Andrew and Donna's Road to the World Cup

Video

2006-06-19T08:10:00.000-04:00

This is my first try at video editing so forgive the amateur editing and focus on the content, please

Here is a link to the video:

US Fan Support at US / Italy

Back in Georgia

2006-06-19T01:49:00.000-04:00

Hi there, we are back in the US after some gruesome travel. I posted some blogs we wrote on the plane. Mine is a bit disjointed, sorry. I'll get the pictures up soon.

We're looking forward to seeing everyone and catching up in person.

All the best,
Andrew

Saturday, June 17, 2006 – US Soccer Fan for Life

2006-06-19T01:48:00.000-04:00

Saturday morning began pretty laid back. We had a few trains to catch and needed to find our way to our hotel in Bad Sobernheim, from Hannover. I had pre-booked the tickets, so all we had to do was show up. Oh, did I mention that the biggest game for the

was only 12 hours away? Nice and relaxed; no worries.

We packed up and caught our first train at 9:40 am. We had to switch trains in Frankfurt in order to get to out hotel. We ran into many US fans getting on the train we were disembarking, yelling, “you are going the wrong way!” We were going the wrong way, if we were going to the stadium; that was still to come.

We boarded a train seemingly headed to no where, but we knew that we’d get to no where in about an hour. We met a US fan on the train who was on his way to Kaiserslautern, taking the route we would be following in a few short hours. We chatted it up a bit. We also met a military wife and her 15-month old son. She helped us figure our where we needed to stop to get to our destination. We still missed the stop and had to wait for train back in order to get to our stop. About a half hour after we should have arrived, we got off the train, saw no way to walk to the hotel and caught a taxi. She took us out into the woop woop and dropped us off.

Once there, we were told we missed the shuttle to the game by 10 minutes. So now we were not only locked into a train to the game (actually two trains), but we also were told that another train back wouldn’t be available until 6am the next morning. So we would have to sleep in Kaiserslautern. Seeing as the only reason we got the hotel was for a place to sleep between 1 am and 6 am, we didn’t think that was such a great idea.

Fortune smiled on us on our way though, when we met up with many more US fans on the train ride into Kaiserslautern. One person told us that they extended train rides back all the way until 1:45 am. Great news! Now all we need to worry about was the soccer match.

We watched Ghana beat Czech before our match began against Italy. Both sides were happy to see Ghana win. Us, because it gave three teams a loss, and Italy because they assumed they would beat us and be a lock for the next round.

Again, I won’t go over the game, if you watched it then you might actually know more than we currently do. I’ll let Andrew do a recap for you. I’ll just give my take on the game.

While we were headed to the game I insisted that I married into soccer and it would be wrong to call me a fan. Any person that stood in that stadium amongst 46000 other people pulling for their team to win, walked out that night a fan for life.

The experience was surreal for me. The first 45 minutes was the longest adrenaline rush that I have ever experienced. I used to swim and would always get the huge course of adrenaline running through me right before a race, but that lasted as long as my race lasted. This lasted 45 straight minutes. It almost made me throw-up. The fans were incredible. With two goals and two red cards in the first half alone, no one left the stands until the players were off the field. Of course then it was a mass exodus because no one had peed or gotten food or drinks for about 50 minutes.

Almost everyone was back in time for the second half and everyone was just as pumped up. With a quick red card for the US (for what?) we were down to 9 men. If I had to have 9 men play that game, I couldn’t have dreamed for a better group. They left the hearts on that field. They worked harder than I thought possible and played for the win almost right up to the end. I don’t know how any of them were left standing when the final whistle blew.

As for me, I yelled and cheered and cried and got angry and worried and elated. Cycle those emotions over and over again and you know what my second half was like. I asked Andrew, he said that I was just as into the game as he was. I never thought it would happen. Another thing that I never thought would happen is that I can’t wait to go home and watch it again to see all of the things we missed. Like didn’t Beasley score to put us up 2-1? What happened there? I thought the US fans were going to riot. They threw whatever they had on the field and were booing and yelling at Italy and the refs. FIFA brought in extra people to guard the field. It was getting out of control.

What kept the fans in control was the awesome effort by the US players. How proud was I to be an American cheering our team on, it was incredible. I was embarrassed for the Italian fans. I don’t know how they could cheer on a team that cheats and dives and cries for fouls. It was maddening and just disgraceful to the beautiful game. Although we left with a tie, which gives us a chance to make it through the next round (along with every other team in group E), we walked with our heads held high, because we couldn’t be prouder of the US’s effort; although, I did stare down a few Italia fans with my meanest look. Grrrr.

On the train ride home all of the Germans who attended the game were behind US. They said we totally outplayed Italy and that they thought we worked harder and were the better team. That is such a great feeling to have other countries show respect for your team that way.

Enough soccer talk our adventure didn’t end with attending the most exciting match of my life and of the 2006 World Cup. We only got to Bad Munster on our train and still needed a taxi the rest of the way. We assumed they would have taxis sitting outside the train station, but no, that didn’t happen. I was shivering and told Andrew there was no way I could sleep outside and wait for the morning train. So Andrew found a phone booth, called international information for a taxi company, then called the taxi company. Conversation went something like this:

Andrew “Sprechenzi English?”

Taxi guy “Little bit”

Andrew “We need a taxi at Bad Munster bahnhof”

Taxi Guy “There should be one there”

Andrew “There isn’t”

Taxi Guy “I’ll send one over”

Andrew “Danke”

Taxi Guy “Bitte”

Donna “Yeah, you are my hero! I love you! You are so wonderful!!!!!”

The taxi took us to our hotel after nearly hitting a deer and we arrived at 2:30, knowing that we had to get up at 6:30 to start the long journey home. See you all soon!

Oh, one last thing, I was originally going to call this blog ‘Out in the Middle of Woop Woop’. But the game was so amazing that it converted me into a US soccer fan.

He Says

2006-06-19T01:33:00.000-04:00

Wow. What a game. I am so glad we went to

Italy

before this game because I don’t think I could’ve appreciated anything Italian after watching the Azzuri. Apparently they have not been getting the Joga Bonita memos because they spent most of last night making a fool of the game. Dive. Cry. Repeat. Of course, the match’s mediator encouraged the behavior so he is partly to blame. All that said, it was incredible to be a part of the match. The

support was the best I’ve seen. The singing and chanting began about 45 minutes before the match and it seemed to increase in volume and passion as the match went on, as if the supporters were making up for the absences of our 10^th and 11^th players. I hope to post some video Donna took in the stands to give you a better taste of the atmosphere.

I don’t want to say too much about the match itself because I think I might lose myself. Right now we are about half-way across the Atlantic on our way to Atlanta by way of Toronto. I will say that the referees sucked; in general, they have sucked all tournament but the suckitude last night was absurd. I’m not proud of some of the things I yelled at that crew. (Note: I am allowed to criticize referees more than the average fan because I got certified as a USSF referee and did it for a year in

Georgia

.) I just read Donna’s post because there are so many things I want to share but I’ve just got chaos on the brain, probably a symptom of yelling like a maniac for three hours and then sleeping just four hours. Her words brought tears to my eyes. I’m going to post it on bigsoccer.com and email it to Wendy Parker, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s soccer reporter.

I want to tag on to the taxi story. What Donna didn’t mention and what I failed to tell her, is that we used our last Euro on the call to the taxi service. We had seven or eight to start, but the first three were wasted on a German information service. I greeted the receiver of my call and asked if she spoke English. She said something like Farfegnugen or (however you spell that!). I said, “Ich verstehe es nicht!” She said, “Yah, yah.” Then I think she was speaking German again, or perhaps she got something caught in her throat. Then she hung up on me. It all worked out in the end, though we would’ve been sleeping at the train station if the taxi service dispatcher didn’t sprechenzi English!

Aside from the game itself, it was so awesome to see Donna so into the game. On the first goal we scored, I turned to Donna and noticed she was being embraced by an old guy who had the seat next to her; they were jumping up and down cheering. Awesome. Then when Beasley scored, we still have no idea why the goal was disallowed, I joined into the celebratory embrace and probably high-fived about six people before I noticed Buffon was preparing to put the ball back in play. Talk about a buzzkill. Most of you have heard the phrase, “Pimpin’ aint’s easy.” Well, for Donna, “Huggin’ ain’t easy!” While she did not exactly hug this random guy, of course her arms were down as they are when many of have tried to hug her, but she did not push him away or even look uneasy. This is fool-proof evidence that wifey was into the game.

Yesterday I wore a red shirt that has the bust of US manager Bruce Arena. I’ve been a pretty big fan of his since his days at DC United. I am guessing that to other fans the shirt was a sign of hard-coredness because all night I had random people coming up to me to chat about the game and ask me questions about the US team. I thoroughly enjoyed it. One guy gave me a button that said, “Acthung! Azzuri” with a guy diving and a soccer ball. Others asked me what was going on with the drama between Beasley and the Bruce. Yet another guy gave me a big bottle of German beer. I’m glad I wore it.

After the game, some of the singing and chanting continued. For reasons unbeknownst to reasonable people the stadium only had one exit open. So it was a bit of on ordeal to get out. Some particularly enthusiastic US fans sang a song that I have been unable to get out of my head. It is quite simple and is sung to the tune of the FIFA anthem that has the lyric, “Hurray for the champions.’ I think. The song’s lyrics are: “How much did you pay the ref? How much did you pay the ref? How much did you pay the ref? How much did you pay the ref?”

Maybe you don’t know that the Italian league (mainly the four biggest clubs) referees, management and several of the star players are under investigation for match-fixing and gambling. Juventus, one of its richest and most powerful clubs, may be dropped to the third division due to the scandal. Italy’s goalkeeper has been implicated but investigations into his devious acts were postponed until after the World Cup. Classy, eh? A cab driver in Rome was embarrassed to give us that nugget.

As for the game itself, I do indeed want to look at the recording before passing too much judgment. Like Donna, I couldn’t be prouder of the effort of our guys. I’m not sure why we didn’t use a third sub when it looked like a few of the players were going to keel over, but it worked out okay.

In the first half, Mastroeni was a beast. Totti was taken out of the game because he could do nothing against Pablo. Typically the manager of a 10-man team would remove a striker, but pretty-boy-mr-roma-mr-italia-mr-d&g couldn't do anything against our Pablo. The stadium would not show a replay of the red-card tackle so I don’t know how bad it looked but Pablo has got to be smarter. When the other team is down a man, you know the ref is looking to even things out. Two-footed tackles are out of the question. We’ll really miss him against Ghana.

I thought there would be more changes from Tuesday’s lineup. One change I was ecstatic to see was Clint Dempsey for Beasley. Clint is like 23 years old, playing on the world’s biggest stage and he is just chilling, dancing on the ball. This guy knows joga bonito. Most important, his play was effective and it seemed to unnerve the Italians. I guess Bruce wanted more defense when he subbed in Beasley after we went down a man.

Donovan had a couple of nice runs. I wish we’d see more of them, but they are not likely as long as he is playing up top. Convey had a few nice runs as well and he served in the dangerous set piece that the Italian so kindly knocked in for us. I can't see a negative word about a US player on this night. I probably could say a few negative words about little Stevie, but not tonight.

I'll get the pictures and hopefully video up tomorrow.

Friday, June 16, 2006: A much needed rest

2006-06-16T17:47:00.000-04:00

Note: Donna wrote this entry

Here is the updated link to our photos on Snapfish: Snapfish Photos

Today we took a much needed rest. After being awoken by the cleaning staff at 10:30 am, we decided to put the “Do not disturb” sign on the door. We then slept until just after noon. At this point the day took a much more exciting turn and we both read for a bit. Around 1:30 pm or so, we decided to head over to the airport for lunch. We found a FIFA gift shop with the souvenirs we had been looking for and spent a bit of money on family and friends.

The next few hours were spent watching Argentina whoop up on Serbia (6-0), catching up on the blog, and finishing the books we were reading. Amazingly, Andrew took a nap!

We headed downstairs to the lobby for internet and dinner at half-time of the Holland vs. Ivory Coast match. Andrew found a flier for all you can eat bbq and sausage, but I persuaded him into one last fancy meal in Europe. I think we would both agree that it was a good decision.

We ordered a nice bottle of German white wine and ordered the antipasta to start. Before our dinners came, Andrew decided to check out the toilets in the lobby. He decided that German wine was pretty strong even after one glass because he found himself singing soccer chants out loud in the bathroom. Apparently it went something like this, “Didee-ay Didee-ay Didee-ay Drogbra…”

We both were very happy with our dinners. Andrew got a chicken with lobster and I got a wonderfully tender piece of tenderloin beef and asparagus. During dinner I asked our waiter how to say “I don’t understand” in German and he not only told me (several times), but also wrote it down. Ich verstehe es nicht; pronounced Ick ver-stay-he es nickt, or something like that. We finished the night with a little more football, watching the Mexico vs. Angola match. The game was in Hannoverb, and we had plenty of both Mexicans and Angolans staying at our hotel. They were all pretty rowdy during the match. Andrew offended a few Mexicans saying, “No se puede,” which means, “No you can’t.” Apparently a favorite Mexican cheer is, “Si se puede,” which means, “Yes you can.”

Tomorrow we leave our home in Hannover and head for Bad Sobernheim. The game is in Kaiserslautern, which is just a short train ride away from our hotel. We play Italy at 9 pm. That is 3 pm EDT, so be sure to watch if you can.

Go USA!!!!!

Thursday, June 15, 2006: Football Fever in Berlin

2006-06-16T13:37:00.000-04:00

After a three hour nap, the alarm woke me at 6:15 and we were off to Berlin. The crank-factor increased quite a bit when I realized our train tickets were in the smoking wagon. Our fellow passengers may have been confused into thinking smoking was compulsory, rather than simply not prohibited. I reclined my chair, put my rain jacket over my head and went to sleep. I awoke in better spirits and ready to face the day. When we stepped off the train at the Berlin Hbf (the main station, I won’t even try to spell the entire world), I knew we were in store for a good day. Donna agreed because we immediately saw a Starbucks, the first since London. Berlin, more than any other city we’ve seen, has a bad case of football fever. The entire city seems to be catering to World Cup patrons.

Therese, if you are looking for your people they are in Berlin. Sweden played Paraguay in the late game at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, which holds 80,000 people. That means Sweden’s Football Federation were allotted 6,400 tickets to distribute to their fans; I know we saw at least that many Swedes wandering around Berlin. Their turnout was impressive though I don’t think I’ll ever understand the men who wear the hats with the blond pigtails.

Before Donna and I (me, more than her) enjoyed all the football-focused attractions, we checked out a few of the tourist attractions.

Brandenburger Tor

The gate that used to mark the boundary between East and West Berlin

Reichstag

The seat of the German Bundestag or federal government: the transparent dome represents the transparency of their republic.

Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche

Berliners call the remains the ‘hollow tooth’. The church was bombed by the British in 1943; it’s a reminder of the devastation of World War II.

What struck us most about Berlin was its newness. Much of the city had to be rebuilt after World War II so while the architecture of days past may have been replicated, the actual buildings still seem relatively new. I really enjoyed being there: the public transportation is very well-organized, the drivers aren’t crazy and the people are friendly.

On our way from the tourist stops to the football fan fest, we came across a monument to people who died trying to cross from East Germany to West Germany. It was sad to see, for sure. Many of the memorialized were between 18 and 23 years old. It was especially sad to see the last person was killed just a few days before the wall came down.

Onto lighter matters –

We spent the rest of the day eating, looking for souvenirs to buy, and watching the day’s first two matches. Donna and I were both pretty tired from the day in Amsterdam and from the Berlin sun so we settled in a shady spot in front of one of the six or seven big screens at the fan fest and watched Ecuador beat Costa Rica. Earlier in the day we bought tickets to watch the England/Trinidad & Tobago match in the Adidas stadium. Watching the game with a couple thousand other folks was a lot of fun. Adidas made a show of it, giving away tickets to the Sweden/Paraguay match and T-shirts; they even brought out cheerleaders. Who knew Europe had cheerleaders? Donna aptly pointed out that they looked and danced more like pole-dancers. I love Europe.

At half-time of the England match, the Adidas MC called three fans onto the field—two Swedes and a Paraguayan--and had a contest to see who could shoot the hardest. The winner would get two tickets to that night’s match, obviously a coveted prize for the three fans who had traveled so far just to be in the city where their teams were playing. The crowd in the stadium was overwhelmingly European, mostly Swedes and English, but they got behind the Paraguayan. In two rounds of shooting, his two shots were the slowest. I’m not sure he ever kicked a soccer ball before. In the end, Adidas gave all three fans tickets and they all started hugging the MC and jumping in a circle. It was awesome.

Our trip back to Hannover was uneventful. We endured the smoking wagon again, hopefully for the last time. We got back a little after 11, which gave me some time to catch up on the late game and to confirm the facts I was planning to share during the radio interview. I caught a quick nap and then called into WBAL. The interview went well. It was pretty short, but I enjoyed it. Talking about soccer is easy for me so I felt comfortable. I got to sleep a little before 4 and slept until noon. I don’t remember if I’ve ever done that before. I’m feeling good and rested and hope to put up a good show tomorrow in Kaiserslautern.

Have a great start to the weekend. Thanks for checking in.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006: Country #11

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Note: Donna wrote this entry

Today we went to the last of eleven countries, Holland. We had one of our earliest starts (none competing with the 3:30 am start to Scotland) leaving around 5:30 am. We settled in for a four hour train ride from Hannover to Amsterdam and tried to catch a little nap on the train. During the few moments we were awake, I tried to find out if Andrew was excited about going to Amsterdam, but finally decided he was way too tired for that kind of emotion.

We arrived just before 11 and headed for the tourist information area to buy our I AMSTERDAM cards which got us into all the museums for free and provided free public transportation. There were many other advantages to the card, we just never made use of them. We were unable to check the weather before we left and were woefully unprepared for cold and rain. Andrew didn’t even have a long-sleeved shirt with him.

We made a plan for the day: 1) Find food. 2) See stuff. 3) Get a long-sleeved shirt for Andrew.

We decided to tackle the food situation first, because it seemed the easiest and gave us time to figure out what we wanted to see. I had brought a Top 10 Amsterdam book which we used to circle the places we needed to go and to chart our way.

Our first stop after lunch was Oude Kerk, the cities oldest monument and parish church built in the 14^th century. The Oude Kerk happens also to be smack dab in the Red Light District. Andrew wondered why on earth I would drag him into the Red Light District after hearing the story of Emily and I racing through after being dropped off late at night when we were here in 2000. I explained that we were there at night when it is pretty scary (to me, that is) and that during the day it wouldn’t be as bad, plus some of Amsterdam’s best sites to see were in the RLD. I also think that you have to see it once in order to have an informed opinion on the area. Andrew’s opinion was that it was quite sad and that he didn’t like it. Even in the day there were prostitutes in the window’s and men smoking pot in the coffee shops. It smelled like urine, especially while taking pictures of the Oude Kerk. That was mainly due to a guy taking a piss on the street about 5 feet from where we were standing.

We continued through the RLD to see Waalse Kerk, which was founded in 1409 and was all that was left of the convent of St. Paul. We had a little trouble finding it since I had no idea what we were looking for, but after finding the exact address in the book we found it, took a picture, and got out of dodge (dodge being the Red Light District of course).

Next we headed toward Dam Square, and Andrew asked that I kindly stop swearing. He is a clever guy, isn’t he? In “Darn” Square, Koninklijk Paleis (town hall), Nieuwe Kerk (church), national monument, and many other tourist attractions are located. Andrew was in charge of taking pictures and was not interested in a picture of the large pole in the center of the square until I explained it was a national monument dedicated to the Dutch soldiers who lost their lives in WWII. He took a picture, but asked how many died. The book doesn’t have that answer, so I don’t know. I guess we should look it up.

After “Darn” Square, we headed to the Bloemenmarkt, a large floating flower market. Andrew contends that it is not indeed floating just because it is on pilings on the water. I still think it is neat. We got some pretty shots of the flowers and bought some tulips to plant at our new house next spring.

We finally tackled #3 on our list of things to do for the day and found Andrew a much needed long-sleeved shirt. Most of the tourist shops sold shirts with pot-leaves, and sayings that were not really that appropriate, so we had found it difficult to find anything. Also, they mostly only sold t-shirts, or sweatshirts; neither were on our list.

By this point in the day the rain had settled in and we headed for the museums so that we could be indoors. We went to the Rijksmuseum where we saw a lot of historical art from Amsterdam’s past including the famous “The Night Watch.” Then we headed for the Van Gogh Museum. I think it was around this point that Andrew and I both realized that neither of us were huge “art people” and wondered why we had gone to all of these art galleries and museums throughout Europe. I clearly don’t have a great appreciation, but I did think a lot of it was neat to see. Seeing the multitudes of portraits and the like, I decided it was really just the photography of the time.

Unfortunately due to some trouble with direction, bad weather, cranky attitudes, and time constraints we never made it to the Anne Frank House. This is twice I haven’t made it. I was sad not to make it, but now we have an excuse to have to come back.

We got back into Hannover shortly before 1 am and had to call a taxi for a ride to our hotel. Andrew still had some work to take care of on the computer and didn’t make it to bed until after 3 am. I don’t know if either of us was looking forward to heading out in the morning for Berlin, but like Bon Jovi says, “We can sleep when we’re dead.”

Tuesday, June 13, 2006: An Iranian-Swede, some friendly Germans, and some clueless Americans – Next stop, Hannover

2006-06-16T13:17:00.000-04:00

Today’s task list had one bullet: get to Hannover, our launch pad for the next four days. Even so, I told Donna that that didn’t mean that I was content to spend the entire day getting from A to B because really, Hannover is not that far from Duisburg.

The trip required two trains and a metro. We found ourselves on the smoking wagon of the first train, across the aisle from one another. The fellow next to Donna in a Brasil jersey seemed to be equally uncomfortable with the smoking and let out a series of pathetic coughs after two seconds or so. Donna started the unlikely friendship by kindly offering him a cough drop. We learned that our friend came from Sweden, originally was from Iran, but supported Brasil. We have a name for this type: glory hunter. He told us about his experience cheering for Iran in the midst of a Mexican section. I told him we were no big fans of the Mexicano futbolitos and he laughed and said it was probably one of the few things Iranians and Americans could agree on. The slogan for the FIFA World Cup 2006 is ‘A Time to Make Friends’.

In addition to our new Iranian-Swede friend, we were glad to make some German friends during the last leg of our trip. What we could’ve easily mistaken for an overly nosy German woman on the metro quickly became a hero. She seemed to be staring at the printout of the hotel information that Donna was clasping while she expressed her concerns to us in German. We were clueless. The only thing we took away from her desperate attempts at communication was that she hadn’t spoken English in 35 years. This lady would not give up though. She called down the half-empty train, looking for someone who spoke English and German. An older gentleman stepped forward and after the lady talked to him for a minute, told us we needed to get off the train because we were going in the wrong direction. Unlike Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, they did know where we were going. For some reason, they thought we were half-retarded or something and proceeded to make the motion of walking down stairs, under the train station and up the other side for no less than five minutes just to reiterate. I don’t blame them. We said about ten dankes before disembarking. This is just another of the many experiences we’ve had that debunks the prevailing idea that Americans are treated badly in Europe.

(The train station where we turned around)

Thanks to our German friends, we made it to our hotel at the Hannover airport or Flughafen before 4. We checked into our comfortable room and got some R&R knowing we had an early morning train ride in our near future.

Just a side note from Donna: I had to take a picture of this word. I think it means exit, but in English, it is a bit too close to something else and continues to crack me up. I realize it is a bit childish, but what can you do?

On the radio tomorrow at 8:30 PM your time

2006-06-14T20:07:00.000-04:00

Hey there, just a couple of quick notes before I head to bed.

First, I'm going to be on the radio in Baltimore tomorrow night at 8:30 PM EDT. My dad emailed the sports director of WBAL suggesting he talk to me about my World Cup experience and he went for it. I'll be talking with Peter Schmuck. You can listen to the talk live at http://wbal.com/

Yeah, that'll be 2:30 AM for me, but note the time of this post. I'm a slave to the beautiful game.

Donna and I got back from Amsterdam a couple of hours ago. Many fans in Germany for the World Cup had the same idea as us. I saw two guys from the Barra Brava, DC United's fan club and tons of Mexicans, Brasilians, etc. We got back just as the fans from the Germany/Poland match were returning from the stadium. They were in rare form, singing, chanting, blaring horns after their team beat Poland with a goal in injury time.

We're off to Berlin tomorrow before a much needed day of rest Friday before we travel to Kaiserslautern for the big match on Saturday.

Love the comments - I hope those who are keeping up with the blog get a chance to go back and read them. We've got some witty friends.

(btw, your comments have not been showing immediately because Blogger was requiring me to approve them...I changed the setting so now your comments should appear rather quickly)

More later

Monday, June 12, 2006 – Rough Start

2006-06-13T11:59:00.000-04:00

That was a tough game to watch. The worst thing that can happen to the US is to give up an early goal. Our strengths are counterattacking and pressuring – two things that are not successful when playing from behind. It is easy to blame the manager for playing two players out of position in the world’s biggest tournament, but of course hindsight is 20-20. (Though I had a bad feeling from the start.) Football is a funny game. The US were not overmatched. They gave it their all. I was proud to root for them until the end. I was disappointed in two aspects of the game: 1 – I should’ve gotten better seats; 2 – the US fans sat and grumbled way too early…did they really travel 3,000 miles to give up after 40 minutes?

Anyway, I know most of you don’t care about the game that much so I’ll talk a little bit about the personal experiences. I’ll paste some analysis at the bottom.

The travel from Milan to Gelsenkirchen was nerve-wracking. For differing reasons, I have missed the first couple of minutes in the last couple of matches I’ve been to and I was terrified that I would do it again. Donna was kind enough to allow us to get to the stadium almost four hours before kickoff.

We did alter our travel plans a bit, but I didn’t feel guilty after we learned that our match tickets served as bus, rail, and underground tickets for any public transportation in Germany the day of the match. While checking into our hotel a friendly voice said, “I guess you’re going to the match, eh?” I turned around and saw it was ESPN’s sideline reporter Shelley something or other. She was really nice and flattered that I recognized her. She told me that she talked to Bruce earlier in the day and she thought Dempsey would start. I hoped she was right, but then asked about Beasley who I think has been terrible the last 18 months. She said Bruce told her he has had a good week of training and so has Convey. Shelley said she’d pass along more info to us if she saw us. It was pretty cool and got me really excited to head into the match.

After a pretty miserable tram ride, we arrived at the stadium about four hours before match time. The fan fest was not accepting new visitors, so we got some sausages and settled into our seats to watch the Australia/Japan match on the stadium’s big screen. The stadium was beautiful. Our seats were pretty high up as the pictures may indicate, but we had a wonderful view of the pitch.

For the two hours before the match, the fans were chanting and the excitement was high. The excitement definitely faded after the 2^nd Czech goal. The whole experience was pretty surreal.

I was certainly upset that we lost and I’m definitely concerned about your psyche going into a must-win match against Italy. For whatever reason, I’ve been able to put that to the side and just soak up a bit of the World Cup experience.

A bit of post-game analysis

Give credit to the Czechs – they were very organized defending and their midfield creativity caused some problems for our midfield and defense. Their early goal would be a dream start against anyone, but it was especially helpful considering the US style of play. Their fan support was outstanding and they were, in general, fair competitors. Rosicky and Nedved were the best players on the pitch tonight.

A look at the three goals (note: this is going off of memory alone)

The first goal was a simple lack of tactical awareness by the team. Eddie Lewis got caught forward from his left back spot. When he ventures forward, Pablo Mastroeni, Claudio Reyna, or Bobby Convey should fill the void. Mastroeni was nearest but the CR player had time to have a touch, look up and pick out the giant Jan Koller in the box, and hit a millimeter-perfect cross for Koller to head in.

The second goal was a wonder-strike, no doubt, but two things went wrong on the play. First, Oguchi Onyewu’s cleared the ball up the middle; that is a cardinal sin, unless the ball clears midfield. Second, Reyna did not close down Rosicky fast enough. He made a half-hearted, one-legged attempt at blocking the shot. Perhaps Reyna thought Keller could not be beat from that distance. Cech might’ve gotten a hand to it, who knows?

The third goal was the result of a tired US team playing a 2—6-2 and Onyewu being unable to foul due to the caution he received in the opening minutes of the game. Surely he would’ve slid in and stopped the play 35 yards from goal instead of allowing Rosicky to go in alone at Keller. Keller went down a little too easy on the breakaway as well, making it much two easy for Rosicky to flick it past him.

Monday, June 12, 2006 – A Soccer Widow’s Perspective

2006-06-13T11:37:00.000-04:00

Note: if you can't tell by the title, Donna wrote this guy. I'll try to get some pictures up soon.

Today we left Milan. Before we left the US, I had bought a book on Milan, which we used most of the time we were in the city. On the 11^th, we realized that we had no idea how to get to the airport or how far away it was from the hotel. After checking the internet for help, I checked the book. Lucky for us, although the airport was not the main one in Milan, the book did mention how to get to it. It suggested we take a bus for about 6 euros from the central train station. Both of us were a little worried that we that it couldn’t possibly be that easy, so we prepared to pay the 90 euro for a cab ride just incase. Lucky for us, it was that easy. Our cab driver was even kind enough to drop us off right behind the bus and say “Orio al Serie” and point to it so we would know.

Unfortunately that was just about the last thing to really go right for the rest of the day. The one hour bus ride to the airport gave me an awful bout with motion sickness which somehow managed to last right up until we arrived at our hotel in Duisburg, Germany. While waiting at the airport for our flight, I tried to talk to Andrew, but it was to no avail. He was sick with worry. Will our flight be delayed? What if the train is late? How will we get to the hotel? What time will we get to the game? And on and on it went. Now you have to realize, that getting even the headlines for what was on Andrew’s mind was not easy. He apologized for being a bad travel companion, but I understood. Today was a very important day.

We landed in Dusseldorf right on schedule, but changed or travel plans anyway. We took a cab to the hotel, rather than the train that I had booked and paid for. While checking-in we ran into a woman from the ESPN crew which Andrew recognized. They chatted a bit; she was very friendly. I’ll let Andrew tell you about it more.

We dropped off our bags in our room and attempted to head to the stadium. We asked the woman at the front desk how best to get to the stadium. She told us take the train, turn left, go two lights, and turn right.

We did exactly that. We did not find a train station. Instead we found the underground, which Andrew tried to convince me was the way to go. After searching long and hard for a stop for Gelsenkirchen, we gave up and decided to ask for help. Not an easy task when all you can say is hello; do you speak English, goodbye, my name is Donna and this is my husband Andrew; I don’t know, I have no idea, and a few other not so helpful phrases. On our way to find help, Andrew got interviewed by a local television station on what he thought of Duisburg. He told them that he had only been in the city for 10 minutes, but people seem friendly. After the interview, Andrew asked the interviewer how to get to the train station. He pointed us toward the underground from where we had just left. At this point Andrew was still convinced that the underground was the way to go. I was not at all convinced, mostly because I was the one who booked the train tickets.

We headed back to the hotel to ask for help again and this time understood that the first left didn’t take place until we were headed left out of the hotel. We found the train station in about 3 minutes. (Who was right??????) Finding the train was not as easy, but with a little help from the information desk we were on our way. After 15 minutes on the train, I said to Andrew, this isn’t what I expected. I don’t see any other people headed for the game. Two seconds (no exaggeration) later, the train doors opened up and a flood of US and Czech fans boarded the train.

After getting to the Gelsenkirchen train station, we boarded a tram that was filled to the brim, had a few cracked windows and no air conditioning. The tram ride took about 30 minutes, stopped at every stop, but wouldn’t open the doors. Several soccer hooligans from England started to get a bit out of control. I was very thankful to get to the stadium without any major incident.

I’m not going to talk too much about the game, I will leave it to Andrew to describe, but I will give a few thoughts that I had.

I enjoyed the game, aside from the loss that is. The fans for the most part were very enthusiastic, the stadium was very nice, and the players played very hard. We had a few people that were too cool to stand and cheer sitting near us, but for the most part everyone stood (until we were down by 3) and everyone cheered. Andrew started to grumble about our seats, then I reminded him that he had chosen the seats because he didn’t want to sit with the suits, he wanted to sit with the real fans. He kicked himself for that one. But I followed up that reminder with, “Remember how many people didn’t get tickets. They would have given a lot to sit where we are sitting.” That brought his mood back up a bit.

For my part, I was very nervous about the loss. I didn’t know how Andrew would take it. Anyone who knows Andrew’s passion for

soccer can understand. He’ll be mad that I am sharing this, but even four years after last World Cup, whenever he watches the US/Germany game he still gets riled up and stays angry for a good 24 hours. So, you can easily understand how I might be a little concerned. He was great though. He was sad, but very nice to me. He was happy with how the

played and only had positive things to say. It was good to know that he took it so well, but I still hope we win against

Italy

on Saturday!

June 11, 2006 - Lazy Sunday in Milano

2006-06-11T16:20:00.000-04:00

Our last day in

Italy

was pretty low key. Donna has been battling a cold so she opted to stay in the hotel while I did a little exploring. I made three stops and called it a day. First, Bonny asked us to take a picture of the Ralph Lauren store in Milan.

Donna gave me great directions so I knocked that task out in about 30 minutes. I expected better from Ralph – Bonny, could you send him an email?

Second, I headed to the San Siro which is also known as the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium.

It is home to my favorite non-US soccer team, AC Milan. They are one of the richest and most famous clubs in the world. The stadium also is home to Inter Milan, another well known side though not as storied as AC Milan. I took a tour of the stadium and got a picture sitting in Paolo Madlini’s changing room seat.

Maldini is to Italian football what Mickey Mantle is to baseball. He is a lifelong Rossoneri (that is the nickname for AC Milan players) and a worldwide legend.

I headed back to the hotel, but made a pit stop at a pub to catch the end of the Holland/Serbia & Montenegro match. I have been hugely surprised at the seeming lack of interest in the World Cup in Milan. London was World Cup crazed. Maybe things will change when Italy play tomorrow. We will be gone, however, in Germany at the World Cup!!! Woohoo!

Tonight Donna and I went out for gelato and then to a pub to watch the Mexico/Iran match.

So far CONCACAF (the Spanish acronym for the North & Central American Football Federation) teams have shown well; we’re counting on our boys to do the same.

Thanks for checking in. We’ll write again after we’ve watched our first World Cup Match.

June 10 - Chilling in Milano

2006-06-11T05:51:00.000-04:00

15 Snapfish Albums

Today we did indeed make it out of the hotel room. It wasn’t easy. We slept until 9:30 and then mapped out our trip. Perhaps we should have spent more time on the mapping.

We got directions to the nearest Metro stop and headed to the starting spot of a Historical Walking Tour. The tour was only 1.2 km so it was pretty short. We started with a delicious lunch at a café in the Galleria Vittorio de Emmanuel II, a neat indoor/outdoor shopping area. Donna and I split lasagna and pumpkin ravioli; both were favorites but the ravioli was most favorite (Brian Regan reference).

Energized with the delectable Italian carbs, we began our tour at the magnificent Duomo in the aptly named Piazza Del Duomo. It took 500 years to build and it is easy to see why. The rest of the tour made us conclude that Milan is not too historical.

Donna was proud of herself for taking photos of the eight humble men on the façade of the Casa Degli Omenomi before I told her it was indeed historical.

Our last stop was at the Leonardo monument in front of La Scala.

Next on the agenda was scoping out Milan’s high-fashion district. Donna and I felt well out of place. We did not even feel comfortable looking in the windows of the Armani, Prada, Dulce & Gabanna stores, never mind going in them. We did venture into one of the stores. As Donna looked thru the clothes and bags, I tried to think of places on earth where I would feel so out of place. I came up with a few.

We found the nearest Metro station and headed back to the general direction of our hotel. After a few trips up and down the Metro steps and some intense map reading, we made our way back. We decided to pick up some snacks at the local supermercato, chill for a few hours, and then eat dinner at our hotel’s restaurant.

Donna and I thought we were in for a treat. We’ve spent most of the trip, grabbing quick and easy meals on the go. Today we eat our best lunch and we decided to make it a day and go fancy-schmansy with the dinner. We decided to split a stuffed chicken breast as an appetizer. Before we got it, one of the three or four people who seemed to be waiting on us brought a plate of what looked like parmesan cheese and a spoonful of honey. I wasn’t sure what to do with it. We had rolls on the table, maybe they went with the rolls. Surely I couldn’t confuse parmesan cheese and stuffed chicken breast. Overcoming my embarrassment, I asked our waiter what it was and what I was supposed to do with it. He politely told me that some restaurants serve drinks as a welcome, theirs serves parmesan cheese. Eat it plain or on the rolls, whatever is our pleasure. It was tasty on our rolls. Unfortunately that was the highlight of our dinner. The appetizer was quite plain and then the dinners were outright disgusting. I ordered spaghetti with a traditional sauce topped with sea urchins, what I thought was pretty safe. Donna ordered ravioli stuffed with pistachio and prawns, I think. I took one smell of mine and lost my appetite. Against better judgment I took a bite. Donna knew from the look on my face that I was done. There are not that many foods I don’t eat, but now I know sea urchin is one of them. Donna let me try hers and although I didn’t like it, it was edible. She is so wonderful that she switched dinners with me. We both choked down about half the meals, along with some wine and then called it a night. After my last bite of the ravioli, Donna told me she thought it tasted like the “mustard” of Maryland Blue Crabs that most Marylanders are taught to avoid. She nailed it. Blech. Tomorrow it is back to roadside pizza and calzones!

Back in our room, I celebrated Trinidad & Tobago’s tie with Sweden (sorry Therese) and rooted for Cote d’Ivoire against Argentina. Two days until the big night for the USA.

I have not seen it reported on CNN International, but the big news out of Milan yesterday was that Donna did not eat gelati for the second day in a row. The markets on Monday are expected to take a hit.

I hope you to hear from you soon. Enjoy the World Cup. Have a great weekend.

All the best,
Andrew

Studio 90: US Soccer Videos

2006-06-09T20:24:00.000-04:00

Hi there, I was catching up on the latest news from US Soccer on their website when I came across a video of me catching Cherundolo's jersey in Birmingham. Pretty cool, eh? It is toward the end of the Studio 90: MNT Send-Off Video. You can get to the video thru the US Soccer link on the left.

Here's a screenshot. I know you can't tell it is me, but trust me - that is Stevie in Birmingham, tossing his jersey into the crowd.

Funny sidenote: Many of you know, Donna has the jersey now - you may have seen it in some of the pictures from Verona.

Anyway, I sent it to Jared so he could wear it for a few months before the World Cup and before he grew out of it. I didn't wash it first...he wore it twice without washing it because he said washing it would take away from the "ambience" of the jersey. After I caught the jersey, I stuffed it in my pocket and the sweat soaked thru my pants and boxers. We smelled it the entire ride home.

New pictures added to a previous post

2006-06-09T19:53:00.000-04:00

We added pictures to the post on Switzerland, Austria, and Munich from June 1 and 2.

Also, here is the new link for the Snapfish albums: 14 Albums

Have a great weekend.

June 9, 2006 – On our own again

2006-06-09T19:19:00.000-04:00

Note: Donna wrote this entry.

This morning we did it our way. No tour managers giving us the time to depart and no one getting us to and from our destinations. We called a cab and headed off to the Termini Station in Rome. After a cab ride that shaved off about 10 years from both of our lives, we arrived at the train station about two hours before our departure time. We of course looked for a safe haven to hide out from the gypsies. We found sanctuary in that favorite place found all over the world, McDonald’s. We had a rather uneventful 5 hour train ride to Milan and arrived around 4pm. Both of us wondered how our accommodations would compare to the hotels that Contiki had provided and were a bit anxious to have just a little more luxury. I don’t know if shock would be the right word, but neither of us were prepared for the room we saw. The room is ginormous. We have a queen-sized bed, a desk, a dining table, two couches, a nice walk-in closet, and a luxurious bathroom. No toilet in the shower this time!!! Maybe I could be a travel agent after all. Andrew repeatedly gave me my due props for the great accommodations that I had booked for us.

We decided to take it easy today. We scavenged for food, finding only one place open at 5 pm. We took our food back to the hotel and have been there ever since. We watched the first match of the World Cup (Germany vs. Costa Rica) and took a much needed nap. Tomorrow we will have to leave the room to see a little of Milan.

June 8, 2006 - Roma: We Saw It All

2006-06-09T18:52:00.000-04:00

At least it feels that way. Donna led Bonny, Steph, and me on a whirlwind, 14-stop tour of Rome. I don’t think it required as much walking as our tour of Paris, but it came close. Bonny counted the steps she and Donna climbed and I believe the total was just shy of 1000. They climbed significantly more steps than me because I opted out of the climb to the top of St Peter’s Basilica after the well-documented experience at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

The tour included all the major attractions: the Vatican City Museum which has the Sistine Chapel;

St Peter’s Basilica, the second largest in the world;

Castel Sant. Angelo (Castle of Angels) which was used by the Vatican as a tomb, fortress, and hideout and today is a museum;

the Pantheon, the ancient church with the hole in the roof that allows prayers to get to God;

Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, which had Michelangelo’s Risen Christ;

Piazza Venezia, which is the central traffic hub of Rome; in the piazza, is the Santa Maria Aracoeli which Henry James called “the grandest loafing place of mankind”; it inspired him to write the Rise and Decline of the Roman Empire—we agreed though it only inspired us to get some gelato!;

the Vittorio Emanuele Monument which is known as the altar of the nation and looks like a giant wedding cake—we arrived just in time to see the changing of the guards at the flame of the unknown soldier;

Piazza Bocca Della Veritá, which had three sites: the Santa Maria in Cosmedine which had the Mouth of Truth (you Latin readers saw this one coming)…we all tested our honor by sticking our hand in the mouth of truth and I’m happy to say we all still have two hands, ten fingers;

the two Pagan Temples, the Tempeo della Fortuna Virilis and the Tempio di Vesta;

from there, we went to the Colosseum (Steph and I went on a guided tour that was quite fascinating. It is estimated that over one million people died in a 200 year span for sport. The Colosseum has been used as a battle ground, a place to re-enact naval battles, a condominium, botanical gardens, a royal palace, and probably other interesting things I can’t remember.);

Arch of Constantine, which is considered to be the entrance to the Roman Forum;

Ancient Via Socra, thru the Arch of Titus into the Roman Forum;

in the Roman Forum, we saw the temple of Antonius and Fostina,

the Circular Temple of Vesta which was the shrine of the Vestal Virgins,

the Red Brick Curia which is where Marc Antony eulogized Julius Caesar,

the Arch of Septimius Severus, the last eight remaining columns of the Temple of Saturn,

and the Capitaline Hill where we exited;

our last stop was to see San Pietro in Vincoli or St Peter in Chain’s.

Whew, what a day.

As a bonus to our tour, we experienced public transportation. I say experienced because it was an experience for sure. After about 10 hours of touring Rome, we headed underground to take the metro to a bus station that would take us to our hotel. We all agreed the first train was too crowded to try to get into – then when the second train came and it was just as bad, we formed a bit of a rugby scrum and pushed our way on. Donna held onto me and Bonny simply leaned on me while I had one finger holding onto the train’s pole. I tried to snap a picture with the same hand and it doesn’t do the tight quarters justice.

Fortunately we only had to stay on the train for one stop before switching lines.

A second bonus was watching the rider of a motorbike crash while trying to avoid smashing into a pedestrian. Don’t worry, everyone walked away smiling. I’ve heard Andy talk about how crazy Italian drivers are, but I thought he was exaggerating. Now that I’ve experienced it first hand, I think he may have sugarcoated the problem. It is incredible. Bumper car drivers are more courteous. The motorbikes must be above the law because they weave in and out of cars, bicyclists, polizia, pedestrians, sidewalks and whatever else will get them where they want to be faster.

Back at the hotel safe and sound, no small feat in and of itself, we settled in for 15 minutes of rest before our farewell dinner with the Contiki group. Donna’s vegetarian dinner must’ve been an afterthought for the hotel because they brought her six slices of cheese. Apparently Italians don’t think much of the vegetarian diet. Our tour manager convinced the hotel staff to make Donna a salad and eggs though I think Donna would’ve preferred the cheese after sampling her second option. We hung out with our group for a few hours after dinner, said goodbye to Bonny and Steph (they are headed to Greece for some much deserved beach time), and then headed to bed.

Tomorrow, Milano – back on our own!

June 7, 2006 – Florence to Rome

2006-06-09T18:34:00.000-04:00

Note: Donna wrote this entry.

Today was a light day comparatively. We were allowed to sleep in until 9 am before getting back on the coach to leave Florence and head to Rome.

We arrived at our hotel, which was on the outskirts of Rome around 3:30. After a brief rest we headed into the old city for a short walking tour and evening driving tour. During our drive into the old city, our tour manager warned us how she ranks Rome a 9.9 out of a scale of 1 to 10, as a place most likely to be pick-pocketed. Andrew made sure to wear the pouch that Jacob had bought him, that fit under his clothes. It wasn’t exactly discrete, as you can tell in most of the photos where it is located. We repeatedly had a good laugh at it. What it lacked in style, it made up for in safety. No one was reaching under Andrew’s clothes for his money or passport, that was for sure!

We started our walking tour at the wall that used to enclose the entire city of Rome. From there we went to the Spanish steps, although there were so many people sitting on the steps that we were barely able to see any actual steps.

Next we went to the Trevi Fountain. You are supposed to throw in three coins for luck; Andrew and I are satisfied with our current luck and chose not to throw in any coins, while Bonny decided to throw in three Swiss Francs. You can’t cheat luck, which Bonny found out the next day.

Our final two stops on the walking tour included the Pantheon, which was closing, so we only were able to see the outside and the Piazza Novona.

Our group was grumbling about food by this time, so we headed off to a relatively inexpensive Italian meal. Bonny, Steph, and I all ordered a pasta dish, which although small, were all delicious. Andrew ordered a calzone, which came out about 45 minutes after our meals. I am not sure he felt it was worth the wait, but he did say that it was excellent.

It was 9:15 pm by the time we finished dinner, so of course we hurried to get some gelato. I think this was by far Andrew’s favorite gelato stop; they offered him whipped topping and he accepted. I had three new scoops of gelato and we took a nice photo stop to capture our delight.

We finished the evening with the driving tour, which included a stop at the Colosseum at night. We were told that they were driving around because there was no way to see all of Rome in one day. Little did Andrew, Bonny, and Step know about what was in store for them the next day on my “little” walking tour. I covered everything that we saw on the coach that night!

Another Try: Snapfish Link

2006-06-08T11:08:00.000-04:00

Photos Link

Try this guy and let me know how it works, please

Snapfish Photos

2006-06-07T03:31:00.000-04:00

Snapfish Photos

Let me know if this guy works for anyone, please. You should see 12 albums.

Thanks!

Arrivederci

Day of the Beautiful People

2006-06-07T03:17:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, June 6
Buongiorno from Firenze on the supposed Day of the Devil, 06-06-06. Our tour manager renamed the day the Day of the Beautiful People because that is what she likes to call our group. Many of the ladies of the group have purchased Ciao Bella shirts since we arrived in Italy to reinforce the image.

Today we had a full day to explore the city of Florence. The highlight of the day for me was a guided walking tour of the city. Italy only allows licensed Italians to give tours, which is kind of funny considering how many people are on the streets selling Rollex watches and Prado bags. No matter though, our guide was excellent. He took us around the rather small city and talked about its rich history with Michelangelo, Galileo Galilee, Machiavelli, and the Medici family among others. Like most of the cities we’ve visited, the vast majority of people in the city are tourists.

The four amigos (me, Donna, Bonny, Steph) tracked down an awesome little bakery for lunch—not before Donna had her 17th-20th scoops of gelato at 10:22 AM of course—that was a little bit away from the tourist traps. We enjoyed a sit and some pizza and fresh deli sandwiches. The next task was to find a café our guide told us about that had free Internet. That didn’t work out as well. Shortly after admitting defeat, Bonny exasperatedly turned to me and said, “WHERE are we going and WHAT are we doing?” A presumably American woman turned around and looked at us and could not hold in the laughter. Her family had just left after an 8 day visit and she could empathize. It was a fun, shared moment. WHERE did we go and WHAT did we do? Gelato, of course!

This evening we were treated to a Tuscan dinner, complete with a performance from an Opera singer. The meal was five courses I believe though the wine should count as a course as well because it was free-flowing. For my money, the best course was the antipasta buffet. The other courses were pasta and lasagna (one course, these Italians do it right!), salad, roast beef of some sort, and a flamed Alaskan cake or something, i.e. ice cream cake. On the way to dinner, we got a group photo taken for Contiki. We also got some nice shots of the four amigos as well as new friends from the tour.

Emily posted a comment saying she didn’t see new photos on Snapfish – is anyone checking out the photos there? I’ve gone back and added pictures to the ‘I need an editor!’ post. This morning we are preparing to leave for Rome for our last two days with the Contiki group. Two days until the World Cup starts, are you ready?

My Giant

2006-06-07T02:33:00.000-04:00

Note: Donna wrote this for Monday, June 5

During the long hours on the bus, Andrew and I tried to pass away the time playing gin rummy and learning Italian from my handy Italian phrase book. For some reason they think it is important to teach you how to say, “I am Bill Gates”; “Is it better than McDonalds”; and “This smells like a locker room” just to name a few. Go figure. I skipped those phrases and spent my time memorizing the gelato section.

Bonny and Stephanie also played a little gin rummy today, although it would have made my dad cry to watch Bonny attempt to remember the rules. First she beat Steph in three hands and only when Andrew started to watch did we realize how she did it so quickly. She was getting runs, but not matching suits. King of Hearts, Queen of Spades, Jack of Diamonds…you get the picture. Second, she continued a winning streak by counting her points in her hand by how many cards she had, 3 cards, that would be three points. We never did figure out why it didn’t throw her that Steph got 17 points, but only 10 cards.

Andrew has affectionately been given the nickname “My Giant” from the tour group. He is by far the tallest person in our group and has a personality to match his height. Today we had another long bus ride on our way to Florence. We actually drove by Florence so that we could take these awesome photos proving just how gigantic Andrew really is. Not only could he effortlessly hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but he was also easily able to crush it with one finger. I had much more trouble holding the tower up and had to get several others to attempt the feat at the same time to help me hold it up. Actually Pisa was a pretty little town, but the best part of it was watching about 100 or so adults standing with their arms in the air in order to get their picture holding up the tower. Andrew was quite amused. I hope you all appreciate the sight, as he took a photo. We didn’t do much else in Pisa, although I did find the time to try four more scoops of gelato.

Tonight we checked into our hotel on the outskirts of Florence and finally found internet access, which we both have been in desperate need of for several days. To be connected again! We had dinner out in Florence with the group and then headed in for a relaxing night back in the hotel. We will spend an entire day out in Florence tomorrow. It is supposed to rain, but I hope the weather holds. It is storming like crazy right now.

Links to Photos

2006-06-05T16:25:00.000-04:00

Photo Albums

Enjoy!

I need an editor!

2006-06-05T15:59:00.000-04:00

Yikes! So I just noticed my creative labeling of days in the last post. I think it is a good sign. Losing track of days that badly only happens on holiday, no? Donna has since fixed it and also added photos.

The delay with posting was once again caused by the inability of a hotel to provide Internet access. For 3 Euro an hour, I could use their computer but their computer doesn’t have our beautiful pictures so I opted to wait. I am struggling to get the blogger site to work on the connection we're using here in Florence so I am going to just post links to our photos at snapfish.

Saturday, June 3

Today was a travel day, and our roughest yet by efficiency standards. Due to a traffic jam in rural Germany presumably caused by its residents leaving before the crazies (see the picture Josh linked to) enter to attend the World Cup, we were set back about two and a half hours. Our final destination was Venice though we had stops planned in Innsbrook, Austria and Verona, Italy.

We stopped in Innsbrook for lunch and for a shopping stop at a famous crystal maker who Donna can tell you about. You may see one of her purchases hanging around her neck in some of the photos we have. I skipped the crystal shop and wandered around the city. Donna charged me with taking photos of “pretty stuff”. I think I did a decent job. The city is set in a valley and has a clean, beautiful river running thru it with snow-capped mountains in the background so getting post-card worthy photos wasn’t too difficult.

From Innsbrook we headed to Verona. Donna and I donned US soccer paraphernalia just to make sure the Italians know we will mean business on June 17. Unfortunately I think there were only two or three Italians in Verona. Nonetheless, we got a group photo by a statue of Juliet whose left breast is incredibly more shiny than RB (right breast). Apparently this is due to the myth that rubbing her left bosom gives you good luck in love. Donna and I left that for the others as we are quite happy with our luck so far, at least I am! She can speak for herself. We were quite pleased with the warm temperatures in Italy. It was probably close to 72 when we stepped off the bus. 72 feels pretty awesome after over a week of rainy and chilly weather, or rilly as I like to call it.

After a quick hour walking around Verona, we hopped back on the coach to head for Venice or Venezia as it is known here. We finally made it to our hotel a little before 9. The hotel isn’t in Venice—I’m not really sure where it is, Treviso maybe—but the hotel staff served us a heck of a meal so I don’t really care where it is. We had a four course Italian meal: pasta, roasted chicken, salad, and fruit. Donna skipped out on dinner to degrump after a long day on the coach. She should be well-rested for our big day on the island of Venice tomorrow.

Sunday, June 4

Bonjorno! Today was my kind of day. We were dropped off by a ferry in Venice and after watching a quick glass-blowing demo, were left to set our own agenda for the day. Donna and I took it pretty easy, moseying around the city where the only modes of transportation are boat and Pete and Tom, aka right leg and left leg. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was warm in the sun but not too warm, and perfect I dare say by the water. The pictures will show that we actually got some color in our faces today…pretty cool, eh?

This was news to me, but Venice is known for its glass and lace. Donna wasn’t into the lace and nobody wants to see me in lace, so we decided to purchase a glass vase. We also got a couple of T-shirts, one you will probably see in the pictures.

Like Verona, Venice is a city of tourists. Pretty much everyone speaks English so Donna had no trouble ordering EIGHT scoops of gelato today, four at a time. I neglected to mention that she had four yesterday in Verona. Our group is having a competition to see who can eat the most and I think Donna has eaten more than everyone else in the group combined. She is a machine. I’m beginning to think it is the only reason she planned this part of the trip. She assures me the competition has nothing to do with her eating prowess, that the attention she’s getting is a bit embarrassing.

My favorite part of today was hanging out in Campo San Marco, or St Mark’s Square.

I had planned to re-enact the “I love this woman” commercial with Donna and the pigeons; I even had a videographer/sister-in-law on standby, but alas Donna wasn’t up for it. No surprise there. I don’t think I’d have been up for it anyway, due to the sheer amount of people in the campo.

We wrapped up the evening with a six-person gondola ride and an authentic Italian meal. An Aussie couple joined the four usual suspects for the gondola ride: we had a good time cruising thru the canals of Venice.

The best part of dinner was the red wine. It put everyone in good spirits and made for an entertaining ferry then bus ride back to the hotel. The food was pretty good, but nothing too special.

Tomorrow we leave Venice and head to Florence where Donna will no doubt check out the local gelato.

I certainly hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Thanks for checking in with us. We’ll post again soon.

All the best,
Andre W.

We've been to four countries since we last posted

2006-06-02T18:40:00.000-04:00

Hi there, sorry for the delay in posting. Apparently this here Internet thing has not quite made it to Lucerne, Switzerland. They probably claim to be the most technologically advanced country in the world, just like they claim to have the best army...will we ever know if they don't use either? Here are some posts from our last three days. The connection is kind of slow so I may not get pictures up tonight.

Wednesday, May 31
Bonjour mes amis. Today was a pretty awesome day. The weather sucked for short stretches, but Paris is Paris--no? Donna and I must've walked 20 miles, no exaggeration. We are exhausted...probably about as exhausted as I must've been last night when I spelled ferry, F-A-I-R-Y! Wow, the ladies got a laugh out of that this evening when they were catching up on the blog and my lovely wife pointed it out. We visited The Opera House, Le Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, the building where Napoleon is entombed, the Champs D'Elysee, Notre Dame, the Pantheon (not to be confused with the other one), Musee D'Orsy, Rodin's The Thinker and many beautiful bridges along the Seine. I got to hear Donna tell her favorite Paris joke three times.

What are you if you jump in the river in Paris? You are in Seine, i.e. insane. Ha ha ha ha ha

After hitting the major tourist traps at Le Louvre--aka Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo (under construction, big surprise), and the Winged Something or other, we stumbled across some less visited areas of Le Louvre including a representation of Napoleon III's chambers. We found the replicas on our way to visit Donna's favorite painting: The Coronation. The print above our bed does not do the thing justice: it is huge and detailed and awe-inspiring. Next, we headed to the Notre Dame or so was the plan. We walked for about 10 minutes along the Seine in the opposite direction that we should have. We retraced our steps, in the rain, and arrived at our destination just as the clouds parted and the sun made a brief appearance.

Donna got some great shots and then we started looking for a place to refuel. We settled on a cafe that might be called Le Brasseriee; we're guessing Brasserie may mean cafe because it was printed over many of the awnings in Paris.

I had no clue what the waiter said when he greeted us. I did a non-committal nod/shake and said 'Parlez vous..." when he cut me off and said: "Non!" What if I asked "Parlez vous Francais?" This made us a bit nervous, but it all worked out in the end. We did our best to speak French, ordering seis escargots a salate and quiche. To me, the snails tasted like heavily garliced dirt...not the delicious kind with cool whip and pudding, real plant your flowers in it dirt. So Donna had five of them. Apparently her tastes are more refined. We were lucky to only want six because we could only get to 10 in French. If we wanted 12, we would've had to find a creative way to put the one and two together. Un y deux? The waiter was very kind and accommodating and we felt happy to have survived. This experience was Donna's favorite part of Paris.

For the next several hours, we walked around in the rain seeing the sights listed above.

I took advantage of the padded seats at the top of the Arc de Triomphe by taking a three minute catnap. Donna and I caught up with Bonny and Steph outside the Musee D'Orsy a little after 6.

We were all incredibly exhausted and ready to sit down to eat. Finding a place was not as easy as we'd hoped. The first place we settled on closed their kitchen just as we went in. The second place seemed sketchy and I wish they would have closed their kitchen before we got our food. I ordered saucisse and frites, translated on the menu as sausage and french fries. My plate came and, yeah, there were fries, but my saucisses were two boiled hot dogs minus a bun. Yuck. Donna ordered ham and frites and got what looked like deli meat sliced into neat thin, bacon-like strips. Bonny had an omelette and Steph had a salad; they were pleased with their choices and amused by mine. We hit the streets to make our way back to the hotel. On the way, we made a pit stop for crepes. I've got to admit I was a bit disappointed, but I don't think we found the best vendor.

On the metro, Steph had a fine encounter with a French man. We were standing holding onto the poles in the subway when the man stood up, presumably because his stop was next. He reached to grab the same pole as Steph and as he did made some solid contact with Steph's bosom. We all saw it happen and it wasn't a big deal until we noticed the extended eye contact he was holding, as if he was saying, "Yeah, I touched your bosom, eh. Consider yourself blessed." Once he exited, we had a good laugh.

Back at the hotel, we packed up our stuff and got ready to board the coach early to head to Switzerland.

Thursday, June 1

Happy Birthday Jake. Today was pretty uneventful; most of our day was spent on the coach riding thru France to Switzerland. Bonny and Steph found ways to stay entertained during our stops at rest stops.

The weather was cold and rainy and the views were not terribly interesting. Most of the drive was thru rural areas of farmland and the like. Once in Lucerne, we got off the bus and walked the city in about an hour. It is quite small. The two major sites were a chapel bridge and a carving of a lion that represented the involvement of the Swiss Military in the French revolution.

Perhaps the tour manager was keeping us from seeing our digs for the night as long as she could. Our curiosities were all piqued because the hotel was a jail as recent as eight years ago. Good for the hotel, they didn't seem to have to do much renovation to "convert" the jail into a "hotel". For a jail, it might be considered comfortable...for a hotel, not so much.

But hey, we're not touring hotels in Europe, we're touring the cities. Sleeping in a cement walled dungeon for a night wasn't so bad. I just wish they had Internet! In the evening, we had a cruise on Lake Lucerne. The water is beautiful, exceptionally clean and surrounded by nice greenery. Unfortunately the weather was rainy and miserable so we could not see much on the banks.

Even so, the captain of our ferry made the trip interesting with his colorful commentary. We headed back to jail, did not pass go, did not collect 200 Franks and prepared for another early start and day of travel.

Friday, June 2

Gutentag. Hello from Munich, a rebuilt city that I found to be quite enjoyable and endearing. The Germans have all been very friendly, tons of people are out and about, and the city is clean and seemingly easy to navigate. We did not arrive until close to 5 after driving thru Switzerland, stopping off in Liechtenstein for lunch,

and passing thru Austria. I feel more worldly now that I have more than just US and Jamaica stamps in my passport.

Before leaving for Munich, we spent the morning near Mt Stanserhornbahn in Switzerland.

Donna did not have it in her to take the cog railway up to the top of the mountain so we wondered about in the small village with an Aussie couple. We started the day in the village with a hot chocolate at a cafe. Our waitress only spoke Swiss German, so we felt fortunate to communicate our hot chocolate and latte orders correctly. It is a lot more difficult being a foreigner in a foreign land without any knowledge of the local language than I expected it would be. We've survived, but I've definitely gained some perspective whatever that over-used cliche means.

Bonny at the top of the mountain

Our view at the bottom of the mountain

Tonight we had about an hour in Munich to spend before going to dinner at the Hofbrauhaus.

Glockenspiel

Donna got some Birkenstocks for 50 Euro and we checked out the pre-World Cup gear that is on sale. I don't think it is possible to get more excited about the world Cup, but if it was it happened tonight. The Hofbrauhaus was insane. Lots of crazy tourists drinking liters of beer and singing and shouting and cheersing. Donna and I sat with four members of our tour group that we had not talked with so it was good to get to know them.

After polishing off our liters, we headed back to our hotel which is a step or four up from the jail. We're only here for one night. Tomorrow we are headed to Venice, with stops in Austria and Verona (home of Romeon & Juliet). Our bodies are still quite sore from the 20+ miles of walking in Paris, so another few hours on the coach won't be so bad.

A new word that has entered my vocabulary is blogworthy. To be sure, there are countless events that Donna, Bonny, Steph or I have labeled as blogworthy that have not made it into the blog. Writing these entries and posting the photos and then sharing them with you has helped us recapture the joy we've so recently experienced. We are having an awesome time and are so glad we have 16 more days! We've loved to see your comments and hope they keep coming. If you have been reading the blog and haven't posted a comment, please do or send me an email just so I know who is reading. Donna helped me with these entries, but she has some stories she'd like to share on her own. I think the liter of beer she consumed prevented her from posting them tonight. We'll get them up soon. We miss you and are glad you are keeping up with us. Have a great weekend.

God's Peace,
Andrew

Bonjour, Merci - Tuesday, May 30

2006-05-30T18:54:00.000-04:00

Man, I wish I knew how to speak French. Greetings from Paris. After several hours on the bus and a relatively short fairy ride, we arrived at our hotel on the outskirts of Paris late this afternoon. We checked into our hotel, relaxed for an hour or so, had dinner, then headed into the city of lights for a bus tour. I learned something new....I don't like bus tours. I'm not an auditory kind of guy so several hours of fast-talking from our tour manager does little more than annoy me. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's "free day" in Paris. Funny, my bank account might disagree with Contiki's idea of free.

Nonetheless, we had barrels of laughs with Steph and Bonny.

Enjoy the photos. More is to come.

Au revoir

Snapfish Photos

A few samples

making our way to the mainland (no that is not a chaw, I just like to do new and stupid things with my face when being photographed)

Paris is for lovers

and sisters

obligatory shot

from high above paris

Pictures to Prove It - Monday, May 29

2006-05-29T20:30:00.000-04:00

Almost forgot

and the link to our Edinburgh photos

Combined Effort - Monday, May 29

2006-05-29T20:00:00.000-04:00

Note: Donna wrote the beginning of this guy as well; she is becoming quite a prolific writer.

This will be a short blog, because the day is not over. I am sure Andrew will write more later.

We slept until 10:30 this morning, it felt so good. After showering and packing we checked out of our hotel and loaded Andrew up with the luggage and hit the tube to find Imperial Hotel. After much swearing and me almost breaking down in tears, we finally found it and were able to check-in the hotel.

Bonny and Steph are right next door to us and we caught up with them around noon. After a brief chat and exchange of hellos we got some grub. Bonny was not thrilled with her uncooked bacon and lettuce sandwich, but the rest of us did ok with the food today.

Andrew and I went with Bonny and Steph to the Tower of London where we parted ways until 6 tonight. Andrew and I were rewarded for our journey on the tube with them to the Tower with more soft-serve with flake.

We’ve been at the hotel since about 3 recovering from our first four days and updating our blog. Tonight we have a meeting with our tour group and then see Les Miserables. Tomorrow Paris!

+ + +

Tonight we did indeed see Les Mis. It was very enjoyable. The theatre held about 1000 people and only performs Les Miserables. I expected less jeans, more jackets from the audience but it did not take away from our enjoyment of the performances. Jean Valjean was brilliant. The little boy was a hoot. Donna cried. I didn't, but I did get goose bumps.

Tonight after the show I settled into our hotel's atrium to post the entries we wrote this afternoon. Unfortunately the wireless network was not working so I walked a few blocks to the Imperial Hotel's sister hotel, the Royal National. Ambitious names, aren't they? Well, the network is up here and thus the sudden information overload. Some more photos are posted on our snapfish site, but they don't have the clever captions you have come to love and mock.

We are off to Paris in just about five and a half hours so I better head back to the hotel to pack.

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day and comment again soon!

All the best,
Andrew

Not a travel agent, eh? - Sunday, May 28

2006-05-29T19:52:00.000-04:00

Note: Donna wrote this one too

In the first few days I found that I have not been called to be a tour guide. Just shortly after 3:30 am this morning I realized, I should add travel agent to the list of things that I am not suited for. I planned our lovely excursion to Edinburgh, Scotland with the intent to have as much time as we needed to see the city. I did not account for the fact that we would need sleep or the fact that we would be worn out from three days of touring London. Oh well, right?

We had to wake up by 3:30 to catch a 4:30 train to Gatwick. A clue that under no circumstance should any person be awake at 4:30 am, was that the tube didn’t start operating until 6 am. We caught a cab to Victoria Station and made it with plenty of time for the 4:30 am train. Our flight was at 6:30 am and I fell asleep as soon as we sat down. Andrew, who seemed more exhausted than I did, only managed to get a 20 minute nap in…his body apparently has a 20-minute limit for airplane naps. I got off the plane feeling refreshed and Andrew got off the plane and wanted to crawl into bed.

With absolutely no clue of what we should do in Scotland, we decided we should start with the obvious…breakfast. We found a hidden little hole in the wall where I got uncooked bacon and egg and Andrew got last night’s trash. Amazingly, he didn’t quite finish his meal.

We followed Frommer’s guide on Edinburgh for most of the day. Edinburgh, much like London is currently under construction. We started out at the Edinburgh Castle, where we were appalled at the admissions’ price; that is until we realized that you could spend about a half-day just walking around and seeing all of the museums. I was amazed by how many tourist shops they had 1000 years ago. You’d think that sort of thing would have been weird in a castle, but no, just about every 50 feet they had one, just in case. As amazing as the castle and museums inside were, the most enjoyable part of our visit inside the castle was the 10 minute movie on Scotland’s tradition of war. The first time it was interesting, the second time it gave us both a chance for a much needed power nap.

Next we walked down the Royal mile and saw all of the well known sites. I’d tell you what they were, but we didn’t have the book out and I haven’t read it to find out what we took a picture of. Here are two of the better shots:

We next attempted a nice walk up a hill that Andrew thought would take at least an hour to complete, but I didn’t think so. Half-way there in under 5 minutes, we confirmed what I have always known, I was right.

We spent some time hunting for some strange monument. Once there we sat around and rested on the hill. Andrew informed me that the monuments are incomplete and are considered “Edinburgh’s Disgrace.” I thought they were neat.

We found some food then walked around a bit. I introduced Andrew to one of Britain’s finer sides, the soft-serve ice cream, with flake. Realizing that my schedule had allowed just too much time, we headed for the airport where Andrew finally got that much needed rest. The flight left at 9 pm and we got to the airport at 5. I think he got at least 2-3 hours in and I was the hero for suggesting it.

We finally got home and went to bed shortly after midnight. Now I know for future planning that a 21 hour day is not a good idea.

London under construction - Saturday, May 27

2006-05-29T19:41:00.000-04:00

Note: Donna wrote this, but I am posting under my name because she is back at the hotel sleeping.

With having done so much on Saturday, I figured I need to stick my two cents in about the day as well.

Apparently we have managed to get here when just about all things in London are being renovated. Notice the picture of St. Pauls is half drawing. We also saw a nice photo of what the Nelson statue in Trafalgar Square should look like. It’s nice that they show you what you should be seeing.

We went to St. Paul’s today, just about my favorite place in London. Apparently other people must think so too, because it has doubled in price since I went in 2000. I have the ticket stubs to prove it. I felt rather guilty after seeing Andrew at the top of St. Paul’s (after 530 steps) sheet white with sweat dripping down his face. I asked if he was ok on the way down and he just told me to keep walking. I had a long trip down trying to figure out how to get him to forgive me for convincing him to go to the top. We made up rather quickly and then caught up with the Neffs. We spent a few minutes marveling at how our legs wouldn’t stop shaking. Apparently none of us is in that good of shape and our legs were crying out for help.

Later in the day we headed toward the British Museum. I lead the way and had us get off at Euston Station where we walked through the Quaker House and the tiny park that smells like piss and on to my old dorm (Campbell House). I made Andrew take a picture of me in front of the door. It was great to see it and I couldn’t help but smile.

Busy Day - Saturday, May 27

2006-05-29T19:14:00.000-04:00

We did it. We woke up early and arrived at Westminster Abbey before it opened. That is no small feat for four people sharing one hotel room, one bathroom and two single beds. I did not know so many people were entombed at Westminster Abbey. It seemed that I could not take two steps without walking on someone’s gravestone. The intricacies of the 1000+ year old structure were humbling as were the memorials to children, royalty, poet laureates and most especially the unknown warrior. It was quite moving to read the epitaph on the gravestone that was surrounded by red flowers.

Beneath this stone rests the body
Of a British warrior
Unknown by name or rank
Brought from France to lie among
The most illustrious of the land
And buried here on Armistice Day
11 Nov: 1920, in the presence of
His Majesty King George V
His ministers of state
The chiefs of his forces
And a vast concourse of the nation

Thus are commemorated the many
Multitudes who during the Great
War of 1914 - 1918 gave the most that
Man can give life itself
For God
For King and country
For loved ones home and Empire
For the sacred cause of justice and
The freedom of the world

They buried him among the kings
Because he
Had done good toward God and
Toward
His house

From Westminster Abbey we went to Shakespeare’s Globe, a recreation of the theatre where Shakespeare’s plays were put on.

None of us were very enthused to go on the tour, but it proved to be quite captivating. We learned lots of fun trivia about watching plays in Shakespeare’s day. For instance, there were seats behind and above the stage that cost six times more than the SRO tickets and three times more than the regular seats. People bought the seats because they went to the theatre to be seen. It was not uncommon for them to arrive 30 – 45 minutes late. When they arrived, the play would pause and the actors would catch them up. “I’m Romeo, He’s Mercutio – we’re best friends, about to fight some members of the Capulet family with whom we’ve had a longstanding rivalry...” Hilarious. Also, our guide told us that Shakespeare’s plays were laced with local references that only the most aware Londoners these days would catch. “A rose by any other name still smells as sweet,” is a clever illustration and a pun mocking a rival theatre called The Rose that sat on a street that’s sewers smelled awful. Donna and I picked out a cool poster that lists about 10 common phrases and their Shakespearean origin…it’s like Shakespeare’s take on the Jeff Foxworthy You Might Be a Redneck jokes. You’re quoting Shakespeare if…To see the actual poster and phrases you’ll have to visit the new house!

St Paul’s Cathedral was similar to Westminster Abbey, equally impressive and humbling. A little weary from reading about so many dead people, we spent a few minutes whispering silliness across the Whispering Gallery. It took several tries, but there is no mistaking the hilarious, falsetto voice of Dr Neff saying, “I can heeeeaarrrr yooouuu!” The whispering gallery was about half-way up to the top of the cathedral, so about 265 steps. It’s harder than it sounds. The trudging up the steps confirmed my discomfort with tight spaces and high places without high fences. I felt pretty crappy but think I may have looked worse (see Donna’s entry following). I was sweating bullets, my face was completely flushed and I felt terribly jittery. Maybe I’d fit in more with the urban men here with their hair product and murses (man purses). Here's a picture of my nightmare (thanks Curtis)

Donna took some great panoramic photos of London from the top of the cathedral so she thought the trip up was worth it.

After making our way down, we learned some about the Church of England’s Anglican Church and how it is still alive today with 170 million members. (I had to resist converting that 170 million to American.) They hold services daily at St Paul’s though the majority of the denomination is made up of Asians and Africans. The final point of interest in the Cathedral was the memorial to the Americans who lost their lives in World War II. In many of the sites we’ve visited, the strong relationship Britain has with the United States is on display but perhaps none more than there at St Paul’s.

All this we did before lunch. Amazing, eh?

We did the pub thing for lunch again. The friendly bloke who took my order and I had a bit of trouble communicating. I asked for filet (pronounced how you read it) of cod and he never heard of such a thing. After three tries I went to “the fish and chips” and he said, “Oh, the filet (pronounced fill-it).” I’ve found I don’t like soda in London so I usually go with a pint of whatever. My mind wasn’t quite made up and I was flustered from the filet fiasco so when the barkeep asked me what to drink I said, “a pint of something.” He said, “Well, that’s helpful.” I asked him to help me out and after telling Donna of our exchange she asked me to share it.

Him: Bitter or Lager

Me: Lager (does he know I haven’t a clue)

Him: You have four options. This one is overpriced, this one tastes like piss, this one is nicknamed the wife-beater due to the tendency of lads to act crazy after just two pints, this one is in the middle. Me: I’ll have the middle guy, thanks.

After we were sufficiently recharged, we trekked to Donna’s old stomping grounds from her summer at the University of London.

The British Museum was nearby so we went inside for about an hour though 45 minutes of the hour was spent trying to locate a usable toilet for the ladies. We were able to check out some of the Egyptian artifacts on display. Cold, wet, and tired, we called it a day.

We decided to send the Neffs back to Sweden in a three-way trade with America. It was great have someone to take pictures of Donna and me together…oh, and it was nice to see them as well. For our trade, we got Bonny, Steph and a group of tourists to be named later. We’ll let you know how that works out after the Contiki tour.

More Photos

2006-05-27T14:51:00.000-04:00

Here is a link to photos we took yesterday:

Road to the World Cup Photos (RTWC) 2006-05-26

A Day of Near Misses

2006-05-27T14:17:00.000-04:00

Note: I wrote this last night, May 26.

Near miss is one of those annoying terms I try to avoid because it doesn't make sense: if it is a near miss, isn't it a make? Nevertheless, today we managed to have a blast with the Neffs amidst several near misses. Our lovely tour guide, Donna, had planned a wonderful itinerary for our day. We did not realize how time-sensitive it was until a comical series of unfortunate events.

To avoid waiting in line (or queue if you will) for too long, we planned to be at Westminster Abbey by 9 AM after eating at a 24-hour London diner. The queue was quite long when we arrived around noon after sleeping in and the Starbucks' drinkers partaking in the consumption of their favorite Starbucks' beverage. My scar was burning especially badly, perhaps because of the proximity of the evil forces: Starbucks and He Who Must Not Be Named. We decided to skip the waiting and go back early Saturday. So we headed to The National Gallery.

We saw works by Rembrandt, Monet, Seurat and other influential artists. It is amazing how accessible these priceless pieces of art are. It made me think of Ghostwritten and The Da Vinci Code. Apparently looking at art builds up an appetite because we were all pretty hungry.

We went to an English-style pub where the men had fish and chips with their pints while the women had womanly meals. Next we hopped on the Underground and headed to Vinopolis to buy tickets for a wine tasting. When we arrived, we were told to simply come back when we were ready: advanced purchases were not necessary. So we walked about 10 minutes to the Shakespeare Globe where we were told to either buy a ticket for the matinee that was in progress or come back before noon tomorrow if we wanted to see the inside of the theatre. So we crossed the River Thames again and headed to St. Paul's Cathedral and arrived 30 minutes before it closed for the Evening Song Service. So we crossed the River Thames again and headed back to Vinopolis. The busted plans did not bother anyone.

For me, I just enjoy being in the city. Surrounded by buildings that are thousands of years old and people from all over the world speaking different languages is enough to keep me entertained. The wine tasting was fun. We learned why you swirl the wine, what to look for and how to smell and taste it. Donna and I learned that there are many wines we don't like, notably Smelly Socks Wine and Wine that Tastes Like Wood are two of them. I don't think those are their official names, but that is how I'll remember them. As part of our tour we also tasted Absinthe and three whiskeys. Curtis especially enjoyed the Tilaskey whiskey and ended up buying a bottle. Some video I took after the tastings may make it up here. We had a good laugh. My drink of preference is still a Cherry Coke.

For dinner, Curtis had suggested Chinatown or Little China as Donna likes to call it. He had fond memories of walking by restaurants with crispy ducks (with their heads attached) hanging in the window. Here we are (3 Photogenic People and a Bloke):

We ate at a restaurant with some such setup. The food was good, we all enjoyed it but Curt did the most. We've got the picture to prove it. Here Curtis is doing cleanup duty, finishing off Donna and Therese's meals.

From dinner we headed to the Easy Internet Cafe to finalize our plans for tomorrow. We're planning to head back to Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral and take a tour of Fulham Football Club's grounds, Craven Cottage. We'll see how that works out.

Thanks again for all the comments. They make this worthwhile.

All the best,
Andrew

End of Day One

2006-05-25T16:35:00.000-04:00

There are signs at the tube stations that say "Way Out" and point you in the direction to the street. Andrew has likened that phrase to "far out". So far, this trip has been "Way Out!" With all of my planning, I don't have things down exactly. I have led us in the wrong direction several times, only to admit that I think we went the wrong way after it was obvious to both of us. I think Andrew should fire his tour guide, but so far he is sticking with me. I am going to try harder tomorrow to actually look at the map and not try to do it by memory. We'll see how that goes, I don't exactly love the proverbial blinking red arrow pointing to the tourist below when I walk around with a map open. It's been nice reading your comments, keep them coming.

-Donna

First Fotos

2006-05-25T13:09:00.000-04:00

Hi there, us again. We are battling the jet lag. Expect more entries from us as we try to stay awake until at least 9 PM. I'm working on two and a half hours' sleep; Donna about five and half. Took a little nap this afternoon after taking lots of pictures. Before we head off to Wagamama's for dinner, we wanted to post some of the photos we took today. We are really happy with the new camera. Maybe we'll have a video up after we visit with Curtis and Therese. They are scheduled (pronounced shhhheduled) to arrive from Sweden around 2 AM.

Here are two photos:

Here is the link to these two and 12 more photos that we took today:
Day One London Photos

Enjoy!

Arrived

2006-05-25T04:12:00.000-04:00

Hello from London. After entertaining ourselves by counting Vera Bradley bags (8) in the Atl airport and stopping by an airport in the 51st state (Canada), we made the trek across the pond and landed at Heathrow at 5:55 AM GMT. We took the underground to our hotel to drop our bags, which seemed like way too many and way too heavy to my old, tired shoulders. Adjusting quite well, I asked the way to the wash room and made it there and used it European style.

We should have some photos of the River Thames as well as photos of the Neffs up tomorrow.

Thanks for all the comments already. We hope you keep them coming.

All the best,
A&D

Almost Ready / Itinerary

2006-05-20T16:16:00.000-04:00

Donna and I are flying to London in four days.

Today we bought a digital camera, a Canon PowerShot, so we can share lots of pictures as we travel from Atlanta to Bad Sobernheim and everywhere in between.

We're hoping this blog will help us keep in touch with you while thousands of miles apart. We're looking forward to your witty, clever comments.

You can leave us a voice message by calling 1-800-706-1333, *2 and entering our account number 7211222222104 (that's seven twos, six consecutive).

All the best,
Andrew & Donna

Here's where we're headed.
05/25: London
05/28: Edinburgh
05/29: London
05/30: Paris
06/01: Lucerne
06/02: Munich
06/03: Venice
06/05: Florence
06/07: Rome
06/09: Milan
06/12: Duisburg
06/13: Hannover
06/14: Amsterdam
06/15: Berlin
06/17: Bad Sobernheim

Games We're Attending at the World Cup
06/12: USA / Czech Republic
06/17: USA / Italy