Recap...

Constant Reader,

Since NicBunny has been harassing me I figured I'd make another post so she can comment on it.

Last Friday I got to be the tour guide for ze Germans I went out with. Every club we went to was lame. About 10 minutes after getting in the DJ would change the music to some terrible crap. I did manage to play wingman for one of the guys and got him some digits. So I got home around 5am...

After waking up around 9 I was in no mood to drive to Switzerland or anywhere for that matter, so I hung out around my apartment. I downloaded an NES emulator and I finally beat final fantasy 1 which I never made it all the way through before.

Sunday was climbing at my 3rd new gym. Pretty good routes and such. It's interesting since a lot of features are built into the walls in the indoor gyms here. My climbing partner invited me to chill at ze parentals sometime in the Eiffel which has lots of outdoor climbing... now I just need a rope, but there's no way I'm buying one here... stupid Euro.

Monday I put in 9 hours at work without lunch, did some laundry after work and got a back massage at the spa next door to my apartment. Tuesday was 10 hours without lunch, nothing after work. Yesterday was another 9 hours, again no lunch. Although I did get a nice sun burn as I had to do a yard audit out in the sun instead of eating... So I rolled up my pant legs and took off my shirt as I was in and out of the ovens of cars. I got a call from one customer asking when a meeting was and I told him that I wasn't attending and he thought that was bad. 'Do you really want to give mr. P an opportunity to say that there was no support present?' he asks. 'That would be fantastic,' says I. I've been asking for further support for a week now. About half an hour after talking to the Ford guy I get a call from the office... I actually got a comment from ze company that since our customer doesn't pay for anything extra we won't provide it. That was shortly followed by, 'change your priorities and go to the meeting that starts in 10 minutes.' (I was about a 20 minute walk away). As I approached the building I put my shirt back on and kissed any opportunity to eat goodbye. At about 4:30 I was on a different conference call and I said, 'I'm leaving,' hung up the phone and did just that. Ze company doesn't pay me overtime so f them in the a... If they honestly expect me to do the job of 3 people and tell me that since our customer doesn't pay for extra support they won't get it and expect me to put in overtime... wtf? I need to get some of what they're smoking and sell it... That would be worth some serious cash.

Tonight I have no plans much like for the weekend since everyone here is lame. I was invited to a flea market on Sunday... cool! At least next week my US colleague and co-winner of the most unique Halloween costume at the 07 Julien family Halloween bash will be here. At least it won't be awkward playing tour guide to a foreigner. I was tempted to give her ze German treatment so she can go back and explain to everyone exactly how shitty it is here, but that would be punishing myself too. Overbaugh, change your flight to tomorrow!

I did get my flight confirmation for Labor day so I'm excited for that.

Also, I haven't taken a picture since last Wednesday so there won't be any attached here. Maybe in two weeks after Rome.

What a buy...

I finally remembered to bring my headphones to work. Today has worked out pretty well just chilling at my desk rocking out to good tunes. I started off with Youtube picking off songs I know and picking up a few new ones. I just thought of it, but googled online radio. With a choice between stations from all over the planet I'm sure to find something good. Tonight is Düsseldorf with Joerg and some friends of his... They are all older than I am, but there's still potential for a good time... now all I have to do is find a way to sneak out of here and catch a nap before going out later.

My First...

European sunset. Indeed today I actually saw the sun set... as I was leaving work. So I found a serious issue at work and we broke the news to Ford today. Since it's launch time that means there's a 3:30 meeting to explain the issue. 2 hours to find a corrective solution then a 5:30 meeting to report the results. So we spent those hours coming up with design solutions just to show up at 5:30 and have someone else tell us what 'the solution was.' After that I got to spend the next 3 hours waiting for someone to fabricate the design. So today was the first nice day in a month and I got to spend the total of the daylight hours at the office. I missed out on climbing, the view from my balcony, didn't get to eat dinner until seriously late. So what do I get for finding an issue and coming up with the permanent solution? To go to work early tomorrow... Did anyone acknowledge my work... no. I'm also down another shirt since I tore the one I was wearing today at work. What a miserable week. Is it time to go to Rome yet?

The other side of the river...

*note: the cell phone tower on the left marks where I live. The church in the foreground is about half a mile in front of the Dom.

So work has been really rough this week. With having to do all my laundry afterwards I haven't had that much time to relax. I of course went down my list of contacts and tried with some people from work, but apparently there's something fundamentally wrong with me because I had no takers on going out for dinner. Not wanting to spend the night in my apartment I decided to hop on the subway and wander around Köln for a while. I've got the whole subway thing and the city pretty down pat now. I stopped off at the media markt where I picked up some headphones so I can rock out at work and another SD card for Rome. Surprisingly I got a 2 GB card for €11 which is actually about even with what I could get one for in the US. It's a Panasonic, not a Scandisk which I prefer, but I couldn't beat the €11 price tag. With less than 500 pictures possible left on my current card I knew I would need a new one.

After shopping I decided to go on walkabout. I found the rothaus (city hall) which was a pretty interesting looking building and yet another cool church. After that I decided to cross the Rhine and see what adventures awaited me on the other side of the river. There really wasn't anything of note other than what I found at the base of the train bridge. That's right, buildering with a top rope set up. I tried climbing a short distance up, but my sambas don't make the best climbing shoe on the smooth rock surface. Now all I have to do is convince Kai to buy some top rope gear and I'll have a free place to climb ;-). Upon returning from the other side of the bridge I of course stopped off inside the Dom since it's so incredible. I was treated to the sight of mass being held. It was cool as the minister was singing and they were burning incense. Imagine being back in the day before airplanes etc. and going to the Dom. That would definitely put the fear of god into someone. Especially since the Dom is still one of the tallest buildings in the city.

Being late it was time to stop for dinner. I've been craving a good steak since I got here and in all this time I never found a decent one. I did stop off at a Farmer's steak house though. This is what a European €20 filet mignon looks like ($32). Needless to say I had to stop for a snack and then again for some more food when I got back to my apartment. Once again the service was terrible as I had 3 other parties sit down after me and get served before me. The waitress had the most awful European angry face on too. I definitely appreciate the checks and balance system of tipping in the US. Also, quoting the, 'I don't tip,' monologue from Reservoir Dogs really loses it's meaning here. Although it would have been nice to get a little something extra with my €20 steak... haha... So I'm thinking that the tiny portions are the cause for all the thin people here. It's like Mexico only 4 times the price...

Rome!!!

That's right ladies and gentlemen... Livonia Brown is going to Rome. This plan was over a week in the making since my colleague from the US informed me that I would be the tour guide for a two week stay. Including a weekend I said pick a country, not Germany, and we'll go. So with much angst over waiting until today to get the confirmation that all is well with the arrangements, I booked the flight. In the end it costs about €50 more since we waited a week, but whatever I'm going to Rome. After submitting the information Germanwings said there was an error and that payment was pending. If denied it would immediately cancel my booking... but a few minutes later I got the email confirmation that a rock star weekend was in my future... tonight I go to pick up my passport and I even found my shoes this morning at the office...

Woah!

So I'm doing laundry and surfing on the web for flights. I found a link where I can book a blind trip to a beach area for €100. You don't find out where you're going until you book the flight, but here's the list of destinations:
Antalya, Bordeaux, Corfu, Corsica (Bastia), Crete (Heraklion), Faro, Ibiza, Izmir, Lamezia Terme (Calabria), Malta, Mykonos, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Pula (Istria), Rhodes, Split, Thessaloniki, Zadar

All of them sound so foreign I don't think I can go wrong...

That or I can pick a cultural destination as seen below for €40:
Barcelona, Bologna, Budapest, Dresden, Istanbul, Leipzig, Lisbon, Prague, Rome, Verona, Vienna

I think I figured out how I'm going to book 2 weekend trips... sweet!

Oh and it took 2 hours to wash 1 load... yes, wash not wash and dry. To get the second load started I had to hit the washing machine. This was of course after running through the list of names in my handy without a single person picking up to help translate the washing machine for me. Fortunately dumb luck saved the day and I hit the right combination of knobs and buttons as I found out 45 minutes later when someone returned my call...

Reason achtzen I hate this country...

I saw my passport today... it was within my grasp... all I had to do was take it and run! But no such luck. I was told to go to Heiligenhaus this afternoon to pick up my passport. Since the person I needed to go with was leaving at 3pm she wanted me to meet her at 2. So I miss lunch as I was working today and sprint through the rain to my Smart, which was good since it was the 1 time today I was kind of warm. Drove the 40 minutes to Heiligenhaus, pick up my colleague and drive over to city hall. As we're pulling out our umbrellas to make the frigid walk inside she asks if I have my temporary form. Of course I don't and I didn't bother grabbing it since I was told to show up and pick up my passport... so we went inside where I got to see my passport and get turned away without it since I didn't have the proper forms. Then my colleague felt the need to tell me, "that's soo German." "I know," said I, "and I can't wait to go home." Now that the launch has begun I can't really leave for Heiligenhaus and don't know when my next chance to pick it up will be. However, they of course offered Saturday as an option... haha... My other option was to go back today before 6pm, which I may have been able to do, except for when driving back to Köln I look at the autobahn going the other way and see a 20+ car accident in a construction zone! Needless to say I have to pick another day.

When we got back to the office I figured it would be a good time to collect my allowance. So the guy who signed off on the last two forms for it decided he didn't believe I get any allowance. We called a few people as all the players are on Holiday for the next week or more and got a hold of no one (What a shocker). Eventually we got in touch with the cash desk lady who explained that it was indeed the same guy who signed my last two forms. We went back to him, explained the situation and he signed off right away.

Did I mention my shoes are missing? Yeah, I have to wear 'safety boots' in the plant and so changed into them at the office. When I was hurrying to make it to Heiligenhaus I looked all over and guess what? No shoes! So God still cares a little bit more about me than Al Bundy since my favorite European song came on the radio when I was getting really pissed off thinking about all the crap that is Germany. Are they playing 'The Anthem,' by Pit Bull in the US? OK, time to try and find a laundromat... I have 4 days of clean clothes left, and they're not even that clean... but they do smell better than the average European....

Random image of the day... from the top of the Köln Dom tower...

Name Contest...

We have joint winners for my new travelling name contest. Antonio and Nic Bunny are awarded 2 and 1 entry respectively into the end of the trip grand prize drawing. To commemorate this occasion Antonio has designed a poster for us.

For any photoshopping needs please contact me and I can get you in touch with Antonio, where his skills are top notch and his fee is reasonable....

Rainbows and lollipops...

Maybe not lollipops, but there was a rainbow. Being sonntag there aren't really any places open for food. Since I'd already had a dönner in the last 24 hours I decided to walk over to Burger King for dinner. I got outside of my apartment when the arctic summer wind picked up and numbed my hands. Since my apartment is on the top floor I decided to pass on going back up for my jacket, stupid. I also neglected to bring my umbrella, but it hadn't rained in like an hour so I figured it would be safe, even dumber. I got to Burger King and died a little inside when I paid €5.41 for a whopper meal mit käse... that's more than $8.50 for those not aware of how well George Bush and the corporations are running the US. When I tried to pronounce käse the cashier laughed and asked if I spoke English. So we got my order figured out. The good news is that I now know how to pronounce cheese in German. Since I sat down to eat, it of course started raining, but finished when I did. It's kind of cool that in European Burger Kings and McDonalds you just leave your tray on the table and someone else cleans up after you. I made it all the way across the street upon exiting before it started pouring. So I ducked into a gas station to get some dessert and wait out the storm. As an evil joke, the sun was shining while it was pouring, so the gas station owner busted out his video camera and recorded the phenomenon. Pretty miserable dinner, but I was treated to a spectacular rainbow on my walk home. I passed by a young couple walking in the opposite direction. Enjoying the sight I felt they would also be very appreciative of it. Not knowing how to say sky, look, rainbow, or really anything useful I simply pointed at the sky as we crossed paths. Of course they gave me a stupid/dirty look. I smiled pointed again as I passed by and eventually they figured it out. So that felt pretty good. The rainbow was gone by the time I got home and up on my balcony, but they are fickle things... So here's to getting my passport back tomorrow (everyone cross your fingers) so I can book my flight to a warmer climate (Rome!!!) and better adventures than this weekend.

Das Wochenende

Despite the fact that no one answered my calls or called me back I headed to Dortmund for the Love Parade. Joerg said that the freeway would be packed and there would be no parking, but luckily I got into town no problem. I found the spot, then drove 2 U bahn stations down and parked for free. After which I just followed the funnily dressed people to the station and got off where they did.

This put me right at the beginning of the parade. Since hanging out with Vlad I've developed a taste for electronic music and this was the place. Picture the DEMF. Now imagine that it is on every drug known to man, on wheels, smells terrible, and you'll have the Love parade. There were these kids on the U bahn that I was standing next too that were spraying axe cologne on and it didn't really help... regardless you get the picture. I wandered through the masses stopping off and following good tunes when necessary until I chose a spot right near a turnaround in the parade. I got a prime spot standing on top of a guard rail and danced while snapping photos. It's not nearly as impressive as from the fanmeile, but it was a long parade route and there was supposed to be about a million people there. I hung out for a few hours until the parade was driven to a grinding halt, seen here:

Much like every day here, there was a torrential down pour and all the monkeys ran to hide under the bridge effectively halting the parade. Although this definitely didn't dampen the spirits of ze Germans... see the attached video for a rousing rendition of Seven Nation Army. I of course had my umbrella and hunkered down for a while. Unfortunately the rain was so bad that my feet got completely soaked and my right shoe was full of water. Being cold and damp my foot started hurting so I called it quits and began my exodus back to the car. I got back to the U bahn station no problem, except by the time I got to the front of the line the cops had shut it down.... lovely. Once again I followed the masses not really knowing where my car was or how to get there. I pulled out my navi and couldn't get a signal so I kept walking. I ended up at a tram station and checked the map, but the tram didn't go to where I needed to be, nor was I sure of what direction was which. When I come home I'm buying a watch that has a built in compass. I bailed on the tram station and just picked a side road to walk down. Eventually my navi kicked in as the sun came out even though it was still raining. I took a shortcut through a park and the navi died again. After 20 minutes or so of wandering I found a road that looked kind of familiar and figured out where my car was.


Kai (my climbing partner) said that we would go out in Köln at night, but low and behold when I got the call everyone was staying home. Tired and damp I did much the same, watching some Married with Children. Today I went with Kai for some flea market fun where I tried to get Tony a sweet Russian pocket watch, but it was €50 and outside of my price range. Now I'm going to try and find some food and maybe wander around downtown for a while before it starts raining. Regardless I'm chalking this up to ein Wochenende wurde verschwendet...


New country count remains at 4... for now. Next weekend is Switzerland

Weak Sauce...

Random image for today's post...

So nobody wants to go to the love parade. I actually got fed up and had to ask who actually goes to the parade. Everyone so far has said it's an awesome party and a good time, but too crazy for them. Although I suppose the novelty is lost when there's open air music festivals all the time here. Actually I'm quite surprised at all the outdoor activities considering it is cold and rainy all summer long. There are people outside right now in sweaters and jackets. I've seen a few scarves too, but not simply for fashion, it's that cold out. Regardless this marks the first weekend of the end of our triad and it's already evident... So I'm going to need a new name a la Alexander Supertramp for the rest of my time here, bonus points to the person that helps me figure it out. (If you don't know what I'm talking about go read "Into the Wild")

No winner...

So this week there was no clear winner for the, "Best comment of the week" contest. As a consolation prize to those that played I have Eiffel tower key chains from Paris (Chris, Antonio, NicBunny). Yes I haggled for a discount so no worries. Chris could have won the contest this week with his comment about the bunnyhole, however insulting UofM, although hilarious, resulted in a penalty negating his potential winning comment.

For those that chose not to play the game, I submit this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V25uWf9ergY&feature=related

Mmm BBQ!

Yesterday I got an email saying I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and submit the bills to my insurance from when I was sick. Sure that's stupid since they said they would cover everything, but the real kick in the teeth was the chain of emails I was privied to with this request. Basically it was a conversation between two people regarding who should pay and insulting me at the same time. Lovely... I don't understand how management doesn't realize that treating your employees with respect will make them the most effective. Shortly thereafter I also got an email from the German upper management about the difference between German and Chinese culture. Know what one of the differences is? Exactly... treat everyone with respect. Everyone wonders why the Chinese are taking over.

Unfortunately I let it get to me and got all pissed off. But it was ok since we had been planning a BBQ at Joerg's house. Joerg's car wouldn't start this morning so he took the day off to fix it and prep for the BBQ. He's a great guy that has been very helpful. He even loaned me Married with Children, which is called, 'One happy family,' in German. However his grill is so interesting I had to take a picture of it.

For the first course pictured below we had 'German' burgers. I put it in quotes because Joerg spent some time in the states where he learned a bit about grilling burgers making them Germarican burgers. After finishing up the burgers which we topped with homemade 'fuego' sauce mmm... we threw some more coal on the grill along with some marinated pork fillets. I did learn an important new lesson regarding marinades. Apparently if you place your meat in a marinade, do it in a plastic bag. Empty all the air and then freeze it. That's right... in freezing it everything contracts and you get much better flavor out of your marinade. We ate the delicious pork with some Turkish bread and a garlic mayonnaise... I still refuse to eat Freedom Fries with mayonnaise!

30 minutes later it was time for the final course. I decided to make the second round of burgers since I didn't get a chance to help with the first round and Joerg even made a comment about me being the burgermeister... haha... I wanted to use the leftover fuego sauce inside the meat, but Joerg insisted it would ruin the hamburger since it would burn and have no flavor. I finally convinced him I knew what I was doing and got some BBQ sauce in there, made some patties with additional seasoning, and got them on the grill. The only complaint was that the burgers were too thick, but perfectly cooked and tasty, with a nice hint of BBQ sauce. So I got to teach ze German's a little bit about the proper preparation of an American burger. All in all it was an excellent night of good food, good company, and good tunes. We rocked out to a generous mix of AC/DC, GNR, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, some pop, some country, and some German music.

I got a good country CD for you Ryan. It's a band from the Netherlands that covers some random classics, but does it with a country beat. Look up: 'Boss Hoss'

After thoughts...

Looking back on the trip, I would definitely go back to hang out in the Louvre and spend more time observing the sculptures and Grecian/Egyptian works. Although I did touch one of the Egyptian pieces which was cool. I think we missed the Asian works and it would have been cool to see if there was some samurai armor or something of note. I would also have liked to see the catacombs and the crypts at Sacre Coeur. Only having 1 day to spend in a city seems not to be enough, but at the same time I think we hit the most important sights on each of our adventures.

Has anyone else noticed how bad Parisian's smell? Not all of them, but a good portion would pass by and it would be like walking by the sewers in the city. I heard that Americans take the most showers in the world on average and I think it works well. Speaking of which, surprisingly about a quarter of the people at the club were Americans.

I corrected the pictures in the post from the Louvre so all of them are now viewable in a larger format.

For NicBunny... (2)

La Louvre

Here's 10 of the best shots out of about 300 pictures. Unfortunately I don't know what most of the stuff is except for the obvious. Ie. the mona lisa, and the venus di milo. Regardless I know I prefer the sculptures and Egyptian work compared to the paintings. I spent 2 hours trying to figure out what a few of these things are and came up with the following. Anyone that's bored and wants to fill in the gaps please do! Without further ado...

Mona Lisa

Venus De Milo


Winged Victory of Samothrace

Hercules beating some hydra ace

My Favorite artist - Salvator Rosa : Battle Heroic

22 season 3

Not 24, but we did manage to be out and about for 22 hours straight. Paris was quite the endurance trial. We started at 9am and got back around 7am on Sunday. Since I missed the Egyptian museum in Berlin I made our first stop la louvre. On the way there we stopped for some breakfast of pastries and baguettes. Once again it was cold and rainy, but luckily I didn't have to waste more money on another jacket. Since we hit the biggest thing in Paris first we figured we would hit the biggest thing in the louvre first, the Mona Lisa. Whenever I had seen pictures of it I suppose I really missed out on the scale. When I got there I was quite disappointed since this portrait is kind of small. But it is cool that regardless of where you stand she's looking at you. On the way to it we passed many priceless paintings, sculptures etc.. In retrospect I feel really bad that I did not have the time to properly appreciate these works of art. But for anyone who has not been to the Louvre I could not even pass by all of the works in under 3 hours let alone look at them all. That and it's addicting as we found out. When our legs began to ache we said, 'time to go.' But then we passed by something really sweet and then something else... In the end we managed to see all of the main sights listed in the pamphlet. I will put pictures of the best in a separate post. After snapping about 300 pictures of the most interesting things at the louvre my battery started dying on my camera and I did not have a charger. So unfortunately all sights post the Louvre are not properly documented.

After leaving the louvre we headed up the Champs-Elysees which is has the most expensive stores etc... on the way to the arc de Triomphe. We stopped off for a snack and to do some people watching. As anyone has heard the wait staff in Paris is terrible, even worse than Holland or Germany. We had to argue about where we were sitting in order to eat and had to change tables twice since we wanted to be on the street. After dropping €30 apiece it was time to head somewhere else to eat again since I was still starving. We hit the arc de triumph for a few then on the way to Notre Dame I stopped for a snack. Notre Dame was pretty cool, but was closed by the time we got there.
Closed...
After Notre Dame we hopped on the subway to get to the Sacre Coeur which was awesome. It's a cool old church that sits on top of a hill and overlooks the city. You couldn't take pictures inside, but there were two awesome gilded silver statues of saints as well as plenty of stained glass, paintings, mosaics, etc... The only problem was that it was getting on hour 13 and you had to climb the stairs up the hill. Everyone was pretty beat at this point and I'm not going to lie but all I wanted to do was lay in bed for a week. But the view was the best in Paris, even better than from the Eiffel tower.


We hopped back on the train and headed back to the hotel. Vlad wanted to go out, Lorik and I were leaning towards sleeping and maybe seeing some other things on Sunday. We got back to the hotel around 11 and decided that since we hit all the major sights it would be fun to go out... and you're only in Paris so often. So I changed my shirt and shoes and we headed out to La Loco one of the top 5 clubs in Paris. Low and behold when we popped out of the subway for the club what do we find? Moulin Rouge, right next door to our destination. It was of course closed and we couldn't get tickets to Lido so no cabaret in Paris for us, but Loco was sweet nonetheless. Inside I saw some of the craziest dancers ever since it was an electronic club. Although my favorite song was the electronic version of teen spirit...

We left around 5 am grabbed some snacks where Vlad had to wait the longest for his crepes in a definite discrimination case. So we got back to the hotel around 7am for a short nap. After getting up it was off for more terrible service where an empty restaurant wouldn't let Vlad and I have our own tiny tables so we could both watch passersby across from the train station. Although after placing our order to the tune of about €50 I got my own table and the server was much nicer. We ate, then barely caught our train home. It was my first time on an ICE and it was pretty cool. At least until we got into Germany where it slowed down significantly. So this was another max extreme weekend full of sights, sounds, and the Parisian equivalent of red bull ;-)

Livonia Brown and the Blue Tour

Friday after everyone finished up work we convened at the Köln Hauptbahnhoff for our final adventure as a triad. Indeed Lorik was left behind in Paris and Vlad is going home this weekend leaving yours truly to explore Europe alone.

Since Lorik was staying in Paris he drove us there. Our first stop was for some food. As soon as we got our food the heavens opened up and we got to watch a rainstorm stronger than anything I've seen since the blackout back in the day. Once it lightened up a bit we ran out to the car and headed to the next stop, Charles de Gaulle airport. Lorik had to return his rental car. While Vlad and I calculated the speed of the moving walkway and the net times savings of using it Lorik found out that since he was 6 days late on returning the car he couldn't turn it in and had to come back on Saturday. Also, 'It's not possible, we don't make reservations for more than a month' . Lorik had the car for 2.5 months on contract from the Hertz manager. Finally, something about the police was said and after driving the car away we figured out that it was probably reported stolen since it wasn't returned on time.

We decided to do a drive by of the Eiffle tower since it was about 11pm. After the 7 lane roundabout around the Arc de Triomphe with Vlad singing the 3 ring circus tune we found a parking spot. A free one at that too, about 1km from the tower. So our early evening with a drive by of the tower turned into a couple hours of awesomeness. The 3rd floor (top) of the tower was closed so we had to settle on the second floor which is still ridiculously high off the ground and pretty windy too. The people look like ants... hah... So we watched the sparkle and got some cool footage of it too. Note the image of the batman Eiffle signal. After they shut down the tower we wandered back to the car to begin the search for our hotel. Finally we called it a night around 2am to prep for a big day on Saturday.
Note the Arc de Triomphe as seen from the Eiffle tower.

We've got a winner!!! (1)

Special shout out to Antonio for winning this weeks: "Best comment of the week." This weeks winning comment comes from, "Aachen"

"Hah! I replied to a post before NicBunny. Anyway, this seems like a good opportunity for you to raid all that stuff in a Indiana Jones style way, completely starting a knockoff movie franchise. We shall call the first movie: "Livonia Brown and The Femur of Charlemagne". "

Juice by Tony, Juice by Tony, ohh Tony's got Juice!!!

Tony will be entered in our end of the trip raffle. The grand prize winner will be awarded a swanky souvenir from Europe. So comment often and you could have your chance at a fabulous prize. Be excited, be, be excited...

Aachen

Last night it was raining for at least the 5th day in a row. Not having anything in particular planned I was looking through my German sightseeing book that was a great gift. I found a town called Aachen was a must see. What would the most interesting sight be? The Aachen Dom of course. Now for those of you who had never heard of Aachen before it is the city where Charlemagne, crowned the Franconian emporer in Rome ab. 800, kept his throne.
Back in the day people apparently had lots of money to toss around and made ridiculously large and awesome silver and gold sculptures and objects. In the glass case and hanging from the ceiling are two examples of gilded silver donations to the church. Note the fantastic stained glass windows in the background. Although this dom is not as large and grandiose as the Kölner Dom, this really wasn't the main attraction in Aachen.
Being an emporer of a major portion of Europe was a big deal. Charlemagne nearly doubled the size of the Franconian empire while on the throne. So obviously he was given many gifts by other leaders and countries to keep him happy and off the war path. This made the Aachen treasury one of the most interesting and rich treasuries outside of Egypt, and the Saudis. There were so many different awesome relics in the museum. I saw Charlemagne's sarcophagus he got from Rome (dating back to the second century) made of marble and intricately sculpted. So this was his resting place for about 400 years until he was canonized around 1165. So many, many years after his death, kings were still donating things to him. One of the oddities and cool things though is that after canonization people make Reliquaries to store important objects related to that person. What could be important you ask? Check this gift from Charles the IV in 1349...
That's a closeup of the partly gilded silver repousse bust of Charlemagne. This was carried to the city gate every time a new king came to town to be crowned. But I said earlier that these reliquaries stored things right? Well x-rays of the bust show that Charlemagne's cranium is stored in the anatomically correct position inside the bust... Sweet! But that's not the half of it. Below is the Reliquary of Charlemagne. An awesome chapel reliquary (1 of two) but this one actually has a special item that can be seen inside of it... look near the lower third on the right. Yes, that is the femur of Charlemagne.
Last but not least here is a picture that has my reflection in it to prove I was there... haha... it does have a slight reflection but what is of interest is the object. This is the Flabellum Reliquary Disc. In the center is supposed to be a bit of the sponge which Christ was given to drink while hanging on the cross. This was made in the middle of the 14th century probably from the same shop that made the above reliquary.
So a totally awesome and informative evening was had. If anyone gets a chance I highly recommend going to Aachen. It's also interesting that I've gotten comments already that I've been to more places than some of the people who live here.

Why I love climbing...

The weather was terrible as per usual last night. After work I went over to Frank's for some Mario Kart, then home for dinner. I had planned on going to Mensch but my motivation was lacking due to tiredness and the weather. Eventually I decided that I needed to get out more and meet some new people since my travel partners are all leaving. So I went to the gym and met some cool people, got some tips on interesting places to go, and even exchanged numbers for future climbing trips with the person who belayed me. I'm not sure if it is climbers in general or people from Düsseldorf, but they are much nicer than the people from Köln and last night was definitely a worthwhile adventure.
For any climbers: There was this sweet ~10.d/11.a (UIAA 7+) that I flashed. It started in this cave and had a monkey bar section across the roof 15' up. Once you exited the cave there was a sweet heel hook to get out, followed by some mantle/stemming moves for the next 20' or so. Then it was onto a brutal overhang to the finish. Also, at this gym on the overhangs they have quickdraws set up to keep the rope close to the wall and you have to unclip them as you go up. The exceptional news is that I had no foot pain the whole time. Although my partner knew which foot I broke without me having to say.

Priceless!

So it begins...

Lorik: "Vlad, since you're the social activities director, we're placing you in charge of finding a club for Saturday night. I heard Metropolis and La Loco may be OK places."

Vlad: "Hahah Nice!"

Hooray!

A few weeks ago I submitted the receipt for my navigation system with my gas expenses. Of course there was discussion about it not being expensable. As I've really grown to like my Navi I told them not to worry about it and I would be taking it home with me. Why would I want to take a Navi with only the maps for Western Europe? Well, Frank's neighbor can get me the maps for the rest of the world too. In the end though today I picked up my expense monies and the Navi actually got pushed through. I even got a call saying that I had to return it upon leaving AG... no really? Haha... Anyway, now I have an extra €100 for Paris... Sweet...

The misadventures of Lorik and Scott

In order to pass the week more usefully Lorik and I decided to go sight seeing last night. We wanted to go check out some castles since Germany is known for it's picturesque castles. In other travels I had passed a sign for Schloss Burg pretty near to Köln. Lorik looked it up and found that it was a mountain. We weren't sure where exactly to go so I did a search of the area and found a city (Eschweiler) about 30 minutes away that had 7 castles in it. That seemed like a decent concentration so we plugged the city into the navigation system and drove out. Unfortunately there is some mis translation going between English and German. So what we were looking for was a castle or schloss. What we found was a 'castle' or burg.

Strike 1 Castle of Kinzweiler: When we got into town we drove right past where the navigation system told us was the first castle. From my research we were looking for a golf course which is the address we entered. After busting a U-turn we got back to the first place, parked and started walking around. It took a while, since we were looking for a castle, to figure out that we were in the right spot. The place was deserted, but it was about 7:30pm and most places are closed at that time. The navi said that we were at the right spot but all we saw was this giant house. Now the house did have a moat, which was sweet. We wandered up onto the patio and a pair of German teenagers passed us. I tried to stop them and ask where we were, but they ignored my English. Since it really looked like someone lived there I snapped 2 quick photos and we left.

Strike 2 Castle of Eschweiler: We entered another castle into the navi and it took us into the middle of the town... to the hospital. Yes, the second castle listed in the points of interest on the navi was nothing but a couple old busted up towers that weren't even picture worthy. The hospital was built incorporating the towers, which was mildly interesting.

Strike 3 Castle of Röthgen: We decided we would try 1 more place. We pass by it looking for parking and finally park in the parking lot of an auto mechanic. We walk back toward the castle and pass a stable. The stable appears to actually have been part of the castle. This burg also had a small moat and maybe a large wall since the front half was covered in ivy. Once again though, this was not a castle but a burg. One that also seemed like it was a private residence. After getting shot down 3 times and being rained on we finally left for some Arslan's Kebop and a tasty KalbDöner in Köln.

And for grins here is what another 30 minutes of research would have shown...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschweiler
The funniest part was that in the list of interesting things the power plant was included. Indeed without knowing I snapped some shots of the power plant because it was actually interesting. Plus with the rain it seemed like the whole building was smoking.

Also, Schloss Burg is a real castle. From Wikipedia:

"Schloss Burg, located in Burg an der Wupper (Solingen), is the largest reconstructed castle in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and a popular tourist attraction."

Travel Poll

Alright people, I am doing a poll. I want your top 3 European destinations for planning the rest of my time here -

My definite next stops are:
Paris
Luxembourg
Brussels
Prague
Dublin

So either comment or send me an email with your top 3 destinations... Also, if there is something you want a picture of at sed destination let me know.

A little slice of home...

From Bochum:
Chi Chi's? Are there any copyright infringement laws here?

Bochum

After a relaxing evening Friday I decided to go out to Bochum for the free open air music festival. The navi said it would take about an hour to get there and I would of made it in that time too if the autobahn didn't turn into a parking lot for no reason on a Saturday afternoon. Seriously, there wasn't even construction. For some reason, even though all of the roads are the best I have ever driven on there is a lot of construction here. But I suppose that's why all of the roads are in such good condition.

When I finally got to Bochum I parked where I could...
Then I wandered around the city for a while. I found this sweet tower/church and some not so Native Americans.
Some of the music was all right. I saw this crazy polish beat boxer who was hilarious. There were quite a few scary goth people wandering around (imagine Romper Stomper outfits with mohawks), but the eclectic mix of styles in the city was very interesting to view. Eventually when my legs started getting tired I wandered back to my car then went home to do some reading/play video games. My buddy loaned me 'Into the Wild' and I am almost done with it. I haven't decided if I like the movie or book better yet, but I think a road trip across the US would be an excellent idea. Although I am not nearly dumb enough to try and live off the land in Alaska so don't worry. It is interesting though when I consider that every weekend I go someplace different here, but at home I hardly go anywhere...