Category: travel

brrrr

We just got back from a whirlwind trip down to visit John’s parents. John’s sister was visiting them, and John’s mother just had a birthday. Plus, coincidentally, my sister (from California) was in New York city for a couple of days for a trade show. So, a trip down to New York seemed in order.

We left Thursday night, after I got home from a really long day of teaching and meeting and commuting. We didn’t get on the road till about 8:30, which isn’t bad considering I got home at almost 7, and still had to pack and eat dinner. But it did mean an arrival time after midnight.

I then took the train into New York City to meet my sister Friday morning, and join her in checking out some retailers. (Actually, I don’t mean shopping, believe it or not. Though I did buy a bathtub drain stopper and some licorice. I lead a glamorous life like that.) I had a really fun time. This was the first time in years my sister and I just got to hang out together. With no babies or anything. It was rainy and windy and cold, and not really a great day for walking around outside. But walk around outside we did. I also took the opportunity to spend the time on the train reading a book for fun since I wasn’t lugging my laptop. I re-read Sara Caudwell’s The Shortest Way to Hades, one of my favoritistest books in the world.

John is going through a crazy-busy time for work now, and so we decided to come back home Saturday night. (It’s impossible for either of us to get stuff done when visiting John’s mother.) But first, we had the day with John’s sister, visited John’s Dad, then made a trip to my favorite restaurant in the universe. We then went back to John’s parents’ house, packed up, and were on the road by about 9:30 or 10:00.

Phoebe and I got to sleep most of the way home, which was great. Especially since, upon our arrival at home at 1:30 a.m., we found that the house was a nippy 50 degrees (that’s 10 degrees celsius). Our furnace had shut off at some point in the past couple days. We spent the next couple hours doing various things to speed up the warming process: turning on the oven, running space heaters in the bedrooms, and burning cardboard and whatever scrap wood we could find in the fireplace.

It was actually almost festive, with the roaring fire and the scavenging for amazon boxes and clementine crates. Phoebe had fun playing with her crayons while bundled up in a blanket nearish the fire. By 3:30, a space heater had brought Phoebe’s room up to a tolerable 60 degrees or so, and I managed to get her into her crib by 4. (We didn’t want to leave the space heater running in her room, so wanted to get the room warm before we left her in there.)

And I did sleep past 7:00 this morning, and seeing as I have no deadlines this weekend and have even read a book for fun and watched some TV, I now can lump myself in with those categories of people of which I was previously jealous. Hurray!

oof

Here I am again. Not home, but not where I was last time. We’re now down in New York to visit John’s parents for a post-Christmas Christmas celebration. Phoebe will find herself believing that Christmas is a holiday that features no fewer than 5 present-opening sessions…

We took the red eye back to Boston Thursday night, and our eyes were appropriately red when our flight landed at 6:00 a.m. on Friday. Phoebe got some sleep in my arms, but I couldn’t get too comfortable, largely because I was often trying to keep Phoebe from kicking or poking the passenger next to me, and well, because I had a toddler on my lap in a cramped space. (I was very resentful to see that there were empty seats on the plane, but that they weren’t offered to the people traveling with a toddler-in-lap.) John got no sleep. The flight was otherwise pretty uneventful, as was our drive back home from the airport. We were immensely relieved to see that the reported snow had melted from our driveway, and that we could pull in without shoveling and chiseling at ice.

The plan was to then pack up and head right down to New York, as one of John’s sisters was visiting his parents for a few days. Since John got no sleep on the flight, we deemed it wise to delay for a bit and get some sleep before the 4-ish hour drive. John went to bed after dealing with some work, and then I thought Phoebe and I could get some rest, too. However, seeing as Phoebe had actually slept on the plane (as well as while she was carried out of the plane, while we
got our bags, and went back to the car, not to mention more sleep in the car), she was less interested in sleep, and more interested in being reunited with her toys and books.

Anyhow, I did get about 3 hours of sleep yesterday, John got a bit more than that, and we headed down in the evening. We didn’t really even repack. We just unloaded a few gifts we’d received, and loaded up a few gifts to give, and lugged down our big suitcases full of dirty clothes. At least that way we knew we’d have what we needed.

We head back home tomorrow evening.

As you might guess, things have been rather busy. Good, but busy. I have spent whole days without even opening my laptop, and have had scant actual time to myself for the past couple of weeks that didn’t involve being in a bathroom. (A shower is a glorious thing, by the way.)

Work stuff has been piling up, which I’ll need to get to soon. I see that I have several important emails to respond to, which will involve some actual thinking. An important abstract is due in just over 2 weeks. I have loads to do to prepare for the course I’ll be co-teaching in January. (I’m in denial that January technically begins in a few days.) On the exciting front, though, John got me some really sweet recording equipment for Christmas that I’ll be able to use for my research. I now have a USB pre-amp to use with my laptop that was recommended by my advisor.

I also have over 500 unread blog posts. I think I need to cut down. (But I’ll try to drop in a say “hello” over the next few days. Even if I have to take my laptop into the shower to accomplish this.)

half-brained

Tonight, my brain is tired. Very tired. Sleep deprived. Stressed.

We’ve come down to New York to visit John’s parents, since we haven’t been down here since before our big trip to Europe. It’s been about 2 months. We drove down last night. Left later than we meant. Hit more traffic than we anticipated. Arrived after midnight.

Phoebe slept in the car on the way down. And I largely did, too. (You’ll be happy to know that I wasn’t the one driving.) So the car sleep was dandy. But then, we were up. And visiting with Phoebe’s Grammy. And there were new toys. (Actually, some old toys that were John’s when he was little. But exciting and new to Phoebe.) There were delays of getting our stuff together, and putting together the travel crib.

Before we knew it, it was 2:00 a.m. While this may still be before last call at some bars, it’s a time of day that some might consider to be late for a toddler to be up. So we worked on winding back down. Pajamas. Reading books. A sippy cup of milk.

But Phoebe would not wind down. NOT. Nope. Nuh-uh. She was Awake. Wired. And when she realized that we were conspiring towards getting her into bed, she was also Not Happy. We had screaming and sobs the likes of which we had not seen or heard in many a month. The long and short of it was that it was 4:00 before she (and we) got to sleep.

She did sleep as late as 8:00 this morning, but all in all, it wasn’t enough sleep for her. So it was a bit of a rough day. And then tonight, we got home late too. (From visiting John’s dad and then picking up dinner from my favorite restaurant in the universe.) Not as late, but Phoebe had fallen asleep in the car and was Unhappy to be Awake, but Unwilling to be Asleep.

So the upshot is that now I am tired. And feel that I barely have half a brain left with which to function. But I did come across this test at Azahar’s place that lets me know a bit more about the halves of my brain. (Apparently, I’m supposed to have two halves.) It looks like I’m more right-brained. I thought I was more half-and-half brained. Or perhaps sometimes just half-brained.


You Are 30% Left Brained, 70% Right Brained


The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning.
Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others.
If you’re left brained, you are likely good at math and logic.
Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet.

The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility.
Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way.
If you’re right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art.
Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

photos from the Völklingen Ironworks

As you may know, I just got back from a 2 week trip to Europe, involving a week in Saarbrücken, Germany and a week in Paris (the one in France). On Wednesday two weeks ago we made a trip from Saarbrücken over to the town of Völklingen to visit the legendary ironworks there. The conference I was attending had a half day, giving me a bit of an opportunity for some site-seeing. John, Phoebe and I took the train over in the afternoon, leaving a bit later than we’d planned. The trains left twice an hour, making it a pretty stress-free trip, though. And then the actual train ride was only about 10 minutes, and then the ironworks was only about 5 minutes on foot from the Völklingen train station.

The Völklinger Hütte, or the Völklingen Ironworks, is an enormous relic of the boom of the industrial age. First built in 1873, and with many additions over the following decades, it was last operational in 1986. It was named a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 1994, and was opened to the public in 2000.

With the listing of the Völklinger Hütte as the first industrial monument on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites list a new phase begins in the history of the ironworks. It is the only surviving ironworks in the world from the heyday of iron and steel production and a unique testimony to an industrial epoch of the past.

It is really hard to grasp the enormity of the ironworks. It spreads over 100 acres, and the parts of the monument that are open to the public now contain over 5 kilometers of paths and walkways for visitors to explore.

The ironworks looms on the horizon like a surrealist matte painting from a science fiction movie, its dark, hulking presence and complex shape seeming improbable. With its domed towers and elaborate tangles of pipes and tubes, it has a nearly organic look. Up close, it becomes even more awe-inspiring. Now out of service for 2 decades, the domes and towers and tubes are all covered with a patina of rust, layers of paint from decades past peeling away, plants and even trees growing in crevices and on high platforms. I found myself awed by not only by the size and scope of the place, but also by its unexpected beauty. I was startled to find myself describing a place so forboding and monstrously large as beautiful.

Everywhere we looked was something interesting to see. The colors, the textures, the lines. The oversized machinery, enormous gears and tracks. The dangling chains, and exposed wiring. We spent a couple of hours there, but could have stayed many more. We only walked the lower paths and walkways, not having time to climb to the towers and high paths before the monument closed.

I’ve put together a selection of some photos I took on our visit, and I’ve posted a slideshow. Here’s a bit of a sampling of some of the photos:

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We had some good food in Völklingen, too, by the way. There is a restaurant called Platform 11 3/4 in the old train station building, which is right next to the current train station building. The building was very cool, and they seem to have some sort of theater in it. (Possibly for puppet shows?) The staff was very friendly, and our waitress helped us navigate the menu for things we could eat. (They actually had vegetarian options marked out as “rabbit food,” or the German equivalent, which was handy.) The food was creative, and more importantly, quite good. I had vegetable ravioli served on a bed of lentils in a creamy basil sauce. John had some other pasta dish, which I’ve already forgotten the details of. We shared a salad with mixed field greens, cherries, nuts and warm goat cheese streudel.

We also had some good salads for lunch at a little ma & pa seafood restaurant we passed while straying into the town in search of food. The salads, which caught our eye in as we passed the restaurant’s glassed-in counter, had a nice selection of raw veggies, plus some potato salad (Kartoffelsalat!) and a bit of hard-boiled egg. The whole thing was topped with a light yogurt dressing. One of the vegetables was one that I wasn’t able to identify: it was a shredded, or thinly julienned, crispy white vegetable. I wondered if it might have been some sort of large radish or maybe turnip. It was definitely neither celeriac nor kohlrabi. The texture reminded me a bit of jicama. There were also some other sliced crunchy bits that reminded me a lot of bok choi, which I didn’t expect to find in a German salad.

Here’s a picture of my Salat:

salat.jpg

Phoebe’s park adventure

Phoebe had a grand time on her big trip to Europe. She particularly enjoyed those times when she got to stretch her legs and walk around, which didn’t happen often enough for her. I’ve put together a short movie (less than 2 minutes) of one of Phoebe’s Paris park romps, using some footage taken by my mother.

retour de France (und von Deutschland)

We’re back home now, as of about 6:00 p.m., after a fairly long but blissfully uneventful travel day. (No delays, no lost belongings, no mishaps to speak of.) I just put Phoebe to bed in her own room, in her own crib. I will probably keep this short, as it is 2:00 in the morning according to the way my own internal clock has been set. (I just dozed off holding Phoebe, sitting in the glider up in her room.)

It is good to be home, and to be reunited with my laptop. I hope to catch up soon in my blog reading, as well as in responding to comments. (Thanks for all those comments I got during my trip, by the way. Yay, comments!) I really spent almost no time on the computer during the trip, aside from those couple posts, and time uploading photos. I have a bunch of things I want to write about that are trip-related, many of which could turn into posts at some point. Here, have a list:

  • descriptions of food I ate (especially during two final days of gluttony)
  • reflections on using my rusty French (it came back more easily than I thought, but sometimes a bit messily)
  • thoughts on returning to France 18 years after I lived there last (there have been lots of changes)
  • a bit about renting an apartment in Paris for a vacation (it was great)
  • a rundown of activities and sites seen (with photos)
  • a guide to Paris highlights from Phoebe’s perspective (Pigeons!)
  • a few thoughts on our lost stroller, and the sucky replacement one we bought

I’m really going to miss being in Paris. It was wonderful to be able to walk everywhere. To barely leave the building to find all sort of activities. And food. I would have liked more time in Germany, too. The trip went far too quickly. And soon my life will catch up with me again, and I’ll realize that I haven’t done any work in the last couple of weeks, that there were bills I forgot to pay before leaving, that I missed the registration deadline for school, that the house is a mess and that there are another dozen or so commitments and projects that are waiting for me to get back to them. But for now, I’ll just get some sleep, and remain cheerfully ignorant of all those things.

a few postcards from Paris

Seeing as I should get to bed soon, and haven’t had much time to write, I thought I’d post a few pictures. We safely arrived in Paris on Saturday, and met up with my mother, who had kindly already tracked down our apartment and keys by the time we arrived.

Our apartment is located on a very busy, but largely pedestrian, street with lots of cafés and bars. Here’s a view of the street:

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The apartment itself is up on the fifth floor of the building, and deep in the building, so that you’d have no idea that we were so near a busy street. There are courtyards on both sides. Here’s the view from the living room side of the apartment:

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We’ve been doing some sight-seeing, but nothing too focused so far. We went to the Musée d’Orsay this afternoon, but upon seeing the long line, decided to head back in the morning. Here is the Musée, and the long line we didn’t stand in.

dorsay_line.jpg

Much of the trip has involved tracking down food. We managed to get to an outdoor market this morning, in hopes of getting lots of good fresh produce and yummy cheeses. The market itself was a bit of a bust, with very few stalls. (And no cheese!) It was nothing like the markets of Versailles and St. Germain-en-Laye that my mother and I knew better. We did buy a few zucchinis, some artichokes, and some fairly squished fruit. A I got a picture that made it look more interesting than it was:

market.jpg

I have yet to eat a sufficient number of crêpes, cheese and pastries, but I have at least had a few chaussons aux pommes, and some good baguettes.
Off to bed with me now.

Saalütations from Saarbrücken

I have just a couple minutes before we run out to forage for some dinner-type food, but I thought I’d check in. My poster is now done. As is the whole conference. It was a great conference, and I had fun with the poster. I tend to forget how tiring it is to give a poster, though, and I actually lost my voice for a bit. What with the talking for an hour and 40 minutes. Plus I was, and this may come as a bit of a shock, a bit sleep-deprived. But, it went well.

It was actually quite remarkable that we had the physical poster to put up. One of my co-authors was bringing it, and had left it in her office in Massachusetts. Her husband went and retrieved it, and FedExed it. It was due to arrive Monday. And it did, in fact, arrive in Germany by Monday. But not to the correct city. Somehow, it managed to find its way to us yesterday, in time for today’s poster session. I did not need to resort to scribbling a poster with crayons

We head to Paris tomorrow, which I’m very excited about. By TGV, if all goes according to plan. (We do have the tickets this time…)

I’d hoped to post a bit before now, but have had sort of minimal access to computers. We brought John’s laptop, but there has been little “free” time. Then somebody, somebody cute and small, though I won’t name names…somebody stepped on the laptop yesterday. Leading to a compressed trackpad button, requiring some purchasing of some tools, and then some taking aparting of the laptop. But it’s better now, though still a bit crushed.

Now we must go find some dinner. It’s been a bit of a challenge to find tasty food, as German cooking tends to be rather meat-oriented. And we are not. Meat-oriented. The various university places have had vegetarian options, but, well, it’s pretty much been cafeteria food. We found a good restaurant Wednesday night, while off on an excursion to a nearby city named Völklingen. (I’ll hopefully write about that trip soon.) There is also a vegetarian restaurant here in Saarbrücken, but the food is pretty heavy. Maybe we’ll head back there. I’m also bound and determined to get me some tasty baked goods, which I have yet to do.

the arrival: loss, losers, and a whole lot of lugging

Here we are, safely and comfortably settled in Saarbrucken. It’s day 2 of our trip. Or is it day 3? Well, it’s Monday night. I know that much. I guess that does make it day 3. It’s just that we’ve only had one actual night of sleeping in a room with walls and, you know, a bed.

Ah, beds. How we do take them for granted. Until the point where we’ve spent 24 hours or so sitting in various car, plane and train seats, or floors, not to mention walking and standing…

The trip here was…long. Not terrible. But well…long.

Day 1: Leaving home

We left home around 2:00 p.m., drove to the airport and checked in without incident. We were very happy to find out that the flight was underbooked, so we got to sit in a row with a free seat. It was fabulous news considering Phoebe would otherwise have been only in our very crowded laps.

The flight was good, though it involved too little sleep. I tend to forget how chaotic and noisy flights are, what with the beverage and meal service and people getting up and moving around. And with the lights on. It was almost as if people weren’t scheduling their activities around Phoebe’s bed time. Could that be possible?

Phoebe was very good overall, though too interested in what was going on. There was a bit of crying here and there, but not for too long overall. She was almost asleep when dinner was delivered. And then she perked right up and wanted my cantaloupe. I tried covering up my food to keep it from calling to Phoebe, but eventually worried the flight attendants would think this meant I was finished and snatch up my tray before I could eat. So eventually, John held Phoebe while I ate. Which Phoebe did not like. (Translation: she cried.) I shoveled the food in, some sort of lentil-ish loaf and mashed potatoes (the “special” dinner), and what was left of my cantaloupe, to a soundtrack of Phoebe’s various sad and angry vocal stylings. But then Phoebe settled in John’s arms before I finished eating, and eventually fell asleep. She slept well enough that we could transfer her to my arms at some point.

The flight was long, but seemed too short once Phoebe finally fell asleep, around 9:00 p.m. by our time. Meaning about 4 hours before our scheduled arrival in Paris. And then the lights came back on and the chaos started up again about an hour before landing, what with breakfast service and all.And then, before we knew it, we were on the descent.

Day 2: arrival in Paris (and departure)
So there we were on the ground at Paris, CDG. And we gathered up our big piles of stuff and eventually got off the plane. There were quite a lot of other babies and small children on the flight, and it was funny to see that most of those other families were also slow getting off the plane. And we headed out of the plane, and expected to see our stroller, which we’d checked at the gate. It wasn’t there. Neither were any of the many other gate-checked strollers. We hung around for a bit, with the gathering small crowd of baby-toting people, until we finally got the news that all the strollers had all been sent to baggage claim, as everybody “had already left.” Everybody, I thought, except for all the people travelling with small children!

So, we headed off to clear immigration and customs, joining the end of the line with the rest of the baby people. And I was crankily muttering to John that it defeated the purpose of checking strollers at the gate when they have the stroller sent off to baggage claim. And John said something like: “If that’s the worst thing that happens on this trip, it will be a pretty good trip.”

An excellent point.

But it turns out this was not the worst thing that happened to our stroller. We don’t actually know what happened to our stroller. Everybody else got their stroller. Ours didn’t appear. Apparently, the very cranky agent at the desk in Boston misdirected our stroller. I didn’t notice when she handed me my receipt that she’d written LAX (that’s LA) and some other possibly non-existent flight number, rather than CDG and our flight number. And sadly, we didn’t even have a name tag on the stroller. When I asked the agent if I could put my name on it, she just said, “I’ll take it now.” I complied. That was all she said to me, before she scribbled on a tag, and handed me the receipt, all the while ranting to a coworker about the crappy day she was having. I slunk off without even reading the tag. Was it spite?

So, our stroller is probably gone. It was a very nice stroller. Nicer than American Airlines (losers) will be willing to reimburse us for, according to the lost baggage agent. They offered us a loaner, some poor other soul’s lost stroller, from all appearances. But that sad little thing wouldn’t even open. I thought we’d be better off without it. We can apparently get reimbursed for up to 50 U.S. dollars for a new stroller. There was the possibility that they would be able to find the stroller, and get it to us.

So, off we stumbled and lugged. Happily, we’d at least brought our new lightweight carrier for Phoebe, so we were able to manage our luggage with Phoebe on my back. We had to get moving to get the train station to make our way to Saarbrucken, Germany.

We took the RER to Gare du Nord, then the Metro to Gare de l’Est, which was where we planned to take the newly opened TGV line, a super-duper fast train, direct to Saarbrucken. Notice how I used the past tense there…planned. Because, you see, all the TGV trains, for the day were sold out. One can purchase tickets in advance. However, I hadn’t. Unbeknownst to me, one can only purchase online at least 5 days in advance. Once I got my act together to buy, our departure was 4 days away.

No big deal, I thought. We’ll buy our tickets at the station.

But.

It turns out that not only were all the fast trains sold out for the day, so were the usual slow routes. What the agent finally arranged for us was to get a 2:00 train, after a 3 hour wait, to Nancy. Followed by a train to Metz. Followed by a train to Forbach. And then a train to Saarbrucken. Count ’em, my friends. 3 changes, 4 trains. Plus 2 suitcases, 2 backpacks, a diaper bag, and one very tired toddler. Anyone care to do the math?

That’s all I have time for now. I’ll write more when I have a chance. For now I’ll say that I’m actually having a great time, in spite of various inconveniences. The first day of the conference was good, and tonight I get to sleep in a bed. Which I should do now, because it’s way, way too late. And because I really appreciate having a bed to sleep in.

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Phoebe enjoyed looking at the planes at the airport.

p.s. If you are a relative of mine, and wondering why I haven’t emailed, it’s because I can’t manage to get to my email just now. I managed to check it just fine, but haven’t been able to get back on for the last few hours. I’ll try again tomorrow.