Well, I managed to make quite the long day for myself today. I went to Derby (our sister city for Rolls-Royce in the UK) to present the work that I've been doing over the past 8 weeks. There was a flow conference that fit nicely with what I'd been doing, so I just gave a quick summary of my findings.
I'm happy to report that the presentation went pretty well. I'm unhappy to report that the trip back didn't.
I had to wake up at 5:00 am to catch Rolls-Royce's coach from Bristol to Derby. After a less-than-lovely 2 hour trip I managed to make it there. Unfortunately, I managed to miss the coach on the way back due to some faulty information. Oops.
Well, one taxi, three trains, and six hours later I managed to make it the 140 miles home. Oh, and did I mention the 1.5 mile walk from the train station back to my flat. That was nice. Really, really nice. But hey, I'm not bitter.
It's a good thing tomorrow's Friday.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Venice
Venice was the next place on our trip. We arrived fairly late and had an intersting walk to our hotel. The streets were pretty much deserted and dark. We had to wind our way around until we finally got close to the hotel. At that point some shady looking guy decided to help us out of what I thought was the goodness of his heart, but turned out to be the fatness of his wallet. Apparently walking 50 feet in the direction we were already going deserved some tip. I disagreed. Not a good start.
Anyway, walking around Venice was really quite fun. They had really good pizza and snacks you could grab here and there. The streets were all narrow and winding. It was just a quaint little place with lots of character. We had a good time.
A classic view of Venice down the Grand Canal.
A good view of another part of the Grand Canal.
A view from Saint Mark's Square. You can see both Saint Mark's Cathedral and Saint Mark's Clocktower in this picture.
Jen admiring the wildlife in Saint Mark's Square. There were pigeons absolutely everywhere. If you'd buy some food for them, they would literally swarm all over you.
A look across the water at another island near Venice.
Anyway, walking around Venice was really quite fun. They had really good pizza and snacks you could grab here and there. The streets were all narrow and winding. It was just a quaint little place with lots of character. We had a good time.
A classic view of Venice down the Grand Canal.
A good view of another part of the Grand Canal.
A view from Saint Mark's Square. You can see both Saint Mark's Cathedral and Saint Mark's Clocktower in this picture.
Jen admiring the wildlife in Saint Mark's Square. There were pigeons absolutely everywhere. If you'd buy some food for them, they would literally swarm all over you.
A look across the water at another island near Venice.
Stonehenge & Avebury
I took some time yesterday to drive out to Stonehenge and Avebury. I don't really know much about the sites, but everyone has to see it when they come to England. I think there's some sort of astrological implications about how the stone are arranged. Druids and all that, you know.
The Stonehenge picture is below, but also of interest is the small town of Avebury. There's a huge circle of stones there, probably 1/4 mile in diameter. Just outside the circle is a huge ditch about 40 feet deep. It was some sort of pre-English-history fort or something. Also, they think it might have astrological implications.
Anyway, the drive through the countryside was nice. It made a nice little day-trip from Bristol.
Stonehenge. This is as close as we could get because the place closed just before we got there. Oops.
This is a picture of the huge circle of rocks at Avebury. The guy standing there is my friend David. We met in Berlin when I visited my other friend Dan. David just moved to Bristol to work for Rolls-Royce.
The Stonehenge picture is below, but also of interest is the small town of Avebury. There's a huge circle of stones there, probably 1/4 mile in diameter. Just outside the circle is a huge ditch about 40 feet deep. It was some sort of pre-English-history fort or something. Also, they think it might have astrological implications.
Anyway, the drive through the countryside was nice. It made a nice little day-trip from Bristol.
Stonehenge. This is as close as we could get because the place closed just before we got there. Oops.
This is a picture of the huge circle of rocks at Avebury. The guy standing there is my friend David. We met in Berlin when I visited my other friend Dan. David just moved to Bristol to work for Rolls-Royce.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Barcelona
Well, it was off to Barcelona on Wednesday morning. We flew into the main Barcelona airport, so it was easy to get a bus from there to city center. Luckily, city center was very close to our hotel. We checked in, dropped off our bags, and off we went to explore our the town.
Exploring Barcelona was fun for two reasons. First, the city was very busy & bustling with activity. Second, we each new some Spanish so we could get by speaking in the local language. Everyone new English as well, but it was fun to try out our skills. Jen's skills are definitely better than mine. I can tell you my name, ask where the bathroom is, and order food, that's about it. Jen can actually hold a half-way intelligent conversation. Of course, the same is true when we're speaking English.
We started off by walking down La Rambla. It's a wide boulevard that travels down to the Mediterranean, starting about a mile inland. There are a bunch of shops, stands, markets, street performers, etc. The locals as well as the tourists frequent the area, so it was lot's of fun. At the end of La Rambla is a fairly large marina. Basically, there wasn't anything "touristy" about it, it was just fun to walk around taking everything in.
We did discover why there aren't any "Spanish" restaurants in the U.S. It's because their food is utterly horrible. We paid 26 euros for a small piece of fish and two small peppers stuffed with Lord-only-knows-what. It didn't taste too bad, although I wouldn't consider it good, but it didn't even take the edge off our hunger. After that we just headed over to a KFC and got a couple kids meals, with tasty ice-cream I should mention, to tide us over until dinner. That was basically our last attempt to eat local food, and it was very difficult to find anything edible after that.
We went to a Picasso museum in the "old city". I'm no art critic, but I wasn't that impressed with his work. Only a small portion of it was the weird Picasso style stuff we're used to, with noses where ears should be and eyes on top of each other. The rest ranged from simple sketches to landscapes to pottery and sculptures. The weird stuff was interesting, but it got old quick. He had some neat paintings of matadors & bulls, but the rest looks like it could have been made by a five year old. Again, I'm not an art critic (thank goodness), but I wasn't impressed. Boring.
I got the feeling I was back in high-school literature class, with everyone trying to find the hidden "meaning" and "purpose" behind the art. Of course a line on a page couldn't just be a line on a page, it has to be some sort of commentary on life in an oppressive world or something. Blah, blah, blah. Give me architecture and history any day over art.
We also went to a neat church in the old city. I've put some pictures below.
The coolest thing we saw in Barcelona was a church that was designed and started by Antoni Gaudi, a famous architect. It was immense and varied in its style. Gaudi models most things off nature, so there were columns shaped like trees, lots of fruit and animals in the stonework, etc. It is a very interesting building. It's still under construction, but that almost added to the charm. Check out the pictures below for an idea of what I'm talking about.
I guess that's pretty much it. Next up, Venice.
Exploring Barcelona was fun for two reasons. First, the city was very busy & bustling with activity. Second, we each new some Spanish so we could get by speaking in the local language. Everyone new English as well, but it was fun to try out our skills. Jen's skills are definitely better than mine. I can tell you my name, ask where the bathroom is, and order food, that's about it. Jen can actually hold a half-way intelligent conversation. Of course, the same is true when we're speaking English.
We started off by walking down La Rambla. It's a wide boulevard that travels down to the Mediterranean, starting about a mile inland. There are a bunch of shops, stands, markets, street performers, etc. The locals as well as the tourists frequent the area, so it was lot's of fun. At the end of La Rambla is a fairly large marina. Basically, there wasn't anything "touristy" about it, it was just fun to walk around taking everything in.
We did discover why there aren't any "Spanish" restaurants in the U.S. It's because their food is utterly horrible. We paid 26 euros for a small piece of fish and two small peppers stuffed with Lord-only-knows-what. It didn't taste too bad, although I wouldn't consider it good, but it didn't even take the edge off our hunger. After that we just headed over to a KFC and got a couple kids meals, with tasty ice-cream I should mention, to tide us over until dinner. That was basically our last attempt to eat local food, and it was very difficult to find anything edible after that.
We went to a Picasso museum in the "old city". I'm no art critic, but I wasn't that impressed with his work. Only a small portion of it was the weird Picasso style stuff we're used to, with noses where ears should be and eyes on top of each other. The rest ranged from simple sketches to landscapes to pottery and sculptures. The weird stuff was interesting, but it got old quick. He had some neat paintings of matadors & bulls, but the rest looks like it could have been made by a five year old. Again, I'm not an art critic (thank goodness), but I wasn't impressed. Boring.
I got the feeling I was back in high-school literature class, with everyone trying to find the hidden "meaning" and "purpose" behind the art. Of course a line on a page couldn't just be a line on a page, it has to be some sort of commentary on life in an oppressive world or something. Blah, blah, blah. Give me architecture and history any day over art.
We also went to a neat church in the old city. I've put some pictures below.
The coolest thing we saw in Barcelona was a church that was designed and started by Antoni Gaudi, a famous architect. It was immense and varied in its style. Gaudi models most things off nature, so there were columns shaped like trees, lots of fruit and animals in the stonework, etc. It is a very interesting building. It's still under construction, but that almost added to the charm. Check out the pictures below for an idea of what I'm talking about.
I guess that's pretty much it. Next up, Venice.
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