Another Piano Man sighting!

Thanks to Erica and Norm Hayes AND the red wine! Who said i needed liquid courage to get on the mic at a wedding and sing Piano Man and bring down the house! the DJ was smart...he cut me off after the first or second verse...or so they tell me!

Sydney's 1st bday!

  

Lucerne Photos

Official Taste Tester!

And Yes I am an official Irish Whiskey taste tester cause Jamison said so!

Paul is Dead!

Here is Ryan and I on Abby Road with two random kids helping to round out a decent Beatles cover shot!

Guinness...the Water of LIFE

Hello all from windy Dublin!

Since i last wrote, we finished up our stay in Edinburough in fine fashion. After i last wrote, i met up with the group and took a 20 minute buss ride to a small town of Rosslyn which has Rosslyn's Chapel. For you Davinci Code fans, the Chapel is a place that Langdon goes to for something and finds some other stuff out...as you can tell, remember the book! The Chapel i VERY old and small but very impressive. they are trying really hard to preserve it, so unfortunately, there is a roof over the top of it so it does not take on any more water. Either way, it was still really cool to be there and hear about how it came to be, how it was nearly destroyed and then how it was trnsformed into what it is today.

Post Chapel, we bussed back into town, and made our way to a pub for the US v Italy game. We landed at a cool bar with 2 for 1 dinner and drinks so needless to say, we made ourselves comfortable! the unfortunate thing was that there was a 18 year old bday party already reserved for there so we were only able to eat dinner and could not watch the game there. well, lucky for us as i am sure you were all concerned, there was anoother pub a stones throw away! this one was much better. The place was called The Balck Swan and was run by a really nice husband and wife. they were playing the game and being the only americans in the bar, we got quite a ribbing! drink after drink, we made many a friend and by closing, they damn near had to physically remove us from the bar. we met some really cool people in the pub and heard many a funny stories from them! Regardless of the outcome of the game (1-1 tie), there was goodtimes had by all!

Waking up was a chore and the head was...shall i say FUZZY! we made it to the Edinburough castle and toured around the awesome grounds up on the hill in the early afternoon and then made it to the bus station in time to get a ride to the airport. All worked out very nicely this time on Ryan Air (they TOTALLY redeemed themselves this time)...coure getting there 3 hours early certainly helped our cause! an hour later, we arrived in Dublin in the early evening and boarded a bus to the city centre, checked into our hotel, grabed some dinner and a pint of guiness and went back to the room for an early bedtime (still suffering from the Black Swan).

Yesterday we cruised around downtown and then made our way to the Guinness brewery! WOW, that place is heaven on earth...damn near close to Lucerne! they have a great self-guided tour which takes you through the history of Arthur Guinness' dream until today! They even let you have a taste...or two if you pretend that you have not had one already! at the end of the tour, you head up to the Gravity Bar for a free pint and an an awesome 360 degree view of the city! let me tell you, that was a site to see...guinness...just like i like my...er...uhh...beer...tall, dark and...umm...BEER!

Last night, we took it easy, grabbing some pints at a local bar with a couple of locals playing traditional irish tunes...which included us singing along! as you ll may know, i can definately pull off an irish accent after a few and add in some tunes and fo-get-about-it! by 9ish, we were done, grabbed some take away dinner and headed back to the room.

today i am explororing solo style while also trying not to blow away (the kids went to the zoo and in my world, you seen one monkey, you seen 'em all!)! this afternoon, i am meeting josh at the Jamison distillery for some wiskey good times!

Hope all is well back home. We have today left in Dublin and then tomorrow head to London. will write more from London and see you all shortly (unless i hear back from guiness regarding my application)! WOW...TIMES FLIES WHEN YOU ARE HAVING FUN!

DH

Did anyone else see the circus come into town?

Sorry for the delay in getting a post up here in a few days, but like i am sure you can imagine, there is little time to fit in computer time when trying to see as much as possible! alright enough complaining, now on to the stories!

Since i last wrote, we finishied up our stay in Brugge one more day doing very similar activities than we did the previous couple days there. This time, we had to dodge the rain drops, more or a stupid constant mist that just would not go away. good thing for me, i brought an umbrella and was not forced to buy one like all the other monkey tourists that did not plan ahead! We went up to the top of the Belfry...damn near 600 stairs and got some amazing views of the city. We also went to the Chocolate History museum and spent more time hanging out in many of the various squares straight people watching! for lunch, we had the taste of Belgium...a VAT FULL OF MUSSLES and chips (fries). My mussles were in a beer broth (as if you had to guess what i would have chosen...OBVI - AJ, that was for you!), Josh had the garlic and kate went cream sauce which were all amazing! that was the one thing that i wanted to make sure that i had when i was there and therefore just like our fealess leader George W says "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"!

Becuase we had an early flight in the AM, we opted to hang out at the hostel earlier in the evening, had some dinner, couple beers, watched a match and called it a night!

AND THEN IT HAPPENED! the next acounts are all fact, they happened to us and they CAN NOT BE DISPUTED!

Alarm was set for 5:45 AM so we could shower, finish up packing and then get to the bus stop for 6:30. 5:45 came, alarm went off, we woke up and BAM...power was out in the hostel...OK, not so bad, to shower in the dark you say...i know...Danny, stop bitching! the only issue was that we should have known that this was going to be the beginning of the end! Got to the bus stop on time, was able to take an earlier train that we had orginally planned back to brussles airport (an hour ride all in). Got to the brussles airport in PLENTY of time to check in. would have been great if WE COULD CHECK IN! the airline that we had flights booked to Glasgow, Scotland (Ryan Air) simply does not fly out of the main brussles airport which a nice ticket agent for another airline told us and therefore better get your arse in a cab to the other airport. now in my head, the other airport was damn near right down the street...oh think again monfraire! equivilant to San jose and SFO airports we hopped into a cab, only to have the cab driver laugh at us for being morons and not reading our flight itinerary which BTW, tells us which airport to go to! 130.00ish Euros later, we were at the correct airport...AGAIN with plenty of time! we checked in, had some coffee i used up my last euros on MORE BELGIUM CHOCOLATE because...well...IT IS FRIGGIN GOOD! sat down in the terminal and 5-10 minutes later, we heard over the intercom that a flight to italy was cancelled due to fog at our airport! FOG...are you kidding me, am in san francisco toto...no? how about kansas toto...no? right folks, brussles other airport gets for too...who knew? well, i know now and so do you all!

Needless to say, no more than 20 minutes after our scheduled flight was to take off (10:55AM) our flight too was cancelled! no worries right, there will be another one right...TOMORROW and who is to say that one would not be fogged in too??? now this would not be so bad if we were not meeting up with another friend Erin in edinborough later in the day which we were supposed to pick her up at the airport from since we were theoretically getting in much earlier than she was! well, standing in the ticket line for an hour got us nowhere. we picked up a complaint form to...you guessed it...complain about the fact that the flight had to be cancelled due to weather! are you thinking what i am thinking...this complaint will go to the TOP OF THEIR LIST!

Luckily they offer a bus back into the center of brussles (brussles midi train station) which only costs 10.50 euros (remember the 130 that we paid for the cab right...now continue the calculations and stay with me here!). back in town, we had to get to the internet to get erins phone number so we could leave her a message on her cell phone and let her know that she was ON HER OWN (she brought an internations phone if that confused you all). a little over an hour later, we were on the Eurostar bound for london through the chunnel then through the tube then back on another train bound for Edinborough. for all you geography majors out there, this was a friggin journey which should have taken 1.5 hours by air. well, if you were wondering, we woke up at 5:45 and finally got to our hostel in Edinborough at 11:30ish in the PM. 2+ hours on the eurostar and 5+ hours on the train from london. oh and BTW, that fantastic journey (a la coolio) cost an 230.00+ euros more...maybe Ryan Air will reimburse us for that one...know any good lawyers out there that will take this case?

Erin was asleep in the room when we got there, and we were pretty pooped (OBVI) so once we hit the pillow it was sleep city!

this puits us at yesterday in Edinborough. We hit the streets, took some self guided tours or the castle and the royal mile! along the mile, we stopped in a pub (yes, they have those here!) for a pint and to watch a match. Kate, Erin and Josh then left off to a tour of the underground haunted city thingy of scotland. I read in a local paper of a band (Carus And the True Believers) that was playing nearby. They have toured with Jack Johnson so i opted for that route! the concert was awesome and had i wanted to party like a rockstar i certainly could have with one of the opening acts. His name is Nick Baker and i highly recommend him. Carus was fantastic and all 75 or so people at the place seemed like they had a good time too! i know that i did!

Anywhoo, enough rambling, the others are off on a hike, while i wondered off on my own and ended up WAY OFF THE BEATEN TRACK! it is nice to ask someone a question here and NOT have them give the blank stair of WTF are you asking me??? back on track, i stumbled upon this internet cafe and here i am now, rambling on (zeplin style).

more sight seeing to come for the rest of the day. will write more in a couple days and fill you in. hope you are enjoying these as i love recounting the trial and tribulations of this journey and circus all at the same time! miss you all and can not wait to show you this pics that we have taken. Be sure to check out Josh's blog which is linked on the side of this one since he is more dedicated than i and has pics attached to his blog.

alright all, talk to you all soon! KIT, STAY SWEET and DON'T EVER CHANGE!

DH

When in Belgium

So the phrase goes, when I Rome, do as the Romans...Well, not being in Rome, we felt that we would see if that same were true for Belgium. The people of Brugge are very laid back and just cruise around at another pace. They really prove that there is nothing to be in a hurry for. With that said,m if you can't beat'em, then join'em. and that is exactly what we are doing now that we are here! the past couple of days we have really nothing to show for ourselves, but so much at the same time! it has been REALLY hot (90's) during the day and very warm at night as well, so it makes total sense to just try and relax.

Last night (and let me apologize if none of it made sense because I was quite inebriated after a US arse wooping at the hands of the Czech and multiple beers of height alcohol content!) was very warm as well. Did I mention the FRAT house we are staying in...Ok, not so much frat house, but hostel that seems like the frat house that I stayed in when I was interning for the dodger in LA. Our room is right outside the bathroom, so that was a wonderful wakeup call, especially the drunk guy singing (something) in the middle of the night, hopefully making it into the toilet ;). The best part was opening the door this AM, walking to the shower and noticing that a steady drip that I think that I noticed the day before had NOT gone away and now had started to puddle on the floor below...Heaven this aint, but once you get out into the town, we are quickly reminded we are here and why I LOVE it here!

today was another chill day. We did a good walk this late AM, checking out the outskirts of town while still trying to avoid getting run over by bicycles. Later this afternoon, Kate and I sat in one of the many squares with SHADE while josh was taking a stroll around time. While in the square, l;like we had done the day before, we sat on a bench and watch a group of old men playing bacce ball. DAMN I wanted them to ask me to play. io sat there patiently but nope, no invitation. One of the coolest things of the trip was when one of the older men recognized us from the day before in the square. After the game, he came over to Kate and I and wanted to talk. He spoke very pretty good English, so needless to say, he and I got a chance to butcher the language together. He told us many places to visit and talked to us about the city of brugge! His family had been in brugge since the 14th CENTURY!!! umm...YA, I said 14th Century ladies and gentlemen! He just shows how cool the people of brugge really are and I can not wait tomorrow ot go and say goodbye to him and maybe this time he will invite me for a little bacce! if nothing else, he proved to me that I CAN NOT WAIT TO RETIRE and simply have a day filled off breakfast in the AM, bacce in the afternoon with the boys, swim and sauna in the late afternoon, dinner with the wife in the evening and then bed ONLY to get up and do it ALL over again the next day!

Later in the day, we took a brief siesta, showered to try and cool off and had some dinner at an AWESOME tapas restraunt. we were the only ones there and had our run of the place! post dinner, we did another cruise around town looking for some dessert! let me tell you...doid we find dessert...you bet your arese we found dessert! dessert consissted of a belgium waffle (and why NOT...OBVI) with strawberries, whip cream, vanilla ice cream AND CHOCOLATE sauce...dare I even say it...HEAVEN! and how would you wash that down...that is correct with a crisp, cold, BREW...nothing better than a waffle and beer to end your day!

well that leaves me with where I am right! it started raining, but that is fine with me as it dropped dame near 25 degrees in the last 3 hours. ther eis also some cool lightning outside right now so it is nice being inside.

one week into the trip and it seems like so much has happened! I hope that this does not bore you, and if it does, DON'T READ IT!! hope all is well at home. talk to you asll real soon. KIT, STAY SWEET and Don't EVER CHANGE!

Is this Heaven?

Hey there folks. Sorry for the delay in writing, but trying to find some time to fit in a post...Did not expect it to be this tough!

anyhow, with that said, you know the movie Field of Dreams when Ray (Costner) is playing catch with Shoeless Joe Jackson? When Jackson leaves back to the corn fields he turns back to Costner and asks "is this heaven?" Costner responds with a "No, it's Iowa." Well let me tell you...I have been asking Josh and Kate the same question for the last couple days while in Luzerne, Switzerland and to be honest, they have been short pressed to give a legate answer! Lucerne may in fact be heaven as far as I am concerned! When I think of heaven I now will think of luzerne and I want you all to think the same!

while in lazerne since I last wrote, we rented bikes and did a long 10+ mile bike ride along lake luzerne but maybe made it .1 % around the lake! the ride was awesome and allowed us to see more of luzerne then we could have had we just stayed around the town! The night, we just grabbed some dinner and made it an early night...HAHAHAHHA...ya right , after we watched the early wotrld cup game from The Magic Bar in town with some beers and some sausage. Once we realized that Kate had not ordered and we only had 2 dinner coming , we finished up our beers, pawed our bill, and walked down the street to a sausage stand for some more eats! We all got sausages (did I tell you that their sausages are AMAZING??? They put a hole right in the middle of their bread, squirt ketchup and mustard inside and then put the dogger right in the middle of the bread! It is the cleanest dogger I have ever had and the best one known to mankind!)

After the dogger, we made our way to Mr. PickWicks. The only English Are in town and self proclaimed BEST SPORTS BAR IN TOWN. We watched a bit of the second game, had a couple beers and called it a night!

Also in luzerne we found ourselves just hanging out around town and being down right tourists...And for no other reason than because we ARE! The last day in luzerne, we went up to the to of an amazing mountain Mount Pluntis Kulm. The trip consisted of a boat ride on lake luzerne, a cog-wheel train up to the top of the mountain (at times 48% climbs), gondolas down and a bus ride back into town! When you see the pics of where we were , you may not believe it. Being at the top of that mountain was absolutely amazing and made you REALLY feel like you were at the top of the world! The means to get there was awesome too! Being on the lake in the middle of the water, looking around while in the middle of the alps...YIKES...If they game me job there I would stay forever...If ONLY I knew how to speak GERMAN!

Early the next AM, we got up early, boarded the train and left for zurich. in zurich, we just hung out, in the evening, had some pizza, a couple beers and watched the games.

this AM, we left to the airport in zurich, took a flight to munich, then took a flight to brussles. now I am writing to you in brugge in some bogus hostel where I am reminded why I am not 22 again! today, while it is still damn near 85+ degrees, we cruised around town, trying to stay cool! we found a bar that I actually drank at back in 2000 when I came here with aram and steve and this time watched the US get their arses handed to them by the check republic. The only salvation this time is that that beer is between 7-9% alcohol, so toto, we aint in KANSAS anymore!

alrighty folks. that is all for now! I miss you all and may see you soon unless of course some one offers me a job here and I take up residency. We are staying here in brugge for another couple days and then are off to Edinburgh!