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

June Twelfth

Big event this week was my USO trip to Verdun, France yesterday.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verdun

Once again up really early to get to the bus on base but at least I had plenty of room to recline and sleep a bit.  Verdun is almost due west of Stuttgart, about 5 hours away.  So, Verdun was the site of one of the most costly battles of WWI.  Lasting 10 months, from February until December 1916 and covering about 500 sq miles of contested land, the battle caused almost 750,000 casualties of which one third died, and completely erased several villages around the main city.

I thought this trip was going to be a battlefield tour but it was more of a museum tour.  The first stop was a the Memorial Verdun which opened in the late 1980s and was just re-dedicated two weeks ago by French President Hollande and German Chancellor Merkle on the 100th anniversary of the battle. This was a fantastic museum with three floors of exhibits and multimedia displays but we only had an hour to spend there.  Still, that was enough to see some pretty cool exhibits.  One of the biggest problems both the Germans and the French faced was the mud caused by the constant turnover of the ground from moving troops, vehicles, and explosions.  Here's a display of a field kitchen on a simulated mud field that, to my surprise, visitors are invited to walk on.  Interesting but it doesn't quite have the same feel of mud that sucks the boots off your feet.

Our next stop was at another memorial, the Douamont Ossuary, which is, as I found out, a building designed to be the final resting place for human remains, as opposed to an in-ground resting place (cemetery).  This ossuary was designed and built to resemble a medieval sword plunged into the ground.


In this photo (not mine) the left wing is the chapel and the right wing has work/administrative spaces.  On the back side of the building are small windows at ground level and through these windows are the bones of an estimated 130,000 soldiers.

Up in the tower is a view of the cemetery (which is only representative) and the battlefield which is now a forest.

This same view one hundred years ago would have shown nothing but churned dirt.  On the road up to the ossuary some of the land was cleared of trees to show what it was like.  Even though there's grass & weeds the gigantic mounds of dirt are still present.  Imagine giant snow moguls, except made of dirt and everywhere as far as you can see.  Also on the road is a path down to a memorial where one of the villages was.  Having been destroyed by artillery and taken several times alternately by the Germans and French there was nothing left and no one to rebuild it for - so just a memorial.

The final stop was in Verdun itself where we had some lunch and then a visit to the Citadel.  Being an old city, Verdun had walls and city gates.  These fortifications were improved over the centuries, including a fortress built in the mid 1800s into the base of a small mountain, very similar to the Maginot Line.  In fact, one of the participants in the battle was a young sergeant who later became a Member of Parliament and the head of the French Ministry of War in the late 1920s; Andre Maginot.

Lots more to see but we only had one day.  Au revoir!

June 5th

Not much happened this past week.

Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend, not a lot of mattress sales here in Europe.  But I did see some posts on FB from some fellow Marines about a guy many of us met in Iraq.  Kael Weston was the sole State Department representative in Al Anbar province when I was there in 2005.  Kael was, and still is!, a wonderful, honest, smart and decent person.  He wrote an op-ed in the NYT last week that is not just a great read but a hidden, perhaps unintentional - perhaps not, indictment of the many elected and appointed officials who don't have the same firm grasp of their accountable actions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/opinion/sunday/the-graves-of-the-marines-i-lost.html?_r=0

And he's just come out with a book on his views of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  I'm gonna buy it.

http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/229068/the-mirror-test-by-j-kael-weston/9780385351126/


And that's enough serious talk, here's some easier stuff I discovered:

When the CRAY2 supercomputer came out in 1985 it was the size of a large home appliance and weighed almost 3 tons (5,500 lbs).  The iPhone 4 I finally ditched last year because it wasn't fast enough had the same processing power as the CRAY.  The iPhone 4 weighed one-third of a pound.

The average man shaves about one pound of facial hair per year.

Lastly, there's a funny poster in my office about what Marines do, so I made my own version.

Back In Georgia

OK, I better start seeing some comments.  Write something - anything!

Last week, or two weeks ago, when I was in Madrid I found out I’d be representing Marine Forces Europe at a conference in Georgia.  For those who don’t know, I was in Georgia for 7 months in 2012 so this was welcome news that I'd be going back.  The only bad part is flying in and out of Tbilisi.  Flights into Tbilisi arrive in the morning which means you’ve been on an airplane in the wee hours.  Flights out of Tbilisi depart in the early morning which means you’re either getting up at 2 in the morning, or just staying awake (and drinking) until your flight.  Why these lousy hours no one knows, it’s a mystery that has no answer, like an X-Files episode.

A little background on Georgia…   For the past 15 years or so Georgia has been trying to establish stronger ties with Western Europe, but not without consequences.  Remember back in 2008 there was this country called Russia that invaded and still occupies parts of Georgia.  The Georgians weren’t too thrilled with having essentially lost 20% of their land, and six years later when Russia occupied Crimea in the Ukraine the Georgians said, “Hello?!  We told you so!”

Helping me through this whole week were two other Marines working out of the embassy.  That made things very easy since they handled the transportation and had background knowledge on many of the attendees.  But first, before the conference started, there was a Distinguished Visitor day at one of the military bases for the conclusion of a two week US-UK-Georgian exercise (all Army, no Marines).  Pretty cool show they put on with a US Abrams tank and Bradley fighting vehicle, and Georgian T-72 tank and BMP.  And helicopters.   Lots of shooting & explosions.  I took a video with my iPhone but it came out only so-so.  Here’s a link to the story:

https://www.army.mil/article/168575

Every year the Georgian Ministry of Defense hosts a security conference with discussions on NATO, the Russian threat, ISIS threat, etc. and since I had experience in Georgia I was selected to attend.   Anyone who’s been to any type of conference knows what happens.  There’s coffee, some speeches, some smart folks on panel discussions, more coffee, and stuff like that.  However, the conference was held at an almost brand new hotel on the outskirts of Tbilisi, owned by the Chinese.  Yes it was a nice hotel but the fitness center was really great; a huge pool, gym, and golf simulator.  I only used the pool twice. 

Then two days of conference and like I said there’s coffee, conferring, and lots of sitting.   Lots of sitting.  The conference was probably planned to coincide with the 25^th anniversary of Georgia’s independence – but not from the Soviet Union as you probably think.  It goes way back to May 26, 1918,  interrupted in 1921 by seven decades of Soviet rule until the .  So on Thursday I was invited to sit in the VIP section for the country’s 25^th Independence Day celebration in Freedom Square in downtown Tbilisi.  It turned out to be a very intricate affair with simultaneous video feeds from all across the country.  First the US Army battalion marched in (led by the visiting US Air Force band), then the British Army company, then the Latvian Army honor guard.  Then the Georgian brigade marched in; really impressive.   Afterwards, I had the afternoon free until my early morning flight on Friday.

Photo opp - with the Defense Attache from Romania.

Every night we went out to eat and I got to enjoy the fantastic Georgian food.

Khatchapuri – an oval shaped pizza except twice the taste and ten times the cholesterol.  With or without the egg, mmmmmm.

Khinkali – very similar to boiled Chinese dumplings, but very juicy.  Bite, suck, swallow!

Then there's one of my favorites; I can't remember the name but it's a dish of chicken pieces cooked in a shallow clay pot with butter, yogurt, and garlic.  

Lastly, I took a bunch of pictures of the Independence Day ceremony but I found a video probably posted by the Georgian gov't.  Much better quality and coverage than I had.  As I mentioned, the ceremony was video-shared across the country so some of the shots are of army units in their regional areas.  It's an hour long but most of the good stuff is in the first half.  One interesting scene is at about 33:15 where they all take a knee and pledge their oath to the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3kBUB1BYCs

**Bonus**For my fellow PCHS grads, go to 14:15 and see how quick you can name that tune!

Week 9

Madrid
Last week I was back in Madrid for a conference.  Every year the Spanish military and US military get together to discuss what mutual training events we will do.  The weather was beautiful, as is usual, and it was a very easy conference.  First there are introductory speeches, then coffee break, then some meetings, then lunch, then more meetings, and that was it.  It was a two day conference which could have been fit into one day, but I'm not complaining.

I also took the Madrid Metro which was easy.  It's color coded just like the Washington DC Metro (and like the Stuttgart area S-bahn) and to make it more-er easier, there's an app for that.  The only problem came when I got off at the stop near my hotel.  I walked out of the station looking at the map on my mobile and some old guy comes up to offer help.  I tried the usual pointie-talkie but then remembered I had the hotel business card.  He looks at it and starts talking and gesturing for me to cross over the street and walk down 2 or 3 blocks.  So off I go and after maybe 10 minutes I figure I'm not near my hotel.  Once again I pull out my mobile and navigate my way back and as I turn the last corner where my hotel should be, I look one way and see the hotel a half-block away, and look the other way and see the Metro station a half-block away.  Muchas gracias old Spanish dude!  Not!

Walking around Madrid is nice.  But, the last night I wanted to get a light, simple dinner, and I wanted to eat at one of the outdoor sidewalk cafes.  They are everywhere so it didn't seem too difficult.  The problem is most of them serve tapas; appetizer stuff, and I wanted something a little more substantial.  Eventually I found a place that looked good so I started off with a beer.  "Una cerveza, por favor."  After awhile he he brought out a menu with English subtitles.  I saw chorizo and thought that was perfect.  A nice cooked spicy sausage probably with some rice and maybe vegetables.  Nope.  He brought out a plate of deli-style sliced cold chorizo.  And nothing else.  Yay....tapas.

Ah well, whaddya gonna do?

Week 8 or 9

Sunday May 15 -

I think I owe you last week's blog, from two weeks ago now.  So, uh, lemme see.

I went back to the air base in Moron, Spain.  I met with my kinda-sorta Air Force counterpart.  It was a good & bad visit.  The good part was a dinner out in town, I was the only Marine in the group of Zoomies but had a good time.  I don't remember the kind of steak I had but it was muy fantastico!
The bad part is I hurt my leg.  I went out for a run in the afternoon which is usually great.  Since it's an air base it's flat and nicely landscaped so it's easy to get a good pace, impossible to get lost, and the palm trees wave gently in the breeze.  But, about a mile into my run my leg cramped.  So I had to hobble all the way back.
Hobble, hobble, hobble, hobble.......

But here's a nice photo of the flight line from our billeting area.

A few days later I was back here in Germany, just in time for the end of Stuttgarter Fruhlingsfest!

It's the springtime version of Oktoberfest but also with normal modern fair rides, tests of strength & skill, and ice cream.  

I went with a bunch of people from work and their spouses.  Most of the men & women wore leiderhosen (for men) or dirndl (for women).  I couldn't see spending $200 for leiderhosen that I'd only wear once, and I didn't want to scare people with my skinny white legs.

Entrance to the beer tents is free but almost everyone makes a reservation to guarantee a table.  Here's what it looks like walking in.

Yeah, it's a lot of people.  And it happened to be an unusually beautiful sunny day so you can imagine what the tent is like after a few hours - it's a big hot smelly smokey endurance contest for your kidneys.  I tried getting good pictures but it was so crowded there was always someone in the way of a good shot.  

There's a band that plays non stop for about 90 minute sets and it seems every other song was the drinking song.  And everyone stands on the benches, except when you're eating.  At the table behind us was a bunch of girls that we all said looked like they were 16.  It turns out they probably were 16 since the rules (law?) says anyone over 16 is allowed in without a parent.  Holy schnitzel.

Last thing. the next day was a Sunday and to recover I went out for a run.  Actually I was good and didn't drink too much so I wasn't hung-over.  But once again I got about a mile out and my leg cramped again.

Hobble, hobble, hobble, hobble....

It's not a muscle cramp so after a little internet searching I think I strained my achilles tendon.  So, ok, no running for awhile, just beer.  Das es gut!

http://stuttgarter-fruehlingsfest.de/en/service/haeufige-fragen/

7th Week

It's late and I never got around to this week's post so sorry but you'll have to wait another day or two.

Sunday May 8
Lots happened but first, Happy Mother's Day!
OK, I have a good reason why this post is late but since the reason happened this past week you'll have to wait for that post.
So, two weeks ago.....
I went to Madrid to meet a few more people I'll be coordinating with from the Embassy and the Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC).  The ODC is, as the name suggests, a group of US military and civilians that works with the host nation's military for doing training together.  So four years ago when I was in Georgia, the ODC there helped coordinate that.  Our unit down in Moron, Spain does a significant amount of training with the Spanish military and we're trying to do more of it, and more complex training.

Madrid is a gorgeous city.  Beautiful, interesting, charming, hip, and just cool.  Except in the summer when, I'm told, everyone leaves the city and goes on holiday to the beaches or anywhere other than the city since it's too hot.  Modern Spaniards love burgers.  Not surprising since they're known for meats but there are a lot of places to get a burger, a few typical cheap burger joints but mostly upscale burger restaurants with choice of meat: US beef, Spanish beef, Japanese Kobi beef, veal, pork, etc.
I was there for a day and a half and lunch the first day was in one of the nicer places.  I had a burger of the waitress' recommendation.  I can't remember what it was other than really good. mmmmmm.

I wandered around in the afternoon and had a Negroni cocktail at an outdoor cafe.  A Negroni because I read somewhere the Spanish have a current craze for gin, and the Negroni is supposed to be  the 'it' drink.

The hotel I stayed at was just a few blocks from the Embassy and not surprisingly several other embassies are in the area.  Here's the Portuguese Embassy, right across the boulevard from my hotel.

And this is Plaza de Colon with the monument to Cristobal Colon in the foreground, the Spanish National Library and Archaeological Museum on the right, and the plaza dedicated to Cristobal behind the flag.  Remember, Christopher Columbus was Italian but sailed on behalf of Spain.

Once back in Germany I spent the weekend with my wife's relatives who live outside Pforzheim which is only about 30-40 minutes from Stuttgart.  Pforzheim sits on the northern edge of the Black Forest so we spent a day visiting a few towns in the area.
The tower in the photo below is part of an original castle built 500? 600? years ago.  The photo on the bottom is a view of the Black Forest from atop the tower.

And 'cousin' Sebastian, his girlfriend Christine, and me.

Since that weekend happened to be the first weekend of May, it was 'May Day' when German towns put up a tree in the center of town.  I guess it's sort of like a Christmas tree, but different.  Each town has one and the local firemen are responsible for getting the Mai Baum up entirely by muscle power and poles.

I have a few videos of the process - it took about a half hour.  Hopefully my daughter who again made Dean's List for film school will know how to stitch together the video clips and make it better.

OK - that's it for now.  I'll work on this past week's events tomorrow night.