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Aug 10

Back In Hamburg

Friday night I caught a red-eye flight from India to Germany, for another round of work related meetings with my international teams. Following a “quick” eight hour flight into Frankfurt, the 50 minute connecting flight into Hamburg seemed like a breeze.

I’ve been to Hamburg a few times before – most recently in January of last year. I’ve really come to enjoy this city and was especially excited to be here in the summer, when residents really take advantage of the perfect weather and long days.

I arrived to my hotel around 11am, dropped my bags at the concierge (my room was not yet ready) and immediately began wandering. As my hotel is very close to St. Michaelis cathedral, I decided to stop for a visit, something I’ve never done before. Similar to many European cathedrals, this structure is quite impressive – ornate, full of history, etc.

DSCF9778

However, what really sparked my interest in visiting was the opportunity to ascend the clock/bell tower. The tower is 132 meters tall (433ft), with an outdoor observation deck located 106 meters (347ft) above the river Elbe. With a diameter of 8 meters (26 ft), the tower clock is the largest in Germany. For content, the big hand measures 5 meters (16ft) in length and the small hand 3.6 metes (11ft) … each hand weighing 130 kg (286 lbs). Also, the tower features six chime bells and two clock bells and I can attest firsthand the chimes/ringing is deafening from the inside the tower.

While there is a lift available, the line was crazy long and I also wanted to see the bells up close along with the historic interior of the tower itself. Accordingly, I took the stairs and about 10 minutes later I exited at the top, onto a very crowed observation deck. (the green tube is the very small elevator)

Yeah, the tower views are pretty impressive.

I spent about 20 minutes casually gazing outwards onto the city. Of course the views were great, but as I had plans to rent a bike and explore the city by land, I took advantage of the birds-eye views to chart a rough plan for the afternoon atop two wheels.

Like most European cities, Hamburg is extremely bike friendly which made the process of exploring easier than it would have been in a typical US city. Via smart phone, I did a quick search for the nearest bike rental station, quickly created an account, and within minutes I was off.

My bike for the day

I generally made my way towards and around the northern neighborhoods of the city centre. Knowing the town hall was about 15 minutes away, I began riding, enjoying the leisurely mode of transport.

City Hall

Looking southeast, Alster Lake in the foreground

One of Alster Lake’s many sailing clubs

Alster Lake is a surprisingly large body of water given it’s proximate to the city centre. On a gorgeous day like yesterday (Saturday), the waterfront was packed. (For those who can relate … a comparison would be the Grant Park lakefront in Chicago on a warm sunny day)

So many people were out walking, biking, jogging, picnicking, chatting over coffee at cafes, etc. Like me, everyone seemed to be enjoying a lovely summer day.

As I am not particular familiar with the city, I had no destination really – I just rode around … for hours. Eventually, I checked Google maps to reorient myself. Not surprisingly, I’d covered quite a distance. Knowing I had dinner plans with a former colleague and his wife, I began the journey back to the hotel.

I’m definitely planning to ride more tomorrow (Sunday).

Aug 7

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Taj Mahal

A few days ago I arrived to New Delhi, India for a work trip and a quickly settled into the following routine: leave the hotel, arrive to work, attend a lot of meetings, join my colleagues for dinner at a local restaurant, return to hotel. Repeat.

Sadly, this cycle has not afforded me much opportunity to explore the area. However, today that cycle was interrupted. With help from a colleague I managed to clear my schedule allowing sufficient time for a day-trip to visit the world-famous Taj Mahal. About a 4-hour drive from my office, the ‘Taj’ (as the locals refer to it) is not close, but considering I was already half-way around the world, a few hours more in the car seemed reasonable, especially considering the prize.

For the equivalent of roughly $40 USD, my co-worker secured a driver for the day and we were off at 6:30am in order to avoid Delhi’s crippling rush hour traffic. Even at this hour, the roads were bustling.

My employer’s office park location.

Leaving the office park

En route, we made two stops – one to pay the toll as we left Delhi, entering the state of Noida …

Apartment housing near the toll stop

Snacks for sale

… another so my co-worker could grab a smoke at a driver convenience station – the equivalent of an interstate rest stops in the US.

A transport truck

Bathroom to the left

Upon reaching the Taj Mahal grounds, we quickly secured tickets and entered the outer sections of the gardens.

Stopping for a quick picture before entering

Being one of the seven wonders of the world, I knew the structures and surrounding gardens would be impressive (which they were), but for me, the wow factor was amplified as I tried to wrap my head around the twenty-two year construction process. The Taj Mahal is all about symmetry – everything in main tomb building is perfectly symmetrical on all sides. It’s amazing the workers successfully erected his wonderful palace with such precision without aids of modern-day tools and other electronic resources.

Following the visit, we left the grounds and wandered the streets of Agra – the city adjacent to the Taj Mahal. More rural than urban, Agra is a place that reminds first-world westerners (like me), India is still a developing nation. The conditions which people live are often deplorable – lacking basic infrastructure (water and reliable electric, and sewer) I regularly take for granted. More, numerous wild animals roam everywhere, and the resulting stink can be overwhelming at times.

Apartments above steer-level shops

Rickshaws everywhere

One of many stray dogs wandering the streets

Overall, today proved to be a wonderful experience and also a strong reminder of how fortunate I am to be living a life as comfortably as I do.

May 15

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The Joy of Dumb Luck

For the past few days, Kelly and I have been relaxing in a national forest just outside the small town of Mt Shasta, which is located in far northern California. The town sits in the shadows of its namesake – Mt Shasta volcano (elevation 14,197 ft).

Looking east towards Mt Shasta

Having driven past the mountain many times, we’ve often admired it from the car, but have never stopped until this week. The mountain happens to sit in the midst of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, the largest forest system in California. Combined the mountain and the high elevation forest seemed like a combination we felt would make for a nice resting place for a couple of days.

It was me who picked Fowlers Campground as our landing spot. And I didn’t have much time to complete a lot of advance research … so if the place sucked, it would be me to blame. As luck would have it , the past couple days here have been fantastic.

Sometimes a guy is just lucky.

Wednesday, we arrived to a mostly empty campground … it’s primitive, has two loops with roughly 18-20 spacious sites per. Not sure what the crowds would be like through the weekend, we opted for a site off to itself and with the added bonus of a spacious grassy area opening up to a hillside.

Now, having seen the entire campground now in more detail, I think we have the best location … and Kelly deserves all the credit, as I was thinking about another one elsewhere. As an added bonus, our spot is proving to be a great point of entry for deer and other forest critters … which has provided plenty of excitement for Lilly.

Our site

Lilly keeping an eye on things

There is nice river with three waterfalls near the campground. Conveniently, our site is adjacent to a connector trail which links all three. We’ve seen two waterfalls thus far, and plan to view the third before leaving in a couple days. The trails here are nice and since this is a national forest, dogs are welcome on-leash – not so in California State or National Parks.

Once the trailer was set-up, we went out to find the “Middle Falls”, the closest of the three to our location.

The trail to Middle Falls

The trail to Middle Falls

Middle Falls below…

Stopping to admire Middle Falls

This morning (Thursday) we went looking for Lower Falls, which made for a great morning hike – this one following the river.

The river is a local favorite for fly fishing, and provides plenty of access points to the water. Lilly wasn’t interested in the fish, but could not get enough of the rocks – climbing all over them (and only slipping into the water a few times).

Eventually, we arrived to Lower Falls (above). While this particular falls is not much of an attraction per se, the general area is gorgeous. It’s so nice to be back at high elevation and in amongst the trees.

Eventually, we began making our way back to camp.

Along the way, I wanted to grab some firewood and decided to split this felled tree with my knee.

Upon arrival back to camp, it was time for lunch. The remainder of the day was spent … lazy.

Mar 29

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Not Quite As Planned

Generally I limit updates to this blog to those topics related our travels – the places we go and things we see while on the road. Sadly, adherence to these rules has resulted in the deafening silence that is the 62 days since I last posted any content.

The winds of change can be a real pain in the ass … and for Kelly and me, the changes are wreaking havoc on our travels. Twice this year we have prepped the trailer for travels, only to cancel each trip. Mostly, work is the culprit, but three root canals between the two of us are not helping matters. More, in what might be the most pathetic reflection of our travels so far this year, the single trip we’ve taken in 2014 was necessitated by legal requirement to visit a trailer-friendly DMV office about two hours from our home base in Half Moon Bay.

In a bitter twist of irony, the California DMV is to be credited for enabling the only quick weekend trip we’ve managed to squeeze in this year. Although to be completely forthcoming, the DMV did collect $1,100 from us in the process. I’m still not sure who got the better end of that deal.

Mabel collecting clutter … wishing to be elsewhere

Realistically, there will no trip anytime soon – work is too hectic for both Kelly and me for the foreseeable future. Mabel continues to sit idle, and like Kelly and me – wanting badly and waiting anxiously to be on the road exploring. At the moment, we travel vicariously (and with jealousy) via a variety of travel blogs and Instagram feeds – all the while, grasping tightly onto plans for a mid-May rendezvous with our fellow Airstreaming pals Brian & Leigh in Oregon … a place that makes everything better.

In between now and then, things will continue to be chaotic. Odds are good that my job will send me abroad to India and Germany for a period of 3-4 weeks while I also do my best to settle into a new role resulting from a recent promotion. Keeping up the tempo herself, Kelly is also basking in the joys of a recent promotion and other work accolades, doing her best to juggle the work of two – possibly three people.

Like I said, things are hectic.

Despite all of this, I remain optimistic that things will be okay and Kelly and I will again find ourselves course-corrccted, and soon enough back onto our preferred path.

Yesterday, my boss and I were chatting about the importance of momentum in sports. Specifically, how momentum can be an incredible force – something capable of propelling a team down 20 points … and seemingly left for dead at halftime, forward to victory.

To be clear, Kelly and I are not down by down 20 points (and I hope no one has left us for dead), but we do need to get momentum once again back on our side before the game begins shifting from feeling to actually being out of reach. If we can keep the game close until our trip to Oregon, I think we’ll have a good chance of regaining momentum for the second half of this year.

Full-timing since April 2015 … Dave, Kelly, and our dog living and traveling full-time in our Airstream trailer.

Posts from the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Back In Hamburg

Taj Mahal

The Joy of Dumb Luck

Not Quite As Planned

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