Milano to Como

I left Milan on Saturday morning for Como. Its about a half hour by train. I love hanging out at Milano Centrale and watching people. There is always a haze inside and when I squint my eyes the past begins to materialize out of the haze and I'm transported to Europe before the war. Its a busy station, with so much going on. Its easy to imagine that time exists there in layers and we are layering ourselves on top of it, coming and going. We are in motion but the layers of time are standing still all in one place. I think only the pigeons know the truth.

Milano

After a truly grueling pair of flights, I've made it to Milan. I was so happy to check into my hotel which is right around the corner from Milano Centrale, the main train station. The station itself is an impressive structure built in the 1930's it was thought to be the ideal of fascist architecture.
I took a bus from the Malpensa airport to MC then a short walk to the hotel and arrived just before 11 am. I was relieved to find that the hotel is very clean and friendly. I had planned to walk to the Campari factory to see an art exhibit for the 150th anniversary but was so tired I decided instead to shower and nap. "Nap" became a misnomer and I woke 5 hours later. I went for a walk into some of the surrounding neighborhoods.
Today would have been my father's 74th birthday. Happy Birthday Dad.

von trapp rodeo productions!

today liz spear and i are announcing the name of our production company. that's right, its called von trapp rodeo productions! the name marries our alpin/germanic adventure, our love of film with our mutual history with horses and obsession with the american west. there's also a bit of the philosophical idea of strong emergence thrown in for good measure. we are off to a good start thanks to the help of friends and the kindness of strangers.

two weeks in two days

on wednesday i will have been back for two days. so far, i am surviving. lots of plans and lots of activities. my big summer thing is being car-less. every year i try to survive via bike and foot but this year i am truly committed! my friend ron sold my car and truck while i was away so i have been officially without a car since may 25th! i am planning to get the vanagon up and going very soon but still want to use my bike as my prima via until the cold of fall descends.
experiencing one's home by foot or bicycle is a magical thing. i highly reccomend it for everyone. not only do you save $$ on fuel and reduce your carbon footprint but you also see your home town on a much more intimate level. i see streets i never experience in a car. my relationships with the plants in your yard is different. i see them bud, i see them bloom.
i also feel the excitement of being a child again, on my bike alone for the first time, riding far and realizing i can...

last day in paris

i've been struggling through with my poor french. 6 years and this is all i have to show? pitiful. today has been mostly hanging out in my new hotel room which is slightly nicer than the last even though small. paris is opressively hot and humid so i have to keep the lights out. i did go for a very long walk tonight through the 12th &11th arrondisments and then along the seine, past notre dame and l'hotel de ville then back to the hotel. it was beautiful but i'm very tired. paris is a bit claustrophobic for me as i tend to need more quiet space and during the summer it is very very very busy. it was nice to walk through the neighborhoods where there aren't tourists. i met a man from africa and we talked for a while. him in broken english, me in broken french but we seemed to do ok. i need to be up early tomorrow. it will take me about 45 minutes to get from the hotel to the airport via subway and train and i need to go to a bakery to get jen her macaroons...

photo? non!

i left rotterdam and till and sadie behind yesterday and headed to paris. on saturday we went to voerde to visit tilll's family, it was his sister gundula and her husband dirk's 10th anniversary so there was a party. i got to visit with the whole clan minus elizabeth and juergen. it was great and like i had never left except now there are children! they have two daughters paula and greta both very cute. i also got to see susie who is an old friend of gundula's and that i used to spend time with when i lived in germany. it was so fun. eventually, i will post photos but i lost my camera bag with my card reader last night. till and i had a great visit and i was a little sad to leave but paris beckoned! i arrived in the afternoon and took an evening stroll to la place de concord and the jardins tuilleries. i was sitting admiring the view when a nice man sat down next to me and we started talking. his name is nicolas and he lives in paris in a beautiful apartment near the eiffel tower. he ended up taking me on an amazing tour of paris. we went up to the sacre coeur and looked at the city with hundreds of other people out enjoying the hot weather and the beautiful night. the sacre coeur is on a hill and is like its own seperate village. it is home to many artists. he was very courteous and brought me back to my hotel safely. it was a nice surprise. today i went to the flea market and the centre pompidou to see the alexander calder exhibit. chaundra's son is named after him so like a good auntie, i had to pay tribute. it was fabulous. there was also a kandinsky exhibit which was great too but as museums often do to me, i started to get vertigo so had to leave. now i'm back at my hotel and am planning on calling it an early evening. air france messed up my return flight so i'm stuck here for another day and am in a bit of a bind finding a place to stay for the last night as everything in the city seems to be full.

where were you when you heard michael jackson was dead?

sunset over amsterdam sub-burbs

my foot on the train

near dam square

ramsey and i with benny hill

after making a post on facebook asking if anyone was in amsterdam, i got a reply from carlos, one of my school friends from saudi arabia that another classmate ramsey was in amsterdam shooting commercials for saudi dairy products. we started messenging and decided to meet in a'dam that night for drinks. it was kind of like a blind date since we hadn't seen each other in 25 years! we met at madame tussaud's wax museum next to the dam and had a few drinks at his hotel and sharing saudi stories before heading over to a coffee shop. (when in rome.) michael franti was playing when we walked in so i took it as a good sign and since i've had bronchitis for the past week i decided to go for it. after hanging out for a while and laughing hysterically the girl behind the counter turned the music off to announce that michael jackson had died. we hung out for a bit longer but since it was a little bit of a walk back to centraal station and my train took an hour it was time for me to head back. ramsey walked me back to the station and we just listened to all the people walking in the streets talking about michael jackson, singing his songs and many seemed to be celebrating his death. we agreed we'd see each other in europe, lebanon (where his family now lives), or at an aramco brat reunion and parted ways, me to rotterdam him to jeddah where he lives now with his wife and kids. after a long train ride i got back to the flat at about 3 where sadie was waiting up for me and till had left the light on.