Ausländer in Deutschland.

So it was time for a second hop into Europe. Candice had no idea where we were going to go for Christmas shopping until we arrived at the check in desk. I chose Frankfurt as it reportedly had a pretty nice and quaint Christmas village and also due to the fact that one of Candice's old friends from Calgary would also be there with her husband.

We got a very early flight with the taxi arriving ar circa 5AM. I think Candice woke up at around 7AM and we were both upset that the aircraft didn't have to circle Frankfurt for longer. Finally on the ground, we managed to find our way to our hotel and I was shocked to find a Deloitte conference being held in the very same hotel. Apologies again Candice, I had absolutely no idea!

The Christmas village was lovely and the wursts even better. I think a flight back to Germany is on the cards, but next time it will have to be Berlin, my favourite city in the land. The night in Frankfurt was finished in style with a pool and sauna situated on the floor above ours. Happy days. Back to London the day after and to the relentless grind of everyday work. Some pictures are included below. Enjoy.

Breakfast Gone Wrong. Very Wrong.

OK, so it was about time Candice experienced a real English "caf". Not sure how genuinely English this "caf" was, but by judging by the food dished out, it really wasn't too far off the mark. Exhibit One....

exhibit two...


Absolutely awful food. I think Candice left the "caf" slightly homesick and not quite sure how we eat such rubbish. Still, the "full Englsih" hit the spot!

Riding the Ghetto Rails

After picking up Candice from church and losing to her at ping pong, we got lost on the tube chatting and ended up in the ghetto somewhere. Attached is a picture of Candice looking worried. Luckily, I haven't shaved for a while and people seem more scared of me than us of them.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Flight Home

The Moors (or Moops for Seinfeld fans)

The guidebook exploration of Spain continued with a trip to a Moorish Palace dated back to the turn of the last millenia. I can't really complain about the guidebook tour here though as it was actually an absolutely beautiful site. My pictures don't do justice to the detail and symmetry captured in the architecture. I think McKay captured the mood and beauty of the building with, "How did they build this?"! So Candice and co, thanks for the guidebook tour on this one!

QANTAS A380

I apologise for this, but I have a bit of an unhealthy fascination with aeroplanes. I was relaxing at Heathrow when I saw the QANTAS A380 for the first time. She's absolutely beautiful and I was lucky enough to view pre-flight control surface checks...full rudder, elevators, and the rest. Now that Air France fly the A380 to JFK, I feel that I should be experiencing the A380 pretty soon - just need to ignore the fact that it's on a French aeroplane.

Cracks start showing...

OK, so it was the afternoon after the game when I realised that Candice was a proper tourist - guidebook and all! We left the motorway to checkout some windmills placed up on a hill en route to the Med coast. It was at this point that I realised that my holidays will never be the same again! Still, one can never really see enough windmills. Here are some pictures...

Bernabau Pictures

Some pictures from the game...

Real Madrid vs Zurich (Champions League)

So I decided to fly out to Madrid on Wednesday. Tuesday work ran a bit late and I was unable to make my flight which I just caught out the next afternoon instead. Our aircraft wasn't working so they laid on a 757 for a 1.5 hour flight..very nice. Real business class seats for a very short flight. Trouble is that this aircraft also failed to start. I was, however, flying BA so I knew the boys would find a solution and sure enough, an hour or so later, the plane was fixed and I got to fly to Madrid in time for the Real game (and see Candice of course). We had some amazing seats right by the pitch and it was amazing to watch the greats like Raul and Ronanldo eventhough they had a pretty average game. Still, capacity at circa 80,000 and a great atmosphere made it a night to remember. Finding an American diner afterwards made it all that bit better and it was nice for Candice to have some "home" cooking.

Preamble

Funny how attitudes, well at least mine, can change so abruptly overnight. After years of nurturing a simmering dislike for "couples blogs", I sit here pencilling down what will be the preamble to a blog which will hopefully do exactly what patronising "couples blogs" must, declare to the world how perfect this couple actually is. I must admit that we do have a bit of an unfair advantage here seeing that this is indeed the case!

So how on Earth did we get here? I've been asking myself this very same question over the last few months and short of a stork dropping us exactly in the right place at the right time, I'm yet to fully appreciate the series of circumstances and choices which led me here. Chaos is what I understand best and I guess it's a bit easier to be romantic about chance encounters when one appreciates that it is randomness that creates order from chaos. I'm guessing this last statement will not go down well with Candice so I'm just going to throw it in there to get this blog rolling. Whilst the preamble to the constitution included an insurance of domestic tranquillity, I will enjoy throwing in seditious comments like that every once in a while!

OK, there already seems to be too much writing here and not enough pictures so my first order of business today will be to add some pictures from a recent trip to Spain and North Africa which was, well, surprising cold.