Merry Christmas

I wanted to put out a quick post wishing everyone Merry Christmas! Just a few videos and pictures from our Christmas in Holland....

We attended the annual sing-along in Zannenpark...what a lovely voice Beth has :-) ...

Not quite the midnight spectacle on the Grote Markt.

We choose nature this year for our Christmas morning traditional walk. David and Renee, you should recognize this one.

Bloody Aachen

A bit dramatic, right? Well, "Bloody Aachen" was the title of a book that I had when I was a kid growing up back in Appalachia. My brother and I both collected all kinds of World War II stuff, like soldiers, models, games, and books. This particular book chronicled the fall of the first German City to the allies during the war. The Americans thought that they would copy the German blitzkrieg model and just zip past the city on their way to more fruitful targets. But, typical of Americans with limited understanding of European history, they failed to realize the importance of the city to the Germans (Nazis) as the place where Charlemagne was buried and therefore the seat of the First Reich. (first of three if you remember correctly). Anyhow, the Germans dug in, fortified the city with extra battalions and were ordered to defend it "at all cost". The rest, so to speak, is history. The city was basically obliterated, but somehow, several of the key buildings from Charlemagne's time came out still standing.

All of this came back to me while I was scanning the map for a nearby German city to visit for our annual Christmas Market shopping, eating, and drinking extravaganza.

The city has been rebuilt, mostly to the old specifications, and the Christmas Market was fantastic! For a city that is probably not very high on tourist's list (if on the list at all), I'd recommend it as a MUST see, especially at Christmas. Here are some pictures from our little weekend in Bloody Aachen.

Beer halls are for Octoberfest. For Christmas Market, it's Glühwein. These tents were packed with merry makers.


A crowded market square in the old city...

...with plenty of sweets in the shop windows...

...and plenty of sweeties shopping for them.


Me? I went for the sausage! If I had to pick the one thing that Germans do well, it's sausage. Lekker!


This guy took advantage of the tourists by hanging his sausage grill over his shoulder and moving with the crowds. Once he had your attention, you couldn't get past him without a big, fat worst in your hand.


The city was founded by Romans (of course) due to these hot springs. Unfortunately this was Germany, so we couldn't get into the sauna in "the buff". Next time, we'll dust off the bathing suits and go for a swim.

But of course it was Charlemagne that made the city famous. He personally commissioned this door, still standing on the church that he is buried in. Amazing.

The city was rebuilt with a lot of flair...not your typical post-war construction. This sculpture was really cool and the contrast between modern and ancient is superbly done.

Of course we explored outside the center city as well. Besides the hot springs, there is no water in Aachen. So, what do you do with your parched puppy after a long walk in the woods? Take them for a swim this custom doggie dipping pool, complete with OSHA approved handrails. German efficiency!

What does it take to be the third largest economy in the world? Power! Aachen is just outside the industrial heart of Germany and when we climbed to the top of a hill, I was amazed to see 4 powerplants churning at full capacity (only three in the photo), powering the factories to the north. From what I could tell, they all looked nuclear...only the steam stacks can be seen.

Kicking off the holidays

We kicked off the holiday season this year with another delicious turkey for Thanksgiving. A whole turkey is a bit hard to come by over here, but the local butcher where I buy my wild game from always manages to get me a good one.

Sean and Sandra are moving back to America this week, so this will be their last Thanksgiving in Holland for a while.


Stuffed full of turkey and mashed potatoes, I jumped on the bullet train down to Paris for a week of training. It was an incredible facility built around one of the old Rothschild estates.




The chateau itself was the restaurant and bar, while the more modern facilities were constructed behind it.

Of course I had to skip lunch one day and get out and about on the more than 200 acre estate. I came across these old stables tucked away from the conference/training facilities.

...and looking closer at the sign, I guess that they REALLY, REALLY don't want you climbing over that fence! Land mines?!?!?!? In France?!?!?

That'll grow hair on your chest! Or your head in my case....

Don't forget to have fun on YOUR holidays!

Incredible India

I’ve been working with a distributed team in India for more than 6 months now. Veena (Project Manager) and Shailendra (Functional Lead) have been coming to The Netherlands regularly and we have been working and socializing together since April so I was beginning to feel pretty comfortable with the Indian culture. But as I sit here late at night in a steamy Calcutta apartment with a fan whirring so loudly overhead that it somehow manages to drown out my own thoughts but not the baying of a group of dogs 8 stories below, I now understand that I understood nothing about India.

There are travel adds on TV in Europe that carry the slogan “Incredible India”. They show pictures of mountains and beaches and elephants and temples. All very cool stuff. But I have seen none of those things.

I have seen cities, with gleaming towers rising out of abject poverty, seemingly oblivious to the garbage strewn filth and shanty towns that surround their feet. I have seen modern shopping malls and state-of-the-art airports reached only by unmarked roads that are clogged with cars and buses and bicycles and tuk-tuks and cows and chickens and goats and people. My god, the people!


There are so many people in the cities who have come here from the countryside that the rising middle class and rising wealth of the country are almost invisible. Or maybe it is better to say that the middle class seems completely lost in the unfathomable contrast between injected, international wealth and the daily poverty of the masses. How can these two extremes exist in one place? Maybe it’s just the sheer volume of it all. If 110 million, 120 million, 130 million (whatever large number of people you want to throw out) has reached some level of middle class status that might numerically be comparable to the US or Western Europe, it is still relatively insignificant here. Because that also means that there are more than 980 million people still living in poverty. Miserable, hot, urban poverty. Just waiting for change. It’s like nothing that I have seen before…even in Johannesburg in South Africa. And yet here it is somehow a different type of poverty than in Africa. In Johannesburg the poverty was overrunning what was once a prosperous city, relentlessly seeping in and eroding the sense of hope. Here, it is prosperity that is overrunning what was once impoverished, spreading hope slowly outward among the people, getting their attention, building motivation and industriousness.

And you know what? The advertisements on TV in Europe are right. India is incredible! It’s a bit cliché to say it, but it is so true that it must be repeated once again. This country assaults all five of your senses, all at once, and with enough stimuli to overwhelm even the most seasoned traveler. It was refreshing for me. An excellent adventure with incredible food, exciting cultural differences, and very welcoming people. As soon as we got off the plane in Mumbai, we were treated like rock stars. Doors opened. People moved to the side and stared. We were somehow perceived as the agents of prosperity. And not just to the beggars, but everyone has treated us that way. It’s as if they think that we have the authority to open a new factory or start a new business, employ more people, or build a new building It’s an odd feeling being stereotyped as such, and for me at least, it immediately placed a sense of responsibility on my shoulders.

I've put together a few pictures from the trip. The business aspect was actually pretty intense, so I didn't get to get out and about too much. My colleague took a lot of video, so I've posted some of that as well. Rest assured that I'll be back and I will hopefully get a chance to see some of those mountains and monuments and elephants and ....

cows....

...and supposedly crocodiles in this lake.

A typical Calcutta taxi.

Brings a whole new meaning to "living on the streets", doesn't it?

I've never been crazy about sari's, but when placed into context - in India -, I found them beautiful. I especially liked seeing the women wearing them on the back of a motorcycle, zipping through the traffic clogged streets.

This video is right outside our offices in Calcutta. It shows the contrast that I mentioned above. However, it is important to note that there is no tension between the two extremes like I've seen in other cultures. I frequently saw members of my development team hanging out in these shacks for a smoke break with the locals. Another video from CNN also shows some of the disparity.



We stayed in a very nice, 3 bedroom apartment...complete with servant. Cooked, cleaned, slept on the kitchen floor. Very nice guy, but uncomfortable situation for someone not used to being waited on. You all know Beth, right?

A little different than the fish stalls on the butter market in Haarlem.

And for those of you who have only encountered "off-shoring" via some prime time news program, let me assure you that it is very real, and it is only going to continue to grow. Don't let the stereotypes fool you, and don't be complacent. Denial will only put you out of a job quicker. Agree or not, this country is bursting at the seams with offices like the one in this video.

Now I know how the Romans did it. Forget about the 14 year old poster child for OSHA working without a safety harness 5 stories above the ground on hand-wired scaffolding. Watch the guy on the right with the bag of sand on his head. At the end of the video you'll see his colleague on the 9th floor of the building. I can only imagine the directions that they got that morning - "Move this pile of sand to the top of the building so that the bricklayers have it to work with tomorrow." Unbelievable. For 4-5 euros a day, why would you invest in heavy equipment?

Amsterdamse Bos

We had a beautiful fall day here in The Netherlands, and what better way to enjoy the day than to get out in the woods. Amsterdamse Bos is a 2500 acre park in the middle of Amsterdam and a great place to get lost in on a sunny day.

The colors in Holland are spectacular this year!

Sage even made a new friend - George. He's a bit young for her "old fart" temperament, but she seems to tolerate him being around. Amazingly enough, George is the new dog of Jonathon and Sandra, one of the last holdouts amongst our friends who didn't have a dog. I even seem to remember Jonathon poking a bit of fun at Beth and I for how we could spend a beautiful day in the park with the dog. Now George is here, and Jonathon is showing US parks....welcome to doggy world!

Autumn Glory

Our fall holiday season ended with the annual trip back to America. We timed it perfectly this year with the Autumn Glory festival in Oakland, MD. They start shutting down Main Street at 10:00 for the 14:00 parade...it's a BIG deal in this little town.

We did a little hiking up at Prince Gallitzin State Park with my parents.

Pete brought the girls out to the land for a visit. Jody is going to take up with my guitar now that I'm one finger short.

And Katie continues to wow us with her prowess on the ATV.

I actually even got to do a little hunting...it's been 4 years now. I saw lots of deer from the tree stand, and had a few very easy shots....but I opted just to watch this year. Gloria had already brought me some venison to cook up. The feeder by the house is a great addition to our little setup. This flock of FAT turkeys entertained us one afternoon. Too bad THEY weren't in season...they looked delicious.

Hondenfeest

The tourists are now gone and our local beaches are once again open for dogs. In commemoration of this important day, one of the local permanent beach bars threw a huge party for their four-legged patrons (and their bosses) - complete with doggy beer, which Sage loved! More than 300 dogs showed up and a great time was had by all.

Paybacks are a bitch. We ran into our friends Stephanie and Alex before the party started. They have a young, high-strung dog that really reminds us of Sage a few years back. And his harassment of her in this video, while somewhat hormonally charged, also reminds us of how Sage used to treat the more geriatric dogs when she was little. It's all in the karma.

Oui Oui!

Pronounced slightly different than the sound that Ned Betty made in that famous scene from Deliverance, we mean "yes, yes" to France. Beth and I took a long awaited road trip to Provence and the Rhone valley last week. While the weather didn't exactly cooperate with that expected famous southern sun, the country did not disappoint.


Dutch like us. We hadn't realized how ingrained in the Dutch culture Beth and I have become until we took a look around at this rest stop somewhere in Belgium. Upon closer examination of the cars in the packed parking lot, we noticed that all of the people who brought their own lunch with them instead of eating in the restaurant were travelling under Dutch plates. Would you like some Pinderkaas with that broodje?

Our first night in the beautiful city of Nancy in Northwest France was a complete bust. After 6 hours of driving we were happy to get out of the car and walk through the city center. But as we approached the main square we started hearing the now all-to-familiar chanting of drunken soccer fans. In this case it was the Scots who had apparently just whooped France's ass in a local match and were celebrating in a drunken, glass-strewn ruckus. Needless to say, there was not a hotel to be found and our first night in France was spent scrambling for some obscure highway hotel where we just crashed early with our books.

But things quickly turned for the better when we called for our next reservation in the beautiful Cotes du Rhone region. It was an unqualified recommendation from someone who had heard something from a friend who knew someone who had fixed up a place in the area and was now renting out rooms. A Dutch person of course, so my learning the language over here is beginning to seem less and less of a useless endeavor...the Dutch are everywhere!

See the villa in the middle of those vineyards? That's where we stayed....fantastic! This place was recently featured on the cover of EnFrance magazine and is just what you would expect from an architectural digest kind of place.

The upper terrace with the old well was a great place to catch the evening sunset....

...after it came off the pool of course.

The stonework in the kitchen was incredible. The counter top slab weighed 2 tons! And the sleeping dog added a great little touch.


Who can have a villa in France without at least 1 resident cat?

I couldn't recommend this place enough. Robert (the owner) was a great host and walked us through the vineyard in search of old roman tiles...which we found about 1/2 dozen of. Apparently his house was built on the ruins of an old roman villa...very cool. If you want to see more pictures, or go for a visit yourself, check them out at Mascavard and/or at EnFrance (that's him and his wife-and dogs on the cover).


In addition to the great setting, Mascavard is situated close to a lot of great local sites....like Uzes, which just happened to have a market on the day that we visited.

The famous Uzes skyline.

The old roman city of Nimes is also a short drive away. In Nimes, you get to play on the ruins!

Nimes also had a festival when we were there. It centered around a bullfight (bloodless) in the old roman arena, but we found more interesting sights out in the streets. This guys spring action leg extensions were really cool. He could run like a centaur and jump 1.5 meters into the air. Whoa!

Pont du gard is also in the neighborhood....more amazing Roman engineering.

And one last stop before we headed across the Rhone into the Luberon...the ancient bories.

In the Luberon, we did a lot of hiking...



...and a lot of hilltop village exploring...





...before crossing one more valley into the real mountains...the Alps. These roads were so twisty and tunneled that our TomTom couldn't handle it. It kept putting us over the cliff...."Turn Right when possible."

If there is no room for a road...no problem! Cut, hack, blast your way to some level surface where white-knuckled tourists can enjoy a scenic drive. And don't be fooled by my focus on the road in this photo...rest asured that there is a 1000 foot drop just beyond that skimpy guardrail. This hack is literally IN the side of the cliff.

They apparently did the same thing with their religious monuments back in the middle ages. We climbed so many mountains, past so many commandments, to see so many religious monuments that we can not NOT go to heaven.



The gorges of Verdon are amazing.



We even did a little canyoning in one of the Verdon tributaries. (stock photo...we didn't take a camera, although we did several "slides" like this one.) Canyoning is a mad scramble down and back up river canyons. It took everything that we had to do some of the 5 meter jumps and 30 meter rappels. Damn! It sucks getting old. But there is nothing like crawling around a deep water canyon on a beautiful day in Provence...now THAT is a religious experience.




We also always like to try ethnic food in different countries. So for example, trying Chinese food in Germany. Well, in a little town called Apt, we stumbled across a Vietnamese restaurant. Ex-colony of France, right? Ok, we'll give it a try. Well, when I saw Sweet and Sour Frog legs on the menu, I knew that I had to try it. That's Fusion cooking for ya!


And almost as a pitiful joke, we also had to try this TexMex restaurant in Chamaunt. I mean, how good can TexMex in France be? Surprisingly, it was excellent. Chili, ribs, and chicken wings. The best that we've had in a long, long time.



Which cheeks are bigger? We found this little bar open for breakfast in Castellane one morning. Castellane (as most of France), is crazy about jeu de boule. Well this bar was apparently supporting the local champions because there were no less than 7 trophies behind the bar. This naked women is not only a picture...no, no, no. Those buttocks are a raised relief that stick out several inches from the wall and are caressed by the local boule players before a match for good luck. Funny, that also works for me!