Theresa & Joe Wilbanks

Simulation Training for Eating Nearly CHeese

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:39:46 +0100

We have created a 10 week program titled Simulation Training for Eating Nearly CHeese, or as we like to call it, STENCH. It is designed to prepare visitors for experiencing the real cheese that will be encountered in France. Our next 10 guests are all return visitors and as such will be expected to be
skilled in cutting the cheese. Practice is included in this program. Each exercise must be successfully completed before moving on to the next level. Cheese should be stored in the refrigerator, but eaten at room temperature. The cheeses and levels are listed below the program.

STENCH
Week 1 Confidence building - Level 1
Eat one fresh rindless cheese.

Week 2 Fake it till you make it - Level 2
Eat one soft cheese and practice a controlled reaction until the cheese can be eaten without a gasp or making a face. This exercise may require the use of a mirror. For best results, try to avoid sniffing the cheese. Continue to practice the controlled reaction each time you open the refrigerator. Bread alone may be eaten along with the cheese.

Week 3 Fake it till you make it cntd. - Level 2
Choose a 2nd soft cheese and while tasting, practice making the hmm as in yum sound while smiling.

Week 4 Discipline - Level 3
Select a pressed semi-hard cheese and eat it in place of dessert.

Week 5 Discipline cntd. - Level 3
Select a soft cheese and a semi-hard cheese and practice cutting the cheese while maintaining integrity. See The Art of Cutting Cheese below.

Week 6 Integration - Level 4
It would be best to locate Beaufort or Comté, but an alternative hard cheese will do. Practice eating this cheese either alone, no bread, or with a fig or pear chutney.

Week 7 Integration cntd. - Level 4
Select 1 cheese each from levels 2-4. Determine the strength of each cheese and eat in the order of mild to strong. This can not be determined by sniffing. Sometimes the stinkiest cheese has a very mild flavor. At the same time practice cutting the cheese.

Week 8 The Payoff - Level 5
Congratulations! You have reached the most exciting, most colorful and flavorful level, the Blues. After weeks of hard work it may be tempting to cheat at this level, but blue cheese salad dressing or blue cheese stuffed olives in a martini do not count as training. Putting blue cheese crumbles on a salad is an effective maintenance strategy prior to your arrival in France, but should not be used as a substitute for this week’s exercise.

Embrace the Blue! Regard your blue cheese with admiration. Take in it’s essence (see week 3). Cut the cheese (as practiced in week 5). Enjoy!

Week 9 The True Test - Level 6
We will need to send Epoisses to you. It can be bought in the US, but when made with heat treated milk it loses it’s power and no longer meets Level 6 criteria. In France it is so stinky that there is a law against having it on the metro... Let us know when you have completed level 8 and we will pack it up and post it... You may want to be extra nice to your post person this Christmas...

Maroilles is tasty melted over steak or salmon - it tastes much better than it smells! If unavailable, limburger may be used as a substitute. Fun fact about Limburger: Once it reaches three months, the cheese produces its notorious smell because the bacterium used to ferment Limburger cheese is Brevibacterium linens, the same one found on human skin that is partially responsible for body odor and particularly foot odor.

Simply sniffing these cheeses will suffice.

Week 10 Simulation Cheese Course
Create your cheese course by selecting one cheese each from levels 1-5 and place them on a plate in order of mild to strong. Although it is tempting to dive into the Blues, you must refrain and start with the most mild regardless of texture and work your way to the strongest.

Congratulations! You have completed Fromage 101. Français 101 is next!

Levels
Level 1: Fresh, Rindless
Cottage Cheese
Cream Cheese
Fresh Goat Cheese
Boursin

Level 2: Soft
Chèvre (less fresh goat cheese)
Camembert (Normandy)
Pont-l’Eveque (Normandy)
Livarot (Normandy)
Brie
Munster

Level 3: Pressed Semi-Hard
Brebis
Cantal
Tomme de Savoie
Comté
St Nectaire

Level 4: Pressed Hard
Beaufort
Compté
Aged Cheddar
Parmigiano Reggiano

Level 5: Blue
Roquefort
Bleu d’Auvergne

Level 6: SS - Super Stinky (our made up category)
Epoisses (soft cheese)
Maroilles (soft cheese)

Bébé training is complicated. When to start a French baby on cheese is a serious topic. Fromage baby food does not seem to exist, but this site that may be helpful in the design of a training program for bébé, http://forum.doctissimo.fr/nutrition/alimentation-enfant/fromage-enfant-sujet_147746_1.htm. Google translate may be needed.

There are more and more local sources of great cheeses in the US. Here are some links. As you endeavor to find new sources Don’t be discouraged (or distracted) by the numerous Chuck E. Cheese’s that come up in a google search.

Nashville
http://thebloomyrind.blogspot.com/

Memphis
http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/say-cheese/Content?oid=1140234

Top 10 reasons why we prefer to ski in Austria rather than france

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:16:09 +0100

Qualifiers:
-France and Austria = where we have been. We have been to many places in France and only Zillertal, part of the Tirol mountain range in Austria.
-The word toilets is used in place of restrooms because that is what they are called here and French toilets are no place to rest or rester.

The toilets
A French friend once said, “I don’t understand why foreigners always complain about the toilets here. They should just do what I do... Don’t use them.” If only it were that easy. We have visited places where we know that there will be godawful toilets, but when you pay several hundred euros for lift tickets you have certain expectations. The worst was at the bottom of a lift in Courchevel, the most expensive ski area in France. It was filthy, smelled like it hadn’t been cleaned in years, had no heat, no TP, fortunately no seats, no soap and it appeared that washing your hands would be riskier than not. The second worst required walking down several flights of metal exposed stair levels and then dealing with squat toilets... in ski boots. Whose brilliant (not the exact word I used) idea was that? Wet ski boots do not stand still on wet ceramic. Then, squatting in a position to pee into the hole is impossible without completely undoing the bindings... all while freezing every exposed part. Even then, it was a precarious endeavor and more dangerous than anything that could be done on the slopes.

By contrast, the toilets in Austria are impeccable. They are clean, warm and smell nice. There is paper and soap, never a squat toilet and always a seat. These toilets are happy places... Coming home, when we cross the border from Switzerland to France and stop at a gas station/rest area, I am always yanked back into the reality that is France as I enter the toilets.

Après ski
At all of the Zillertal ski areas the atmosphere during and immediately after skiing is unparalleled. On the slopes, places like the White Lounge almost make you look forward to bad weather.

Click here for More White Lounge photos

At the end of the ski day, before taking the cable car down, the booming music and energy coming from the bar tugs, “Come play with us.”

At the cable car base is more music and more fun. The Ice Bar, at the bottom of the Penken lift in Mayrhofen, is indescribable, so here’s a link to a video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c4MohD4Mhk

Après ski fun at the Ice Bar

Early evening fun at Brück’n Stadl

It’s not what it looks like.

Ok, it is what it looks like, but it’s not what you think...

There is late night fun as well but we opt out.

Mountain huts
We like to start early and break early. There are warm huts serving inexpensive food and drink, from 10am, spread all over the slopes in Zillertal. We carry supplies - lunch, water, snacks and flasks, but the sausages, fries and soup are too tempting. If it is extremely cold or conditions are bad, the restaurants fill up at 10am.

By contrast, in France, it is not uncommon for a restaurant to open at 11 and not start serving ridiculously high priced food until noon.

Click here for more mountain hut photos

Warmth
In Austria, we often have the opportunity to share our table with other folks and have great conversations. This happens in France, except for the sharing and conversation parts. Usually, we would be gradually squeezed out to make room for added members of the party who straggle in a few at a time. It’s the subtle difference between, “May we sit here?” and “May we join you?” that produces contrasting results. That said, the English skiers in France were always warm and fun.

Berlin was on vacation and in Austria we met Wilfried and Elisabeth. Elisabeth was a French and Russian teacher. We spoke English with them until they learned that we lived in France. Elisabeth’s French was better than her English so we switched. They are going to the US this year for three weeks and they will start brushing up on English again soon.

Another day we met Markus and Maxim, father and son also from Berlin. It was our last day but they gave us great tips for next year. Markus also had a trip planned to the US this year.

In Austria, we had several great conversations in the grocery store, on the ski buses, at bars and restaurants and in tele-cabins, the people always warm and happy.

Campground conveniences
We camp because we enjoy it and by economizing in lodging we can splurge on all the Jagertee we can drink, which isn’t much because it is pretty strong, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagertee. However, we don’t want to rough it when we are skiing. In Austria, the campground shower and restroom facilities are clean, warm, smell nice, pipe in fun music, have toilet paper, sanitizer for the seat, soap, plenty of stalls, trash bins and hooks everywhere. They are shiny! The ski and boot room is not only large, with benches and is heated but the rods that hold your boots overnight are heated so that they dry and are warm the next day when you put them on; more happiness. There is a sauna and an indoor and outdoor pool that is connected by a tunnel. There is a shop that has fresh breads and pastries, coffee and supplies. The town is a short walk and the ski bus stops directly in front of the campground. There is a restaurant nextdoor. We could live at this campground. We met a man who does, from December to April. He is on his 11th season and he has the best crowd avoiding tips.

In France, we searched several seasons for decent winter campgrounds, often resorting to staying illegally ovenight in parking lots. In Chamonix, a legal overnight parking lot had heated toilets but required a long, long walk to the public pool for showers in stalls that had no curtains or doors and no hooks. There is a campground in Chamonix but it is located well away from town, on a big slope that is either ice or mud depending on your site, so we preferred the parking lot... We found decent campgrounds in Samoëns and Méribel, but they were a bit too much like roughing it. Winter campgrounds in France are cold and sad and there are never enough hooks.

Transportation system
Zillertal has a great system of ski buses, a town bus and a cool train that runs through the valley.

They under-promise and over-deliver running more ski buses than scheduled.

The lifts
Zillertal lifts and cable cars are modern and fast. How can you not love a cable car that reportedly carries up to 150 people (often it seemed that we were 180) up 700 vertical meters in 5 minutes.

700km of pistes
In France, Les Trois Vallées is accurately reported as the worlds largest ski area with 600km of linked pistes. Linked pistes are overrated. Chamonix/Mont-Blanc has 400km. We prefer the variety of the unlinked 700km that are all easily accessed by a great transportation system. We met two different English men who were each on their 11th season at Zillertal and when we asked why they keep coming back they both answered, ‘700 km of pistes’.

Click here for more photos on the slopes

In addition (or above all, depending on the weather), the glacier provides guaranteed snow and great views. It is often so windy though that the good snow gets blown away. The glacier is therefore a last resort and a must do all in one.

Click here for more photos from the Hintertux Glacier

The ideal would be to have The Tirol Snow Card with access to 82 Tyrolean ski resorts which includes 1050 lifts and 3596km of slopes from October to mid May. Maybe next year...

Food
French food is famously fabulous, but camping car cuisine is more interesting and accessible in Austria and not just because of the great choice in pickles. The chips, candy, salads... are more interesting and there is Gasser, http://www.gasser.co.at/. They have the most amazing cooked ribs, chicken and other meats at prices too good to pass up, so we didn’t. It is so great that we may go back to Zillertal next year just to take advantage of their take-out.

We even found a super stinky, super tasty locally made cheese.

The drive
It is a bit of a longer drive to Austria but we get to drive through Switzerland and you never know what you’ll experience in Switzerland...

While we love France, we prefer to ski in Austria...

Who’s idea was this...

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 18:56:31 +0100

A woman arriving from Texas was questioned by an immigration officer about why she was in Stockholm in November and when she said she was there for vacation he laughed. The problem wasn’t the cold, wet weather or the fact that it gets dark at 3:30pm. The problem was the limited opening days and hours of the must see places, such as Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 3:30pm. We managed, nonetheless, to have fun.

This is our third trip with this group. On the first, we were toddlers, content to be carried along. On the second, we were 10 and a half years old and able to hold our own in limited conversation with adults but we still did as we were told. Now we are teenagers and vying for control. Herding ten people in a foreign country is not easy, but when 8 of them are French it is just a grève waiting to happen. We made an attempt, but the one thing that the group was not going to endure was a 2nd guided tour in English and there ended our illusion of control. We reverted to follower mode. Order was restored.

The Vasa Museum was amazing and the city hall, where the Nobel Banquet takes place each year, super impressive. Pascal called it ‘The Chateau of the People’ contrary to the other chateaux that we toured, owned by the current King and Queen. I was relieved for them that they were out of the country...

The Swedish people were friendly and surprisingly upbeat for people living in such a dark place. They humored me and my attempts at Swedish and were often interested in where we were from (because who would visit in November if they were not from Alaska, Canada or The Antarctic). We will go back to eat more moose, see Skansen and Gripsholm Castle and to tour the Archipelago by boat and we will stay here...

at what must be one of the coolest hostels ever, http://www.europeanhostelguide.com/hostels/chapman_ship.php.

Stockholm photos

XXX Road trip

Wed, 3 Nov 2010 12:55:42 +0100

Lunch in Brussels and dinner in Amsterdam... our kinda road trip! We don’t have any nighttime photos of Amsterdam because what happens at night in Amsterdam stays in Amsterdam and its best not to have any incriminating evidence or blackmail photos. We learned quickly the difference between the coffee house and the café. The one thing they have in common is that neither’s primary business is selling coffee, although they do and we sampled some at both.

We didn’t get to the two art galleries we had on our list but our walk from the campground to the tram was an extensive outdoor gallery and we were able to catch the artists at work.

The xxx all over Amsterdam, we thought, was an expression of patriotism, a people embracing their open minded culture and celebrating what they do best until we saw xxx in the churches and realized we were clearly uninformed. This flag adopted by Amsterdam in 1975, has three St. Andrew’s crosses. The flag choosing committee either has a great sense of humor or just got really lucky. Possession of soft drugs was decriminalized in 1976 and prostitution made legal in 2000, so is the flag reflecting the culture or did the culture grow to reflect the flag?

While on the subject... condom machines on the streets in France are convenient and the condom mobiles at the fairs are fun and this display window should win an award - note the eiffel tower and statue of liberty models, but condoms in a vending machine in between gum and skittles is perfect - unless you hit the wrong button.

One of the more odd things we saw, which is saying something, was near the Netherlands-Belgium border and was the photo-op missed, Big Funnel Man - http://www.ateliervanlieshout.com/works/bigfunnelman.htm.

We brought back lots of beer and other things you can’t get easily here, like... Belgian chocolate.

There is more to see. We’ll return to Amsterdam in April for the tulip festival and we’ll make a beer run to Belgium in a few months.

click here for
Brussels and Bruges photos

click here for
Amsterdam photos

It is Mind Scrabbling

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:27:25 +0200

When I saw Dora the Explorer Scrabble I did a virtual pirouette! It would be perfect for my two 8 year old English students, but then I saw that it was €41... In shock, I dropped it. Then, Uno, €21 and Monopoly €52... seriously.

I can fly to Scotland for €12 (Ryanair) and stay in a hostel for €13 and return with my Dora Scrabble and Uno, combined cost €15. That is €40 total for the games plus the trip vs the €62 it would cost me to walk less than a quarter mile and buy it.

More practical but less fun... I could order it from a US site and have it sent to my dad, then he could ship it to us for $52 total or €37. He could charge a $30 handling and inconvenience fee and it would still save me €1 and a 5min walk. He could throw in some dental floss that doesn’t break every time I use it - priceless!

Last year, we brought three pair of Levi’s back for a friend because together they were the price of what one pair would cost her here. Every year we load up on gear in the US, often 65% less than the exact same item if purchased here. Apparently, we are fortunate to have a concrete courtyard and were not aware of the weed wacker gear issues we would face if we had a yard...

‘I am an expatriate frenchman living in California. I have kept the family house in France. I would like someone to investigate why gardening tools like weed wackers and landmowers are so expensive in France. Check the Ryobi brand (4 cycle engine) for weedwackers cost more than twice when purchased in french. I eventually bought one in the US $150 and had it shipped to France. It seems to me that the middlemen in france and or the hyper markets are complice with the politiciens to keep competition out and prices high. I have been maintaining this family house in France for over 15 years and I have never understood why these things are so expensive in France.’ (from a comment on this article- http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6683I120100709)

Why do the French folks put up with such ridiculously high prices. The exact question was found where all burning questions are answered, Yahoo Answers. ‘Why is France so expensive and why do natives put up with it?’

The best answer chosen, ‘Because the prices are high, when our currency was switched to Euros many not very honest people just changed the currency on the small priced items. That means that the price was multiplied by up to seven. Since then we kept our high prices.’

Although I don’t exactly understand that answer it explains why the Dora Scrabble box was so faded. It must have been around since the French Franc, ~2002.

More research led to the "Old Franc Conversion Theory" and the "Golden Ticket Mentality", but these theories create more questions than answers.

The following, however, was validating and we may follow suit to lower our grocery bill: ‘An increasing number of British expats living in France are buying everyday essentials like food shopping in the UK and having it delivered because it is cheaper.’ Then this from the same article, ‘One expat said that his car recently needed a new clutch, which was going to cost €300 from a local garage but he found one on Ebay for £38 plus £10 delivery,~€48’, http://www.expatforum.com/france/british-expats-buying-everyday-essentials-from-the-uk-as-french-prices-are-too-high.html.

Why are ‘we’ striking over a 2 year increase in the retirement age and not this??? This is a strike I would join, if I were employed...

Guest Survey

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:05:56 +0200

Twenty-five visitors to date and each have stayed from one to five weeks. We have had 6 persons at once - a built in party. We have only had one guest return, but we’re not taking that personally.

Shopping for guests has evolved and now we send a questionnaire in advance. ‘How adventurous do you want to be?’ The meat category is the most fun (unless you are a vegetarian). You can choose from beef tongue and/or heart and kidneys are doable.

We draw the line at cerveaux but if someone were to request it, we could accommodate fairly easily. ‘Roll the dice’ is also an option that no one has yet selected.

While meat is the most fun, cheese is the most important. The extreme responses on the survey are, ‘Velveeta’ and ‘Mold excites me’. There are literally over 1000 cheeses here and we are determined to try each one. It is an addiction and guests are enablers.

Wine preferences are included in the survey but it is actually more important that the wine marry the meal.

Snails! We (I) love snails and guests provide the perfect excuse to have them, even if, to quote Richard Dawson, ‘Survey says, X’.

Vegetables - We eat a lot and the variety of mushrooms in particular excites us and can be a bit off-putting for those who know how mushrooms are cultivated, so it’s in the survey...

I have an onion/garlic problem - if they are in the house they must be a part of the meal. Guests can opt out and they will be removed from the guest list, I mean, the grocery list.

We are easygoing and have only one rule:

1. No dieting while visiting. Croissants and baguettes are an integral part of meals and dessert is mandatory!

I offer three warnings to the girls:

1. Men in the ladies room are common for any number of reasons, all oddly legitimate.
2. BYOtp
3. It is not uncommon to see a guy peeing.
It could be that the urinal is just outside the girl’s toilette.
It could be that he has stopped on the side of the road.
It could be that you just rounded the corner and saw a neighbor zipping up (forever burned into my memory).
In reality, I have seen more penises in the last three years than I have seen in my entire life. in all fairness, I was a true Catholic school girl for most of my youth, but still!

Birmingham

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 13:57:03 +0200

Top 5 quotes while in Birmingham, UK

“How the hell do you expect to study anything here if you cant speak English any better than that?” - Passport control agent to a Pakistani guy.

“I'm not a baggage handler. I’m the Chief Immigrations Officer” - Chief Immigrations officer to Joe and I (he did, however, quite illegally, bring me my bag)

“If you don't stop taking the piss out of me I will put you back on a plane to where you came from.” - Same Chief Immigrations Officer to the guy behind us.

We arrived behind a plane from Pakistan and a plane from India during a ‘terrorist attack likely’ threat level and were in the passport control line for an hour. Our carry-ons had been taken from us at the plane entryway and were put on the belt. There was 1 translator and 1M people in line.

The terror threat level was increased all over Europe, in part by an expected response to the the French burka banning bill, a complicated process and very controversial. Where is school house rock when you need it? The US Embassy warned us that Americans would be targeted.

Quote #4, “You’re not from around here are you?” said to Joe and I by the taxi driver who said he was from Pakistan. Then, he asked us if there many Muslims in the US. I panicked and said, “Yes, lots, some of our best friends are Muslim.”

And finally, at the hotel I asked for a map of the area (there is always a map). The person at the desk said, “I don’t have a map because I live here and I don’t need one. Just tell me where you want to go and I will tell you how to get there.”

We love England for many reasons. The top five:

1. The Indian food is amazing. Joe’s colleagues took us to an Indian, Indian restaurant as opposed to an English, Indian restaurant.

The difference is the number of Pepto tablets you need to take the next morning.

2. We can buy Pepto tablets

1. The pubs are busy at 10 am and pints are the beverage of choice

1. Mixed drinks in a can

5. I love being called ‘love’.

At the airport in Birmingham... We have several rules for choosing a security line at the airport and the number one is not to get behind travelers with children. Due to a grave strategic error we were behind a family with three young ones that should have been filmed for a ‘what not to do if you are late for your flight’ instructional film. They had 3 bottles of water and some other unidentifiable liquid in a container greater than 100ml, all had jackets and getting them off was mom’s job because dad was on the other side and free of the spectacle. Mom had jewelry and took some off. Then more. Then more - the bangles were stubborn. The little boy squeezed between the baggage detector and the person detector and was sent back. The older of the two girls went through properly but was sent back because she had a bag of chips. All four were finally ready and all four try to squeeze through together. This was so worth the price of admission that we may have to arrive early from now on just to queue up behind kids.

Finally, at the airport in France... a young American couple were on their way home. He says, “Where are the toilettes?” She says (with a super annoying tone), “Why do you call them that?” It was all I could do to not say, “Because, that is what they are called! Seriously, you could not have spent a day here without learning that, so deal with it.”

Football American style

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 08:52:29 +0200

Beef-heart burgers, wine and cheese were the fare for our first football game of the season. A last minute decision to get the game on Sunday, when everything was closed, meant no beer, chips or dip.

US commercials were played for the first time, a new feature and we were excited.... until we watched a few. Football seems to get more aggressive each season. After reading "Romo My Life on the Edge: Living Dreams and Slaying Dragons" by Romanowski, we just assume that most players are hyped up on some form of crazy making drug but is it necessary to rip someone’s helmet off? Rugby at its core is equally aggressive but the players don’t try to kill each other. All this wine and cheese must be making us soft.

At lunch with Dedene and Laura a few weeks ago, Dedene offered to go get a football for Laura’s two boys. When she returned with a soccer ball I said, “Oh, a ‘football’! I thought you were going to get a football” which really would have been odd. Laura said the boys wouldn’t know what to do with an American football and would find it silly because it wouldn’t roll properly... There’s a metaphor in there somewhere!

Keep that thumb pointed Up

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 14:30:21 +0200

We almost missed the last bus back to Liberec after hiking in the Jizera Mountains. Hitchhiking is common here but care must be taken... a thumb pointed down indicates that you are offering a service rather than in need of one. Fortunately, we made the bus.

This sign is what made us late... We stayed for too long before we realized it was pointless.

And then when we found the answer to the ultimate question... we had to see if the question was nearby.

LIberec is on the border of Germany and Poland and several languages are spoken here, but English is not one of them. German is not much appreciated due to the Germans who visit and don’t bother to learn Czech. Conversations generally all started like this...
‘Dobry den’, ‘Dobry den’, ‘English?’, ‘No, Deutsch?’, ‘A little... French?’, ‘No, Russian?’, ‘No, English?’, ‘A little’. Communicating without a common language is a familiar game that we played in China and Korea. Winning requires only that you stay calm. The real competition came and was lost in Babylon, http://www.centrumbabylon.cz/en/babylon/. This is not our kind of hotel. We prefer to play outside. Its one redeeming quality was that it had a huge outdoor terrace with a great view, according to the website.

After two days of being misunderstood and misdirected (it is a big place), I found it myself but the door was locked.

Then we played, I’ll show you my terrace if you show me yours which took us on a three hour tour.

When he realized that I had found ‘the terrace’ he said, ‘Oh, that terrace, blah, blah, blah verboten...’

We accept that when we travel what is written is relative and verbal communication is a sport, but this just pissed me off. I said, ‘This is not ok, blah, blah, blah...’, knowing that he didn’t understand a word and he replied, ‘You’re welcome.’ I need to work on my angry tone.

In retrospect, we should have expected confusion in a place called Babylon, especially after dinner our first night... in the Czech Republic, at Hotel Babylon, eating an Asian meal in a French restaurant while listening to Jimi Hendrix and looking at ancient Egypt decor.

It is possible to go up in the tower of the Town Hall, but at the information desk the attendant without saying a word, handed me her phone. The person on the other end said that I needed to go to the office of tourism and from there I could be announced and would be able to go up into the tower. At the office of tourism I was told it is not possible to go up except on this day and that and at this hour or that and none of those include today.

Two for two, expectations were low and when I came across this place I decided I was going inside even if I had to sneak in. Fortunately, it was a museum. After buying my ticket a woman inside wanted to play the language game. I indicated all was ok and I would just be on my way to look around. She grabbed my arm and pulled me around in circles while she pointed in this direction and that using charades to explain what exhibits were where. She reminded me of the restroom attendant in Shanghai who didn’t speak English, so after paying she grabbed me and threw me into a stall.

We met Gladys and Duchon on the trail from Jested. She is American and has lived in Liberec for 15 years. Duchon is Czech and has lived in France and the US.

They talked us into extending our hike and going with them to a family owned pub, U Samalu, that had been preserved for hundreds of years. It is always great to see and learn about a place from locals. It is also always enlightening to hear from a foreigner about their experience in the US. We are often shocked and somewhat ashamed about what we hear and are always grateful that people are so welcoming to us.

Next, Joe’s bunker trauma - locked in for an hour. They had already drawn straws to determine who would get eaten first...

Click here for more photos

What really goes on in the funhouse

Sat, 29 May 2010 15:37:52 +0200

We came back early from Ardeche to go to the Asparagus Festival in Tigy. There was an asparagus shortage and it was all gone in the first 15 minutes of the first day. Quelle crise! Fortunately, there was no shortage of crazy entertainment and amusement for all ages...

Like the funhouse, for the whole family, de 4 à`84 ans, from 4 to 84 years...

We should have gone in to see what really goes on in a French funhouse... maybe next time, but I suspect what goes on in the funhouse will stay in the funhouse.

We expected to see the Condom Mobil that was at the Stuttgart Festival but were disappointed when it wasn’t there.

There was lots of old stuff to buy

...really old stuff,

but this was our favorite... the Hot Dogger - De vrais hot-dogs, juste comme il faut.

The US was well represented...

And finally, the Asparagus Legos Competition... it was the reason we came but there was no Asparagus Eiffel Tower and so we felt cheated. There is always next year...