I’ve been back from Europe for a week now, but majorly sidelined by a nasty Euro-virus that came back with us and produced vast volumes of snot. Too bad it was the more glamorous avian flu, which might have garnered some free publicity…

It was a great trip around the British Isles. We stumbled upon lots cool sites, and Bill and Lisa showed us a great time in Edinburgh, Scotland. If you want to skip the boring travelogue, jump right over to the boring vacation photos

First up was the Rosslyn Chapel, just down the road the Paris abode in Straiton. It’s a cool medieval church with lots of interesting connections. First, it has a long association with the Knights Templar and Freemasonry, being one of the speculative resting places of the Holy Grail. And for good measure the village of Roslin is also on a ley line, considered a “thin place,” and near an active UFO hot spot. It’s sort of a conspiracy theorist’s Mecca.

Also in Edinburgh we found a really cool exhibit of the works of the photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson at the Dean Gallery of the National Galleries of Scotland. The rest of our time in Edinburgh consisted mostly of hanging with Bill and Lisa, and wondering around what is one of coolest cities on the planet. Lots of great architecture and people-watching. Also, we didn’t have to worry too much about homesickness, since Bill and Lisa live next to an American-stlye strip mall, complete with Ikea and Costco.

Next up was relaxing train journey down to London. We lucked out with a practically free upgrade to first class, which meant comfier seats and steward at our beck and call. We saw some lovely scenery in Scotland and England, and got in some good reading. Train travel is definitely the way to go, and is the biggest part of Europe I most wish was more common here.

London was… London, a giant city with way too many people and killer pollution. Within 24 hours we had black boogers. The tube is the best subway system on Earth, but the crush of people so far underground gets old really fast. Fortunately the city is overflowing with great museums like the British Museum and it’s exhaustive history of Western civilization. We also hit the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, and Sherlock Holmes museum. Our location in Earls Court Road was good for getting into Central London, Kensington, Chelsea, and the adult stores of Soho. It goes without saying that Indian food was consumed. The last night in London we were too pooped to do anything but head down to the local cinema for to see the Wallace and Gromit movie.

Finally we flew over to Dublin for a taste of Ireland. It’s another very cool city with a similar vibe to Edinburgh. Very historic but with a very young population. While there we found another cool photography exhibit, this time on Irish history from independence in the 1930s to today. Then we stumbled upon the Irish stint of Resfest, a traveling festival of film, music, etc. We caught the first night’s showcase of short films. Then it was on to Ireland’s National Gallery and the Natural History Museum, which was an amazing museum of museums. Forget the fancy animatronic displays and exacting replicas, this place was frozen time with rows and rows of glass cases with stuffed animals, bones, rocks, etc. Most of stuffed animals were over a hundred years old. It was exactly the kind of old school archealogical museum that Indiana Jones would have worked at.

Nothing like a week and a half in Europe to make you realize just how fat Americans have become in the last few years. The difference was amazing. While most Europeans aren’t supermodel thin, we only saw a handful of genuinely obese people in a trip that spanned three cities in two countries. I’ve seen more big people in one visit to QuikTrip. And this was in the UK and Ireland, the most Americanized parts of Europe.

Fortunately, returning home to the land of the supersized also gave me news of a thing called apps.tv that puts Hot or Not on my TiVo! This new discovery will likely delay the posting of vacation stories and photos…

Last weekend I rode the City-to-City bike ride, which was organized to promote the Riverfront Heritage Trail and the larger MetroGreen trail/greenway system. It was a pretty ride through KC and KCK, although it the long stretches of industrial wasteland in the East Bottoms did get a little old. A lot of the suburban riders were kinda scared. More time in the Old Northeast would have been a better showcase for the area. Then over on the KCK leg of the ride I was the one kinda scared. The drivers were much less tolerant of bikes than on the Missouri side, and the route followed some roads that were too busy and narrow. I’m usually pretty fearless biking in traffic, but the KCK traffic made me a little uneasy.

Aaron Barnhart has some great photos of the ride over at is TV Barn blog.

Unfortunately the ride used very little of the actual Riverfront Trail. They just used a little bit in KCK where it crossed the Kaw River on the old Woodsweather railroad bridge, which has been nicely restored into a bike/ped bridge. Hopefully MARC will start doing a lot more promotion of the MetroGreen, because the riverfront trail is basically stalled while they try to raise money. Several key pieces are still missing, such as the underpass under the ASB railroad bridge, a bike/ped bridge down to the West Bottoms, and a corridor under the Lewis and Clark Viaduct through the bottoms.

OK people it’s official. 2005 is the Year of The Country-Hip Hop Mashup. First there was the Tim McGraw and Nelly duet. Now there is Trace Adkins’ Honky Tonk Badonkadonk. Whoa. What’s next, a Lil’ Kim/Merle Haggard duet? Or perhaps 50 Cent and Dolly Parton?

Hear it for yourself…

Poor ole boy, it ain’t his fault
It’s so hard not to stare
At that honky tonk badonkadonk
Keepin’ perfect rhythm
Make ya wanna swing along
Got it goin’ on
Like Donkey Kong
And whoo-wee
Shut my mouth, slap your grandma
There outta be a law
Get the Sheriff on the phone
Lord have mercy, how’s she even get them britches on
That honky tonk badonkadonk

By the way, it’s times like these that I kinda heart CMT, because they can follow up a throw-away song like this with Ray Scott’s My Kind of Music, about a guy that dumps his date because she can’t name a single Johnny Cash song.

This blog (and the rest of the site) is about to become homeless. My hosting provider is going out of business, so I need to find us a new home. My current deal is 500 Mb for $5 a month, which might be hard to duplicate. I’d also like to find someone that offers WebDAV. Any suggestions?