Kirmes, Round 2

This was not our first trip to Kirmes…we were actually waiting for it this time. We were longingly remembering the corn-on-the-cob, cotton candy, chocolate covered fruit, pickles, hot dogs, potatoes…OK, this list could go on and on. Basically, we were looking forward to “fair food”.

Kirmes is the German version of the State Fair of Texas, only smaller, no exhibits, and it is basically portable. Then again, it is nothing more than just a traveling fair, so is it really akin to the SFoT? Budman and Hachie Gal are on opposite sides of that fence. Still, it was only a 5-minute walk from our house, so sure, we were up for milling around with the masses, if for no other reason than as a diversion from the heat.

Yes, it has hovered around 84 degrees in the apartment….even at night. Surely there is a break in the weather, a small rainstorm, cool front, something to look forward to in our weather future? Sorry, I am digressing.

Over the 2 weeks Kirmes graced the banks of the Rhein River, we made multiple trips…some of the highlights of our visits.

Rides and games ...I love neon…







The corn-on-cob booth...yes...we thought it was funny!



Queing up for corn-on-the-cob!.



And one of the more strange rides…entitled Mystery. Aptly named because I have no clue who this Buda-like guy is. Guess this is what you get when you cross Buda with Yoda and throw in a dash of Vulcan and Vampire for good measure. His eyes glowed in the dark, while one ear was remarkably “Star-Trek-ish” and the other was more like Buda. He even had the Buda pose, but the internal organs exposed was a bit startling. His voice sounded just like Yoda, and when his mouth moved, this caused the skin underneath his chin to flap like Jabba the Hut. Then, there were the pointed fingernails and the vampire-ish fangs. Yep, it was a mystery to us, too.



Buddy and Holly along the Kirmes version of the “midway”.





Buddy is eyeing the cotton candy machine.



Ah…cotton candy!



"Chinese" fortune telling booth…the fortune teller looks decidedly…European.





Kirmes by night.

I’ve been remiss

Sadly, a business trip often does not afford one much opportunity to check out a new destination, no matter how grand the trip may be or exotic the locale. Often, the extent to personal sightseeing is often limited to offices, meeting rooms hotels, airports, and taxis.

Thus, the Budman’s recent trip to India did not afford him too many chances to capture the spirit of India, let alone Mumbai. And for those of you who are not aware, Mumbai is Bombay. The city has been renamed, as many of India’s cities have to take back their Indian names.

So, a few of the sights of Mumbai.











Gateway to India.



Cricket - the national past-time.



Sunset.





Mumbai by night.







Now, this is a place I want to go to….

Travel photos can't be complete without…

Those of you who regularly check out the blog site know that no Budman/Hachie Gal trip can be complete without the obligatory search for THE night shot(s). True to form, we’ve tried not to let anyone down….

This just in

A German medical team gave 22 midpack runners (yep, that's where I fall) a knee MRI before and immediately after they completed a marathon. The researchers concluded that "marathon running does not cause severe, acute lesions of cartilage, ligaments, or bone marrow of the knee in well-trained runners." Source: European Radiology.

Bottom Line: No harm done; marathon running doesn't hurt the knees.

So, I can now spout medical findings, courtesy of those German doctors, to combat all those well-meaning friends who have concern for my knees in my later years. No need to worry.

Westminster Abbey and Parliament

The beautiful weather allowed for some nice photo opps…pretty recognizable places…we interspersed out walking with plenty of pit stops for shopping and refreshments.

Budman and Hachie Gal and the Houses of Parliament.





Westminster Abbey.







Big Ben.





Piccadilly Circus.

God save the Queen…or something like that

We’d decided to use a different touring approach…just sorta "go with the flow when and where the spirit moved us”. A slightly different approach for this Type-A travel organizer. The strategy paid off as we stretched our legs a bit in the city, saw some familiar as well as new sights, and had a bit more leisurely weekend than we often do when we are travelling. Some lovely photos from around Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace from St. James’ Park.



Buckingham Palace from the Mall.



Budman and Hachie Gal at Buckingham Palace.



Queen Victoria's Memorial.



Red, white, and blue flowers outside Buckingham Palace.

The London Eye

We’d been to London a number of times, and had seen a lot of the main tourists sights before. Still, we did do a bit of city walking just to see how the old sights were looking…to come later, though.

Sunday morning started off with a lovely brunch with a work colleague of Buddy’s. Thanks Chip, for taking the time to visit and touring us about your neighbourhood (he lives in Kensington/Knightsbridge area).



Interestingly enough, the Queen’s horse stables are near by his place, and we got to see them being exercised this morning.



Something we’d never done, though, was the London Eye, the big ferris wheel sponsored by BA. Since the weekend was a clear, almost cloudless, and a brigh sunny day, we couldn’t have asked for a better day to see all of London …from the sky. It was mighty hot waiting in that line, though.



Views of London from the London Eye.







Buddy on the London Eye.



Those little capsules aren’t so little. They can hold up to 32 people, but that is packing it pretty tightly. We had about 25 or so in ours this day.





Budman and Holly…on the London Eye.

I’m just not sure

We were headed to Covent Garden for lunch…it was a nice, sunny, and very warm, summer day in London. Covent Garden, just a 5 minute walk from our hotel, was full of shoppers, tourists, street musicians, opera singers, jugglers, “human monuments”, and …well, I’m just not sure.

I first spied…let’s call him “LGM” (Little Green Man)... as the Budman and I headed to our luncheon destination. There he was, sitting under the shade of one of the Covent Garden buildings, having a little pasta salad for lunch. He was even using plastic cutlery.

So, in an attempt to inject a little humor into a passing conversation, I remarked to him, as we walked leisurely by, “So, I guess even Martians have to eat?” I meant it in the nicest way possible. I was pleasant. I thought even a bit clever. Apparently not.

He said, and this is a direct quote, “Do you think that’s what I am?”. OK, it’s really good that we don’t say the first things that bubble up in our brains as my first response would have been, “Yea, duh…I would not have said it if I did not think so”. I refrained, lest the wrath of LGM be hurled down upon me.

We did see him after lunch entertaining passers-by, if you can call that entertaining.



OK, let’s observe the facts:

• LGM is green.
• I clearly see pointed ears.
• None of the Martian imagery I’ve ever seen has shown Martians with full heads of hair (he was slick as a billard’s ball up there).
• I must confess – the pseudo Roman/Greek skirt outfit he was wearing didn’t really fit but 3 out of 4 ain’t bad.

So, if LGM is in fact, not a little green man, is he supposed to be some other kind of alien? Middle earth man, a.k.a. a “Tolkenisque” creature? I’ll even go out on a limb here…some Greek mythological creature from Hades? He is carrying a hatchet. Or is LGM the metaphorical personification of Evil or Death?



You make the call.

A silent blog is not a good thing

First, apologies for the somewhat silent blog. Let’s attribute it to:

* Yes, you are tired of me saying it…long, long work hours.
* The heat…it is 89 degrees in the inferno I call an apartment (and who wants to sit in front of a hot computer?
* A nice little weekend in London.

Well, at least for me. Poor Bud was on call much of the weekend as is evidenced by the photo…his trusty blackberry friend/combo email phone thing. We're in the lovely Covent Garden area having lunch.



Yes, there are times when I yearn for the “good old days” where we are not accessible 24 x 7. Don’t get me wrong, we both suffer this challenge. I’ve been recently chastised about the whole “work-life” balance thing from a work colleague….

Never fear…the blogger’s back.

London!

It's a nice summer day, cool breeze, and the weekend is upon me...in London. Yep, does not get much better than that.

Recent bout of patriotism

It had not really occurred to me until a couple of weeks ago, but this World Cup thing also has a perhaps unintended by-product: a heightened sense of nationalism within Germany.

Germany has taken great pains to be a respected World Cup host nation, from not only the seamless organization of the games themselves, but being a “kinder, gentler” host nation. It was evidenced everywhere: from the stance on racism that was part of Germany’s mantra as the host nation, to the softer things things like acceptance of multi-culturism and multiple languages being spoken and accessible during the World Cup. I noticed a difference….

However, the biggest thing I observed was the pride of country by the German people during the event, that is not always evident on a daily basis. Whether it was because Germany served as the host nation and wanted to put “their best foot forward”, or because of the success of the Germany football team, or a combination, I can’t really be sure. Not since living here have I ever seen so many Germany flags hanging from doors and windows of homes or donning cars, nor so many people wearing German t-shirts, caps, jackets, etc.

This might sound a bit odd to Americans. When living in the US, all year long , I fly my Texas and US flag from my home, wear US-themed gear (running shorts, caps, T-shirts), and generally display pride of country. And I am not alone, as many friends and family do the same. I even had a guy from the UK who was standing in line ahead of me at the Dusseldorf airport who remarked in a similar fashion. That is not common in Germany, though.

So , it’s been nice to observe….

Things I noticed during recent grocery store runs…

It’s been a while since I remarked about the idiosyncracies of living abroad. I don’t often think about them…at least not until I am faced with one of them head on. Point in case: the grocery store.

Comment #1: Shoppers take their goods out of their carts, place them on the conveyor belt for scanning, and then bag (themselves, mind you) their groceries. Actually, that is technically not correct: they “re-cart” their items back into the metal grocery cart, only to wheel their cart out to the car, and then unload their items one by one into sacks, baskets, or boxes. What gives?

I suppose I’ve lived too long in other countries, and the "assembly line” mentality is well entrenched, but that seems to advocate the unnecessary double/triple handling of the items. Inefficient, not to mention the fact, that the Budman and I can walk to the car, put our sacks of groceries into the trunk, and speed away, leaving our fellow shoppers still unloading their carts for the second time. Yes, we are observed by fellow shoppers at both the checkout and parking garage as “three-headed monkeys”….bag your groceries at the checkout stand? What a concept….

Comment #2: Related to the first comment, the Budman likes to “get the checkers going” on this whole sack issue. OK, so no other shoppers are bagging their groceries at the check-out line, so obviously no need for the “paper or plastic” discussion. Still, Budman likes to open the sacks we’ve brought with us, place them in the cart as open and wheel the cart past the checker just as the employee begins the scanning.

Without fail, the checker about has whiplash trying to peer over the counter, into our cart, and bags…in the off chance that we are trying to sneak a bag of potato chips through without paying. Not that we would, but it is fun to “have a little fun” with the checker.

Comment #3: Finally, fresh spinach leaves for a nice grilled chicken salad. I’ve just waited over a year. Enough said.