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When people travel...

Well, we got back from 4 days in Paris yesterday and, as you can see, Mom had a good time. I don't know if some of you can truly appreciate how epic this photo is. Please don't pass the opportunity to comment below, or write Mom at her e-mail address and ask her how she enjoyed Paris.
It was very hot in Paris over the last several days, and we walked for miles. Mother and Jewel were champions and I'm very proud of them. I think they had a really great time. Besides drinking the days away, we did see some of the "touristy" things. We still have a couple of trips to London yet. I'll try to keep mother out of the pubs as much as I can. More later, but for now, au revoir.

Portugal

I took Rhonda with me on this trip. Just so she could lie on the beach. Before we left I bought a gps and we tried it out on this trip. Unbelievable, I recommend them, highly. We flew into Lisbon and drove about 80 miles northwest to Monte Real, the gps got us there with ease. The weather could have been a little warmer, but at least it was clear. We had Friday off and drove down to Lisbon and spent the night.

While we were in Lisbon we went to the aquarium, it was the largest one in Europe. Really cool. Sharks, rays, tunas, baracudas, everything. We had a really good time and Rhonda had a great week relaxing on the beach.

Hungary

Well, I'm finally catching up. Bear with me while I travel back in time a few weeks. .... ... .... ... .... Okay, I had a great trip to Kecskemet, about an hour from Budapest. Firstly, we did visit Budapest, it was nice, but Kecsemet was superb! It's one of the few places I'd really like to go back to for a vacation. Very clean and modernised (I'm learning UK spelling in school, more on that later). The food was fantastic, I tried to make some Hungarian bean soup when I got home but didn't have Hungarian paprika, so it came out a little bitter. Got some Hungarian paprika online and made another batch and oh yeah, it was really good! Of course, not as good as I had in Hungary, but I'll work on it!

I thought this was an interesting building because a lot of what I saw was pretty and new. This was pretty and "old" style. Most of the Soviet-era infrastructure has been replaced with more modern western style buildings, etc. You wouldn't know, everything looks like it's always been there. Everyone's really friendly, great service, good beer, pretty women. I'd actually like to take Rhonda there for a long weekend. By the way, if you get a chance, order some Hungarian paprika online and give it a try. It's really got a lot of flavour (again with the UK spelling, I know), the hot is pretty hot but give it a try. The sweet has a nice flavour too.

Greece

This is a shot from the beach of the town we stayed in. What town, you ask. OK, here's the address of the hotel. Arkoudi Loutra, Kyllinis, Ilia 270 50 Greece M-kay? Perhaps you understand it better than I, it's all Greek to me. (Yuk-yuk.) Anyway, the water was still cold but I did burn my head on the first day at work. Lots of sun, a bit of cool wind, Greek salad and beer every day. Not exactly a vacation, but then I was there to work. The area was just preparing for the tourist season so they weren't in full swing. As for the sights, I was really too busy to go sightseeing. Olympus was about an hour and a half away, and we flew in/out of Athens, but I'm pretty sure I'll be going back again in the next year or two. I'd been in Denmark the week before and was in Greece for two weeks, so I was feeling a little "traveled out". Now I have a little better idea of what I want to do and see next time I go there.

Denmark

Sorry it's been a while... kind of catching up, I've been traveling quite a lot. School (studying) has also kept me busy. Furthermore, my photo editor went t-u so I'm trying out a new one. Unfortunately, there weren't any decent photos from Denmark. I did have a pretty good time, though. Still a bit cool but great restaurants and bars. Really friendly people there. I know this isn't a very good review, but we didn't exactly go to a tourist area. Anyway, for the record, I'd like to go back again some time. Not it winter, though... brrr.

The River Spey, Scotland

I'm here, fly-fishing for salmon on the Spey River in Scotland! Could it get any better? Oh, I suppose catching a fish would be better. Might have to wait until I return in June. Could be better prospects then.
Hey, at least I'm trying out some new gear. Notice I'm sporting a new Orvis fly vest? [Allen] I got it for 1/3 the regular price because is had a "broken" zipper, which I fixed, thank-you-very-much. Also, a new Orvis Mach IV wide arbor fly reel, which is super-silent, has a large disc drag, and is extremely lightweight. Using 8 weight line on a 10', 3 piece, 8 weight LL Bean Orion fly rod. Most enjoyable. Did I mention I'm inaugurating this equipment on the river Spey? Oh, I did. Hmm. Did you notice it's snowing?!

All right, this was Saturday, our day off, from a two week detachment to RAF Kinloss, near Elgin, Scotland. Now, if you notice a slight change in prose, please allow that my audience is expanding, due to it's popularity here in the UK, so please bear with me, my loyal readers.

This is Andy, one of the pilots from FRA, the company that flies our pods. Andy had lived many years in Scotland, near the Speymouth (which, for those of you who don't speak Scottish, means "near the mouth of the Spey"). Andy is using a 16' two-handed fly rod called a "Spey Rod" (no, I'm not making this up). A Spey rod was developed for long [sort of] roll casting across wide rivers, such as (you guessed it) the Spey. Andy was kind enough to bring me along on this outing, and showed my his "favorite" spots. Pretty cool, huh? Sorry, can't tell you any more about this, you fishermen understand.

... obviously, we meet up with the French and drink lots of beer and whisky ! This is part of a french squadron who had brought a couple of Super Etendards which flew as part of the exercise in Scotland. The pod captain from NATO, Eric, who was with me is french, and he was really thrilled that some of his countrymen could be there in Scotland with him. One of these guys is a good friend of Eric's, from his hometown,near Bordeaux. They went skiing on Saturday, while I went fishing.

Come on, Stuart. You're a handsome man, and a brilliant barkeeper! Here Stuart is pouring me a wonderful Scottish lager, called "Tennant's". Stuart is the resident expert on single malt Scotch whisky, amongst other things Scottish. Go ahead, ask him anything!

So, I'm back home now, working on my assignments for the next couple of weeks. I have a longer trip coming up to Denmark and Greece, but there's a bit of exciting news this weekend, so I should have another post for you before I go. Thanks for being patient, but I try not to bore you with mundane posts. Feel free to leave comments, or send us an e-mail. Just a note about comments... I have to turn the comments off after 2-3 weeks, or else I start getting "spammed". So don't delay, if you're going to comment, do it!

Burghead Maltings

This is a photo from a tour of the Burghead Maltings, Burghead, Scotland. I tried to get a tour of the Roseisle Maltings last spring but couldn't due to Health and Safety regulations, so I contacted the ICBD, Heriot-Watt, and they arranged a tour at Burghead for me (nice, huh?). I was in Scotland for two weeks, this is about the only thing I did there besides work this time.
The tour was excellent. A couple of the managers there are taking some of the same modules from the ICBD that I'm taking. I was able to read up on the maltings process in a couple of my textbooks before the tour, so a lot of questions I had were answered, and actually seeing the machines and processes helps me to understand the text better. This particular maltings uses separate steep, germination and kilning vessels.


After the barley is loaded into the intake it is cleaned and stored in a silo until ready for processing. The first part of the processing is the steep, where the barley is soaked in cool water for about two days. It's soaked, then drained and left to air damp, then soaked again, aired, and soaked and aired (3 times total), in order to let the grain take up water, swell and begin to grow roots. This steep vessel holds 30 tonnes (metric tons; 1 tonne=1000kg=2204.62lbs), and they operate two steeps as a pair, simultaneously. When the steep is complete, the two 30 tonne steeps are dumped into a 60 tonne drum for germination.


Burghead Maltings has 48 steep vessels, each with a capacity of 30 tonnes, which operate in pairs. It has 48 drums with a capacity of 60 tonnes. The steep cycle lasts about 2 days, the germination cycle about 4 days. Adds up, doesn't it? Then it's off to one of 7 kilns. Four of their kilns can hold 60 tonnes, the other three can hold 120 tonnes. Kilning takes about one day. About 2000 tonnes of barley is processed into about 1700 tonnes of malt every week.
So that was a fun tour. Informative, too. Like I said before, I didn't do too much else that trip. I did make a couple of other contacts, though. One guy I met offered to take me duck/goose hunting the next time I was up during the season. Another guy I met said if I brought my fly rods that he'd take me flyfishing. Think I'll do that.

Italian Style!

I had a trip to Naples, Italy, and decided to take my wife, Rhonda, with me. We had a great time! Rhonda's cousin, Victoria, lives near Naples with her husband, Tom, and their daughter, Elizabeth, so we got to visit with them as well as do a little site seeing, and, oh yeah, I worked a bit, too. Rhonda and I took a day trip to Rome, where it was raining, and I hadn't brought my camera anyway, because of horror stories I'd heard about theives, etc, so I had to "borrow" a couple of pictures off the web. (I'll take my camera next time.) Driving was a nightmare, but I managed 18 days without putting a scratch on the rental car.
Anyway, we toured the Coluseum, and got to the Vatican just in time for mass, which we attended. The inside is really splendid, and I wanted to see the museum but we were both pretty worn out, so we'll save it for next time. Rome is one city I would definitely spend my own money going to see, and stay a few days. I really want to go back and see the Sistine Chapel and some of the other sites. We did manage to tour the area that has all the dead popes, including John Paul's tomb. There were a couple of Swiss Guards outside but they had raincoats on over their outfits, which weren't as colourful.


We actually visited this site first, but I have to say St. Peter's was much more impressive. Still, the Coluseum was very large, in pretty good shape, and gave a sense of the magnitude of the accomplishments of the Romans. At least their hunger for entertainment.
We also went to the top of an active volcano, Vesuvius, in Naples, and walked around the crater. There's steam coming out of the sides, and they say (experts that Vic and Tom are) that the volcano is several years overdue for an eruption. After climbing up then down that mountain we spent several hours walking all around the ancient city of Pompei, which had been buried by an eruption of Vesuvius, well, long ago. Fascinating stuff!
Beyond that we shopped at several markets, bought shoes, clothes, food, etc, and tried to eat as much buffalo mozzerella as we could (I did, anyway). Great food, great weather (part of the time, after all, it is the rainy season), and really great company (Tom, Vic and Liz). Vic is more than ready to bring "Aversa" into the world, but she's hanging in there. I think we should be hearing from her any day now with the news. They (all four of them) are planning (tentatively) to visit us (Rhonda and me) for Christmas, and we're really looking forward to having some family around for the holidays.
In other news, I'm enjoying "school", am getting ready for another trip to Scotland, and have a tour at a maltings scheduled through the generous efforts of Brian Eaton, Heriot-Watt University, International Centre for Brewing and Distilling... thanks again, Brian.

Norway

I had a trip to Norway, not just the southern coast, no, I was two-thirds up the coast of the country. If you looked at a map of Norway, you'd see just how far north that is. North of Oslo, north of Trondelheim, freakin' north! The guy who was with me had spent 6 months in Norway, over the winter, north of where we were! So I didn't feel so bad. It was a bit cool and rainy, but we managed to get out and see a few things. They say there are only two things to do in Norway, fish and f***. And it's too cold in the winter to fish. Well, that's what they say.


Here's another photo for you. We actually had to work most of the time, and most of the time we weren't working it was raining and not good for photos. The last day we had a sunny day and went for a drive through some of the mountains, and went and saw the "malstrom", which is a tidal event... the tide comes in through a narrows and makes huge whirlpools due to the current. It's actually the biggest "malstrom" in the world, so we went and stood in the rain and wind for two hours looking at it. Cool (cold). Unfortunately I had forgotten my camera, so no pics, sorry. You can see it online, though, if you're interested. (Just to clarify, yes, that day was sunny, but not all day, and not everywhere we went. Lots of microclimates, you know, rainy here, sunny there.)
Well, I've actually been back a couple of weeks but haven't had time to post until now. Rhonda and I are off to Italy this week, and should see Tom and Vic. Vic is about ready to have the baby, and it could happen while we're there. (That should give Rhonda something to do besides shop, huh?) I'll have about a week after we return before I'm off to Scotland again, but I'll try to post something about Italy during that week. If not, forgive me, I'm only human. Besides, there's e-mail and telephone, right? Take care, everyone!

Ireland

Rhonda and I spent our holiday in Ireland this year. We had initially planned to ride the harley but the forecast was for rain almost every day so we drove the truck instead. As is turned out, the weather wasn't really all that bad. We took a ferry from South Wales to Rosslare, and spent our first night near Waterford. We backtracked a bit the next morning to check out the Kennedy homestead near Ross, which was really interesting, then continued on, stopping for a tour of the Waterford crystal factory that afternoon.


We left Waterford toward Cork, and turned south to Kinsale, a pretty town on the coast for some dinner and beer. After a night in Kinsale we drove to Killarney, and then around the "Ring of Kerry". The ring took us along most of the coastline of the southwest of Ireland, with some spectacular views of ocean, beaches and cliffs, with a few points of interest along the way.


We did a lot of driving, close to 2000 miles on this trip, but well worth it. I think the photos speak for themselves, I can't really say too much about the views, they are spectacular. After the Ring of Kerry we went 'round the "Ring of Dingle", and then drove a bit north to see the Cliffs of Moher.




I finally got my Guiness! The tour was fun, and made a great way to end our tour of Ireland. We sailed back from Dublin to Holyhead, Wales and drove back down through Wales, which turned out to be every bit as beautiful. All in all, a great trip, beautiful, relaxing and enjoyable. It's good to be home, too.

Scotland

Wow, what a trip! This view is of the Scottish Highlands. My work partner and I drove through them on our way up to Kinloss, on the Moray Firth, east of Inverness. We were there two weeks, stayed one night in Glasgow on the way up and one night in Edinburgh on the way back home. The weather was nice and warm the first week, and we had a little cloud and mist the second, but otherwise it was beautiful. We had some time for a little sightseeing... castle ruins, distilleries and Loch Ness.



I couldn't help but take a photo of this... for one of my friends, Erksine, who has some Scot blood in him. Hope you get a kick out of this, bud.


There you are, a bit of Scottish heritage for ya'.


Nessie was not about, but the lake is very large, long and beautiful. There are a couple of castles built along the loch, one is in ruins and has quite a bit of lore associated with it, another appears to be a hotel now. There are quite a few old castles in Scotland that you can spend the night in, and many old churches and buildings you can grab a dram and some haggis in. Yes, the first thing I did was try the haggis, and yes, it's pretty good. (but don't ask what's in it, though)

This is a cow. You heard me, a cow, not a steer or bull. Scottish Highland cows have horns just like bulls/steers. Uh-huh. The beef steaks from these guys melts in your mouth. I know, I had the best filet I've ever had at a restaurant in nearby Dufftown. They shed their long coats in spring and regrow them in the fall. They feed mostly in the highlands on brush, but the owner has brought this group down to feed on the green slopes near the Glenfiddich distillery. FYI, a "glen" is a valley, and "glenfiddich" means, "valley of the deer". Didn't know that, did you?

This is a photo of the distillation plant at Glenfiddich. The malt gets distilled in one of the big ones, then the leftovers get distilled again in the smaller ones. Much too complicated for this page but this room looks cool anyway, huh? I tried about a dozen different whiskeys there (not all at once), and found two in particular that I very much enjoyed. I brought a couple bottles home with me, one is Craggenmore, a Speyside whiskey, the other is Talisker, from the Isle of Skye. They're best enjoyed at room temperature, "neat", and perhaps with a Walker's Highland shortbread to bring out the flavors.


This is the river Spey, where the now famous Spey fly rod originated. The Spey rod is a fly rod that is 14-18 feet long, a two-handed fly rod designed for casting far across wide rivers such as this one. My fishing buddies will appreciate the fact that most rivers in the UK have privately held fishing rights, and that you can't just walk up to any stream and drop a line in. A neighbor of mine, however, has come up with two tickets to fish a river in the southwest of England, and we will be going flyfishing some time in the next couple of weeks. Wish us luck!

Okay, for those of you who have been patient enough to read through the entire page, here's a special treat...
On our return journey from Kinloss, we stopped for a night in Edinburgh. Some of you are aware that I have been dreaming of attending Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh after I retire from the navy, and enter into their degree program in Brewing and Distilling Technology. Well, I made an appointment with the Senior Teaching Fellow at the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling (the ICBD), which is the department of Heriot-Watt that offers this degree. After a lengthy interview and tour of their 650,000 pound brewhouse, I was invited to apply to their postgraduate distance learning program, where upon completion of all the modules and a 3-4 month project, an MSc in Brewing and Distilling Technology would be bestowed. I am currently awaiting the application and if accepted will begin immediately, in the hopes of completing the modules by the time I retire 3 years from now, or very shortly thereafter.
Wish me luck!!!

Ah, Paris...

Rhonda and I went to Paris this past weekend for our "honeymoon". We took the Eurostar on Friday from Waterloo, less than three hours on a very comfortable train. It goes through the Channel tunnel, which takes around 20 minutes, and ends at the Gare du Nord in Paris. Our hotel had two floors closed off so they had a cab take us to another 4 star hotel and we got an upgraded room. That night we took a walk around town, across the Seine and had a walk around the Notre Dame cathedral and through their gardens. Afterwards we had dinner at le Zimmer, my favorite, chateaubriand, bordeaux, sorbet. Saturday we walked all around the city, from the Louvre to Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower and Arc d' Triomphe and back. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower on Saturday night, just after dark to see the city lights. Afterwards we found a lively greek restaurant and had dinner. It was nearly midnight and we knew it was lively when, as we walked down the narrow, brightly lit street, we saw dinner plates flying out of the doors, across the street and shattering on the brick walls opposite. I turned to look back up the street and when I looked back a waiter had grabbed Rhonda by the hand and was leading her into the restaurant, past the drunken rugby team and into the midst of a line of greek-styled dancers to a table in the rear. I followed. We had to move because of all the dancers, especially the women who were hopping up on nearby tables to dance. I ordered a glass of wine and after checking out the musicians in the corner behind us I turned back to see our waiter popping the cork on a bottle of Medoc, my favorite. Oh, well, looked like this evening was going to be more fun than I'd planned. Ah, cultural barriers. Moments later another waiter rushed to the center of the room, cleared a table, squatted down, wrapped his mouth around the corner of the table and lifted it with his teeth and began to dance around. We looked for wires but there were none. He put the table down, grabbed a young lady, sat her on the same corner, put his face between her legs and, with the help a two other waiters at each side, the table again was lifted in his teeth and he began to dance around as the other waiters stepped away. The woman, I believe, enjoyed it, as did we.
We went to the Notre Dame on Sunday Mass and visited the Louvre that afternoon. It was a great time, very relaxing and lots of fun. The wine was really great and we would buy bread sticks on the street and snack on them as we walked around. The coffee is just strong enough to get you from one cafe to the next and the sites were awesome. We returned Monday afternoon to London and back home that evening. What a trip!

London and Windsor Castle...

Rhonda and I spent a full day Friday in London, we were lucky enough to have a man I work with take us on a guided walking tour. He'd lived in London for over three years and knew quite a lot about the city. It was thrilling and exhausting, three hours guided and another 5 on our own.
Rhonda got her picture taken with on of the horseguardsmen, just minutes before the changing of the guard. These chaps are guarding what used to be the main entrance to the mall that leads to Buckingham Palace. They are still an officially active unit that participates in various royal and military ceremonies.
We saw a statue of Abe Lincoln, a block over from Westminster Abbey. We walked past the war planning bunker and Downing Street where the PM lives. We saw the portion of the original Windsor palace that remains, where Charles I was removed from and executed in the street below. We walked through the mall and gardens outside Buckingham Palace, and up Pall Mall, and on and on. Too much really to put in this blogpage.


This is one of the fountains at Trafalgar Square, named after a famous sea battle in which the British defeated the French. We happened to have a beautiful day to tour London, between rainy days which have dominated the past several weeks. Behind me, as I face this fountain, is a tall pillar with a statue of Lord Admiral Nelson atop, commander of the british fleet at Trafalgar. This year is the 200th anniversary of this battle, and there will be a lot of special events throughout the country in celebration of this important victory.

We spent the night at RAF Uxbridge and the next day, Saturday, went to Windsor Castle and took in the tour. Windsor Castle is the most incredible castle I've ever seen. We only had to wait about 30 min to get tickets and spent 3 hours walking about the castle wardrooms. There are no photos allowed inside, and I left my camera in the car, so I suppose you'll have to visit us here and let us take you there to see it. It was almost like a museum, only infinitely better. Not only was this a personal collection, it was the royal collection, which had much historical significance. There were many paintings and tapestries, sculptures and furnitures, all in rooms which are still in use... they'd hosted a ball in one of the rooms the night before! The queen was actually at Windsor that day, her marker was flying over the castle ( when she's away, the union jack is flown), but unfortunately we did not see her. We didn't make it into St. George's before it closed at 4pm, missed it by 6 minutes, but it looks really grand from the exterior and we will make sure we see it the next time we visit Windsor Castle... it's worth seeing again!

I'm back from Turkey...

I just got back from three weeks in Turkey. Jaff, Eric and I spent two wonderful weeks in Malatya and a week in Eskeshir. We also spent a couple of days in Ankara. Malatya is 1070 meters in elevation and surrounded by mountains. The morning after our arrival we awoke to snow but the weather warmed up and we got quite a bit of sun the rest of the week. We worked closely with the Turkish military and had some interesting cultural exchanges. Everyone back home was very supportive, expressing their concerns but as we assured them, everything came out in the end, just fine.



Here are a couple of happy Turkish crewmembers. We worked these guys like dogs and they still came up smiling. They had so many questions about us and what we did and where we lived. And we had many questions for them as well, like, "Where is the toilet?" and "Seriously though, what are we really having for lunch?".


Of course you don't take pictures like these until after the job is finished. Unfortunately I was unable to obtain an autograph, something about I could have one but then they'd have to kill me...thanks, Hollywood.

London 101

We got bored and decided to trip around London, just to get our bearings. We got off the tube at the London bridge and walked across but quickly realized it was the Tower Bridge we wanted photos of, which you see above. We also walked down the mall to Buckingham Palace but we're going to make you wait until it's a bit springier before posting any pics of that. Our 6 pound tickets let us ride all the trains and buses anywhere in the city all day, which is quite reasonable. The London Tower is just on the other side of the river, to the left of the Tower Bridge, and is actually a large fortress which has been there for over 400 years. It was a bit cold and windy but we wanted to get a feel for where everything is. Trafalgar Square, Big Ben and the Mall/Buckingham Palace is a 15 minute bus ride from behind the London Tower, so it seems as if the sites are relatively spread out. BTW, the Tower Bridge requires 24 hours notice from ships that require it to raise the bridge. You can take a tour up inside and across the upper level, we're saving it for warmer weather or if we have visitors ; )

Stonehenge

This was amazing! Over 5000 years old, it is mostly in ruins but had been the center of some kind of cultural activity in prehistoric times. There are burial sites (barrows) concentrated in the surrounding area and the alignment of Stonehenge is such that it marks the summer and winter soltices. A very interesting tour, we were provided with handheld speakers that gave a spoken tour around the site. The larger stones were brought from about 20 miles away, while the smaller ones were brought from the mountains in Wales, over 250 miles away.

CAMELOT !

We went to a nearby village where there is a ruin that is believed to be where Camelot was located. The ruin is called Cadbury Castle, but is posted as the place where "Arthur" led his knights into battle from, called "Camelot". It was way up on a hill where you could see all the surrounding countryside, for miles, very beautiful, but there were only the ruins of ancient walls which surrounded the hilltop, a very large area with gently sloping grades. We had to take a very muddy path up to the bluff and wished we'd bought some "Wellies" (rubber boots) which are "quite necessary" for hiking around here. Buster went with us and had a great time running around the hilltop and surrounding area. Maybe pics next time.