Friday, September 28, 2007

Music and Travel, Belgium Bound

Before I get into the theme of music and travel, I'm headed to the Ardennes Forest and Bastogne tomorrow. Bastogne, as many will know, is there the 82 Airborne Div was tangled up in a little engagement known as the battle of the bulge. This was Germany's last ditch offensive designed to push the Allies back into the sea. Didn't exactly go according to plan for Germany to say the least.
Belgium isn't a place I've been very much so I am definitely looking forward to soaking up some of their culture. Jen Julia and I stopped there on the way to Holland one time and had delicious coffee and pastries (every french speaking country seems to have those types of places) but this time, I'm not just passing through. Should be interesting.

Also, I've been incorporating a lot of music into the travels. I know I stand out as the ugly American with the white iPod wires coming out of my ear but so what. I've found that some songs have an association to places where I've traveled for whatever reason. Here are some examples:

Paris: Hey There Delilah by the Plain White Tees (played on the radio as Jen and I were rolling into town)
Munich: Crazy by the Dave Matthews Band (song alludes to a surreal fealing that I could relate to during Oktoberfest)
Muerren (Switzerland): Aspenglow by John Denver (great hiking song)
San Jose, CA: American Pie by Don McLean (Jen and I sang along to this one after visiting the Winchester House)
Lake Havasu, AZ: Are You Jimmy Ray? by none other than Jimmy Ray (was in heavy rotation when I was out there with Daniel and Brian one year)
Hawaii: Taylor by Jack Johnson (a line refers to being 2000 miles away from here and I always imagine that 2000 miles is somewhere in Hawaii)

I wonder if anyone else associates particular songs with random cities.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Oktoberfest!


40 hours. 100 liters of gas. Three Franziskaner weissbiers (hefeweisen). 2 good friends. 1 extremely tired Greg.

This is my trip to Munich and Berchtesgaden in a nutshell. Unlike my last trip, I had a couple people come along to enjoy the time honored Bavarian tradition that is Oktoberfest which was great. He was one of the Airmen from my unit who just returned from the desert and his wife. The bottom line is that we all had a really good time. I'll try to describe:

First, people wear the traditional bavarian dress which is drindl (sp?) for the beautiful women (best looking in Germany) and the liederhosen for the men (seemed really gay looking). Strange to see these manly men in short leather shorts with suspenders. Anyhow, I haven't told Jen and Julia this yet but they are going to dress up as the festgoers do during next year's Oktoberfest.

Also, it was good to see Germans cutting loose in a big way. The people around here are...well...not exactly the party animals we've seen in the Spain or even the US for that matter. Someone told me that whatever the Germans lack in personality and spirit most of the year, they more than make up for during their fests. I found this particularly true this weekend. Perfect weather and lots of beer seemed to help too.

Wasn't just Germans who were there though. It seems as if Qantas had a special running for Germany because the place was crawling with drunken aussies. These guys go nuts. Regardless of where they all came from, many people came to this thing. Simply put, the place was completely packed. I did, however, make it into the Paulander tent before they closed the doors. This was really cool. The big band was playing traditional frolicky music in the middle of the massive tent while the crowd clammored for more. Not sure how to describe it but there was a really great vibe going around. People just seemed to be enjoying themselves for no particular reason. It wasn't like their team won the soccer game or their candidate wonthe election. No, they were just celebrating just being alive. It was really neat to see. It was also cool to see that it wasn't just the twentysomethings cutting up. All ages were represented at this thing. The cutest were the little kids decked out in full costume. Definitely worth the trip.

The next day I shifted gears and headed out to Berchtesgaden which is a border town in SE Germany. History buffs will know that this place is home to the Kuelstein or Eagle's Nest. This was the place that was erected by the Nazis for the purpose of hosting their appeasement minded guest diplomats. The house itself wasn't nearly as impressive as the view from the top of the mountain. From this one infamous house I was able to see well into Austria and it's magnificent city of Salzburg but also could see parts of the Italian Alps in the distance (see video below). Good stuff.

I'll post some pix when I get them developed (the digital camera is in CA with Jen for the moment). Anyhow, the ability to see in person these places that are stepped in such great history is what living in Europe is all about.

Until next time: Prost!!!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Switzerland: Good Cheese, Great Chocolate, Amazing Hiking


Last Saturday I decided to finally make it down to Switzerland. Why the heck did I wait so long? What was I thinking? This trip to Switzerland was about as good as it gets. Reagan and I packed into the Trailblazer at "0-Dark-30"and made a run for the border. Only this time, south of the border means crossing into Switzerland, not Mexico.

When we first crossed the border, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed. I crossed into a major city (Basel) and well...it looked exactly like Germany. When you cross the border and suddenly you're in TJ, it gets your attention. I am talking total sensory overload--kids asking you if you want chicle, adults asking you if you want drugas, air smelling like a fart, green replaced with varying hues of brown, etc. Not so with the crossing into Switzerland. More of the same...

...That is until you start to get close to the Alps. This is where it gets good. Not just good but unbelieveable. On our way to the Alps, we passed by a lakeside village just outside of Interlaken. This place was so cool looking that I decided to heck with the schedule, I was going to check it out. We stopped the truck, got some Swiss cheese, chocolate, and sandwich fixings and ate lunch at what had to have been one of the most picturesque spots in the world. What was so cool is that this wasn't some Jet set town where Mary Kate and Ashley were seen the other week...no, this was a small village where no one spoke english and the villagers awake to the sounds of churchbells.

After promising myself we would come back, we made our way further south into the Berner Oberland Region. Suddenly I found myself in a scene that was what people think of when they think of Switzerland: Half timber houses with geraniums spilling out of the flower boxes, crystal clear streams roaring down from the towering Alps, and trust fund hippie backpackers everywhere. Anyhow, we found our way to a goldola that would take us to our base of operations in Muerren. The problem is that you can't drive there. All of the villages clustered on this hill were only accessible by gondola due to the incredibly steep elevation gain. Once we ascended the mountain via the goldola (which was once used in the 007 film Moonraker), we found ourselves in Muerren. Now I thought that the village by Interlaken was good, this was even better. This place had a panoramic view of the entire valley and all of the soaring peaks of the Alps. We checked into our hotel and when I opened the curtains, I had a pano view of Jungfrau which was the highest peak in the area. Simply breathtaking.

We spent the rest of the two days hiking around the Alps. The hiking was challenging but fantastic and Reagan absolutely loved it. He didn't complain once! He was made for this sort of thing. Anyhow, I could go on but sadly the story ends on a sad note: We had to get back in our truck and go home back to Germany.

I've posted some pix from my cell phone camera at: http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c351/grego108/Switzerland/
Take a look!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

New Pix Uploaded

Check out some of our latest pix http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c351/grego108/

I will continue to update these pix as the next few days go on. Jen and Julia are back in CA so I'll have some additional time to upload and sort.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

!Hola de Espana!


Just got back from one of our favorite countries in Europe: Spain! What a country. Looks like California, feels like California, and people talk like they are from California if you know what I mean. Also, that place could not be any more un-German. Not that we don't like it here...it's just that we need a break from 60's and rain all summer. Needless to say, we really like heading to Spain.

This time around we decided to veer south and go to the Costa Blanca. From my limited education in Spanish, I can comfortably say this means the White Coast. From what I gather, they call it this because of the powdery light sand that graces the beaches as well as the lack of greenery that tends to dot the coast as you go north. Anyhow, we flew into Murcia and drove our rental to our hotel in Santa Pola (not to be mistaken with Santa Poco of Three Amigos fame). This place sucked. Santa Pola was ghetto to be frank. If Van Nuys had a beach, it would look just like this place. Our hotel was in keeping with the town which is not saying much. We decided to spend as much time away from that place as possible the next couple days.

That night, however, we did walk around and things got a little better. As we vaguely knew before visiting, Spain was ruled by the Moors/Muslims many moons ago. To celebrate this heritage, the Spaniards decided to through a party and blow their town up with every firework known to man. These weren't the Safe and Sane variety that you drive down to Santa Ana to buy. They tened to like the M-80 type of fireworks that you have to drive down to Mexico for. Jen mentioned that now she knows what it must be like to be in Baghdad. It was pretty intense.

The next day we drove over to Alicante and got exactly what we came to Spain for. Beatiful palm lined avenidas, topless beaches, tapas bars, and the warm Med ocean. It was fabulous. The only downside was Jen's lobster-like sunburn. She swore she put on lot's of sunblock but it obviously didn't do a damn thing. Not even that could put a damper on the good vibe.

The last day we hit up Elche which is an inland city about 25 km from Alicante. Elche is known for its massive palm groves which date back to the Babylonians (sp?). The Moors kept them going by installing an elaborate irrigation system that is still in use today. As a result, you have these miles of palm forests in the middle of the desert. You can walk among many of them and we did just that. We found one that Fodors raves about and after paying our five euro, we stepped into a tropical paradise for an hour or two. It was a welcomed relief to the searing Spanish sun especially for Jen who was now in some serious pain from her sunburn from the day before.

Once we got back to Germany, we froze our butts off in the low sixty degree weather. What a bummer. Germany wasn't all that bad though. A few days after we got back, we hit up Bad Durkheim which is now hosting the Wurstmarkt which, despite its name, is the largest wine fest in the world. Even though it was really croweded, we had a blast. Most everyone was either drunk or on their way to being drunk. As for me, well I was on call all weekend and fell into the third category in wishing I was liquered up. Good times.

Enough for now. Jen and Julia head back to CA on Wednesday to get some sunshine and Disney under their belts. As for travel, I plan on hitting up Belgium, Munich, and Berchtesgaden when they are back home in CA. More to come...