TravelStream™ news feed for member kantors_abroad on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/kantors_abroad en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 02 Aug 2006 05:46:53 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1154507400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1154507400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1154507400/tpod.html Wed, 02 Aug 2006 05:46:53 -0400 Updates on my professional and personal exploits in and around Amsterdam.

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Chicago, Illinois, United States

Well, the last month has been an exhausting back-to-back-to-back, between a house-hunting visit to Chicago, the movers, farewells, a trip to Portugal, and finally leaving A'dam, we made it back to Chicago, officially ending 'Kantors_Abroad'. It is now 3:30 in the morning as the body-clock has clearly not adjusted yet to the 7-hour time difference.I just read an email from a friend of ours in A'dam and it nearly brought tears to my eyes. We have been riding an emotional roller-coaster for the past month+ and have experienced many feelings. Walking around an empty apartment, our home, by myself, picking up scraps left by the movers, was a very tough thing to do. We love A'dam and the lives we developed there and saying good-bye to that was very very hard.At our 'farewell drinks' along a picture perfect A'dam canal 10 days ago was equally as challenging. All of our friends made it and said such nice things about us and the huge hole our departure was leaving. It really made us feel very nice and re-emphasized that we really had developed a home in A'dam.At the same time, the excitement in the voices of our family (and Joey) as Aug 1 drew nearer made us look forward to the flight home. We know that having the family close (or at least on the same side of the ocean) will be great and Natalie will love it as much as her grandparents will.And as we have seen more and more email listings from our real estate agent, we are getting more and more excited about buying a home and settling into life back in Chi.So here we are, having put our last European trip behind us in Portugal (pics coming soon), sad about what we left back in A'dam and excited for what greets us here. Moving abroad was not an easy thing to do. But something tells me moving back won't be either.Today I went straight to the office after dropping the girls off at the temporary apartment - talk about your adjustment, how about the (lack of) work-life balance in the US, not that having the entire month of August off for vacation is the way either though! It actually wasn't so bad as it was only 2 hours and will probably speed-up the process of getting the IT in order and getting up-and-running, but it was just interesting to be asked to come right in.Anyways, this is our last t-pod, although I might send 1 last one in 6 months (if I remember) to comment on how strange it is living in this 'foreign land', but until then, here is something I wrote yesterday on the flight home...===============================================ABOARD KLM FLIGHT FROM AMSTERDAM TO CHICAGO ON AUGUST 1, 2006We are sitting on the plane at Schiphol and I just finished reading the 1st 3 t-pods I wrote over 3 years ago. Wow, what a weird experience. So accurate and clear, like it was yesterday, but mostly, what amazes me is how much has changed and how much is exactly the same. For 1, when I arrived in '03, I came alone. Now, not only is Julie sitting at my side, but Natalie is pulling at my pantleg!The most glaring similarity about this flight is that, in general, I feel nothing. I am just sitting here. 3 years ago I wrote about my lack of nervousness, excitement, sadness, etc. and again, I feel nothing. Sure, I am sad to be leaving A'dam and our lives. When we moved here, we were kinda 'ready' to leave but now, we are not necessarily 'ready' and would've been perfectly happy staying a bit longer. And sure, we are excited about settling into life in Chicago, buying a house, and starting a job I am really excited about. But overall, I sit on the plane feeling nothing.The 1 true emotion I have (other than overwhelming excitement to see Joey) is satisfaction. I am proud of Julie and myself for all we accomplished in the past few years. We left our 'safety-nest' and emerged more rounded people. Our experiences and relationships (both with others, each other, and ourselves) will certainly shape us forever. We made this foreign land our home. We travelled non-stop, even up until yesterday when we returned from a 10-day trip to Portugal. Everything we wanted to accomplish, we did. Julie is the only person who would've supported my crazy idea of moving to Europe and she was the perfect partner throughout. I could never have done this without her. And I imagine she feels the same.We are looking forward to our repatriation and am guessing we will be very happy to see some things that America offers (see: customer service) but will long for some things like they are done in Europe. Hopefully we can find a balance.So, feeling nothing but pride, I seal the Kantors_Abroad t-pod...until maybe the sequel in another land around a decade from now =)Thanks for joining us on this most amazing journey.-Stephen (and Julie)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1152482400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1152482400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1152482400/tpod.html Sun, 09 Jul 2006 13:30:02 -0400 Updates on my professional and personal exploits in and around Amsterdam.

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Amsterdam, Netherlands

Hi everyone.While we haven't written a t-pod lately, it is certainly not because there has been a lack of activities. We have been traveling like madmen lately (Greece, western Ireland, and Chicago in the past 6 weeks) and have been extremely pre-occupied with our transition back to Chicago as well. That's right, this crazy adventure is coming to a close. And it is all happening VERY fast.Back in Jan, we were in the US. I discussed with my US manager a gameplan and at the time, we agreed to extend my visa for 2 years knowing that I would not stay in A'dam the full 2 years but at least giving ourselves some time to sort everything out. It was estimated that we would be back in Chi around Sept/Oct. About a month ago, my manager asked me if we could push the date up to Aug 1 instead. So our heads have been spinning since!Basically, the bank reorganized at the beginning of the year and determined that it really needed to focus a lot more attention on developing international business - lucky me, exactly my job. As this discussion continued in the Board Rooms, it was decided that they wanted to create a job similar to mine in that they wanted an American in Europe to develop this business but also different than mine in that the person would not have a portfolio or deal with day-to-day operational issues. This role would be primarily a marketing role. He or she would identify opportunities, visit the client with locals to sell the bank's capabilities, and then hand it off.This seemed like a great opportunity and one I really wanted at first but the more I learned about the role, the more I realized that I was not qualified for it (mostly due to the fact that I have been out of the US for 3+ years and thus, away from LaSalle and the role of a Relationship Manager) and the more I realized I would not want to do it (mostly due to the fact that the 'territory' is all of Europe, which I think is too big a 'territory' for 1 person, and the role will probably require being in a hotel at least 3 nights a week, something I did not want to do having Julie and Natalie here). So while I have been excited about this role, then disappointed to not have been considered, than happy to have not been considered, I am thrilled about how this evolved.Upon return to Chi, I will be doing a job similar to the European role described above, however a little bit different - I will be joining 2 others in helping LaSalle Relationship Managers in identifying opportunities throughout the world within their existing client portfolio, then structuring the deals and working the internal issues in getting that business done. It will allow me to utilize the network I've developed over the past 3 years, will keep me involved in the international side of banking, and will put me in a department with immense strategic importance. This job will also involve some travel but not too much - a few nights a month in various US cities, and probably a week in Europe and a week in Asia per year.The 2 others I will be joining are the people I have been working with the past 9 months, however I was on the receiving end of the business they provided me. So I know them well and have a good rapport with both of them. My new manager is also someone I know well as she was my trainer when I first joined the bank and we have worked together for a few years when I worked in Risk Management in my first role in A'dam.Due to my work as LaSalle's A'dam Relationship Manager the past 9 months, I have a good feel for what my new job will be. Of course I have a lot to learn and need to get up the curve quickly with regards to the rest of the world since my knowledge is primarily Netherlands, but that's what makes this so exciting! And of course I feel that as the only member of the team to have worked abroad, being on the receiving side of the international business, I can add true value to how we work.This being said, it certainly does not mean that we are thrilled to be leaving A'dam. We came here over 3 years ago determined to make this our home, not just a temporary place of residence. We have developed some amazing friendships with people from all over the world. Even our American friends span the country. It will be heart-breaking to say good-bye to these people. While we had to say good-bye to our friends upon leaving for this journey, the difference is we knew we would be back in Chicago eventually whereas, we will say good-bye to some people knowing that we might seem them 3 more times in the rest of our life (and that's being extremely optimistic). I mean, there are planets closer to Chi than Australia is. But that is what makes this experience so special. We have friends to visit and keep up with all over the world.And we will be sad to leave A'dam itself. For those of you who have never been here, you are missing out. It is a special place. It is known as the 'capital' of Holland but it is certainly NOT a city. This is a village. From the slow pace, to the friendly people, to the quiet of the canals, it is a village. As I write this, it is early Sun morn and the window is open. I can hear nothing, just a distant church bell chiming and the gentle lapping of the boats in the canal below, not another noise. No cars, no talking, nothing. It is peace on Earth. Which of course is the exact opposite of the image of A'dam, with its prostitutes and drugs. That is for the tourists, the real A'dam is peaceful. And the real A'dam is what we will miss. We are just so fortunate to have gotten a chance to really experience it! And we are lucky that my job will require visits back!The lifestyle here is simply amazing. We Americans mock the Europeans as a people who take off the entire month of August to vacation. While I don't think that is the way to go, they have got the work-life balance down! We have definitely benefited from that in terms of the travel we have done these past years and I hope I don't loose that balance upon my return to the American office.We were in Chicago a few weeks ago to look at houses. When we left 3 years ago, we were 'city-folk'. The thought of moving to the 'burbs was unheard of. But during our house-hunting visit in Chicago, we realized that maybe we are not 'city-folk' any longer. A'dam has ruined us. This 'village' experience has changed us. We looked at homes in the city but it was too crowded, noisy, dirty, etc, normal city stuff. Places we could afford were not exactly in neighborhoods we loved so we decided we would look in Oak Park, the 1st 'burb west of the city. We realized that places in the city we were looking at were a 40-min commute for me whereas Oak Park was only 20 min's. Both were only 10 miles away from work. So while it is a suburb, it's not any farther from the work than the city. And Oak Park offered more of an A'dam lifestyle, with cute independent restaurants and shops around the corner, quiet streets, parks and pools, a real community feel. The hustle-and-bustle of 'city-life' was not as interesting as before, now we want the village-life.Oak Park is close to downtown, convenient to the highways for easy trips to Madison and other Midwest destinations, and has everything we would want and need for everyday life. It is a mixture of people (aka not surrounded by only Jews in the North Shore), has nice schools, has some history to it (Frank Lloyd Wright was born and built many homes there and Ernest Hemingway was born and raised there), has a European feel in that there are plazas with free music and weekend outdoor markets, and most of all, we would be able to buy a single-family home, complete with a front and backyard, a basement, and all those grown-up things. And I suppose as we looked at the 'burbs closer, we realized that we didn't want to avoid the 'burbs but that we didn't want to begin eating at Olive Garden and spending all weekend at the mall! We feel very good about Oak Park and look forward to showing you all around when you come and visit.As we've been wrapping up our time in A'dam, we have spent a lot of time reminiscing about our extensive travel. We have seen some AMAZING places! We have had experiences that will last a lifetime. Visiting the French chateaus of the Loire Valley, bathing in a Hungarian bath in the dead of winter, spending 5 hours at the Alhambra in Granada Spain, relaxing on the black beaches of Santorini, seeing an Opera in a 3000 year old Roman coliseum in Verona, and many many many more! And the crazy thing, the more we've seen, the more we realize there's tons more to see. Luckily we are leaving A'dam with 300,000 Northwest Airlines miles and the 250,000 American Airlines miles...and it's not as if the boarders are closing. And there are plenty of places in our own country we have yet to see. So the travel will definitely not be ending, although it will probably slow down (it has to, I'm exhausted).And of course, besides all the reasons above that make these past 3 years amazing, a time and place we will never forget, we leave A'dam with the best souvenir ever, sweet little Natalie. I only hope that some day she chooses to investigate her 'hometown' the way we got to.At this point, I have 1 more week in the office to wrap up my job and transition it to the new responsible parties. The movers are coming the following week, the week of the 17. After the movers have taken our stuff and we have nothing left to worry about, we will relax for a week in Lisbon and the Algarve in southern Portugal. We return from Portugal on July 31 and leave for Chi the next morning. My manager has asked me to come into the office that day (welcome back to the American way) and then the house-hunting begins again. So as you can see, we are SUPER busy. But we'll make it work and are ready to go.So we are spending a lot of time lately thinking back with a smile on our faces, and looking ahead with a smile on our faces. I am excited to get back to LaSalle and demonstrate what I have learned in A'dam. We are excited to see our friends and family more often. We are excited to buy a home and settle-down a little bit. We are excited to travel throughout US. We are excited to bring our European view to our American life and see that balance take shape. We are excited to keep in touch with our non-American friends across the globe. We are excited to reconnect with our A'dam friends throughout the US. All in all, we are excited!So we will continue to keep you all posted on things, including our reintegration.We hope all is well wherever you are and look forward to speaking with you soon!-Stephen and Julie==============================As always, feel free to pass this on to anyone you think might enjoy reading my ramblings. Also, you can either subscribe or unsubscribe at any time at the top of the page.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1144436400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1144436400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1144436400/tpod.html Wed, 17 May 2006 15:41:20 -0400 Updates on my professional and personal exploits in and around Amsterdam.

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Amsterdam, Netherlands

I wrote this a few weeks ago but haven't had a chance to send it yet - rereading it, I notice that we have a trip to Greece coming up...we leave for Greece tomorrow to give you some perspective of how long I've been sitting on this. But here it is, Year #3 in Review...==============================I can't believe it's been 3 years!!! And we just extended our visa for another year (#4). We also know with certainty that we won't make it the full 365. We'll be moving back to Chitown sometime around Sept or Oct. We have extreme mixed feelings about this as we have absolutely loved living in A'dam and despite the difficulties, love our lives here. But 3 years is a pretty good run and there are some really great things about moving back.How much has changed in those 3 years! To start with, you might have noticed that the amount of t-pods have greatly reduced recently...I guess this is what happens with fatherhood, you no longer have time for things other than the family. To be fair, I never realized how much I would love laying on the floor staring at and playing with this crazy little monkey.Natalie is already 10 months old and is crawling everywhere. We have slowly begun to baby-proof the apartment and the house is bursting at the seams with colorful plastic things for her to play with. She still sleeps in bed with us, mostly because we love having her near us and it hurts when she cries, but we have been trying to get her into her crib a little bit - we're up to about 90 minutes before she realizes that we're not in there with her. She's eating all sorts of things now with her fav being bananas and steamed brocoli. In an effort to keep her from slowing us down, the kid has 3 friggin' strollers (the bugaboo for battling the cobblestone and stairs around A'dam, a jogging stroller so mom can keep up her regiment at the park, and an umbrella stroller for easier travelling).On the work front, all is going great. About 6 months ago I transitioned into a new role, out of risk management and back into a client-facing position. I work with Dutch subs of LaSalle clients. A huge portion of my job deals with internal politics as both the US and the NL organizations are home markets of ABN AMRO and have complex policies and ways of doing things which makes my role so vital. I knew my job would entail some internal politics but unfortunately, it takes up a much larger part than I anticipated so my customer interaction is fairly limited. That being said, it is highly rewarding when I am able to find solutions and work-arounds to these internal issues. And so far, I know I have done quite an amazing job. But it is also time to take what I have learned at ABN AMRO and apply it to what I can do at the bank. I have always said that moving abroad was not about my career but I now feel very comfortable that it hasn't been a bad career move. Much different from the uncertainty of last year's t-pod, I know where I am going in the bank. With 6 months in this 'international banker' role, I will have another 6ish months to continue learning about the organization and the needs of our international clients before moving back to Chicago to work on the outbound-side. I know who my boss will be (someone I am already reporting to) and I am really excited about that as Colleen really seems to be a great manager - she is a good communicator, enables her staff and helps them develop. In addition, she has moved around the bank a bit, including an assignment in A'dam, so I think she will know a bit about what I am experienced and can offer. All in all, I am really excited about how the work-side developed and look forward to getting back to LaSalle.That brings us to our travelling. With 6ish months left, we have a lot of Europe to still see. And we have pretty ambitious plans set already. We are travelling to Normandie this coming week with my mom. Later this month, I have work in the Paris office so Julie and Natalie will be coming with me and I'll take a few vacation days and the weekends to see the chateau region of the Loire Valley. In mid-May we are going to the Greek island of Santorini for a couple nights and then off to Crete for a week of ancient ruins, beautiful countryside, rustic fishing villages, and relaxing in the sand and sea. We are really looking forward to the Greek islands! Then in mid-June, we are meeting Julie's parents in Shannon for a week of exploring the Irish countryside. All of this before July! Phew, I'm exhausted already! I also expect to be going to the Warsaw office for work as well and will take a couple days and the weekends to see a bit of Warsaw and also Krakow and think we'll be taking one last week-long trip before moving home in Sept/Oct - either Portugal or Rome for a few days coupled with the Tuscan town of Lucca.While we have travelled quite extensively, the end of this journey is coming near which means it's time to be grown-ups and settle down a bit. Unfortunately the travel has had a HUGE impact on our savings account so we'll be busy looking for a condo in the city but I wonder if we'll be able to afford anything other than renting a studio apartment (maybe Joey will take a couple boarders). We are really excited to be moving home to be closer to our family and settle down a bit - and of course, 3+ years abroad is quite an experience! We will miss a ton from our lives here, there is no doubt of that! We have met some great friends from all over the world! We have been exposed to different cultures, points-of-view, etc and that has been as important as the travel. The challenge will be how to take some of that with us back to Chicago and not fall back into our former 'sheltered' lives. But I think we're different people now and will be able to do it.All in all, we are very happy with how things have worked out over the past 3 years and while we will be sad to say goodbye to A'dam, we look forward to coming home!Hope all is well wherever you are.-Stephen==============================As always, feel free to pass this on to anyone you think might enjoy reading my ramblings. Also, you can either subscribe or unsubscribe at any time at the top of the page.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1141923600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1141923600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1141923600/tpod.html Thu, 09 Mar 2006 05:18:57 -0500 Updates on my professional and personal exploits in and around Amsterdam.

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Amsterdam, Netherlands

Hi guys.Here is an article from the NY Times last week about the global housing market and specifically, whether there is a 'bubble' or not. Interestingly, the article weaves a story into it about the Herengracht in Amsterdam, the street/canal where we live. If you're not too excited about in reading the whole article, the funniest part of the article from a Kantors_Abroad perspective is the following sentence..."From the time the Herengracht was developed in the early 17th century, however, it has been Amsterdam's prime real estate, the place where power brokers - 17th-century merchants dealing in spices and slaves or 21st-century bankers and international consultants - have chosen to base themselves."Awesome, I'm a 'power broker' - to read the entire NY Times article, click here.See ya.-Stephen==============================As always, feel free to pass this on to anyone you think might enjoy reading my ramblings. Also, you can either subscribe or unsubscribe at any time at the top of the page.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1136228400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1136228400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1136228400/tpod.html Wed, 18 Jan 2006 17:01:19 -0500 Updates on my professional and personal exploits in and around Amsterdam.

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Lommel, Belgium

Hi all.Here is a t-pod entry from my buddy Josh the 'Dodger Dork' about his and his wife Erin's trip to A'dam and our trip together to Center Parcs, a tourist village in Belgium where we met Erin's friend Christine and her hubby Dave for New Years. If you want to see where we stayed go to http://www.centerparcs-visitesvirtuelles.com/europe/visite_europe_uk.html and click on De Vossemeren in Belgium in the bottom right blue box. If you care to see Josh's pics (including his and Erin's trip to Newcastle after Belgium), check out http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=837141137278484179/l=76607709/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALBSee ya folks.-Stephen==============================While I'm honored to have been asked to write a Travelpod for the Kantor's Abroad group, I also know that you people don't want every last detail of our 14-day trip to Europe (of which, only seven days was spent in the presence of a Kantor). So, with that in mind, I'll keep this brief and hopefully remotely entertaining.After promising the Kantors that we would come see them for the past three years, we finally made good on our word and arrived in Amsterdam on Dec. 27, Erin's 27th birthday. Suffice to say, I was stunned at what I saw.Prior to the trip, if I had to guess a city in Europe where I thought the most has changed between my first trip there in 1997 and our visit this winter, Athens would probably win hands down, given the billions of dollars poured into it for the 2004 Olympics. But no amount of money could have changed my perspective on Athens the way eight years and a wife did the trick for Amsterdam. The city was nothing like I rememberedit.Visiting there with Jeremy (my twin brother) in 1997 was a little different experience. I remember The Grasshopper (a coffee shop), the Anne Frank House, the Heineken Brewery and the Red Light District and that was about it. The rest of the trip was a blur. It turns out, Amsterdam has canals. A lot of canals. Who knew?Stephen and Julie's adopted city (and Natalie's hometown) is absolutely gorgeous, even in the freezing cold of winter. Their apartment is in an incredible location and in the winter, the streets are all lit up for the holidays, which made for a very inviting feeling in the city. Despite snow and sometimes bitter wind, we were easily able to enjoy walking around the town, a nice dinner cruise on the canals and lots of quality time with everyone's favorite Kantor, Natalie. She obviously took to us quickly and abandoned her parents upon our arrival (unless, of course, she needed to be fed and unfortunately, I left my breast pump back in the States, so that was out of the question).Most of our photos from our time in Amsterdam are of Natalie smiling or doing funny things like the Moonwalk (she was trying to crawl), but we also managed to see the Van Gogh Museum, Portuguese Synagogue and Anne Frank House again, which has added tons of multimedia to the exhibit and created an extremely thought-provoking experience about civil liberties and discrimination around the world. It's a must-see if you ever get out to visit the Kantors (and you should).After a couple great days in A'dam (as Stephen calls it), we rented a car and headed south for Belgium, stopping in the Dutch town of Utrecht for a few hours and seeing the nearby De Haar Castle, which was one of the highlights of the trip. Natalie was going a little bonkers at the time, so she didn't get to see it, but she told me later that she plans to go back when the next set of visitors comes through, so not to worry. On Dec. 30, we arrived in Lommel, a small town in Belgium where our New Year's was to be spent. Stephen found a "three-bedroom villa" at the CenterParcs for the five of us, Erin's bridesmaid, Christine, and her husband, Dave. Much to our surprise, the place was aresort for families with lots of kids and little to do for people over the age of 12. While that might've ruined the Griswald's European vacation, it was just fine for the Rawitches, Kantors and Dworkins. We had a place on the lake and we took advantage of what it had to offer.For some of us, that was massages. For Stephen, it was a massage and then a visit to the sauna, where entire families of Germans ran around naked amongst French families, frolicking like medieval times. Stephen enjoyed this experience and as he put it, he was "the only one wearing a hat." It took me a minute to figure it out. Think about it. We were in Europe. Okay, that's enough thinking. If you don't get it by now, move on.The massages were a nice start to New Year's Eve Day and we returned to our villa, where the ladies made fondue for all of us over a game of Trivial Pursuit, followed by a steak dinner (Stephen adds: so that this doesn't sound like Josh, Dave, and I are the biggest male chauvinist pigs making our woman slave away in the kitchen while we get massages, the gals got massages before us and started on dinner while the fellas were having ours and at the end of the night, the guys had kitchen clean-up duty). Natalie stuck to the baby formula, but you could tell she wanted the fondue. As they say, it all looks the same when it's spit up and she's very good at that activity. She was not pleased, however, when midnight struck and every single villa around ours launched its own fireworks. It was very cool to see these bootleg fireworks shows on the lake, but we retreated when the Germans next door decided to set off about 45 minutesworth of fireworks six feet from our back window. These people could have easily blown their hands off (or ours) and suddenly, we understood why this activity is illegal in America (and why it's legal in Tennessee and Georgia).All in all, it was a very quiet New Year's and while some might read this and think, "Damn those people are old," we actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Natalie eventually crashed and New Year's Day brought a day trip to Antwerp, which was almost entirely shut down but still very quaint and beautiful.The New Year's Eve meltdown didn't hold a candle to the New Year's Day one, as poor Natalie had a rough night on the first day of her first full year on Earth. She screamed for about 90 minutes straight, providing more than enough birth control for the othermarried couples in the villa. Still, if you've seen the videos or pictures, they don't do it justice. She's arguably the cutest baby in all of Europe and obviously takes after her mother.Stephen, though, did his part to look good for the trip. He was kind enough not to shave for the entire time we saw him (or go to work for that matter (Stephen adds: worked from home the week between Xmas and NYE)) and by the sixth day, he actually had a five o' clock shadow. Well, not really. He had a few long whiskers on hischin and a nasty mustache that was the main cause of Natalie's major meltdown, but even I have to admit, watching him as a father was pretty cool. So I guess this Travelpod wasn't so short after all. Six and a half day for nearly two pages of material. No wonder why Stephen's emails seem to go on endlessly. Someday, though, he and Julie will read them when their 85 years old (and Natalie's kids areclose to having kids) and they'll look back on what an incredible time their three-plus years in Europe really were (and how cool their friends Josh and Erin are). All kidding aside, their time in Holland is truly the type of experience that everyone should befortunate enough to have at some point in their lives and we're grateful that they let us share in it for a week.- Josh==============================As always, feel free to pass this on to anyone you think might enjoy reading my ramblings. Also, you can either subscribe or unsubscribe at any time at the top of the page.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1098064800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1098064800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1098064800/tpod.html Sun, 27 Nov 2005 06:35:22 -0500 Updates on my professional and personal exploits in and around Amsterdam.

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London, United Kingdom

Hi everyone.Julie is in London for the next few days with her upper-crust art buddies where they'll be visiting a handful of museums and castles. Since our anniversary was this past weekend (wow, 4 years already!), we decided to spend a few days in the city together.Wow, what a great weekend. I kinda forgot how wonderful a city London is! We had both studied for 4 months in London in '97 and amazingly, we were still able to find 2 great days of things to do this weekend that we had never done in London before.So following an early flight into London on Saturday, we headed to the Portobello Road market for some antique-ing. We didn't buy anything but did some great people-watching. We also walked around the Notting Hill neighborhood for a bit and took a great (and long) stroll through Hyde Park back to the hotel where we relaxed before dinner in Soho.This morning, following a traditional English Breakfast, we walked to the Imperial War Museum, passing Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben and Parliament (and of course the roundabout where Clark W. couldn't get left). We first stopped at the Millennium Eye ferris-wheel for an aerial view of the city. Then continued on to the wonderful museum. I am so upset I had never been there before. We only had time to see two absolutely amazing exhibits - Great Escapes and The Holocaust.So now I'm back in A'dam, completely thrilled by the HUGE Badger win yesterday, and ready to have a few days on bachelorhood (which really just means mac n' cheese from the pot while sitting on the couch in my boxers for 3 straight nights) while Julie passes my resume around to these executive wives in hope that one of their husbands will give me a huge raise, make me the VP of something as long as I have little responsibility, and offers me a huge office with a view!Anyways, until then, I'll speak with everyone soon.-StephenCheck us out at http://www.travelpod.com/members/kantors_abroad
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1101697200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1101697200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1101697200/tpod.html Sun, 27 Nov 2005 06:33:59 -0500 Updates on my professional and personal exploits in and around Amsterdam.

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Berlin, Germany

Hi everyone.We hope you all had a nice T-giving weekend. We borrowed the idea from Justin and Erin of hosting a pre-T-giving pot-luck again last Sun. for some friends (we had 30 people over, about half of which were non-American). Turkeys aren't quite as accessible here - we spent over $100 for our 13 lbs!!! Crazy!!!As T-giving doesn't mean much here, we left on Thurs. for Berlin by train. We spent the long weekend walking all over town - visiting the Reichstag (Parliament), the New Synagogue (built in 1859 before being rebuilt following WWII damage in 1990), the Jewish Museum, a 4-hour walking tour of practically every site in East and West Berlin, and the Checkpoint Charlie and Wall Museum.It was a very nice visit to Berlin and reminded me just how huge this city is. In 4 days of touring, we barely saw anything - we'd probably have to spend a week in Berlin if we wanted to see the insides of some of the museums. But the overwhelming thought that I had after learning about Berlin's history over the last 4 days was 'who fucked Berliners more - Hitler or the Communists?' I'd have to say it was a tie!Anyways, hope all is well with everyone and that you enjoyed your holidays!-Stephen
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1092981240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1092981240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1092981240/tpod.html Sun, 27 Nov 2005 06:33:13 -0500 Updates on my professional and personal exploits in and around Amsterdam.

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Athens, Greece

Hi everybody.Long time no t-pod - it's been almost 3 months since the last one! Since we are 4 trips behind, I tried very hard to be brief so that we could catch up. As you will see, I failed miserably. However, for those of you who don't have 3 hours to read to these (everyone not named Joey), I think the emails we've been writing from the road have been nice summaries and the pics are a good way to get an idea of how the trip went. So with this t-pod, we'll be sending you our pics too.As a quick update as to what is doing, we were in Chicago and Westchester in October and Fort Lauderdale and Long Island in November. We spent some time in Chicago with our friends, got to go to Madison to see a Badger f-ball game while we still thought this team would be special (and Julie got to see Chloe), and our families in FL. I went into the office in Chicago and had a bunch of great meetings as well - I seem to still have some fooled, thinking that I am doing a good job over here! The trips to NY were for Julie's bro Jon and Melanie's wedding and for my buddy Josh and Erin's wedding. It was AWESOME getting to see so many familiar faces. We miss you guys! Hopefully some of you will be able to make the trip out here!We also went to London for a few days to celebrate our anniversary. Having studied there during college, it was great to spend some time there. Last weekend we went to Berlin for T-giving. It was a very nice weekend - Berlin is huge! We are talking about going to Ghent, Belgium for 2 days and a night for a late Stephen's b-day trip, and to Koln, Germany for the same for Julie's b-day. We are also excited that Gabrielle and Ben will be sharing New Years with us in A'dam, my friend Scott will be visiting his g-friend Elena (who is spending 2 years at KPMG's headquarters in A'dam) later this month, and even Joey is about ready to book a flight for Feb! We have about 18 months left in A'dam so if you are thinking about making the trip, let us know...please just don't wait until the very end as we also will have some last-minute trips we're probably gonna want to make before heading back to the US!Anyways, all is well here. Work is going well. Julie seems to be pretty comfortable with her life and has been very busy lunching, gyming, napping, knitting, mah-jongging, museuming, etc. The weather is OK temperature-wise but it is DARK!Moving on to the t-pod, here is our last-minute trip to Athens for the Olympics. But before that, I included some info on the BBC's Olympic coverage and our Opening Ceremonies Party. Lastly, there is an article that Julie wrote for the American Woman's Club's newsletter 'Tulip Talk' about our trip to Athens. There is also a few updates on things going on in A'dam. Enjoy!==============================Here are a few random things going on...*** The Netherlands is going through a strange phase right now. Theo van Gogh, an extremely outspoken director who happens to be related to the painter, was murdered by a Muslim extremist for making anti-Muslim remarks (he often referred to Muslims as "goatfuckers"). In typical Dutch way, he was murdered riding his bike. The killer approached Theo, shot him a few times, then stuck a letter to him by impaling a knife in him. The letter threatening Job Cohen, the Jewish mayor of A'dam, and the Somali-born Member of Parliament, Ayann Hirsi Ali, who denounced her Muslim faith and often criticized the way woman are treated in Islam. The Dutch are struggling with their Muslim immigrants and how to assimilate them. The day that van Gogh was murdered, everybody wanted to talk about it and yet, it seemed like nobody wanted to talk about. There has since been a lot of random violence against the Muslim community (ie. mosques burnt down by arsons). Trying to make light of the situation, I joked with some of my Dutch friends that I thought Bush was going to invade the Netherlands to 'curtail the radical Muslim uprising'. Seriously though, this seems to be a very tense situation and I am interested to see how it plays out. If you are interested in reading more about this, check out http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=1&story_id=13500.*** We were in Florida last month visiting my mom, g-parents, and some other family. We saw a sign that read "10 out of 10 terrorists support Kerry" and another that read "Arafat supports Kerry". I can't believe that that sort of shit is actually allowed. So wrong!*** Julie recently got her bike stolen. Bike theft is very common here and about the extent of the crime we have here. So the fact our bikes haven't been stolen in 18 months so far is somewhat surprising. The disappointing thing is it wasn't really stolen. Julie expanded on the story by saying that she is pretty certain that she left the key in the lock. I was a bit upset. It's not like someone cut the lock or anything like that, she was forgetful and left the key there for anyone alert enough to notice. She had done this a few times and this time, we got burned. Uuurghhh!*** I have noticed a couple interesting phrases. The Dutch say 'half eleven', which means 10:30, as in half hour to 11. But why doesn't that mean half hour past 11? Interesting. They also refer to 'next Sunday' as in the very next time Sunday comes. For example, if it's Saturday, the next day would be 'next Sunday'. Personally, I would consider that 'tomorrow' and consider 'next Sunday' as 8 days from now. Hmmm.*** Interestingly, I was riding my bike to work the other day and I was in a pack of 7 or 8 other bikers. Out of nowhere, one of the ladies who was in the middle decided to turn left without any notice. Everyone slammed on their breaks and started ringing their bells. Nobody got hurt but I had a chuckle as I thought about the fact that I was almost involved in a '6 bike pile-up on the way to work!'*** Man our country is messed up. I had a conversation a few weeks ago with a Dutch friend about why we don't have electronic voting in the US like they do in the Netherlands. I explained that people feel there needs to be a papertrail. She asked why, that the Dutch just trust the system. I told her the issue is US politics is so corrupt, with power-hungry (wo)men tied into lots of lobby money from the church, tobacco, and gun people. What is wrong with our system! Good thing we're all over the world spreading "democracy"!*** I went to see the Polyphonic Spree concert at the Melkweg, a 2000-person venue, a few weeks ago. I saw them at that festival in Belgium and they are a lot of fun live. The stage was filled with 15 musicians and 8 choir members. It was really fun. If they are playing a club near you, go check 'em out!==============================OLYMPIC PARTYWe had a bunch of friends over for a party to share the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. About 30 people, representing about 10 different countries, came over. It was a fun party, despite the fact that somebody accidentally spilled some red wine on our carpet. About a dozen bottles of red wine were brought as gifts but nobody drank them - almost like everyone regifted. As each county would enter, in the spirit of good sportsmanship, we clapped. It was pretty fun.As the night got later, everyone left except for our Aussie friends Bruce and Ange and Tom and Meeghan, our Dutch friends Richard and Astrid, and our buddies from Chicago Chris and Melanie. We had all apparently drank too much. As the evening continued, the music was turned up and Julie eventually turned out the lights. She grabbed a flashlight and started to get the party going with a 'strobe-light'. Tom got a bit too excited and took off his shirt - a Greek God! Eventually, the music came to an end when we heard someone yelling from outside. It was the police. I peeked my head out of the window and he instructed me to come downstairs. Richard came down with me to convince the policeman that we were cool. We promised him that we would turn the radio off - since it was 3 AM - and he said if he came by again and the music was still blasting, he would need to take the radio away. Ooops. It was a fun party though!==============================BBC'S OLYMPIC COVERAGEJulie and I are huge fans of the Olympics. We get real caught up in the TV coverage, getting wrapped up in the personal interest stories that Bob Costas is damn good at telling. The BBC just doesn't cover the Olympics in the same way!For one, the sport selection is very suspect! The BBC only seemed to be interested in broadcasting those sports the Brits were expected to do well in. This might explain why badminton was on TV all the time - we watched more badminton than any person should! We would get a break from badminton to watch table tennis and judo before switching back to badminton.The coverage was very biased towards the UK and against the US. There was one situation when the BBC analyzed a disqualified US swimmer for a really long time because the disqualification of the gold medal winner would've granted a medal to the 4th place swimmer, a Brit. When the disqualification was overruled because it was obvious the swimmer was in the right, the BBC seemed to imply that there was a deal made or 'foul play', keeping the 4th place swimmer from medalling. This made it easy to root against the Brits.Lastly, we just couldn't get over some of the words the commentators used. For example, they continued to call the uneven bars the 'asymmetrical bars' and even described one gymnastics routine as "efficient" - is that a good routine or a bad one? I was never able to tell==============================ATHENS OLYMPICSThis trip was ridiculously crazy! The background of the trip is just as crazy! When Julie and I started talking about possibly moving to Europe, the first trip we talked about going on was to Athens for the Olympics. I had been to 2 other Olympics - the LA games with my dad and the Atlanta games with my college roomies. I was only 8 when I went to the see Joan Bonoit win the Gold in the woman's marathon but the '96 Games really got my interest. I had decided to stay in Madison for the summer after my sophomore year to flip burgers at the Union. But every evening, I would come home from work and we'd religiously watch the Games. Just like the rest of the US, we really fell in love with the woman's gymnastics team. So much so that after they won the gold, my roommates and I were overcome with Olympic fever and decided right there on the spot to drive to Atlanta. I went to work the next day and told my boss that I would need a few days off of work, knowing that if he wouldn't allow it I would quit and take my burger-flipping skills elsewhere. He agreed and I was able to postpone my retirement from the Union for 2 years. So after work, I came home and we drove to Atlanta - 14 hours straight. It was a crazy trip, one I never thought would be matched...until this Olympics.But we're not there yet...there's still some more set up. So once we moved here, we mentioned to a few people that we wanted to go to Athens for the Olympics. Julie's freshman college roomie Robin was also in love with the Olympics so the plan was that Julie and I would meet Robin and her husband Mitch in Athens. When tix became available, we bought some. We had decided to get the best tix available for the finals of the woman's team gymnastics. This was guaranteed to be a hot ticket and a potential gold for the US. Plus, Julie is a former high school gymnast so we were psyched. Hotels and airfare were really expensive at the time so we didn't book anything and decided to wait until prices fell. We searched and searched but prices never fell. It started to get closer to the Games, the press was really bad about the readiness of the stadiums and public transport and of course, the ever-present threat of Osama coming to get us. But still, hotel and plane fares remained high. Eventually, the 4 of us decided it wasn't going to happen so we jumped ship and decided we'd go to Italy for a week instead.I started looking into selling the tix, posted them on Ebay, and hoped to make back our money. Tix weren't selling anywhere so we decided that we would try to sell our $250 tix at a loss. Still, even then, we couldn't sell them. I called all the 5-star hotels in Athens, hoping that maybe their concierge would be able to sell them to a hotel guest. Nothing. I even thought about going to the airport with them and selling them to someone checking-in for their flight to Athens. I wasn't too excited about that so I never did it but we were beginning to get desperate. I really wanted to go but I definitely didn't want to waste $500 in tix costs.The Games were less than a day away and it was beginning to drive me nuts that our money had been wasted on these tix and we were not going to be able to make it to Athens. Just then, when all hope was lost, I got a call from Lisa's hair-stylist. The lady called me and gave me tons of suggestions on how to sell them. As normal for the Dutch, she also made a few rude/candid remarks like 'this is the sort of thing you should've done before' and 'you need to be more creative' even though she had no clue what I had already tried. Some of her ideas were actually things I had already thought of so 'fuck off lady'. But she was trying to help and didn't have to so I was nice.One suggestion she made was to look into flights from Brussels. Apparently, flights to/from A'dam are really expensive and Brussels (only 2 hours away) is a much cheaper alternative. This was it! I hit the www and found a flight from Brussels to Athens for under EUR 200 per person! Hallelujah! We were gonna go to Athens. I was thrilled! We really wanted to go all along and now it seemed possible...assuming hotels were no longer EUR 500 a night.I spoke to my Australian friend Tom the next day in the office. His family is Greek and he still has tons of family in Athens. He has obviously been to Athens a ton and was familiar with the city. He gave me some pointers on areas of town that might be a little outside of the center and therefore cheaper, but still accessible to the Olympic venues. He even called a hotel for me thinking that if he spoke Greek, he might get a better response than I would (as a side-note, we got the same quote but it was very nice of him to offer).So now we knew we could fly for cheap and stay for cheap. It was now time to sort out the details and pull the trigger. The cheapest flight was going to get us to Athens in the late afternoon, go straight to the Olympic event, and then head back to the airport for a pre-dawn flight - I even thought maybe we just skip the hotel altogether and just sleep at the airports. But for an extra EUR 50 per person, we would arrive in Athens early in the morning, have all day in Athens before the Olympic event, spend 1 night at a hotel, and then have all day the next day in Athens before a late afternoon flight - basically giving us 2 full days in Athens instead of just a few hours to sightsee. Although this would add an additional night at the hotel, we thought at that point it would be worth it. So with EUR 525 in airfare and a EUR 120 hotel, we jumped at it.Just to give you an idea of the tight timing of all this, I spoke to Lisa's hairdresser on Thurs. night, spoke to Tom and booked the hotel and flight Fri. before lunch, and left for Athens on Mon. evening. CRAZY!But here's how our trip went...MONDAYAfter work I headed home to pick up the luggage and the wife. We walked to the central train station, grabbed a couple pre-packaged sandwiches at the Albert Heijn grocery store, and got on the 8 PM train to Brussels (EUR 97 total) - in all the budgeting, we forgot to factor in the EUR 100 to get to Brussels but it was still cheaper than if we had flown out of A'dam.The train arrived in Brussels at 10:30 PM. From there, we had to transfer to another train (EUR 5 total), which would get us to the airport about 11 PM. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 1:30 AM Tuesday morning and the place was empty! Even the tix counters were abandoned. So we found a bench and waited for life to reemerge. I might as well continue with Tuesday since technically, it was Tuesday...TUESDAYWe got our boarding passes and cleared the security check. It was even more barren on this side of the airport than the other. Julie pulled up a piece of bench and tried unsuccessfully to get a few winks of sleep. As the time passed, the terminal got more and more lively. There were tons of people wearing the same t-shirt, celebrating their favorite Olympic team.We finally got on the plane, and while it seemed like we had already traveled a ton, our journey was about to begin. I, of course, fell asleep. When I woke up, we were approaching a pitch-black Athens. It was 6:30 AM.As soon as we got off the plane, Olympic fever was alive everywhere. There were signs and posters decorating every corner of the airport. There were happy spectators populating the terminal, wearing all sorts of country paraphernalia. My favorites were the drunk Scots who got on the bus with us, wearing huge leprechaun outfits. They had apparently found the gold(shlager) at the end of the rainbow.By the time we got on that aforementioned bus with the leprechauns, it was as light as noon. This is amazing considering it had only been about an hour since we landed in the dark. We waited on the bus while the bus-driver enjoyed a smoke for half an hour. It was at this point, watching the driver 'enjoying life' at leisure, that I realized that the Olympic facilities and Athens were barely completed because of this relaxed, no-hurry nature.Eventually, the bus left the airport. There was a barren desert-like landscape with warehouse-like boxes. It's kinda hard to describe but it reminded me of Phoenix. We maneuvered our way out of suburbia and into the endless urban sprawl known as Athens. We passed a handful of Olympic venues, all of which were so new it looked like the glue was still drying. It was clear that Athens had miraculously gotten everything done and was ready to host the world.After about an hour, we were dropped off at the last stop, the port that connects Athens to the world-famous Greek Islands. While some had gone right from the bus to the ferries, we grabbed ourselves a cab and aimed for Lilia Hotel.The cab driver was very nice but after driving in circles for 10 minutes, it was clear he had no clue where the hotel was. I had printed a map of the area. We were clearly in the right neighborhood but we just couldn't figure it out. The driver looked for help from anyone - from another cabbie, from a man walking on the street, he even called the hotel on his cell phone. Finally, we made it to the hotel. After 15 minutes driving around the area, I was bracing for the ridiculous fare this guy was going to lay on me...EUR 3. I couldn't believe it, EUR 3. Because the man was so helpful, I gave him a EUR 2 tip. I thought that was fair since he was so helpful. Based on his reaction, I am guessing he thought that was the most generous tip ever.We checked into the hotel, a family-run place with about 25 rooms. Our room was very small but it had a bed and a clean bathroom - perfect! The hotel was a few block away from a huge harbor and looked like a neat area of town...but we were there for a specific reason so we headed to the tram, which would bring us to the main Olympic venues.There was a lot of talk prior to the Olympics about whether the Greeks would get everything ready. Well, they did. You could tell that it was barely finished - we even joked that the paint was still wet - but it was indeed finished. The trams were new and comfortable. The tram station was filled with other Olympic spectators and a handful of local volunteers giving out directions and info. The ride to the Olympic center took about 45 minutes but it was done without needing to transfer to another line.It was now about 9 AM and we were at the main Olympic complex - there were other buildings spread out all over town as well. There were more volunteers helping, directing us out of the station and to the Olympic complex. It was huge and new and clean. There were tons of people running around but it was not packed. Having been to Atlanta for the '96 Olympics, it was not as crowded as I had expected. I would end up comparing this Olympics to that one throughout the time and I have some observations - and theories - but we'll discuss that later. For now, it was time to see an event.We didn't have tix but were immediately approached by a local scalper as we emerged from underneath the tram tracks. We told the man that we wanted to see swimming to which he pulled out a stack of tix. We bought a pair of EUR 45 tix for EUR 30 each. This showed us immediately the tix situation we would be facing later in the day when we would try to sell the extra gymnastics tix we had...and looking back, we overpaid for those swimming tix based on what we got for the gymnastics tix later that day but that's another story for later.We were expecting the security to be super tight and a long ordeal. The info packs we got with the tix suggested we get to the venue about 2 hours in advance. So we did. There were tons of metal detectors ready to efficiently move the guests through the lines. In about 10 minutes, we were through. We never really saw much security around but apparently, they were there.With our scalped tix in hand, we followed the crowd toward the swimming facility. It was a beautiful building, and one that was discussed a lot in the lead-up to the Games - it was supposed to be a covered facility but because of delays in the construction, it became an open-air pool. And to be honest, with the gorgeous Athens weather, it was better 'incomplete'.Just after entering the swimming facility, we saw a big crowd of spectators pressed up against a fence and others holding onto poles, looking across the fence, onto the athletes warming-up. We joined the group and watched the world's greatest athletes. There seemed to be about 50 people swimming laps at a slow and leisurely pace. It was kinda cool to see. Some of them were lying on massage tables. The bodies were absolutely beautiful. Even the men looked real soft and smooth. In fact, as Julie and I jealously looked on as the masseuse rubbed the knots out and loosed the tight muscles, I saw an athlete completely covered up except for the feet. I said to Julie that the leg was so pretty, I couldn't even tell if it belonged to a man or a woman. Julie laughed hysterically as it was definitely a man. But it was a pretty foot.From the warm-up pool, we walked into the main pool venue and took our seats. The pool looked tiny, smaller than you would expect, almost like when you see a TV show taping live. The place looked like it had just been finished. I don't even think they had time to sand the wooden rises we would be sitting on.The place was pretty empty. But it was now 10 AM and the event was beginning nonetheless. Honestly, the event was pretty boring. It was only the preliminaries so the elite athletes only needed to qualify. Because of this, those elite swimmers barely seemed to be trying. And those other athletes were clearly out of their league, even with the top swimmers barely trying. It's hard to explain but some of the swimmers from smaller countries seemed to have trouble even finishing the races. It was almost like they were 'privileged' people of their country, like children of diplomats from warring nations. They were given the chance to represent their country and offered a free party vacation. They arrived in Athens, partied, swam a few laps, and then partied some more! They weren't expected to win. They were there for fun. So many of these swimmers seemed to be less athletic than even myself! The races were pretty boring as a result. Among the top swimmers we got to see coast into the semi-finals, which would be the following night, were Ian Thorpe and Katelin Sandeno. We also saw the men's 4 X 200 freestyle relay. Michael Phelps didn't swim in the prelims - but he did swim in the finals, which I think isn't really fair. He took a medal and the limelight away from someone else on the US team, all because he wanted to win some record. It's kinda fucked up.Anyways, the event was interesting to see but this was not because of the athletics but because of the choreography surrounding the race. Each race began with a rhythmic bonging. With this, the racers would walk single-file into the arena. The spectators immediately found a swimmer to root for - we went either with the American, the Dutch, the Greek, or the African guy who stood no chance. The athletes would then do a few quick stretches and remove their warm-up clothes, never once being allowed to touch the water. The clothes would be balled up and thrown into a plastic basket, which was situated next to the starting blocks. The swimmers would 'take their marks, get set, and go'. While the swimmers were making their way through the water, a group of Olympic staff wearing Olympic uniforms would march out single-file, just like the swimmers did before them. They would stand in front of the starting block, and simultaneously, they would bend down and pick up the swimmer's warm-ups. Again, at the same time, they would turn and exit the pool together. This choreographed event was sometimes more interesting to watch than the race. The race would then, eventually, come to an end. The racers in lanes 1 to 4 would swim over to the left, and the racers in 5 to 8 would swim to the right, and exit. This whole routine worked like clockwork, was ridiculously efficient, took about 30 seconds, and repeated itself over and over until 11:30 AM.Some times there was something out of the ordinary that happened in the race. If a swimmer faulted, the PA would announce that the swimmer and his/her country rep should 'report to the resolution room'. I thought that was funny, the 'resolution room'. It's like when a kid is sent to the principal's office - not that I would know.All in all, it was fun to see but kinda boring. When the event finished, we walked around the Olympic complex for a bit. We were kinda hungry so we looked around for some food. Amazingly, it was Day 3 and the hundred or so white food tents were already out of pizza. The available food didn't look too good so we walked over to the corporate sponsor for some McFood. The info sent before the games said that there would be ample veggie food but that was not the case. Even the McD's wasn't serving anything for me - no fish filet and the salads had chicken on them. So I had French fries for lunch. Oh well.After 'lunch', we continued walking around the Olympic complex and did a bit of souvenir shopping. I bought a t-shirt with the logos of each of the sports - a yellow square with a black stick-figure doing the sport - and a black hat with the Olympics rings and "Athens 2004" on it. Being a collector of clutter, I also bought one of those plastic ticket holders that you wear around your neck and use as a souvenir when you get home.After this, we decided it was time to take a nap since we had been going non-stop since we woke up the day before. So we took the tram back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit. I picked up a really good pannini thing with cheese, tomato, and oregano. Yum! With a bit in my tummy, we made our way back to the hotel, although I got lost leading us back which Julie didn't appreciate too much in her exhausted state but finally we got back to the hotel and were happy that out place had A/C.After a few hours, it was time to regroup from our nap and head to the main Olympic venue for the finals of the woman's team event in gymnastics. We bought a few more souvenirs, including some knock-off 'official' shirts and an American flag to wave at the gymnastics event.We paid our 70 cents and got on the tram. On the tram, I overheard 2 American men that looked about our age, talking to 2 American woman about our age. I soon gathered that the men were on the volleyball team. I asked them how people were treating them. They said that individually, everyone has been awesome to them but as a team in competition, they are clearly not fan-favorites. These guys competed in Australia as well and they said there, people were cool to them but now (post-Iraq), they are not supported in the least. I personally think it is for 2 reasons: 1. you always root for David over Goliath and currently, with Europe unable to get the EU on the same track and the Soviets disbanded, we are the only Goliath out there and 2. fucking GWBush sucks!As soon as we exited the tram and headed down the stairs, we were attacked by people trying to sell their tix. It seemed like everyone had extra tix they were trying to sell. Nobody seemed to be interested in buying any - talk about a buyer's market! The few people who were interested in buying tix at a somewhat reasonable price were more interested in buying tix for the swimming finals. Nobody wanted gymnastics tix. As we nearly begged people to buy the extra tix we were trying to sell for Mitch and Robin, it became clear we were not going to get face value. One American man approached us looking for swimming tix. When I told him we had gymnastics, he offered us half price. At the time, I thought we should look for a more serious buyer. I soon realized that that was the best offer we would get. When I found the man a bit later, he had already bought swimming tix. Oh well. I eventually found a Greek guy to buy the tix for EUR 100 - one fourth of the original price! The interesting thing is as I was making the deal, another scalper overheard us and offered the man his tix for that price. I told the other guy to get lost...can you believe it, we're fighting over a EUR 150 haircut per tix!Somewhere in this time, I was amazingly able to sell our 4 tix to see preliminary b-ball for Thurs. morning at face value. Of course face was EUR 25 so EUR 100 is EUR 100. Looking back, I wish we hadn't bought tix in advance since it was so cheap to buy them prior to the event...but then again, if we haven't had the threat of loosing the tix we had already bought, we never would've made the last-minute trip from A'dam. So I'm glad we had then, I'll just say if we ever go to an Olympics again, we'll go without any tix and just scalp before the event.So after making our best attempt to recoup some cash for Mitch and Robin, we headed inside to get some tasty Olympic food. Of course, there was still no food to be eaten. Julie got a bad hot dog and I had some sort of overcooked cheese pie. It was disgusting but at least it wasn't too expensive (the best buy of the day was a bottle of water for only EUR 1).We walked around a bit. There were some really cool fountains, these huge white sculptures that moved creating a ripple effect, and of course, the gorgeous site of the Olympic Stadium with the Olympic flame dancing overhead. The sun was beginning to set and I took a few moments to sit and appreciate the truly unique opportunity that Julie and I had to cheer on our country at the Olympics, set in the magical setting of Athens, the original home of the Games. It was pretty amazing that we were able to put together this trip so last-minute!We made our way into the venue to see gymnastics. The place was empty, but we still had tons of time before the event was to begin. We watched a bit of the warm-ups. Then the warm-ups came to an end and it seemed as if the arena hadn't gotten any more full. The event eventually began but still, the place was empty. I suppose all the tix were still outside at the tram trying to get sold. Eventually the man who bought our tix arrived and took his seat next to us. Strangely though, nobody ever sat in the other seat he bought. It seemed very odd but he bought 2 tix and only used 1. Why didn't he just buy 1 tix? I started to think that maybe he got flustered because of the language barrier and that things happened so quickly when the other scalper came over to try to steal my 'sale' - thinking back, I basically ripped the money out of his hand and shoved the tix in his hand for fear that he would buy from the other scalper. Oh well, as they say, sucks for him!Anyways, here's a bit about the event...** The Aussie team had tons of bling on their outfits. They sparkled more than the athletes. For our friends Bruce and Ange and Tom and Meeghan back home in A'dam, we cheered on the Aussies, but they were pretty pitiful.** Someone in the stands had a sign that read "Buddha bless China". I thought that was funny.** Buddha apparently wasn't listening as one of the Chinese gymnasts was on the uneven bars and did some sort of flip release from one bar and missed her catch of the other bar because she fell face first. It was awesome. I felt back that she fucked up and was glad to see didn't hurt herself but it was a perfect face-plant. I kinda reminded me of one of Julie's high school gymnastics videos when she is doing some cartwheels on the balance beam and missed her footing and smacked her head on the beam. She didn't hurt herself so it is damn funny! I'm thinking of sending it into America's Funniest Home Videos (aka 'lets see someone fall on their ass and almost kill themselves').** Watching the Russian team, it's hard to look at them and not think they are a bunch of Commies! Ironically, following the Olympics the skinny leader of the team who must be about 40 years old because she seems to be in every Olympics I can remember (the one who looks like Ivan Drago's wife) bitched about her not winning the gold in the individuals and that the American did. What a beotch!*** The Russian team moved their own equipment and chalked up the bars themselves. Before each event, they would go out and move shit around or get things set up. It kinda reminded me of my days as Frolics first fan, hanging with Eric and watching him set up his guitar stuff at the Roxie himself. Like Eric, the Russians were their own roadies.Anyways, we had gotten these tix because of Julie's history with gymnastics, my infatuation with Dominique Morceanu and the '96 team, and we knew the US always had a good team and hoped we might hear our national anthem. I remember how awesome it felt to hear The Star-Spangled Banner when I was in Atlanta so I hoped we would get the same with the traditionally good woman's gymnastics team. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Some of the scores for the Americans were unreasonably low but no matter what, I can say with certainty that the Romanians were much better than the Americans. So the US team won silver, which was good, but we left without hearing our anthem. Bummer!I suppose I sorta wished we had bought tix to see the finals of swimming that night instead as there were 6 or 7 finals being raced which would've given us a greater chance of hearing The Star-Spangled Banner simply because there were more medal ceremonies. With gymnastics, we had 1 chance and with swimming, we had 6 or 7. Oh well, another lesson for the future Olympics (I doubt we'll be going to Beijing but could possibly go to London, Paris, Madrid, New York, or Moscow in 2012).We left the arena, still only about half-full, and entered an absolutely beautiful Athens night. It was gorgeous, and the weather was perfect! We stumbled upon the NBC broadcasting center. This confirmed to me that the Americans get more involved in the Olympics than any other country as it was right in the center of the main Olympic venue area. There was nothing else there other than official merchandise shops, the giant McD's (a sponsor of the Games), and a few arenas and other venues for the competitions. And then of course, NBC. The BBC had been broadcasting from a building across the street with a view of the Olympic Stadium in the distance but this was not as prime as what NBC had. This importance also made it clear why these Games was 'failing' - the Americans had not come to Athens in the way that they had traveled to past Olympics. There were more American than I had expected but it was still obvious that the place was empty and I happen to believe that the American fans account for close to 100% of that void. It's too bad because the Greeks put on a wonderful Olympics and we now know that Uncle Osama didn't do anything ugly.I also noticed that the American spectators were unfortunately the only ones who seemed to be uncomfortable showing off any patriotism. Everywhere you looked, you would see hordes of people with the British flag wrapped around them, the Brazilian flag painted on their face, the Korean flag temporarily tattooed on their arm, etc. But nowhere did you see Americans outwardly showing off their pride. This was pretty sad. Again, fucking Bush.Anyways, we left the Olympics and made it back to the hotel where we got caught up on how the other events went. Michael Phelps did well, winning the gold - which sucks since we would've seen The Star-Spangled Banner had we seen swimming - and the Greek/US b-ball game was an excited one that the US won. That also would've been fun to see. Oh well, gymnastics was still fun and it was most important that we saw something that we enjoyed. With this, we ended one of the longest days ever!WEDNESDAYWe decided to sleep in a bit and woke up at 10:00. We both slept great due to total exhaustion after a very full day+, coupled with a very strong A/C. We decided we would continue our Olympic adventure with tix to see beach volleyball. Beach volleyball offered a few games outdoors in the sun, and we would get to see the Americans play. So we took the tram to the venue. This time, we would be on one of the new trams. This tram was perfectly clean and had A/C but unfortunately, it didn't run as often as the other line so we were stuck waiting for about 30 minutes before the tram left. We also noticed at the tram stop just how close the Greeks were to not being ready for the Games. The tram stop had a block of cement right at the stop but just steps away from the stop, there was nothing but dirt. It didn't seem to end naturally, just ended abruptly. While this seemed to look strange, I began to think that this was not unfinished and that it was the way it was designed. In a way, all of Greece seemed to look 'unfinished' to me.When we finally made it to the site of beach volleyball, 1 hour after leaving the hotel, we went straight to the tix booth. Since we had slept in, we missed out on buying tix from the scalpers, if there had even been any. There was only 1 match left (the US), having already missed about 3 hours of volleyball, so we decided EUR 20 per tix was too much and the tix office wasn't giving any discounts despite there being unsold tix. That was too bad since this was a chance to make a little more money, but oh well. We decided to take a pass on beach volleyball and called an end to our Olympic adventure.We decided we would go see the Acropolis instead. I asked someone how to get there by tram but since it took forever to get to beach volleyball and it sounded like it would take a while to get there - plus, Julie was getting tired of public transportation and our cab ride to the hotel was cheap - we hailed a cab and made our way toward this amazing site.The cab driver was a really nice young man. We talked to him a bit about how he thinks the Olympics are going and during this time, I started to think about why this Olympics would either succeed or fail. I will save this list for the end of the t-pod though.The cabbie dropped us off at the Acropolis. Amazingly, the fare was again just EUR 3 despite it being a 20-minute drive. He told me that he would have to charge us a EUR 3 surcharge since he picked us up at an Olympic venue but even at EUR 6, it was a bargain. Being an honest guy, he only charged us EUR 5 though since that is what he quoted me when I initially asked him what the ride would cost. I ended up giving him EUR 10 because he seemed like a nice guy and that is what I was expecting to pay. It's a win-win. But I realized then that we should've taken a cab everywhere!As we started to walk up the stairs approaching the Acropolis, the first thing we saw was a sign that read "no camping". We thought that was really funny. The Greeks must've had run-ins with Dutch campers pitching their tents on the site of the Acropolis!We bought our tix to enter the Acropolis and I was amazed to see that there was scaffolding up everywhere. It was weird, they must've known that every single tourist coming to the Olympics would be going to see this. They had about 8 years from the time they found out they'd be hosting the event to the time the Olympics arrived. And yet, they weren't able to get their one tourist attraction ready. Amazing!The Acropolis is a site full of many temples, gates, columns, and other ruins. They were built by Percles during the 5th century BC. Even with the scaffolding, it was an amazing site. Just as amazingly, it was not as crowded as I thought it would be. As we walked around the site, I was appalled to see so many visitors blatantly disregarding all the signs that told the visitors not to touch certain ruins. I watched as 2 European visitors climbed over a fence to pose with a temple ruin...Americans are many things but I am proud to say that for the most part, we are very respectful of other people's cultural sites - maybe because as a 200-year-old country, we don't have many of our own. From the Acropolis, we had a chance to really see how huge Athens is for the first time. It went on forever. I reminded me of coming through 'the pass' on the 405, when you see the overcrowded and pollution-ridden San Fernando Valley, with a Mediterranean feel. Athens is endless. The strangest thing, scattered randomly in between are ancient ruins. In the distance below, you can see the 15 remaining 17-meter tall columns of the 104-column Temple of Olympian Zeus from 131 AD. And nobody seemed to even care to see this. That's amazing! We could see in the distance, sandwiched in between 2 small hills, a roman stadium, which was built in the 4th century BC and was used in the first Olympics of the modern times in 1896. Again, nobody seemed too interested in seeing such a 'boring' site.As we continued to walk around the Acropolis in awe, we saw two groups of visitors, which I thought were interesting. The first was a group of around 30 college-age kids from all over the world representing UNICEF. It was cool to see them enjoying their time at the Acropolis but I really started to laugh when they organized themselves for a huge group pic and everyone of them asked the pic taker to take one with their camera. Instead of getting one of two with a few cameras and then sharing the pics with everyone, they all wanted one taken with their camera. As I write this t-pod, they are probably still at the Acropolis taking this pic! The other interesting visitors were 2 sprinters from the Jamaican track team. A pretty young lady with a camera crew asked if she could interview them about athletes who were visiting the cultural sites. They got real excited when they saw the microphone had the NBC logo on it! Just before the interview began, she explained that she was technically from Telemundo and would be asking them questions in Spanish as well as English. I don't think they were as excited for Telemundo but they still gave a nice interview - I listened to most of it.After spending about an hour at the Acropolis, we climbed a rock across the way, which had a nice view of the Acropolis and Athens below. The rock was really slippery and if this were in the US, they would've through a chair-lift on it or some handrails. Those crazy Greek had the nerve to leave it as is. Just wait 'til they get sued, then they'll learn their lesson!From here we walked around a bit trying to see the sites of Athens. The interesting thing is in the Lonely Planet travel guide, there are recommended itineraries for travel in Greece. For 3 days in Greece, it suggests you spend 3 days in Athens. For 1 week in Greece, it suggests you still spend only 3 days in Athens. This continues to the point where if you have 2 months in Greece, it still suggests you only spend 3 days in Athens. You would think it would increase the number of days you spend in Athens if your time in the country increases but apparently, no matter how long you plan on visiting Greece, Athens is only worth 3 days. And to be honest, I would say it really only warrants 1 days because after spending 1 day walking around Athens, I felt like I saw it. Of course with a few more days, you could relax a bit more and spend a bit more time seeing certain areas (for example, I would've liked spending more time hanging in the area of our hotel), but if you are pressed for time, I would think 1 day in Athens is good and then head to the islands!But that wasn't on our agenda...this time. We continued walking around town, spotting ruins and archeological digs in the most random places. After we were finished sightseeing, we bought the last of our Olympic souvenirs, including a lame fanny-pack which Julie really wanted! We found one of the volunteers and asked her for a suggestion of a nice restaurant in the area. To our disgust, she gave us directions to McD's...she must think that all Americans eat is McD's - we were in Greece, we wanted some Greek food, McD's is what we eat in Germany!We found a really nice restaurant called In Town Café in the middle of some pedestrian shopping street. It was a bit expensive for lunch (EUR 37) but since this was going to be our only Greek meal, it was OK. I had some roasted veggies w/ feta and Julie had mousaka. It was really good. We walked a bit more, spotted a really nice church with a beautiful mosaic above the door randomly in the middle of this shopping street, and headed back to the hotel to gather our bags for the bus ride back to the airport.We took our 1-hour bus ride to the airport and got there really early. Again, we weren't able to check-in right away. So we grabbed a seat and relaxed. And then out of nowhere, this huge line of Dutch and Belgians formed. They all pushed their way in front of us. I was really annoyed. The Dutch, in general, are really annoying when it comes to lines and personal space! We were not in the mood for this so we just cut in front of most of them and took our space in line where we felt it should've been. This didn't stop the others from taking a step forward when the person in front of us took a step forward, not even caring if we took a step or not. I always feel like they are breathing down my neck. Friggin' Dutch!Anyways, we finally went to the gate and when the boarding was delayed for some unknown reason, all the Dutch started freaking out. They can't handle things when they don't go the way it's supposed to.While waiting to board our plane, there was a guy in a wheelchair with casts on basically every part of his body. Others obviously noticed as well and began asking him what had happened. He was Columbian, probably in his early 20s, and had been on vacation on the island of Paros. He was riding a motor scooter without a helmet and was hit by a car. He broke his arm, leg, ribs, etc. etc. etc. He looked like his was in bad shape and was really lucky to be alive and to have not cracked his head! Stan, WEAR YOUR HELMET!We finally boarded the plane and it smelled of the worst BO. Don't these people shower?!?! There was no leg-room at all. But I somehow fell asleep nonetheless.We made it back to Brussels and grabbed a EUR 15 cab to the Campanile Hotel (EUR 90) near the airport. We needed to stay at a hotel in Brussels because by the time we arrived in Brussels at 11 PM, the trains were no longer running to A'dam. We went to sleep that night, ready to wake up at 5 AM so that we could get the 6:55 train back to A'dam. I went straight to work from there, satisfied with our trip to Athens for the Olympics!A few final thoughts...** Looking back at my time in Atlanta, I noticed that we walked everywhere. But in Athens, that wasn't possible. In Atlanta, we were able to walk from the Olympic Stadium outside to all the tourist attractions of Atlanta. Connecting the Olympic sites to the city sites were tons of food options. There were fast food options as well as restaurants. Athens wasn't connected as one city the way Atlanta was. I suppose it was difficult for Athens to have the same sort of flow since there was no existing 'center' where a stadium and other venues could be built. It is also not as easy as creating a central location when you have thousands of people already living in that particular area of town. Add to this that as soon as you start construction somewhere in Athens, there is a good chance you will find ruins to some ancient civilization and thus, ending the chance of finishing the construction. Nevertheless, I think if Athens was somehow able to buildup one area of town as the Olympic center and have food options there, it would've made the experience a nicer one.** Food and cabs were cheap. Of course, food at the Olympics wasn't too good but it was cheap. The one restaurant we did eat at was really good and in general, we really like Greek food.** The people were really nice and were proud to be welcoming the world to Athens.** The place was finished in time and was extremely well organized!The Olympics 'failed' (just over 50% of the seats were filled) because...** The Greeks were on vacation during the Olympics. Apparently, the Greek culture is one where the people go to the islands for vacation, period. They were not going to change their plans and stay in Athens in August to support the Olympics. So the success of the Olympics depended solely on the support of foreigners. By and large, the Greeks are not huge sports fans and certainly don't dominate in any particular sport like some of the other hosts of the Games (ie. the Australians and swimming). The Greeks aren't going to go to the Games the way other sports-crazy countries will.** The Europeans weren't going to go to the Olympics because 1, the Olympics are just 1 more international sporting event and not THE international sporting event like the Americans think of it - in fact, just a few months earlier, a more significant international sporting event was held in Portugal in the form of the Euro Cup soccer event; and 2. the Europeans tend to drive to their vacations and Greece is practically impossible to get to within a normal amount a time from practically anywhere in Western Europe.** Asia is pretty far and if you are an Asian and interested in the Olympics, you are probably better off waiting until 2008 and going to Beijing instead.** This basically leaves the Americans who were afraid to travel. Of course the bad press about the Greek's readiness didn't help matters either.** The Greeks didn't see the writing on the wall, that the attendance would be poor, and agree to lower hotel prices. This scared off those last people who were thinking about making the trip. Even in our case, 2 days before the Games began, the 2-star hotels were staying with their prices and charging EUR 300 a night. That is ridiculous! Instead of lowing the prices to EUR 120 a night, they'd rather have empty rooms all night.On a side note, the European press reported that the Greek tourist agencies did a very poor job of promoting the islands as a vacation destination which could be added to any Olympic trip. Because of this, even the islands had very low occupancy. All in all, it was very poorly promoted.==============================JULIE'S TULIP TALK ARTICLEI love the Olympics. It started for me when Mary Lou Retton won the women's gymnastics all around gold medal in 1984. My friend Becky had her own American flag leotard just like the one Mary Lou wore and we took turns wearing it imagining we had attained Olympic glory. I still have the picture I drew in 3rd grade for social studies of me on top of the Olympic podium with the title "I have a dream...that I will win a gold medal in gymnastics". OK, I was a little too young to understand what Martin Luther Kings Jr's speech was about. In college I took History of the Modern Olympics. Yes, it was a real course. My own gymnastics career turned out to be quite lackluster. I received one 15th place ribbon which I still proudly hang, but I quickly realized the closest I would ever get to the Olympics would be in the stands. Two years ago when we decided to move from Chicago to Amsterdam my husband Stephen and I excitedly talked about all the amazing places we would visit. High on our list was attending the Athens 2004 Olympic games.Late in 2003 we were able to buy tickets for women's team gymnastics finals via the internet. We bought four tickets with plans on meeting friends from Chicago in Athens. We soon heard that the event was sold out. Our Olympic fever was in full swing. We rushed to travel agents in the Amsterdam area specializing in travel to Greece. When we told the travel agents we wanted information on hotels in Athens during the Olympics, they simply told us, "sold out". We were shocked and we didn't believe them. How could the hotels be sold out? Aren't the news programs telling us nobody wants to go to Athens? We decided to wait a few more months and see what happens as the Olympics gets closer.As the summer approached we were still looking for affordable hotel and airfare prices. We were told every room in Athens was 500 euros a night! Even for a budget hotels that usually go for 60 euro a night. Our friends from Chicago backed out of coming to Greece due to the cost. We were getting really discouraged. With all the traveling we have done since we arrived and all the traveling we want to do there was no way we could spend that much money on one trip. So we decided there will be other Olympics and we would try and sell our tickets.First we tried to sell out tickets by word of mouth, but no one knew anyone who was going to the Olympics. A few weeks before the games we put the tickets on ebay hoping to make our money back as each ticket was 200 Euro. No one was interested in our tickets.We couldn't bear on seeing the tickets go unused so Stephen started searching the internet for last minute airfares and hotel deals. Amazingly, he found a flight from Brussels to Athens that allowed us two full days. He even found a hotel room that was affordable. He booked this on Friday, August 13. That night we celebrated while watching the opening ceremonies knowing we would be there on Tuesday morning.Monday, August 16, after Stephen returned from work we headed to central station to catch the train to Brussels so we could take our 1:40 AM flight to Athens. We arrived in Athens on a plane full of Belgian Equestrian fans at 5:45 AM. We hopped on a city bus that an hour later dropped us off in the Pareius area near our hotel. We dropped off our luggage and excitedly headed to the tram to take us to the Olympic stadium.The tram from where we were staying to the Olympic stadium was a 45 minute ride. We were shocked at the size of Athens. After living in Amsterdam we forgot that you can be on a train for 45 minutes and still be in the same city.We arrived at the Olympics stadium just in time to see swimming preliminaries begin. We bought tickets and went through security that was similar to what you experience at the airport but with out the waiting.Upon entering the Aquatic center the first thing you see is the warm up/cool down swimming pool. This is where the swimmers train. It was packed with amazingly fit bodies swimming laps. All around the pool athletes were getting massages and physical check-up by their trainers. It was very cool to see.We then headed to the pool where the event was taking place. It was very surreal to have seen the pool on TV just the day before and now being there. We watched two hours of qualifying heats and saw Ian Thorpe, Pieter v.d. Hoogenband, and Amanda Beard swim. After swimming we decided to walk around the Olympic complex, soak up the atmosphere and grab lunch.We noticed that everyone seemed to be wearing their national colors and country's name proudly boasted on t-shirts except for the Americans. The Americans, including us, were dressed in regular everyday clothes. After stocking up on Olympic t-shirts, hats and pins we decided to grab lunch. We were looking forward to trying some Greek food. However, the only food that the food stands had left were hotdogs. We decided to try our luck at the enormous McDonalds in the Olympic complex. My vegetarian husband had to enjoy French fries for lunch.The all-nighter we pulled was starting to catch up with us so we rode the train back to our hotel to take a nap before the gymnastics event that night. We returned to the Olympic complex about two hours before the competition was to begin in order to sell our friends tickets. The moment we got off the train several people were coming up to us saying, "Gymnastics tickets?". Uh-oh, it looked like a lot of people had tickets to sell. It took us an hour and a half to sell two tickets worth 400 Euros for 100 Euros.As night fell we excitedly walked into the Gymnastics arena. We found our seats behind the parallel bars and were able to get a glimpse of the gymnasts warming up. Before we knew it the competition had begun. I was amazed at how quickly the event moved along. I am so used to watching gymnastics on TV with constant commercial interruptions. The Gold Medal Romanians were the clearly the crowd favorite but it was really great to watch the US win the silver medal. Unfortunately I wasn't able to fulfill my dream of competing in the Olympics but it was amazing getting to see it live...I should've tried harder!==============================As always, feel free to pass this on to anyone you think might enjoy reading my ramblings. Also, you can either subscribe or unsubscribe at any time at the top of the page.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1104116400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1104116400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1104116400/tpod.html Sun, 27 Nov 2005 06:27:53 -0500 Updates on my professional and personal exploits in and around Amsterdam.

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Munich, Germany

Hi everyone.We hope you are all having a great holiday season. Our holidays have been fun. It began with Festivus drinks with some friends from work. A Festivus for the Rest of us! We spent X-mas eve at our friends Tiffany and Karel's house for fondue. It was really yummy. On X-mas, our Aussie friends Bruce and Ange invited us and our other Aussie friends Tom and Meeghan over to have a nice dinner. We even had a few presents under the tree! After dinner, we met my friend from LA, Scott, and his g-friend Elena, who lives in A'dam that we have become friends with, to watch the Laker game. For Boxing Day, what the Dutch call X-mas II (a legal holiday), we went to see Oceans' 12. The theater was packed. I didn't like the movie much but hope it will inspire some of you to come and visit A'dam - we live right down the street/canal from where they filmed.We spent last weekend in Ghent Belgium celebrating my belated b-day. It was a very nice weekend. We took the train 3 hours on Sat. morning and spent the night. It was a very mellow couple days with great beer, nice dinner, and the usually relaxing walk around the small Belgian town to see whatever amazing church and sites this town had to offer.Next up for us is a visit from our friends from Boston, Gabrielle and Ben. They are coming later this week and will spend a few days seeing some of the Netherlands before getting back to A'dam for New Years Eve! The Dutch celebrate NYE by setting off fireworks all over town. This is not an organized event but rather random drunks with explosives. I've heard it is insane here, and almost dangerous. Some friends have told us about how the drunk Dutch accidentally launch their fireworks down the street instead of skyward when the champaign bottle they are using to set the fireworks off with fall over by mistake. Maybe we'll watch the fireworks from the apartment windows =) Should be fun though!In other news, Joey has finally bought his flight to come and visit. We're thrilled to have him coming since he said he'd be visiting us every year and this is his first trip in the nearly 2 years we've been here! We are going to spend a week in Vienna, Budapest, and some small towns in Hungary with him. Should be an awesome trip!Anyways, here is our trip to Munich and Oktoberfest with Justin, my college/Chicago roomie, and his wife Erin back in September. But before that, here's some info on things happening in and around town...==============================LASALLE BANK FIREFor those of who didn't hear, there was a big fire at my bank in Chicago earlier this month. It was a pretty big deal but I am happy to report that nobody was seriously hurt (everyone is now out of the hospital) and the bank moved on seamlessly. The bank's disaster plan worked perfectly and the majority of the people are now back in the building. But 2 things - first, my father-in-law was really funny the next day when he told me that he saw a bank spokesperson on WGN say that the building has 3000 employees and '1 who is on a 3-year vacation in A'dam'...I thought that was hilarious! Second, I joked with some American colleagues that if the fire had happened to the building in A'dam that, unlike in the US where most people reported to disaster recovery locations throughout Chicago the next day, the Dutch likely would've taken 3 months of stress-leave!MY B-DAYTo celebrate my b-day, I celebrated the way the Dutch do - by buying these small individual cakes for each of my colleagues (costing about EUR 15). It's kinda like when you're in elementary school and you bring in cupcakes from all of your classmates. In the morning, you walk around from person to person, asking them to fill in the order sheet of what treat they want. Like clockwork, each person stands up, shakes your hand, and says congratulations - which I felt bad taking since my mom actually did all of the hard stuff on my b-day. You cannot just bring in the cakes that you want for them because they are supposed to pick the one they want, which really just means I am buying their breakfast. I still haven't been able to find one I really like but so far, I like an éclair-like pastry filled with whipped cream and topped with chocolate. The cakes are to be served around 11:00 so that the cheap Dutch can plan how much to spend on lunch instead of buying a normal lunch and then being too full to eat their entire free treat. It's a very interesting routine all around!SMOKING BOOTH AT WORKI don't think I've told you about this yet but the building just became smoke-free about 2 years ago. In fact, when I came out to interview for this job, one of the very senior people I met with smoked right in my face during the entire time we were together. It was really annoying but since I wanted to work here, I chose not to ask him to stop. I did employ my tactic though and farted in his office. Now, all employees have to smoke in these smoke booths that are located in many of the building corridors. They look like bus stop booths and are really funny to when they are packed with up to 10 overgrown Dutchies sucking down their nicotine-sticks. Unfortunately, the booths don't work too well and the building still reeks.BIKE PARKING AT WORKThere is also underground bike parking in the office. It is pretty funny and very Dutch. There's nothing to say about this other than the fact that the bank actually has this. Soooo Dutch!BATHROOMS AT WORKI don't quite understand why this is but the ladies that clean the bathrooms at work do so during the day and have no regard for whether they are occupied or not. I'll tell you, there is no stranger feeling than standing at the urinal and seeing a woman walk in and start cleaning. She doesn't say sorry and wait a moment for me to finish, she just gets the mop out and gets to work. Maybe the whole 9-5 thing makes it hard since nobody wants to work later than 5PM in this country this is a bit ridiculous. So to get even, I don't flush!DINNER AT A RESTAURANTJulie and I went out to dinner with our friend Liz the other night. We went into a local Italian restaurant but there were no open tables. Knowing that dinners last hours here and the waitresses never push their customers in hope of turning tables since they get paid good wages and don't rely on tips the way they do in the US, I asked the waitress if she would mind asking one of the couples taking a 4-person table to move to one of the available 2-person tables. The Dutch all love to spread out and take huge tables to put their coats on the spare chairs despite the fact that there is someone hoping to use it. It's pretty annoying. In the end, the waitress wouldn't even ask the other restaurant patron to hang her coat and move to a smaller table so we just moved on. ANNOYING!KLM IN THE A'DAM CANALSThe other night, there was a KLM plane in the A'dam canals. One of the aerospace museums in a small town near A'dam got a plane donated to it. The problem is there is no way to get it there...other than by canal. So last week, a huge airplane was transported by boat along the A'dam canals. There's really not much of a story here but some of the pics are pretty awesome - take a look here... http://www.schlijper.nl/archive/2004/12/17.html==============================FRIDAYFollowing Rosh Hashanah services at the 17th-century Portuguese Synagogue (see the Sept. 26 t-pod for more info on the service), I came home to pick up Julie and the luggage. We were trying a new strategy. Usually we rent a car in town and drive out to the ringroad highway, battling 'city' traffic the whole way. We decided we would try renting a car at the airport since the airport is easy to get to and is already on the highway. Would a 20-minute walk to the train station, a 10-minute wait for the next train, and a 7-minute ride to the airport be better than a 20-minute walk to the local car rental place and then a 40-minute driving adventure through A'dam? The other reason we thought we'd rent a car at the airport was we often get home from our trips in the late afternoon/early evening. We are typically too late to drop the car at the rental place as everything closes at 5:00 on the dot in A'dam and most things aren't even open on Sundays. This means we need to park the car in town, which costs us about EUR 20 in meter fees. So since the airport rental place is open until 11 PM, we thought we could always drop off the car when we got back to A'dam and save the parking costs as well! Plus, by renting at the airport, I could get American Airlines miles =) So this was the challenge - would renting the car at the airport be a better option?About an hour after we left the apartment, we were in the car pulling out of the Budget Rental garage. Deciding to leave around noon was paying dividends as we were cruising along, making good time. We made it to the German boarder and then hit the open road. The autobahn is highly efficient - everyone drives in the right lane until you are about 3 feet from the bumper in front of you, at which time you put on your left blinker and switch lanes. Once you have passed the car by about 3 feet, you switch back to the right lane. Even if you are going to be passing another car in 10 seconds, you pass one at a time. Well, apparently someone miscalculated their passing maneuver because out of nowhere, bam, a wall of traffic. We literally didn't move for an hour. The highway is only 2 lane so even though it wasn't a bad accident, there was nowhere to move the damaged cars and nowhere for the rest of us to pass. So we waited patiently for the mess to be cleaned up. As we eventually made our way to the site of the accident, there were some locals who had walked over to the highway to see what all the excitement was about. Must be a pretty boring town!Finally we made it back to the open road but now we were battling rush-hour traffic from the relatively large cities of Koln and Dusseldorf. This was starting to get frustrating! Damn, another car accident. Some road construction forced the 4-lane highway into 1-lane of highway going in each direction! Our 4 ½-hour drive was now at about 5 hours and we were still about an hour from our destination! This sucks!Luckily German radio rocks! In general, we love German radio because it reminds us of karaoke - the best part of karaoke (other than seeing your friends make asses of themselves) is getting to hear those random songs you haven't heard in about 10 years...well, that's German radio! On the drive, we heard such classics as "We Are the World" and "Theme to Greatest American Hero".Finally, we made it to Bad Homburg, the place we would be sleeping for the night, after 6 hours on the road - 2 hours later than expected. Bad Homburg is a suburb of Frankfurt. We decided we would stay in this town because it has a spa, which we thought would be a nice little treat following this big drive. Unfortunately, the traffic got us to town just after the tourist office (and accommodation booking service) closed. We drove around a bit, looking for some small hotels to get a room for the night. We were told practically all the rooms in town were sold out because there was a big auto show in Frankfurt. We found one hotel with a room for a few hundred EUR - we took a pass on that. So we'll have to go back to Bad Homburg another time.We got back in the car and continued heading south. Problem was we weren't sure where to go - there was no way we were going to be able to make it another 4 hours to Munich. We got out our travel guides and looked for something about an hour away. We decided we would drive to the town of Wurzburg. But we were starting to get hungry. I wasn't in the mood for the long search for something edible since we are not huge fans of German food being that everything is pork - luckily, Julie amazingly remembered that there was a Burger King just up the road. Did she memorize where all the German Burger Kings are?We got to Wurzburg after another 90 KMs of driving. It seemed like a very cute town. There was a carnival in town and people seemed to be having a nice time. There was a beautifully illuminated palace overlooking the Main River and a baroque church. We drove to one of the recommended hotels in the travel guide. It was full. We drove to another. It was also full. We asked if there were any rooms in town that they knew of. Amazingly, there was a convention in town and again, there were no rooms available. Can you believe this? Somehow I had turned into Chris - we were on one of those 'reds'. The man at the hotel recommended a town just 7 KMs away. He guaranteed there would be available rooms there. I was exhausted, so we were ready to go.We got to the town and went to the first place we saw (Hotel Birtshaus Spundloch). Julie ran in, came out a few moments later, and told me there was availability. Wooo-hooo! It was about EUR 20 more than I wanted to spend (EUR 80) but you know what, who cares! We had a bed! I left Julie with the bags while I went around the block to drop off the car. When I got to the room, I was thrilled to see there was a huge bathtub. Julie was psyched to see a canopy bed. The room was very nice. But I deserved a beer so we went downstairs to get a beverage. Afterwards, we relaxed - Julie in the canopy bed, me in the huge bathtub!We were in the car at 1:00 and finally made it to the hotel at 10:30 after driving 600 KMs, the longest 4 hr. drive ever!SATURDAYWe both had a great night sleep but neither of us really even knew the name of the town we were at. For the record, we were in the town of Veitshochheim. Following the best breakfast ever, complete with pretzel roll things, hard-boiled eggs, really good stinky cheese, fresh fruit, and a huge yogurt selection. It was yummy.After breakfast, we headed out into town to see the gem of a town we had stumbled upon. Veitshochheim was a really cute town of roughly 10,000, founded in 1763. We entered through a gate and surprisingly found an amazing white palace with yellow trim. It was built from 1680-82 as a summer residence. It has a beautiful rococo garden, complete with gazebos, terraces, and lakes. There are about 200 sandstone sculptures throughout the huge manicured gardens. The lake was really pretty, with some feathered friends gliding along the water and a really elaborate fountain in the middle. Some of the statues were really cool - there was one of a little man playing a dragon saxophone, another of a dragon with cool eyes (El Dragon), and lastly, a pair that guarded the entrance gate that reminded me of the guards of the city of Oz. We had a very nice walk around and even met a woman there who seemed to be surprised to see 2 Americans in her tiny little town - I love when that happens! It was really quite a wonderful surprise.We next walked through town and noticed that the Germans have the tidiest garbage piles in the world - they neatly stack and tie their garbage together. We stumbled onto another special surprise - there were a few signs directing tourists to a synagogue built between 1727-30. At first we walked past it, not recognizing it since it just looked like a typical storefront. Finally, we entered through the door into what looked like a small gallery. There was nobody inside of the room but the door was not locked. There were tons of backpacks lining the floor. Many schools and youth groups visit Jewish-related places as part of their education curriculum...this one was so committed to spreading the message, it was doing so on a Saturday.We went into the backyard where there were 2 buildings. The first was a museum, which told a mostly small-town non-Jewish audience a bit about the religion. This was interesting to see, especially since the Germans really seem to be interested in learning about the Jews given their recent history with them. The museum also told a bit about the history of Jews in that town - in 1644 (over 100 years before the town was officially founded), there were 2 Jewish families in Veitshochheim; in 1843, there were between 128 and 160 people; in 1900, there were 55 people; in 1942, there were 7 people; and in 1944, there were no Jews left in town. There was some discussion of what happened during Kristalnacht (Nov. 9 and 10, 1938 when the Nazis destroyed and burned all the Jewish religious artifacts they could find) but since the displays were only in German, I'm not really sure what it said but I can certainly guess what happened.We left the museum and walked into the 3rd building of the complex, a small but beautiful 1-room synagogue with a woman's section upstairs. There was a woman speaking to the class in German about the building, history, and the Jewish religion. I'm not sure exactly what she was saying and didn't want to interrupt but we gathered from photos and some displays that the synagogue and accompanying mikvah (ritual bath) were destroyed during Kristalnacht. It was reconstructed in 1986, meaning the rubble sat as a reminder of what happened for just less than 50 years. The room had seats for about 50 people and had a bima in the center of the room. Above the ark were the 2 tablets of the 10 Commandments. They were obviously the originals because only part of the tablets were there, still bearing the cracks they suffered that night in 1938. It was really special to be able to sit there, especially knowing that the Germans were doing all they could - through reconstructing sites like these and educating their youth - to ensure that at least in Germany 'Never Again'.As we continued to walk around town, we joked that the town reminded us of the town the Griswalds went to in Germany when they thought they were staying with their long-lost relatives - "my wife and I are looking for sex". We found a small family brewery that made a beer called Pabst. We wanted to go inside and take a look but it looked closed so we didn't bother. Too bad, that would've been cool.After spending a few hours tooling around town, we were very happy with how things had worked out as the town was great and the B&B was very nice with a delish breakfast but it was time to head out. So we grabbed the car and continued heading south towards Munich.As we drove, we passed a landscape reminiscent of the drive from Chicago to Madison - farm fields, occasional gentle rolling hills, and in general, nothing! Although the whole ride smelled like pretzels, so that was good! One annoying thing about driving in Germany, all of the radio stations break to a traffic report at the same time. We thought we had this solved when we threw a CD in the player but the car actually turns the CD off and the traffic report on. It's pretty annoying but at least it lets you know that another hour has passed.Since we cruised along at between 150 and 180 KM/hr. (roughly 96 - 115 MPH), we made it to Munich in real good time. However, we couldn't find the hotel. Eventually, after weaving around for about 30 minutes, we stumbled upon the train station, which meant we were close to the hotel (Mercure Hotel for EUR 122/night).It was now around 2:00 so we dropped off our bags and headed into town. I had been to Munich before and loved it - in fact, when I backpacked in '97, Munich was my favorite place in Europe and I don't remember doing anything other than visiting the world-famous beerhalls!We walked straight to the Marienplatz (square) and pedestrian shopping street. Munich was completely bombed out during the war and those in charge of the reconstruction smartly decided to rebuild everything the way it was. We walked up the street, following the Rick Steves' walking tour. We passed a cool city gate, lots of outdoor terraces, and tons of ornate buildings. At the end of the shopping street is the New Town Hall, built between 1867 and 1906. The New Town Hall has a clock, called the Glockenspiel, which is 100 years old and twice a day features a handful of moving characters that joust, telling the story of how the Bavarians beat their enemies.We continued walking around town for a bit and made our way to the Residenz (palace). We weren't sure if we should go in or not since we were starting to get hungry. We walked around trying to find something small and quick to eat but had a tough time finding something. It was kinda late and we had plans to meet Janet and Dirk, friends from A'dam who coincidentally would be in Munich the same weekend, at the hotel around 6:00, just a few hours later, so we didn't want to have a big sit-down meal. The problem was we weren't able to find anything but big sit-down restaurants. We found a perfect soup shop but unfortunately, it was closing. We kept walking around and finally we found a quick sandwich and pretzel. We decided we would go to the Residenz another time - which is a good thing since the place was huge (but we'll get to that later).We went back to the hotel to relax for about an hour and then met Janet and Dirk. We walked about 10 minutes over to the Oktoberfest grounds. The place was intense! It was like a huge state fair, complete with carnival rides, games with lame stuffed animals, food stands including sausages and fried things, and of course, those world-famous beer-tents. This was the 171st event, celebrating the royal wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig - who later to become King Ludwig I - and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on October 12, 1810. The citizens were invited to attend the wedding, which strangely didn't even serve beer. Because the people loved the Crown Prince and Princess so much, they decided to commemorate their wedding anniversary by holding horse races on the same grounds every year. Eventually, they began holding an agricultural show as part of the event as well. This continued to develop into a bigger and bigger party, eventually including beer-tents in 1896. Now, around 6 million visitors drink around 5 million liters if beer and consume over 400,000 pork sausages and 800,000 chickens over the 16-day annual celebration. This is one huge ass party!We walked around and just took it in. We first went to the Hacker-Pschorr tent. It was packed. Everyone was having a blast. People were singing and dancing. They were standing on the tables and swinging their liter-sized beer glasses side to side. The tents holds about 5,000 with the largest one holding 10,000 - and they are all jam-packed. We were expecting the place to be overrun with drunken Americans but to our surprise, the majority of the people were wearing traditional lader hosen and appeared to be locals. Maybe it's because it was the first weekend, but maybe not. Who knows? We walked around looking for a seat but were having a tough time finding one. We figured we would just hang outside but unfortunately, you have to be sitting in order to get a beer. Now we really needed to find a seat. Somehow Dirk was able to convince one of the beer-wenches to sell us a few beers - it must be his ability to speak German.We had a couple of the big beers (called mass) and then grabbed some food. I had fish and fries. They were yummy. It was now getting close to 9:00 so we went back to the hotel so that we could meet my college/Chicago roomie Justin and his wife Erin. They had flown to Frankfurt from Chicago that morning and drove straight to Munich. I'm sure they were exhausted but they pushed through. Beer stopped being served at Oktoberfest at 10:30 so we decided we would just head into town a find a beerhall. We went to Weisses Brauhaus. The 6 of us sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful evening and a few more beverages. After a few hours, they closed but we were still not ready for bed. So we headed a few blocks over and went into the most famous of all the beerhalls, the Hofbrauhaus. Unfortunately, we were a bit too late as they too were closing. But I think we got the idea - the oomph bands, burley beer-wenches, oversized pretzels and beers, tourists linking arms with strangers. But the night was ending.We walked back to our hotel, stopping on the way back for a slice of drunk pizza, and then fell asleep fighting against a spinning room.SUNDAYWe woke up and met Justin and Erin in the hotel lobby. Janet and Dirk decided to sleep in a bit so it was just the 4 of us. We went to a local souvenir shop to buy some Oktoberfest things. I bought a cool shirt and Julie told the man she was looking for a kid's shirt (in case you never noticed, she's little). Having communication problems, he made some weird comment about 'ladies guns' in tight t-shirts. What a sicko, that's my wife man.In the first weekend of Oktoberfest, there are a few ceremonial events. So we next headed outside to find the Oktoberfest Costume and Rifleman's Parade, a 2-hour procession with about 7000 'performers'. The 7-KM parade through city center includes varied regional costumes, 'troops' in historical uniform, marching bands, riflemen, decorated horses, oxen, cows, goats, decorated wagons of the 8 Munich breweries carrying barrels of brew, and floats displaying local traditions. Other than the impressive parade, my 2 highlights of the morning were (1) watching those marching try to avoid the horse shit that had been left in the middle of the parade route by those before them and (2) the rather inviting advertisement that lined the parade route for 'Falco, the Musical' (oooh, rock me Amadeus!)...I swear, this really is a play. Seriously though, the parade was pretty impressive and a fun way to wake up from a long night of drinking.After about an hour of parade-watching, we all agreed that we had gotten the idea and were ready to do something else. We stopped at tourist info to get some ideas for later but for now, we were hungry so we headed back toward the main shopping street of Marienplazt and ducked inside the small courtyard restaurant of Ratskeller Munchen (http://www.ratskeller.com/). The courtyard was really cozy and you barely even knew that there was a city of 1.3 million just beyond the buildings. The weather was beautiful so we grabbed a table outside and a few beers while we looked over the menu. We all went with typical German grub - I had spaetzle noodles with cheese and potato pancakes, Julie had goulash with beef and potatoes, Erin had a salad and shared some of Justin's, who ordered a huge plate of sausages (EUR 70 total)! It was all very good!We finished lunch just in time to get to the meeting point at 2:30 for Mike's Bike Tour (4 hours plus bike rental for EUR 22). When I was in Munich in '97, I went on the tour and suggested to Julie, Justin, and Erin that we join the tour. We met Randall, our Australian guide, at the 15th-century Old Town Hall with about another 100 tourists. We split up into groups of about 20, grabbed our Harleys, and headed out on our tour. In case you haven't been on Mike's Bike Tour before, if you go to Munich, give it a shot. They are a lot of fun and balance humor with history when guiding you around this huge spread out city. We rode around and saw the outside of practically ever site in town. We also heard a lot about the troubled history of this town.I will try to summarize some of the things we learned while pedaling around...** Munich was founded when Prince Henry the Lion ordered that a bridge be built crossing the Isar River in order to control the salt route leading from the Alps 70 KMs away.** Munchen (the German name) means 'near the monks' because monks had settled the area about 100 years before Henry arrived.** The Hofbrauhaus was built in 1589 as the royal brewery and opened to the public in 1888; Hitler organized the first Nazi gathering there in 1919 - there are still blue swastikas painted on the ceiling.** I talked to Randall a bit about anti-semitism in Europe; he thinks Germans and Europe in general have been anti-semetic for a long time and pointed out that the Brits could've bombed out the train tracks leading to Auschwitz in any of the 80 air raids it ran but they never did...as a sidenote, I have since heard that while the Brits could've bombed out the train tracks, it probably wouldn't have had any affect on the trains to Auschwitz since there were backup lines.** The symbol of Munich is the lion; Randall asked us to roar whenever any of us saw a lion...if you think 20 tourists riding bikes around Munich is ridiculous, what would you think if they all started roaring - I roared loud and often!** Randall also asked us to let him know when we saw the other symbol of Munich - the mullet - by screaming "mullet!"** The English Garden is huge, Munich's version of Central Park, with one of the largest beer gardens in the world, with raging rapids that allow Munich's beach boys a chance to surf, and even a spot for nude sunbathers.** The tour was basically exclusively Americans and Australians.** There were 5 musicians who played beautiful classical music somewhere along the ride; we listened to them for a while; they were great.** I almost ran over 2 woman in the park while trying to take a pic of Julie riding her bike.** We also rode past the 19th-century neo-classical National Theater, the 112-room enormous Residenz of the Wittelsbachs, the 20-meter tall 19th-century monument called the Hall of the Field Marshall with its impressive lions, the beautiful yellow Temple of Diana, and the new glass structure of the Bavarian State Chancellory.The tour was great, even the 2nd time. It took about 4 hours but only covered about 4 KMs, with a 30-minute break for a beer in the English Garden slowing down the progress. We returned the bikes and jumped in a cab to go back to the hotel. The cab driver was really interesting. We asked him how Oktoberfest was going so far. He told us that he usually doesn't go to the festival because it is usually a busy time for him as a cabbie. However, he said this festival wasn't going too well so far. He said many of the tourists were staying home (ie. the Americans are afraid to travel). He told us about how he remembers watching the events of 9-11 unfold and how everyone was just completely shocked! He said the organizers of Oktoberfest considered canceling the festival since they weren't sure it was appropriate to celebrate just weeks after such an event. As he continued talking, he told us about how his father would tell him all about America as he was growing up, including telling him about where he was when JFK was killed. It was amazing to hear this. When was the last time I paid much attention to developments in another country? This showed me that despite the differences in politics, Europeans really do like Americans. I don't know if any of this makes sense but it was really an interesting cab ride.After dropping off a few things at the hotel, we walked over to the Oktoberfest grounds. Since Justin and Erin hadn't gone there the night before, this was their first sight of it and I think they were as shocked as we were. Julie and Erin looked around while Justin and I looked for an ATM - my card had expired so Justin had to lend me some cashola.We met up with the ladies and, upon the recommendation of our new cabbie friend, we headed to the Augustiner beer-tent. I went upstairs and found a spot with a view of the craziness below. It was awesome! We could see everything. We ordered a couple chickens which the carnivores said were awesome. I had pretzels and cheese. And of course, we had a few beers. The huge liter-size beers cost EUR 7 and after just one of those, trust me, you are feeling toasty! Once we were feeling German, we were ready to go downstairs and dance on the benches and tables like the rest of the locals. We found a spot near some new friends, who constantly hugged us and made us feel very welcome. We threw our arms around their shoulders and swayed with them as we all belted out those famous German classic lyrics like "country road take me home" and "it's up to you, New York, New York". We started talking to a guy who was about 20 - I don't really remember how old he was but he was definitely younger than 21. He was telling us that he had the option of either going into the army or becoming a civil servant - he wisely chose to become a civil servant. He was really nice. He was there with his parents and some other relatives. We talked about a bunch of things but again, the beer was flowing by then so I don't really remember much, but we had a really good time with him.I also had another interesting conversation during the night. While in the toilet, I was using a temporary urinal that had a short wall. The wall was so short that as you looked straight ahead and relieved yourself, you stared right at someone else who was doing the same. So as I was making a tinkle, this German guy started talking to me in German. I said to him that I didn't speak German. He wanted to know where I was from so I told him the US. He wanted to know what I was going to do in Munich, as if he was challenging me and telling me that I shouldn't be at Oktoberfest. When I told him that we had gone on a 4-hour bike ride and would be going to the Residenz (palace) the next day, he seemed to feel I was worthy and could continue to enjoy my time at Oktoberfest. I guess I was kinda drunk but it is pretty annoying that I felt like I had to justify my time to this fuck. What if I came to Munich just to drink, was that not allowed?!?!?Anyways, after a few hours, the tent stopped serving beer, which means the place cleared out quickly! As we made our way out of the grounds, we passed the Hacker-Pschorr tent (the place we drank the night before). Apparently, Hacker-Pschorr is the big gay hang-out because there were lots of boys running around. Without getting too un-PC we discussed how far German society had gone as we saw lots of unbuttoned lader hosen and recalled that just 60 years ago, these men would never have been so comfortable in public. It was refreshing to see in the new Germany but at one point, we were completely engulfed in it that we wondered when we arrived at Cocktoberfest?!?! Also trying to make light of the situation, we came up with a slogan for Hacker-Pschorr beer - "it's so strong in alcohol, it'll make you kiss your friends!".As we continued to make our way home, Justine and I got distracted by one of the rides. It was a toboggan where you ride a steep-angled fast-moving walkway up to a spiral slide that you ride down on a carpet. We watched from the ground for a while, laughing hysterically with the huge crowd that formed as drunk after drunk whipped out trying to ride the moving walkway up. Basically, you stand still and just jump onto this walkway. Without doubt, everyone falls. The funny part is watching people hop around on one foot as they try and recapture their balance. The only ones able to conquer the moving walkway were the young kids, every single time. It reminded me of those times I would be sitting on the snow after whipping out from a snowboarding fall and seeing some little punk just careening down the hill, spraying snow in my face as he carved up the mountain. So after watching for some time, Justin and I decided it was time to step up and show all these Germans who the real men are. Let's just say it didn't go so well...I ended up hopping the entire time until the rides' staff jumped up to catch me before I killed myself and Justin rode up on his back with his legs straight up in the air! It was hilarious. The ride down was pretty lame though.This was another awesome - and drunk - night!!!MONDAYWe bid farewell to Justin and Erin for a few days as they would be heading off to Austria and a few other places in Germany before meeting us back in A'dam at the end of the week and we were heading to another town in Germany on our way home. But before we did that, we spent a bit more time in Munich.We checked out of the hotel, loaded the car but left it in the underground parking lot, and made our way again towards Marienplatz. As we approached the New Town Hall, we noticed that there was a huge crowd gathering to watch the 11:00 Glockenspiel show. This is one of the lamest things around, but basically, this is what goes on from 11:00-11:10...*** The upper part depicts the wedding of Renata von Lothringen and Wilhelm V, founder of the Hofbrauhaus, in 1568 and supposedly claimed the lives of 521 oxen; 18 figures dance around Wilhelm and his bride, including 2 jousting knights; the 2 knights approach each other and miss but they continue along the path and at the 2nd approach, the Bavarian (wearing white and blue) knocks the Austrian (wearing red and white) backwards - it's very exciting!*** The lower part shows the famous Cooper's Dance, which was performed for the first time by barrel makers at the end of the plague in 1517.*** Once the simultaneous acts described above finish, the 43-bell carillon chimes for 2 to 3 minutes, followed by a roster which crows 3 times and flaps its wings. Excitement!Following the Glockenspiel performance, we went to the Viktualien Markt, with a maypole in the center which is decorated with signs showing off many of the local crafts and delicacies sold there. Munich's 8 breweries take turns serving at the market, advertising which one is being served with a sign on the maypole. Julie and I picked up some snacks for the road (mushrooms with balsamic vinegar and cherries).It was now time to finally check out the Residenz. This place was awesome and I am glad we didn't try to see it on Saturday in an hour. As it was, we spent about 2 hours in the palace, listening to every word of the thorough audio guide before realizing that we were only halfway through. We ended up skimming through the last half in about 30 minutes. The palace was the home of the Wittelsbachs, rulers of Bavaria for more than 700 years. It evolved from the 14th-century to the 19th-century. The palace was amazing for all the reasons why palaces are amazing but in my opinion, there are a handful of things really awesome about the Residenz - (1) the artificial Grotto, made of tiny Bavarian freshwater shells in the 1550s; (2) the 69-meter long Antiquarium (not a huge fish tank) was a huge banquet hall filled with the busts of emperors and amazing allegorical scenes painted on the ceiling and could accommodate 200 diners; (3) the Gallery, built about 200 years before the Antiquarium in the 1740s, was used to usher all guests waiting to meet the Duke past the 121 family portraits covering 738 years of the Wittelsbach's connection to Charlemagne and Ludwig IV; (4) an amazingly endless supply of gorgeous porcelain and china; and (5) the 1200-piece awesome treasury with a thousand year's worth of jewels, crowns, and knick-knacks, some of which even pre-date Munich by 200 years. In the end, the Residenz is pretty remarkable and really had a few special things which set it apart from the usual elegance of a normal palace.Before leaving the Residence, we bought an awesome book on castles in Germany. Each page of the 100+-page book has color pics and info on some of the castles in Germany, organized by region. It is a really great book and will help in planning future roadtrips!We finished our stay in Munich with a small lunch back at the Viktualien Markt with a fish sandwich for me and a Subway sandwich for Julie. It was now time to get the car from the hotel parking lot (only EUR 23 for 2 days of parking) and head back north on our way home.It was 3:00 and getting out of Munich proved to be just as difficult as getting into it. We drove for about 30 minutes, following signs which directed us onto highways, just to get off the highway in a few moments and follow more street signs to another highway. I was completely turned around, having no clue which way was up but just stayed the course and continued to follow signs north toward Frankfurt.After about 3 hours, we made it to Rothenburg, the town we will be staying for the night. Rothenburg was the second-largest free imperial city in the Middle Ages with a population of 6000. It is a well-preserved walled city that saw its heyday from 1150 to 1400 when it was the crossing path of 2 major trading routes - the Taskent-Paris and Hamburg-Venice. It is on a hill overlooking the Tauber River and is a wonderful place to spend a day or so. So I pulled over and Julie ran into the Gasthof Goldener Greifen (EUR 82 per night), one of the hotels recommended by Rick Steves. It was a really cute place with tons of character and a perfect location right off the main town square. It is over 600 years old and is the former Mayor's house.So we dropped our bags inside, parked our car in the back, and walked around town for a bit. There were lots of really cute shops with tons of little knick-knacks. We went into Kathe Wohlfahrt, a Christmas shop with over 50,000 Christmas decorations ranging from lights, tree bulbs, nut-crackers, angles, ribbons, etc. It was very impressive!We next stopped into one of the many sweet shops to buy a schneeballe, a typical German treat that we like which is basically a bunch of graham crackers smashed together into a ball and covered in chocolate. Yummy! With our bellies full, we walked along town looking at all the beautiful buildings. The oldest building in town has a foundation from 918. The rest of the building is much older...from 1515!It was getting close to 8:00 so we went back to the main square as we wanted to take the Night Watchman Walking Tour. As we sat at the square, we wondered if we were in the right place and how we would know exactly where and when the tour was. All of a sudden, a tall and skinny man wearing a dark brown robe and carrying some sort of axe-like weapon and a lantern emerged from one of the small streets. He yelled out that he was the Night Watchman (http://www.nightwatchman.de/) and asked those wanted to take the tour to begin to congregate. It seemed like basically every person in town began to encircle this man. It was truly amazing! He had come up with a wonderful idea and had marketed it perfectly. As we waited to begin the tour, people took pics with him. It was really funny, like he was a celebrity.He began the tour in perfect English. For the next hour (EUR 4 per person), he walked us all over town and told us the history of the town, described his job as night watchman, and in general, entertained us with his high energy and sharp sense of humor. It was an amazing tour and Rothenburg at night is beautiful.Here is a bit of what he shared:*** While the only people lower in the social hierarchy than the night watchman was the gravedigger and the executioner, he was trusted to ensure the safety of all the town's residents and keep foes from entering town during night.*** The night watchman carried a weapon called a hellebarde and a horn which was blown to warn the citizens of fire, the worst thing that could happen to a town.*** There were 6 night watchman patrolling the streets up to the 1920s.*** Rothenburg was given the status of a "Free Imperial City" in 1274 which gave the town special privileges.*** About 5500 people lived within the walls with 14000 more who lived in the 170 villages in the territory of about 150 square miles.*** Being located on the trading route meant that many of the traders had to spend time (and money) in Rothenburg.*** Every citizen was required by law to store grain to last the family a whole year in the event enemies sieged the town.*** The food was stored on the highest floor of the buildings where it was dry and away from the dirty, wet streets and the rats.*** Salt was needed to preserve meat, making it very valuable and expensive - thus making it a second form of currency and referred to as "white gold".*** Because the town was wealthy, the rulers of the empire liked to come and visit - when the king came to town, it was a big (and expensive) honor for the city because when he traveled, he didn't travel alone.*** Nobility and their entourage expected the best wine and food (and of course other gifts like gold and money) and the visit would last at least a week and the guests never paid for a thing.*** If the visit when well, the king would often give the town some more rights like the ability to print money, have a court, or create an independent city government.*** People emptied their chamber pots directly onto the street below - in the summertime, it stunk so bad that the rich people often left town and headed to the countryside.*** The city walls are 4.2 KMs and 6 meters tall and have towers ever 150 meters.*** All of the citizens had to help in guarding the town's walls.*** When nightfall came, the town's bells would ring calling everyone back into town so that, an hour later, the gates could be closed making it impossible for anyone to get in.*** In the event that a townsperson needed to get in after the city gates were closed, they could do so through the manhole or the 'eye of the needle' after paying a large fine - with the gatekeeper at the other side with weapons ready, the citizen would have to answer questions and if the guard trusted the answers, they opened the small door so that only that one individual could crawl in.*** If the gatekeeper made a mistake and let an enemy in, it usually meant a lot of damage and deaths.*** Hot oil and tar were poured on attackers from atop the city walls.*** In October 1631, during the Thirty Years War between the Catholics and the Protestants (Rothenburg), one of the Rothenburg citizens made a foolish mistake when he accidentally blew up one of the city gates and all the town's gunpowder - the town was taken shortly thereafter and stripped of its riches.*** The Black Plague hit Rothenburg in 1634.*** Through the Black Plague and the Thirty Years War, the town was never burned or destroyed...but its citizens were exhausted!*** In 1945, a German general and his troops left battered Nurnberg for Rothenburg and gave the orders to the people of Rothenburg that the city should be defended - 2 days later, on March 31, 16 Allied planes bombed the town and killed 39 people and destroyed 306 houses, 6 public buildings, 9 of the wall's towers, and more than 2000 feet of the city wall.*** Deputy Secretary of State General John McCloy was familiar with Rothenburg's beauty and sent word to the local US commander, General Jacob Devers, not to further destroy the town if they would promise not to allow the Nazis to use it as a base for further resistance - the war was practically over so on April 17, the German troops surrendered and the US occupied the town and raised the Stars and Stripes...General John McCloy was awarded the "Honorable Protectorate of Rothenburg" by the townspeople in November 1948.*** Because of this, and of course the huge amount of tourist dollars that pump into the town, Americans are absolutely loved in Rothenburg!After the tour, we grabbed dinner at Reichs-Kuchenmeister. I had mushroom soup - which, although the menu made no mention of it, was LOADED with ham - and trout while Julie has salad and veal with fries (EUR 38 total).With that, we ended another really enjoyable night!TUESDAYIn the morning, we had our usual breakfast and then went outside to spend some more time walking around town. It was drizzling but that didn't stop us from walking along the city walls. We looked down onto the Tauber River below and the beautiful Autumn-colored trees. The walls are quite impressive and the town was beautiful from this perspective. Along the walk, there is a segment of the wall that has the names of many past visitors to Rothenburg who have donated to the town to keep it a wonderful tourist spot.We continued walking around town, now at street-level, and stopped at the main square. One of the buildings on the main square had measuring units displayed on the wall. Apparently, many of the towns had their own measuring units (ie. they didn't have a uniform unit like a foot yet) so to keep the markets honest, the measuring units were displayed for both the buyers and sellers to see. I thought that was kinda interesting.We also spent some time looking at the Councilor's Tavern, where back in the day, the town's government drank. This is a building with, guess what, a glockenspiel (clock). When the clock strikes, it shows the Meistertrunk story. Basically, in 1631, the Catholics took the town and was about to destroy it when the mayor asked if they would spare the city if he could drink his entire 3-liter wine in 1 gulp...the Catholics said OK and the mayor succeeded, saving the town and sleeping for the next 3 days! In actuality, this never happened and the city was ransacked numerous times during the Thirty Years War...but it makes for a good story and a nice glockenspiel.We were just about ready to leave but thought maybe we would look into buying a cuckoo clock. We found a really nice place and the man put on the hard-sell. He made lots of great offers and almost got us to bite but when push came to shove, as awesome as it would be to own one, spending EUR 300 for a clock that would be fun for the first month before the annoying bird that crowed every hour would get a bit old. So we didn't buy a clock.But with this, we got in the car and started north along the Romantic Road. Rothenburg is one of the towns on the Romantic Road, a series of picturesque villages, farmhouses, onion-domed churches, Baroque palaces, and walled cities which stretches from Munich to Frankfurt. We drove for a bit but honestly, the Romantic Road was not nearly as nice as the Fairy Tale Road we drove along last T-Giving from Frankfurt north. I think the Romantic Road is more popular because King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein Castle (which we saw with Bruce and Ange in March '04) is amazing and Rothenburg is amazing, but other than that, we thought the Romantic Road was somewhat lacking of special places in comparison to the Fairy Tale Road which seemed to have less 5-star attractions but practically every town was a nice stop. Plus, the actually drive seemed a bit nicer with more forest as compared to the Romantic Road with its roadside warehouses and car dealerships. Anyways, we like the Fairy Tale Road better but think the towns along the Romantic Road have done a much better job of marketing.So after driving along the Romantic Road for 70 KMs, it was now time to head onto the highway and make some good time back to A'dam. We stopped after a bit for some of our favorite German food - McD's. And more awesome music - 'Behind Blue Eyes' by Fred Durst about 10 times, Genesis, and that annoying Anastacia song.We were cruising along when some crazy German driver got onto the highway and, despite moving over a lane to make room for him, he went straight to the left lane. I was going 160 KMs per hour and had to slam on the brakes. What an ass! Anyways, we continued moving along and then, fuck, we were at the Dutch border which means we were leaving the speed limit-free autobahn for the 120 KM per hour Dutch highway! So despite going just above the speed limit, it felt like we were barely moving. Easily the worst part of driving in German is when you get back to the Netherlands and have to obey a speed limit again!We finally made it back to A'dam at around 8:00. We had driven 570 KMs in the day and 8925 KMs (roughly 5550 miles) in total. We filled up the car with gas one last time - making it roughly EUR 250 in gas in total - and dropped the car at the airport. We then jumped on the train, got off in town, and walked home, making it home by 9:00. With it only talking an hour to get back home and being able to drop off the car at the airport and not having to pay for parking in A'dam, renting at the airport is the better option.What a great trip!==============================As always, feel free to pass this on to anyone you think might enjoy reading my ramblings. Also, you can either subscribe or unsubscribe at any time at the top of the page.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1111957200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1111957200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kantors_abroad/amsterdam/1111957200/tpod.html Sun, 27 Nov 2005 06:26:41 -0500 Updates on my professional and personal exploits in and around Amsterdam.

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Beilstein, Germany

Here is an entry Julie's dad wrote about their visit to A'dam...===========================We made our third trip to the Netherlands to visit Julie and Stephen, arriving from Chicago on March 19th and leaving on March 28th. We stayed at the Marriott next to Vondel Park, the very nice city park where we ran or walked each morning. The hotel is an easy walk to Julie's, through the city. The first few days we hung out with Julie while Stephen was at work (or so he claims). One evening we watched the Badgers play North Carolina in a final four game. Stephen got a great connection on the Internet, so we huddled around the computer until midnight (A'dam time). It was fun, but you must abide by Stephen's rules (basically no badmouthing the Badgers even if they stink). He also must wear his schmutzic "W" hat.On Wednesday Julie took us by train to Gouda, about a 30-minute train ride to where cheese is the main product. We ate pannekuchen for lunch in a cute restaurant, then Lynn and Julie did a little shopping while I did some people watching. It is interesting that Muslim's have been migrating to the Netherlands and they are evident in Gouda. On Thursday we drove in a rented car to a little town, Beilstein, on the Mosel River in Germany, about a four-hour drive, mostly on the autobahn. We stopped in Koln for lunch, a city that was nearly destroyed during WWII. Lunch was really great----sandwiches at Subway! Julie and Stephen advised that German food is bad (lots of heavy pork, meat, gravy), so we took their advice. The autobahn was our first experience with no speed limit. Stephen did very well, but it was somewhat nerve-wracking going 130 (that's Km) and having cars pass us. We arrived at the little town of 200 people (it was 600 before the war, but many left or died, mostly Jews). We stayed at a very nice B & B called the Lipmann Haus, run by a family for several generations. The dinner, served in their dining room, and the local wine was very good. The next few days we traveled up and down the Mosel and Rhine valleys visiting castles and site seeing in the numerous towns. (I'm sure Stephen has included great detail and many pictures of this trip). I commented a how the rolling green hills and river reminded me of Wisconsin (perhaps why so many Germans emigrated here). This was our first trip to Germany. We enjoyed the many new experiences and of course being with Julie and Stephen. I must admit, though, that it was somewhat strange being in a country that just 60 years ago systematically attempted to kill all the Jews. In the hills, one mile above the hotel, we visited an old Jewish cemetery with about 50 graves, a few of WWII vintage, but mainly of the turn of the century. This was a stark reminder of the dark history in this country; ironically we were there on Easter Sunday.On Monday morning we flew back to Chicago. We will return for another visit on June 26th to welcome the newest addition to the Kantor family. Thanks to Stephen and Julie for always taking good care of us.
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