TransAtlantic 2015

The trip got off to a wonderful start!  The night before the cruise, Pati "drop-kicked" the easy chair in the hotel room and broke her toe.  She managed to hobble to the ship the next day, but was unable to wear anything but Birkenstock sandals for the remainder of the trip.  Formal attire looks just swell with Birkenstocks; however, there shall be no photographic record of this new dress code.

This year's crossing was on the Seabourn Odyssey.  It's a beautiful ship, but upon arriving in Florida, we decided that the Seabourn crowd's a little stuffy.  Oh, not the crew, mind you, they're great. Especially the bartender who whipped up the best Gibsons after tea while our Portuguese waiter tried to entice us with sandwiches and sweets.  His descriptions of the tea cakes were priceless.  He could describe that chocolate cake in a manner that'd make your mouth water, but struggled with one of the items.  That one was "it's pink, it has a red thing on the top, and there's a cookie on the bottom".  We roared!

OK, first stop, Malaga, Spain where the park along the waterfront was in bloom:

No stop in Malaga is complete without a stop at their fabulous market for sugar-coated dried figs and Marcona almonds.  This time, the vendor showed us how to pop the fig open, but the almond inside, and take a bite that'll send you straight to heaven.  Malaga's beach seen from the cruise terminal:

Next stop, Gibraltar.  We didn't go ashore because town was too far for Pati's toe to handle and the view from the ship was fine.  All day long, the wind passing over the "rock" continued to generate this cloud!

We were happy to visit Funchal, Madeira again.  They've done a lot of work along the waterfront and now it's a beautiful park/event area.  Here's our humble ship photographed from the park.

Here's the park!

Another town park, this one located kitty-corner from the lovely Hotel Madeira, where we've always stayed.

Casting off from Funchal, nine days at sea stretched ahead, including a bout with heavy weather. Everything that could be tied down, was.  The wind howled all night, the ship tossed like a cork, the Captain was on the bridge all night, and in the morning everyone looked a bit green.  The weather did improve after a couple of days.  But in the middle of the Atlantic, there were no ships to see, no aircraft overhead. We were totally alone out there, a little over 500 passengers and a couple of stowaway seabirds, with well-stocked bars, plenty of lamb chops, the wind at our back and a Scotsman at the helm.

Made it to Ft. Lauderdale!  We took a couple of days to look at the Ft. Myers area and decided that Florida, for the most part, looks the same no matter where one goes.  So we drove back to Palm Beach for cuban food before flying home.  Three weeks until departure for the Amazon rain forest!

Return to Barcelona

October took us to Barcelona again, ahead of our annual transAtlantic cruise.  We revisited our favorite spots, the Sagrada Familia, the Gaudi buildings, Decthlon (sportswear) and Desigual (unusual clothing.  Very unusual clothing).

Detail from the Sagrada Familia, north face:

We wonder how long we'll have to live to see the Sagrada Familia without cranes and construction fencing?  Mr. Gaudi, when construction began, said that God is his customer and is in no great hurry. Could be a long wait.  The crane is the official bird of the Sagrada Familia.

La Pedrera, still an occupied apartment building:

Casa Batllo:

And no trip to Barcelona is complete without a stop at the famous market:

Which was closed.  That kept us from eating our way through La Boqueria, but we did want some photos of all that food!

British Union Car Show 2015

Entered the red car in the car show in September.  Perfect weather and lots of cars to see.  Our first adventure with our new DSLR camera, purchased because we're thinking ahead to the Amazon and the Galapagos.

We didn't win (again) but got lots of smiles (again).  Good news: we know, for a fact, that several people voted for our car.  Besides us, of course.  Bad news:  The gents in the Land Rover who followed us on the way to the show reported that our tail lights aren't working.  Oh Lucas, Prince of Darkness.

Our car:

Reflections of a car show:

Road America, Tudor Sports Cars, 2015

The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase, August 9.  We always love going to Road America.  The track is beautiful and the views are good.  Of course, we always have to go a day early for the fish fry at the elegant dining establishment, the Harborside in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.  As one person described it, the "once elegant" Harborside.  But the beer's cold and the fish is fantastic.

It was a good day for Bib (but then he's always smiling):

And a bad day for this dude, who seemed to be having a used parts sale:

Autograph session is always fun, for the fans, anyway.  Here's Fisichella and Kaffer...

...the Taylor lads, Jordan and Ricky...

...and some relatives of Darth Vader?

Green! Green! Green!

And they're off!  Disclaimer:  this is one of the support races.

No trip to Road America is complete, of course, without a stop at the Pleasant Prairie Outlet Mall on the way home.  A great opportunity to stock up on outdated Goldfish from the Pepperidge Farm outlet and fuzzy chocolate from Ghirardelli as well as an assortment of underwear from Jockey and miscellaneous winter garb.  Can't wait for next year!  We've already got our hotel reservations!

Before Racing, Let's Review the Flags...

But before we begin, please note that this is copyrighted material.  And it may not be our copyright.

 Go!  Go!  Go!

Trouble!  some idiot has spun/crashed ahead, but was king enough to get his piece of crap off the track.

There's a race going on, but you're not in it!

 Oh, you've done it now!!  Go to the principal's office immediately!

Your piece of crap is broken and messing up the race!  It might even be on fire!!  Get that POS off the track!!!

No, this isn't the last lap, and this isn't nascar.  There's a slow moving vehicle on the track...try not to hit it!

Crap on the track ahead!  It could be oil, it could be antifreeze, could be gravel.  For all I know, it could be your grandma.  Slow down!

                          Holy crap!  Stop, pull to one side, something bad is happening.  We'll let you know when you can move.

Have a beer.

Back to Epen

Of course we weren't going to stay in Amsterdam!  We were off to our favorite "spa location", the Ons Krijtland Hotel in Epen, Holland  ( www.krijtland.nl  ).  The Bessem family and staff always treat us well, the food is excellent, and the hikes through the fields and forests are beyond beautiful.  The area is so peaceful that it's hard to even imagine what happened here during the the second world war.  If one is looking for a do-nothing trip with plenty of relaxation, this is the spot.

Another visit to the American Cemetery at Margraten:

The brave soldiers whose remains were not located are inscribed on the walls that surround the pond. In some instances, they were later found and identified.  In that case, a bronze marker is added to the inscription.  Looking closely at these walls, it's apparent that flying in bombers was not a good idea during World War II.  Almost all of these men were in Bomb Groups, and very few remains were ever located:

 
Flying in balloons near the hotel was, however, a great idea for some people:

And, the appropriate ending to every trip...

The wiener dog count!  For the first time in the annals of recorded history, Pati won with 9 dogs to Gordon's 3.

A Day in Berlin

We were lucky.  The temperatures did moderate for our walk around Berlin...it actually was around 80 degrees.  Our ambitious walk started out at our hotel to follow the path of the Berlin Wall through town to Checkpoint Charlie, check out Unter Den Linden Boulevard, then through the Tiergarten and back to the hotel.

As it turned out, the wall ran very close to the hotel, just a couple of blocks east.  It is commemorated in two ways:  in some areas, the path is marked with bricks set into the pavement and in other areas actual pieces of the wall are preserved.  We started out following the bricks next to the river:

The path of the wall let us to the Reichstag building.  This is the historical building constructed to house the Imperial Diet (in German that's Reichstag).  It was opened in 1894 and housed the Diet until 1933, when it was severely damaged in a suspicious fire. After World War II, the building fell into disuse; the parliament of the German Democratic Republic met elsewhere, while the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany moved to Bonn.

The ruined building was made safe against the elements and partially refurbished in the 1960s, but no attempt at full restoration was made until after German reunification in 1990.  It then underwent a reconstruction that was completed in 1999 when it once again became the meeting place of the German parliament: the modern Bundestag.  There's a public restaurant inside that looks across the street at Angela Merkel's office.  We heard that she wasn't there...she was off handing out money to the Greeks.  Needless to say, security's tight at the restaurant.  Here's the Reichstag:

The wall now led us to the Brandenburg Gate.  The gate was inaccessible for many years due to the proximity of the wall...right down the west side of it.

Just a little farther west, the spot at which President Ronald Reagan gave his famous "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" speech:

Still following the wall, a preserved piece near a modern shopping plaza:

A guard tower:

And the largest section that is preserved in place:

We're both fans of the fictional police detective Bernie Gunther in novels by Philip Kerr.  Old Bernie worked on the Alexander Strasse, in a building they called "The Alex".  That's it, just on the other side of the wall.

Nearby, much to our delight, a tribute to the favorite East German car, the Trabant (Trabi World is a real museum!  With a gift shop!):

Still following the wall, we were on our way to Checkpoint Charlie, where the famous signs are still up:

We finally gave up the wall walk and detoured through shopping streets over to Unter Den Linden and back toward the Brandenburg Gate.  A stroll through the Tiergarten returned us to the Sandstone Bridge near the hotel.  Here's some detail from the bridge:

A long day, to be sure.  Our hotel was right next to the train station, and the next day we were on the train, headed for Amsterdam.