Topper's TravelsTopper Kain's blog. Topper Kain is a world-famous kazoo player and traditional norwegian food chef. He wants you to use the comments. Saturday, July 17, 2010I really will write more about my vacation, but one of the things I've been busy doing is helping out Therese with her dog acessory business. We are selling really cool light up dog collar at http://www.dogqndme.biz and on Amazon. The products are really cool. Here is Tchaps wearing one of the collars, notice that it lights up on two channels instead of one.
.: posted by Topper 9:48 AMMonday, July 12, 2010Huh, 1.5 years since I posted. Didn't think it had been quite that long...--------- I just got back from vacation in France in Germany with Jen and Kelley. It was a blast- we saw the sights of Paris, the chateaux of the Loire, the beer gardens and river surfing (more on that later) in Munich, the medieval town of Rothenburg, and the once divided city of Berlin. -------- Travel adventures: Just getting around proved to be quite an adventure. I flew out by myself Friday morning, 6/25/2010 from Seattle to Paris via Charlotte, NC. The Seattle-Charlotte leg was fine, and I engjoyed the Charlotte airport's good BBQ, Nascar themed stores and white rocking chairs. On the Charlotte-Paris leg however someone got sick and they had to ask if there was a doctor on board. I tried to sleep but US Airways really agressively hawks their duty free items and they kept waking me up... I took the train (RER) in from the airport to Paris and then promptely got lost looking for the hotel. Oh well Travelling from Paris to Amboise: I wanted to stop in Blois to see Chambord (a very big very famous chateux). The plan was stop at the station and leave our baggage in the locker then take a cab to Chambord. We took the train from Paris to Blois (which was supposed to be direct but I think something went wrong with the trian and we had to switch). We arrived in Blois on time and went drop off our luggage when to my suprise we discovered- Blois has no luggage lockers! Doh! Seriously, it was the only station we went to that didn't. We then proceeded to take the wrong train from Blois (it bypassed Amboise without stopping) so we got to see the Tours train station... Amboise to Munich: The route was Amboise to Paris, Paris to Stutgart, and Stutgart to Munch. Amboise to Paris train went smoothly. Paris to Stutgart took 90 minutes longer than it was supposed to, panicing us because we thought there was no train from Stutgart to Paris later that night. However, there was indeed several late trains and we made it to Munich that night. Munich to Rotenburg: The route was Munich to Augsburg, Augsburg to Treichlensomething, Treichlensomething to Steinach, and Steinach to Rothenburg. There was a major accident at the rail station in Augsburg (several liquid cars were flipped over and tore up when we passed) and the lines to the main station (where we were supposed to catch our train) were shutdown. A nice german woman told use we needed to take a bus from the station we stopped at to the main station. We saw the city of Augsburg by un-airconditioned city bus and when we arrived we were promptly told by a Deutsche Bahn official to get back on the bus and go to back to the station we had just left. When we got there thing were a mess. The train we needed was overfull, absolutely brimming with people. We needed to push our way on with many pieces of luggage. They then annouced that the train was being rerouted away from our stop, so we had to push our way back off. The DB people changed their mind again, so we got back on, and finally decided that the packed train was not going to our stop after all, causing us to finishing annoying the Germans by once again forcing our way back to the platform. They Germans were good humored about it though, the once we pushed past the most just started laughing at our pathetic sight. Finally, the DB people annouced that the overfull train was (finally) leaving and that there was a train waiting to take the other people to our destinination, but they didn't have an engineer to drive it. Sigh... Once we finally got out of Augsburg we were a little worried, because our hotel's check-in closed at 9p, and we would get to Rothenburg at like 8:50 with no problems. We got there, sent Jen running ahead, and got checked in with 5 minutes to spare. Rothenburg to Berlin: Just missed the hourly train from Rothenburg by like 2 minutes. Went Rothenburg-Steinach-Hanover?-Berlin. Nothing particularly interesting, except the Berlin train was late and we once again had a 9p check-in time which we worried about missing. Berlin to Paris: The big Kahuna. Route was Berlin-Mannheim-Paris. However, the Berlin-Mannheim train was delayed over two hours en-route and we badly missed our train, which was the last of the day. The DB people told us to disembark in Frankfurt instead of Mannheim and catch the first train of the day to the Paris Est station (leaving 6a, arriving 9:49a) on Saturday. They were nice enough (as there were legally obligated) to put us up in a hotel that night in Frankfurt (side note- Frankfurts red light district is right next to the train station and is a little scary). The problem was that the girls had to catch a 10:10a train at a different station in Paris in order to catch a ferry to Ireland and I knew that all of the following trains were full. We got to Paris on time and rushed across town via the Metro to the other station. We didn't even come close to making it. Thankfully, the conductor of the next TGV train the girls needed to take let them on even though it was completely full. Flight back: Once again they needed a doctor for someone on the plane from Paris to Charlotte. At this point I'm convinced I'm unlucky and a little afraid of my next flight. I have a long layover in Charlotte, watch the Netherlands lose to Spain in the world cup final, and then have an uneventful flight back to Seattle. But just when I thought I was done with travel mishaps, I managed to leave my cellphone in the taxi. Sigh. I had to drive to taxi office to pick it up. I think I'm going to stay home this week :) Overall though, a blast, more to come. .: posted by Topper 9:43 AMTuesday, September 23, 2008Despite the high pitch screams coming out of everybody Paulson, Obama, McCain, and Company, we are not in crisis, only our financial sector is. Unemployment is at 6.1%, high compared to the last 3 or 4 years, but around average for a recession for the last 50 years- and certainaly a far cry from the 70's. The stock market, while rattled, currently is around where it should be if it actually grew at the same rate as the US economy for the last 15 years (IE- the 90's bubble never REALLY popped...) Housing prices are down 20%, but then again they had skyrocketed something like 100% since 2000. What is happenning is a market correction and a downturn in the business cycle. The liquidity crisis does need some solution, but the answer should involve shareholders, executives, and companies losing their shirts on bad, dumb loans, not the US government. I like the suggestion that we follow the Swedish / Fannie Mae plan and demand equity in any company that wants to participate in the bailout.Overall the recent crisis has been an embarassment for the "free-market" republican party. I'm going crazy here over in my libertarian wing. .: posted by Topper 10:33 AMTuesday, February 19, 2008I would still like Huckabee to just go away (although keeping the Republicans in the news while at the same time not actually causing real controversy could be valuable in the general election, I'm not sure Huckabee will turn around and support McCain come convention time), that's not why I'm writing today.I'm writing today because Pakistan held elections and the dominant party lost. Be some people's definition (see the book "Democracy and Development") that is all that is needed to establish a country as a democracy. We'll see if the election results hold, but I kind of think they will. This news made me happy, as it gives more evidence to my senior thesis- President Bush, despite all his other flaws, is and has been serious about supporting the emergence of democracy, even when it has meant damaging "our" guy. So kudos to Pakistanis for their election, kudos to PPP for winning, and kudos to Musharraf for allowing it to happen (mostly), and kudos to Bush for not getting in the way. Now just leave, please. I'm tired of hearing the democrats complain and not have (m)any comebacks. .: posted by Topper 9:50 AMTuesday, February 12, 2008Go away huckabee..: posted by Topper 12:04 PMWednesday, August 29, 2007Damn this cool:http://www.flashearth.com/ Of course if you want directions you should goto http://maps.live.com, but still. .: posted by Topper 3:48 PMFriday, August 10, 2007Canada and Russia are getting all hot and bothered over resources in the north poleExcuse me, don't all North pole resources belong to it's indigenous people .: posted by Topper 1:59 PM |
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