Happy New Year

The time is upon us....well by us I mean those of us who are in the U.K. Countdown to 2012 is t-minus 75 minutes as I am posting this. We are home with Hampton trying to get back to normal. I am super jet-lagged and Kristen has managed to pick up some kind of sinus infection. 20 hours of travel (thanks Continental for cancelling our flight), a crying baby, and the good old English weather, wasn't the greatest homecoming. But on the bright side this was waiting for us when we got home.

Check out those paws!!!! She must have done a lot of playing in the dirt/mud while we were away. We spent almost an hour cleaning them up. Now if we could just do something about her breath!!

Merry Christmas

Hampton says Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!

Walk in Hampstead Heath

Another adventure for Hampton from across the pond. Hope she remembers us when we get home.

Click link below

Walk in Hampstead Heath

Hampton's Friends

Hampton and her friends out on a walk. Again its translated from her dog sitters website, but you get the idea. Click on link below

Dogs on a walk

TV Hat

Has anyone else seen this? Only in America could something this stupid get created and actually put into production. There are gonna be a lot of these given away for Christmas presents. The amount of crap like this that is out there just boggles my mind.

There commercial shows a guy on a treadmill watching a movie on it. I bet you couldn't last a minute running with that thing on your head. I really hope I see someone wearing one in the airport on the way home. I am gonna sneak up on them and steal all their luggage.

???

We were out Christmas shopping, and in what I thought was a reputible department store I found this...........

Did I laugh? Yes, but I don't think this would fly in the U.S. Gotta think that there is a buyer somewhere who got a pink slip for Christmas.

Fursty Furry Friday

Hammie got into Bob's cup when he got up.  Caught in the act, and then went right back at it when she realized she wasn't in trouble. 

Greenwich #4

Way back when Kristen's friends, the Himes, were here we visited Greenwich, and all the stuff there to see. There is really alot to see but to be honest with you it wasn't all that exciting. Seemed more of a check the box kinda visit vs. anything really impressive.

The biggest thing to see is the Old Naval College, which was the Greenwich Hospital until 1873.

In true British style the buildings of the hospital/college were super fancy and had great design/painting/architecture within. I can't imagine that the Naval students were being taught to be anything other than painters living and going to school within these buildings. In fact the College and related buildings have been in more movies than you could ever hope to be, Patriot Games, Tomb Raider, the King's Speech, and most of the Pirates movies, to name a few.

Also on the property was the national maritime museum. Wasn't too much within to talk about, some boats here and there (imagine that!!), and general ocean stuff. The coolest part was a display of the actual uniform that Admiral Nelson was wearing when he was fatally shot. I know its a bit morbid, but to see the bullet holes and blood spatter on it was strangly intriguing. He was really a little fellow, even though he stands pretty tall in the center of Trafalgar square now.

Last but not least was the Royal Observatory. This was probably the most touristy of all the sights, and rightly so, since probably everyone in the world has heard of it and its influence on the world. It was one of those things where you just feel kinda wierd knowing you are at what is essentially the center of the world for both time and space.

Kristen stradleing the Prime Meridian. Standing in two hemispheres at once

Synchronize your watch, you will never be more on time than you would here. Greenwich Mean Time

Don't know why this was so funny to me, but it was one of the stops on the DLR on the way to Greenwich. Someone seriously needs to put through a petition to get it changed.



Fabian Cancellara Sighting

Well I guess not really a sighting by me, but almost as good. Apparently missed Fabian riding through Richmond Park and Surrey Hills by about 20 minutes this weekend. He was in town doing reconnaissance on the Olympic TT and RR course.

I checked out his twitter to see if he was going to be in town any more and where I could stalk him later. I don't even think I could follow his twitter if I tried. I wouldn't exactly call it mastery of the English language

Race Report

Well as strange as it is to say it in December, the racing season is here again. Everyone back home is probably packing up the bikes and packing on the lbs for the winter, for me its freezing cold races, and time on the trainer. Not sure if it is the lack of fitness for everyone else, or I just ride better in the cold, but just like last year things seem to go well for me in the winter. So Hillingdon was on the schedule for today, not sure if there is even going to be races at Hog Hill this winter, but will have something to do till mid feb regardless. The weather was just ok, the sun seemed to keep getting stronger during the morning, but unfortunately so did the wind. Probably about 50 degrees, partly cloudy, and a 10-15 mph wind. Maybe the weather convinced some of the fair weather riders to come out, because the fields were sold out. I went on-line at about 11 last night to check out the start time, and there were only 9 spots available so i pre-reged to make sure I had a spot. Quite a difference from last winter, when the fields were only 25 or so guys. That meant 50 of us lined up, with another 50 cat 4s racing right behind us.

It was pretty relaxed, for the first 30 min or so, nothing really got much traction off the front. I took a couple of trips up the road to kinda see what would happen but was never quite the right mix. The course and the wind mixed combined to make it about a 27 mph race all day. The headwind came on the downhill, and the tailwind helped out on the uphill to the finish. I recognised a couple of guys from last year, and when a Kingston Wheeler came past during a lull in the action I jumped on and we were off. Just the two of us for a couple of laps and then people started to come across in ones and twos. Finally 6 of us got together and started putting in some real time on the rest of the race. Not sure if we had teammates blocking for us back in the group or we were just fast, but either way put a couple mins into the group and it was pretty much over.

There were clearly some guys faster than others in the break and I wasn’t one of the fast ones. It was pretty much just survival for me for most of the time. We caught the 4s (who were racing 10 mins shorter than us) when they had two to go, and sat in on their race for a bit, to take a breather. One of the guys in our group thought we were finishing at the same time as them and sprinted, both hands in the air victory celebration, only to find out we still had 6 laps to go. It was about this time that I had my second heart attack, and my left hammie started to cramp. So I couldn’t breathe or pedal, it didnt’ look good for the sprint. Everything was pretty relaxed for the last couple of laps.

1 to go.........

Nobody had enough to go it alone, and nobody wanted to really lead things out. In the sprint I did nothing but confirm that I can’t sprint, in reality would have probably been better off, getting off my bike and trying to run, since my leg was worthless. Ended up 5^th, so pretty successful. I am sure I will be excited about it in a couple days when I can walk and breathe again but for now, but want to take a nap. Just under 25mph way to hard for the first real efforts in months.

Onion Loaf!!

I don't often say this of London restaurants, but we have found another winner. I guess I should have expected it would be good, after all it was the 'Chicago Rib Shack'. I say that, but we have been to some real bad American themed restaurants. No matter what do not go to the Texas Embassy in Trafalgar Square. So as it says the Rib Shack is a BBQ joint, the best that we have found in London. The highlight of the night however was the onion loaf. I am not sure if I want to know how they make it but it was damn good. Gonna need a coronary bypass in the next couple of days, but at the time it was magical.

The people next to us, I think ordered everything on the menu. There is a sampler meal with chicken, baby back, St. Louis, and beef ribs. This lady ordered it, and these beef ribs came out on top, looked like when Fred Flintstone orders the brontosaurus ribs and his car falls over. We left before she was more than about half way done. Add on the bottle of wine she drank by herself, and I think the night was going to end badly for her for sure.

Furry Friday - Fun in the Park

We took Hampton to Ravenscourt park on Sunday so she could run and frolic and chase a few birds as well. Kristen took some action shots while we were playing ball.

Vatican City

Our last stop on the way out of Rome, well other than the gelato shop, was the Vatican.  Actually, we visited on two separate days, but you get the point.  Smallest country in the world, and I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't border control, and I didn't get another stamp in the passport.  I was a bit confused about the size of everything there.  Can't figure out why exactly everything needed to be so BIG!  Seemed a bit boastful.  Anyway, lots of interesting things to see and stories to tell. 

This was the line to get into St. Peters.  Little did we know that this was nothing compared to what was in store for us in the morning.

View from the front door.  You can barely see the 70 foot tall altar.  The pic below is up close, where you can see to the other end of the church.

 This is the inside of one of the front doors.  I am sure there is more of a story behind it, but they only open it once every 25 years.  To keep anyone from accidentally opening it, the plaster it shut.  Come back in 2025, and you can actually walk through it.

 The foot of a statue of St. Peter, worn thin by years of touching and kissing

Probably the creepiest thing ever........The embalmed body of 'Good Pope John' the XXIII.  He is on his way to Sainthood, but wasn't expecting any bodies on display when we walked in.

 The Swiss Guard, don't seem like they could protect much with their spears and costumes. 

We moved on to the Vatican Museum and eventually the Sistine Chapel.  The last Sunday in every month is free entry day.  I anticipated that there would be a line, but if we got there right at opening it wouldn't be a big deal.  Well I was wrong, and we proceeded to wait in line for an hour and a half.  Turned out to be just an appetizer to the lines at security and border control later in the day.  I guess that is neither here nor there.  The museum is a bit of a mystery to me, they say its 4 miles worth of displays and exhibitions.  How did they get so much stuff, and such a big place?  On a sad note, there was no pictures allowed in the Sistine Chapel, so you didn't see this from me.

 Not even sure if they ever use it anymore for actual service.  Considering we were there mid-morning on a Sunday, they clearly were not hosting service that day.  Its such a big wide open space, you don't really feel for the size of the and scale of the paintings.  I guess probably high school gym size floor to ceiling/and ceiling paintings.  Hard to imagine spending years painting what is essentially one painting.  I got to give it up to Michelangelo.Its been said "Without having seen the Sistine Chapel one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving." and I don't really disagree



This is just one of 5 or so halls on one side of one floor of the museum.  You can almost see the door at the other end.

Maybe what I think was the coolest thing other than the Sistine Chapel.  See how it actually spirals down smaller towards the bottom?  At the top its just a slope, and then changes to steps, I tripped on the transition, and nearly fell flat on my face.

Here are some more of the pics  Vatican Pics

Ancient Rome

Ok so for the last 14 months we have been going around ohh-ing and ahh-ing at old buildings and paintings which for American’s seem really OLD, to the point that these things seem about commonplace.  By no means does that mean that they aren’t impressive but just kinda normal.  Well today pretty much blows that out of the water.  Not going to put a bunch of pics up, instead here is a link to all the pictures we took.  (ok not all but alot of them)  https://picasaweb.google.com/111174649778637905437/Rome?authkey=Gv1sRgCKfr-dP_nceQLw#

I have been having a hard time all day just wrapping my hands around it all.  It started with the Coliseum built at 80 AD.  So standing where people nearly 2000 years ago cheered for gladiators.  Oh and Rome was pretty much the center of the world at that time.  But that is another story.   Ok so the history is impressive enough, but then lets talk about the engineering...something like 450 feet high and 50 thousand seats.  So we are climbing stairs and walking around on the third deck of nearly 2000 year old stadium.  I was scared walking around on the 50 year old rust bowl at Lewis field before the renovation, and now we are talking something 40 times as old as that. 

Apparently an earthquake came through in the 1300s or something and brought down the top two levels on the south side, but you can still see the full height on the north side. I am breezing right over a whole bunch of other stuff, (half the history of Rome, the ridiculous street vendors and all the gelato) so ask us about it when you see us.

Ok so on to the Forum....I don’t know what I thought it was before, but for sure wasn’t expecting what I got.  Something like 6 acres of ruins that was at one time the center of the city, and the main place for government, worship and general goings on.  I think what really got me here, apart from the fact that there were just ruins laying around and you could walk on and touch, was the connections with Julius Caesar.  

Indulge me a bit here and follow along.  So we are standing in the Forum in front of what they described as the place where Caesar lived.  Our audio tour guide retells his death in the words of Shakespeare.  So I am thinking back to High School, and how thinking back to the time of Shakespeare seemed so long ago.  Similarly, Shakespeare must have been thinking how long ago all of the history from Rome was when he was writing Julius Caesar.  And there we were, going all the way back to that time.

This was supposed to be spot where Ceasar's body was burned.  

The told how the real reason for all of the destruction to pretty much all of ancient Rome was Christianity.  Then again pretty much the whole reason for most of history is Christianity in some form or the other so it kinda makes sense.  Apparently it wasn’t always  such a good job being the Pope!  Anyway they say that just about everything in the Forum was buried at one point after century’s of neglect.

On to the Pantheon from there...another 2000 year old building, and example of how impressive the Romans were as engineers....geometric perfection.  The longest continuously used building in Rome.

I kept saying all day how all of Rome reminded me of Vegas.  I guess its probably more like Vegas reminds me of Rome, but you get the point.  All of the huge buildings, statues, people, and street vendors trying to sell you crap you don't want or need.  Anyway, probably the most Vegas-y moment was at the Trevi Fountain.  Just 100s of people standing around watching water flow, throwing money in a fountain.  These types of sites were all around the city.  I could write for days about everything we saw, but really there was just too much.