Thanksgiving in Kansas City - November 2012

For Thanksgiving this year I went with Nancy to Kansas City where her daughter lives.  I had never been to that part of the world before and I admit I didn't know much about it.   When I asked people what to do they everyone said Eat Barbecue and Listen to Music.   I did experience the barbecue, but alas no music this time.

Flying at Thanksgiving is always a difficult procedure - the busiest travel season of the year.   Nevertheless, the outbound journey was quite relaxed and I even managed to arrive earlier than expected on Wednesday evening.  

Thanksgiving morning, we all did a 5K run - Nancy, daughters Erica and Arden and Joey Erica’s fiance.  It was a small race compared to Sacramento’s mighty Run To Feed the Hungry (3rd largest in the nation) but it was fun and just what we needed to make us feel good about all the excessive eating.

For Thanksgiving Dinner we prepared the usual fare - turkey, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, the works.  In Arden’s apartment, we were a little deficient in cooking utensils, but we managed to pull it off and I made a good job of massacring the turkey with a small and not very sharp knife.

That evening we walked around a nearby section of town. This area known as the Country Club Plaza is the home of one of the first suburban shopping centers in the US.  It is quite the work of art with lots of beautiful Spanish style ornate buildings - lots of hand painted tile, lots of towers.  That night the streets were thronged for the ceremonial “lighting of the lights”.   All a bit anticlimactic really - thousands of people waiting for a few lights to be turned on.   Those mid-westerners are easily impressed.

Country Club Plaza

Country Club Plaza - all lit up!

Friday came with a blast of cold air - it was in the 60’s on Thursday and then on Friday it was down in the 30’s - that is quite the steep cooling trend.  We made a quick visit to the Kemper Museum of Modern Art.   A nice museum, not very large, and free entry to all.   Then it was off to sample the famed Kansas City Barbecue.  One of the best places in town apparently is Oklahoma Joe’s - it was listed by Anthony Bourdain’s as one of the top 13 places to eat before you die, albeit at number 13 in that list. The place is in a strip mall in a converted gas station and, of course, we weren’t the only ones wanting to eat there - there was a line out of the door.  Our patience paid off with a wonderful selection of barbecue meats. Not something that I would want to eat all the time, but on this occasion, it was mouth-wateringly wonderful.

We then took a tour of the downtown area and wandered around in the older parts of town.  There are some remarkable buildings in KC.  Lots of great architecture - most of it old from the early 1900’s I would imagine, but then some great modern buildings too like the concert hall (the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts).  It looks like the older parts of downtown are being gentrified as they are in a lot of cities now and loft conversions were everywhere.   Everyone wants to live in a “loft” these days.

In the late afternoon we took a quick tour around the Nelson Atkins museum.   This is a larger museum/art gallery and, like the Kemper, totally free.   It stands in a large park and it has an old section and a more modern wing.   The modern wing is clad in this translucent skin and as night falls it looks quite amazing with the glowing light from the interior illuminating the building.

The Nelson Atkins Museum at dusk

The next morning Nancy wanted a photograph of the family for her Christmas Card so we were again off to the Nelson Atkins museum area to capture the perfect shot.  I must have taken 300 or so photographs of everyone in various poses and positions around the museum.  It was cold and it was windy so as the day progressed people’s patience was running short and their noses were getting redder.   I learned how difficult it was to get four people looking good for a photograph at the same time.  Particularly when three of them were women.  The guy Joey was just fine in every shot, but it was rare to get all the women happy with their faces or hair or posture at the same time.

One of the many photos

Later that day we toured the Union Station - like all the old railway stations this was an impressive structure.  It must have been a wonderful place when people traveled by train in large numbers.   Now of course there aren’t many travelers and it houses a few restaurants and shops.  There is a sad little waiting room off to the side for what remains of train travel in the US today.    

The Union Station was the site of the infamous Kansas City Massacre where 5 people were killed in an attempt to free a criminal in custody.  There is a memorial plaque outside the station and the scars on the entrance wall are allegedly bullet holes from the event.  If you read the details here you see it was a bit of a botched job by the FBI.

Union Station and Downtown Kansas City

On Sunday we did a couple more museums.   The first was the World War 1 Museum.  A monument and unexpectedly good museum telling the story more from the American viewpoint.  A great guided tour too and I even felt I learned a lot (e.g. I didn’t know that Germany approached Mexico to join in and attack the USA.   Pretty bold move on Germany’s part).

The second museum was the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, just 10 miles up the road from Kansas City.  That was my first visit to a Presidential Library and I was suitably impressed.   The whole span of Truman’s life was laid out.   He made some tough decisions during his presidency and he set the ball rolling for a more interventionist USA.   It was fascinating to imagine Truman returning from Washington to live in little old Independence Missouri.  It is not a very impressive town - bit of a dump really.

Nancy, Harry Truman, Arden

I left Nancy on Sunday evening to return home.  Alas it was not a smooth trip - delayed flight out of Kansas City, late arrival in SFO, missed connection to Sacramento, night in the airport, fog delayed departure from SFO to Sacramento the next day.   I haven’t had a bad travel experience like that for some time.

Again, there are more photos here.

Formula One Grand Prix - Austin, Tx - November 2012

The weekend of 17, 18 November was the penultimate F-1 Grand Prix of 2012 held in Austin, Texas.   My friend Dave who lives in Austin had secured some tickets and since I had always wanted to go to an F-1 event I splurged on a weekend pass for the three days (Friday practice, Saturday practice and qualifying, and the race on Sunday).   

View of Track from the top of the tower

This was the first time Formula 1 had been back to America since Indianapolis in 2007 and the Austin people had built a fine new track just for the event - the Circuit of the Americas.   It was all very impressive, though I gather there had been all sorts of complications along the way to completing the project and it was touch and go whether things would go ahead for a while.   They pulled it all together in the end and from what I could see they did a fine job.

My outbound trip was not that smooth, I missed a connection in Denver that necessitated a diversion through Houston and a late arrival in Austin.  As a result I missed the Friday practice session.  Nevertheless I did get into Austin on Friday night and had the pleasure of seeing the finishing touches being applied to my friend Dave’s new house on Lake Travis.   It was the first night they had stayed in the house and things were a hive of activity getting ready for guests on that first night.

On Saturday morning we went out to the track for the qualifying sessions.  Dave had a friend who put together a bus to take about 25 of us out to the track.  That was the nice and relaxing way to do it and we didn’t have to worry about driving and parking.  

Looking down to Pit Lane from Turn 1

The track itself was quite impressive and so were the crowds. Formula 1 has some hard core fans that pay some serious money to visit these events.   I avoided paying $50 for a Red Bull T shirt, or $150 for a slicker Ferrari shirt.  As you can imagine all the concessions were seriously overpriced.  I did shell out $35 to get to the top of the tower in the middle of the track.  It provides a nice view of the entire course and the surrounding area.  

We parked ourselves at Turn 1 for the first qualifying.   An impressive tight turn at the top of a hill where they slow from 200 Km/hr to next to nothing (or so it seems) to make the corner.  For the second and third qualifying sessions I went to our seats in the Grandstand area - across from the pits and on a high speed straightaway

Its all very exciting stuff - the kind that makes shivers go down your spine - the speed, the noise, the technology.... wonderful stuff.  Of course, I soon realized I had no clue which car was which - all the Red Bulls and Toro Rossos looked the same, I couldn’t even differentiate the Ferraris.   I had to brush up on the car’s livery and then figure out that a color coding on the camera on top of the car identifies the different drivers on the same team.  

Qualifying looked a piece of cake for Vettel and the Red Bulls, though Hamilton did squeeze in between Vettel and Webber for second place on the starting grid.

That night we were joined by a couple more old friends from the late 70’s when we were all working together in Sacramento.   We had Dave Close (our host), Dave Vaughan (from Sacramento), Mike Meadows (from Houston), Geoff Stephenson (now in Austin) and myself - five old geezers reminiscing about the old days and the good times we had.

Dave Close, Mike Meadows, Dave Vaughan

For Sunday’s race we again went out by bus.  The traffic was quite bad getting in.   They haven’t built any infrastructure like new roads to the track as yet.

It was amazing to see we had protesters picketing outside of the entrance.  The infamous Westboro Baptist Church had decided that the worshippers of F1 race car drivers are evil and will go to hell.  They had all sorts of hateful placards on the road to the track.   Still I suppose that’s better than what they are more notorious for - the picketing of US soldiers funerals.

One of the Red Bulls - Vettel or Webber

The race itself was pretty exciting - the noise alone was amazing.   Ear plugs are essential.  While we did have good seats, across from the pit lane, we didn’t get to see much beyond cars flying by. There was little to no overtaking on our stretch.   The 3 second tire changes in the pits in front of us were impressive to watch however.

Vettel flying by our seats

Vettel and Hamilton were in a battle throughout the race and Hamilton just managed to squeeze by the German about ⅔ through the race.   He then held the lead to the finish.  Alonso was a distant third, keeping the championship alive for the last race next week in Brazil.

My final challenge of the weekend was to find my ride to the airport.   Since it was expected to be a slow exit and since the bus was not going to the airport, I had arranged for another friend to take me there.  All well and good, but where was this person - he wasn’t sitting with us and there were 120,000 people there all rushing for the same exits.  Cell service was so overloaded calls were not going through, texts were taking ages to get through.   I had abandoned the bus way out and now couldn’t find my friend.  That caused me some anxiety, until we finally made phone contact and were able to guide each other to a rendezvous.

All in all a great weekend.  And while watching a race on the TV is the best way of seeing everything and receiving expert commentary, being there was pretty exciting. 

As usual here are some more photos.

Mexico City Weekend - November 2012

In November, Nancy and I spent a long weekend in Mexico City. Mexico City is perhaps not the normal weekend getaway you might think of but I thought this would be a good birthday present for Nancy’s 60th.   Leaving Sacramento on the Thursday evening we flew through the night to Mexico City arriving in a somewhat weary state just after 5:00 am on Friday morning.  Our hotel was the Gran Hotel Ciudad Mexico a wonderful place on the the main square (Zocalo) in the old part of town.  It was a work of art in itself - originally built as a department store in the late 1800’s and since remodeled as a hotel, the interior has an open area with a stained glass roof that is truly spectacular.  One of the guidebooks said it was by Tiffany, but apparently not, Tiffany style maybe but it was made by a Frenchman - Jacques Gruber who did a lot of that sort of thing.

Stained Glass Ceiling - Gran Hotel

We were lucky in getting an early check in (for a price) and were able to sleep for an hour or so before we took on the City.   We also got ‘upgraded’ to a room overlooking the square, the Zocalo - a nice upgrade until we realized that the square was the place for that evening’s Day of the Dead celebrations and so the square and our room were not the quietest of places.   Not to worry though we were so exhausted we could have slept through anything.

After a brief rest we set off to explore the city.  We decided the first destination would be the Aztec temples at Teotihuacan some 50 miles to the north of the city.   We negotiated a deal with a taxi driver to take us all the way to the pyramids, wait a couple of hours and then bring us back - that seemed to be the most practical and convenient for us and the driver threw in a couple of other stops on the way - the Plaza de Tres Culturas and the Basilica of Guadalupe.   The Plaza de Tres Culturas is so named because it has structures from the Pre-Colombian, Spanish Colonial and Independent Mexico periods - interesting but not all that remarkable.  

Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of those Catholic holy sites where some apparition occurred to a peasant guy back in the 16th Century.  All very dubious stuff, but it now is a center for pilgrimage with an old colonial church and a nice new modern one.  Popes visit there regularly.  I find these wonderful old colonial churches just amazing and never tire of walking around them.  The Catholic Church in the 16th and 17th century really did a lot to boost tourism in these modern times.

Pyramids of Teotihuacan

From the Basilica we continued our way to Los Pyramides at Teotihuacan.  The pyramid site is quite extensive with two pyramids (Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon) and lots of associated streets and buildings.  While it is a fairly spectacular site I must say I wasn’t in awe of them in any way.  Yes, it was quite the construction project but after a climb up to the top of the largest pyramid (Pyramid of the Sun), I was ready to get back to Colonial Mexico City proper with its churches and fine buildings.

Zocalo at evening from the Cathedral Bell Tower

Back in Mexico City we dined on the rooftop of our hotel overlooking the main square, the Plaza de la Constitution, or Zocalo as it is called (Zocalo means base and after Mexican Independence, President Santa Anna wanted to build a monument in the square - they built the base but the monument never got finished and so ‘base’ became the name of the plaza).  November 1st and 2nd were the Days of the Dead so there was a lot of activity down on the square.  With the cathedral and all the fine colonial buildings surrounding the square, the huge Mexican Flag flying in the middle and thousands of people milling around, it was quite a sight.

Cathedral on the Zocalo

After our late lunch we wandered some more around the square and visited the Cathedral.   What an amazing structure the Cathedral is - the largest Cathedral in the Americas and just so elaborate and ornate inside.   The building was started in the late 16th Century and continued until the 1800’s.  Since the old part of town is built on an old lake bed, it is prone to subsidence. Many of the old buildings, including the cathedral are subsiding and leaning to one side.   It is very off putting to see some columns vertical and others leaning slightly.  Presumably if it survived the 1985 earthquake it should be stable enough for our visit.

We took a guided tour of the cathedral bell towers that proved to be very interesting.  It was nearly nightfall as we went up the bell towers and we had this amazing view of the activities in the square below.  Then there was a demonstration of bell ringing which was a treat for the ears.  We were standing beneath all these bells in the tower (perhaps 8 or 10 in total) and they were all ringing together - deafening but really impressive.   After that we were allowed out on to the cathedral roof - we just wandered around - not much in the way of health and safety concerns there - just don’t do anything stupid.

That evening we strolled around the streets of the old town.  Being the Day of the Dead there was a lot of activity, lots of people and lots of weird and wonderful costumes - like Halloween on steroids.  Again it was another chance to marvel at all the old wonderful buildings in this part of Mexico City.   One of the finest of these was the Casa de los Azulejos (the Blue Tile House) which is now a restaurant and department store combination.  A beautiful building on the outside, covered in blue tiles, and on the inside a nice Orozco mural.  We drank a cocktail in the bar while being entertained by a pianist and opera singer who were entertaining the crowds below from a balcony in the bar.

The Blue Tile House

Back at the hotel for the night the party in the Zocalo was going full swing, but we were far too tired to notice.

Saturday morning we awoke to an empty square and a nice blue sky and we did more walking around the old part of town.  We paid a visit to the Central Post Office, known as the Palacio de Correos de Mexico, and a Palace it certainly was.   We don’t make post offices like that any more.
 

Palacio de Correos de Mexico

From the Post Office we moved across the street to the equally impressive Palacio de Bellas Artes.  Another real treasure with a series of murals by Diego Rivera inside.

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Next stop was a trip to the top of the Torre LatinAmericana, for a bird’s eye view of the city.  It was good to get some sense of the size and layout of the city but really all we got was a sense of the bad air quality as the city just disappeared into the haze.

The afternoon started with a visit to the Palacio National.   This building on the east side of the Zocalo houses the federal government.  It has an impressive frontage on the square but inside it is even more beautiful with courtyards, gardens, an art gallery, and more murals by Diego Rivera.  I do so like his stuff.

We had a nice lunch on a rooftop cafe behind the Cathedral and the Templo Mayor (the Aztec temple complex in the heart of the old town) then we moved out of the old district to our digs for our second night out in the El Cosme area.   That move was not quite so straightforward.  There was something called the Zombie Walk going on - something to do with Day of the Dead where they were parading along the streets in costume and all manner of gory makeup.   This kind of hindered our movement and when we got in the Metro station the line for tickets was so long we gave up and got in a taxi.  That was when we experienced Mexico City traffic at it’s worst.   For what seemed like ages we crawled along sometimes only one car moving through an intersection per light change.  It was very tedious and frustrating sitting in a taxi as the meter went up and we went nowhere.  

After what seemed like ages we finally got out of the crush and were safely delivered to our new digs, a B and B called El Patio 77.  A nice remodeling of an old building, quite small but very nicely done.   

That evening we walked to the La Reforma district (the main business and banking area) and found a delightful French restaurant for Nancy’s birthday dinner.  Just perfect.

On Sunday, our last day in the city, we went out to one of the suburban areas, Coyoacan, where Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera lived, and where Trotsky spent the last years of his life.   We took the Metro from where we were staying out to Coyoacan.   The Metro is a great way to get around - at 3 pesos per trip it is affordable for everyone and everyone seems to use it. Even on Sunday morning the trains were frequent and very crowded.

In Coyoacan, Frida K’s house is now open to the public.  You can see lots of her art work and her studio and how she lived.   There is her wheelchair parked in front of her easel, her back brace, her crutches, and, of course, her ashes in a jar on a table.   The poor lady was quite tormented both mentally and physically during her life.  One of the interesting things was a shelf with two ceramic clocks - one with the hands at the time when she divorced Diego (he wasn’t the most faithful of husbands) and another with the hands on the time when she remarried him for the second time.

Frida Kahlo's Studio

Clocks marking the divorce and remarriage

A few blocks from Frida’s home was the refuge of Trotsky, which is also now a museum.  Alas Mr and Mrs Trotsky didn't have the same flair for interior decor or art as Frida and Diego did. The house was fortified with bricked up windows and what look like gun turrets on the corner. I guess the poor guy was pretty restricted in what he could do and where he could go in later years.  There were several attempts on his life before the last successful one with the ice axe to the back of the head and he lived in this house with his family, a few friends and his bodyguards.   Stalin and his cronies managed to get Trotsky and just about all his family members by the time they were done.

Trotsky's Bedroom - bullet hole in wall (they missed)

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Coyoacan, which is a beautiful little neighbourhood.  

Around 3:00 we set off back to the hotel to pick up our bags and take a taxi to the airport.  An uneventful flight back via Houston to Sacramento.   All in all a wonderful weekend.   Mexico City is a great city, and you really need more than a long weekend to see it.  Nevertheless, we did a lot and we had a great time.

There are more photos here on SmugMug.

Rowing down the Thames - August 2012

At the end of August Nancy and I went over to the UK to visit my mother in Derbyshire, and also to take a little trip down the Thames in a rowing boat.  

The trip was inspired by the "Three Men in a Boat" TV series with Griff Rhys Jones et al, which in turn was inspired by the Jerome K. Jerome book "Three Men in a Boat".  The vessel of choice for this trip was a vintage Thames Camping Skiff just like in the TV Series and in the book.  Just to get things straight we were sculling not rowing - in sculling the oarsman has a pair of oars, one in each hand while in rowing there is only one oar per person.

We rented our boat for the week from Tom at Thames Skiff Hire and he delivered it to Oxford on the Monday morning - a wet Monday morning.  Our particular boat was named Edward and Edward was quite old - 140 years old in fact.  Among other things it has been used by Sir Steven Redgrave and it is a regular participant in the Queen's Swan Upping event not to mention roles it had in the movie "Shakespeare in Love".  It was a three person boat and we were only two, but we were told by Tom that a larger boat would be more comfortable for camping - did I mention we would be sleeping on the boat?   However a three person boat is heavier and takes more effort to row, a factor that I considered more than once in the following days.

Our boat - Edward

We had a very cursory education in the various bits of the boat and how to erect the camping cover.  It was not a complicated affair - a seat for the helmsman, and a couple of seats for the oarsmen, some oars, a paddle, and some poles to fend off or hold on to the sides of the river.  The most complicated thing was the canvas canopy that converted the open rowing skiff into a covered boat suitable for sleeping or rowing in the rain.  My step-brother had bet me that we couldn’t install the cover while the boat was in the river, and after seeing how it was done onshore in a stable environment, I think he was right.   We left the frames and cover tied up over the boat the entire time.   It was just easier with it that way to get protection from the rain and sun and to set up for the evening’s camp.

It was raining as we were rigging up the boat on shore and the forecast for the week was miserable so, to say the least, I was a bit apprehensive.  Fortunately, by the time we were ready to set off the rain had abated and we had a brief respite while we got underway and got our act more or less together.

The Thames being navigable up to Lechlade has numerous locks and we weren’t rowing long before we encountered one.  We didn’t get much instruction on how to handle the boat through a lock, so we were floundering around a bit.  It took us two or three locks before we got the hang of things but by the end of the week we were getting compliments from the lock keepers on our skillful handling of the boat.

All the locks on this part of the Thames are manned with Lock Keepers during the daytime so we did not get a chance to manipulate the sluices and gates ourselves, we just floated into the lock and they did all the work.  Not that it was a lot of work - all were electrically operated so it was really just pressing buttons in the right order.   All the Lock Keepers were really friendly and accomodating and I found myself thinking what a great job they have.

Exiting one of the locks

Our first day on the river was a short one - we didn’t get started until 1:00 pm and we wanted to get sorted out for the night before nightfall.   So we decided to tie up near the villages of Culham and Sutton Courtenay which are about 9 miles downstream from Oxford.  Our neighbours for the night were a couple living and traveling on a narrow boat (lots of people appeared to be doing this).  They were very nice and presented us with a pot of tea, sugar and milk on a tray while we stumbled around securing our boat.  All very civilized.

Our boat with the cover up for the night.

Rather than sleep on the boat the first night we decided to pitch our tent beside the river bank - it would be a more familiar environment rather than negotiating a boat exit in the middle of the night if nature called.  We had heard of a fine Michelin starred restaurant in Sutton Courtenay so we set off for some well-earned fine dining.   Alas the Michelin starred restaurant was closed on Mondays.  What was worse the other two pubs in town were not serving food since it was a Bank Holiday.  From the highest of expectations for Michelin starred food we had to resort to peanuts and crisps and a pint beer.

Despite the lack of food on a Monday, Sutton Courtenay was a nice village - it has the house of Asquith the Prime Minister from 1908 to 1916, the burial place of Asquith and of George Orwell.  The current residents include Tim Burton and Helena Bonham-Carter (they weren’t in the pub that night).

The next day, Tuesday, looked like it was going to be better weather.  It was a fine morning and we packed up camp and set off downstream.  For most of the day we were blessed with nice weather but, every now and again, the wind would pick up and the wind always seemed to be blowing upstream.  With all our rigging for the cover up top it seriously slowed down our progress.

By the middle of this second day we had learned a few things about how things would work on the trip.  In particular:

• how we had to make a decision to stop and just do it.  There was no making a pass to scout out a good mooring or a good pub and then rowing back upstream to the choicest spot.  That would be way too much effort.
• how moorings are few and far between in many places.  So much of the mooring space is private and not open to visitors tying up.
• how we need to keep rowing and how it is not really realistic to spend a lot of time sightseeing in nearby towns.   By the time we had moored, secured the boat and walked to town or a pub or a restaurant we had lost 2 or more hours.
• how sensitive the boat is to minor tweaks on the rudder and how you need to pay attention when you are at the helm.  We had a few diversions into the trees and bushes which can be difficult to extricate yourself from.
• how frustrating it can be when two independent minds have different views on which way to row and or navigate (but we worked through those).

A nice evening sleeping in the boat.

Tuesday night we made it to Moulsford which was at mile 24 for the trip and we decided to try our luck at  sleeping in the boat.  We put everything in the bow or the stern and lay down our sleeping pads in the bottom of the boat. We then had room to lie end to end in our sleeping bags.  With the cover down it is quite private, with the canopy pulled up on the river side, it was a nice view to go to sleep to.  It was all surprisingly comfortable.

That night we dined at the Perch and Pike in South Stoke.   A very nice meal indeed - all those critics of English Food just haven't been there lately.

The next day, Wednesday, was forecast to be wet, and the forecast came true.  We had a fair amount of rowing in the rain.  Fortunately it was not windy and the rain was coming straight down.  So with the boat’s canopy spread out to cover our heads we were actually quite dry.   We had a late breakfast/early lunch in Pangbourne and then pushed on through Tilehurst and Reading.

Coming from the USA where music festivals are not that common anymore and seeing all the facilities for the prior weekend’s Reading Festival was quite remarkable - they went on for miles and miles or so it seemed - parking lots, camping areas, multiple stages.   That must have been a seriously large music festival.

Since a good part of the day was spent in the rain we decided to stay in a hotel on Wednesday night.  The Great House in Sonning (mile 38) was convenient and had moorings close to the hotel so we took advantage of a warm dry room and a chance to get showered and clean.   That night we dined at the Bull in Sonning - Pig's Cheeks in a cream sauce. 

Thursday we pushed on down stream stopping in Henley for lunch and passing by Marlow and stopping for the evening in Bourne End.   We moored by the river in a park area downstream from the railway bridge and walked into Bourne End for dinner at The Walnut Tree - Fish Pie.   We were at mile 54 and we again slept in the boat.

Friday was a nice day and we made good progress early on.  We passed down one of the nicest stretches of the river known as the Cliveden Deep.  Looking back up this section you saw the most impressive Cliveden House. 

We stopped in Maidenhead for a late breakfast and moored just below the Maidenhead Railway Bridge.  This bridge turned out to be built by Brunel and it was/is the largest brick built bridge span - presumably in the whole world.  

Windsor and Eton came up next.   The castle at Windsor is impressive indeed, but the area felt way too touristy.   Lots of pleasure craft taking people on river tours, lots of people feeding way too many ducks and swans (very messy) and some weird looking Olympic Mascot on the fine old bridge between Eton and Windsor.  Very disappointing as I remember it being so nice when I visited there as a child.   

Windsor Castle from the Thames

Below Windsor there is a fine view from the river of the Royal Estate - a great park with a wonderful panorama of the castle in the distance.

That night we tied up below the Old Windsor Lock (mile 68).  The locks all have varying facilities and the Old Windsor Lock was well equipped.   For 6 pounds we got a mooring below the weir with toilets and for a further pound we got a hot water shower - just what we needed.  

Later in the evening we walked along the river bank for a mile or so to the Bells of Ouzeley - a disappointingly big modern pub.  Surprisingly the food was quite good and relatively cheap compared to what we had been paying.   

Saturday was our last day on the river and we had about 10 miles to cover.  We rowed past Runnymede (Magna Carta, JFK Memorial and all that), through the more urbanized areas of Staines, Chertsey and Weybridge and ended our trip in Walton on Thames.   Having stayed with dry feet for the entire trip, I slipped while pulling the boat out of the river and got wet feet for the drive home.
In total we did 78 miles of rowing - it was a great trip, one I would recommend to anyone.

Here are some more photos.

Brazil - August 2012

I made another work related trip to Brazil in August.  Just a one week trip and all work this time, no sightseeing just work.

I left Sacramento Sunday lunchtime to fly to Houston where later in the evening I caught my flight to Rio de Janeiro.  Flying through the night we arrived in Rio at 9:00 am and I did the switch to being a UK Citizen so that I could get into Brazil without a visa.  US Citizens need a visa to visit Brazil and that is a significant effort. 

At the airport there was a melee of drivers waiting to pick up passengers arriving on the flight – somewhere in the middle of the mass of people was my driver.   It’s not that I was some visiting VIP that warranted a driver, it’s just that that is what most companies do for there for their visitors.  Anyway after a couple of passes through the throng I located him skulking away at the back of the crowd and we were away on our way to Macae.   Macae is a town about 100 miles north east of Rio where a lot of the support activities for Brasil’s oil industry take place.

Of course the driver drove very aggressively the whole way – overtaking at every opportunity regardless of oncoming traffic or blind corners and following within a couple of feet of the vehicle in front whenever he couldn’t overtake.   It took a while to relax my grip on the edge of the seat and realize that this is the way everyone drives.

Macae from the hotel

Macae itself was very nice, not so congested as Rio, and I was taken to a very nice hotel by the beach.   Ocean views from the hotel room -  you can’t beat that.

The beach at Macae

The work was fairly uneventful.  The business meetings were pretty relaxed – everyone I met with was in jeans and a T-shirt or polo shirt - there never seemed to be any pressure to move things along or follow an agenda.  On my second day, I was kept waiting in the conference room for 2 hours before anyone came in to the meeting and it all just seemed perfectly natural to them.   By the end of the week I was quite used to just biding my time until someone came along to visit me.   Perhaps they would behave different if they were aware I was billing by the hour, but then, maybe not.

I was visiting two companies – Schahin in the first part of the week and Odebrecht in the second part.  Both are similar companies – large Brazilian conglomerates that have moved into the offshore drilling market to provide Brazilian content in a US dominated drilling contractor market.

At Odebrecht I was asked to visit one of their rigs undergoing acceptance testing just outside the harbor at Macae.  No problem I thought – I can see the rig from the shoreline here, it should be a nice short trip.   However I should have suspected something when they gave me some sea-sickness pills before I left the office on Wednesday evening.

Sure enough the next day the rig had moved further away and the promised 1 hr boat ride was in fact 1½ hours.   I tried to remain in control of my head and stomach, but after leaving the harbor area, we moved into some significant swells and the little boat was pitching about quite a lot.  I remained on the back deck, eyes glued on the horizon, trying not to think about how ill I felt.   We eventually made it to the rig – the imaginatively named ODN1 – one of the most modern dynamically position deep water drill ships around and truly a great piece of engineering.   I expected to be hoisted aboard without delay, but no.   Nothing happened.   We bobbed around like a cork in that sea and my distress continued.  

The ODN1

What I didn’t know at the time was that as I arrived at the rig, they started an Abandon Ship drill on the rig.  Of course no one can come aboard if they are rehearsing an exit from the rig.  Furthermore, the drill did not go so well.   They had to repeat it several times.   I remained on the boat for another 2 ½ hours for a total of 4 hours before they hoisted me aboard.   I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was curl up and sleep.   Alas no, it was now 12:00 noon, and my return boat was at 3:00 pm.  I really am getting too old for this kind of work.

Hoisting onto the rig from the boat

The actual hoisting onto the rig was, as always, an exciting adventure.   Being hoisted off the deck of a boat bobbing around in the swell and lifted a few hundred feet up in the air.  That’s always makes for a trip to remember.  The trip back was not so bad, at least it was shorter with no wait to disembark at the other end.  The Santa Ana islands looked nice in the late afternoon light and there were lots of Frigate Birds and Terns skimming over the tops of the waves doing their acrobatics.   I must have been feeling better to notice the birds.

The Santa Ana Islands

The boat trip was on Thursday.   Friday was a partial day in the office and then the late afternoon I was driven back to Rio for my flight.  We came into Rio at rush hour and that slowed things down a bit, but it was nice to observe how things work (or don’t work) there.  When the freeway slows up with heavy traffic, vendors come out into the lanes selling various snacks and goods.  So here you are on a major multi-lane highway and there is a young kid with a tray of snacks selling them to passing motorists.   However, there are still numerous motor cycles that are lane splitting and traveling quite fast moving between the cars and the vendors.  A very high risk profession if ever there was one.

It was an uneventful trip home, flying through the night to Houston and then on to Sacramento by lunchtime Saturday.

A few more photos are here on my Smugmug site.