Pre-Christmas, Aggie's Family Adventure

The weeks leading up to Christmas were a little bit hectic and we missed some highlights in our blog. So let’s step back in time a little bit, shall we?

The week before we came home for Christmas (Sun, Dec 17th-Fri, 22nd), Ag’s dad and sister, Theresa, decided to take a little trip to the Grand Duchy for a visit (fyi, the official name of Luxembourg is “The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg”). The night before they came, we had gone out to Trier, Germany to hang out with Laura and Robbie, along with Laura’s dad (Jerry) and his friend (Mike) who were in from Ireland. There was a Heineken Cup (rugby) game on between Munster (Irish team) and Bourgogne (French team). Munster is the team that Rob and all his family and friends follow. Anyways, we went to a bar in Trier to watch and were all so into the game! It was a great time and we definitely shared some laughs , beers and good food that night. We even did a “Sing-Song” (which Ag erroneously but cutely calls a “Sing-Sing”) at the restaurant after the game and sang old Irish songs!

On Sunday, Ag and I woke up and were planning on picking her family up at 11am at the airport. Ag wasn’t feeling too well and I will spare you the details, but let’s put it this way, she couldn’t go to the airport to get her family. We thought she had food poisoning from the dinner the night before…..I went on to the airport by myself and found her dad and sister at the airport with no problems . We got back to the apartment and I went on to work.

Somehow, Ag got up enough energy (and bravery) to take them into the town to see the Christmas Markets. When they got home, Aggie was feeling worse and her dad, being a pharmacist, really wanted to get her some medicine. Of course, EVERYTHING was closed since it was Sunday (there are definitely no Walgreens’ here!). Long story short, we had to go to the neighbor’s to find out which hospital and which pharmacy was the “24 hour” hospital and pharmacy that weekend (apparently all the hospitals and pharmacies in Luxembourg rotate this duty every weekend). Then we had to go to that pharmacy and buzz in and get what we needed. Plus, we got to pay a little more because we were there on a Sunday. It’s nuts how things operate around here!

The next day, I went on to work first thing in the morning (as it was Monday). Ag was feeling much better and she and her family went back to their originally scheduled itinerary. On to Paris!! They caught a mid-day train and got to Paris around 4pm. The hotel was close to the Louvre and in an awesome location, within close proximity to all the other major sites.
That night they walked to the Louvre, went down along the Seine River, weaved in and out of the tiny streets and found an awesome little restaurant waiting to welcome them in. After a yummy meal of cheeses, wine, duck, potatoes, etc, they went on to the Eiffel Tower. Now if anyone ever goes to the Eiffel Tower and you are debating on if you should just go to level 2 or if you should spend the extra 4 euros to go to the top (level 3), go to the top! It’s worth it.

They then walked to the Ave des Champs Elysees, saw the Arc De Triumphe and window shopped…basically they covered the Michigan Ave of Paris. What was really weird though is it was 11:30pm at night and all the places were still open (Sephora, McD’s, and lots of other places). A lot different than Luxembourg!! They ended their walk at the Place de la Concorde and headed back to their hotel.

The next day, I got a text from Ag saying Theresa was sick! Basically she caught whatever Ag must have had (it wasn’t food poisoning?) and she was out of commission. The good news is that their dad was a genius and had brought along all the medicine they just got at the pharmacy. So, while Theresa rested, Ag and her dad went to see the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was a beautiful, yet brisk morning and Aggie said walking along the Seine River was awesome.

Because Theresa was sick, they decided to try and get back to Lux so that she could be “home”. Theresa managed to get on the subway and onto the train to Lux, only letting her dinner go once! When they got to Lux, Ag and her dad dropped her off at the apartment and while she slept, they went back to the train station and went out to Trier, Germany! (Don’t worry folks, Theresa insisted that they go!)

Aggie and her dad walked around at the Christmas markets in Trier and then met up with Laura, Robbie, Eoin and some of our good friends at the Bitburger House. I came in the Bitburger to basically say hi to everyone and pick Ag and her dad up. That night, Aggie’s dad got sick!

The next day, instead of waking up early and heading out to their next destination, everyone slept in and rested. Around 2-3pm everyone was feeling okay (Ag, 98%, Theresa and Mr. Bill around 85%). They caught a train to the Alsace region of France. Alsace is along the Rhine River between Germany and France. The area is basically a beautiful area of rolling hills, vineyards, castles and quaint villages. They took the train to one of the villages, Colmar.

When they arrived in Colmar they headed to the hotel that Ag had called that morning and made reservations with. However, when they got to the hotel, it was locked!? The good thing is they did not ask for a credit card number to reserve the “room”. So, it was around 7pm and they didn’t have a hotel…..they went across the street and found another motel with availability and just opted to stay there.

They then went to check out the town and grab some dinner. The village had 6 or 7 little Christmas markets throughout the area and the town was decorated for the season! They found Café Leffe (which, to add, Leffe is an exquisite Belgian beer here!) and ate, drank and were merry.

After walking around a bit more after dinner, they headed back to the hotel to get a good night’s rest so they could hit the town the next day!

Breakfast was served at the hotel and it was a decent spread of breads, cheese, yogurts, etc. Afterwards, they walked around the markets and visited a few shops. The town had cobblestone streets and the stores and homes looked like something you would see in a snow-globe! It was really clean and pleasant and Ag said it was almost a surreal feeling, looking around at where she was.

By 11am they had everything covered! (The village was really, really small.) They decided to get on a train and head back toward Lux and stopped in Strasbourg, France for a bit. From there, they got back on the train and then went on to Trier, Germany. Ag had wanted Theresa to meet Laura and Robbie and to see that town too.

They all grabbed dinner there that evening and then caught the train back to Lux. What a day! What a week! Unfortunately, Aggie’s family left then on the Friday morning. That day, Ag organized, cleaned and got things ready for our trip to the States. We then left early Saturday morning for our flight to the USA!!

So, that was about a month or so ago. Over the next few blogs, we’ll keep “catching up” on what has been going on between then and now. In the pipeline, we have some interesting stuff, including trips to Chicago, Seattle, and Egmund Aan Zee (NE of Amsterdam). So keep checking back. We also think we figured out a way to bypass our USB problem (see the last blog) and still get our pics up on the web (which is always fun!).

Other stuff going on at the moment….I am working a ton as always. If you didn’t know, we were given the opportunity to stay for an extended period of time (another 18 months, probably). We are so torn about that because we absolutely love living here in Europe. Just love it. But I can’t keep working these hours anymore. It’s disappointing because if things weren’t so crazy with work, everything would fall into place perfectly. But I only get to see Agnes for a few hours a day and the rest of the day I’m stressed out and it’s just not fun. Unfortunately, E&Y Luxembourg has worn me out and we are definitely planning on being back in Chicago in June of 2007 (we think…another possibility has come to light over the past two days which we don’t want to comment on b/c it’s too early to say anything). Anyways, being back in Chicago is fine too, because we have lots of fun adventures and plans at home too (for example, a wedding!).

This past weekend we went to see this UK band, Razorlight, play downtown. The venue was excellent because it’s small enough that you feel you are really part of the show and only 500 people are allowed in. Tons of our friends were there too which made for a very fun evening! We then went out in the Grund for a while and finally called it a night around 3am!

Laura and Robbie had us over to their place in Trier, Germany for an engagement celebration on Saturday night. We did Raclette, which is similar to if we had fondue set up. So we ate lots and drank some Champagne and some Cremont (basically Champagne, but it can’t be called Champagne b/c it’s from Luxembourg and not Champagne) and called it a night!

Sunday I worked and Aggie did some things around the apartment. We then watched the Bears win that night! Woo-hoo! I can only imagine how crazy Chicago is right now!?

Well, stay tuned to read about our trip to the States! That will be the next one…

Back on line, folks!

Why? Why does my luck here stink? Agnes and Emily (our old roommate) used to tell me that I was the luckiest guy and that things just seemed to fall into my lap. Good, positive things. Well, let me tell you,Luxembourg has given me a wake up call! I have come to the conclusion that I am lucky in love (Agnes wrote that, by the way!) and that is about it! As you read this blog, keep in mind the previous blog series entitled “My Life is a Circus.”

As all of you know, we were home for the holidays for a couple of weeks. Well, last Saturday we left CVG at 7:30pm and arrived in Paris at 9:10am on Sunday morning. When checking in at Cincy, it should be noted that three of our four bags were overweight…well overweight! Good thing we had some extra US cash to pay the lady at the desk!

So anyways, our flight got in to Charles de Gaulle around 9:10am and our flight from Paris to Lux wasn't set to leave until 8:40pm that night. Our original plan was to spend the day running around in Paris (there are worse places to have a long layover, right???). We were so tired though and opted to rent a car back to Lux. Of course, we realized that once we got into the car (which, by the way was a definite upgrade from the Shiat (see Tuscany blog)), we did not have directions!

We ended up driving for a bit and finally found a gas station. To our surprise we were headed in the right direction which was great (especially given that I am sort of psychotic about getting lost!).

The drive was about 3.5 to 4 hours through the beautiful French countryside, including the Champagne region (note that if your bubbly is not from this region, it is most decidedly not real Champagne, as the French like to remind you). We ended up back in Lux around 2:30pm and went straight to our apartment to drop off our bags. This was perfect! All day to get unpacked, have a couple beers, relax, etc. This is when the fun began and lady luck decided to bail on me.....

We went to the train station to return the car and found out the Avis shop was closed. Honestly, everything closes on Sunday but we thought this would probably be open since people use the trains on the weekends. Not so much! As we were leaving, I called Avis’ airport location to see if they were open. No one answered but we assumed they HAD to be open since it was an airport. I set my phone on the dash and off we went.

We got to the airport and returned the car with no problems. Hooray! We then caught a bus back to our place. As we were on the bus, I realized that my phone was in the rental car, on the dash. Sweet! No worries, though…when we got home I’d just drive my car up to the airport and recover the phone. Slight delay in plans, but nothing to get worked up about.

We get home and I go to the garage to get my car and drive back to the airport. We jump in our car and it is totally dead. WHAT??? Long story short, the car is a diesel and it’s really not smart to leave it sit for 16 days in the cold without being driven. Yikes! So, we have to look through emails, find our friends’ numbers and try calling them with Ag's phone to see if someone could first take us to the airport and then stop at a gas station to get cable cords and jump us.

Thank God my buddy Robert McEwan was home. McEwan comes over and takes us to the airport to get my phone. They had it! Then we stopped at the gas station and got cables. Also, please note, on Sundays the gas station always has a van parked outside selling rotisserie style chickens. Hundreds of them! Ag asked Robert if she could buy him one for helping us! Ha, ha! Robert kindly declined.

We get back to our car, roll it out of the garage, jump it, viola (or, “waah-laa!" to the lay person). We wanted to keep it running for a bit (to charge up the battery) so we drove out to Sally and Jake's to see them and Seb for a bit. We drove back home from there (about an hour round trip) and the car ran fine and smooth the whole time. I thought we were in business and the battery was all charged back up again. When we got back, it was close to 8pm. Still enough time to get unpacked and in bed at a decent hour.

When home I bought a new iPod shuffle to run with (the new ones are a really cool little “clip” design). I wanted to get my new iPod uploaded so I plugged it into my USB outlet on the computer. All of the sudden, the whole computer made a “ZIP!” noise and just went black. WHAT THE…!? It was dead! Wouldn’t start, nothing. I let it sit for awhile, thinking about all the stuff I’d lose (Skype, pictures, music, etc.) and then took the battery out and blew on it a little bit. Put the battery in and to my amazement it booted up. Whew! It took a bit of time to get up and running correctly again, but basically, I soon came to realize that the iPod blew out all my USB ports....no more wireless mouse, no more uploading pics, no more printer....crazy! (Note to Kris and Matt…any suggestions on how to remedy this??)

As I am brewing over this, I decided to get some fresh air and go and start the car again, just to be sure it's okay. Of course, it's dead again. AHAHAHA! By this point, it's going on 11pm and I am just frustrated. Finally we got to bed around midnight and then all I could do was just lay there and be pissed at all the crap that happened. Then I started to think about all the work that lay ahead of me during the upcoming weeks. My mood worsened!

So, this past week, we got a new battery in the car and the USB outlets on the computer still don't work (we think we are going to have to get a new computer… I THINK I still have the 2 year contract on the current one, but it is, conveniently enough, at home. Or we’ll have to figure a way to get Ag’s up and running and transfer all our pictures to it). We have been running around like crazy catching up on work, babysitting, cleaning, etc.

Last night we went to Amsterdam for a 1/2 marathon (the race was actually in Egmund Aan Zee, about 30 minutes NW of Amsterdam) on Sunday. Ag decided to sit this one out. I ran with Jacob Cooper, and it was an extremely awesome run! It started in Egmund, a small, beautiful, typically Dutch village. The course then wound down to the shore of the North Sea and continued on the sand (deep and dry) for about 5 miles (tough!!), then proceeded to roll through the nearby sand dunes (lots of hills) and finally ended up back in Egmund. For all the obstacles, the scenery and fans (the whole town came out to cheer) made it SO worthwhile and Jacob and I ran a 1:39:04, which we were happy with. (As a funny side note: When we finally arrived in Egmund from Jacob’s house in Amsterdam, I realized that I had left my race number and timing chip back at the apartment. STUPID!! That’s like going to the airport and forgetting your luggage…you kind of need that stuff! But we pleaded our case with the race police and they let me run anyways.)

So, we are back in Lux and just watched the Bears beat the Seahawks in the playoffs. We will be posting many blogs over the next few weeks, including: Ag's adventures when her dad and sister (Theresa) came to Lux, our Christmas visit at home (including our trips to Chicago and Seattle), and more.

Also, as most of you know, Aggie and I got engaged over the break and we are very excited we got to share this joy with so many of you when we were home. Plans are still in the works but for now we know it will be this fall and in Ohio.

Au reviour!

PS. Please also keep Agnes' family in your thoughts and prayers. Her grandmother passed away this past week. She was a very strong woman and held on longer than anyone expected. We were so lucky that we got to visit with her prior to coming back to Luxembourg. She will be missed dearly.