Madrid Y El Sol

Hola a Todos(Hello to Everyone),

It was so awesome to be back in Spain this last weekend.  It has been 10 years since I lived in Sevilla and had visited Madrid and I was so excited for Ann to experience the culture and the traditions that I had come to love.  Luckily, my Spanish had not been completely lost in the void either.  Most significantly, we had the sun, which as you have read in previous posts, is not all that common in London.  I think that Ann and I could actually be mistaken for Albinos right now due to the paleness of our skin!!!

We had a great hotel called El Emperador, right on Gran Via in Central Madrid.  It was about a 5 minute walk from Puerta Del Sol, which is the main plaza in Madrid.  We did not arrive until about midnight on Friday, so we had all day Saturday and Saturday night to explore the city.  Madrid, despite its size, is a really manageable city because all of the sights and fun areas are centrally located and easy to walk between.  We could have easily spent our day in the infamous Prado(Classical Art Museum) and Reina Sofia(Modern Art) Museum, but with the warmth of the sun, we chose to just walk through the different plazas and enjoy tapas and drinks as we went.  That is truly the Spanish way.  There is a common tradition called Botellon, in which friends and families just gather in plazas and bring bottles of beer/liquor and socialize.  That is why these plazas are at the heart of the Spanish culture.  It may also be why the unemployment rate has been around 20% and will probably never get better!!!  Anyway, we had so much fun.  We discovered a really unique market called "El Mercado de San Miguel."  We took in the tourist scene and entertainment in Plaza Mayor over a cold "Estrella."  One of our favorite plazas was called La Plaza de Santa Anna(ironically), which is considered Madrid's old town.  We did a little bar crawl there and found a great place called "Viva Madrid"(great, despite its cheesy name) and we had a full tapas dinner in a place call "Lateral."  It had been recommended to us, and it was fantastic.  Even though it was very last minute that we decided to head to Madrid this weekend, we were so incredibly happy that we did.  That is one of the awesome and crazy things about living here.  You can decide last minute to spend a weekend in another country with ease and minimal expense.

Speaking of expense, I do have to share one funny story.  In our relationship, Ann is typically the most practical when it comes to purchases and would be the last person to lavish herself with gifts.  She will spoil herself with some things from time to time, as she should, but she is pretty conservative.  Anyway, as we were walking down Calle Preciados(huge shopping street in Madrid), she made a comment about how embarrassed she was of her watch.  She did not care about the face that much, but the white leather band has gotten so dirty that she said it looks terrible.  Anyway, to go along with this story, I have also given her trouble since she was promoted to SENIOR DIRECTOR.  She is probably going to kill me when she reads this!!!  If she gets a little uptight or impatient, I just kindly give a salute and say something about her SENIOR DIRECTOR title.  So, when she was commenting on her watch, I said that she needs a SENIOR DIRECTOR level watch.  This may unfortunately not be funny to you all, but it gave us a good laugh.  I am pretty sure though that a Mickey Mouse watch screams senior director.

Hasta Luego
Kevin              

          

Dobry Wieczor(Good Evening) from Warsaw

I just wanted to say hello quickly from snow covered Warsaw.  It was not a good sign when I was walking through the jetway and there were menacing looking icicles dangling from above.  It reminded me of the ridiculous ice damns that we left on our roof in Minneapolis!!!  Anyway, I am staying in a beautiful hotel(Mamaison Hotel Le Regina) in Old Town, Warsaw(Stare Miasto).  This city was unfortunately almost completely destroyed by the German aerial raids during WWII, but they have done a great job of refurbishing the old facades.  I was fortunate to have the afternoon and first part of the evening to explore.  Our meetings are not taking place until tomorrow.  I did pack a winter coat and a scarf and gloves, but after about 40 minutes of walking through the city, I could no longer feel anything from my neck up.  I think that I have become soft in my 7 weeks away from MN.  I was also using my iPhone as my camera, so between my numb fingers and shaking hands, my pics were not all that stellar.  I did post a pic from Old Town above though.  Sorry for the questionable quality.  Well, I am off for hopefully some delicious borscht and beer.

Na Zdrowie(Cheers)
Kevin

Relaxing Weekend in London

WOW, did we need this weekend.  Between work and travel, we have constantly been on the go since we have been here, and it was time to just take it easy.  We have a crazy week ahead, so even more reason to do nothing.  It was also great to somewhat detoxify our bodies this weekend.  We went for a late dinner on Friday night when Ann got home from Paris.  Yesterday, we did absolutely nothing in the morning, ran some errands in the afternoon, and then had a great dinner at home last night.  Not to bore you all with the details, but Ann and I love food and we had a simple but delicious spread last night:
 - Cold rare English Beef from our fav bakery around the corner with a garlic cream sauce accompaniment
- Garlic and Pepper encrusted Salami Milano
- Loaf of French Bread
- Assortment of cheeses(Bavarian Smoked, Red Leicester, Wensleydale & Cranberry, and an English White Cheddar)
- Crackers and Hummus
- Bottle of California Pinot Noir ( so much for detoxification!!)
Needless to say, it was brilliant.  We had music on, and we played Sequence(great board-game), boggle on the iPad, and watched some Modern Family on EZTVStream.com.  Just to add, Ann got her ass kicked in the aforementioned games!!!  It could not have been more perfect.

Today has been just as relaxing.  We both did a little work this morning.  We went for a nice run through Hyde Park.  Most excitingly, we booked a 5 day beach vacation over Easter in April.  Since we ended up coming to Europe for our honeymoon in May, we have sadly not sat on a beach in a long time.  We found a great all inclusive package to the Spanish Canary Islands, just off the coast of Africa.  That is not going to come soon enough.

Well, we have a fun week ahead.  Ann is headed to Rome tomorrow morning where it is nice and sunny.  I am headed to Warsaw where it is cold and snowing.  We have theatre tickets on Thursday night to see Blood Brothers, and then we are flying to Madrid on Friday.  Ann has to be there the following week for work, so we decided to spend the weekend there.

I guess that is all that I have.  We hope everyone is great in the US.  We miss all of you.  If you are on Skype, give us a shout.  Our Skype name is Kevin.Knapp8.

Have a great week and since the best team on earth has officially reported to Spring Training, Go Cards!!!

We miss you Jack-O    

Kevin and Ann
    

"It's Always Sunny in London??"

My apologies for the blog inactivity for the last week or so.  Sadly, the last week for us just entailed a lot of work and no travel at all.  It was a relatively uneventful week.  We did, however, receive our final shipment of goods that we sent by sea from Minneapolis, so it was so awesome to finally add some pictures and decor to our flat.  By Saturday, it was really feeling like a home.  We did laugh though because we had adapted to living very simplistically.  We were surviving with a few cups/glasses, bowls, plates, and just the absolute necessities with no excess at all.  When we started unpacking all of these boxes, we were looking at each other and saying what in the hell are we going to do with all of this stuff.  It was great though to have real wine glasses and my large snifters for cocktails!!!

We did have a spectacular day on Saturday.  We woke up to the sun shining brightly, and let me tell you, as the title of this posting questions, it is definitely not always sunny in London.  In fact, it is rarely sunny, so when the sun does shine, it is crucial that you take advantage of it.  Everything that we had heard about London weather is absolutely true.  It does rain quite a bit, but luckily, there are rarely downpours.  Also, it can change very quickly, further proof that we live on just a really big island in the Atlantic Ocean.  Considering, however, that in January and February we would normally be shovelling our way through snow drifts and trying to avoid frostbite, I will take 40 degrees and drizzle any day!!!  Anyway, we started our Saturday with a fantastic walk through Hyde Park and around this man-made river basin called the Serpentine.  It is really a great green area so close to our flat.  We ran some errands and then late afternoon, we set out on our own little pub crawl.  We came down to Covent Garden, a really fun outdoor market and area right where I work.  We had a few pints there and then moved our way to Soho.  Soho is a really eclectic area with fun shops and pubs, and is also the well known gay area of London.  We quickly discovered that specific area and I am pretty sure got quite lost on some of the winding streets.  We made our way out though and had a fun night.  We did end the night back at our local pub, the Elephant and Castle.  That place is brilliant.

This week has been great so far.  I went to my first yoga class last night.  Apple has arranged to bring a Yoga instructor in house one night a week for anyone that wants to participate.  As its reputation had preceded itself, Yoga was freaking hard.  I consider myself a somewhat flexible and in-shape person, but some of these stretches and poses were making me want to cry.  Also making me want to cry was the fact that I was the only guy in the 15 person class.  I could have used a little more testosterone in the room.  Oh well.  

Well, to wrap us this update, we have a busy schedule ahead and surely some good posting material.  Ann is headed to Paris tomorrow for work and returns on Friday evening.  We are here again this weekend, but then we are both travelling for work next week.  Ann is headed to Rome on Monday through Wednesday, and I am headed to Warsaw, Poland for Monday through Tuesday.  I hardly have any justification to say that I am jealous, but my parents are in Mexico this week and I had a text the other day saying that it was 90 and sunny.  There was a slight tinge of jealousy there.

Cheers

Kevin          

            

Packers, York, London Tube, Oh My

My posting has to start with a congrats to all Packers fans.  For Ann and all of my in-laws and friends in Wisconsin, what an ending.  Who would have thought at the start of the season that the Packers would be SuperBowl Champs?  My Rams will be back there next year.  Sadly, the game did not start here until about 2am this morning, so we had to record it.  Ann left for Frankfurt this morning, so we will be having SuperBowl Wednesday night upon her return!!!  I promise to sing the National Anthem without any mistakes as well.

So, we had another fun trip this weekend.  We ventured to Northeast England to a town called York.  If you are a Braveheart fan, you will know that York was the staging ground for the English Army for all of the invasions of Scotland!!!  Anyway, it was an easy 2 hour train ride from London.  York was founded by the Romans somewhere around 70 AD, and amazingly, a substantial amount of the original city walls still stand.  It is an awesome sight.  You can actually walk about 4.5 miles around the city on the walls.  York is also home to York Minster, one of the largest Gothic Cathedrals in Northern Europe.  It was incredible.  We hiked the 275 steps to the top and had brilliant views of the City and countryside.  Beyond that, York had been home to the Vikings and English Tutors, so the architecture greatly reflected each of the eras.  There was a tiny winding street called "The Shambles," which dated to something like the 13th century and it was a medieval street with overhanging timber framed buildings and it once housed like 200+ butcher shops.  It was awesome.  We had a very traditional English tea at a famed tea house called "Betty's."  Other than that, it was a nice relaxing weekend outside the hustle and bustle of London.  

This leaves us with the Underground.  One thing about our move that we did not think about was the great shock to our immune systems.  We have quickly discovered that some of the germs and stuff that we are exposed to in the US and have built up immunities over time does not protect us so easily here.  Case in point, the TUBE.  Now, as far as commute, mine is just a simple one line transfer into Central London where I work and it is quite easy.  Ann, on the other hand, works off of the Jubilee Line which has constant interruptions and delays due to the expansion for the Olympics.  Anyway, regardless of commute time, the Tube should be more appropriately called the Petri Dish of death!!!  When you are jammed into a train car and everyone around you is coughing up lungs, you can only pray that you will not die of Ebola later that day.  They can't manufacture enough hand sanitizer to meet my needs.  I could not imagine if I was actually a germophobe and had to endure the Tube on a daily basis.  One would need a hazmat suit)  Anyway, just another interesting aspect of life in London to share.                

Cheers

Kevin

  

Snowless in London

Kevin and I are entertained today as we receive emails, pictures and facebook posts about all the winter wonder happening in the great USA.  Whilst you are all enjoying your snow days and looking forward to your endless shoveling chores, Kevin and I are sitting in our cosy flat and glad that we don't have to spend a few hours shoveling ourselves out tonight.  This morning on my terrible commute into work, I was thinking that it may be possible that I might not see one snowflake for about 11 months.  Since we have been here, it has not snowed except for last week when I was in China.  Kevin had texted me to tell me what I was missing.  Surprisingly, some flowers are starting to bloom in London even though the temperature is somewhat cold. 

Our second shipment of goods was supposed to arrive tomorrow, but I mis-communicated with the company and we rescheduled for next Thursday.  We were so frustrated because we can't wait to get the rest of our stuff.  We didn't plan that well during the packing stage in MN, so we have limited kitchen items.  As a results, Kevin is in heaven because we found the UK equivalent to Lean Cuisines!!!!!  He is also excited because he has fallen back into his normal routine (we all know that Kevin loves his routines) which includes vacuuming, cleaning and doing laundry.  I know ladies, I am one lucky wife.

What's up next - Kevin and I are headed to York, England to explore another city this weekend.  Then on Monday I leave for Frankfurt, Germany.  I told my staff that I am looking forward to some spectacular German food.  Or as Kevin would say, "I am looking forward to a big sausage."

Drive safe and don't throw out your backs shoveling!!!!

Ann and Kevin