Back to the old stomping grounds...

I'm going to try something different for this post. I'm going to write it day by day, to try to put together a better narrative of our trip - we'll see how it works out.

This morning, we woke up a little early and walked down to the bus stop, and caught a bus to the metro station, then took the metro to the airport... the first time we've done that, and it worked out pretty well.

We eventually boarded a flight to Rome, as the wife took a one week temp assignment to help out in her old office. We were met at the airport by a driver who the local office uses, and he brought us to a hotel near the Rome office. We checked in, and planned our evening. 

We left the hotel and wandered around the area looking for a place to eat, and ended up choosing a streetside osteria. We ordered a couple of glasses of wine and some appetizers. We took our time eating, then headed toward a bar about a 20 minute walk away; it was the closest place we could go to watch the Packers game.

Turned out to be a little Scottish pub with 4 tv's in different areas; we'd reserved seats at a table near the TV that would be showing our game. We shared our table with a couple from Canada who were Packers fans, some Washington fans were at the next table over. Fun atmosphere, even though the Packers stunk up the place.

Walked back to the hotel after the game, getting ready for bed. More tomorrow.

So... It turns out I'm not that good at updating this daily, as I missed a day. Sorry about that... Here's what you missed:

Woke up way too early and had breakfast with the wife before she went to work. Decided that I wasn't quite done sleeping, so I went back to bed for an hour or so.

Got up and walked down to the metro station, and took the metro to a stop down south, to visit one of my favorite stores: Eataly. We first discovered them when we lived here in Rome, and have since visited other stores when we've been near. The chain was originally started by a group affiliated with Mario Batali, but he got kicked out when he was accused of being a slimeball. Anyway, it's a cool chain with all kinds of authentic Italian foodie stuff. They're all over the world - check them out if you're near one. Thus ends the commercial.

Rode the metro back, and inadvertently found a way to avoid climbing the Spanish Steps... For those of you who aren't familiar, they're a famous, picturesque set of stairs - but they're not fun to walk up. Turns out, there's a metro stop within a block of the bottom (Spagna), and a series of underground passageways and escalators that lead up to the top of Via Veneto. Who knew?!?!

Got back to the hotel and waited for the wife to get off of work, then went out to dinner; she finally got to have cacio è pepe - she's been jonesing for some for a while, and that's one of the dishes that I don't make. It's more her thing, and I haven't seen any pecorino cheese around Frankfurt. At dinner, we sat next to an older couple who travels quite a lot... they had all kinds of stories of places they'd been, we shared a few tips with them as well.

Walked down and had gelato at one of our favorite places... oh, story time again! 

When we moved here back in 2010, we lived in a hotel in the tourist area for a few weeks before we could move into our apartment. One of the things we did to keep the kids engaged was to test all of the local gelato places to find the best, and we ended up with 4 favorite ones in Italy, with one of them being in the tourist area near the hotel. That's the one that we went to last night, and it was just as good as I remembered. Walked back up the hill to our hotel. 

This morning, the wife headed off to work without having breakfast, so I ate without her, then took off exploring. I intended to find a local wine store, or a grocery that had wine, as I've been looking for a wine she really enjoyed when we lived here. Couldn't find it, so just kept walking. 

Rome was built on 7 hills, and our hotel is on top of one of them. Just about any direction you go, it's an easy walk downhill, with just enough of an incline that coming back just saps your energy. So I decided not to walk back, at least not straight back. I wandered through the 2 main tourist areas (Trevi Fountain & the Pantheon), and then remembered why I hate wandering through the tourist areas... too many clueless tourists! I took a turn in a direction I've not been in before, and found myself in a section of town I haven't been in before, toward the Tiber River and away from all the tourists. I had the idea to take the metro back to the station next to the Spanish Steps (so I didn't have to walk back up the hill), but discovered that I was nowhere near a metro station... the nearest station was Spagna, the station that I wanted to end up at, but around a mile away from it.

Now, it's time for a confession: I finally broke down and did a millennial thing that I haven't done before...

I rented a scooter. One of those Lime scooters that you get on at a street corner and drop off wherever you end up. It cost me around $5 for a 10 minute ride that would have taken me 45 minutes to walk. I'll probably do it again, too.

I rode it to Spagna and took the passageway/escalator to the top of the hill next to the hotel. 

So, now I'm back at the hotel, just hanging out, waiting for the wife to get off work and staying cool in the air conditioning. We'll probably go out to dinner later. If she wants to walk around, I'll probably try to talk her into taking some scooters back up instead of walking up that damn hill. Ciao for now! 

So... my master plan of writing an update every day didn't work very well. Now we're back at home, and I'm writing about the rest of the last week. Oh well, won't bother trying that again.

We ended up going out to dinner that night as well, then walked over to a gelato place that one of her coworkers suggested (Come il late, if you're interested) - and that one rocketed up to the top of our list. We ended up going back there a couple of times, even though it was a little out of the way.

Next day, I just hung around the tourist area, explored around a bit. Once the wife got off of work, we got together with her coworker for dinner. She picked a place on the north side of town, close to our old stomping grounds. We caught a cab up there... well, after our cab driver got lost, we finally got up there. We told him the area we wanted to go to (Ponte Milvio, for those of you keeping track at home), but for some reason, he heard "Ponte Sistino" (or something similar). We went a few blocks in the wrong direction before we called his attention to it, so it took a few extra minutes (and Euros) to get there.

The food was great - it was a little similar to a churrascaria (Brazilian steakhouse), in that they brought the meats out on skewers, but you had to order the skewers individually, three different flavors of steak skewers. Bottle of wine too. We had hopes of visiting another of our favorite gelato places (in the same shopping area), but they were already closed. The wife's coworker gave us a ride back to the hotel that night.

More hanging around the tourist areas... got dinner at one of the local restaurants - I think the wife had cacio è pepe again (I was picking up on a pattern at this point). Then we walked back up to the gelato shop that the wife's coworker introduced us to.

Wife went to work, I hung out in the tourist areas. After she got off of work, we walked across town a little ways, as the wife wanted to go through the Van Gogh exhibit - she'd had me buy tickets for it for Friday night. We walked to that area, and had a quick bite to eat beforehand... then were turned away at the door, as evidently there was a private event that night. Not sure why I was able to buy tickets for that night if the museum was closed, but... they told us that the tickets would be good the next morning as well, so we planned on coming back Saturday morning. We had planned on getting together with that coworker again afterwards, so we called her, and she said that she'd meet us back at Ponte Milvio. We hopped into a cab, and the wife told the cab driver where we were going, repeating it multiple times like she was working out the pronunciation - solely to insure that he'd heard it correctly. So we made it there in one piece, and met up with her. Turns out she'd made reservations at another one of the local restaurants.

We got to the restaurant, and all of the patrons were gathered out on the sidewalk out front; looking in, there was some sort of medical emergency going on inside. We all stepped out of the way - she had brought her dog along, and we wanted to just make sure that we were out of the way... after a few minutes, we all drifted in different directions, and shortly, we couldn't find the coworker anymore. I looked around, and she'd stepped inside, and was assisting with the first aid efforts going on, with her dog pacing on his leash behind her. I snuck inside and had her give me his leash, to get him out of the way, I took him back outside with me. The wife and I hung out with him for a few minutes, then I took him down the sidewalk a ways to get away from some of the people. He & I chilled out at the end of the block for about 15-20 minutes, then went back to the restaurant after getting a text from the wife that the ambulance was leaving. 

The four of us were sat at a table toward the back of the restaurant, and we ate more great food, drank more great wine. While eating, I checked to see what time the gelato place in that same shopping center (that we missed on Wednesday night) closed, Google said 11:00. Around 10:30, I left the ladies at the restaurant and walked around the block to the gelato place.

Google lied.

Got over there, and it was closed. Ended up meeting back up with the ladies, then walking to another place, where the wife got a tiramisu, then we cabbed back to the hotel.

Saturday morning, we walked over to where the museum was, in hopes of using our tickets from the previous night. We got some coffee and pastries for breakfast, then headed toward the museum, getting in line a few minutes before 9 (when the museum opened). Our tickets were accepted without a second look, so we wandered around for a while, checking out all the Van Gogh paintings on display. Not sure why the wife has taken a liking to Van Gogh in particular, but she's seen his work in (I believe) 5 different places: Rome, MOMA in NYC, The Mauritshuis in The Hague, and the Musée d'Orsay and The Louvre in Paris. More power to her - at some point, we'll make it to Amsterdam, and I'm sure we'll see more Van Gogh there as well.

Afterward, we walked back to the hotel and finished packing everything up, in time to get picked up by our driver for our ride back to the airport. An hour and a half flight later, we landed back in Frankfurt, where we attempted to take the metro back to our town... but after waiting for half an hour or so, we gave up on waiting, and just caught a cab back to the apartment (20 minute drive, versus over an hour on metro and bus - no brainer!!).

So that's it for last week - another trip coming up shortly, watch this space.

Another week, another trip!

So... when last we spoke, I had landed in Frankfurt on Saturday morning. First thing Monday morning, we walked down to our local metro station and caught a metro to the main station downtown, then boarded a train bound for The Hague. We arrived a few short hours later and navigated to our hotel... sadly, a different hotel than our last visit. The shower in this one wasn't nearly as impressive as the one from last time. The location was quite a bit closer to the train station though - I guess you win some and lose some. We checked in, then started poking around, looking for a place to eat - that turned into a much bigger ordeal than it really needed to be. Turns out our hotel was right on the edge of the main shopping district, with restaurants lining most of the surrounding streets. We didn't know that at the time though, and somehow managed to stay away from most of the populated areas that first night. Anyway, found an Italian place - the wife had lasagna, and I had pizza.

The next morning, the wife went to work, and I decided I was going to shower and shave my head. There are only a couple of readers of this blog who remember me with more than stubble on my head - I've been shaving it for eighteen years now. Not a single time in that eighteen years have I needed to go to the emergency room for an injury sustained while shaving... until last Tuesday morning in The Hague. I nicked the top of my ear while shaving my head in the shower, and bled like a stuck pig for two and a half hours, direct pressure be damned. I walked to the local pharmacy twice for different supplies, and finally gave up and went to the emergency room, just simply for some help getting it to stop bleeding. 

The doctor tried direct pressure. Didn't work. She tried superglue. Didn't work. She tried something else - I can't remember what it was, but it didn't work. After over an hour of trying to get it to stop, she ended up putting a single stitch in, then a strip of some sort of clotting material, then 2 or 3 of those steri-strip things. Then, she covered my whole ear with a bandage and tape - I joked to my wife that I was working on my Halloween costume, dressing up as Van Gogh.

All for nicking myself while shaving.

Let's see.... oh, I got to visit my Hat Lady again. Last time we were there, I found a hat store, and the lady who owns it took some time with me and helped me pick out a hat. I'd been wanting to be a "hat guy," but hadn't been able to find one that looked good. She spent a lot of time with me, helping me choose the right style and color, and now whenever we go back to The Hague, I'll try to go back and see her again. 

Lots of exploring... to be perfectly honest, The Hague has turned into one of my favorite cities. It's just a comfortable place to explore. The demographics of the city seem to skew pretty young, but in both of our visits we've stayed mostly around the tourist areas, and there's a major college in that area of town as well, so that might be coloring my viewpoint.

This morning, before we hopped on a train headed back to Germany, we walked through the Mauritshuis museum, and saw some of the work of the "Old Masters," including Rembrandt and Vermeer. There were quite a few other artists exhibited there as well, but I'd only heard of those two and Rubens (also saw some of his stuff). If you wanna read the work of a real art critic, you're on the wrong blog. Saw lots of pretty pictures.

I think that was about it... more trips are coming up, so stay tuned!

What a long/short month it's been!

 Well, there have been lots of activities since (most of us) last spoke... buckle up for a bit of a ride!

One of the things that the wife has done in past years is an assignment in New York City for the month of September providing support for the United Nations General Assembly. With us being at a new assignment, with a new boss, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to go this year. After careful deliberation, her local boss signed off on her trip this year. There was nothing saying that I needed to be here during that month, so we planned for me to head back to the states that month as well, to "check on the kids and house." Actually, just an excuse to spend some time back home.

She left Frankfurt in early September, nonstop to JFK. I'll only be able to relate specific parts of her story since I was only involved with a portion of it. A few days later, I flew to Knoxville, connecting through Charlotte. Charlotte shows up again later in my story.

She arrived and settled back into her New York routine, with minimal differences from the activities of previous years. I arrived in Knoxville to meet Cori waiting at the airport for me. We retrieved my checked suitcase and went outside, to find Palmer waiting in the loading area. We got home and surprised the animals... the kids have been in charge for the last few months, and evidently didn't tell the dog and cats that I'd be coming home.

I arrived on Friday night; bright and early Monday morning I had a lab appointment scheduled at my doctor's office. We changed some of my medications before we left, so I wanted to check and make sure that all of my levels looked okay. Later Monday afternoon, I took the cats in for their annual shots and checkup. They both hate vet appointments, and I'm quite sure that neither of them are looking forward to my next visit home, if they think this is what they can expect.

The following day, the boy and I drove to Nashville, and took a Jet Blue flight to La Guardia airport in New York to take up some space in Rebecca's hotel room. He stayed in the city from Tuesday night till Friday morning. This was the first time the wife and boy had seen each other since we moved to Germany. He and I hung out and explored during the day, then hung out with the wife in the evenings. While he was there, he and Rebecca went to a Broadway show (Aladdin, I think), and he went to Book of Mormon on his own. On Friday morning, I put him in an Uber to La Guardia, and he flew back down to Nashville. When he hit the ground in Nashville, he met up with the girl, who had driven his car to Nashville from Knoxville. She got onto a plane to NYC (La Guardia again), and he drove back to Knoxville in the car she'd just driven in. I took an Uber to the airport that night to meet Cori and get her back to the hotel. Her flight arrived late in NYC - she was scheduled to arrive at 10:00 pm, and didn't get to the gate until close to 11:30. Evidently, the plane that was at the gate her plane was scheduled to use had "issues" of some kind. If you read closely, you'll see a parallel later in the story.

Finally collected the girl and Uber'd back to the hotel. That Friday was one of the high stress days in Rebecca's schedule, so she got back to the room after we got there. She and I went down to wander through Times Square for a little while, while Cori decided that she'd had a long day, and wanted to go to bed.

The next day, Rebecca was able to clear out a bit of time, so we met up with one of the guys who'd traveled up from Knoxville for the UN, then metro'd to Little Italy to wander around the Feast of San Gennaro for a little while. We walked down to One WTC and putzed around down there for a little while, then took the metro back to Times Square and the hotel. We took Cori out through Times Square that night, just so she could experience the true chaos once, as she'd never been in the city before.

The next morning, we had breakfast and wandered around a little bit, then jumped in (yet another) Uber for the airport for our 3:00 departure. Our boarding was delayed (still not sure why), and we sat on the plane for a while. After waiting on the plane for a couple of hours, they finally let us back off the plane, to hang around the gate area. And wait. Then, wait some more. Then, they moved us to another gate. Where we waited a couple more hours. Then finally boarded the replacement plane. To then sit and wait for almost another hour while they checked out yet another issue. We ended up flying home without video service, which I truly don't care about; but when that's one of the main selling points of a cut rate wanna-be airline, you'd think that's one of the few things they'd get right. When they came over the PA to tell us that the video system wouldn't be working, the whole plane was so fed up with the delays and the lack of communication from the flight crew that we all yelled that we didn't care about the video, and just wanted to get home.

I'm truly not sure what time we finally took off, or what time we landed in Nashville. I just know that we ended up getting home around 2:30 in the morning on Monday morning. We were supposed to be home around 8.

I hate Jet Blue. The only reason I'll fly them again is to use up the vouchers we got for that debacle. Six homeless guys with a Red Flyer wagon wouldn't have been a much worse choice for our transportation, and we probably wouldn't have been much later getting home. At least we would have had some entertainment on our journey.

The next couple of days passed in a flurry of doctor's appointments and trying to chase down vaccinations of random types.

Cori and I got back on Sunday night (technically Monday morning), and on Thursday I drove to North Carolina to visit with a couple of people. One of my best friends moved to BFE, NC a couple of years ago, so I wanted to see him while I was in the area. Additionally, I need to tell y'all about our trivia nights real quick.

While we lived in Knoxville, we started going to trivia (pretty much) each week. We'd get together with another couple of people we'd gotten to be friends with, and settled into a routine where we'd meet at one of the local hangouts for dinner & random questions, occasionally winning a gift certificate. Our trivia crew grew a bit, ultimately including: S & E (our local friends, a couple), J & A (a coworker of Rebecca's and his girlfriend/fiancé/wife), Rebecca and me, and frequently Cori. This pattern went on for a couple of years. J was the coworker we had gotten together with for lunch while in NYC. S & E moved right outside of Raleigh at about the same time we moved to Germany.

Back to our tale. On the way to visit my friend in NC, I got together with E for drinks in Chapel Hill - S was out of town for a golf tournament (or just to play, not sure which). S & E were planning on coming to Knoxville the following weekend, so I made plans to meet them somewhere around town. After reconnecting with her, I kept driving through and spent the weekend hanging out with my high school buddy, his wife, and his mother in law. I drove back to Knoxville on Sunday morning, in time to catch the Packers game at the bar on Sunday afternoon.

While we've lived in Knoxville, we've been watching Packers games at a local craft beer market with our local Packer Backer club - the club's grown quite a bit since we've moved there. We joined in 2014, member numbers 34 and 35, thank you very much. In the years since, the membership has swelled to over 500 members, and spending just about every game with these folks every football season, we've gotten to know most of the people there. It was good reconnecting with them, especially after telling everyone that we were moving overseas, then showing up for 3 of the first four games this season.

The next week was filled with chasing down and visiting with friends, and getting more damn shots.

Rebecca was initially planning on flying back to Germany straight from NYC, but she was able to change her plans and come to Knoxville for a few days instead. On Thursday night, Rebecca, Cori, J & I went to trivia (just for old time's sake), and won first place. Rebecca took a picture of Cori, J & I, and sent it to the trivia group.

Palmer's girlfriend came to town somewhere in this time (I'm probably getting the order of events all screwy - what do you expect from me?!?!?). Some of our trips around town included random mixes of kids, some didn't. Nothing worth special mention at this point - just normal day to day life.

Saturday night, the wife and I got together with S & E. When I'd gotten together with E in Chapel Hill, there was no mention of Rebecca being in Knoxville, as it wasn't planned at that point. Rebecca and I went to the bar to meet them, and when we saw them pull up, she went and hid, then came out once they'd joined me at the table. S & E are a bit younger than we are, and we jokingly refer to them as "the kids." As Rebecca and I mused to each other: we have quite a bit of history surprising our kids, so it's not much of a jump to put together a surprise for the kids. Over the last few years, S & E have become quite close friends of ours - I officiated their wedding - so it was nice for all of us to be able to get together again.

We got to go to the bar and watch a Packers game with our club again; the last game I'd watched there, there was no plan for Rebecca to be in town, so we were able to surprise our friends there as well once her plans changed. See? It's a pattern!

Monday was Palmer's 21st birthday, in addition to being the day Rebecca left to come back to Germany. We all (Rebecca & I, Cori, Palmer & his girlfriend) went out to breakfast at a local place, so he could have his first legal drink. Had a pitcher of mimosas for the table. Cori had to stick with straight orange juice.

Rebecca & I stopped at a couple of places for some last minute (for her) shopping, then I dropped her off at the airport.

I went back to the house and loaded up Palmer & his girlfriend for more birthday shenanigans. We went to Pigeon Forge to do a tasting at a moonshine distillery. Wandered around the tourist areas, then headed home. Palmer & his girlfriend wanted to get together with some of his coworkers, but that fell through, so we ended up having a little tasting of random alcohol around the house. #JustBadDadThings

The next night, they went out with that coworker (and others), then came home a little loopy; we watched a few episodes of House of the Dragon. 

Just hung out and caught up with friends for the rest of the week.

When we booked my flight home, we had scheduled me for a 2 hour layover in Charlotte. American Airlines, in their infinite wisdom, sent me an email prior to my trip, and told me that they'd taken it upon themselves to change my return, evidently deciding that 2 hours was overly generous, and switching me to a 30 minute layover instead. In the week prior to my departure, I went out to the airport (rather than attempting to navigate their oh so helpful customer service number). The ticket agent couldn't figure out why they'd changed me, and switched me to the only remaining option: a ten hour layover in Charlotte, following a 5:05 am departure from Knoxville. Yay. Be at the airport at 4, to sit around for ten hours in a strange airport, arriving in Frankfurt after 24 hours of traveling. 

And airlines wonder why people think they suck. If I could have just skipped the Knoxville leg, I could have called those 6 homeless guys and their Red Flyer wagon and slept in a bit longer. Hell, I could have had one of the kids drive me to Charlotte, and they'd have been back home before my initial departure.

I guess it's not just Jet Blue - I've really begun to hate air travel in general. I've frequently wondered how much a good old fashioned ocean liner would cost for future trips back to the states. Even below decks with Jack in third class, I'd have more room than being crammed into the increasingly Lilliputian seats in roach class, and I wouldn't have to deal with all the BS the airlines serve up. I'd just hope they watch out for icebergs.

Maybe I'm just getting old. That's probably it.

Anyway, that's all for now, all the members of our family are back in our (current) rightful places... for now. More shenanigans are afoot, but as is my usual pattern, I'll wait until afterwards to share the events with you. Until then, I'll be yelling at the local kids to "Runter von meinem Rasen!" - that's (per Google Translate) "Get off my lawn!" in German.

Auf wiedersehen!