Ekki in Colorado

The 6000th visitor!

2009-05-31T03:58:00.005-06:00

Even though I am obviously not in Colorado anymore, this blog seems to be more popular then ever these days... 6000 visitors? Wow! Thanks for all your interest in my New World adventures ;-)
So what's new? Well lots of things happened since I am back in Good Old Germany. First of all my hair grew much longer than on that picture from my Goodbye Lunch with my colleagues (by the way, it was in our favorite Japanese restaurant, and as soon as they heard that I was layed off I got my lunch for free! Including the dessert! How cool is that?). I also moved back to my hometown... a very long story indeed. Got finally my stuff from the customs, signed up for a motorbike class, traveled to Nuernberg a couple of times... you see, it's not getting boring with me anytime soon ;-) So stay tuned for all the updates to come!

Goodbye Colorado!

2009-05-11T11:09:00.010-06:00

Things are moving quickly these days. Even I was surprised by the development... it seems like the whole moving process is having a life on its own and is moving far beyond light speed. What are you saying now Einstein? ;-)
Anyhow... the remaining days between my goodbye party and the actual flight were filled with lots of activities. Like selling my car, packing stuff, sending packages to Germany, packing even more stuff, cleaning up the mess downstairs (sorry again for leaving still such a mess, Justin), getting a rental car, goodbye dinners with friends...

Speaking about friends... thank you so much for calling over to the different events! I really miss you guys and as I said a couple of times before... a place is special because of its people. You can find nice scenery nearly everywhere around the globe or a nice city to live in... but good friendly people like here in Colorado are hard to find. And to all my friends I didn't see at my last days in Colorado... sorry for my restricted schedule! But it wasn't my last time over there, promise!

Well... back to my last days in Colorado. They passed by in an instance. And suddenly it was Wednesday morning and I had to catch the plane at 6 pm. So I was sending my last packages back to Europe, had lunch with Justin and Torsten (of course Mexican which you can't find that easily over there), send some more packages to Europe (the people in the post office knew me by name in this stage), nearly left my camera in my old room (I really have a problem with cameras these days) and was already off to the airport...

Oh man! What a crazy day... returning the rental, carrying 4 heavy suitcases to the check-in, being scarred as hell when they were weighing them (but they let them through without any comments) and off I was! Flying back to Germany... back to my hometown which I thought would never happen to be honest. Oh well... life is full of surprises I guess, and Colorado was one of those surprises as well... a very pleasant one I have to say ;-)

So... what is next? What will happen with this webpage you might ask. First of all there are still a couple of posts in the making... especially a 'making of' series you don't want to miss! But surely it will get a bit quieter around here in the future :-( But don't you worry my friends! Of course there is a new project in the pipe already! Announcing: Ekki in Germany... all you ever wanted to know about the country of Bratwurst, Sauerkraut and Beer but so far didn't dare (or care?) asking! ;-) Check it out:

www.ekkiingermany.blogspot.com

And if you ever make it to Germany yourself... give me a shout! I'll be around to show you the closest Oktoberfest :o)

Yours,
Ekki

Don't leave me now...

2009-05-10T11:08:00.008-06:00

Well... and sometimes you have to say goodbye to a long lasting love... for two years we were together. We went (drove) through good times and bad times. But we always could trust on each other. On my way to work she was entertaining me, she was with me on all my trips up the mountains even though she didn't like to ski and left me up the mountains a good couple of times.

And she was on a road trip to Mt. Rushmore with Justin and me. He also enjoyed her company... she was very social! Countless times she brought me to the airport but I always left her behind. Not very nice of me but she never said a word or acted up. Quite the opposite... she was very easy going but still had 280 horse powers in the back of her hand ready for when you needed it.

Obviously I couldn't take her with me. Even though she was very low maintenance I think it would have been hard for her to get settled in over here. With 3.3L she would have been the queen of the Autobahn but the taxman wouldn't have been that understanding I would think.
Anyhow... so we went different paths in our lifes. Two days before I had my plane she left me for someone else... Michael. I hope he takes good care of her... so long my love :.(

Goodbye BBQ at Casa Cammon

2009-05-02T11:08:00.013-06:00

As I said earlier already: everything has to come to an end someday... even though I certainly had a blast in Colorado! But the plane ticket was booked, suitcases packed (I wish!), the rest of my belongings sold and everything was set for a most dramatical end. And even the heavens started to cry which kind of messed with my BBQ idea... oh well, who looks back in anger right? ;-)

But regardless the bad weather everything was set for a party to remember. 80 burgers, 40 sausages and a beer keg were waiting for my guests (not sure if it was 40 or more... something along this lines I guess). The only disappointment of the night was that I had some leftovers... 40 burgers! Oh man! My friends are obviously not very good eater... but much better drinker :-)

And of course better cooks, too. Thanks for all the different salads, salsas and... cakes. As you can see on the left: Bich-Khe and James made a delicious cookie-cake for the party! Including the German 'goodbye' icing in the national colors of Belgium ;-) Still very, very tasty... thanks for that!

And to proof how tasty it actually was: my (ex-)roommate Justin seemed to be very happy with the cake. Or was it the beer? Well... I bought a keg of my favorite 'New Belgium Brewery' beer: Sunshine Wheat! It also was a huge success and we were able to finish the keg already at around midnight. Lucky enough we had plenty of bottled beer, Whiskey, Vodka and also...

Jell-O shots. Those are not known in Germany and you can see the surprise written in Torstens face discovering them at the party. What you can't see is that after having a couple of those Torsten was dancing to the music... on his own. Well it was entertaining for all of us :o)

But even the longest and craziest party has to come to an end. And I have to say thanks to all of you... for being such good friends over the last years!!!

And in the end it wasn't only the heavens who was shedding some tears :-)

I hope to see you all at my welcome party in Germany!!!

Goodbye dinner

2009-05-01T11:07:00.006-06:00

Well... all good things have to come to an end somehow. And as most of you already know I am planning to move back to Germany. So this goodbye dinner is the start of several goodbye activities...

But first things first... the goodbye dinner at my favorite restaurant: Casa Bonita. Most of you will know this place from a South Park episode and will be shocked that this place is real (at least Paul was shocked when he visited me last year) :-)

But it is real... well, it is even better than real! How to describe it to somebody who doesn't know this particular South Park episode? Something like 'Disneyworld' meets a very very bad Mexican restaurant I would think. And of course... cliff divers! Can you ask for more?

Thanks Torsten, Justin, Dani, Pete and Annika for this unforgettable night ;-)

Great Sanddunes

2009-04-29T11:07:00.005-06:00

And my final station of our road trip brought me to the destination of my very first road trip through Colorado: the Great Sanddunes National Park. From all national monuments and parks in Colorado this is my favorite. There are not that many places around where you have 14,000 ft (4,200+ m) mountains surrounding high plains, a small dessert in one corner and a little creek in between all of this!

You might wonder why those pictures are a bit blurry... well, it seems like I have no luck with digital cameras lately... my first one got stolen in Steamboat Springs beginning of this month and my second one broke after we left the Black Canyon. So we ended up with one of these disposable cameras. Surprisingly it was working quite well and we had at least some pictures taken in the sand dunes.

And Torsten was up for climbing the highest dune as well which takes around two hours of hiking through the sand... one step forward followed by 1/2 step sliding down the slope again. But the view is reward enough!

Later that day we went already back to Denver... for a dinner with friends at my favorite restaurant... stay tuned!

Black Canyon

2009-04-28T11:06:00.001-06:00

Once again I had a visitor from Germany calling by! Torsten from Nuernberg wanted to see Denver, Colorado and all the rest he missed on his last US trip two years ago. That's why I took him on a road trip through the rugged south-western Colorado including the Black Canyon, Curecanti lake and recreation area, South Park (something close to the TV show), Alamosa and the Great Sanddunes.

The first stop on our road trip was a part of Colorado I didn't see myself so far: the Black Canyon of Gunnison... which is already kind of funny as the closest town to the Black Canyon is not Gunnison but Montrose which is a good 40 miles closer. Oh well... what do I know? This time I was only a tourist myself ;-)

What I know is that it is a quite astonishing canyon, twice as deep as the Empire state building tall. The painted wall seen on the picture on the left is amazing and looks like a giant Picasso!

But after hiking the canyon for a couple of hours Torsten and I agreed... first of all to the astonishing views of the canyon were worth the trip but also that we got scammed! The Black Canyon isn't black at all... well kind of I guess... but calling it the Grey Canyon doesn't have a good sound to it... marketing is everything, even for National Parks ;-)

Starbucks everywhere...

2009-04-23T14:48:00.003-06:00

Most of you might know that Starbucks started off in Seattle as one among many small coffee brewing companies which are a quite common sight throughout the city. So it is interesting to see that Starbucks became the multinational coffee empire what it is today... and of course visiting its roots. The Starbucks store #1 is one of the main tourist attractions here in Seattle and of course I had to get my coffee fix there as well.

Also interesting to see is that the Starbucks logo changed over time and on the above picture you can see their old logo which is quite different to what we have today...
Wandering through the different neighborhoods in Seattle makes you understand how the lifestyle of the people living here created this unique coffee culture which got exported across the globe. And I also started to understand why Starbucks is filling other cities with that many coffee shops throughout the world. That is exactly what they did here in Seattle... so you have a Starbucks at every block. Sometimes even two or more! Coming to a city near you soon :o)

This concludes my fabulous trip to Seattle and when I arrived back in Denver most of the snow was already melted. You have to love Colorado for that!

More Seattle

2009-04-22T22:05:00.007-06:00

Of course I had to clime Seattle's landmark 'the Space Needle' as well which my tourist guide calls 'the most expensive elevator ride you'll take in your lifetime'. They are right about that but you'll get a fantastic view of the city in return. Also worth doing is the vintage Monorail between the Space Needle and the city... and yes it takes only 5 mins total.

Beside the obvious tourist attractions millions of people see every year I also saw some not that commonly known attractions as well. Like the Fremont Troll for example which can be found not under the Fremont Bridge (too obvious I guess) but the neighboring Aurora Bridge's north side. It took me quite a while to realize that ;-)

And I also saw some destinations around Seattle like the Snoqualmie Fall which is twice as high as the famous Niagara Falls... but maybe a bit less impressive :-)
Anyhow... I really fell in love with Washington State which much looks like Germany when it comes to vegetation and landscape. That's maybe the reason why you find so many Germans settling in this area... including the all-Bavarian town of Leavenworth (with Sommerfest and Oktoberfest) which I didn't have time to see unfortunately... maybe with my next weekend trip? ;-)

Seattle from above and below

2009-04-18T21:53:00.006-06:00

And finally I made it to Seattle! No minor blizzard can stop me ;-) Interesting enough I had two fantastic days up in Washington State which is better known for its rain than for its sunshine while the rest of the country had thunderstorms, tornados and blizzard... the lucky shamrock in my Guinness worked already!
But back to Seattle... a very lovely city I have to say. I really like the different neighborhoods which I didn't see like that anywhere else so far.

By walking through the city center I noticed those little windows in the sidewalk at most intersection. What is underneath? Well this is one of the many secrets of Seattle. For more than 30 blocks you have 'hollow' sidewalks which were put in after a huge fire destroyed the entire city in the late 19th century. At that time they decided to rise the street level by one storage which took the city a decade to put in. In the meantime you had already most of the buildings rebuild which actually lost an entire level which went into the underground.

For several decades you had two different levels of sidewalks... one for the offical business upstairs and one for 'other' business downstairs. Nowadays you have guided tours through this underground city. Very interesting! I wish I would have seen this during the prohibition which must have been very very interesting :-) But Seattle had some more surprised for me so stay tuned...

Whiteout on the runway

2009-04-17T21:43:00.004-06:00

My next weekend trip supposed to take me to Seattle, Washington. What I didn't take in account was something much closer home then the far north-west of the United States... the Coloradan weather.
As a rule of thumb you can say: every time when you least expect it or really don't need it a blizzard pulls in. Regardless which season :o)

Even though it was just one of the minor spring blizzard we had so far it was enough to bring the entire air traffic to a squeaking hold for that day. And my plane was delayed by 4 hours... with an additional half an hour waiting on the runway to get the deicing. Oh joy. I finally arrived at my hotel at 1 AM. Oh well... at least I made it! And the very next morning I was ready to explore Seattle... that's what I call dedication ;-)

The L word at the big X

2009-04-15T11:09:00.006-06:00

April 15th is traditionally the tax day over here in the States. And it seems like everybody is once again surprised by the upcoming deadline to finish their income tax returns. But this year my company also had a surprise up their sleeve. After having their last 'workforce adjustments' in June of last year we knew that there are new clouds on the horizon once again. On Monday we knew already that something big is going down and we were right...

The official numbers are 6% reduction... most of them in Europe (Ireland got badly hit). For more information just read the official statement. Anyhow... I got 'adjusted' as well... which is really a strange feeling. I am glad going through that at least once in my lifetime but I would love to leave it at that. At least we had a very nice layoff party at the end of this day... and they even put a lucky shamrock into my Guinness... for good luck I guess :-)

And I also had a very nice layoff dinner with my roommates at Joe's Crab Shack... lucky enough Dani was working here before so she could order the 'proper stuff' for us.

Well after nearly 6 years with the big X it is time to say goodbye. Best of luck to my remaining colleagues... they will need it in the coming months. I still feel that I got the better side of the deal! So long...

What is a... roundabout?

2009-04-07T22:56:00.003-06:00

Coming from Ireland where roundabouts are a quite common sight at your daily commute I was surprised to see that the US went an entirely different way when it comes to traffic control. Traffic lights are more common here than anywhere else I went so far. Even in Germany it is easier to step over a roundabout from time to time ;-) But in several communities over here you can find them if you look hard enough...

Interesting is how different towns and cities explain those to the public over here. One of the more innovative ways I found in Steamboat Springs... a 'traffic circle' apparently is a little one way street spanning around a little circle... or simply a roundabout :-P

Rocky Mountains Oysters

2009-04-06T22:39:00.003-06:00

Well... one story remains from our Rocky mountain trip I didn't mention here yet: Rocky Mountains Oysters. Well... I'll not tell you what those are actually are (just in case you want to try them anytime soon and not to spoil the surprise for you) but to be honest now... so far I thought they are a myth or at least something put together for messing around with tourists ;-)

But they are real! It is a real dish served in real restaurants here and enjoyed by real locals and real (unknowing) tourists! And for what they are they are not too bad at all. I was surprised!

And as you can see... we survived to tell the story! Try them on your next trip to Colorado yourself!

Steamboat Springs

2009-04-05T22:37:00.003-06:00

The last part of our journey took us to Steamboat Springs which is a little ski resort in the far north of Colorado. World famous for their champagne powder snow which they got plenty from the last weekends blizzard. Of course we were not really interested in skiing but more in their local hot springs and hiking trails. Somewhere on this picture on the right you can see the famous Fish Creek falls... somewhere below all the snow that is.

Unfortunately it wasn't all fun and games... and somebody stole my camera while visiting the local museum :-( Oh well... it could have been much worse I guess... at least we were able to take some pictures with other cameras for instance... After a long and intensive discussion with Mr. Lincoln on that bench I felt much better... interesting enough he wasn't saying too much. I guess a good president is also a good listener :o)

But we still had a great vacation up in Steamboat Springs... a very nice place which I am sure to see again soon.

This concludes our long weekend trip throughout the Rockies! Thanks for the fantastic time I had, Christine.

Hanging Lake Hike

2009-04-04T22:35:00.010-06:00

But on the second day of our vacation the streets had already cleared up which gave is the chance for a 'little' hike... to the Hanging Lake. This is already a quite challenging hike in the summer time but as you remember from my last post, we had a blizzard over here which added a few levels of difficulty in form of ice and snow. So this 'little' hike of 30 mins each way turned out to be a bit longer...

In fact around 3 to 4 times longer. So we were counting the numbers of bridges to cross... in the picture above you can see number 4 of 7. But the reward was astonishing enough: this green crystal clear lake framed by the white of ice and snow. Fantastic! I am sure to come back the next time in the summer time though ;-)

And here is the Hanging Lake exploration party 2008: Christine who took the exploration lead, Jasmina who kept an open eye for bears and mountain lions from her vantage point and myself who was there just for his good looks I guess :o)

But our adventure continued so stay tuned!

Glenwood Springs

2009-04-03T22:29:00.003-06:00

My next weekend trip took me once again up the Rocky Mountains. Christine was visiting from Germany and after staying in Colorado for more then 3 years, she felt a bit homesick ;-) So I took two days off and we went up the mountains heading to Glenwood Springs. A pity though that a major blizzard (the last one for this season?) pulled in at the very same weekend...

I wasn't really worried but my colleagues were... so I borrowed a shuffle, starter cables and snow chains of Thomas and filled my car with food, water and cat litter. Yes... cat litter! Apparently it is very good for getting some traction between snow and tires when getting stuck! Interesting what kind of things you learn moving to a different country ;-)

But as you can see on the pictures... it was absolutely necessary to be prepared even though we didn't have any troubles getting to Glenwood Springs which is a three hour drive from Denver... over there though we got snowed in on Saturday. So we visited the nearby caves which had a constant temperature of 55 F (13 C) which were really nice and cosy with all the snow around us ;-)

The end of winter wonderland

2009-03-27T13:52:00.003-06:00

What did I say in my last post? In a few days we'll have a BBQ on the porch again? Well... that's how Colorado is. One day you have warm temperatures and sunshine, then you have a blizzard pulling in leaving us with 17 inch of snow and a state shutdown for the day and the next morning everything is thawing again. The end of a winter wonderland.

Which kind of amazes me is how quickly all that is happening. Even though the temperatures are well below freezing the sun comes out and melts the snow in no time. At around noon the streets were cleared and the remaining water was steaming (!) off... look at this picture! Amazing... you have to love the Coloradan weather ;-)

Whiteout in Colorado

2009-03-26T22:46:00.003-06:00

When I went to bed at midnight there was not even one snowflake in the air. The entire day I was running around in my T-Shirt. The previous weekend was even better... sunshine and temperatures in the mid 70s (21+ C).
When the weather forecast issues a blizzard warning once again I didn't really take it seriously. Well the last blizzard warning on Monday just missed us by a few hundred miles and hit Wyoming instead. What can happen to us... in March, right?

Well the answer is simple... a foot of snow (30 cm) in less then six hours. Enough to shut down all highways around us and making the daily commute a nightmare for most of us. Working for a high tech company has definitely advantages... we could simple stay in and work from home instead... and missing out on the fun on the freeway. Oh well.

Interesting is that blizzard warning is still in effect till tomorrow... not speaking about the temperature drop to freezing 19 F (-7 C). Tomorrow's commute could be fun too!

And finally I saw some proper white outs... with so much snow in the air that you have difficulties to spot your neighbors house across the street!

This is Colorado, man! And I am sure that in 3 days we will have BBQ's on the porch again :-)

Happy St Paddy's Day

2009-03-17T14:19:00.002-06:00

It's once again this time of the year when we all start wearing green, watching parades and having (sometimes green) pints of Guinness. Even the local television station reported from the greenest holiday in Denver... the connection they made to how good environmental wise this particular holiday is I really couldn't make myself. Oh well... that's what you call Zeitgeist I guess.

On the other hand we had a fantastic parade downtown Denver. To make it more accessible for everyone (because Paddy's Day is not a national holiday over here) we had the parade already last weekend.

And what a parade that was: 4 hours of marching bands, pipe bands, Irish dancers, horses, lamas, floats and even Denver's mayor which I barely noticed among all other politicians. He also wore a green scarf :o)

But of course it is all about the Irish heritage and I am still amazed about how many Irish dancing schools are in and around Denver.

And about how many Americans which think that wearing a kilt is typical Irish ;-)

But we also had plenty (stereo-)typical American floats like a Native American Pow-Wow, cowboys herding cattle and of course Ronald McDonnald. I still wonder were the King from Burger King was this year ;-)

And like the last three years the Star Wars crowd was there again Which is really funny to see on St. Patrick's Day I think: First you have the marines, the young marines and then a crowd of people dressed in old uniforms (like world war or civil war uniforms) marching... followed by a bunch of Stormtroopers in white :-) I guess in this stage it is now part of the American culture... like the bunch of people dressed up in Stargate (TV series) uniforms who followed ;-)

But all that matters is having a good time: HAPPY PADDY'S DAY to all of you!

After the magic...

2009-03-10T22:16:00.003-06:00

But even the best magic has to come to an end someday. And that day came much too soon... like always on vacations I guess :-( So I climbed my little airport shuttle, said goodbye to Mickey and Goofy and left the Magic Kingdom. While I had only some hand luggage there were two girls joining the shuttle bus which basically filled out the entire remaining space in that bus. Have a look on that picture... it seemed like everyone of them had at least 5 big bags and a couple of hand luggage pieces. Amazing! I wish I could have seen their luggage surcharge they had to pay...

The next eerie thing awaited me when I climbed my airplane to Denver. After getting all hyped up in the Tower of Terror I felt a bit strange sitting in an airplane nearly on my own. There might have been 10 people in the entire plane, if that!

Oh well... I live to tell the story... and arrived in Denver... from the... twilight zone :o)

A great vacation indeed! Thanks for having me Mickey ;-)

Around the world at Epcot

2009-03-09T13:50:00.003-06:00

The last remaining park to visit was Epcot which is the educational park of the four Disney world parks. It is featuring iconic rides like Spaceship Earth which takes its visitors in a time machine through humankind's biggest inventions, a simulated space launch (which I took at least five times) and of course the world showcase build on the shores of a small lake.

This is actually the nicest part of the park as it allows its visitors to travel around the world in a matter of a short walk. Following eleven countries are represented: Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, USA, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom and Canada. Every country has its own small exposition, shops and restaurants.

Of course I had to spend some time in Germany. Lucky enough they were selling alcohol in this park unlike the other three parks. Can you imagine Germany without beer? Me neither ;-) But I have to admit the food was authentic. And the German part of the park looked much like Nuremberg and the German speaking waiter and waitress were wearing Dirndl and Lederhosen. Everyone knows that we are all wearing that stuff over there all the time :-P

The United Kingdom part of the park was very well done as well. I liked the fish and chips and the nice English pub they had there... playing some great (American) Rock music ;-)

The only thing which didn't really fit into the whole picture was the St. Paddy's stuff which was getting sold all over the place there. As one of the people beside me correctly noticed... isn't that Irish?

Oh well... I think it is hard to create a world showcase without presenting stereotypes as well. But I still think they did a great job at Epcot. And if you don't have the time or the money to travel to all those countries this might be the next best thing. Much better then going to Vegas believing that you saw Venice or Rome I guess :-)

Animal Kingdom safari

2009-03-08T13:49:00.000-06:00

The third Disney park over in Orlando is a crossover of Zoo, safari and theme park. Their latest attraction is a roller coaster which takes its visitors on a trip through the Himalaya to encounter the infamous Yeti. Indeed very well made and the only attraction with a longer queue in the entire park. Except of course the two girls sitting behind me and screaming 'oh my god... oh my god' the entire time!

But even wandering through the park was good fun as it is separated into different parts of the world like Asia (with Nepal, Tibet and India) and Africa. Again everything is well themed and looks like the real deal... as much as I can tell because I never went there... yet ;-) On the other hand I think that most of the audience was never there too... so it worked for us :-)

But of course I was there for the animals so I booked my very own safari which was great fun as well. The main different here was that the safari was embedded in an entire story about our imaginary ranger hunting down some poacher and taking us from waterhole to waterhole in the process. Again very well made and a good chance to see elephants, rhinos and other animals from up close.

Speaking about animals... the last ride I took was in the dinosaur part of the park and presented you alive dinosaurs from up close...

I guess dinosaurs are animals as well... somehow. Oh well, still I had a great time over there as you can see :-)

Premiere at the Hollywood Studios

2009-03-07T12:50:00.001-07:00

My next stop was the Disney Hollywood Studios which offers everything for a movie buff like me... lots of movie sets which allows you wandering through New York and San Fransisco at the same time. An interesting illusion which only from up close lets you see the fake buildings and street paintings.

Also very enjoyable are the different stunt shows they have over there. Like the car chase scene which would be quite impressive to see at the movies but live up close... astonishing. Also interesting is that for this short sequence they have already 3 different versions of the same car customized to perform the different stunts. And all cars are Opels made in Germany! I have to try those stunts with my own Opel Corsa back home now ;-)

But these were not the only things to do over there. Of course they had plenty of fun rides too... again heavily themed. Like the Star Tour ride which takes you into a Star Wars set... including an AT-AT walker, Tatooine and Endor set. Oh man... I would have loved that as a kid that's for sure.

Okay... you got me there... I still enjoyed it ;-)

My favorite ride though was the Tower of Terror which basically is a hunted elevator of this Hollywood hotel with a life on its own. Disney also themed this ride around a 'Twilight Zone' episode. Brilliant! I took at least 5 times this ride :-P

And I made it back... out of... THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Ticket to the Magic Kingdom

2009-03-06T12:25:00.000-07:00

After 2 very stressful months at work I was in need of some hilarious and mindless fun... so I booked my ticket at Disney world in Orlando, Florida. After enjoying Disneyland in Anaheim, California last year this was the next logical step for me :-)
Arriving at my hotel it looked like they were expecting me. Not only they had the German flag flying but also the Irish... no other flag! That is too much of a coincidence for me... they knew! Impressive!

While Disney has 'only' two parks in California (Disneyland and The Californian Experience) over in Florida they have already four parks... the Magical Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and the Animal Kingdom. Each park is heavily Disney themed but has its own charm.

So I started my 4-day Disney vacation at the Magic Kingdom which seems to be the most children-friendly one of the four with not too scary rides and Disney characters found at every corner. But I was there for the roller coasters of course ... and there were plenty of it. And because I was there out-of-season the lines were actual not too bad at all... most of the time I could directly walk up to the ride!

But then I had the chance to meet the only Disney character I wanted to meet for my entire trip: Goofy!

We had a great chat about the Federal income tax form W-2 after taking this picture. Thanks for saving me some money there Goody ;-)

Money, money... and... beerpong?

2009-02-22T12:48:00.006-07:00

Something what is really popular over here is themed party's. Maybe I never was on such fancy party's in Europe or I simply didn't get invited. But this weekend Nicki and Dustin organized a great 'money' themed party... and I was invited :-) Here you see me with my roommate Justin, asking him for a few billions bailout money for a poor CEO stuck on the Bahamas.

Well needless to say that he wasn't falling for it and didn't even had one buck for me. Which wasn't too bad as I had plenty of my own money with me. Following the general trend of our times I printed it myself... please note the one-million-Dollar bill with me happily cheering... or the one-Dollar-bill with me looking truly presidential. Also there is a 10 Deutsch-Mark bill and an Iraqi bill featuring... yes... I guess you get the idea... me as well ;-)

Well you might ask what beerpong had to do with it or even what it is ;-) I never saw this game in Europe so I assume that is an American things as well... or again, I never got invited to those party's back home ;-)
Main idea is that you try to throw ping-pong balls in the cups of your opponents who have to drink them in return. Good fun I have to admit! And the winner of this tournament got one million dollar... Ekki-Dollar that is ;-)

Beavercreek

2009-02-14T12:47:00.004-07:00

This weekend I was invited once again to a ski trip... well that's what you are doing at that time of the year here in Colorado, with some of the world bests ski resorts right next door. This time Justin's parents invited me to their brand new mountain house right of the ski slope! And as you can see... we were not only there for the skiing... also for the food and the beer. At least one discipline where I could impress my hosts ;-)

Here is the view right of the balcony at their Beavercreek's house. Is there anything more marvelous then simply relaxing in a hot tub after a long day of skiing, sipping beer and watching the sun set? If so... I don't want to hear or know about it because this is the real deal! :-)

Thanks again for having me up there and for your patience skiing with me! I really had a great time!

Germans, Germans... everywhere

2009-02-09T19:18:00.005-07:00

A good friend of mine is always worried that I am loosing my German while staying over here in the new world. But don't you worry... there is no reason for that... I am still surprised how many Germans (and German speakers) are living in the US... especially in and around Denver.
Funny though that Denver has at least 5 different German speaking groups, also called Stammtisch which is basically like the English tea time just replace English with German chitchat and tea with beer. You decide which is more fun. I might be biased... towards the beer of course ;-)

But not everywhere you have signs like the one I found in Dallas leading the way to the different hideouts of 'zte' Germans. I was really tempted though to park my car in front of that hairdresser shop which had this sign in the showcase ;-)
A save bet are all the different German restaurants and bars (or should I call them Kneipe) around Denver. Even when Hans-Peter and Mike were visiting and we were looking for a breakfast place along the highway we were running coincidentally into a German restaurant I didn't know of.

So as you can see... don't you worry. My funny German accent will stay with me for quite a while now :-P

Ski trip to Keystones

2009-02-07T12:19:00.001-07:00

This weekend I was on a field trip with my favorite group: European's The Real Deal... a party loving crowd of people who enjoys a good drink as much as I do... and also skiing. So why not combining both things by renting a place at Keystones up in the mountains, having a few drinks and do also some skiing? That's exactly what we did for that field trip.

This year I was even up for doing a bit of skiing myself after having a bit of a hangover preventing me from doing that at Breckenridge last year. And I even had a ski buddy with me. Thanks Sabine for all your patients! I had a great time... and a good few drinks as well ;-)

Happy 25th

2009-02-05T21:08:00.004-07:00

Twenty five years... quite an age for a high tech company like the one I am working for. Time to contemplate about the last six years, about the fun, about the friends I made, the countries I have seen, the ups ans downs, and all the rest... and of course having some cake at the anniversary party we had on Monday.

First of all here you can see me with my current team... the Design Solution Verification team at our Longmont office in Colorado.

Even though this is a quite easy going and cool team (we even took our team picture in front of a Forsters beer truck!) there are many geeks around this place... and where there are geeks there are also geeky presents our company gave away in the past, like this awesome license plate frame... sweet :o)

But at least we are staying in a fancy office building which is often referred as the 'ski resort' by our headquarters. And it is not that far fetched... we have meeting rooms with sofas, fireplaces and balconies here. Really a nice place next door to the Rockies.

Well... Happy 25th! Thanks for the great time we had so far :-)

Superbowl

2009-02-02T21:03:00.002-07:00

Empty streets, deserted highways, sold out beer sections in liquor stores and potato chip shortages in the local super market... oh yes... these are the best indicators for the Superbowl, the biggest sport event in the world. Well that's at least what people over here think. Let's settle on the biggest American Football tournament in the world ;-)
I was invited to a Superbowl party at my friend Thomas's house and had a great time watching a very exciting match between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals which was literally decided in the last minute.
But it is not all about the match... it's the whole show which keeps you entertained for more then three hours... like the half-time show (Bruce Springsteen) and even the commercials. Those are as much entertaining as the match itself and they have even polls voting for the most popular one after the show. Even O' Reilly was discussing the television add and if they would have a bad influence on the youth... speaking about which... in Arizona they had a new Nipplegate when a local 'adult entertainment channel' was sending their content on the same frequency for a couple of seconds... the FCC is investigating...

But altogether a great show even if you normally don't like American Football!

Different Taste 10

2009-01-27T15:40:00.005-07:00

Different taste... one of my favorite topics to write about because it combines two things I really enjoy: first of all being advantageous by trying new things and most of the time it involves food as well. A great combination ;-)
This time I speak about cheese which is bit different over here too. Well, you can get French, German and Irish cheese here too but the American version is sometimes... well let's put it this way, surprising! For better understanding you have to know that they have a product called 'I-can't-believe-it-is-not-butter' which is exactly that, not butter. This applies to cheese too. The worst cheese I found so far is the 'yellow fluid 'cheese-wanna-be' which you can pour directly onto your Nachos or burger. Very strange is if you don't need to head it up and it is coming directly out of a dispenser. That case keeps me wondering how many chemicals it takes to keep it in this state in the first place. Under this circumstances you might understand the picture of my favorite frozen pizza brand over here which is advertising 'with 100% REAL cheese'!
What are the other brands using? Unreal cheese? Yellowish fluent wanna-be cheese? I feel that I don't want to hear the answer to this though ;-)

Ekki on top of the world

2009-01-24T13:32:00.001-07:00

On top of the world, ey? Well more like on top of a mountain you might say. And other might even argue... only a hill. But 'on top of the hill' doesn't really looks that good as a title. And it doesn't even describe remotely the fun you have skiing down... a hill... fast :o)

So being out on the piste (slope) a second time this year shows you how much fun I have following my new hobby taking me outdoors in the winter time. Usually not the best time of the year to get in front of the door you might think.

And you are right about that. This time was the coldest skiing day I had so far. 15 F (-10 C) is quite chilly when you have snow falling on top of you as well. But brilliant ski conditions with as much new powder snow as you can ask for!

Hope to see you down the slope in one stage :-)

The 5000th visitor

2009-01-17T13:49:00.003-07:00

5000 visitors! I am still amazed about the huge number of people who like to read this little blog about my adventures in the new world. And lots of things I have seen so far over here and lot of things have changed. The most obvious one is of course the world economy which really sucks right now. Over here though things changed in a matter of days when people stopped talking about their 25 or 30% ROI they got from funds in the stock market to loosing the same amount of money in a matter of a few hours. On the other hand we have a new president and it was great to see the election campaigns and of course being able to keep you up to date. Also I went to Germany, Ireland, Houston, Dallas and Las Vegas all in the last 2 months alone! Busy times and interesting times we are living in right now.

In times like that it is good to focus on things that really matter again... like health and the happiness of loved ones. Everything else is just the icing on the cake, right?

Thanks for reading my blog! Stay save... and read you soon!!!

New season - new fun

2009-01-16T19:08:00.002-07:00

The winter is back! I still remember my very first ski season like it was last year... oh well... it was last year ;-) And it was great fun too! At the end of that season I finally managed to conquer a blue slope (second easiest level) without falling. I was so proud of me, simply ignoring all the 6-grader who were flying past me in the process :o)

So this season I planned on improving my skills and maybe getting the same success with a black slope (a really easy black slope) at the end of this season. I started off on the bunny slope (green) and was surprised that I didn't even crashed ones. It's a bit like riding a bike, once you learn it you don't loose it. So next week I will try my luck on the blue ones! Fingers crossed.

Gingerbread house in January

2009-01-15T13:47:00.004-07:00

One of the things I didn't get into my suitcase anymore was the 'Gingerbread House Kit' which I thought would be great fun to build with my family in Germany. Unfortunately the 1.2 kg (2.6 pound) of pure sugar were too heavy for my luggage. A pity... so what to do with such a fantastic kit when I got back to Colorado in January?

Well... I think you understand where I try to get with that. Should I let it going stale on me? Sweets? No way! So I revived the 'Ekki cooks...' post series on this blog especially for this project.

Lucky enough all ingredients were in this set so I didn't have to go crazy with the oven. Not that I am capable of doing that :o)

And as you can see... after two hours of hard decoration work where I felt like one of these guys in our neighborhood decorating their houses for Christmas... just a bit smaller of course ;-) after two hours it was done!

And two days later the house was in my housemates and my bellies!

Tasty! And this year I will build the house BEFORE Christmas. Promise ;-)

Back in Colorado

2009-01-14T11:46:00.003-07:00

But every good thing has to come to an end... even my amazing travel through Europe. I have seen my friends in Ireland, my old office, was on the annual Christmas party and had plenty of proper Guinness.
Then I saw my parents, my brother and my friends in Germany... I traveled to Frankfurt to meet my old mate Heiko, in Hofheim I had some drinks with Siggi, in Nuremberg I saw a great comedy show with Christine and went to the Imax with Torsten. I celebrated New Years Eve with Annika, Pete and Christine and also got a chance to hang out with my buddy Gerald. Oh... and I had a BBQ on the first Christmas day :o) I really felt that I spend an entire lifetime in only three weeks while I was over there. Thanks everyone for having me!

But now it's time to head back to Denver, Colorado. I am sure I am needed there as well :-)

Germany tour 08/09

2009-01-10T11:45:00.002-07:00

Like my infamous German Summer 08 tour, the Winter tour 08/09 was again aimed to meet as many friends as possible in the shortest amount of time. This time I went to Nuernberg where I met Christine... don't ask me why she had to kiss the blue horse instead of me :-)

After that I went to meet my good friend Siggi who moved recently to a very nice place called Hofheim close to Frankfurt. We had some wines and cigarettes like the good old study days ;-)

With a big hangover I continues my journey to see my friend Torsten.

Of course I had to go to the Imax cinema with him and we watched some 3D movies... I know... I know... geeky but hey... I like ;-)

After traveling hundreds of kilometers (miles) across Germany it was time again to think of heading back to Colorado.

Home sweet home

2009-01-05T18:27:00.001-07:00

And finally I found some time for going back to my hometown in the principality of Waldeck: Nieder-Werbe. At summertime this place is full with tourists hanging around the second biggest man-made lake in Germany. But at wintertime the water level is lowered and all you can see is a frozen peace of wanna-be lake in the middle of the village. Hence not that many tourists are finding their way over there...

Of course I also had time for meeting my parents again who are always happy to see me once in for a while. America is still quite a way to go I guess ;-)

Home sweet home!

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T18:27:00.005-07:00

New Years Eve... all over the world it is celebrated, but of course with different traditions. Being in Germany at that time I noticed a few 'strange' German traditions myself... like 'Dinner for One' (original title). Every time there is a native English speaker in our party he/she is asked about this British skit about an old lady and her butler having New Years dinner with 'old friends'. But of course... nobody else knows it except the Germans... a David Hasselhof moment once again ;-)

The next very traditional thing everybody has to do at New Years eve is 'Bleigiessen' which roughly translates into 'lead casting'. You need lead, a candle and a cold water bowl. You are then telling your fortune out of the shape of the molten lead you poured into the water.

Interesting... I got a swan! I leave it up to you investigating what 2009 is having up its sleeves for me... but it could be worse I guess ;-)

And then of course fireworks. Not in every country this is the way of welcoming the new year. In Ireland and even in Colorado fireworks aren't sold in public and you have to trust your city for setting something up. Over in Germany... not a problem. I hope the owner of the Benz didn't have any problems with his insurance too... or that would have been a bad start into 2009 :-)

A Happy New Year to you and yours!

Merry Christmas everyone!

2008-12-25T11:43:00.007-07:00

Meanwhile back in Germany... finally I got the chance to see several proper Christkindle markets. It is a similar thing like Irish pubs back in Dublin I guess... we have an own Christkindle market downtown Denver too which again is nothing compared to the real deal back home. So what's so special about them then? Well... lots of people freezing in the cold, drinking steaming hot mulled wine, listening to Christmas carols, also sprinkle some snow on top of them... DONE.

So I spend my time several days before Christmas going from one Christkindle market to the next one. The biggest one I saw this year was the one in Kassel. No snow though :-(

Still plenty of mulled wine and good food!

But that is not what Christmas is all about, right? Christmas is the time of year where we can slow down, relax and forget about our stressful life for a moment. And appreciated that there is something more important in life then work and money... love and peace among all people!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Real Irish pubs

2008-12-19T11:40:00.003-07:00

After several 'dry' months... well, not exactly a drought but you get the idea ;-) I finally made it into a real Irish pub again! Of course we have Irish pubs in Denver and vicinity but it is not the same. Maybe it is more comparable to Temple Bar back in Dublin which is the really tourist area over there with everything a tourist would expect to see in Ireland... including one or two leprechaun a night :-)

And as you can see... my Irish friends were very, very happy to see me. And there was no argument over who is picking up the bill! That is what true friends are all about... but the exchange rate to the Dollar made it hurt more then the bruises ;-)

Once again I had a great time in Ireland! Thanks again to everybody... you really make me missing this place!

Back to the Fair City

2008-12-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

Finally I made it back to my second home... the one and only Fair City... where streets have no name... home of Guinness... Dublin. And of course I had time to meet a good old friend of mine, Molly Malone! Still waiting for me at Grafton Street where I left her exactly a year ago... there are not many women on this planet you can pull that one off :o)

And the whole city is already decorated and getting ready for Christmas. But despite being only one more week to go the city and the shopping centers were quite empty. It took us only 20 minutes taking the M50 from Tallaght to the airport on a weekend afternoon! Impressive! That would never have happened on my watch two years ago :-P

And finally after six years my friend Brian told me how to say Halfpenny Bridge like the locals do... ha'penny of course! Try to get that one right after half a dozen Guinness ;-)

Winter horror hits Denver

2008-12-05T14:44:00.005-07:00

Well... winter is not always fun and games as we know. Especially when it sneaks up at you like it does over here. One day you can have quite pleasant temperatures, people running around in T-shirts and the next day you have suddenly 6 inches (15 cm) of snow covering the highways. What happened in the meantime you might ask? Colorado has one bis advantage: most of the time the weather happens at night which is great in the summertime where most of the time no cloud is disturbing the sunshine (hence the advertised 300 days of sunshine).

But this has one big disadvantage in the wintertime where you suddenly awake to lots of snow on the ground and lots of traffic blocking the roads which makes up for the perfect winter horror which we had now the second week in a row. I better get a sleigh and some Huskies and leave my car at home ;-)

Crazy Vending Machines II

2008-12-05T08:38:00.002-07:00

Revisiting one of my latest posts about elaborate vending machines at American airports. Remember the Rosetta Stone language course vending machine I was on about recently? I found a posh version of it at the Houston airport (which funny enough is called Georg Bush airport, but that is a different story now). This version of the vending machine came with a real but bored looking person! :-)

Every time I see something like that I really wonder what is the margin for selling this product if they can afford an expensive vending machine or even a real person selling that product. Which brings me to one of my favorite topics... Apple! They had an own wending machine for i-phones, etc at that airport as well!

Maybe I am getting to old or I am not hip anymore... more likely both... but I still find the idea of buying a several hundred Dollar product of a vending machine somewhere at an airport amusing... I guess I am easily amused at least ;-)

Dallas and JFK

2008-12-04T20:36:00.002-07:00

The next stop on my grand Texas tour was Dallas. Two things come into my mind when I think of Dallas: first the well known soap opera about a bunch of rich Texan oil moguls and of course the infamous assassination of John F Kennedy. It is interesting to see how this tragedy is becoming a tourist attraction nowadays. Here you can see me spotting the snipers nest in the window of the bookstore on the 6th floor... unfortunately a few decades too late ;-)

But of course there are plenty of conspiracies around this single event in history and it is nice to see the place with your own eyes. Even after watching several documentaries in favor or opposing the blooming conspiracies, it is interesting to see how small the Dealey plaza really is. A second (or even third) sniper would have been very easy to spot with all the people filling up this place. But that is only my opinion and so I was wandering over the world famous Grassy Knoll a tourist myself .

And of course there is a very interesting museum about the evens of November 22nd 1963. It is located in the very same building and floor where Oswald had his 'alleged' snipers nest including a recreation of it.

And before you enter the museum you are passing this door with three pictograms on the bottom... attention, very bad joke... if they would have had the icon forbidding guns in that building already in the 60s... this would never have happened :-)

Alright... sorry. This place is definitely worth a visit regardless if you believe in conspiracies or not. And don't forget to visit the Reunion tower which was sadly closed for redecoration when I was there :-(

Houston we have a problem

2008-12-03T13:35:00.001-07:00

But Houston is of course widely known because of its NASA space center. While queuing for the tour the guy in front of me tried to explain his son where we were. He said (and this is NOT a joke!): "Remember the movie Armageddon? They were calling their base station in Houston. And that is... HERE!" I really had to laugh about that comparison but even I was able to understand that... maybe not such a bad explanation at all then ;-)

But beside the historical mission control center which was basically involved in every maned space mission and of course the new mission control for the space shuttle and ISS missions, they also have the astronaut training facility here. Basically they have a copy of each module on the space station, space shuttle, etc. in a big hanger to train astronauts. Due to the hurricane their roof was leaking that's why most of it was covered up.

And another great attraction here at NASA in Houston: you can touch a real moon stone! Here you can see me (or better my index finger) touching those stone. Remember the big fuss about the contamination by moon microbes in the 60s after the first moon landing? I hope it isn't me know who is wiping out humankind ;-)

Another entertaining element of the tour were the warning signs in different parts of the mission control building. This one might be not that entertaining for my English speaking readers but the combination of the direct translation of 'cell phone' which looks more like prison cells in German and the chosen word for 'switching off' is really funny. At least not everything is perfect even at NASA ;-)

Hurricane over Galveston

2008-12-02T20:34:00.006-07:00

As I said in an earlier post, just a month before my trip Hurricane Ike hit the Houston area quite badly. In the direct path of destruction was the little holiday town Galveston... and to make it short, it will take them several years to recover from this devastation.
Galveston is a lovely down directly on the waterfront with a beach which stretches for miles and miles. Lot's of little bars are build right on the beach or on poles onto the ocean.

And as you can see that seem to be the place where you don't want to be when a Hurricane hits. While the devastation in Houston and the suburbs was mostly roofs, windows and advertisement signs over here you had entire buildings getting flattened.
And in between the ruins you had lots of tourists taking pictures and having drinks in the repaired bars around. I guess the first signs of an economical recovery at least.

But I wouldn't worry too much about Galveston. Even with all the damage it is still a great place to see with a fantastic beach and great nightlife. And at least the beach will remain regardless what Hurricane hits next ;-)

For next years summer vacation this is definitely an alternative to Florida! Let's see...

Houston and Beyond

2008-12-01T20:31:00.004-07:00

My last weekend trip for this year brought me to the two biggest cities in Texas: Houston and Dallas. The first one known through the infamous words 'Houston, we have a problem' and Dallas known through the most famous TV show of the late 80s. But first things first... Houston which is an sprawling city near the gulf coast with an interesting city center where old buildings meet high rise office towers.

Being that close to the gulf coast has its advantages like a very mild climate with 80 F (26 C) while I was over there... but also has its disadvantages manifesting in Hurricanes. Just a month before my trip Hurricane Ike hit Houston and surrounding areas and left quite a devastation. More about that in my next posts...

But getting to the coast was a challenge in itself already. The traffic is really strange in Houston with lots of big trucks (everything is a bit bigger in Texas) flying past you 20 mph over the local speed limit while you wonder which of the freeway flyovers you have to take next ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-25T15:48:00.005-07:00

It's that time of the year again when we gather around to meet the family, have lots of food and drinks... no I am not speaking about Christmas, that's next month. This month we have: turkey day, aka Thanksgiving! This traditional American holiday is not very well known in Europe... or as for Germany celebrated at a different date. Over here it is right up there with Christmas. And Christmas came early for me this year as well... after several month of waiting for my stimulus check (yes... its the one from early this year, thanks Mr. Bush!) I finally got it the day before Thanksgiving! I guess bureaucracy is the same everywhere ;-) But that gives me the opportunity to have a fantastic festive dinner!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Crazy Vending Machines

2008-11-24T22:44:00.005-07:00

Well... since I am over here I spotted several crazy vending machines... one of my first posts was about a Sony vending machine where you could by MP3 players and cell phone. The funniest one so far was the lobster vending machine where you could grab a living lobster and get it cooked while you wait. But the most specialized one is the Rosetta Stone vending machine at the Las Vegas airport. Who is deciding at the airport that it would be better to learn the language of your target destination? I agree there might be connection but as soon as you talk about a price tag of $499 I am not so sure if I would use a vending machine at an airport to make this purchase. Anyhow... I still got a blast out of that machine anyway by running the demo for the German class... it was just like home... just like home :-)

Vegas and beyond

2008-11-23T22:37:00.007-07:00

As I mentioned earlier... I stayed at the medieval themed hotel called Excalibur which has a signature show... the Tournament of Kings which is basically a jousting (knight tournament) show as part of a medieval dinning experience. So while you are eating with your bare hands, drinking lots of beer and wine you see some skilled sword and axe fights. Really impressive.

To get everybody into tournament mood they are separating the arena in different kingdoms... my king was Hungary and to make it short he sucked. But still a great show though :-)

The next show I attended was Cirque du Soleil's 'Ka' which should be well known all around the globe by now. It is interesting to see how popular those artists are as every major casino seem to have their own Cirque du Soleil show these days.

But after watching this show it is easy to understand why... each of those stunds would be spectacular taken by itself... but having so many people on the stage doing breathtaking things at the same time combined with a simple enough story and fantastic costumes... that makes it astonishing.

So all together a great trip to Vegas... did I mention that I also won $10 gambling? Can you ask for more? ;-)

Viva Las Vegas

2008-11-21T21:36:00.001-07:00

Viva Las Vegas... once again ;-) After some rough weeks at work I was ready for a quick getaway. And what better destination then a place full of casinos, bars, pools and shows? On top of all that temperatures in the high 70 F (20+ C) and sunshine... because its in a middle of a dessert, man! It's hard to beet that...

That's what brought me back to Vegas... This time I stayed at the Excalibur which is this medieval themed casino with lots of links to king Arthur and his knights of the round table. And I met them all in person :-) But that's a story for the next post already.

Winter is here

2008-11-15T21:16:00.001-07:00

Finally winter made its comeback. After a quite weird few weeks with temperatures in the high 70 F (20+ C) we got back to normality again. Snow in the mountains and the foothills, low temperatures down here in Denver and Longmont. And most of the ski resort are opening these weekends so we are up for a jolly good time ;-)

Bloody (Mary) Sunday Morning

2008-11-09T20:34:00.003-07:00

It doesn't happen that often anymore that you go out for some early drinks in the morning. Lucky enough there is the European Meet-up-group of Denver... so we had a Bloody Mary Sunday at 11 o'clock. Sweet :-)

On the picture you can see the hard core of that group after moving to the next bar at 4 o'clock. That brings back memories of Dublin... :o)

Election showdown

2008-11-04T20:01:00.014-07:00

Well... finally we don't have to watch all those TV adds anymore, don't have to run into campaign supporters in shopping malls and have to answer phone calls of phone robots. And the winner is... Barack Obama! Even though it looked like a quite close call last week... at the election night everything moved very quickly towards Obama. Already at 8 o'clock it looked quite bad for McCain.

At that time McCain already had to win most of the swing states as Obama won the most important high density states in the east. But still an interesting night with lots of news network entertainment around that. Most of the stations had again their sports-like view of the swing states where they were drawing strategies on the map... and CNN had even live holograms from all over the country where people were shown in 3D at the studio. Interesting how different these broadcasts are from those in Europe :-)

And in the end I was able to vote too! Just kidding... I just found one 'I voted' sticker on the sidewalk. For a moment I was tempted to get myself a free Starbucks coffee or a free ice cone at Ben & Jerrie's for voters. Oh well... I'll have free pretzels at the upcoming general election in Germany instead ;-)

But in the end I am very happy that I was here while history was in the making. Congratulations to Obama and good luck for his first term. It'll be a though one with all the problems right now which certainly will restrict him from implementing his programs simply because of the lack of money. But I am confident that after several years of stagnation America will move in the right directing now. So much from Ekki's election studio and now back to normality :-)

Election countdown

2008-11-02T17:04:00.004-07:00

Things are heading up over here... only 2 more days to election day and both campaigns are using the last remaining hours smearing each other. My European readers will ask now if the race is not decided yet looking at the latest polls. But the strange system over here with the electoral vote making it possible winning even with loosing by the number of voters. This divides the country in save banks for each party and the battleground states where the voters are not decided yet. Either way 100% of the votes will go to one winner in that states that's why it is not over yet.

And there is also the so-called Bradley effect which makes the race even more interesting. Apparently the political correctness over here is spoiling the result of polls in elections like that. So even though the polls are showing Obama's lead right now, nothing is decided till Tuesday. That's why everyone is still keeping campaigning I guess...

...and writing books. While there are several books about Sarah Palin describing her raise from a Hokey Mom to fighting the establishment (I really didn't see that, oh well) I couldn't find any book about McCain. Maybe they were sold out???

Also I found a book about Obama... in the children section!!! I thought that was a bit strange... so if you want to read your children a bed time story, why not about a politicans?! That makes sense to me now... politics, put you to sleep since 1776 ;-)

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T17:03:00.004-06:00

Its again the time of the year when everyone seem to be obsessed with ghost, vampires, monsters, blood, skulls and... candy. What a mixture ;-) Even though Halloween is getting more and more popular in Europe it is nothing compared to the US American Halloween. Even on TV there is nothing else on except haunted houses, werewolf and of course the election... which is kind of spooky too I guess...

But of course it is also the time of fancy dresses and costume partys. After being the German Elvis last year I went for something more serious... a Ghost Buster!

After wearing the costume for a while I realized that this might have been not the best choice for younger people at the party... well the movie is from 1984 which might be quite recent to me but not for everyone at the party :o) But I still had a great time with the young folks ;-)

Wedding time

2008-10-25T20:54:00.009-06:00

To make it short... one bachelor down, three to go! My good friend Justin got married to the fabulous looking Dani this weekend... and what a great party that was. The wedding took place in an old mansion in Morrison surrounded by the great looking red rock formations. And as a bonus the ceremony took place right at sunset.

And we also had our friends from Europe calling over for this special occasion. All together we danced the night away and had a great time. Just the morning after was tough ;-)

I wish Dani and Justin all the best for their future together! But the question remains... who is the next Bachelor we are loosing? ;-)

Skydiving out of the blue sky

2008-10-23T20:32:00.001-06:00

I always wanted to try skydiving in one stage and last weekend I finally got the opportunity to do so. My friend Richard (on the far right in the picture) is on the best way to become a pro in the short time he is staying here in Colorado. So I joined him for a little tandem jump.

Well... to be honest it was not as easy as that. The night before I couldn't get much sleep I have to admit. There are so many things you think of before the jump but everything is so easy by the time you get on that plane. As you can see on the picture on the left I know exactly which is the way we are going... I am pointing at it :-)

And the landing was as smooth as could be too. Funny is that jumping out of 10,500 ft (3200 m) is over that quickly... after 40 s of free fall and a few minutes of gliding the ride is over, which makes it quite pricey time and money wise. On the other hand you can't really compare the rush you get out of it to anything else in the world. So I might try it again... this time without human backpack though :-)

Drive-in flu shots

2008-10-20T20:25:00.005-06:00

Well... last year I wrote about it here on my blog, this year I have photos to proof it: the drive-in flu shot clinic ;-)
Once again my health insurance promoted a massive vaccination event on several locations throughout Denver. Their goal is to pass their flu shots to as many members as possible in only two days. And what better way then using the McDonnald proven drive in method.

So basically you are driving with your car off the highway on the hospitals parking-lot where policemen are leading you to one of those vaccination stations.
There your first stop is the nurse who asks you about basic health issues and the second stop with a doctor gives you the actual flu shot through the open window. Even though it might sounds strange getting a flu shot in a car park... it is more then convenient. And 10 mins later I was on my way again... without leaving the car! Brilliant ;-)

ATB rocks Denver

2008-10-13T10:00:00.000-06:00

Finally my favorite DJ from abroad was back in town... After seeing ATB last year at the Church nightclub he finally made it back to Denver. This time at the beta nightclub and needless to say... he rocked this place big time too! I am still amazed how many people over here know about him... the venue was sold out once again.

And also a dream came true for real fan like myself when I meet ATB in person! And I even got somebody taking a picture of us! Fantastic! Thanks Jason! And thanks ATB for a fantastic night ;-)

Beerfest 2008 - Home Edition

2008-10-12T09:17:00.004-06:00

Every year it's the same! There is this huge Beerfest downtown Denver with several hundred brewers from all over the country, free sampling and lots of fun... but they run out of tickets before I even get a chance to buy one :-( That's why this year Annika, Pete and I had the Beerfest 2008 - Home Edition. With 22 different beers from all over the world ranging from Oktoberfest beer over Chili beer (with a little chili in the bottle) to Marble syrup beer (my favorite).

To summarize: a great evening with great beers (and a little hangover at the next day) ;-)

LA, Malibu and all the rest

2008-10-11T18:46:00.005-06:00

What else to do apart of Disneyland and Hollywood? Well... there is also a small town called Los Angeles right next door which has a crazy traffic problem. I thought that I got used to traffic to some degree while living in Dublin. The biggest difference to LA is that over here the highways are clocked 24/7. I just tried to drive through town at midnight and was caught in a massive traffic jam! AT MIDNIGHT! Oh man... but apart of that a really nice city I have to say.

But it is LA's location which makes it such a great place to visit: It is basically surrounded by fabulous beaches with the most famous one being Venice Beach. This place is a unique mixture between surfer dudes, Hippies, street performers and surf board shop owners all living right on a hack of a beach ;-)

And another place is right next door too: Malibu! As a German of course I had to call over there... and was totally disappointed that neither David Hasselhoff or Pam was on duty at the life guard tower ;-)

But all together a fantastic vacation I have to repeat in one stage!!!

Meeting with Goofy

2008-10-07T15:16:00.004-06:00

The main reason of my trip to LA was a conference with my company. And guess what was just across the road? Disneyland! What a great place to have professional meetings with fellow engineers... while we were busy conferencing from the early morning to the late afternoon, at least we could enjoy the pleasures of the fantastic kingdom next door in the evening ;-)

And there is plenty to do: Great rides like of course the Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Tours, the Indy adventure and Space Mountains. Don't ask me what the girl riding in front of me is doing there... I guess she had a great time as well :-P

And finally I had a chance to meet Goofy and ask him some questions I always wanted to ask him about... like test engineering problems or Irish income tax returns. And of course he always has the right answer :o)

Definitely a great trip you should take as well. Just avoid weekends if you don't like to queue 45 mins for a ride!

Ekki in Hollywood

2008-10-05T19:15:00.004-06:00

After nearly two years in the states I finally made it to the place which formed the worlds view of America like no other place. I am not speaking about Washington DC or even New York here, of course it's Hollywood... a place were dreams come true. At least on the stage!

I was very surprised how 'down-to-earth' this place really is. For a big movie buffs like me this place is something with lots of history. But Hollywood itself is an average American town with a slightly higher then average number of studios... most of the studios moved out of Hollywood quite a while ago and most productions are nowadays done somewhere else... and even productions in the greater LA area are tending to get filmed in Burbanks where rental property is cheaper.

But Hollywood is of course still worth visiting. Apart of the world famous sign (did you know that it read 'Hollywoodland' before a mud slight destroyed the last four letters shortly after construction?) there is also the walk of fame, the Kodak theater (think the oscar ceremony) and of course Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Before you ask... I wasn't discovered over there. The demand for German villains doesn't seem to be that high these days :-( So on Monday I'll be back at work I guess...

Election campaign

2008-09-28T19:02:00.006-06:00

Well... it is really interesting to see the US election campaign first hand. The first major difference between the general elections I saw in Europe is the media coverage. Like many things over here the election campaign and its coverage is big business. And local broadcast stations use this opportunity to present the news as entertaining as possible. For example Fox and CNN are having a 'election center' where they have daily commentaries about how the voters could lean to... that means that like in American Football you have anchormen drawing lines on a computer map while they explain the influence of certain comments on certain regions in America. And how this could effect the general opinion in a state which has effects on states surrounding them and so on. Strategy session for politic fanatics I would summarize it ;-)

Another difference is the culture of bumper stickers which is also new for me. Suddenly you have lots of cars in front of you who are advertising either for Obama or McCain. Really strange is that you also have lots of people driving with anti-advertisement for the other candidate.

A quite interesting campaign so far and I am sure there is more to come!

Great Sand Dunes

2008-09-21T12:27:00.004-06:00

And the final destination of our trip was once again (like on my last trip down south) the Great Sand Dunes. This place is truly astonishing... a desert in the middle of the Rocky mountains, surrounded by 14k mountains, a prairie and a little river winding around it. Basically the steady wind of a few thousand years was pressing all the prairie sand in one corner of the Rockies which are now forming a little 'out-of-place' dessert.

But don't be fouled by the green vegetation around the Great Sand Dunes: it is still a dessert. So wandering through it is quite a challenge and after 1 1/2 hours we turned back to our car again. And after a nice dinner at an Himalayan restaurant nearby (really interesting how they got there in the first place) we were already on our way back to Denver... from a fantastic vacation!

Crocodiles in Colorado

2008-09-20T10:44:00.006-06:00

Crocodiles in Colorado? A unlikely mix you might think considering the harsh winters and snow capped Rockies... but there is a Alligator farm even over here! Their secret is a hot spring which is feeding several fish ponds which are producing enough dead fish for over four hundred crocodiles and alligators.

But they also have ostriches, donkeys, snakes, turtles and geese living side-by-side of each other. And it seems like everybody loves the crocodile dry-food you can buy in the little gift shop. So we had a great time pushing the group of geese closer to the group of crocodiles. Amazingly they seemed to know exactly how far they could go and no goose (or crocodile) was hurt in this experiment ;-)

Speaking about a great time... everybody in our party had a blast as well. Especially holding the crocodile was good fun for little Jasmina. She even got a certificate for bravery, signed by the crocodile himself!

But all good things have to come to an end somehow... so we tossed the last piece of crocodile food to some ants on the ground... who loved the food as well. It really seems like everybody on that farm loves that stuff! I wished I had tried it myself :o)

Four Corners

2008-09-19T22:13:00.005-06:00

Nowadays the Native Americans of this area have another great income source... A tourist trap we were willingly walking into :-) Four Corners is simply the place where four states are bordering to each other: Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Quite a unique place around the world I would think.

Favorite thing to do at this very spot is to place all four limbs in one state and let somebody else taking a picture of you. Another classic picture is the finger shot: Placing a finger in each state. Don't ask me in which state I was in while my fingers were in different ones at the same time ;-)

On our way back from the Indian Reservation which is covering this place it becomes imminent why they have this kind of tourist trap running... there is simply not much else to do in a dessert like that. Apart of the also Indian-run Casino just outside of Cortez of course ;-)

Mesa Verde

2008-09-19T22:04:00.004-06:00

Finally I made it to the last place I desperately wanted to see in Colorado: Mesa Verde in the far south west of this state. But what is so great about it? Well, especially in a place like Denver where the oldest buildings are barely 100 years old (and made to a museum of course) Mesa Verde is standing out as an historic side. For more then thousand years Native Americans were settling and building this interesting cliff dwellings here.

I did this eight hours road trip with my neighbor and very good friend, Christine... accompanied by little Jasmina who did very well on this road trip babbling away on the back seat ;-)
But of course we didn't do this in one day... We also used the time and explored the south of Colorado... so there is more to come!

But Mesa Verde is definitely worth a visit. I was stunned by the size of this National Park. The various cliff dwellings are just the tip of the iceberg as it seems like that they were just supporting over 5000 people living on top of the plateau. Just about the same number of people who are flooding Mesa Verde each day to see the ruins nowadays. I bet the Native Americans never would have imagine that ;-)

The 4000th visitor

2008-09-09T10:09:00.006-06:00

We hit the magic number for the 4000th visitor already at the end of last month but I finally got around to write a few lines about it: Thank you for your interest in my journey through Colorado, the US and all the rest! The last few month were quite exciting over here... great weather, lots of trips with vising friends and I learned to ride a motorcycle ;-) But it is even getting better!
With a visit to ancient Indian ruins at Mesa Verde in a few days, visiting Disneyland at the end of the month, the wedding of my buddy Justin in October and of course the whole election campaign with its ultimate climax at November 4th!

Oh man... can it get any better? I don't think so!

So stay tuned! I would be happy to see YOU on this page again. And always remember... stay off the ice ;-)

Cheers,
Ekki

Biker Ekki

2008-09-08T11:28:00.004-06:00

All men in their midlife crisis are usually going through the same development: While their life is slowing down they are trying to accelerate it by learning to ride a bike and buying a really fast one.

I thought better being prepared (just in case... you never know) and took a motorbike class last weekend...

And I have to say that it is lots of fun! Strange is how your perception of moving forward suddenly changes. Now I am sitting in my car and wonder about that something is missing around me even though there's 'more' around me then on a bike... maybe the wind in my face? The hot asphalt rushing underneath me? The feeling that I could go anywhere on my bike where no car has gone before?

Anyhow... you might see me, biker Ekki, more often in your neighborhood now :-)

Election campaign 2008

2008-09-05T16:51:00.002-06:00

As regular readers of my blog already know I was covering the pre-elections of the democrats and republicans in great detail. And I can promise you that I will do the same for the 'real' election campaign which looks already quite different to general elections I know from Europe...

Like this Obama Christmas tree (decoration) I found in a local shopping mall. I am really looking forward to the next weeks... and to Christmas of course ;-)

Casa Bonita

2008-09-03T15:19:00.007-06:00

Another great attraction in Denver is Casa Bonita. When I told Paul about this place he couldn't believe it... 'this place is real?' he asked. Oh yes it is! It is exactly like in the South Park episode where they are calling this place a Mexican Disneyland-like restaurant. With cheap food and pitchers of Margaritas I want to add, but fun altogether ;-)

You get the full Monty... with mariachi band, cliff-divers, Blackbeard's cave, jugglers, etc. Of course it is focused on kids and it seems like all of my friends growing up in Colorado had at least one of their birthday parties there. No wonder that this place is a well known attraction in Denver :o)

But all fun has to come to an end someday. And Paul had to call back to Ireland and recover from the Mexican food somehow.

So thanks for calling over Paul and I hope you had a great time in Colorful Colorado!

And if YOU think 'I want to see this 'magical' place Casa Bonita too'... where dreams come true... as long as your dreams consists of cheap Mexican food, cliff-divers and Margaritas... let me know!

Visitor from Ireland

2008-09-02T15:07:00.004-06:00

And the next visitor was lining up already... this time from Ireland. As they don't have that many mountains in Ireland (okay, okay... Dublin Mountains. But I still wouldn't call them mountains compared to the Rockies) Paul was amazed by the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Of course these little fellas were also lining up to prepare themselves for the tough upcoming winter. Tough more from the perspective of fewer tourists showing up and feeding them. While Paul and I liked to see those squirrels people from around think more in terms of a plague about them... funny that.

But it seemed like the Rockies wanted to welcome Paul the Irish way. A short while into our hike it started raining. Oh well... that gave us a chance to visit Coors brewery instead. How stereotypical Irish... but still a lot of fun ;-)

Pikes Peak

2008-09-01T15:51:00.003-06:00

Living in Colorado must be great for everyone who is into climbing... there are numerous of 14k mountains around and two of them are even accessible by car!
It's not that hard to guess which mountain I was 'climbing' with my friends from Germany :-)

We went for Pikes Peak close to Colorado Springs which beside a paved road features a mountain railway... but we preferred the thrill of driving the 13-miles of windy road ourselves. I was amazed that there are no barriers between you and the abyss which must have made the rally to the top of the mountain quite interesting. And this might have been the reason of why they are not doing it anymore too :-)

But the view from this 14,110 feet
(4300 meter) mountain is astonishing. Even though the afternoon thunderstorm including a lightning warning for the top of the mountain made us rushing downhill again... quite an interesting experience... and my first 14k I was 'climbing' ;-)

Visitors from Germany

2008-08-28T11:04:00.008-06:00

Finally I got visitors this summer! Last year around the I had already two people showing up but this year it seems like it took quite a while for somebody visiting me in Colorado. But this time I got three visitors at once... Andre, Alex and Robin (from right) from Germany were over here last week and I showed them around.

They saw already quite a bit of the States as they were touring the National Parks two weeks before they stopped by in Colorado. But of course they were quite impressed by the Garden of Gods in Colorado Springs, especially the sunset is fabulous over there.

Even though the weather wasn't that great we had a great time... well... 80 F (27 C) feels already a bit chilly after the high 90s (35 C+) we had over here the last few weeks ;-)

Invited to the Russian Consulate

2008-08-27T09:48:00.002-06:00

And finally solving the mystery fro my last post: why my friend and I were dressed up for the riot police downtown Denver. The answer is quite simple... we were invited to the Russian Consulate for a private concert of the Russian King of Rock and Roll, Denis Mazhukov!

On the way to the consulate we also met a very attractive Russian girl caught in between the protestants too who joined us to her own consulate. A really mad story but that's how it went... downtown Denver there were protestants fighting the riot control forces while the three of us were listening to great rock and roll music in the Russian Consulate. A unforgettable night!

Democrats Convention

2008-08-26T15:10:00.006-06:00

The Democrats Convention is in town to elect Obama as their presidential candidate on Thursday. Even though the outcome is quite clear, more then 50,000 people traveled to Denver to enjoy the show. The local football stadium where Obama will hold his speech holds 70,000 people and was sold out in 10 mins!

Walking through downtown Denver yesterday night was an adventure too. A good friend of mine and I wearing shirts and suits got caught up in between violent protesters on one side and riot police on the other. I never saw something like that in Denver... adds a real big city feeling to it ;-)

But why I was wearing a suit downtown Denver you'll find out in my next post!

Canyonland National Park

2008-08-22T13:15:00.006-06:00

The second big national park in this area is Canyonland National Park and it is exactly what it's says on the tin... a huge canyon. Even though I have seen the Grand Canyon from a plane this place was even more impressive I though. They have plenty of tails and even several dirt roads which you can take with your 4x4. Needless to say that I didn't do that with my poor car ;-)

But even in this harsh environment you find plenty of wild life... of course a gang of squirrels, ready for doing their tricks on unsuspecting tourist for a piece of cracker. And of course salamanders which were sunbathing on the surrounding rocks and ignoring the tourists.

Even more surprising is that they found remains of old stone granaries on top of one of these hills, possibly left by Azteks.

This concluded my weekend-trip through Utah and 5 hours later I found myself back in Denver... and lucky enough the rain clouds were gone. Maybe I brought the sun with me from Moab :-)

Arches National Park

2008-08-21T22:49:00.005-06:00

The main reason for traveling to Moab was Arches National Park which got its name from the huge stone arches. Interesting enough it seems arches like that are quite common in the sandstone of this region, but the highest 'density' of arches you can find here in this national park close to nothing else then desert... and Moab of course.

The variety is quite big, ranging from simple holes in a wall to long spanning delicate arches like the 'garden arch' on the left. A good portion of this arch collapsed in 1991 leaving only the upper part of it. But the best known arch is the 'delicate arch' a good one hour hike up on a plateau on the edge of a huge crater.

And this huge crater is quite steep on one side while on the other side people waiting to enjoy the sunset on the arch. To get to the other side of the crater one guy tried to clime the crater wall and got stuck. He was so terrified that he couldn't move and spent more then three hours in that wall. Even the arriving park ranger couldn't talk him down so he had to wait for the mountaineer which I meet on my way down. Oh boy, this guy has a story to tell when he is back home ;-)

On the road to Moab

2008-08-18T22:39:00.007-06:00

This weekend I was on a road tip to Moab Utah, a little town in the middle of nowhere which wouldn't be known at all... maybe a bit like Roswell, New Mexico but that is another story from an earlier post ;-) Unlike this place Moab has lots to offer, two of the nicest National Parks around... and one pub! Don't forget... Utah is the Mormon state in America and you need to join a club to go for a beer.

But before I got there I had to cross the Rocky Mountains which was a bigger obstacle then expected: the storm which brought a cold and rainy weekend to Denver had snow and freezing temperatures for the mountains.So I was fighting my way through 35 F (0 C) and snow... in August! Amazing! More amazing was that on the other side of the Rockies I was passing a bush fire and the temperatures were around 95 F (35 C).

The next surprise was waiting for me at my hotel in Moab. Germans! God knows how they got the German flag on their license plate... which was issued in: Roswell, New Mexico! And I got full circle with my story I guess :-)

Rocky Mountain National Park

2008-08-14T23:20:00.004-06:00

Finally its summertime in the Rockies! A fantastic place for hiking even thought the last weekend was everything else then pleasant. I never saw it raining that hart followed by a temperature drop from 95 F (35 C) into the low 50s (15 C). But everything is good and after the rainclouds were gone I went up the mountains to find the grass looking as green as its contra part in Ireland ;-)

The Rocky Mountain National Park is just an hour by car from Denver and it is full of tourists these days! I am still amazed where all the different people coming from to see the natural beauty of the Rockies while stomping through the mountains.
And there is something else waiting in the woods for the never ending streams of tourists...

It seems like the local squirrel population are professional trained beggars who aren't afraid of getting in close contact with the human beings at all anymore. And using their 'cuteness factor' by throwing in some neat tricks like 'standing on the back legs' or 'eating out of your hand' or the most famous 'don't I have huge black eyes?' most people seem to forget the signs which are saying 'don't feed the animals' straight away. Clever little things :o)

Different Taste 9

2008-08-10T13:11:00.008-06:00

Usually I am writing about unhealthy things in this sections like sodas and sweets ... this time I surprised even myself with a fruit! Flying Saucer peaches! I never saw something like that in Europe... maybe because they are carrying the 'made in the US' logo... like the whole UFO hysteria started in the late 40s over here too.

But unlike the speculation about crashed space ships and green men from Mars these fruits are more then real... they are sweet and tasty. And very handy too as the stone in the center of the fruit is very small and very easy to extract. So even ET with his clumsy fingers could enjoy this peach without 'calling home' for help ;-)

Birthday party with a whole pig

2008-08-09T23:59:00.003-06:00

Obviously it was not the pigs birthday party I attended... that would have been its last birthday as well I guess. Actually I was invited to my flatemates dad's birthday party. And when Terry said that he would have a whole pig for his party I suspected that this is just one of those American saying, but I was wrong! He really roasted a whole pig for his birthday ;-)

And of course we had plenty of cake too. After all the cake, meat, beers and margaritas I don't need to eat anything for the next few weeks which is handy too :-)

Happy 60s birthday Terry and thanks for the fantastic party!

Rapids vs. Everton

2008-08-03T21:23:00.004-06:00

It happens not every day that a Primer League team from England like Everton is playing the Rapids here in Colorado. And as it finally cooled down a bit it was the perfect time for watching some good old football... ehem... soccer I mean.

And what goes better with watching sports then having some cheese nachos and a beer? What was missing from a perfect day was the Rapids winning. And they were fighting well, unfortunately they lost a unlucky 1:2 to Everton. Yet I have to see the Rapids winning :o)

Another unfortunate thing is that the Rapids seem to have fired their Cheerleaders. To make up for that they increased their number of mascots by the factor of four!

At the last match I saw they just retired their old mascot 'Rapidman' and replaced him by the eagle 'Eaton'. A few months later he is accompanied by a bull, a fox and a racoon. Its getting busy on the pitch ;-)

Fingers crossed for the next match of the Rapids! With that many mascot it can't go wrong anymore I would think.

Back to Colorado

2008-07-31T23:12:00.005-06:00

But every good thing has to come to an end... especially a two weeks vacation in Germany. And what a great vacation it was... meeting so many of my friends, driving the Autobahn in my buddies Corvette with 260 km/h (160 m/h), sightseeing Rothenburg, Munich, Regensburg and Nuermerg, visiting my parents and my brother, and doing soo much more.

But after a 9 hours unspectacular flight I found myself back in my new home, Colorado. While Germany was warm but a bit rainy, over here they had more then 20 days above 90 F (32 C) without any rain. The perfect place to relax from my long trip through Germany :o)

Till the next time! I hope seeing you all over here in Colorado in one stage!

Edersee and all the rest

2008-07-28T22:03:00.004-06:00

And finally I made it to my parents who are still living in my home town of Nieder-Werbe, located in the principality of Waldeck (around 200 km nothern of Frankfurt). Its funny that in 25 years I never really noticed in which beautiful place I grew up. But that explains now why we have so many tourists staying in this area in the summer time while in the winter time you are under the impression of live at the end of the world.

Being a tourist myself this time, Torsten and I did the tourist thing over here too. Nieder-Werbe is located on the shores of the second biggest man-made lake in Germany, the Edersee. What better to do for us to take a bike tour around the lake which is around 60 km (37 miles). After that I noticed that its quite a while ago that I was riding the bike ;-)

On the other hand we got rewarded by different views of the lake I know like the back of my hand... like seeing the Edersee dam from the sea side, discovering some remote camp sides or getting lost on forgotten trails in the woods. A great place to go and I am looking forward to do the bike tour with Torsten again... next year... and with a bit more preparations from my side :-)

Nuremberg

2008-07-28T16:36:00.005-06:00

After seeing my friends at the class reunion in Roemershild, visiting my old university in Schmalkalden, meeting Birthe in Regensburg, my friends Andre and Hans-Peter in Munich, James and his family in Rothenburg, I had to see Torsten in Nuremberg too. Beside the new subway connection connecting Torstens flat with the ciy center (well... you still have to walk 20 meters or so which is around 65 feet) there was plenty more to see.

Like Rothenburg from the previous post this city has still its entire city walls which is very unlikely for a city with Nuernbergs size. But while Rothenburg is still the medieval style town Nuernberg has a mixture of modern buildings and transport systems which makes it a very interesting city to visit.

After doing the tourist thing in Nuernberg with Torsten where he showed me the old castles and cathedrals of the town (please note: all city wall towers in Nuernberg look alike! I had to learn this the 'hard' way) we packed our stuff and went together on the last part of my round trip through Germany... heading back to good old Waldeck, my home town to see my folks.

Living Museum

2008-07-25T16:48:00.011-06:00

It is not that often that you get a chance to go back in time... but in
Rothenburg ob da Tauber you have the chance to see a medieval city with original city walls, dungeons, castle, cathedral and lots of old (and touristy) shops. Another plus was that it is more-less on the way from Munich to Nuremberg and... my friend James and his family from Ireland were on vacation in this area... at the same time when I was passing through! I am still amazed about this big of a coincidence! Even if you wanted to plan something like that you know that it would never work.... impressive :o)

And to complete the list of coincidences... there was an American big band from Iowa on their European tour playing at the main square.

Even though this was my third time there it seems like this city has lots of surprises left for me :o)

While his little kids Toby and Zara were exploring the medeival town James and his wife were enjoying some of the local specialties... like 'snowballs'. This might be the driest Danish you ever have eaten in your entire life! So another great reason (beside James) to visit this fantastic city.

My parents were delighted when I bought three snowballs for them ;-)

Munich

2008-07-25T05:07:00.004-06:00

The next stop on my 'Grand Germany Tour' was the city of Lederhosen and Oktoberfest: Munich. Funny enough is this old traditional city the center of high tech industry in Germany now. That's the reason why you can find people from around the world in this traditional place... a very nice contrast I have to say.

One of the most poplar landmarks of Munich is the Frauenskirche with its two tall towers. And just across the road is the Irish pub where I met my friends Andre and Hans-Peter... having a nice Guinness and going down memory lane ;-)

Of course this is not the only landmark of the city. There is plenty more to see like the city hall or the city palace of the Bavarian kings. And if you get a chance you have to see Schloss Neuschwarnstein just a few miles outside of Munich... the original to the Disneyland fairies castle. But obviously I didn't had time for that... I was already on my way to Nuremberg :o)

Class reunion and Regensburg

2008-07-16T04:18:00.007-06:00

The first stop of my journey through the 'old world' was a class reunion with my friends from university times. It's amazing to see that everybody seems to jump on the marriage band wagon lately. Man, you leave the country for a few years and look what happens! So for most of my friends this 'beers and BBQ weekend' was vacation time too ;-)

After that I visited a good friend of mine in Regensburg, an old traditional city in the south east of Germany. After touring so many states of the US it was definitely a change for me to see places from the early middle ages and even earlier. Birthe did a fantastic job as a tourist guide and even introduced me to 'Dampfnudeln' which is a traditional dish over there.

I also saw the palace of the princess to Regensburg, one of the most famous royalty in Europe: von Turn und Taxis. Interesting enough is her palace twice as big as the Buckingham palace and is still the biggest operational palace in Europe. Doing the tourist tour we even ran into her and I could see her from up close with her two daughters. Here is my chance to jump on the band wagon too I guess :-)

Welcome home!

2008-07-13T15:25:00.003-06:00

Two weeks vacation in Germany and the welcome was quite wet... no wonder that everything is that green over here.
But the main reason for this trip isn't the weather or the green landscape... I am over here to meet my friends in southern Germany (where they still are wearing lederhosen and dirndels). That means lots of driving with my little car over there... 1.4 L engine (the biggest one you cold get for that model) or 2.5 times smaller then my American cars engine ;-)

But at least we have the Autobahn over there. Especially in the eastern parts of Germany where you have brand new ones its a blast. 100 m/h (160 km/h) gets you around quite quickly.

A pity though that I didn't have my American car with me. It is quite annoying when you're driving your max speed and still have BMW, Mercs and Audis passing by all the time :-)

Don't be silly 2

2008-07-07T22:37:00.004-06:00

And again another case of 'do you really think somebody is stupid enough to do that'. And the simple answer is (like for all posts of this topic: YES) because somebody seems to be afraid of getting sued over that. The US is the country of the free, unfortunately that includes the lawyers too as it seems :o)
But what do we have here now? A sticker I found in the hotel room safe at my last trip to DC, stating that there is a suffocation risk when using this safe. First of all I was simply amazed that this sticker wasn't bigger, with a picture of what not to put in there and only written in English! Maybe that was my chance of getting rich and I blow it! Something along this lines... honey, can you pass me our small dog? I put it in a REALLY save place! How was I suppose to know that this safe is not made for animals? There was no warning in German! And now you owe me $10 million... please ;-)

Renaissance Festival

2008-07-05T23:43:00.005-06:00

When you ever have been to a historical festival in Europe you might understand what I would expect to see on a 'Renaissance Festival'. For example on medieval market in my hometown back in Germany everybody tries to present the trades and craftsmanship of that time as accurate as possible. Or the Baroque festival is a place where everyone is running around with funny wigs and fancy dresses listening to the music of its time.

To make a long story short... the Larkspur 'Renaissance Festival' is nothing like that :-) At first you notice the medieval castles and knight joust and you think... ahhh... it is a renaissance AND medieval festival. But then you keep on wandering through this really nice decorated middle ages type-of-city they have constructed just outside of the town of Larkspur when you are runing into...

some belly dancers, elves, cave women (I am not kidding) and pirates. And then you realize that the terminology 'Renaissance' is not as literally taken over here as in Europe.
Over here it is more like a 'fantasy festival' which is lots of fun too. And very nice is that everybody in the audience seems to get into that too! At least half of the visitors are dressing up for that so the line between actors, employees and visitors is disappearing.

Even if you forget to bring your own costume don't worry! There is a costume renting place in front of the theme park where you can get your proper armor and sword for the day.

And if you like this place so much that you want to make it a special day... why not getting married in their very own wedding chapel?!

The only thing I am wondering about is if you get a group discount when you bring your relatives with you... and what my mother would say if I send her an invitation to my wedding at this place ;-)

Happy 4th of July

2008-07-05T09:00:00.003-06:00

There are lots of different things to do on the 4th of July holiday... and this year I thought of doing something really traditional after watching a Rapids soccer match for last years Independence Day. My good friend Christine, her little baby girl Jasmina and I went for a picnic in Westminster's city park. We had a lovely day with lots of sunshine, sandwiches and lovely cheese cake lollipops!

But not all of us made it to the firework display... even though Jasmina was quite excited by all the people in the city park it was a long day for her too :o) But she was awake for the grand finale.

A happy 4th to all of you!

Second place!

2008-07-01T20:24:00.002-06:00

Oh well... all the Germans in this German pub downtown Denver would have loved to see Germany win... including me. A good match and Spain deserved to win, but getting to the final and winning the second place is still an outstanding achievement!
Two years ago in the World Championship in Germany we won the third place, now the second place. You can easily see where we are heading for the World Championship in South Africa in two years!
Till then... go, go Germany :o)

Final!

2008-06-26T09:01:00.003-06:00

Oh man! What a great match... Germany 3, Turkey 2! And we are in the FINAL of the European Soccer (football) Championship! I really wish to be back home to see the crowds on the streets celebrating. But because of the different time zone I am stuck in my office and supporting our team from my desk!

Lucky enough is the final on Sunday... 12.45 my time. And I'll find a German pub in Denver to support our team. You bet :o)

Deutschland vor noch ein Tor!!!!

B-BBQ

2008-06-23T11:29:00.005-06:00

Well... I am not stuttering... B-BBQ simply stands for Birthday BBQ which I had on Saturday! Thank you everybody for showing up and enjoying my world-famous Burgers ;-)
For the readers of my blog... here is my secret: Read carefully, I am not typing it again :o) The secret ingredient is... fire! Lots of it. Without it you would eat a pad of raw meat! And it wouldn't look as spectacular as it does of course ;-)

Despite some of my guests might have had second thoughts about my extensive use of the special ingredient especially on the roof (just kidding!) we had a great time. Even the youngest visitor with sweet 6 months was enjoying herself and stayed up till late.
But I am still not sure why she refused to try some of my fantastic burgers... it seemed like she was more interested in the beer bottles on the table. Kids start drinking early these days ;-)

And have a look at this fantastic birthday cake. Unfortunately you don't really see the 'fog' coming out of the middle... this special effect was archived with dry ice which kept the bigger boys entertained for the rest of the night! Thanks Christine for both, the yummy cake and for the entertaining ice :-)
If you are counting the candles right now... I turned 18 that night and I am officially able to drink in public... except in the US of course :-)