Road Trip!

OK, so Our President has said to cut back on driving. Since I've never listened much to him before (except to occasionally groan at either what he says or how he says it), why start now? (I will be listening to my wallet groan, courtesy of current gas prices.)

For the next ten days or so I will be traveling, mostly for the purpose of visiting friends and family. My first stop is Sandusky, Ohio, which is home to a large amusement park famous for its rollercoasters.

I'm stopping there because (1) it's between here and Wheaton, Illinois, which is where Mom lives, and (2) Wheaton is about 1000 miles from here, so I need to stop somewhere, and (3) there are rollercoasters nearby.

Stay tuned for trip details. Bear will be coming along (although he is a bit shy of rollercoasters, so he'll be skipping that part).

A fine job well done (I hope!)

I finished it just in time for my fall Road Trip.

Volunteering for the government

I mentioned a few posts back that I was looking at a volunteer opportunity at the local National Archives. I was shown around the place last week by the volunteer coordinator there.

For people who think that archives look like scenes at the end of this movie, you'd be wrong, since that's a warehouse where stuff is kept. The Archives is where documents are kept (like the original Declaration of Independence in Washington, say). So if you instead think of scenes from this TV show where the intrepid investigators are poring over documents on shelves in a large high-ceilinged room full of floor-to-ceiling shelving that are filled with (a) boxes (b) more boxes (c) even more boxes (d) some moldy old books ... well, that's a somewhat more realistic picture. (Note to self: try to see if a camera can go in there.)

Volunteers at this site perform two different functions. The first is "front desk" duty, helping out newbies to find things. Did I mention this facility is open to the public? The second is what they call "project" work, which is doing basic preservation of documents.

What kind of documents, I hear you say?

This particular archive contains things like court records, immigration records, shipping and customs records, and so on. There's a large body of materials, much from the 19th century, that needs some basic preservation: documents need to be (sometimes carefully) unfolded, content briefly examined, and refiled into acid-free storage boxes. Extremely fragile (i.e. nearly crumbling) documents are placed in mylar envelopes. They have more complex work too, but figure this is a good speed for a newbie.

I figured this might be a nice way to see if I want to do some sort of conservation work (either art or history), and gives me a window into regional history, while letting me actually handle Old Things.

Since this is the government, I have to fill out paperwork. To wit: I need to permit the FBI to do a background check, and I need to get fingerprinted (a service ably performed by the local police). And I need to provide a resume with two references. And I'm not even getting paid. Humph.

Help in high places

It's starting to look almost normal, with the first coat on...

Really, I'm not just moving the ladders around

That's about 3 hours work. Keeping fingers crossed for tomorrow to finish this coat.

The glorious whitewasher

The weather cooperated yesterday, so the project now has had primer applied.



Where's Ben Rogers when I need him to do the first finish coat? (Also, where are the weather gods to send away this morning's drizzles?)

Garfield (NOT the stupid cartoon cat)

Went for a modest (6 1/2 hour) hike today. (Surrounded by 2 1/2 hours of driving on either side as is fairly usual...) It was cold (40s) and windy on the summit, but I was prepared.

That's about as nice as the visibility ever gets these days.


That's Owl's Head behind me. The wall I'm holding up was once part of the foundation to a summit building (fire warden's house or fire tower) here.


Tomorrow, back to work on my Tom Sawyer project. One day of nice weather, hope I can make the most of it.

rain, rain, go away

It rained last Saturday, and it's rained today. This makes continuing this work a bit difficult, since I need to wait at least 36 hours after rain before continuing. At least I've gotten all the sanding done (thanks to the Narf's emergency backup sander, after mine broke down).

I've used the rain intervals to somewhat good effect, and will be visiting the local National Archives on Thursday to see what kind of volunteer projects they have. Stuff to do with cataloging and conserving immigration records, based on what I've read so far. Stay tuned.

On tap for tomorrow: Mount Garfield

Geek stuff

Since rain has descended on the Boston area, I've been unable to make progress on the back of the house, which is currently stuck in the sanding phase of paint-prep. I've instead started focusing on other activities.

First, on the technology front: I've decided to learn PHP. For the non-geeks reading this, it's a language for writing and managing dynamic web pages. There exist a number of blogging software packages that use it, and I'm imagining that this site will eventually be migrated to one of those.

In addition to learning PHP, I also want to familiarize myself with Eclipse, which is an IDE for doing lots of different development tasks.

To these ends, I've been reintroducing myself to the Apache Web Server, and will also be getting to know the MySQL database system.

Soon I may be a dangerous web site backend maintainer, since I will be armed with a small amount of knowledge about these tools and technologies.

Second, I've started investigating volunteer opportunities in the Boston area. My current focus is on ESL tutoring possibilities, since I'm considering getting an ESL teaching certificate at some point in the near future.

European Trip Thread

The links in this entry are a chronological listing of the blog entries I made that describe my travels in Europe during July and August 2005.

Finland

• The Big Day


• The Ride Out


• Train Hijinks


• Tampere


• The Finnish Sign Quiz


• Tahkovuori


• Nilsiä and Opera Cava


• Canoeing Preparations


• Canoe Tour Day 1


• Canoe Tour Day 2


• Canoe Tour Day 3


• Canoe Tour Day 4, and Tampere


• Return to Germany

Germany

• Family Visit


• Bike Ride

Paris

• Paris


• Eiffel Tower


• The Rodin and the Orsay

Barcelona

• Barcelona Day 1


• La Sagrada Familia


• Casa Batlló


• Barcelona Day 2

Las Alpujarras

• Hike Preparation in Granada


• Las Alpujarras Day 1


• Las Alpujarras Day 2


• Las Alpujarras Day 3

The Earthwatch Dig

• First Dig Pictures


• Earthwatch Summary Thread

Spanish Cities

• Sevilla


• Córdoba


• Madrid and Cercedilla


• Zaragoza


• Salamanca


• Ciudad Rodrigo


• Madrid


• Some Hazards of Traveling Alone


• Toledo

Paris Again

• Visiting Museums


• Going Home


• Closing Thoughts

Waterfire

So last Saturday, after a very nice afternoon visit from several people, I drove down to Providence, Rhode Island with Herself. The purpose of this drive, besides indulging in a picnic dinner of sandwiches and homemade gazpacho (which was a bit too spicy, but that's another post), was to once again see Waterfire.

Well, see doesn't quite do it justice. Experience is a more apt description of the, well, experience. While your computer probably has sound (the fires are accompanied by a wide variety of music, often on water- or fire-based themes), it does not come with Smell-O-Vision to also pick up the aroma of cedar smoke that accompanies the experience.

Or the street scene, which in a small way is reminiscent of the evening wanderings in Spanish and other Mediterranean cities after dark.

This the main waterpark before sunset.

One of the torch ships goes by before lighting begins.

  
  
  

Oh, while we were there we had what Herself claims is a Rhode Island specialty (although Google Image Search turns up lots of places where they're made), the Eccles Cake. Regardless of its origin, they're tasty.

Lágrimas Negras

While I was on the Earthwatch dig in Spain, we often listened to CDs in the van. One of them I really liked, so I tracked it down.

When I put it on here, I was immediately transported back to that van in Spain.

Thanks, Luis.

Wish I was Tom Sawyer

If I was Tom Sawyer, I'd probably be getting friends to help me with this:



That's the back of my house. It's had a perpetual paint-peeling problem since the house was resided 12 years ago. I've decided (given that I have experience painting things) to have a go at it myself, which is why I started scraping it down this week. Painting will begin next week, weather permitting. (And New England's weather has been glorious this week, and should be for at least part of next week.)

I've also been looking at volunteer opportunities in fields that I find at least a little interesting. I'll probably be doing some ESL tutoring in the near future.

Closing trip thoughts

Seven weeks was a long time to be not-home. Especially for those who normally never get more than about 3 weeks of vacation at a time.

Living out of a backpack is a bit of a challenge, but it was good practice. Just gotta be careful about where the beer goes.

Even in this internet-connected age, making travel plans on the fly is work. If you're going to do this, make sure you leave time for it.

I definitely want to travel more. Even after having been home for two weeks now, I feel the itch a bit. Road trip?

As a possible career move, I've decided it will be worth the time and money to get an English teaching certificate. I looks to me like it's a highly portable skill.

While I tremendously enjoyed the Earthwatch expedition, I'm uncertain that a career in archaeology is in my future.

The end of the journey

OK, so I'm at my brother's place in Ludwigshafen. I need to catch a flight from Frankfurt to London at about 2:30 PM. This is easily accomplished using Germany's relatively efficient train network, especially considering my brother's apartment is a short walk from the Ludwigshafen train station. This part goes off without a hitch. While I vaguely recall checking to see that the departure time was apparently normal, nothing appears out of the ordinary until I am sitting in the departure lounge (having passed through 3 layers of security including a pat-down) at about 2 PM, with no sign of an aircraft.

This usually gets me worried, since I know from experience how long it typically takes to turn an aircraft over between flights.

Never fear, my worries are realized. An announcement is made about air traffic control problems in the UK.

They don't know if our plane is even off the ground. They'll know more at, oh, 3:30. What's not mentioned is that the problem was only in the morning, and they're now basically in recovery mode.

This sort of thing sucks. But at least I'm going in the right direction (home).

I hightail it back out (past 3 layers of security), and head for the ticket counter, since I worry about making the London->Boston flight. Can they book me onto the later Boston flight? Or a flight series on a different day? The last thing I want to do is spend the night at a hotel near Heathrow (I like England just fine thank you, but this is not my idea of fun).

No can do. All possible flight combos are booked for the next few days, but they can conditionally book me onto the later Boston flight. This turns out to be a smart move.

Armed with the notion that I've made my best effort, I return to the gate lounge (through 3 layers of security, and another pat-down -- I've got the drill down about keeping the change out of the pockets) and wait.

The plane arrives around 3:30. I forget exactly when it takes off, but we arrive at Heathrow around 5, which of course missed my original Boston flight by 30 minutes. I get pointed at the flight transfer desk to fix my problem. The flight transfer desk has a line that looks at least 1 hour long. This puts the 6:30 departure of the second Boston flight at risk, if I have to wade (err, wait) through it.

Fortunately there is an BA rep at the end of the line doing triage. I explain what happened in Frankfurt, including the backup booking. He says "Oh good" and directs me to wait in a much shorter line, preceded only by a Pakistani family apparently doing a similar exercise for a different flight. By 5:30 I have a new boarding pass in hand. Yay.

Now all I have to worry about is food, since BA has catering problems. Never mind that special meals don't normally follow you when you rebook onto a different flight.

There's a semi-decent Italian restaurant at Terminal 4. I sit down, peruse the menu, and say "What's vegetarian that I can be done eating in 30 minutes?"

We settle on manicotti. 28 minutes later, I exit the restaurant and head for my gate. I stop at a computer, buy 5 minutes of Internet (cost: 1 Euro) to send email to Herself and Phil about the change of flights.

The flight to Boston is uneventful, even though it is populated by some teen church group that went to World Youth Day. They were remarkably well-behaved, even if the kid next to me never showed me much more than the back of his shoulder. One of the meal options turns out to actually be vegetarian, but I only pick at it, since I just ate. I get to see Robots on a 3"x5" screen (or whatever size those in-seat screens are) with horrible resolution. I'll see it on DVD again, I think.

Upon arrival in Boston, I spend more time than I ever have in recent times waiting to pass through passport control. As I'm waiting for my bag, I worry that I will have to wait to the bitter end of the baggage delivery to find out it didn't make the rebooking.

Fortunately, BA does manage to do some things right. There is a PA announcement that includes something that sounds vaguely like my name. I get hooked up with the person who has The List, who says "Sorry your bag didn't make it, here's a form for where we should deliver it tomorrow." Yay.

This speeds my exit considerably. Herself meets me as expected. We trundle (via MBTA Silver Line Bus and Red Line) to her place, and then Phil gives me a ride from there back to my place. Time? 11:30PM or so.

Let's see. I was up at 8AM Central European Time (GMT+1). Bed around midnight EDT (GMT-5). I don't like 30-hour days.

But it was good to be home, even if my bag wasn't. (It did arrive the next evening.)

Paris, long museum visits

After an uneventful train ride to Paris (on which I did in fact manage to get some sleep), I managed to locate my hotel with the aid of a taxi, since I stupidly believed Orbitz that it was in the middle of Paris.

It was actually near the Montparnasse train station, which is not anywhere near the middle of Paris. Ah, travel lessons.

Once that was settled, I immediately headed to the Louvre, where I engaged in the exercise of determining how much time I could spend there, and how much of it I would see in that time.

The answers turned out to be 5.5 hours and about 1/4 of the collection respectively.

A lot of people get "museum legs" and/or "museum fatigue" after 2 or 3 hours in a museum. I usually do too, but I decided the Louvre was special. I ignored the museum legs (I've been tramping around Spain for how long?). When I got tired of any particular area, I simply moved on to something different, and thus avoided the fatigue of "oh, not another gallery of X". Since the Louvre has such an incredible diversity of materials, this was not hard to do. I ended up seeing a fair amount of French and Dutch paintings, French sculpture, objects from the French Middle Ages, and Levantine antiquities. I didn't see plenty of other things, including Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa. I'm reasonably certain they'll still be there the next time I'm in Paris.

I saw the Louvre on Monday August 22. Tuesdays in Paris are bad news -- most museums are closed. However, one that was open was the Marmottan, which has a very nice collection of Monets.

While in Paris I also rediscovered the need for long pants, and the existence of droplets of moisture falling from the sky, things that had seemed remote while in Spain. (Well, it DID rain on occasion in Spain, but it was usually short-lived.)

I left Paris on a late-afternoon train for Mannheim, finally getting to my brother's abode in Ludwigshafen around 11:30 at night. Eric called a little while later to report that he and Claire were stuck in traffic in Switzerland -- this due to flooding. They arrived sometime in the wee hours.

I'm almost home, but there's one more piece of adventure left: I have to fly British Airways to get home.

Toledo, and how to catch a train

Toledo is a medieval city a short (1+ hour) train ride from Madrid. It is situated on some high ground near the confluence of two rivers.




I basically just wandered about the city, which is a maze of narrow streets, occasionally punctuated by small plazas. There is one main largish plaza which I suppose qualifies as the "center" of town, even though it's near one end of the town, and another decent-sized one near the cathedral.

Toledo is known for having a large number of paintings by (and a museum featuring the works of) the painter known as El Greco. Since I'm not a much of a fan of his, I didn't pursue these possibilities. In fact, the only attraction of sorts I went into was the local mezquita (mosque converted to church).




The other surprise was that Toledo has a somewhat interesting train station. It appears to have a church as part of the structure, but there's a fair amount of typical mudejar styling at work there.


(Go figure, stained glass in a small train station.)


I then had a bit of a travel near-ooops. The same day I went to Toledo, I was also scheduled for the night train from Madrid to Paris. However, I had (stupidly?) neglected to remember exactly when the night train left Madrid. I returned from Toledo to Madrid, and spent some more time walking in Madrid (and having a bite at Ben and Jerry's). I finally returned to hotel around 6:30 to pick up my bags and head (early, I thought) to the train station.

Train departure time was: 7:00

Uh-oh.

I'm glad it was Sunday, and I was right near a taxi queue. I'd have never made it in time on the subway. The train pulled out 5 minutes after I got on board.

Adios, España.

Some hazards of traveling alone

An assertion was made to me during my time in Spain that traveling alone is usually better than not traveling alone. The basic idea being that decision making happens faster if there's only one person making decisions.

I don't buy it, and this trip left me with a few potential reasons why two heads are often better than one.

Reason #1: losing things. I lost, at different times and places, my sunglasses case, my sunglasses, and the case for my binoculars. More eyes might have recovered those things.

Reason #2: divide and conquer. Eric and I arrived in Tampere, Finland at about 7PM without a reservation. One person watches bags, other person goes to find digs to stay in.

Reason #3: double-checking travel arrangements. Due to the popularity of night trains, I had to book my Madrid->Paris night train well in advance (and even then, I only got second class). When I made my hotel reservations for Madrid and Paris, I did not remember for which night I had reserved the train. This resulted in a scramble (luckily only with minor financial costs) to correct things, since there was no other reasonable, cost-effective way to get between Madrid and Paris. (Local trains taking 14 hours doesn't count as reasonable.)

Reason #4: avoiding the odd bone-headed maneuver. I might have made the bus into the Sierra Nevada on the first day if I'd arranged things a bit differently, including my tactical actions at the bus stop. (Hint: go to the bus, don't stand in the ticket line.)

There are probably other reasons, but these fell out when I thought about it, and I figured this was a good place to share them.

Madrid, mostly museums

I had planned to spend most of my time in Madrid alternating between museums and other activities, hopefully including working on the blog. But my inability to find a place in Madrid where I could actually upload pictures is part of the reason I'm about a week behind in describing everything. Never fear, the blog is catching up to reality.

Over three days (including the 1/2 day preceding the daytrip to Cercedilla) I visited the Museo del Prado and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

The Prado is basically Spain's national gallery, and has a great many important Spanish paintings, and more than a few important Dutch paintings (courtesy of Spain's long rule over the Low Countries). It also has Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, and some very nice Roman-era sculpture. I don't normally photograph in museums, but I liked this guy:



You can see all of the Prado in 4-6 hours -- I spread this over two days.

The Thyssen Museum is the repository for what was once a private collection, amassed by a German-Hungarian business/noble family. (The Thyssen name is well-known in Europe as a major industrial concern. This is an outgrowth of the family business, which was originally steel.) The collection presented here includes separate sections for the Baron's and Baroness' collections, and it is a real gem of a collection. All of the works are in amazingly well-kept condition, and, unlike the Prado and other large public museums, was remarkably uncrowded. If you are an art lover in Madrid, you should not miss this collection.

The Thyssen is also a 4-6 hour affair, again spread over two days.

Since I was unable to blog effectively in Madrid, I of course chose to walk.

The Palacio Real (Royal Palace)

Street Scene

A day in the park.


While staying in Madrid, I also day-tripped to Toledo. (No, NOT the one in Ohio!)

Ciudad Rodrigo

Ciudad Rodrigo is a small city near (perhaps 20km from) the Portugese border. It is best known for the old, completely walled city. I took a bus from Salamanca.

This part of Spain is flat.

I mean, really flat.

Kinda pretty, even if it is flat.


The old city itself did not present itself in an imposing way (unlike, say Toledo, which we'll see later), but did lend itself to a 1/2 day of walking and picture-snapping.




I returned to Salamanca for the night, and left early to catch a train back to Madrid. (In this case "early" translates to a 7:45AM train, preceded by a 25 minute walk under load from my 12-Euro room.)

The sun has barely risen.

Nice (non-flat!) scenery between Salamanca and Madrid.

Earthwatch Summary update

Alcoa has published diaries and photo galleries from its participants in the Earthwatch dig. I've added links to my Earthwatch Summary page. I've also added a link to the web site for the house where we stayed, which also has more pictures.