Last Trip to Spain

Last week I went to Spain for the last time!  Which is fine by me since it was 114 last Monday, and on Tuesday it cooled down to 110.

The rest of the week I went back to Georgia for a multinational exercise; Agile Spirit.  A few years ago the exercise was just between the US and Georgia but has since developed into a larger exercise including Bulgaria, Romania, and Latvia.

http://agenda.ge/news/64554/eng

That's all....


Wait, I forgot...
I flew to Spain last Sunday and glossed over the fact that Monday was Labor Day and all the people I wanted to meet with were off.  So I drove down to Gibraltar.

Like I said previously, southern Spain is generally flat rolling plains until you get to Gibraltar and it's a giant rock towering above everything.  And for those who don't know, it's still part of the British Empire so you have to go through a border checkpoint to get on.  Naturally for lunch I had fish & chips.

The camera focused on the metal bars but you can just barely make out Morocco in the distance.

August 29

Last week I was in Spain again.  Andalucia Province is in southern Spain which is very similar to southwestern US.  In the spring and early summer there are fields and fields of sunflowers.  I didn't get any pictures of them though.

However I did get photos of the other crop.  Spanish olive trees take up the other half of cultivated land which is very dry in the summer.

August 24

Late Post...I meant to do this Sunday night but forgot.


For the past two weeks I was filling in as the liaison from Marine Forces Europe/Africa to US Africa Command because the other guy was on leave.  Sometimes it was interesting, my desk was in the Joint Operations Center which is just like on TV with huge screens showing maps, status reports, and video feeds from the continent.   


US Africa Command (AFRICOM) is also in the Stuttgart area.  If you remember my earlier post, there are three main US bases; Panzer (where I'm usually at), Kelley (AFRICOM), and Patch (EUCOM).  Stuttgart is in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg which is in the southwest corner of Germany.  The Black Forest is also in this area, and it's about a half-hour south of Stuttgart.  The Black Forest is famous for cuckoo clocks, Black Forest cake, and the story of Hansel & Gretel.


So, right outside Kelley is a small patch of woods with lots of trails - perfect for running.  One day as I was running I noticed some trail signs and some of them were......unusual.


Here's a typical trail sign you'd expect pretty much anywhere.

Here's another one.  Just like most anywhere else there are different trails, blue trail, red trail, etc.

There are even trails for horses.

And then there's this!  A trail for witches??  But they have brooms and can fly, so they don't need a trail.  Maybe it's a warning to lookout for witches.  That's probably it.

In case you get lost, there are plenty of signs to help you track the witches.









There's also a waiting area for witches and victims...

And finally, I think this is the holding cage for witches to keep their captured children.  It looks like there's the remains of an unfortunate one still in there....



August 7

Other than the NSA, I don't think anyone is reading my blog.  But just in case I'll do a quick update.

This weekend I went to Prague in the Czech Republic.  This was a trip organized by the USO on base, and here's a bit of trivia.  In the early 1940s there were several organizations that helped provide morale services to GIs.  There was the YMCA, YWCA, and others, so I think President Roosevelt started the initiative to combine them into one organization.  That would help focus fundraising efforts and prevent duplicate services.  Uniting all the services into one organization became the United Services Organization.

When I went to the USO office they said this trip was filled up but you can always show up on the date of and see if there's space.  So 1:00 on Saturday morning I was in the parking lot on base and got lucky.  It's a long bus ride but ultimately worth it.  Once we got in the city there was a tour guide who walked us around for a few hours.   Prague is notable for a few things but the one I found most interesting was its survival during WWII.  Since Czech was 'affiliated with' (some say owned by) Germany it wasn't bombed by the Germans.  Apparently there weren't too many German garrisons in Czech because the Allies didn't bomb much either.  So Prague came out of WWII far less damaged than the rest of major European cities.  Even their subway is pretty new.  I didn't go in it but it was started in the 1970s which I think is about the time Washington DC started their metro system.

So the Czech Republic is part of the European Union but does not use Euros.  They still use the Czech Krona (or something like that).  One Euro is worth ... uh, a lot of Krona...so prices are a little hard to get used to.  I had a nice lunch at an outdoor hotel/restaurant.  Caprese salad and a bull & dumpling goulash.  The bill came to 360 which turned out to be around 22 dollars.

I'm filling in for another Marine who is going on leave, so for the next two weeks I'll be the Liaison Officer for AFRICOM.  A little bit cool since I'll get exposure to very high level discussions on fighting bad guys in Africa.  And a little bit dull since no matter what the topic, a long boring meeting is still a long boring meeting.

This is the Astrological Clock in Prague.  Very old.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_astronomical_clock

July 24th

It's been 3 weeks since my last post - so here's a quick rundown.

Erika, Elise, & Jack came out to Germany for a 2 week visit.  We had a great time touring around mostly southern Germany.  Lots of pics posted on Instagram.

Now I'm back travelling for work.  The past few days I was back in Spain and now I'm at the navy base in Sigonella, Italy (Sicily).  Most of the people I've talked who've been here said the same thing, 'it's interesting, but crappy'.  Yes, it is.

Sunday July 3, 2016

I know I didn’t post anything last week, but there wasn’t a whole lot to post about. 

It took me five minutes after writing that last sentence to figure out what to say next.  OK, so I'll try stream-of-consciousness writing.  The coffee here is really good.  I complain about spending $60 on a stupid auto-drip coffeemaker but here they sell $2000 - $3000 machines, for home use.  Nespresso and Tassio are about the lower to mid range brands.  Look up Jura.  Coffee is good.  Café ist gut.  Die brot sind leckar. (the bread is delicious)

Another Marine who just left here had recommended Memrise which is a language app.  It’s really good because it takes maybe 5 – 10 minutes per day and goes through repetition in different ways.  Since I usually walk to work for 20 minutes I can go through a lesson a day.  Then the next lesson is a review, then a few more words & phrases, then a review, etc. 

But the weather is still cool, this morning was around 55.  It’s partly cloudy but the high is only supposed to get to the high 60s.   It’s the Fourth of July weekend and I need long pants and a light jacket.  Germany beat Italy last night in the EuroCup.  Friday night was a big win for Wales in a 3-1 victory over Belgium.  The news said Wales hasn’t made it this far in…uh…ever.  That’s what the news said, direct quote.  Really.   We get several news feeds at work, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, AFN (armed forces network – which carries a mix of US news) BBC, RT (Russian – aka Rooskys), Al Jazeera, and maybe something else.  You would think Al Jazeera would be the most slanted news source but I think they do a pretty good job of presenting information.  So here are my top 5 channels that have an obvious slant to their news:  Fox takes gold, silver, and bronze – 1,2,3.  RT gets 4^th place, and MSNBC takes 5^th.  CNN doesn’t place in my list because the majority of what they do doesn’t qualify as news.  My list, my rules!

So Germany won last night.  The games start at 9:00 and are usually over by 11.  Europeans use the 24 hour clock so that would be a start time of 21:00 and ending around 23:00.  I was woken up a little after midnight by all the shouting, screaming, and carousing of my neighbors.  Like a scene out of a movie I heard a group of drunk German guys stumble down the street absolutely murdering some patriotic-drinking song. 

I went to the Porsche museum last Sunday.  Porsche and Mercedes are both based in the Stuttgart area, the Mercedes factory is here in Boblingen, a few blocks behind the train station.  Here’s a picture of the valet parking for the Porsche museum.  Crazy Germans….

Ferdinand Porsche designed and built utilitarian vehicles also.  This first of its kind firetruck was built in 1912 and was STILL IN USE up until the 1970s.

This is not a firetruck

June Nineteenth

...done on June twentieth...

I went back to Spain last week.  Flights from Stuttgart to Seville (which is the closest airport to where the base is) go either early or late.  The last time I went I took the late flight and of course I finally made it to base around 10 or 11 pm.  So this time I took the early flight which got me to Seville around 1? maybe 2?  So I took the bus into downtown Seville to look around for a bit before heading to base.  I had just under 2 hours so I wandered around the old section of the city and saw some beautiful sights.

There are a few 'normal' sized streets but most are narrow alleyways where cars are still allowed so it makes for some interesting vehicle/pedestrian interaction.  Just by sort of following the crowds I found the Seville Cathedral - Catedral de Seville de Santa Maria.  Originally built as a mosque by the Moslem Moors it became a Catholic cathedral when they were pushed out.  I only walked around the outside but next time I'll go in and find the tomb of Christopher Columbus.

The week on base was great except for some minor stomach bug I picked up.  Muchas Gracias.

Then Friday night I drove back to Seville and walked around a bit more.  I made it to the Plaza de Espana which was built for the Spanish-American Exposition in the 1920s.  

Incredible sights & I can't wait to go back.  In the meanwhile, I'll leave you with this....

Late addition....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOtQpCAigq0