Went to Winter Haven again. Only one night this time with one night in Tampa and one on a beach. The Best Western Admiral's Inn didn't have our reservation, so that took 30 min to resolve despite having a confirmation number. Awesome. We did find a decent beach in Indian Shores. Much nicer than St. Pete Beach or Clearwater. Very nice restaurant called the Salt Rock Grille there as well. They had Sierra Bigfoot in bottles, but it was a little too early in the afternoon for that. Should also mention that the Tigers Spring Training stadium had Bell's Two Hearted and Amber in bottles for $5. Good deal for a baseball game. Almost as good as the $4 16 oz. Sierra drafts at the Southwest Michigan Devil Rays game last year. They went out of business though and moved to Midland. Oh well.
"I almost got out of here," he joked. "But the Winter Haven curse got me again."
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Fat Americans? What?
Someone tries to eat a Counter burger with everything. Impressive. Makes the list for next Cali trip. Gonna have to decide between that and La Costena.
OK, calm down, all is well
The A-Team is just taking a two week break for the Daniel Boone marathon in advance of the DVD release of that show. Who knew?
Coming at the end of Sept: A trip to SF to see the Browns @ Oakland.
Coming at the end of Sept: A trip to SF to see the Browns @ Oakland.
Monday, August 28, 2006
TV Land replaces the A-Team
TV-Land replaced the 2pm A-Team with Daniel Boone. Damn good thing the Summer is over. What the hell were they thinking? It's $40 per season for the A-Team DVD. Grr.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Slovenian salads
Saw the NYT article from today on salads. I should have mentioned that the Slovenians have salads of fresh tomatoes, cucumber, onion and a little parmesan on top. Was excellent with a little pepper.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Friday, June 30, 2006
Manchester -> Toledo
Short flight to Manchester and a quick shuttle ride to the Marriott Manchester Airport. Was a nice hotel and I only paid $92 through Priceline. Took the shuttle back to the airport and paid 1.40 Pounds for an evening return. One tenth of what it costs to get to Heathrow from London. Bah. I think I remember swearing off returning to London at one point in the past and I started to remember why. Anyway, Manchester looked bleak, like Trainspotting bleak. I got off at Oxford Road station and wandered around the city and university area stopping in various bars along the way. I talked to a few people in these places who took a little while, then said "Wait, you're from the States?" One guy said "We don't get many tourists around here. Apparently the guide books say this isn't a safe city." I can see why, although even the guys with all the ink were cool. There really weren't any tourists, they had real ale (Old Peculiar, Old Speckeled Hen) for 2.50 Pounds ($4.60) as oppossed to the 3.20 for 1664 or Carlsberg in London (The Southwark Tavern did have Budvar and Staropremen for 2.95 which wasn't bad), and the pubs weren't packed because the students appeared to be mostly gone.
The airport was a mess the next day for my flight back. They have a nice space but people are everywhere and the layout sucks. They put two big planes to Chicago that depart 20 min apart at a shared boarding area. For an hour preceeding the flight, every 30 sec there were "DING DING!" and some boarding announcement. Very annoying as was the security before checkin. They had people asking questions about bag packing and other useless crap then had to pick a receipt for your trip out of a stack. Very lame when you have a full 767. Some combination of AA and the airport should make this better. AA kinda sucks for in-flight service and beer/wine were $5. I'll definitely stick with BA or Lufthansa or even United in the future if at all possible. O'Hare was its normal big crappy self and the flight back to Toledo was uneventful. After paying a $140 parking bill and an hour of driving, I was back in Ann Arbor. Yay. Now for Summer.
The airport was a mess the next day for my flight back. They have a nice space but people are everywhere and the layout sucks. They put two big planes to Chicago that depart 20 min apart at a shared boarding area. For an hour preceeding the flight, every 30 sec there were "DING DING!" and some boarding announcement. Very annoying as was the security before checkin. They had people asking questions about bag packing and other useless crap then had to pick a receipt for your trip out of a stack. Very lame when you have a full 767. Some combination of AA and the airport should make this better. AA kinda sucks for in-flight service and beer/wine were $5. I'll definitely stick with BA or Lufthansa or even United in the future if at all possible. O'Hare was its normal big crappy self and the flight back to Toledo was uneventful. After paying a $140 parking bill and an hour of driving, I was back in Ann Arbor. Yay. Now for Summer.
Wimbledon and London
Stayed at the Southwark Rose for two nights then moved to the Hilton Paddington. Two fine hotels. Nothing terribly special about them. No breakfasts included. Had dinner Sunday night at the Slug and Lettuce in Southwark. Was a big plate of fried things that were prety good. Had much better food including tapas at Brindisa in Bourogh Market and Vinology across the street. Also had good food at my Mom's hotel, the Zetter. The Hilton had the largest rooms of the three hotels. Watched a number of the World Cup round of 16 games including the 0-0 snoozefest that Ukraine won over Switzerland on penalties when the Swiss failed to score. Awful like that UCLA/Memphis Elite Eight game last year. I did talk to a guy the next night during Spain/France who turned 3 pounds into 178 with a parlay betting on the Ukraine/Swiss game to be awful.
Went to Wimbledon with the tickets from the lottery on Monday morning. It was cloudy and after 35 min of watching Kim Clisters it started to rain. We had great seats in the first row behind her coaches' box so we stuck around for a few hours hoping play would resume, but it never did. Very disappointing. Wimbledon was impressive as far as the courts, but the merchandise was weak and for a place that gets a lot of rain, there weren't many areas to stay dry. Oh well. I'll try again sometime in the future. Did make it to the Tate Modern for a mix of good strange art and bad strange art. They did have Steiglitz's "Steerage" in the photo exhibit which was interesting to see in person.
Instead of taking the tube to Heathrow for about $12, I opted to have lunch and a pint and take the $26 Heathrow Express. Figured I had only paid $50 for my LHR-MAN ticket and it was kind worth it. Hoped to find less tourists in Manchester before heading back to the US.
Instead of taking the tube to Heathrow for about $12, I opted to have lunch and a pint and take the $26 Heathrow Express. Figured I had only paid $50 for my LHR-MAN ticket and it was kind worth it. Hoped to find less tourists in Manchester before heading back to the US.
Paris
Catching up on blog entries.
Made it to Paris late Thursday and to the Hotel Metropolitan via RER and Metro. Tiny room with a huge king bed that was pretty close to a Westin Heavenly Bed as they claim. Met up with my Mom and one of her friends for a few days before heading to London on the 26th. Went to the http://www.musee-orangerie.fr and http://www.musee-orsay.fr. The Orangerie was impressive with the rooms of Monet's water lillies and the collection downstairs. The Orsay is huge and filled with school groups which detracted from the excellent and huge collection they have. I liked the Neo-Impressionism rooms. The paintings are made up of little dabs of paint that are impressive when viewed from close up.
Had some good food. There was a market Saturday morning on the Ave de Woodrow Wilson where I had some sort of Lebanese flatbread with tomato, herbs, and two kinds of cheese cooked on a convex metal grill. Had North African including a great Algerian wine at 404 and buffalo mozzarella followed by chicken paella then cheese with wine from Gascony at Le Kiosk (Place de Mexico) which had a great weekly menu featuring pyrenees specialties. Also had a few Belgian beers and some frites with dijon mayo at http://www.academie-biere.com.
On a rainy Sunday morning, cought the Eurostar for the three hour trip to London from Gare du Nord. Totally uneventful trip although I noticed that the tunnel pretty much puts everyone to sleep.
Made it to Paris late Thursday and to the Hotel Metropolitan via RER and Metro. Tiny room with a huge king bed that was pretty close to a Westin Heavenly Bed as they claim. Met up with my Mom and one of her friends for a few days before heading to London on the 26th. Went to the http://www.musee-orangerie.fr and http://www.musee-orsay.fr. The Orangerie was impressive with the rooms of Monet's water lillies and the collection downstairs. The Orsay is huge and filled with school groups which detracted from the excellent and huge collection they have. I liked the Neo-Impressionism rooms. The paintings are made up of little dabs of paint that are impressive when viewed from close up.
Had some good food. There was a market Saturday morning on the Ave de Woodrow Wilson where I had some sort of Lebanese flatbread with tomato, herbs, and two kinds of cheese cooked on a convex metal grill. Had North African including a great Algerian wine at 404 and buffalo mozzarella followed by chicken paella then cheese with wine from Gascony at Le Kiosk (Place de Mexico) which had a great weekly menu featuring pyrenees specialties. Also had a few Belgian beers and some frites with dijon mayo at http://www.academie-biere.com.
On a rainy Sunday morning, cought the Eurostar for the three hour trip to London from Gare du Nord. Totally uneventful trip although I noticed that the tunnel pretty much puts everyone to sleep.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
US v Ghana in Nurnberg
Took another lovely three train combo from Kitzbuhel to Nurnberg to see the US play Ghana. Met up with one of my brother's friends after a few rounds of "Where are your going to be when?" emails. He did manage to show up at the train station when my train arrived. Since I had already gone to the Czech game and I had to make a flight around 8:30, I sold my ticket for 50 Euro (+15 ticket scalping, -100 blackjack) and we went, had a few beers, and watched the game in the town square. Was pretty disappointing to watch the US lose and Ghana advance but whatever. We still have a long way to go in soccer. Should point out that the Rothbier from the Hausbraueri was very good despite what some others think. http://www.ratebeer.com/Beer/altstadthof-rothbier/35894/
We had checked luggage at the train station when we got in and when I went to get mine, it was in a room with a few thousand bags. I can't imagine how long the line was when people got back from the game. Made my flight to Paris on time and got a ham and swiss sandwich and a small bottle of red wine. On a 75 min flight. Once again, US airlines: You can do better. Also got a few pictures of the US team boarding their plane that I'll put up.
iPods take way too long to fully charge.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)