Nov 4, 2008

Well it has been almost 2 months since my last post. I am sitting in the DoubleTree Hotel Bar in Aurora, CO watching the election returns. Obama was just predicted to win both OH and PA which should send him into the White House.

More importantly I am drinking the local Odell 90 Shilling beer which has a nice bite but is a little too sweet for me. I took a nice little walk around the area in the unseasonally 65 degree weather.

What have I been doing?

• Dynamo Recreation Referee assignor - Keeping me busy most weekends as I don't have enough kids willing to ref. I am working hard to sign up a new crop to take the course in January so I expect spring to be much easier.
• Edgewood Symphony concert last month was much better than I expected. It was fun playing the Symphonic Dances by Bernstein. Hey Lisa is standing right in front... I have been traveling the last 2 weeks so I keep missing our weekly rehearsals.
• I ride my bike to work almost everyday. Yesterday was the first day since we changed the clocks back and I left early to make sure I beat the dark. Not sure what I will do next week but I do have 3 lights plus my bright yellow windbreaker. I really enjoy my Xenith Comp on the weekends but I only ride it to the soccer fields and back.
  
• CMU Homecoming was fun. I went to the Staff - Alumni lunch on met an interesting guy who was back for his 50th. This was my 31st so I don't feel too old yet. I dragged Lisa to the CMU Capital Campaign kickoff. Great fireworks and we also had a demo from a student of a robot and associated software that creates these fantastically detailed pictures. Check Gigapan out...
• Haven't seen too many movies but we did go see The Secret Life of Bees this past weekend. Althought the NYTimes didn't care for it, I thought that it was very well done and told a good story. TV Shows that I am watching are Pushing Daisies, ER, Numbers, and In Plain Sight and reruns of Voyager.
• The leaves are beautiful this week.
  

August 25 - September 1

A short drive to Boston for delivering a kid to college and a week of work. I had my son's bike at my disposal all week so I got to do some riding in the morning and evenings. I was a little dismayed at how for north and east Boston is. It gets pretty dark well before 8PM!!!

Stopped off for a hike at Harriman State Park with my cousin which we finished well be before 8PM (see above). We stopped for dinner at Hogan's Family Diner in Stoney Point. Their dinners are enough food for 3 people and I highly recommend the carrot cake.






An uneventful trip home. But I had to return the car back to the airport. I decided to throw my bike in the back and ride back from the airport. The route looked good on paper and it really isn't that bad but I tried to do 54 km in 2 hours but I sure was tired after getting home in 2.5 hours.

Other fun stuff this weekend was riding downtown with a bunch of us to see Sam march in the Labor Day parade. Matthias, our exchange student, continued on with me to hit the rib fest and then see The Alps. Sam and Matthias recommend Armadillo's.

Milan - Aug 17th

Well the only way to see the ‘Last Supper’ was to take an expensive tour but since we only had one day to see Milan, we did it. We got down to the Piazza di Duomo and hung out there for about 45 minutes until the bus came. Turns out that the first part of the tours was a walking tour then a quick drive around the historical district and then we go to the Last Supper.The Duomo is immense being the 2nd largest cathedral in the world. Very overwhelming. The amount of marble is mind boggling.

We then took a walk through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II which was pretty cool. All of the fashion shops were there along with some cool mosaic floors. Everyone liked the story about turning 3 times on the bull.









Lisa and I like La Scala's Museum tour. They usually take you into the opera house itself but is closed for renovations this month. They have a very cool Homage to Maria Callas with about a dozen of her costumers, gowns, etc that she wore during the 13 years of performance there.
On the bus ride they showed us the cemetery, the castle (see below), and the needle and thread (see below)






The Last Supper was actually very cool. You have to go through 'people traps' in an attempt to keep dust down and the temperature constant. It was worth seeing it in person. If you go, I recommend doing what Lisa's friends did and order them online ahead of time for 8Euro.

We left and headed on foot to the Sforza Castle but first past this needle and thread sculpture representing the subway system.

Lugano - Milan - Aug 16th

Well on my trip yesterday I saw a sign to the Hermann Hesse(HH) Museum. I thought it was farther away but now I knew I could walk to it. Today was a perfect day, no clouds, not too hot so I headed up the hill to find the museum. Well as usual I decided to take a few short cuts and soon I remembered that I didn’t bring my map. I was just about to turn around and I found a map of the HH trail except it didn’t have a ‘you are here’ mark.

I saw a nice church down the road and after taking in the view of the lake I ended up asking a couple directions. They weren’t sure but sure enough, I took 10 steps and I saw the signs. Turns out the #3 on the trail is the church cemetery where he is buried although I couldn't find it.

I then followed the signs back to #1 for the museum. I was amazed at the beautiful houses and views along the way. I see now why he stayed here for the last 43 years of his life. The museum was a little pretentious…

The markers in the museum were only in Italian and German. I asked for an English guide and got a little booklet with some of the information translated.

HH’s tortoise (I think) – He had free reign of the back yard and they live for many years and he was pretty big so I assume he has been there a long time.

I tried to find #9 and #10 but was running out of time. I did find this beautiful playground, again with no one in it, and decided to do Tai Chi while looking at the lake and the snow capped mountain in the distance.

Made it back and then we headed into Milan with a bunch of Lisa’s AT buddies. They decided to use the Milan Metro to get to our hotel. It is dirty, poorly marked, and tough to use. We made it and got out on the street and the streets were deserted. All the shops were closed and almost no cars around. Obviously we each made it to our hotels but we found out that this is what the non-tourist parts of the city look like during August when everyone is at the beach or traveling to see the sites.

A quick search of the area showed everything closed and I mean every bar, restaurant, pizzeria except the money machine across the street and surprise, surprise, the supermarket. We stopped in and got a bottle of wine and some cheese and onion foccacia for breakfast. We had dinner at the hotel which as expected was very good, spinach tortelli, grilled salmon, and a salad.

Lugano Aug 15th

Plenary: Christof Koch

• He was introduced as making 24th in some magazine's most stylish men in the world list.
• Talked about trying to understand what it means to be conscious.
• Worked closely with Francis Crick of DNA fame
  

Left and started walking towards Agno. I wanted to see a different lake and once I learned the scale of the map it seemed like a very feasible walk. After about 25 minutes I found Laghetto di Muzzano which was a very nice pond. I kept walking and ended up finding the airport and Agro which is on another part of Lake Lugano. I also found out where everyone was. Aug 15^th is an Italian holiday, Ferragosto, so this part of Switzerland also had a 3 day weekend. There is the Vedeggio River entering into the lake and on both sides they had campgrounds filled with trailers and little shacks. Not sure if these people came from the local area or the bigger cities but they had much more life. There was also a bike trail along the stream.

A storm was heading in so I ducked into a pizzeria and ordered a beer on an outside table. When the beer arrived he asked me to move inside and a minute later the sky opened up and a huge thunderstorm hit. I stayed until they kicked me out. They are only open from 12-2:30PM for lunch and then open at 5 PM for snacks and 7 PM for dinner. It had mostly stopped raining so my walk home wasn’t too bad.

Here is a picture of our hotel. Lisa found it. Double click on the picture and it will show full size. You can see the bins in the front they are for garbage. They have a great system where you dump your bag down and each bin is underground. The garbage trucks come around and empty out the bins by pulling each one out of the ground. Check the Louis Vitton store on the right. You might be able to see an old funicula line to the left of our hotel.

The evening the congress had a party complete with a 6 piece Chicago Blues style band. They sang the covers with no hint of accent but you could hear the accent in between tunes.

Lugano - Aug 14th

Today I took the day off. Instead of hanging around the hotel and working on the internet and then going to the plenary session, I left around 7:30AM to head to Mt. Tamaro. The brochure advertised a great sounding walk between Mt. Tamaro and Mt. Lema. The problem was you could get to Tamaro's cable car real easily but it was almost a 2 hour trip to get back from Mt. Lema which is only about 20 km away. After almost an hour of studying the website and brochure, I figured out that they have bus service at the end of the day to take you back to Mt. Tamaro. Well I showed up and the ticket guy called the Mt Lema operator to see how the weather was and they said that there was no visibility.

He suggested that it wouldn't be a great trip so I decided to take the cable car up, hike to the top and Mt. Tamaro and then hike all the way back down the mountain. During the ride up raindrops started to hit the cable car but when I got to the top it was just foggy and cold. I kept to plan and started walking.




So I started up the trail and it was alternately clear and foggy. I get a ways up and see in the distance something that looks like a church. I am amazed at how many beautiful churches I have found on the top of mountains. Well I get up close and find out that it is a microwave, cell phone tower with about 50 different dishes. I guess this is a religious monument of sorts...






I made it to the top and guess what, there was no view. In fact, just as I made it to the top it starts to rain. In addition, a guy is walking his bike up a different trail, leaves it to go back down to help his daughter, friend with his son. They spoke German mostly but had enough English that we could communicate. They started in Austria 4 days earlier and were planning one more night before taking a climbing vacation in northern Italy.



I made it down walking with a little pain in my left leg. It looked like the bottom but this is a view from a small village almost all the way down with lots of old buildings and stone alleys. I tried to find a place for a good meal but it was 5PM. The restaurants don't open for food until 7PM. I was stuck getting beer and pizza but the pizza was the best that I had all weeks in the Italian area. A nice chewy crust with great gobs of ricotta and spinach on top.

The evening event was a panel discussion that was a bust. Not very interesting so I got a nice rest after my long day of hiking.

Lugano - Aug 13

This is the middle day of Lisa's conference so they scheduled a half day off after the plenary. Kristin Linklater was the only speaker of the week that is not a scientist. Her specialty is teaching Shakespeare diction. I wasn't that interested in the topic but it was fun to watch her speak.

Lisa and I planned to walk to Gandria (see previous post). Most of the walk would be new to me as I had taken a bus halfway there before. This way I did find the Museo delle Culture but as usual it was closed. The grounds were nice and we got to watch a swan while sitting on the steps from the building that lead directly into the lake.


It was a hot and humid day so the walk took a while but we made it, explored the end of the Olive Trail and rested at one of the local restaurants. Headed back to Lugano but not sure if was the beer, cooler temperature, or desire for food but the walk back was much shorter. We ended up back at the first restaurant we ate at Cantina Ticinese. This time, I had the lasagna and Lisa had the fried fish. It started raining as we ate but was basically done by the time we were ready to leave.

Lugano - Aug 12th

Well the first day we really had bad weather although it wasn't so bad. It started raining last night and it rained on and off most of the day. Although when it was raining it wasn't too hard. I planned a museum day but by the time I did my computer stuff and then hit the daily lecture it was already 1PM. Tania Singer gave a very technical but not very stimulating talk about how to test for emphathy. I guess it is important but she really didn't explain why.

I looked on the map and there were 4 museums within a kilometer:

• Museo Cantonale d'Arte - I later found it but originally I misread the map
• Museo Villa Ciani - Closed
• Museo Cantonale di Storia Naturale - Found it after stopping at the library but it was closed also
  
• Museo della Culture - I thought it was closed but based on the next day's trip, I never found it.
  

Well in the middle I found the library and the librarian pointed me to the Museo d'Arte museum which was suppose to be open. I found it and it turns out that an introspective exihibit on Swiss Culture called Enigma Helvetica (check these videos out) was going on there and at the Museo Cantonale d'Arte. It was OK and I learned a little about Switzerland:

• A few early Paul Klee paintings
• Some really nice Giovanni Giacometti, father of Alberto, landscapes plus one of his son's thin scuptures
• A cool exhibit of watch parts. They some of the smaller pieces under magnifying glasses so you really get a feeling for how small and precise they are
• A strange exhibit on junk this one guy hung up on his homestead. They ended up dumping everything after his death but some 'lucky' stuff was saved by some of the workers.
• Pictures, models, and painting of trains in Switzerland. The Swiss love to build tunnels through the mountains. The train system is run by the post office, I guess they figured that if you had to get the mail through, then people aren't that much harder.
  

The evening activity at the congress was 4 Alexander Technique teachers gave a music recital. Most of the performers are professionals and the concert was pretty good. I liked the .... the best.

Lugano - Aug 11th

My first day almost to myself. I jump on the computer to catch up with email, work, and blogging. I didn't get too far. Lisa recommended going to the plenary session today. Turns out that Baroness Susan Greenfield was a great speaker on a great topic. She gave a 20 minute intro on how the brain works and then showed how important 'nuture' was to the way we humans end up. She is pushing Britain to prescribe less drugs to kids to 'solve' behavior problems.

I then literally ran and caught the #1 bus and took it to the end of the line. That left me about 2 km away from my first destination. I started walking up the road until I found a path down to the lake. This dropped me into the middle of the Olive Path.

I turned left and headed past San Dominico and ended up in Gandria.







For those of you that didn't click the link, this town is on the hillside and does not have roads for cars. If you live here you park at the top of the hill and walk down or take a boat and walk up. Here is main street along the lake...





After exploring a few of the streets, I decided to head up following a sign that I thought meant Upper town. After leaving the houses behind I kept seeing this sign. At an intersection, I met Will, whose wife is also at the conference, coming down the hill. He pointed me in the right direction ( and gave me a pep talk) about continuing my climb to the town of Bre. See I made it and someone laid out ice tea (well at least not hot), cookies, peanuts all on the honor system.

So I roamed the streets of Bre and finally found the Museo Wilhelm Schmid but the best I could figure out it is only open Thursday through Sunday from 2 to 4. I checked at the local restaurant if I could bring Lisa up there for dinner but the last bus and funicular is 7PM. I decided to hang out there and have beer. I met Achmud and his 2 kids. He is from Egypt and in the energy business. His kids were a little shy and didn't want to speak English. I sure could have used my son Howie!!!
Well it was 5PM and time to catch the bus down. He does this everyday but taking a full size bus down switchbacks on a one lane road seemed a little dangerous to me.






Well I made it and Lisa and I decided to hit the San Salvatore Funicalare since the only thing up there is a view, a museum, and a restaurant. We did splurge and have a local bottle of wine with risotto and a chicken dish. The nice thing about the wine is that it is bottled in .5 liter sizes, just right for 2 old people.

Lugano - Aug 10th

Today Lisa registered in the morning for the Alexander Technique Congress. While she was doing that, I went exploring.

Found the cable car that is a 10 minute walk from our hotel and takes you to the neighborhood up the hill from us.




I then headed north and found a park with a pretty nice view. The best that I can figure out is that this is a little hill side just off of Via Emilio Maraini.





Then I headed down the hill and got lost. Found a large cemetery complete with crematorium and beautiful statuary.








After finding my way back to the hotel, we decided to go on the Grande Boat Tour of the Lake Lugano with a couple of Lisa's Alexander Technique teachers. It was a good way of getting the feel for the region. They stop at a few of the towns where you can get off and explore, just make sure you know when the last boat stops for the day or you are spending the night out!!!



In the evening I went with Lisa to the opening session and listed to Marshall Rosenberg talk about NVC. Since the boat came back late we hit the pizza restaurant in the square and listened to the samba band play again.

Lugano - Aug 9th

Well we got to Lugano as planned. On 1 hour plane rides they give us wine, beer, water, a huge snack bag. One could get spoiled traveling in Europe!!!

We take a short taxi ride to our hotel and find out that we could have taken the finicula down the hill and it would have been a quick walk to the hotel but one never knows the first time in town. We learn that we have to do the 'old fashioned way' of dropping the skeleton key off at the front desk every time we leave the building. We also discover that we got spoiled in our Hilton Suite but over all the room is nice and servicable with a much nicer view than in Prague.

We head out for a walk and after a few discussions we end up at Cantina Ticino. It was a nice cafe overlooking a local boulevard. The cook ended up being an interesting character. Every time the tourist 'train' drove by the front he grabbed his bell gave a long ring and the train would ring back. The placemats claimed that he, ????, put a team of chefs together to make 3 different Guiness World Records but I can't find them on the internet. Can anyone help me out? Oh yeah, the food was pretty good also.

On the way back we discovered that since it was Saturday night that they block of the main street along the lake and have a big party. In the park, there was a great Georgian Jazz Fusion band, Shin, in a packed square there was a Samba band playing, on the street there were tons of kids on scooters. Everyone else was either eating gelato or drinking/eating in a cafe.

Prague to Lugano

Today is a travel day to get us to Lugano so here is what we didn't get to do:

Ran out of time:
- Smetana Museum
- Dvorak Museum
- A good professional Orchestra concert
- Dvorak Birthplace and Lobkowicz Summer Castle
- Visit some of the city parks
- A long day trip to Auschwitz

Things we didn't do because of time AND money:
- Dinner at the Sarah Bernhardt Restaurant
- A quality concert in each of the churches or synagogues - these were very expensive and the groups performing didn't seem to be of the highest quality
- A evening on a Jazz Boat in the Vlatava (Moldau)
- Don Giovanni - Mozart's opera and theater which he conducted the world premier

I was not planning on blogging today but we did have a few experiences in Lugano so check the next entry

Prague - Aug 8th

Today we hit:

• Kafka Museum - A lot of thought went into laying out the museum. Kafka seems to be a mentally disturbed Jew from Prague and the museum helped explain the connection that Kafka had to the city.
  
• Wallenstein Gardens - Very classical gardens with a cool modern wall on one side. 6 huge owls are housed in a cage. We did learn about the Czech Senate which is now housed in the Wallenstein Palace.
  
• the rest of the Prague Castle - The art of Prague Castle was mostly based in the 15th to 17th centuries which was interesting but not our style. The Powder tower we learned about military head gear from Helmuts to Caps to Shakos.
  
• the highlight of the day was the Lobkowicz Palace (see below)
  

The Lobkowicz Museum has just opened in this past year. The family have been royalty in this area for 4oo years but they decided to leave as the Nazis were coming causing them to lose their homes and all of their possessions. Likewise in 1948 when the Communists took over Czechoslovakia they decided to get out after being back for a few short years. Shortly after the Berlin Wall came down, the Czech government had a process for reclaiming ‘stolen’ items. They were able to recover everything and are now in the process of restoring the castle and the vast collection of stuff. Check out some of this:

• The fourth Prince Lobkowicz was a private benefactor to Beethoven and the 3^rd, 5^th, and 6^th Symphonies are dedicated to him along with a set of string quartettes.
• A ton of portraits of the generations of the family. Each one had a story…
• A bird room. Each drawing was Audubon quality but they include real feathers from the bird.
• A dog room consisting of portraits of dogs throughout the centuries
• 10 different dinnerware collections many of which are more than 200 years old

We did get a 10% discount in the cafe and decided to get a drink. They have a wonderful view of the city and serve their own beer which is pretty good.

Prague - Aug 7th

We got going a little earlier today to try and beat the crowds. It was a nice walk over to Prague Castle as the Old Towne Square was almost empty with the restaurants still closed and the tour groups not organized yet.

The Charles Bridge was surprisingly empty including the vendors that usually set up on both sides of the street. (Check out the castle over my left shoulder) The walk up the hill to the castle took us past the Academy of Music where we heard through open windows several pianist practicing. The guards wouldn’t let us roam the halls unfortunately.

We got our tickets and joined the tour groups with the Japanese in front and the Germans behind us to see St. Vitus’s Cathedral. Coolest part was the Mucha stain glass window (see Aug 5). We then took a walk around the rest of the court yards and saw St George Basilic, the oldest restored building, and then the monestary right next door which has been made into a well designed art gallery. Every article in the gallery is by a Czech artist which we have never heard of yet I felt many of the paintings, sculptures and furniture could hold its own in almost any other art gallery I have seen.

Next, as Lisa found in the tour book, we caught the noon changing of the guard complete with band, swords, rifles, and precision dills. My video didn't turn out but you can see someone's who did here.

Next we were amazed by the size of the Old Royal Palace where supposedly they did indoor jousting complete with horses. The view of the city is amazing from here, I guess that is why all of the Bohemian, Moravian, and Hapsburg kings grabbed this chunk of land. The Story of Prague Castle is a great history of the museum with cool relics but it was very over whelming. I got burned out after 45 minutes or so. We caught the Golden Lane, the Vineyard, and the Torture Tower and then figured out why they allow the full price ticket to be valid for 2 days. We plan to hit the rest of the stuff tomorrow along with the Kafka Museum and the Wallenstein Gardens.

We found the way over to the Royal Garden and as we entered we saw a couple of birders handling about 10 different raptors. They let another American hold a tawny owl and we talked to the girl holding a ….Falcon. Another guy took a falcon out for a walk. He would walk about 100 ft and then whistled and the bird would swoop to the next tree. Pretty cool.

Dinner started with a Budvar Pilsner with a sausage appetizer at a Czech restaurant that we found going down the hill. We decided to the the Lonely Planet guide book and decided to find Dezni over near our hotel. Turns out that it is a kosher restaurant and not half bad at that. So I finished off my night with Pilsner Uquell and a Mongolian beef sandwich.

Prague - Aug 6th

Today we went to Terizen (Thereisenstadt) with Wittman Tours. Martina had a little less personality than Barbora from yesterday but she was very knowledgeable. We ended up with a small group, a brother and sister that came from Hungary just before the Hungarian Revolution, her son, and the brother’s and son’s wives who they were showing Prague and Budapest. On the 45 minute drive Martina gave a description of how the Jews of Prague were forced across the river early in the war. Then they had to board the trains near Prague and were dropped off 2 miles from the Terizen Fortress. Then a walk of 2 miles brought them inside the fortress walls which the Nazis conveniently used to create a ghetto. This worked for about 1 year but then the overcrowding caused them to turn the ghetto into a concentration camp from which almost all of the Jews were sent to extermination camps throughout eastern Europe, mostly Auschwitz. I finally understand the difference between ghetto, concentration and extermination camps now. Although Terizen had four ovens setup on the cemetery grounds these were used to cremate many of the 32,000 Jews who died of ‘natural’ causes like malnutrition, typhoid, dysentery, etc. The extermination camps were the place where the intentional killing was done. The trip also included a quick walk around the little fort on the other side of the river which the Nazis used as a prison during the war.

For our music adventure we went to a concert advertised as the International Horn Festival. We hoped to see some of Hannah’s friends from Oberlin but it was a recital put on by last year’s winner. It was OK but at least we got to see the inside of the Klementinum Mirror Hall. Had dinner right outside at the first private restaurant in Prague, Rekavik, started by an Icelander. We had a very nice American fried appetizer platter and 2 different pasta’s that were very tasty. Walked over to the Charles Bridge and walked up the Vlatva River to watch (and take pictures of) the sun setting behind Prague Castle.

Prague - Aug 5th

After a good nights sleep we woke up just in time to have breakfast and head over to the Hotel Intercontinental. The Wittman Tours leaves from there at 10:30AM for a 3 hour tour of the Jewish Museum. This is actually a visit to 5 historic synagogues and a cemetery. Actually very fascinating and well worth the time. Turns out that Lisa and I could have spent another couple of hours just reading and looking at the artifacts. Our guide, Barbora, was a young women majoring in Jewish Studies in a Czech University. Her family is Jewish on her mother's side and she has been learning her heritage for about 10 years somewhat against her mother's wishes. There is supposedly 3000 people in Czech Republic that identify with a synagogue but she believes that there are many more like her that are identifying themselves as Jewish.

We then had a nice lunch at the first Kolkovna Group restaurant just across the street from the Spanish Synagogue, this time we tried the Czech Goulash and of course a mug of Pilsner Urquell. Very tasty...

Headed over to the Cubist Museum which we had walked by 4 or 5 times already and didn't recognize that the Black Madonna (the name of the building) was a Cubist style building, it seemed to fit in very nicely with the more classical buildings just a block off from Old Town Square. We learned a lot about the Czech artists between 1910 and 1918. Pretty amazing that this style came and went so quickly.

Prague - Aug 4th

Walked over to the National Museum. Lisa through her excellent reading of the guide book discovered that the museum is free the first Monday of every month and we hit the jackpot by planning our trip right!!! It is actually a great natural history museum from the way I remember the Carnegie 40 years ago. A very big (not quite as huge as the St Petersburg Geological Society) rock collection shown in row after row of old wooden and glass display cases, similar prehistoric display of archeological artifacts, fossils, animals both skeletons and stuffed. When you go check out the complete Fin Whale Skeleton, the ‘real’ Wooly Mammoth, and of course the rocks. The special exhibit was done for the year but they did have a recursive display of the history of the National Museum. They had a video showing many of the Czech dignitaries that laid in state there and also an old movie that was made in the museum about the museum (catch the recursion???).

When we were done we went outside and it was raining. After waiting a bit we decided to don our raingear and try to find the Wittman travel agency. It was just a few blocks away but we couldn’t find it. But we did find a section of Prague that was not nearly as touristy as the section around our hotel. Stopped for pizza in an underground tunnel that wasn’t half bad.

Next stop was the Mucha Museum. Very cool guy that I didn’t know much about but I do like the Art Nouveau that he was a key contributor (in fact he decorated the Municpal Hall where we saw the concert the previous night). We had seen some references to Sarah Bernhardt (restaurant, posters, etc) and now we know why.

Next on the plan was a visit to the Jerusalem Synagogue. Very beautiful and in the Spanish style with an art nouveau twist. You see it was built around 1900 when that style was popular. The separate door to the women’s section was closed as the women’s gallery was being renovated.

Guess what, it was then 20 minutes before 5PM and we still hadn’t witnessed the Astronomical Clock. So a quick walk to Old Town Square and we watched the 6PM display (they don’t seem to adjust for daylight savings time) with couple of thousand other people. Pretty cool but not as mind boggling as thought it would be.

Next, I had been trying to find a Boingo wireless site that was easy access to the hotel( they want $40 a day for internet access at the hotel). What we found was a very nice wine bar but they no longer had wireless access. We had been looking forward to some beer so we headed off looking for a place that had tables on the street, good prices on draught beer, good food, and free internet. Not easy to find but again Lisa’s research had discovered a Pilsner Urquell Cisco?? with a location near our hotel. Turns out that it was all of those but the internet connection didn’t allow me to connect my work VPN. We did do a Skype call to our son Sam, check our other email, had a ‘little’ beer, a cheese plate and a beef rib. We would recommend this place as a good reasonably price place to hang out.

We had wanted to squeeze in a concert in the Spanish Synagogue but what looked like a short walk on the map turned out to be a nice ½ hour tour of the Josenov section. At least we know where to go to visit the other synagogues in Prague.

Prague - Aug 3

We left Pittsburgh on time with the help of our friend Chas Hirsh. We went to services Friday night and he volunteered before we even told him that we were planning on taking the bus to the airport. We got there in plenty of time, had our lunch, bought a snack for Boston and then Lisa wanted me to change our seats on the Boston – Frankfurt leg since we both ended up with middles. Well she couldn’t do anything about it but was about to page the Levinson’s. It turns out that our seats on the Pittsburgh –Boston leg were broken. We she had to scramble for volunteers since of course the flight was booked solid. We ended up in Prague as planned with no more adventures (our luggage even made it this time).

We checked in at 10AM and they upgraded us to concierge level. Lisa was impressed. Ended up taking a nap and then heading out for a walk around the neighborhood. We hit Old Town Square, the Rudolfinum, Manesuv Bridge, back over on Charles Bridge. Stopped off at the Apropos Restaurant where Lisa had a trout and I had a greek salad. It was good but nothing special although we didn’t have the chocolate cake which the waiter tried to tell us was to die for.

In Old Town Square, I was taking pictures like all the other tourists. A guy came over and wanted us to take a picture of his party. Turns out that they were from Siberia. Those Russians are sure getting around.

On this walk we found many different concert going on in various churches and theaters in the area. We decided on the first one since it was the ‘Last Night’ of the Prague Proms and they seemed to have the lowest prices. Turns out they claimed the cheap seats were sold out but after going the concert, I don’t think they wanted to sell the cheap seats especially to tourists. The concert was great but the first half was being video recorded. Turns out the producers had a great idea to set up an announcer in the back part of the aisle just where we were sitting to do an interview DURING the horn concerto!!! Well the guy in front of us got up and complained and they left. The concert was in the Smetana Theater at Municipal Hall. The audience was dressed very fancy and the hall was also very ornate with half the women bare breasted (the statues and paintings that is).

Overall, a great start for our week in Prague.

A few pictures for Sam...

Hannah can you help me translate???

Week of July 21 in Lowell MA

Monday:
- Shopping at Land's End in the mall found a few shirts. I was totally surprised as I walked by the Apple store as there were twice as many people in there as in all of Sears!!!
- A walk around the canals and ended up at Hookslide Kelly's for fish and chips and some beer.
Tuesday:
- Paul and I head up to the Beer and Pool hall next to the Spinner's stadium. Have a beer, sit through 4 innings of the game and then head back for beer and pool when it starts to rain pretty hard.

July 10-12th - Warren and Chautauqua

Well a quick trip up to Warren was unusual since Lisa actually said that she enjoyed it. The drive up was a little long as we hit a few slow pokes on 66. We hit the new Chinese Buffet in the Wal-mart plaza which was as good as any I have had in Pittsburgh or California. In the evening we headed up to hear Alexander Gavrylyuk's piano recital at Chautauqua Institute (read J. Brustrom's comments). In the morning Lisa and I got on our bikes and rode to the top of Valentine's Lane. Not far, but a little bit of hill. We then visited some people downtown, bought some Betty Dixon candy( make sure you read the paragraph about Betty Dixon), had lunch at the new Fresh Cup coffee shop in Wal-mart plaza (notice a theme), picked 3 quarts of strawberries and then headed up to Lisa's sister summer house in Maple Springs.

Events in Maple Springs:
- Quick bike ride to Bemus Point, I discovered that on Saturday the ABA was going to be holding a tournament the next day.
- Mike took Nathaniel and Ari fishing on the lake where Ari caught a 17 inch walleye. We were fishing in between all of these ABA guys in the fancy boats.
- Next morning Lisa and I did the same ride to Bemus Point.
- Then Nathaniel and Ari wanted to do that same ride again. We almost made it back but needed mom to come pick up the boys.
- Big lunch at the house with Ellen and Bill
- Back to the institute for an orchestra concert with Gavrylyuk playing Tchaikovsky: Concerto for Piano no 2 in G major, Op. 44. He was great, the orchestra was disappointing.
- Sunday morning we planned to ride our bikes to the institute but it rained until it was too late for us to make it back in time to head to Pittsburgh. Lisa got to buy a very nice batik shirt though.

July 4th, 2008

I take a bike ride to see the parade in Monroeville and the 3 Rivers Regatta. Parade is standard fire trucks and candy and I am too early for the races. But I get free candy, popcorn, chips, and ice cream.

Make sure you click the link above the check out the route...

Aspen - June 30, 2008

Well we have to leave to catch a plane tomorrow morning in Denver. We are planning to drive through Independence pass and spend the night in Lakewood (west Denver) and then catch a flight home. Turns out that it is a light travel day on July 1st so both Lisa and I get upgraded to First Class.

Events before we get home:
- Search for breakfast finds bagels and coffee at ink!
- Quick walk through Hotel Jerome and then go to the Public Library to find a bathroom. Lisa finds a book in their book sale.
- On the way to Independence Pass
Wheeler Lake: a short walk off of Rt 82 along a stream. Mostly pine trees with some Aspen. We don't stay long but there are plenty of rocks to climb and sit on.

Ice Caves just off a stream with huge cascades. Pretty cool rock formations that she finds nicer than the Buttermilk Cascades in Ithaca, NY









Independence Ghost Town - A young kid greets us right on the road after we park the car. Turns out that Ben White works for the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies just like Hannah's friend Jeff. Turns out that he met Hannah on her first day in Aspen. He gives us a 20 minute tour/talk on the site and shows us the artifacts that are stored in the original store.



We finally reach the pass/continental divide. Beautiful drive and a good way to spend the day.

We head down the east side and it starts to look like rain. We take 30 minutes to sit along a creek and read our magazines.




We hit Leadville just before 5PM. We had not had much to eat since our bagel breakfast so we start walking down mainstreet and I find Rosie's Brewpub where we take part in all of the happy hour specials. I get a pint of summer wheat and list has a taste of the RAM. We get an order of the wings with jerk sauce and baked potatoe skins stuffed with a corn and black bean relish. All very filling and tasty for just over $20. Much better than Aspen prices!!! On the way back to the car, I buy an Ugly Cookie made with cranberry, raisins, oatmeal while Lisa checks out the shirts at Melanzana. The make the clothes right there using the standard high tech materials. She ends up buying 2 shirts and I get one from the reject bin. Lisa gets the sleeves shortened but I forget to have them add a bike pocket for my shirt.

We head to Denver in light showers and have a nice quiet night before heading to the airport in the morning.

Aspen - June 29, 2008

Hike today started 2 blocks from our hotel. We took the Ajax across town to the Ute trail. Ute is a hard trail. Straight up via switchbacks to a view of the town. Then we found another hour hike up takes us to a restaurant. Turns out that the locals can do the whole hike in about 2 hours. Took Lisa and me about 3.5 hours. Well at least me. Lisa gave up about 200ft from the top and got a ride by an Aspen Mt Ski worker. It was worth the hike though. Beautiful view of the mountain tops. Pretty nice restaurant at the Sundeck and they had the Aspen Lonely Pine Bluegrass Band playing really good music. Took the gondola down. It was about a 15 minute trip but really smooth. It was amazing that we made it to the top. Hit the New York Pizza shop on the way back for a slice of pizza and watched part of the Euro Cup GER vs ESP final. Pretty exciting game.

Had dinner at Cantina based on Hannah's suggestion. Her viola teacher took the whole studio (all of his students) there for one of their first nights in Aspen. It was good food and very quick service. We sat outside at a table that was right next to the bar. Well they had mexican music going on in the bar and a brass quintet was playing on the sidewalk while I was eyeing the CWS vs Cubs game.

Later that night Lisa and I walked back downtown and heard a better brass quintet. Great tuba player.

Cabin/Cottage alcohol:
Nice white wine Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc 2007 Reserva Casablanca Valley Chile $12.99 in Aspen
Found this at Casbah in Pittsburgh: Menage a Trois from Folie a Deux 2006 for $12.99 in Aspen
Got a six pack of Breckenridge Avalanche Amber Ale

Aspen - June 28, 2008

Lisa liked the ranger's idea of going to the Maroon Bells at sunrise. We didn't quick make it but we started a little after 6AM. It was nice and chilly with the sun lighting up about half of the mountain. Almost hit a coyote in the road on the way up.

We did the scenic loop and then headed up to Crater Lake. Coming down we appreciated our lack of sleep as it was not very crowded going up early in the day. Headed home around 10:30AM to have lunch with Hannah at Brunelleschi's (Portabella Salad and Roasted Vegetable Calzone)

Lisa went to observe Hannah's Alexander Technique class and I stayed in our cottage/cabin to get this blog up to date. Lisa is heading over to pick me up and we are going to the 4PM chamber concert at the Harris Theater.

Aspen - June 27, 2008

Well our favorite conductor Marin Alsop led an open rehearsal. We walked to the tent through the 'beautiful people' historic neighborhood. Great victorian homes that are rebuilt in the 21st century opulent style. Beautiful gardens in most every home.

Learned about the Christopher Rouse Friandises, Prokofiev's 2nd Violin Concerto and Brahm's 3rd. We enjoyed it much more than the evening concert where we sat on the lawn and had our wine and cheese. The orchestra seemed to play much better in the morning.

In between we hit Hunter's Creek trail again and made it to the top. Great views of Mt Aspen. On the way back we stopped at the Aspen Brewery for a sampler of the root beer, summer wheat, IPA, and Brown ale. All very tasty.

After the concert we took Hannah to Social. She says the cafeteria food is bad so Lisa is making sure she gets her share of top notch Aspen cuisine. Actually it was very nice: Had the Salmon Beniets, Snapper Fish Tacos, Endame Beans with spicy sauce, and risotto with american caviar.

Took Hannah back to her dorm and had a quick look at the stars. It is nice to get out of the city once in a while....

Aspen - June 26, 2008

OK we slept in the cabin/cottage with the windows open and it got COLD!!! Because of the altitude both Lisa and I woke up every hour or so but we made it through the night.

Hit the Hickory House (see previous post) for breakfast (voted the best breakfast in Aspen). Shared a 3 egg vegetable omlette and neither of us went hungry. Walked a block to try to cross the street and found the White Mountains National Forest Ranger station. Talked to a ranger (well actually she talked to us) about different hikes to do while in Aspen.

Started following her directions and we got to see some of the 'beautiful people' live but basically there are bike trails, pedestrian only streets, and pathways so you don't need a car. The problem is most people are using a car so Main Street is really, really busy. We started up Hunter's Creek Trail and realized that we wouldn't get to see Hannah for lunch if we tried for the top. We turn around and on the way to meet Hannah, we found the Aspen Brewery (see previous post). It wasn't quite noon so it wasn't quite open but it we put it on the list for the next day. Had lunch with Hannah at Booksellers and Bistro. The book store is very fancy and thorough and the lunch was even fancier. Lisa had a fancy salad with blueberries and candied ginger while Hannah had the BBQ vegeburger and I had soup.

Took Hannah up to her rehearsal with David Zinnman at the Aspen Music School. The oboe player didn't show up so they were delayed playing through Mozart's Jupiter Symphony until they found a clarinet player to play the part in C. Listened to the first movement and then we hit the grocery store for a picnic dinner. Plan was to listen to the orchestra concert on the lawn and have wine and cheese but the Forest Ranger suggested going to Snowmass for the Free Summer Concerts. Drew Emmett formerly of the Leftover Salmon was playing and it was suppose to be great. Also, Hannah's friend from Oberlin is working as an intern at the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies and he wanted to take us on a nature hike that left from the exact same Snowmass parking lot.

Hike was very informative and I learned:
- Aspens are genetically identical
- Why it was snowing in Aspen in the summer
- What Corn Lilies look like

We made the hike in less than 2 hours and got to the concert site but they wouldn't let us bring the wine. They insisted that we buy it inside!!! We had the picnic and listened to most of the first half. Turns out that Lisa was getting a splitting headache from the altitude so we left to go back to our cabin/cottage.

I left Lisa to rest and walked to the Music Tent and heard the last half of the Nutcracker.

We both slept much better....

Aspen - June 25, 2008

Turns out that Hannah is playing a concert at 6PM this evening. Lisa and I would like to see it but because we didn't want to fly through Philly our flight doesn't get in until 2:30PM, Denver time. We then need to drive a reported 4 hours to Aspen. So I started looking at flying standby through Philly and it looked good up until 16 hours before the flight left. All the seats between Philadelphia and Denver were gobbled up at the last minute. This airline cut backs and high cost of flying is a pain...

Well we almost made it to Denver on time but because of some weather we ended up about 30 minutes late. We caught the bus to get the rental car and then spent a few minutes deliberating. My membership allows me to pick any car in the executive aisle but they end up throwing the SUVs which they can't rent there. Our choice was between a Hummer, Sequoia, and a GMC Acadia. The Acadia looked the smallest...

Got on the road and we ended up slowing down a few minutes for Denver rush hour traffic and then Lisa wanted a quick sandwich and then there was construction but surprise, surprise we made it to Aspen in time for the last piece on the program, Benjamin Britton's Young People's Orchestra. It was great seeing here play on the big stage.

We checked into our cottage/cabin in downtown Aspen and then hit the local pub, Bently's, since the regular restaurants were extremely expensive. A few words about L'Auberge D'Aspen. It had one of the lowest prices on the internet for a room this time of year. Turns out that they are single room cabins/cottages with a small shower and even smaller kitchenette. You pull your car right next to the cabin and walk in. They are right downtown in the middle of a residential section along main street. The location is perfect for us as it is about 6 blocks from the business district, 6 blocks from the Aspen Music Festival tent,2 blocks from the Hickory House, 10 blocks from Hunter Creek's trail, and 8 blocks from the Aspen Brewery, etc...

Week of June 16th

This covers the week up until heading to Aspen

Week of June 9th

Ok so I am in a lot of trouble. It is Lisa's birthday on Monday and our 26th anniversary on Friday and I have to travel to work in Anaheim. On top of that my cousin is having a Bat Mitzvah for her last daughter and I am taking my mother out with me to attend.

June 9th:
My mother and I take the 6:15PM flight to LAX. It is the only direct flight which makes it much easier for my mother to fly. My brother works in Orange county but lives in San Diego. I leave our mother with him and I try to find a bar with a co-worker who also flew out for another project. Unfortuately the plane was late and by the time we head to his hotel area we can't find a place to drink. The good thing is that I get a convertable, Sebring Hardtop. Pretty cool mechanism to lower the top. I drive to Anaheim with the top down. Boy is it cold!!!

June 10th:
First day of work doesn't go late so I hit the sports bar with 2 guys from Boston. The Celtics and Lakers are battling it out. Luckily they are a quiet fans and we just watch the hardcore Laker fans cheer and boo. It is also the only chance to see then Angels (playing the Rays). I walk over from my hotel and get there in the 4th inning. The first inning LAA scored 4 runs so the rest of the game was mostly unexciting. Walkig home I see a few of the Disney fireworks.

June 11th:
Second day we get out even earlier. Only one guy wants to get drink so we hit the local brewery, J. T. Schmit

June 12th:
Drive to Poway to pick up my mother

June 13th:
Fly from LAX to SFO. Take a walk, hit some golf balls, great family dinner at the ship in the bay

June 14th:
Good Bat Mitzvah, fly home

June 15th:
Bach Beethoven and Brunch

June 7, 2008

Lisa is turning 50 on Monday so we decided to have a party at our house before she turns 50.

Lisa helped plan most of the party

Menu
- Catered plate of berries
- Catered plate of roasted vegetables
- Everyone was invited to bring their favorite appetizer. Some of what we got
- Fancy cheeses
- Artichoke dips
- Humus
- Bought a plate of Theresa's Bakery Biscotti
- A cheese cake for the kids
- Lisa made a no sugar carrot cake that was quite good

Drinks
- From Russia: Baltica Number 6 Porter
- From Czech: Pilsner Urquell
- From California: ??? Wine
- From Australia: ??? Wine
- From Scotland: Glenmorangie Origicnal Cask
- From Scotland: Laphroig 10 year
- From Scotland: Ski...???
- From Scotland:???

Harry's Surprises:
- A few klezmer tuns played by Deane Root, Doris Dyen, Dan Leger and yours truly
- An press interview of Lisa with questions posed by party goers. I prepared the questions based on the recent primary interviews. This was not as successful as I would have liked.

June 2, 2008

My birthday and Lisa's is next Monday. We took Howard and Sam to Casbah for a fancy meal. They got the steak and Lisa and I got 2 different kinds of lamb. I got a flight of red wines and really enjoyed the Menage a Trois from Folie a Deux. It was good to spend some grownup time with the boys.

My bike from previous posts is what I consider as my birthday present for the next few years...

Most of May 2008

Yeah, I haven't kept up my blog too well. Getting back into a schedule after a week's vacation is tough!!!

OK here is what I remember...
- Several weekends on the soccer field helping out our inhouse referees
- An orchestra pop's concert that was OK but the pizza and beer at Vincents was much better.
- A nice bike ride on memorial day to see Sam march in the Lincoln Place parade along with other sites of Pittsburgh. I am really getting to like my new bike...
- Last week of May in Boston. I hung out with some people from work so we went to nicer restaurants. The Spinners were starting their season next week so I didn't get to see a baseball game in Lowell.

May 2, 2008

Well a quick note before we head to the airport in 5 hours...

Went to the town of Pushkin to see Catherine's Palace or Summer Palace. Nice little hut that burned out sometime during WWII. You can blame either the Nazis or Red Army. They have restored about 1/4 of the building so check out the staircase, amber room, picture room and all of the guilding and beautiful china. Toughest part was getting in as we had hired a van and a guide but when we got there we had to be quiet so that we could pass as Russian (to not pay twice as much admission) and then had to wait over 2 hours to get into the palace.

Headed home and wanted to hit happy hour at the Idiot. We had our first and last shot of vodka but washed it down with lots of good Russian drafts. Walked Hannah's friend Katie to the Haymarket metro and then had a very nice italian meal at Tektro, a reasonablely price place with tasty pizza and a cuttlefish and baby octopus spagetti dish.

Back for our last ice cream and packing...

May 1, 2008

May Day in Russia!!! Turns out that this is now Labor Day in Russia. The army gets to march on Victory Day, May 9th. Plan is to watch the parade, help the local economy, rest, eat dinner and go see the Kirov Ballet. I didn't figure it out until later but today was also important as St. Petersburg Zenit, an underdog in European Soccer played this evening for a chance to move onto the semifinals.

Well the plan was to walk down Nevsky Prospect and see if a parade was happening. We started walking and there were 2 police people (Men uniforms with big hats and the lady's uniform included a miniskirt, high heels, and cap) on every corner. Nevsky was going to be shut down sometime soon so we walked through Palace Square which was quiet but a stage had appeared overnight. We decided to hit the blini stands for breakfast. Sam got the peaches and pineapple at the first one and the rest of us decided to go to the next stand were they had plain cheese. Great fast foot which we would like to bring to the USA!!!

Next we headed down Nevsky just in time to see the parade heading our way. Turns out that this was a lot like our Labor Day parade. First a pretty good 20 piece band led the parade followed by a drum core made of long legged women in miniskirts who also happened to play drums pretty good. Next came 4 or 5 groups of disgruntled unions with signs, Hannah said, demanding more money or better working conditions. Next came the Russia First Party (Putin's). It was the largest and most organized. Next came the socialists followed by the communists (the want a reunited Soviet Union). Next a small scary group that was either neonazis or anarchists!!!

Well, we along with the rest of Russia decided to let them be and to go help the economy by purchasing souvenirs and food. Someone told us about going to the new fashion mall instead of the street stands. The mall had the nicest stuff and it was the least expensive. Got our dolls and stuff and headed back to the hotel to rest. The only thing we couldn't find was a soccer T-Shirt or scarf for Howard. Hannah and walked down to the Haymarket where she knew there were soccer stands. The M size shirts were all sold out (see above) so we got a scarf.

Hannah liked a restaurant around the corner, ???, for its good, wholesome food. We went there for an early dinner. They had the smelts on special so I got that with a bowl of tomato soup. Well when I eat smelts from Wholey's, i eat the whole fish in one bite. They brought out a bowl of water with a napkin indicating that I would need to wach my fingers. The fish came out and 3 times larger that I expected so I started eating them with a fork. The owner came over and politely indicated that I was suppose to use my hands to debone the fish, I think she didn't want me to choke. I figured it out and they were very tasty.

On to the Mariinsky Theatre for Prokofiev's Cinderella. This is a ballet none of us are familiar with but the story is exactly as you would expect with the great style of Prokofiev music and the world reknown Kirov Ballet. Beautiful hall arrange similar to Carnegie Hall and we had the next to last row on the floor. It was somewhat difficult to see but it was a great production that we all liked.

Back to the room with a snack of packaged ice cream products for dessert and to catch the next UEFA game.