Trips – Page 3 – Dishers.com

May 18, 2010January 26, 2016

My recent trip to the UK & Germany.

My employer has offices internationally, and as fate would have it, we’re moving them. We started with the UK office via some uk affordable movers back in January. I took a rather condensed trip over to the UK to look at office space. I was in the air, or in airports almost as long as I was in the UK so I didn’t get to see much other than the offices we looked at.

This trip was very similar.

The first part of the trip was to move the office and get the internet connectivity and telecommunications setup as well as wrap up some loose ends.

We left Cincinnati (CVG) Saturday May 8th, connecting in Chicago, then straight into Heathrow, in the UK. I was fortunate to be traveling with our VP of sales, who makes this trip once a month. As such he’s earned his rewards and status with the airlines and the benefits that come with that. As his traveling partner I was able to better enjoy the road warrior lifestyle for a week. Being able to visit the international clubs in the airport and getting ‘upgraded’ has it’s advantages.

This time however we did rent a car. Figuring we’d be driving back and forth between offices and making the occasional run to the store for something we figured this would be easier than cabs.

We picked up our car at the airport and headed to the hotel. As things usually go, they didn’t have the car we reserved so we settled on a VW Passat, and a free GPS as compensation.

Driving on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road is interesting. But not nearly as difficult as I was led to believe it would be. We arrived without incident.

While in the UK we tend to stay at the Twickenham Marriott which wraps the Twickenham rugby statdium. It’s new so it’s still very nice. Twickenham is on the west side of London, and honestly there isn’t a whole lot around that area in terms of quick and dirty tourist attractions. You can hop the tube into downtown London if you have time, but we didn’t.

The room (at least the one I stayed in) is pretty straight forward:

The View

We didn’t do much Sunday, other than recuperate from the flight(s). We did venture out in search of another US/UK power adapter and ended up a Bentalls, a shopping center and mall about 20 minutes away. We at lunch/dinner there, and I picked up a Tea Pot for my lovely wife.

Monday morning we met Ashley at the office, got our bearings and went to the old office to retrieve our communications gear. Loaded it up and headed back to our new office in Kew.

Where by we commenced to assembling furniture and getting our phones system and internet connectivity up and running. A good part of the afternoon was spent getting our phone service re-tooled from the interfaces we had at our horrible Regus office to lines we now had control over. To this end we use eVelocity, for Cisco voice configuration we’re not comfortable messing with. While things never go as planned, things actually went quite well.

With day 1 complete nearly everything was working as planned.

On Tuesday, we did more of the same, mostly clean-up and tweaks. For lunch we wandered out to the Kew Greenhouse Cafe. Ashley claimed it was simply a tourist spot and no, UK people rarely eat at places like this.

Lunch was a Tuna Bake and a Becks Beer.

Then back to the office for more office move related stuff. Our landlord occupies the 1st and 2nd floor of this building (2nd and 3rd floor to US folks). I took some time with Paul and discussed their business, the building and other stuff. When they renovated the building, they added the 3rd floor. It has somewhat of a nautical theme, seeing as how they are in the shipping business it all made sense. The windows are like port-holes on a ship. The 3rd floor is an all-purpose conference room and space for entertaining. Complete with a temporary bed, shower and other luxuries.

The whole office reminded me of Apple in Cupertino. They are Apple users and the whole place was quite sanitary looking.

We showed off our iPad’s knowing they’d be interested and couldn’t actually get their hands on them for another couple weeks.

Later in the afternoon I took about an hour to run over to the Chiswick Honda dealership. At this dealership they have everything Honda. From lawnmowers and generators, to motorcycles and cars. My goal was to sit on a new Honda VFR 1200 and check out a couple of bikes that aren’t available in the states. Mission accomplished, but I have to say, the folks at the dealership were less than friendly.

That evening, we stopped at Tesco’s, the UK version of Walmart to get a few snacks and drinks for the room so we didn’t have to spend 5 GBP (or about $7.50) for a pepsi at the hotel.

Just like Walmart you can get everything at Tesco, including your home loan, and car insurance right at the check out.

Kevin had to get his Walker Potato chips, “Prawn Cocktail” flavor to be exact. I’m pretty sure these are just lays potato chips. But they had a number of really interesting flavors. I opted for a combo pack that had ‘Steak and Onion’, ‘Smokey Bacon’ which I though was extremely ironic since these folks don’t have a clue what bacon really is. A slice of honey baked ham, without the honey or the baking is not bacon, it’s simply a slice of poorly grilled ham, and ‘Roast Chicken’. Much to my surprise all of these flavors were accurate, and quite delicious.

Wednesday was wrap up day. I didn’t have a lot to do, but was hoping I’d get to get out and see some stuff.

We took a quick road trip to IKEA of all places, in an effort to find a conference room table. Kevin was fairly certain the conference room table we had in Austria came from IKEA. On the way we stopped for lunch at the world famous ACE cafe. Which was really an American diner/motorcycle hang out.

Cool place, lots of history. The Ace Cafe – London, was bombed in World War II. History can be found here. Ashley’s dad used to frequent the place in his younger years.

Out trip to IKEA was uneventful. No real office furniture to speak of, thought they did have the little lantern that Matthew was playing with at home on our front porch before I left. Which I believe was a gift we received at Christmas. It tickled me to see them in London.

We returned around 3pm. It was a little late in the day for me to make a run to Stonehenge, which was on my short list of things to go see. It’s about 80 miles from the office but knowing that I’d run into traffic and that we had to leave for the airport at 5am I wasn’t much in the mood to risk it.

I took a little walk around the Kew train stop area, around our office and took some photos.

Everything here is old, including the bridge over the train tracks that I walked over and took the above photo from. Built in 1912.

Given the amount of pure ugly people, most of whom are only ugly because they need some dental care, I was shocked to find a dentist on the other side of the tracks. (That’s sarcasm and humor in case you didn’t notice.)

That evening we had dinner at the Inn in Kew Gardens, a standard pub/hotel. Very much like the Golden Lamb here in Lebanon, OH. The food was good and on a vacation visit I would probably stay there, though I didn’t get to check out any of the rooms.

The night was uneventful, I slept well, but didn’t get my 4:15am wake up call. Grrrrr… (yes 4:15am, necessary to get up and out by 5am, to get to the airport, return our car, clear security and all that entails to make a 7am flight to Munich, Germany).

Still we got out of the hotel in time to return the rental car, and make our flight without too much trouble.

The flight into Germany was uneventful. We flew Lufthansa and of all the flights so far this was the worst. The dirtiest aircraft, and the loudest. It had a horrible buzzing/vibration. But hey, it’s all good if you don’t crash right?

We landed in Munich and took a cab to the Munich Marriott, which is really in Freising. We pretty much had the day to kill since it was a Holiday. No real estate agents were working. I had in mind to visit either the BMW museum in Munich, or Dachau, the 1st concentration camp. But as fate would have it, we didn’t have a car, and being a holiday we feared things may not be open. We walked down to the hofbrauhaus with the intention of eating well and having a few beers.

But it too was closed. To be honest the whole town was very quiet. We walked back to the hotel and had a good meal and beer at the restaurant then just relaxed in our rooms. I watched “The Hurt Locker”, and promptly fell a sleep.

In the morning Rob picked us up and we went office shopping.

I won’t bore you with the details of that.

The bottom line though is that you could probably take someone from West Chester, blind fold them, drop them off near the Munich airport and they wouldn’t know the difference. The drive on the right side of the road, and it’s wide open. Plenty of farmland. Very Cincinnati like.

Our trip was successful, at least at this point I think it was. We viewed 8 different offices, had lunch at a little Italian bistro, then spent a couple hours at the airport office park where our current office is.

We flew back to Heathrow at 7pm, less than 48 hours after we arrived. We spent the night at the Heathrow Marriott, then headed back to the US at 7:30 in the morning the next day.

The flight home was equally uneventful, until we needed to board our flight from Chicago to Cincy. The plane needed some maintenance attention but they gut us underway in less than 40 minutes of our original departure time so we were only 30 minutes late.

I can’t wait to go back, but I can certainly wait to do those flights again.

12 + hours in airports and planes just kinds sucks like that.

December 14, 2009November 28, 2017

West Baden Springs, the original 8th Wonder of the World.

This weekend (the 12-14th of December, 2009) Claudine and I took a little weekend get-away to West Baden Springs, In.

Sort of a 20th Anniversary get-a-way, plus birthday, plus we just needed to get away and have some alone time type of thing.

I had originally planned to whisk Claudine away and take her to Vegas for a few days. But timing among other things didn’t work out so we planned for a weekend in December. She said she’d handle all the details.

Our grand plan was to head out on Friday for a 3 day weekend. Earlier in the week one of the horses turned up with an eye issue that meant we’d have to treat him pretty regularly. This meant we’d have to cancel. So we did. After a few days of treatment he looked great, so we scrambled and adjusted our Fri-Sunday trip to be a Saturday-Monday trip.

Claudine had visited West Baden Springs Hotel as a tourist in 2008 while I was riding out west. She decided then we’d have to visit.

We left around 2pm on Saturday after running a few errands, punting on the rental car. (Thank Hertz, for confirming our reservation to pickup our car no earlier than 1pm. We arrived at 1:15pm only to find they closed at 1pm, idiots).

So we scrambled to clean out the car and headed out. We arrived after dark so it wasn’t immediately apparent just how magnificent this hotel is from the outside. As we walked into the atrium, WOW. That’s all I could say was wow. All I brought with me was my Canon point and shoot. I was woefully unprepared.

I like old places. I like historical old places and man this was just… Well, I don’t really know how to describe it. I’ve stayed in some old places. The Hotel Bristol, in Colorado. The Fairmont in, San Francisco and others but this place was special.

We opted for a room with an interior view of the rotunda. It was spectacular. I’ve included links above to various references.

Everything was immaculate as you’d expect a 5-Star hotel to be.

Our original plans had horseback riding, tours, and massages scheduled. All of which we cancelled when the horse decided not to cooperate. We figured we’d just wing it.

The first thing we did was schedule our Couples Massage for Sunday afternoon.

After checking in and getting settled we hopped the shuttle over to French Lick Resort to grab a bite to eat at the buffed (which wasn’t bad at all) and hit the Casino for a while. I was very pleasantly surprised, they had Guinness for $2.00

We procured our Players Card, and tested the slot machines. At the end of the evening we were up at least $120. We found a couple penny slots that we really liked and seemed to do well at. After we both scored big (for penny slots) we called it a night. Saving our winnings for reinvestment another day and headed back to the hotel.

Sunday was our big day. Lots to do.

We kicked it off with the breakfast buffet at Sinclair’s (the 4-5ish star restaurant at West Baden). It was OK, not great. I’ve had better breakfast buffet’s. Given the magnificent environment it was a little bit of a let down. Still very good though. I was expecting great and it just wasn’t great. The made to order omelet was delicious, everything else on the buffet was B+ at best.

No worries though.

We then ran over to French lick to go bowling, at the resort, at Pluto’s alley. (6 lanes). Claudine knew it was there so we brought our bowling balls. We knocked out 3 games. The lanes weren’t the best, but we still had a blast.

After we bummed around French Lick for a bit, went through the shops, then back to the Casino to reinvest our winnings. It didn’t work. But we left that afternoon –even-.

We returned to West Baden in time for our Couple’s massage.

You may wish to skip this part, as it may not be appropriate for all ages.

Our couples massage was scheduled for 4pm, we had to be there at 3:45pm which we were. We had minimal forms to fill out. Only really needed to pick a scent for the aroma-therapy-massage. Our choices were, Some orange hand cleaner scent, pine car freshener scent, and ‘Fresh’, which we opted for. It did smell nice.

Now I enjoy a good massage as much as the next guy. But I just want a massage. Let me get under the covers, face down, and let’s go. Apparently that’s not the SPA way. We were separated, she went in one side, I the other. Which again seemed odd because I thought we were getting a couples massage.

I was instructed that I had locker #9 on the men’s side. What? What do I need a locker for? I was instructed to go in there, get comfortable, undress to what ever level I was comfortable with, there are robes provided, etc. We have a dry sauna, and shower, as well as a restroom if you need it. Hrm… I’m here for a massage.

So I pop on in, very nice place. 5-Star-ish type bathroom, shower, etc. Nice, I’ve been in nice locker rooms in many a golf resort so this was right there with that. Nice dark mahogany lockers, fully equipped, with an added bonus; a flaming gay bathroom attendant. I didn’t catch his name. He showed me around.

It’s bathroom, I’m a man, I know my way around a bathroom. He pointed out the robes and said he’d be back to get me in a few minutes. Now I already knew Vanessa was giving me my massage so it wasn’t clear to me why I needed Peter, that wasn’t his name but I’ll just call him Peter.

I undressed and prepared for my massage. Well, undressing is about all you need to do to prepare. I walked over to get a robe. There were about 8 of them on this tree like thing. One-size-fits-all. Now I’m not little, but I’m not overly huge either. This thing was made out of some fancy paper or something, probably recyclable. I’ve been in better hospital gowns. I was not happy. One-size-fits-all-midgets I thought to myself. Then I noticed that 2 of the 8 were nice fuzzy robes, so I grabbed one of those. Much better.

I pulled the flip-flops from the locker. Wow. They went all out here. Maybe Dollar General’s best. I got to choose from medium, or XXXXXL. I tried to wedge my feet in the mediums, it was a tad tight, but I couldn’t fill up the XXXXXL’s even if I had 10 pairs of socks on so I opted for the mediums. They hurt, and turned under my feet when I tried to walk. The were borderline dangerous. But I only had to walk 30 feet.

Peter returned, to escort me to the Tranquility room. What?

Down at the end of the hall was the other part of the locker room. More like a lounge. He offered me water, juice, or tea. I said sure I could use some tea. The then spouted off 17 flavors, of which I recognized two. Green and Earl Gray. I opted for Green.

He said he’d get it for me. It was right there on the counter. Hot water, tea bags. I could do this.

Sweetener? Sure. Sugar? Artificial? Honey? Let’s go with Honey.

He put the tea bag in the cup, poured in the water then struggled to squeeze the honey in. I said that was fine and took it from him. He reminded me to let the tea brew a bit.

So there I was in the Tranquility room, just me and flaming gay Peter. Normal gay men don’t bother me _that_ much, but flaming gay men do, alot. They just creep me out. So I’m there and I’m supposed to relax, with Peter?

He said to just chill out and relax and my Massage therapist would be in to get me when it was time. I grabbed a golf magazine, and waited. I wanted a massage, I didn’t need this. It was not the least bit calming.

Vanessa came by to get me probably 5 minutes later but it seemed like an eternity. My wife an I were reunited and given instructions on how to get onto the massage table, which we did without incident.

Then our therapists returned to hook us up. I got the best massage I have ever received. It was awesome, as was my wife’s. We were very pleased.

After the massage we were again split up. I was instructed to return to the locker room where I could again, shower, use the sauna, etc. Take as much time as I needed. I can get up out of the bed when the alarm rings, get a shower, get dressed and be out of the house in less than 6 minutes. I shouldn’t need more than that to get out of here. Provided of course I didn’t kill myself with these flip flops.

Peter was waiting for me in the locker room. To again, point out all of the things I could use. He left, I got dressed and was out in 2 minutes.

It was all worth it. The massage was excellent, but I don’t need all that tranquility nonsense.

After the massages we returned to our room to chill for a bit, then we had dinner reservations at Sinclair’s. This was the dress up event. Originally planned for Suit and Tie but downgraded to a nice shirt event as our plans were changed.

The food was good, the server was great. He made excellent recommendations, and served us both great glasses of wine. We both ate filets. Claudine’s was cooked a little better, closer to medium rare than mine but it was still good.

After dinner… Back to the Casino…

We tried our luck at the slots, but they weren’t cooperating. The Casino was very slow (being Sunday night and all). We did finally find a poker game, an electronic table for playing Texas Hold-Em. We jumped into a game with 4 other guys who showed us how it worked. Basically online poker at a table with real people. No dealer. It was pretty sweet. I turned $20 into $170 for a bit. Then around midnight a few younger Asians joined the table. They were either Triads or Yakuza, I couldn’t tell. Claudine pointed out that if that one guy of the guys was 21 she was the queen of England, or something to that effect. A couple of them did look pretty young. But then again the Chinese gymnasts who were supposed to be at least 16 looked like they were 12. They were young and bet heavily. I was patient and determined to take their money. I had already given myself a deadline. We’d leave in 30 minutes. It was going OK then I got caught up in a couple hands where the betting was kind of crazy for a $.50/$1 table. My $170 was down to 90 in no time. I played one more hand and lost. But still left up $50 so that made up for the bad time at the slots.

All in all we pretty much broke even and that was fine for the entertainment we received.

We returned to our room and a mostly empty hotel. It was surreal.

On Monday we ate breakfast in the Atrium and it was fantastic.

I cannot describe to you just how awesome the West Baden Springs Hotel is. It’s simply amazing. You really need to see it yourself. All of the early 1900’s advertisement says, ‘Personal inspection is required to appreciate…” and it’s completely true.

After checking out we stopped by the stables for a quick tour. We were sorry we didn’t have time to ride but will make it a point next time. The Stable was as immaculately kept as the hotel.

We meandered home via 56 along the river and stopped so Claudine could see the Grand Victoria Casino, as well as the new Hollywood Casino.

I’d put French Lick’s Casino about on-par with Grand Victoria size wize. The new Hollywood is Huge. I’d never stepped foot in Argosy so I can’t compare. We figure we’ll give it a go one of these weekends.

From Cincinnati, French Lick/West Baden is only 3.5 hours away. Go!

The rest of our photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdisher/WestBaden1209#

April 9, 2008

Their back!

Claudine is back from her trip to Vermont. The primary purpose was to visit family and attend the funeral of her cousin Sue who lost her battle with Cancer. May she rest in peace.

While on the trip Claudine decided she had to have her own camera, and so she purchased this:

A Cannon SX100IS. It met all the criteria. AA’s, SD card, and easy to use. She took a boat load of photos. Some good, some not so good. But if you knew the affect Claudine had on most cameras, that makes most of these photos outstanding. 🙂

It looks like they had a great time, and I’m glad their home. Matthew had his first taste of ice cream. Ben & Jerry’s no less.

All of the photos are in the gallery here.

May 7, 2006May 7, 2006

Weekend Commando Golf [Woodson Bend]

Oh my, one should not get this sore from golf. Golf should not be this brutal.

I really enjoy a good golf get-away, or a weekend of commando-golf. This year we took off for Woodson Bend Resort. Calling this place a “Resort??? is a stretch of major proportions. A red-neck resort it is, even at that, well, lets just say that’s still a stretch.

The weekend was cheap though, $200 bucks. That included our accommodations and breakfast (at the clubhouse), and 18 holes of golf each day [Friday, Saturday, and Sunday]. We were on our own for lunch, and Dinner. If you planned properly you could easily eat cheap if you brought your own food as the other foursome did. Oh, we also got a sleeve of balls and a hat. The balls were Pinnacles, but that’s OK.

Continue reading “Weekend Commando Golf [Woodson Bend]”