We had decided against going away for the whole of the long May weekend due to a multitude of tasks to sort in the flat and a general fatigue from the last few weekends away. I couldn’t face another weekend with 4-6 hour motorway journeys at either end. Instead we did decide to get out of Madrid for one day and go over to Toledo which, despite it’s close proximity to Madrid, is somewhere I’ve never been to. It truly is a stunning city, raised on a mound surrounded on three sides by the river Tajo. Steeped in history and…
In the Mongol Rally we covered 5 mountain ranges and 2 deserts. The fact that on our little tour of the south east of Spain over the Easter weekend we covered three mountain ranges and one desert is testament to the geographical diversity of the country. We started our 1600km round trip by heading down to Mazarron to see Chris and his new flat just before he heads back to Scotland. It was here were I was treated by Espe & Chris to birthday pizza. There was no cake (apparently as I’d been stressing Espe to be ready to leave…
I’m back from a weekend of Snowboarding in the Pyrenees. And what a weekend, heavily subsidised by Sun Microsystems, without a doubt the best days I’ve ever spent on the slopes. The combination of fantastic weather, the great Cerler resort and my gradual improvement on the snowboard made for a couple of quality days. As this was a work organised event there were a lot of familiar faces about, but this still made it difficult following conversations in Spanish. One to one no problem, but when three people are shouting at once I just can’t keep up. So as is…
Espe and I had the pleasure of visiting Mats and Tasja in Berlin. They have a wonderful flat just North of the old GDR center. We were put up and fed for the full four days, so a huge thanks for that. Friday night, due to our late arrival we sat down for Dinner prepared by Tasja. After a great feed, loads of catching up and a few too many glasses of wine we retired to bed. Come Saturday, the weather was not too accommodating with minus temperatures, driving wind and constant snow. We headed down to Potsdamer Platz to…
On this, my third ‘business’ trip to Poland I decided to make the journey from Krakow to the peaceful mountain resort of Zakopane. Just finding my own way to the bus station and getting to Zakopane off my own back was so exhilarating. Wandering around the village looking for my hotel brought back great memories of traveling and a huge smile to my face. I spent Sunday on the slopes, gradually improving my limited abilities on a snow board. The was my first experience of really soft deep snow, much better for falling over, but a different technique required. I…
Off to Cambridge for the eagerly awaited First Meeting of the People of the Rickshaw Run. We arrived in England to be greeted by a 35 minute queue to get through customs. Things got worse when our luggage turned up damaged… We then had to wait 25 minutes for someone to turn up at the baggage claims desk. We got to the hire car center an hour late to find the staff running around in a panic as they had run out of cars… This wasn’t as bad as it sounded as I was given an upgrade from a Mongol…
With my 2nd two weeks in Krakow drawing to a close, we managed to round a whole collection of engineers and hit the town for some beers. We started off in CK Brewer again, great food and large beer taps on the table. After that we moved onto Rdza. One of the many underground (literaly) clubs in Krakow. My third visit here, probably because Magda loves the place. Magda is the quietest person in the office, but after a couple of beers and some music, the difference is incredible. She will strut her stuff wth anyone (particularly the French), but…
Yesterday evening 12 of us went of to a go karting track in Krakow. One of the Cap engineers organised this and with 14 of us in attendance it was a good crack. (Nik: 25:05 is the time to beat!) Some more photos can be seen hereWe followed this up with a few beers and dinner. This, much like every night here, turned into a lot of beers and a club. Got to bed at 3:30, but thankfully I was on lates today. Seriously flagging right now though. Need to perk up as tonight is my last night here, and…