Walygator!

Despite the fact that France is a mere 20 minute drive from my house, I had yet to set foot there during my first 9 months of Luxembourg. However, in early June that streak came to a sudden halt when for a family work function we headed out to the pride of Metz, France.... Walygator!

5 steps above The Seattle Center Fun Forest, 2 miles behind Disneyland, the formula for this amusement park seemed simple:

Take 1 part standard amusement park:

Sprinkle in a healthy portion of Disneyland-esque cartoony stuff for the kids (ah, and adults):

Just a dash of stereotypical Western images for entertainment value:

And bake it all with a heaping helping of French (okay, so I don't have a good picture of what that would be, but trust me, it was there):


and you have achieved Walygator!

To be fair the fact that the park was rented out privately for our work function meant no lines at all and the presence of good BBQ food plus unlimited beer and champagne made the experience pretty okay...even if it had what must be the world's lamest haunted house. The tree might not be happy, but the dork in the red shirt seemed to have a good time.

Cheers!

Where have I seen this before?

Another weekend, another country (please, do not weep for me). My explorations of Europe and my fandom of Dave Matthews brought me to Portugal for a weekend that was both extremely unique and yet very familiar.

The plan for this long weekend was simple: two nights in Lisbon, the second of which we would see Dave Matthews Band, followed by a 3 hour road trip to the southern coast of Portugal for 2 nights in the beach town of Lagos to get some sun and do some relaxing. But like I said, this trip was both familiar and unique.

The familiar:

Hey, it’s Timmy! Haven’t seen him for awhile!

The unique:

Taking aim over Lisbon from up above on Castle of Sao Jorge.

The familiar:

That bridge looks familiar....where have I seen it before? Hmmmmm. Not only were there similiarites in the bridges, but one of the most fun things to do in Lisbon is ride their rickety trollies across the city. After factoring in the weather we got (ah, see those beautiful clouds), and it really felt like deja vu.

The unique:

Heading to the edge of Europe with nothing but the Atlantic Ocean between the continent and the New World.

The familiar:

Beautiful beaches. Okay, this is a bit of a stretch, but given my recent trip to Sardenia it seemed kinda familiar.

The unique:

Well these beaches were topless....(sorry, no photo's available).

The familiar and the unique:

Ryan, Timmy, and Kurt....but just arrived back into town and joining us on the trip was Kurt's Finnish girlfriend (she certainly classed up our motley crew).

The familiar:

Dave and all his friends live in concert...and he was in fine form. A 3:15 minute show that was packed with all the favorites for this crowd which was probably not as familiar with Dave. Quite a bit different than his amazing acoustic show in Amsterdam, but just as good.

The unique:

Captain Mac was ready to set sail!

Well I could keep going....but let's just say that between my attempt at ticketless travel when I was supposed to have a ticket, the spring break/college party atmosphere of Lagos (seriously, most bars had beer bongs and happy hours until midnight), and a member of our group getting seriously bruised up by taking on a moving car (here's a hint, it wasn't me or the guy with the girlfriend), and this was yet another great trip.

Cheers!

Footballing in London

In between the running of the hogs in Sardenia, and my marathoning in Luxembourg, I made a quick weekend trip out to sunny Londontown.

Some of you may recall my last visit to London, which was nothing if not interesting and leaving me with my most unique souvenir so far….

So for this second trip I had 2 goals: not get punched, and ah, not get punched.

Things got started well, with a chill night out with Timmy and his work pals, followed by what would be our favorite activity of the weekend….watching Season 3 of Entourage.

After that grueling night we hit the British Museum, where you literally get to see the plunder of the ancient world:


And as the weather turned to familiar rain we eschewed further site seeing and went back to Timmy’s for some grub and more Entourage (yes we watched the entire season during the weekend, and no, I in no way feel this is an inappropriate way to spend a day visiting one of the greatest cities of the world).

That night was a special reunion with Peacocke and Kurt (who each separately joined Timmy and I on trips to Amsterdam this past year), as we all headed out on the town for some delicious lagers and reminiscing. If only Timmy could have stopped pointing at everything I think things might have gone even better. Oh well.

But on Sunday came the highlight (and main purpose) of the trip. An extremely generous work friend from my WaMu days hooked us up with tickets to the final match of the English Premiership Season between Chelsea and Everton at Chelsea. None of us knew how great the seats were, but we soon found out:

We were only 4 rows behind the benches directly on the mid-field stripe!

The Everton coach was so friendly that after being ejected from the match he climbed out of the bench and took up residence right next to us for the rest of the match (yes, that is the coach and he really did do that).

Ultimately the game did not mean much as Chelsea had clinched 2nd and Everton had clinched 4th, but we were still treated to an exciting draw (aren’t all draws exciting?) and an amazing experience.

So that is about it…not much in the way of sites, but a great experience seeing my first ‘true’ football match, and I came back with my face intact. All in all, a pretty good weekend I think.

Cheers!