An Accomplishment!

I'm so proud of myself.  Today I bought more cell phone minutes from the local post office, called up the service number on my cell phone, and keyed in the code, even though both the instructions spoken by the cell phone service AND the cell phone receipt were all in German!  No English!

Okay, so I had to listen to the instructions on the cell phone about four or five times, but I did it and got confirmation via text message that I now have more minutes!  Yay!

Pretty danged good for someone who never took German lessons, if I say so myself.  :-)

Family Vacation!

So I got my lifetime wish at last:  John, Derek, and I finally had our family vacation. The last time we went on a family vacation away from home was when Derek was three years old.  He is now twenty-three.  Twenty years since we've gone on a vacation away from home.

Now we're in Germany and at last, at last we're visiting historical places and going to different cities.

The Beer Bicycle

So, with Oktoberfest at a close, I discover this answer to drinking and driving:

http://www.bierbike-aachen.de/das-bierbike.html

Yes, it's a beer bike.  You rent out this contraption, have a bunch of your friends pedal the thing, while another (sober) person steers it, all the while touring the city of your choice as you all drink beer on tap.

Those Germans think of everything when it comes to accommodating Oktoberfest.

The city of Dusseldorf has decided to forbid the use of these beer bikes (you can't use them without a permit in Dusseldorf), not because of the drinking and driving issue, but because they're slow, and some passengers have fallen off and obstructed traffic (no one killed, though).

No, I have not tried this thing, partly because I'm not sure how many people I can get to go in on this with me, although it does look interesting.

The Alien Child has Arrived in Germany

After a series of mishaps, the boy is here at last.  The incoming Delta flight into Amsterdam was a bit late, and because of customs/security checks, he couldn't run fast enough to make the connecting flight to Dusseldorf at the other end of the airport.  The next flight was full, he missed the next flight because he fell asleep, and then he finally caught the one that arrived at 10:30 pm, a full 12 hours later than he was supposed to arrive.

It was a hassle for us, in that we left home and had to return three times; problem is that it takes about as much time for us to drive to Dusseldorf as it does for the plane to travel from Amsterdam to Dusseldorf, so the first time we ended up waiting a long time, the second time we almost got to the parking garage, and the third time we finally retrieved him. 

He seemed nevertheless to enjoy the extended layover, as it  gave him the opportunity to talk with people from many nationalities  and discuss their culture and beliefs while waiting around in the  airport, as well as explain a few things about the United States (such  as it's not technically a democracy, but a republic; and how there can  be different laws depending on what state you're in, instead of every  state having the exact same laws). In fact, he seemed at one point to  get an international discussion going with a group of people from  various nations regarding culture and politics; I think  he had a British, Dutch, French, German, and Nigerian discussing things.  He tried out the alternative tuning of a Frenchman's guitar, and he also flirted with a Dutch gal.  Since he got some enjoyable international discussions out of it, it's not a total waste.

Still, it's a relief finally getting him over here. 

Going back to the U.S.

Well, we just got the word today:  we'll be going back to the U.S. at the end of December.  We had hoped that we could have stayed until June or so--there were so many places and things we wanted to see and do, and there would have been more than enough work for John to do...if the customer had decided to proceed with the project.  However, governments all over are cutting budgets, and I think the project John was working on was not high enough priority for it to continue.  At least he has a job to go back to when we go back to the States, so that's good.

Still, I had wanted to visit England all my life, but I'm going to have to let that dream go.  I did get to go to Paris, and that was great, although I still have yet to see the Louvre.  Maybe if we get really lucky, we might be able to take a trip back to Europe some day...but...well, we'll see.

I'll have to find a full-time job right away when we get back; there are still college loans to pay, and improvements we should make on our house, not the least of which is a good interior paint!  So there is much work to do be done when we get home.  I hope I get a job very quickly, because I'm also going to have to get a car right away.  It's not like here, in Germany and the Netherlands, where you can get along very well by bicycle or train.  There are no commuter trains back home, not where work is, and bus service is limited.  Bicycling...well, it's very hilly at home, and so huffing and puffing up a steep 200 foot incline is not my cup of tea.

I admit I'm sad and had a small session that involved some tears...I was just getting to know the culture and discovering so many things and making friends!  But I did achieve the dream of going to Europe, and Derek will be here in less than a week and a half, so we'll have a family vacation at last, a dream I've had for the last 20 years (yeah, we haven't had a family vacation in that long).  So that's another thing to be happy about.  Two lifetime dreams achieved.  :-)

Whew.  Well, it's going to be rather difficult going back home, and a bit of a strain on our budget, but we'll manage, I'm sure.  We always do.

Trying to find the Sittard Train Station

So, the Alien Child will be visiting in a few week's time (hooray! A family vacation at last!).  We'd like to take a day trip on the train to Amsterdam, and there is a train route that goes directly to that city from nearby Sittard just across the border in the Netherlands.  We plan to drive to Sittard, park in the Park and Ride garage, and go from there.

But there is one problem:  where is the train station?  More particularly, where is the station parking garage?  Easy!  You go to the Netherlands train web site to find out, right?

Wrong!  Click on the link to the web site.  Try to find directions to the Sittard station.  Not there?  Hmm. How about directions to the parking garage?  Not there, either, or if it is, I haven't found it after more than a couple of hours of searching.  How about just the address of the station?  Nope.  The web site assumes that if you do not speak Dutch, but only speak English in the Netherlands you must of course know where the various train stations are.

Bikerumor Pic of the Day

Hey, one of my photos made it to Bike Rumor's Pic of the Day!  John posted it to his blog, and Bike Rumor picked it up from there.  Is that fun or what?  Bike Rumor has John's name on it, but he has properly attributed it to me on his blog. 

Paris, Part Four - the Tour de France - Fini!

The Tour de France is so much more than is depicted on television, especially on U.S. TV.  The media focus is on the sport, on the athletes, and on who wins and loses.  But being at the event itself...well...the sport is almost only half of it.  It is very much an international celebration, and a celebration of the bicycling culture of Europe more than anything else.

I won't go in depth about the European bicycling culture here, as my dear John is doing that on his own blog.  However, it's very different here than in the U.S.  Bicycling in Europe is an everyday, utilitarian activity, often on "city-style" bikes that have seen better days.  If you want to go to the grocery store or to a local restaurant, you hop on a bicycle in your street clothes (no helmet!) and go.

Paris, Part Three

You can't put such a thing as that poor hurt French girl out of one's mind; obviously I haven't put it out of my mind even now.  But, facts were facts:  we had done all we could, and there was nothing more to be done.  As John and I headed back to our hotel, we discussed the incident, and then tried to think of other things.  It was hard.  When you witness something that shocking, the rational part of you understands the limitations of the situation, of being human, of not being able to do more, and understands that those with medical experience are much more able--should be the ones--to deal with it, and that ordinary civilians could do more harm than good.  But the heart doesn't reason like that, and there is always a bit that wishes, hopes, wonders if somehow you could have done more. And for us, there isn't closure.  We will probably never know what happened to that young woman.

We are old enough to know that unless you move on past something that hurts and is difficult, unless you make the best of what you have, you do no one any good.  It was our first day in Paris, a Friday.  We had Saturday and Sunday, and then we'd leave on Monday.

We would make the best of our stay in Paris.

Paris, Part Two

I noticed that the prior post's map didn't show our route accurately.  Though Google Maps has a train route option, it didn't want to show the train route from Geilenkirchen to Paris, or even show the train route to Aachen to Paris. I mean, really, Aachen used to be called Aix la Chapelle (and still is, for the French), and there is the high speed train from there to Paris.