My Oyster

Strolling & Shopping on Saturday in Brussels...

Coffee breaks and people watching are my favorite parts of traveling.  This pic is also of Dianne and I resting. 

We had been out shopping for drugs (prescription - but Amsterdam is coming up soon) and clothes as her bag is still MIA.  Missing in Action.

We hit H&M first.  It was very fun to help my 69yo mother shop for fashions with hundreds of pre-teen girls.  :-)  The shopping district was mobbed because today starts the time that the government allows sales.  I love the paternalistic state!

More pics from the day...

And even more pics here...

On the road again with Dianne & James...

We meet up in Brussels.  Here we are entering a cellar restaurant on the Grand Place for dinner. 

Do we not look exactly alike?! 

Dianne had a bad set of flights (though all business) getting here, but looked none the worse for it.  Despite having just this one outfit - until we either get her luggage tomorrow or go shopping. 

When I got back from meetings we went out for a bite of dinner with a work colleague.  Tasty Belgian food - including GRIJZE GARNALEN (small gray shrimp) and VLAAMSE STOVERY (beef stew made in beer.  Then we strolled around the old city a bit.  Pics below.

Brussels from my bedroom...

Atop the spire stands a 5-meter-high gilt metal statue of the archangel Michael, patron saint of Brussels, slaying a dragon or devil.

That's the Brussels Town Hall on the Grand Place.  Beautiful by day and night. 

Tonight while working in my room, I kept running over to watch the sunset.  And snapping pics of course.  At one point, around 10pm, a band started playing outside.  I could see a crowd gathering and the music sounded fun, so I threw on my shoes and ran outside.  It was a nice way to wind down the evening.

Then a nice walk back to the hotel.  I like this one, the Le Meridien, because its right in the old part of the city and just steps from the Town Hall and Grand Place.

More 30 Second Tourism in London...

This is me.  Waiting for my next meeting - but taking the opportunity to be snapped in front of Westminster Cathedral.  Not the Abbey.  The Cathedral.  The Catholic one.

Beautiful isn't it?  The Cathedral, I mean...

Touring London in 5 minutes or less..

This is my speedy tour of London.  That's me in the moments between meetings.  It's Lord Nelson high above Trafalgar Square.  My hotel is just a few steps away. 

I arrived today on an early morning flight from Munich.  Very early.  I put my trusty lil' cybershot in my breast pocket and whipped it out whenever I thought I might have a few seconds (literally) to get a noteworthy pic.  The results follow.   I am here tomorrow too - so maybe some more pics.

Buckingham Palace from the taxi.

Big Ben while rushing to my next meeting.

My hotel room.  Apparently the rooms are white so you can change colors through lighting.  How fun and trendy.

Summer in Munich...

What a great day.  I got out into the sunny and warm city and loved it. Lots more pics at my flickr account, but here is a fun sampling...

Me in the center city at the Rathaus (city hall).

My good friend Melissa giving a toast at a bier garten in Munich's AMAZING English Garden.

Melissa and I walked the entire English Garden - it's huge.  With streams, lakes, woods, fields, nude sunbathing.  Something for everyone who likes nature.

This was pretty fun.  There is a fast moving stream through much of the park.  It must go for miles.  At one section, they built an area for surfing. Crowds of people watching and some very good surfers.  My favorite was...

Some other favorites of the day...

 

Swimming with Mark Spitz in Munich...

OK, so not exactly "with".  More like 35 years after him.  But still...

This is the Olympic Swimming Pool from the 1972 Olympics.  I swam there this morning. 

Very cool. 

I swam in the same pool that Mark Spitz did an Olympic first by winning seven gold medals in a single Olympics.  But not only that - he also set a new world record for each of his seven gold medals.  Truly amazing.  There was no clock running there today - so I can't be sure if I bested any of his times.

Because he is Jewish, Spitz was forced to leave Munich before the closing ceremonies for his own protection, after fears arose that he would be an additional target of those responsible for the Munich Massacre.

The '72 Olympics is the first one I remember watching.  We were living in very rural Maine (Rangeley) in the mountains.  I was not yet in school.  My mother and I watched on TV as the drama and sadness played out at there.

Here are some more pics from this morning's trek to the Munich Olympic Park.  The design is still fresh and interesting, I think.  Not bad for the early '70s!  Sometimes buildings designed in that era don't really age well.  The Seattle Center complex - for example - looks cheesy and cheap today.  This doesn't.  Gotta love those Germans!

More pics in the Munich folder at my Flickr Account here.  Probably another Munich post here later today.

Munich by night...

Or should I say in the dark - to be more accurate.  My camera is great - but not at night.

Here are a couple shots of the old center city of Munich at around midnight.

Not a lot of flash action with my pocket camera.  Still beautiful.  Munich is actually called the northernmost Italian city - because its architecture - like the two churches above - is so Italian.  Of course Munich and Bavaria are also very catholic.  The new pope is from a little town just down the road, apparently.

I got all this trivia not from my usual source - wikipedia, but from a nice Peruvian guy, Angel, who has lived here for 15 years and showed me around a bit.  It was very fun.

I did manage to eek out one pic that you can see.  It's at a pedestrian area in the old city, which used to be the walled in city of Munich.

I need to go to bed though.  Getting late and I want to try to go swim at the Olympic pool tomorrow.

In Munich Tonight...

This was the sky on the drive in from the airport.  I need to get out soon and get some more pics - tho its already getting late now.  Thanks Lufthansa.  Another 3 hours of delays.  That's a total of 11 hours of delays on two flights in three days.  I am back with them on Tuesday.  Ugh.

I am pretty excited to be here.  I haven't been to Munich for more than 20 years.  Not since I was living across the border in Salzburg as a college exchange student.  We used to come to Munich to get really drunk. I think we usually slept in the subway.  We were young and broke.  Needed all our groschen for beer.

I am off now but will post some more later - hopefully with more interesting pics.  Here is one more to go on.  Molly Malone - from my run this morning in Dublin.  The "Tart with the cart".  Check out the urban legend on her here.

Ok. So maybe I DO like Dublin afterall...

This is me in St. Stephens Green Park. After work, I took a stroll through the park and around the neighborhood (you can see the jewelry post below). I came back with a different attitude about Dublin. I have only been here once before and I left not really wanting to rush back. Maybe it was because my mother had a heart attack while I was here and I could not get a flight back to Maine. Maybe it was other reasons...known only to a few. I am a convert now though. I wanna come back.

Here are some more pics from St. Stephens Green Park.

Here are some from just outside my hotel door.

Here are the requisite Catholic pics. I took these for my mother. I know she loves 'em. God bless her!

Religious pic #1 - from the window of my room. I liked the bright light to the side of the cross.

Religious pic #2 is a sculpture in Archbishop Ryan Park and Religious pic #3 is a sign I found amusing. Just what books are in a Catholic library? Probably much more interesting would be the ones that are NOT in it.

Finally, I ended my day with a nice swim at the pool at Trinity College. Ahh.

More pics from Dublin here at my Flickr account.