie location which was pretty fascinating. I got my passport stamped with all of the stamps available at the time. 12 all together. The Wall part of German history is really fascinating to me especially in light of the yahoo’s back home who want to build a wall along the border with Mexico. In the name of border security. Oh sorry, it’s a fence. All you need is some auto firing weapons and dog runs and were there. What fun. Can someone put up a countdown timer for the current administration so I can check it daily?

Also had a few hours tonight so caught The Da Vinci Code (Sakrileg!) at The Sony Center today. It was like the mother ship calling us home. There was a Sony Style store that we walked through. I tell ya, good we get a discount. Da Vinci Code… weird to see places I just went to portrayed in the film. Film is definitely missing smell-o-vision. Some of the darker corners of Paris have a heavy urine and dog poop aroma. It looks pretty on film you just don’t get the memory of it wafting up your nose. When it comes to Holy Grail movies though, stick with Monty Python.

Today was a day of rest. Woke up and went to do some laundry. The reception gave us the address of this place a couple stops down on the U-Bahn. At first it didn’t look like anything but a cafe butin the back is the washing section. It was awesome. Miele washers and dryers! It was yo pimpin’ and I ordered some Cristal. OK, no, but it was cool for a laundromat to have big ‘ol nice Mieles. I think I actually saw my shirt smiling as it went tumbling by in the soap suds. It was like club in Ibiza for my clothes. The funny thing is that all the washers and dryers had names in a strange bit of anthropomorphism.

Went to an italian restaurant for dinner which was ok but the temp started to drop as we were sitting outside and my teeth were chattering by the time we left. So of I course I wanted what’s called a King Freezie in the Burger King at the foot of the hotel. Not sure why they don’t have these in the states. Kinda like a thickly crush Icee. They’re 1 Euro and sooo good!

Checked out the movie theater by the hotel but the films were dubbed. The lady behind the counter suggested the Sony Center as they show the movies in English. Without subtitles. Nice. Might go see “The Da Vinci Code Sakrileg” tomorrow night. Ha ha got a good laugh at the poster in the window.

Seriously, laundry. That was the highlight of a very mellow day. I think vacation relaxation mode has finally kicked in. All I want to do is sleep in and go eat.

Well, on the train today. Got up without a problem and headed over to Gare du Nord and got our Eurorail tickets in order. We upgraded to first class but for some reason my credit card was declined. Oh great. What now? After we got our tickets I thought I’d try and pull some cash out of the machine to check the card. Sure enough, won’t give me any money. Jill gave me her calling card to call my bank. Took me like 5 tries to get the numbers right to get through to my bank. Long story short my card had a hold put on it for fraud! Ha ha! I’m the one traveling around and they think it’s fraud charges. Anyway, they undid the ATM part so I’m able to pull some cash but I have to call them later to talk to the fraud department to lift the part on my Visa credit card. Oh joy. I guess it’s good in a way, but um… I called you two days ago and told you I was in Europe and to approve any of those charges!

We aren’t going to be able to get on the first train out so we have to wait until 10:55. Two hours. Could have slept in. Went across the street to the McDonalds where they have free internet. Uploaded a few photos to Flickr but didn’t have time to update the journal.

11:00am: Train is leaving.

12:15pm: The train left a few minutes late and we whisked our way through the countryside to Belgium. (Bau, you’re home country is still here. You we’re right!)

1:00pm: We’re now currently in Germany on our way to Cologne.

1:38pm: Call me naive, but when a German policeman walks up to your seat and says, “May I zee zoor passee port?” it’s kinda funny.

1:41pm: The rest of this entry will be written in German.

1:42pm: Ok, I don’t know German. Guten tag. Hallo. That’s all.

2:50pm: Arrived in Cologne and had about an hour wait before catching the train to Berlin. Just the food in the station looked amazing. I think it might be four days of eating wiener shaped foods.

3:55: Left Cologne, now on our way to Berlin. The guy in front of me is snoring something fierce. I think he’s snoring with a German accent. No really, I swear. Headphones on, lets see… A little Polyphonic Spree – Together We’re Heavy seems like good train music.

4:20pm: Looking out the window or a plane with music blasting has always been great.

4:30pm: Announcement: ???????????? Um, I dunno. It was in German.

4:32pm: Battery power’s at 30% maybe I’ll shut down for a bit. If something exciting happens I’ll fire it back up.

4:33pm: Stopping at Angdenhaanegnheimershvitz or something. Tried it phonetically but the sign was also too long to type in.

4:44: I can already tell I’ll be coming back to Germany someday. The countryside is beautiful although I have no idea where we are. Lots of signs with Bauhaus written of them. Also lots of German flags hanging from windows. World Cup fever.

5:53pm: Nothing interesting for the last hour. Stout German woman hawking “tea or coffee”.

5:56pm: Train soundtrack has been The Polyphonic Spree, The Flaming Lips, The Pogues and Neko Case right now. So many bands with “The” in them these days. It’s gettin’ old.

8:20pm: Arrived in Berlin. Had to figure out how to get from where we were to Alexanderplatz. Easy, two stops away. Got checked in and all is good.

Yes another Eiffel Tower photo. Hopped the double decker open topped tour bus today to just travel around city and get the commentary. All good and it was nice and warm when the sun would come out. In fact I kept head bobbing and sleeping as we drove around Paris. Ha! Pretty funny. Hey, who’s that guy up there sleeping on the bus!?

After doing about 3 different lines on the tour, green, yellow, and orange, we finally ended up at the Eiffel Tower and got to go up in it. Got in line and and it was about an hour wait and then rode up to the second floor and waited in another line. While we were waiting in that line the sun was setting and a rainbow came out. Nice. We got on the elevator to the top at about 9:45 and it was beautiful up there. Dark clouds overhead and some lights of the city were just starting to come on. At 10pm the Tower started doing it’s sparkly thing although you don’t really get the full sense of it when you’re on it. Spent another 10 minutes up there until the sparkly lights went out and then headed down. For some reason we missed getting off at the first floor and had I had to ask what we had to do to see the first floor. They put us back on the elevator and we were able to go back up to the first floor so Jill could mail some postcards from the Eiffel Tower. They stamp the postcards with little Eiffel Towers. Didn’t happen though as the post office closed at 7p. Oh well.

After we got off of the Tower we walked down the Champ de Mars to watch the sparkle lights go off at 11pm. Barely made it but it was great to see again from below. I have video. Not sure when that will appear, but there you go. Last night in Paris. Tomorrow is going to be an early departure for Berlin. As we have an all day trip from Paris to Brussels, Belgium, over to Cologne, Germany and then on into Berlin.

The internet connection has been a bit dodgy the last few days. So this is a little late. Long days combined with exhaustion have left little time for writing, but now that we’re on a 9 hour train ride from Paris to Berlin it’s catch up time.

Hopped over this morning to the Catacombs to check out millions of dead people. It’s unbelievable how many people are interred there. Millions. You really have to see the amount of bones to believe itIt’s another thing probably not great for the extremely claustrophobic. They frown on flash photos in there so it was good I brought the uberfast 50mm f1.4. I was able to grab a lot photos with it that would have been impossible otherwise. Of course Jill had a little shadow in the form a security guy down there that took a shine to her and held a flood lamp for her for almost the whole time we were in the catacombs. One of the benefits of being a girl. No dude’s going to be holding a light for me! I knew my photos would look better in natural light anyway. Heh heh. Bring a fast lens though.

After the catacombs was The Orsay! Yea, I love you Orsay! Its collection of Impressionist paintings is remarkable. Got there a little late so I had to rush it a bit, but I did get to see almost everything I wanted to see including the Art Nouveau section with all its furniture pieces. Great great museum.

Waited for Jill outside and then headed over to Champs de Elysee and the Arc de Triomphe. Didn’t go up in the Arc but walked down the Blvd. and looked at the shops. Got tired and headed home a little early. The hour time change from London still hasn’t clicked into my body. Was up until 2:30. It hasn’t been getting dark until almost 10:30 at night so that’s not helping.

Catacombs – Cool! Champs de Elysee – No biggie. Arc de Triomphe – Nice. The Orsay – Rawk!

Today I woke up about 10:30 from a dead sleep and just layed in bed for another 45 minutes. Guess I was tired! After that I took a shower and got ready to go sight seeing. Just going to relax today. Saw a note from Jill that she had gotten up and went to the Louvre. That was good, will meet up with her at 6:00pm at the I.M. Pei pyramid thingy at the museum.

There’s a gallery in Paris that I absolutely loved called Gallery Breheret. I came across it on my first visit to Paris and loved almost every artist they represented. They obviously have exceedingly good taste! Heh heh. That was going to be my first stop for the day. There’s an artist there named Russo who has fantastic technique and also an artist I’ve never seen before call Francois Deberdt. He’s a bit like Chagall who I also love. Damnit, yeah I bought the little painting. I had to call my bank though because the charge wouldn’t go through because they didn’t know I was in Europe and it was deemed suspicious. It was of course more than then normal cash withdrawal so of course it was good it was flagged by them. Better safe than sorry. Had it shipped home via FedEx. Great gallery and it was fun to talk the 3 really sweet older gentlemen that worked there. One would say “oh let me give you the Russo catalog from the show last year” and then the one who didn’t speak english would mumble in french in what would seem to be in agreement. Everything the one guy would say in english the french speaking fellow would nod with oui, oui, oui… and then say a short sentence. It was pretty funny and kinda cute.

Hung out a bit after that and then headed over to the Louvre at about 5:45. Jill came out then we walked down to Notre Dame and I picked up a Nutella crepe. I love you crepe. After a quick peak around at Notre Dame there were some rollerbladers performing some acrobatic tricks on one of the bridges. Kinda hung out watched them for a bit while the sun went behind the buildings. It’s pretty hot out today.

Jill notes that she ran in to Uma Thurman and her kids while at the Louvre and got asked out twice. She’s been looking for a rugged European boyfriend but apparently they didn’t fit the Clive Owen mold.

The highlight of the day was the trip to the Eiffel Tower. Got there a little bit before darkness and then as the sun went down the Eiffel Tower lit up with it’s sparkly lights. They installed all these bright sparkly lights on it now and every hour they go off like a giant Christmas tree. As if the Eiffel Tower isn’t beautiful enough. It’s like having a crush on girl and then she comes out in a slinky black dress. Way to go France! I love you sparkly Tower.

Mellow day besides that.

After getting from Gare du Nord to the hotel in Montmartre I think it was a good choice. The area is fantastic! Sacr?ɬ© Coeur is literally maybe a 100 yards away with beautiful views of the city. I love Paris soooooo much. So much so it’s already crossed my mind of calling all the rest of the hotels and just staying right here for the next week and a half. Ate at the the terrace area and then walked down to the funicular and towards the steps of Sacr?ɬ© Coeur. On the steps was a crowd of maybe a 100 people singing along with a few musicians. Listened to a few numbers and then at about 1:30am shuffled back to the hotel. Le sigh, Paris. Bon soir.

Today’s a travel day so it should be mellow. Checked out of the hotel at noon after sitting in a Starbucks this morning. I was going to try and get to the Tate Modern this morning but decided to not rush through it this time. I’ll just have to come back. I loved the Tate Britain but the Modern wasn’t open when I was doing museum stuff before. Anyway, checked out and made our way over to Waterloo Station and then spent the last few pounds on travel snacks and magazines. (Until later I found a 20 pound note hitching a ride in my passport. Doh!) Eurostar check in was easy and got our seats on the train without a problem but the seats have a panel blocking most of the view out the window. Ha! Thanks! The train is pretty full but it is Friday so I suspect a lot of are people heading for Paris for the weekend. Train full on Friday = people going somewhere. Anytime you need someone to point out the obvious, I’m your man. Which reminds me I need to pay my yearly Mensa fee next month. Kidding.

Random thoughts: Right now we’re between London and the coast and judging by the cars on the highway beside us were cruising along at about 100 mph. Soundtrack for this trip so far has been Calexico, Gomez, Goldfrapp, Eliza Gilkyson, & George Harrison. Guess I’m kinda stuck in the G & H section on my iPod. After going out to Bath yesterday I’ve decided the next time in England I’ll skip through London and road trip around the country. Friend Barbara is moving to Salamanca so when I go visit her in Spain I think I’ll do it then. Also internet friends [Travelgrotto.com] (Bonjour guys!) have a trip to Antarctica planned in January that I’m looking into going. It’s of course on the expensive side of the travel curve but what a great adventure. I have an old car I could sell that is doing nothing but collecting street cleaning parking tickets once a week AND on my insurance policy. Poor little red car, she’s been so good to me and has to sit under that tree getting sap and bird poop on her. She deserves a better life.

1:40: The train’s moving. We’re off.
2:00: Train moving slow. Houses going by. Beautiful Day.
3:00: I had my headphones on but the train just stopped at a station and Jill said they announced they’re having a problem with one of the cars. I told her she might be the problem and to get off to see if that fixed it. She said “Smartass.”
3:15: Guess we have to change trains because ours is broken.
3:26: All on the new train but the cafe car isn’t stocked. Nothing to drink or eat.
4:36: We just entered the channel tunnel and I had to update the clock to Paris time. From here on out the journal will be in french.
4:37: Ok, I don’t know how to speak french so that didn’t work out.
4:54: Announcement: “Arrive in Lille at 5:20 and then Paris at 6:20”.
4:57: Just left the tunnel. We’re in France. Bonjour. A Nutella Crepe is a mere hour and half away. I love you crepe that I’m about to eat.
5:00: I have to pee.
5:04: Dude, we’re hauling ass now! High speed trains kick ass. Ooooo… 5:04pm. Time the earthquake hit San Francisco in 1989. Anytime I see 5:04 I think about it.
5:17: Awwww… a little french church just went by.
5:18: The U.S. is out of the World Cup. The World Cup trophy looks like the “War of the Worlds” movie poster. Google them.
5:19: We’re slowing down. Must be Lille. That’s a nice name.
5:25: Stopped. Now moving again, bye Lille. Nice seeing you.
5:35: Have to pee.
5:40: Went to dining car to look out the window. Shot some video. Romantic couple in the corner are making out. Can see them in the reflection of the video.
6:04: Slowing down, probably coming into Paris.
6:07: Back to full speed. Maybe the driver was sight seeing.
6:08: Train went by on other track. Combined impact speed about 360 miles a hour. Just sayin’.
6:13: Kinda bored. Nothing but really blurry green trees flying by the windows. Like in Willy Wonka where he takes them on the boat on that crazy river.
6:19: Just remembered I watched King Kong on the plane 3 times in a row. That was dreadful but it made 9 hours go by.
6:22: We were supposed to arrive in Paris by now. Still at full speed. Maybe the train’s broken and we’re going to crash into Gare du Nord.
6:24: Announcement: “Very sorry for the delay we are offering you a free one way ticket redeemable on your next trip with us”. SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!! You’re kidding me?! Awesome! How weird. Guess I’m coming back!
6:26: Train is really slowing down now.
6:29: PASSING HOUSES NOW. Oooops caps lock was on. Who cares! Free ticket!
6:32: Announcement: “Welcome to Paris. We are at Gare du Nord… thank you blah blah blah…. Apologies all around…”
6:33: We’re here! Paris!

After the Stonehenge moment we stopped in a little village and had a little lunch at a little pub called The Little George Inn. Nice quiet little town with a little picturesque countryside to go along with it. It was cute in a little way. Left there after 45 minutes and finally arrived in Bath at about 3:30pm. It’s a beautiful town. I walked around the city for about an hour and a half to take in some sights. I wandered down by the river Avon, which is apparently redundant as Avon means river. Walked along the side of it and checked out some swans that were just floating by looking for handouts. Also meandered through some shops that are built on the bridge there. The Pulteney bridge is one of those few bridges that had houses built on it, but I think all are shops now. This and the other two in Italy I think are the only ones. Had we had more time I would have just laid down on the grass by the river and taken a nap. It’s all so tranquil. I met back up with Jill at 5:15 and we went into the Roman Baths and did a quick little tour of the place. Pretty interesting that they only discovered the baths in the 1800s because someone’s basement kept flooding. I really liked Bath, although a shower will do me quite fine right now. You were waiting for the corny bath joke weren’t you?

It took about 2.5 hours to get back to London and we headed straight to Soho for dinner at Nando’s. Yes, again. I practically drink their hot sauce it’s so good. And thus is the last night in London.

“If we build it they will come”. -The Druids

This morning headed out early to hit Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath. A trifecta of tourism. It was way early and I’m bleary eyed right now writing this at midnight. I’ll skip most of Windsor Castle as it was a bit of a bore really. I think I’ve hit my castle quota for my lifetime. The Queen was there though. Doing Queenly stuff I suppose. Not being into the royalty thing much I still think it would be fun to sit down with her and chat, go to the movies, or you know, bake some brownies with her or something. This week are the Ascot Races so she’s entertaining people so who knows maybe I’ll get the call. In the hotel room in one of the drawers someone scratched, “God Shave the Queen!” Indeed, God Shave the Queen!

After Windsor we left for Stonehenge and it didn’t disappoint. It rocks! No wait, it is rocks! Rad! I love rocks! Rawk! I still cannot separate Stonehenge from Spinal Tap though, or even Hawkwind for that matter. The best was that it’s the Summer Solstice so there are actual modern day Druids out there worshipping!!! OMG! What? Shut up! The day we go there are actual druids in the center of the stones? I’ve died and gone to earth, wind and fire heaven! The druids are coming! The druids are coming! It was just too exciting! Ha ha ha ha!! I mean, who knew there were still people doing druidy stuff? I’ve got to tell Greg, he’ll be so jealous. Where do druid covens meet? The pub? And some even had dreadlocks! It was funny but one tour guide was all respectful saying “…they do their worshipping here during the summer solstice, blah blah blah…” Another tour guide was all, “yeah a bunch of hippies out there runnin’ around”. Ha ha! Guess it’s where you’re coming from on how you perceive them.

They were all decked out in flowing white robes and placing a wreath like thing on each others head and being very quiet. There was a guy in gold and their little frocks would occasionally billow up like Marilyn Monroe and expose their jeans and sneakers! One was barefoot, she had it right in my mind. They know who built it, they also know how they built it, but they don’t know why they built it. Then of course they provide all these explanations about the sun and the moon and all I could think was those theories seem so complicated. I’m thinkin’ mixed media sculpture installation by the local druid artist of the time.

So inspired by Stonehenge, I created my own masterpiece… Behold Fudgehenge! Come all you Druids in flowing white robes, my house, party, eat the Henge! Fudgehenge won’t last as long as Stonehenge so get there early! I also couldn’t do without Snowglobehenge which will now sit proudly next to my monitor at work. It was all about Stonehenge today.

Oh yeah, and it was nice of them to build it so close to the highway. I mean, that’s some pretty forward thinking Druids.

OMG! GOGOL BORDELLO JUST RULED THE DAY! They were so awesome! I loved every minute they were on stage! All I could think of is there’s no way I would want to follow that band. And everyone paled in comparison. Dirty Pretty Things, meh. The Raconteurs, meh. Belle & Sebastian, meh. The Strokes, sorta meh. GOGOL BORDELLO… AWESOME! I’m so on board with them.

After the Bodies exhibit we headed straight over to Hyde Park for O2 and had to wait in this huge line to pick up the tickets at will call. Why? Because Ticketmaster sucks! ARGH! Even over here that company blows! Two little windows open for this massive line going down the street! Um, boneheads, you know how many tickets are will call, maybe you need to staff up at these shows?! I swear, when we have passenger flights to the moon I’ll still have to go through Ticketmaster, pay its “convenience” charge AND wait in a line at will call. So thanks to that little snafu we missed the first band “The Like” who’ve I’ve been wanting to see around L.A.

Anyway, enough of the ugliness. We went in and Gogol Bordello came right on and was great. Then we walked around the grounds a bit. This place was huge, lots of food places, drinks, carnival rides, little tent stores, etc. There were 3 or 4 other stages and we saw some guy get dragged out of one of them by security, hog tied him and took him off. That was nice and clean, later dude.

It clouded over and it started getting pretty cold. Mainly because of the wind… Ok mainly because I’m a wimp, but the wind really was kicking up. And not the friendly kinda wind. Teeth chattering wind. Jill got some hot chocolate I got some water and a grilled ham and cheese sandwich which was pretty good considering it came from a trailer.

After a parade of bands The Strokes came out and were really bad at first but were able to kick it into gear about an hour into the show. The place was going kinda ape shit and we both smell like beer as the amount that was being thrown now equalled the amount people were drinking. All good though, good times. We snuck through the crowd during the encore to catch the Tube before the thousands started filing in.

Great day of dead bodies and drunken bodies.

We’re headed out to Bath and Stonehenge tomorrow. Have to pay a little Spinal Tap tribute to the almighty stones of the druids. Then of course Bath is more important to me because Peter Gabriel has his Real World studios there than anything the Romans have left behind. Long day tomorrow.

Dear Mom,
I went to an exhibit today that you would consider to be a real house of horrors. I found it terribly interesting. It’s called “Bodies: The Exhibition” and basically it’s a bunch of real human bodies dissected into the most insane ways to show muscle groups, tendons, veins, organs, pulmonary inner workings, brain parts, etc. It’s part Art, part Science, and part Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Having a lovely time in London. Love, Your Son.

Got over to the Bodies exhibit this morning and it was freakin’ amazing. I think everyone has the same reaction at some point with the question “where’d he get all these bodies?” Therein lies the controversy. Supposedly it was all legit means, but it’s still begs the question. This show has been making its way around the world and is now in London. I learned more about the human body today than I’ve learned my whole life. Absolutely amazing but not for the squeamish.

It’s at Earl’s Court right now, and running concurrently this week is a nurse’s convention. Coincidence? I can’t imagine not. I was hungry afterwards for some sick reason.

Things I learned today; Beefeaters really did eat beef, police “Bobbies” got their name from police chief “Robert”, I was just thinking fortunately the guy’s name wasn’t Richard, Guy Fawkes real name was Guido Fawkes, Henry the VIII was pretty much an idiot, the night England is playing in a World Cup Match is a really good time to do ANYTHING you want in the city without a line, like walking straight onto the London Eye, that same London Eye is not for the claustrophobic, the Thames still has eels as I saw a bird eating one, I still laugh at the unfortunate street named “Cockspur”, I just laughed having to write that, I’m still occasional juvenile, pound for pound Harrod’s hires the most insanely beautiful women, I kind of miss all the dirty vermin pigeon’s at Trafalger Square, The Star of India might be a good place to eat but it certainly doesn’t open at 5pm, Tootsie’s down the same street on Old Brompton Rd. does, if your boat needs the Tower Bridge to open up to go through it’s free of charge but you have to give them 24 hours notice and be there at your scheduled time, architecture students aren’t necessarily good at creating installation pieces, and being on a time clock that is 8 hours out of whack to the local time you can feel like a rock star by staying up until 4am.

Got up this morning and had breakfast at a little cafe along Regent street that has the most insane looking chocolate cakes in the window. One sugar coma to go please! Yum! After breakfast we walked over to the half price ticket kiosk to see about Spamalot tickets but it had already left a few months ago. Guess we were looking at an old brochure. Damn you concierge! I was all excited once I had gotten that in my head about going! Afterwards we hopped a bus to Westmonster (ooops funny typo) to pick up the boat along the Thames to the Tower of London. It really is a pretty fascinating place even though it’s a 9 on the touristy scale. It’s the equivalent of Alcatraz prison in San Francisco. Been to it before but it’s a nice with all the beheadings and all. I bought a marshmallow stick with a guard on it. Which I ate in front of an actual guard and bit his head off and lined it up for a photo. I was laughing to much to actually get steady a shot of it. Roll over below.

Afterwards we had about an hour to kill so we headed over and wandered through Harrod’s and shopped a bit. No I didn’t buy a Maybach, or a shar pei dog, or $50k watch, but they did have a Krispy Kreme in the food area. Which I also didn’t indulge in. Seriously, Harrod’s hires nothing but beautiful women. I think they might be robots built in a factory. Then down on the 1st floor is the Dodi and Princess Diana tribute or something. Not to make light of the whole thing but… hmmm… yeah I can’t think of anything funny to say. It’s kinda on it’s own plain really.

Spent a few hours there and then made our way a few stops down to the Chelsea area for dinner. Totally screwed up the Tube stop in my head and ended up at Earl’s Court where we saw that the “Bodies” exhibit we had both missed in L.A. was going on. Inquired about tickets for tomorrow and we’re in! So can’t wait as I was bummed I missed it when it was on back home. Bit of serendipity in the plans on that.

After getting my bearings I got us over The Star of India, which was closed!? It’s 5pm!? Completely dark inside and no sign of opening soon. Oh well, just walked into a place on Brompton called Tootsie’s. Had some chicken. Oh, and a milkshake. Which nobody outside the States gets right. Ah, the lowly sublime milkshake that is apparently hard to make.

Then off to The London Eye where there was no line whatsoever! Basically a giant Ferris Wheel with Hamster Balls attached to it. Good views!

Jill headed back to the hotel and I took of for what was described as “…part of the London Architecture Biennale, students from the Architectural Association imagine the Scoop as as an extension of the river, strengthening its watery associations with a horizontal floating screen upon which films speculating on river and the theme of change, are projected.” Artistic descriptions crack me me up. I want to walk into a gallery some day and see an artists’ statement that reads, “Dude, I just make things I think are cool. Please buy one if you like it too.” It was nice though with all these tibetan prayer flag type things and this jazz trio that was stuck up about 25 feet in the air. They were a jazz trio but I swear they were more influenced by “Shine on you Crazy Diamond” and “Dark Side of the Moon” than anything else. Then I walked home and everybody was pouring out of the pubs after England had tied their match in the Word Cup.

Played tourist today and just traveled around the city taking in some sights. Hopped on and off the bus until lunch when we hit Nando’s in Soho. Love Nando’s! We used to go to the one in Wellington New Zealand all the time so it was a tasty treat of some spicy Peri-Peri chicken sandwiches! Yum! I sat out front the Apple store this morning to pick up some free wireless and a line was forming a whole half an hour before they opened.

I’m still kinda tired from the flight so I was yawning on and off all day. Almost adjusted, should be good by tomorrow. We’ve got another day of sights tomorrow, but on Wednesday the O2 Wireless Festival is happening in Hyde Park. Gogol Bordello, The Raconteurs, The Like and The Strokes are all playing so it should be excellent. Tickets are at will call and we drove by the site today and it looked like it’s going to be pretty cool. More rawk!! I so don’t miss work. (Sorry guys!) Gotta check in with some of the visual effects houses here in London on Friday… ya know just to see what they might have coming up to work on. Shhhhh…

Aw yeah… Rock Rock ’til you drop! Ha ha ha! A couple of years ago I bought some tickets to a show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London and ever since I get these emails every week about shows in London. I really need to unsubscribe but it’s kinda fun to see who’s going through town. Anyway, I got one awhile ago saying Def Leppard and Cheap Trick were going to be playing on the day I arrive in London. I thought that would be a pretty funny rockin’ show from the 70’s and 80’s.

The problem was I wssn’t sure how we were going to feel after a crappy night on the plane. We got in at 5pm and everything went smoothly and got to the hotel about 6:45. I was way loopy from lack of sleep and food, but otherwise feeling pretty good. So we bit the bullet and rode over to the Apollo and checked for tickets. There were lots of people selling tickets and even one guy in the lobby! Total no-no in the States, not sure here. They all had general admission tickets down below and I wasn’t sure I could handle standing through a show all night. So we went with the tickets at the box office, and damn some seats were available in the front row of the balcony!! They must have been returned because they were amazing!

In we went and Cheap Trick had just gone on with their first song and it was great! The Sheffield boys Def Leppard came out and paraded through the hits and all was good even though my head was nodding occasionally. We left just before the encores because of exhaustion and hunger and headed back into the center and grabbed some midnight dinner and then passed out.

The last time I saw Def Leppard was 1983 opening for Billy Squier in the pouring rain. I was in the orchestra seating area and I waved to Phil Collen back stage and he waved back! Ha! Then Danette McGregor decided she wanted a better view and climbed on my shoulders and all I saw was the inside of her thighs for about 4 songs.

Interior Day: The hotel I booked had an upgrade to a “family room” so since there is a lack of space in London hotel rooms I upgraded and we checked in and there’s four beds in this place! They tried giving us standard room unlike what I had made reservations for so we questioned it with “Well we have a friend that’s staying with us that’s why we reserved the big room…” Anyway, a behind closed door meeting went on and he came back out and gave up the room! So there ya go, lying can be guilt free. Well, I had reserved it and paid for it so it shouldn’t have been an issue anyway, but we’re here and all’s good. Yep, Rock Rock til you drop, and we did.