Sunday, November 30, 2008

Cheerio Chap! Thanksgiving in London


If we can’t be home in CA for Thanksgiving, we figured we would at least spend it in an English speaking country. That’s right; we spent our Thanksgiving in Jolly ol’ England. Ironic, eh?

This was a quick turn trip. Why? This place is pricy! Even with the exchange rate much higher against the Pound, London is still a very expensive city. For a day pass on their Tube, it set us back around 25 bucks. The same thing in Paris would be around half of that. A week in this city would send us to the poorhouse. We opted for a 48 hour tour de force of London instead.

Anyone who’s been to London knows there is no way you can really do this place in a day an a half so we didn’t even try. We set our sights on a few sights and focused our time on those. We hit up the London Eye (pix above is taken atop this huge ferris wheel), Tower of London, and Imperial War Museum during our time. We also were determined to see some of the shops we see on Sky TV (this is the only English language alternative to the Armed Forces Network here in Germany). The rest of the time was spent soaking up the English culture.

Speaking of culture, Londoners struck us as very polite folks. While they all seemed in to be in a huge hurry all the time, they were always polite. Also, I fell in love Englishisms: Words like brilliant, mate, cheers seem to make the English language more pleasant.

While England is definitely distinct from the US in many ways, London has much of the same stuff we would see in a big US city: Starbucks on every corner, Quiznos, Dominos Pizza, KFC, Krispy Kream, etc. Also, the diversity in London is similar to what you would see in a big city such as LA or NYC. While there was an occasional pasty white Brit running around, they were mixed in with a huge melting pot with Indians, Pakistanis, Eastern Europeans, Africans, etc. Finally, did I happen to mention how much Jen and I loved to be in an English speaking country? This familiarity was a great feeling!




Check out some of our pix:
Julia with the Kings Table Ale
Jen and Luke in front of the Tower of London's Martin tower (Where her Irish Catholic ancestors were imprisoned?) Jen and some bloke standing guard over the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London


Ye ol Chap in the Imperial War Museum

Monday, November 17, 2008

Julia's 1st time Ice Skating!

Yesterday we headed to downtown Kaiserslautern to take Julia ice skating. They set up an indoor rink complete with lights and music. Since Greg's a much better skater than I am he took JJ out on the ice while Luke and I looked on from the sidelines. They had a great time and Julia says that she wants to try again...First we have to wait for Greg's back to recover from all that leaning over and holding Julia up!! Here are some pics from our day!

Julia modeling in her skates

Greg and Julia take the ice


Luke takes a spin around the ice...He so wanted to skate by himself




Saturday, November 15, 2008

Med Cruise Revisited

Not much commentary...Just pix: JJ and me in Corfu

Mykonos Love




Two things: I have a son who loves his chocolate ice cream and I have a wife with the prettiest green eyes.


Thanks to our travel partners Gary and Lauretta for taking these pix!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Got Snow?



The mercury on our thermometer is barely there which means the snow is only weeks (or days) away. In fact I had to scrape the ice off of my car for the first time yesterday morning. Definitely won't miss that when I move back to the US. For most, this is bad news. In general, Europe is a downer in the dead of winter. Sure, the Gluhwein and Christmasmarkts are nice but this place simply shuts down for about four months.

For us skiiers/snowboarders, this is good news! Bring on the white fluffy stuff. I would much rather have snow than the various shades of dark blue and gray that dominate the environment these days. Anyhow, snowboarding in Europe is great. The lift tix are about half price over here and the lift lines aren't bad. There are plenty of mountains to choose from and the Apres Ski scene is legendary. Here are some of my favorite pix from my past snowboarding trip here in Europe:



Catching some air...I was on my arse a couple seconds after this pix was taken (Austria, 2007)


Chillin with my Ski Buddy, Brent (Austria, 2007)
A warm Apres Ski coctail with the Zugspitze mountain as a backdrop (Garmisch, Germany 2006)



Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Visions of the Cold War


So if you read the headlines these days, you would have never known the cold war is over. Russia is now back to their old tricks and the Castro brothers are seeking a new alliance with them. All things come full circle, right?

Anyhow, I’ve always been fascinated by Eastern Europe. Unlike WWI and WWII, I can clearly remember the days of the DDR, Gorbachev, and the Iron Curtain. These vivid memories makes travel to the former Soviet satellite countries so much more interesting. We haven’t seen much but we have been to the former East Germany, Czech Republic, and most recently Croatia. Before I head back to the US, I hope to at least go to Poland and Hungary (Jen, however, said I can count her out for these trips).

What struck me about each of these countries is how much they now embrace capitalism. I’m convinced the only reason they keep the old Soviet area crap around is that it attracts tourists from the West who are willing to pay big money for the Commie experience. Now they’ve had a chance to prosper under capitalism, it’s clear there is no going back.

Another thing that I found is that the people in these areas are much more reserved and stoic. Our friend Lena is from the Ukraine and she stated the reason for this is that under the Soviet thumb, the people were urged not to show emotion. No crying, no smiling, no public displays of affection. How depressing. While many folks rushed to a new economic system, many did not embrace the notion of free expression unfortunately. I understand this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just different than what I’m accustomed to. We’ll see what happens with the newer generations. Maybe there’s a smile to be found in the future.




Here are some pix from our travels behind the old iron curtain, Comrade:


Architectural mural depicting the citizens of Prague welcoming their Soviet Liberators (June 07)



Croatian (formerly Yugoslavia) countryside (Oct 08)

Now I'm not an expert in the Croation language but I'm pretty sure this reads, "You are now leaving the American sector..."

Julia checking out a record player and wine that were both manufactured by the State at the DDR Museum in Berlin (Feb 07)


On a different note, I am glad the election is finally over. Now that Obama has been elected, the Europeans love America again. Imagine that! It happened almost overnight. Regardless, politics gives me a headache. That’s all I have to say about that for now.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The Feta Cheese and Tex Mex Connection


Lots to catch up on with this post. I've noticed that it's been nearly a month since our last post and this can be chalked up to three things:

1. Luke isn't exactly sleeping through the night

2. Our internet has been down for three weeks

3. We just got back from our Med Cruise!
Yup, we headed down to Venice Italy last month and set sail for Greece and Croatia. You simply cannot beat mid seventies in the last week of October. The weather was perfect and the cruise was just what we needed. The journey started with a couple days in the Aviano area before we boarded our ship. Aviano is home to the 31st Fighter Wing (and cheap AF lodging) so we decided to explore this area which lies at the foot of the Dolomite Mountains. We spent an evening in the town of Pordenone experiencing what the Italians call a "pasagato". In other words, a pasagato is simply a stroll down the walkplatz area of their old town while checking out the scene. People watching is a national passtime in Italy and it wasn't hard to see why. Italians are live out loud people who are very entertaining to watch. Also, they are extremely well-dressed in my opinion. I'm sure we looked really sloppy compared to these Prada sporting people. We capped the night as any self respecting Italian would: By sipping an espresso and munching on bits of chocolate.

Jen and Luke in Pordenone, Italy
Soon thereafer we boarded our ship in Venice and we were on our way! After a day at sea, we found ourselves in Athens. Ever since I took my first architecture class at Texas Tech, I've always wanted to visit Athens--home of the Acropolis. This city didn't disappoint. The Acropolis and Parthenon were fantastic. Next port was Katakolon which is just outside the ancient city of Olypia. We skipped the trek out to the ancient olypic ruins and opted to stay on the beach while sipping Mythos greek beer. We then sailed to the ports of Mykonos and Corfu in Greece and then on to Split in Croatia. Here are some pix:

Formal Night on the Cruise Ship



More Formal Night with our Glamorous Daughter Athena (I mean Julia)



Athens: Feeling the Groove at the Parthenon


Prince Luke Surveying his Kingdom of Athens


Lazy Afternoon in Mykonos under the Bougainvillia


I Should have hit the tanning booth before the trip





Grandma and Grandpa Martin with their "escort" Julia in Split, Croatia



So what does all of this have to do with Tex Mex? Well, yesterday we found out we will be headed to San Antonio, home of the Riverwalk (see below), for our next tour of duty. As I explained to my family earlier today, this is a bittersweet assignment. We were hoping for California but Texas was as far west as we could get. On the brighter side, we regard Texas as our second home. I put in 4 1/2 years there during college and Jen spent 3. Reagan is from there and Jen has lots of family in the Lubbock area. Also, many of our friends are in Texas so this is going to be a great assignment for us. Germany has been great but the sunshine of San Antonio beckons.