Lagging in Europe

I haven´t been keeping up with the postings of my European experiences. But I have a good excuse: schwein (ham) and cheese. These culinary staples are hard to avoid in continental Europe at practically every meal. (Coming in a close second are potatoes.) With all this eating of the pig and the milk fats, I have been spending my time wandering around, trying to walk of the fat, rather than sitting at the computer. So forgive me.
Coming soon: I shall report on adventures touring around the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, driving on the Autobahn, drinking Luëtzebuerger and Belgian beers, and wandering various mediaval streets….first I have to wait 12 hours or so for this slow computer in the heart of Barcelona to upload all my photos….

North Sea Mud-walking

I flew from Munich to Brussels and met my friend Elizabeth in the airport where we rented a car and drove across the Netherlands into Northern Germany. Wer’re staying at our friend Nina’s house. She just moved here for a new job 6 weeks ago. So it’s new to her too. This is a small town and Nina misses the excitement of Hamburg. But there are pretty cool adventures to be had around this area. Like Mud-walking!

We felt like Jesus walking on water. This is on the coast of the North Sea (in an area called friesland, which actually includes parts of the Netherlands also). At low tide, the water retreats so far that you can walk out to these small islands. Most of the walk is trudging through solid sandy ground with a little water. But there are channels where the water goes through to the sea. Here the water was deep – up to our waists – and at tims you’d sink into the sand, which felt ike mud. I got stuck quite a few times. It was kind of like trudging through snow. We were super lucky to have a clear sunny day.

Looking back at the coast after we’d walked about half way tothe island.

We went with a group and a guide. The tide goesout quickly and comes in quickly too, so you have to know what’s up.

The sand on the island showed the mark of the water going out.

And we finally made it to the island! (Now we just had to walk back!)

Munich Report

I have had a hard time keeping up with updates here about my travels. I am now in Oldenburg, Germany, visiting a friend who just moved here. I met a friend from LA in Brussels airport and we rented a car and drove through the Netherlands and Northern Germany to arrive here. We stumbled upon an organic farm where they made their own cheese and we stopped for lunch of cheese and bread - so good!

So first, the Munich update. I ate so much meat there it was kind of crazy. There’s Schwein everywhere! Here’s a picture just in the grocery store.

I borrowed a friend’s bike for the stay in Munich and rode all over town with the bikes. It was awesome to ride bikes through town. I think I saw the whole city. We also rode in the English garten, which runs through the middle of the city, and along the Isar river on a path that you can follow all the way north of the city. The Oktoberfest is about to happen in Munich (actually it started today) and we rode into the fair grounds to see all the preparations. It’s kind of like a state fair, with rides and everything. And loads of beer halls set up – one for each beer haus. Here’s one of the beer halls, ready for the festival!

I also saw the surfers of Munich, surfing on the Isar river.

We also wandered around the market in the center of town (see grindbros.com for photos), ate really amazing pretzles, and of course, drank beer!

Sculpture Casts in Munich

I found more antique scupture castings in Munich.

These are in the Art History Library in Munich. I recognized this building from my research in provenance of art during WWII. This is the building where, after WWII, the U.S. and German governments brought all the art that the Nazis stole to catalogue them and find the owners. This is a view showing the glass ceiling, which is a more recognizeable view:

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose

I am in Munich now. My friend Robert took me to see is the university building where Sophie Scholl and her brother were famously arrested by the Nazis for distributing anti-Nazi material. Most Americans don’t know this story, but it’s very well-known in Germany. She was a student at the university and a member of the German resistance group, the White Rose. Sophie Scholl’s amazing story of resistance is now reaching the rest of the world through the film Sophie Scholl – The Final Days, which I was blown away by when I saw it 2 years ago. We went into the university building at Ludwig Maximilian Universitat, where the film was shot and where the real Sophie Scholl was arrested

English plug

I have always thought these English electrical plugs are ridiculous. They are huge. Why don’t they fix this?

V&A casting gallery

I finally made it to the V&A on this trip to London. This is a pretty awesome place. I wandered around the galleries, in and out of silver, metalworking, medieval relics and stained glass. And then I turned a corner and saw the Trajan Column! And it is cut in half! I was very confused. What I had stumbled into is the galleries with all the castings of classical and renaissance works that were used for students to study. Pretty cool to see all these sculptures crammed in the same big room together…here’s the second room, with Michelangelo and Raphael crammed in together

English Clouds and Fish & Chips

I just arrived today in lovely Guildford, England, just a 30-minute train ride Southwest of London. Better known as the home of Surrey University and Hoof & Mouth disease. I got in late in the afternoon at Heathrow and took the Underground acrodd London to Waterloo station where I caught the local train to Guildford to visit my friend Samantha. I was here last year, so the route is known and I trudged along like a local (haha) with all the commuters on the train. One of the first things I noticed is the sky. I never get to see clouds in L.A. and I just realized I miss them.

After being up for about 30 hours with little sleep, I was hungry and tired. Samantha took me straight out for fish and chips. I don’t have photoshop to fix the color on this photos. But I figure it’s approproately English to post an image of off-colored food like this. Notice the grease – yum!

Airplane rant – corporate paternalism gone wrong

I just got home from a trip across the country and saw the weirdest attempt of a corporation to kiss up to the consumer for some brownie points. The airline was Delta. The delivery was a commercial on the on-flight “tv”. In the break between shows, there was this commercial announcing that, in an effort to be green and save our environment, Delta would now be recycling on all of its flights destined for Atlanta.  The message was very proud, and went into much detail about exactly how staff (and you! aren’t you glad they are giving you options for recycling!?) would be helping to save the environment by recycling.

But wait – does this mean that *before* this “program” Delta didn’t recycle at all!? I mean, I didn’t know there were corporations that didn’t recycle out there anymore. Suddenly, Delta looks a little lame. And just a sec – this program is only being implemented on flights going to Atlanta?? What? Why only those flights? Why not all flights? Why only half-assed recycling? The real nail in the coffin for them, however, was the final statement: “Delta will be donating all proceeds from this program to X charity.” Proceeds!?! From recycling? Now I am so confused. If there are proceeds to be had in recycling, then they shoulda been doing this a long time ago! That’s just good business sense. Whoever is in charge of this company’s public image needs to get a clue.

Gamers, editing, and (mis)spelling

I have run across quite a few great articles/blogs about writing and the role of language and editors and writers lately. Is it me, or is this an issue circling recently? Two of them make great connections to gaming.

First, the New York Times ran an article Sunday about a new tv cartoon called WordGirl. Awesome. I haven’t even seen it yet and she is my hero!

In yesterday’s Seattle P.I. Regina Hackett  blogs about the humility she learned from gamers’ adaptations of misspellings. (Read to the end where she sticks it to CultureGrrl – go Regina!)

As an editor who has invented quite a few words through my own mistypings, I appreciate the straying of editorial issues into the mainstream.