Not the Everton Picnic

A few weeks ago, the ITS group at work left the office a little early on a Thursday to go on a field trip to Schueberfouer, the annual Luxembourg city fair. It is no State Fair of Texas (not that I've been there in years), but it was actually pretty darn big in its own right, especially considering the relatively modest size of Luxembourg. There was a full-on roller coaster, a ferris wheel, a large water ride, bumper cars, a bunch of those ridiculous spinning rides that seem to serve no purpose other than to make people sick and, of course, the cash cow prize games where you can win a Wii, an iPod, an iPad, or one of any number of other high dollar goods (not to mention the ever-popular giant stuffed animal) if you can just land a ping pong ball in a certain bowl or shoot a string with a cap gun or knock a pyramid of cans off a table, etc, etc.

Though I did ride the roller coaster, I didn't feel comfortable getting on any other rides with my back issues. But the thing that really caught my eye (and kept my attention) was the "Velo Contradictoire" (contradictory bicycle). All you had to do to win a prize was ride a bicycle in a straight line for 3 meters without putting a foot on the ground. However, and as you can imagine, there's a catch. When you turn the handlebars to the right, the front wheel turns to the left and vice versa. After watching a number of people try (and fail miserably) to ride the bike, one would think that it is impossible. But unlike all the other nearly impossible games, the person working this booth would prove it was possible over and over again, just tempting the dumb masses to fork over 5 Euro for 3 tries. Though I was quite intrigued, I decided not to spend my money. In fact, that night with my group, I didn't spend money on a single one of the foolish games (which for me, was a feat in itself).

However, I just couldn't stay away and decided to make a return trip to the Schueberfouer the following Sunday. My real intent was to take a few more pictures in the daylight, but I was quickly sucked into playing a few of the games. Knowing my chances of winning anything were extremely slim, I was truly playing for fun and at peace with the fact that I leave a certain amount of cash there and take nothing home with me in return. In fact, I did lose every game I played. But before I left, I decided I also had to try the bicycle. I really thought I could talk my brain into reversing my reflexes. Unfortunately, my years of riding of normal bicycle worked against me and I was never able to make it more than a couple of feet without almost falling over. Foiled again.

But as many games and rides as it did have, the Schueberfouer was outdone by the Everton Picnic in at least one respect...turtle racing. That's right, there is no turtle racing in Luxembourg. And for that reason, I just don't know how much longer I can stay here.

A few pics from the fair:

Assumption Day

Monday, August 16, was a holiday in Luxembourg (to make up for Assumption Day on Sunday, August 15). I actually didn't realize Monday was a holiday until Friday morning and I still have no idea what Assumption Day is. But given the long weekend, I made a last-minute decision to drive West to the Normandy region of France with the main objective to visit the D-Day beaches and other WWII sites/museums. I went alone, and it was probably a good thing I did as I'm pretty sure no one else would have wanted to be with me as I tried to do/see as much as humanly possible in the little time I had. Not to mention the fact that before leaving Luxembourg, I had no hotel rooms booked and no set plans (though I had read the Normandy section of Rick Steve's book on France, so I had a vague idea of where to go/what to do based on his list of suggestions).

I drove out Saturday morning towards a small town called Honfleur, with the aim to arrive around 2pm. I hadn't planned on any traffic and I didn't consider that I would want/need to make rest stops to stretch my back every 1-1.5hrs so my 2pm arrival ended up being closer to 4pm. I wandered around the city and took pictures and a short boat trip out to the Pont de Normandie (the longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western World (the Japanese built a longer one in 1999)) before I decided I should probably think about where I was going to stay for the night. I sat down next to the Vieux Bassin (the small harbor in the middle of the town) and used a free wifi signal to search through booking.com for a hotel (I had asked at a couple of hotels in town already, but they didn't have anything available). In fact, there were no rooms to be had in Honfleur so I settled on a chain hotel in Caen - about an hour away, but closer to the D-Day beaches and home to a highly recommended memorial/museum. Having finally booked the hotel, I set off to find dinner at crepe restaurant recommended by Rick Steve.

I didn't arrive at the hotel in Caen until around 11pm (I think...but anyway, it was pretty late). I did a quick search for Sunday's accomodations, but couldn't decide if I wanted to stay out toward the beaches again or head back in the direction of home so I would have a shorter drive on Monday. In the end, I left the decision for Sunday and went to bed.

I didn't spend any time searching for a hotel Sunday morning (or afternoon). Instead, I went to the museum in Caen (after walking quickly through the Sunday morning market - in the rain) and then on to the beaches, stopping at five locations - Arromanches (there are cliffs just above the town overlooking Gold beach and they have a 360-degree theatre with a very good video), Longues-sur-Mer (where a German artillery battery still contains its original guns), the Normandy American Cemetary and Memorial, Omaha beach and Pointe du Hoc (where Army Rangers (led by former Texas A&M University President James Earl Rudder) scaled a ridiculous cliff on D-Day). I could have spent another full day at the museum in Caen, which was very well done, and at least two more days at the Cemetary and beaches. And I still wouldn't have seen everything.

Unfortunately, I was so busy running around seeing things that I didn't ever find time to eat a proper breakfast or lunch. Instead, I munched on nut and raisin trail-mix type stuff, Normandy caramels (with butter from Normandy cows) and the rest of a bag of candied almonds I bought in Honfleur the day before. Sounds healthy, no? But I did finally have an omelette at a snack cart/trailer at Omaha beach around 7pm. As I said, it was probably a very good thing that I was alone.

Still not having a hotel room for Sunday night, I went to the nearest decent-sized city (Bayeux) and tried unsuccessfully to find an interent cafe or free wifi connection. I decided to go back to Honfleur for dinner, thinking I could use the free wifi there (again) and, if there were no hotels in town, I could surely find a place in La Havre or Rouen which aren't too far from Honfleur and are in the direction of Lux. But I did find a hotel, checked in and then went to enjoy a dinner of moules a la creme (mussels in cream sauce) around 10:30pm. Yep, I had 2 meals all day - at 7pm and 10:30pm.

When I got back to the hotel (a recommendation from Rick Steve's book, but only a 2 star hotel), I realized that the bed was terrrrrrible. Absolutely no support whatsoever. But I figured I would be miserable in any event and toughed it out. I was awake pretty early for obvious reasons and had no desire to spend any more time in that bed, so I got up for an early breakfast and to hit the road. The problem was that I was too early for a proper breakfast. I bought a pastry from a bread shop and drove up to a scenic spot overlooking the city to eat it and relax for a few minutes before making the five-plus hour journey home.

Not terribly far down the road, I made a last second (and absolutely worthwhile) detour to Etretat, which was utterly gorgeous. There is a pebble beach (which is slightly difficult (and occasionally painful) to negotiate in flip-flops) flanked by giant cliff outcroppings. Breathtaking. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to spend in town, but maybe I will make it back there another day.

It was a long, tiring weekend with more driving than I probably should have been doing. But well worth it in the end (except maybe that second hotel...).

Here are a few pictures, but very few of them do any justice to the real thing:

Honfleur

Pont de NormandieCaen MemorialArromanches

Longues-sur-Mer

Normandy American Cemetary and Memorial

Omaha Beach

Pointe du Hoc

Etretat

On Pills and Needles

I'm quickly closing in on the 6-week mark of ridiculous pain in my right buttock and down my right leg - especially during the night and first thing in the morning. I eventually had a CT scan and was told that I have a "slightly" herniated disc. I was prescribed more drugs and assigned to physical therapy. After a few sessions of PT, the therapist was surprised I wasn't making any progress and suggested I go back to the doctor or see a specialist to confirm that it is definitely a back issue and not something around my hip.

As the doctor I had seen previously had not impressed me, I went to a clinic to be re-examined, in the hopes that they would call in a specialist - thereby avoiding a 6-week wait for an appointment at the specialist. I went first thing in the morning and only had to wait 30 minutes to see a doctor and he quickly confirmed that I had a "large" hernia (keep in mind he was looking at the same CT scan as the other doctor). He wanted me to see a neurologist, but there was unfortunately not one available that day. It was a Friday so I would have to wait until Monday to see him. He looked at the box of drugs I had brought with me and instructed me on which ones to take to manage my pain over the weekend. He suggested I not work on Friday or Monday and to instead do "anything that doesn't cause pain." As the pain is not so bad when sitting at work, I didn't follow his advice and instead went straight to the office.

The appointment with the neurologist went well - he seemed to be very good and walked me through the images from the CT scan. He showed me where the herniated disc was and also told me I appeared to have had problems for years. There was an osteophyte (bone spur) that had formed on the same vertebra that has the herniated disc. He said another disc also looked "dried out" as if I had problems with it in the past as well. Thankfully, he did not suggest an operation (yet), but instead preferred (as did I) to take a more conservative approach - more PT and a cortisone shot in the affected area. I also showed him a book Josh had recommended (Treating Your Own Back) and he said some of the exercises in it would be good for me.

I received my cortisone shot this morning and it was not nearly as painful as I had imagined. It took less than 5 minutes and I was on my way home (as I decided to take this opportunity to stay home and rest in the afternoon). I wasn't expecting immediate relief and I haven't gotten it yet. But hopefully this will at least get me to a place where I can function normally, do more PT and other exercises to correct the underlying cause of the problem/pain and go back to sleeping in my bed rather than on the floor...

And in the meantime, I have a trip planned to Ireland where I am scheduled to play 6 rounds of golf. This trip has weighed heavily on my mind during the past 6 weeks and I am still not sure whether I will be able (or whether I should if I am physically able) to play.

As Garth Brooks would say, "I'm much too young to feel this damn old."

Castles and Balloons

Last weekend (24-25 July) I decided to finally explore the northern part of Luxembourg. I knew there was a castle in Vianden which was supposed to be nice and it was only an hour's drive away. I had also learned on Friday afternoon that there was a hot air balloon festival in Echternach over the weekend and a couple of co-workers and I decided we would try to make the 40 minute drive to see the balloons on Sunday afternoon.

For being "the jewel of Luxembourg's tourist industry" (according to Wikipedia), Vianden doesn't have much to do or see other than it's claim to fame - a restored castle originally built between the 11th and 14th centuries. It does have Luxembourg's only chairlift, though. Not for skiing, but to take you to the top of a hill overlooking the castle. Victor Hugo lived in Vianden at one point in time, so you can see where he lived and we also spent a little bit of time in a mediocre (at best) museum about the history of Vianden and the surrounding area.

The castle:

The town:Victor Hugo and his apartment:

On Sunday, I received a message from my friend that he and his wife were going to head to the balloon festival early - to arrive by noon rather than mid-afternoon as originally planned. Apparently there was an award ceremony at noon and there was some question about when the balloons would be in the air.

When we arrived around noon, the place was almost completely deserted, with the exception of one large tent that appeared to me to be the "VIP" area (something about the servers standing at the entrance with trays of champagne tipped me off). But when my friend arrived, he decided to test the theory and he simply walked onto the deck surrounding the tent, picking up a glass of champagne on his way. His wife and I just shrugged our shoulders followed suit. It didn't take long to realize that I was right about it being the VIP tent, but as we weren't asked to leave, we enjoyed our champagne and listened to the awards presentation. Rather than taking seats for the white tablecloth, sit-down lunch, however, we made a quiet exit and walked back around to the "unimportant person" area to drink beer and eat sausages and hamburgers at picnic tables.

I had brought along a map for a walking route around the lake and into the surrounding hills/woods and, when we determined that nothing was going to happen any time soon, we started off on a short hike. We took a shortcut to turn the 7km walk into a 4-5km walk so we could be back at the lake by the time we thought an event was scheduled to occur. It was a nice hike and it turned out that we could have made the whole 7km as there was still nothing to see at the lake when we returned.

In fact, we never actually saw much of anything. One balloon was eventually inflated just before we left, but it never left the ground. Turns out they only fly the balloons at 7am and 7pm (I guess it has something to do with the air temperature being lower at these times) and we weren't interested in sticking around any longer after having been there for 6 hours and seeing very little. I suppose we should have made the trip on Saturday night, when there were balloons in the air and even a fireworks display. But we probably wouldn't have been able to find any free champagne on Saturday night...

The hike (note the "happy" cows):

The lake:The balloon:

The Ascot

I have finally acquired a copy of the photo with me, my boss and my ascot: