Back in the USA

Roxi, her cat Jupiter and I spent the past two days traveling back to the United States and as of last night we are back! We ended a hectic two weeks of hosting visitors and traveling back and forth across the Netherlands with one final train trip from Enschede to Dusseldorf on Sunday and two flights on Monday. Our trip to Dusseldorf was no problem and Jupiter was extremely well behaved although not exactly excited to spend four hours in her cat carrier. Little did she know that it was only the beginning! Roxi and I enjoyed a leisurely dinner at our hotel in Dusseldorf on Sunday night while Jupiter recovered from her trip by hiding under the bed. After that we were all pretty tired so we went to bed to prepare ourselves for the coming long day.

On Sunday we arrived very early at the airport knowing that it would take a little extra time to buy Jupiter's plane ticket. Thankfully we had allowed for a lot of extra time because we learned upon check-in that not one, but two of our four bags to be checked were over the weight limit. (I'm not sure how we ended up with so much stuff in only seven months in Europe!) Rather than pay an exorbitant 400 euros in over-sized luggage fees, Roxi and the check-in agent convinced me to let Roxi go to a luggage store in the airport and buy an extra bag to spread out our luggage weight. She found a large, cheap and sturdy duffel bag that we were able to use to get all of our checked luggage under the individual weight limits and save hundreds of euros. We still had to pay for the extra checked bag, but it could have been so much more expensive.

After that, we really didn't have too much time to go through passport control and security, which always takes a little longer with a cat. Before we knew it, we were boarding our flight bound for Chicago. For most of our time in the airport, Roxi had kept one of the pet carrier's windows open so that Jupiter could stick her head out to look around and survey the overwhelming situation. There were no problems until Jupiter got on the plane when she decided to make a break for it! Catching her was not as easy as her last escape on our trip over to Europe, but after chasing her up and down aisles and under rows of seats, we cornered her at one of the bulkheads and got her back into her carrier. My brother Garrett will have to make us a new movie poster as a sequel to the "Cats on a Plane" parody he made in January.



Jupiter was very well behaved for the remainder of our trip, but Roxi and I both felt so terrible for her since she was obviously not happy. But Jupiter is a trooper and she sat quietly during the nine hours of our flight to Chicago. Upon arrival in Chicago, we had to go through the usual immigration and customs. At the immigration desk, the border agent was even nice enough to stamp Jupiter's pet passport! Next we picked up our bags to take through customs but found out that we had to make a visit to the CDC desk so that they could clear Jupiter through customs. This was the part that I had been dreading. I had of course done my homework and had taken care of getting all of her immigration paperwork filled out by the vet in Hengelo, but I was worried that there might be something that I had missed that would result in Jupiter being quarantined or worse. Of course, things were much easier than that. I was prepared to give the documentation to the CDC officer but she told me she didn't needed it and simply entered a brief note in a logbook and stamped our customs form. I only hope that they would have used more scrutiny if we were not American citizens, otherwise what's the point of even having importation restrictions?

We rechecked our bags after customs and set out to find our gate for the final flight to Houston. We had just enough time during our layover to clear immigration and customs and make it to our next gate with about twenty minutes to spare. It really couldn't have worked out better after our long flight to Chicago. We boarded the flight and Jupiter continued to behave well but she was starting to get restless. I couldn't blame her after the more than fifteen hours she had already spent in the cat carrier. I can only imagine that she was probably thinking that she would spend the rest of her life in that carrier!

We arrived right on time in Houston where my parents were waiting for us. Of course not everything can go just right; two of our five bags didn't make it back from Chicago, but we were promised that we should have them some time this morning. No problem though. We were just glad to be done with the day of traveling and ready to let Jupiter out of the carrier back at my parents' apartment. We thought she might spend several hours hiding under the bed, but she happily got out and explored the apartment. Unfortunately for her, she has another four hour stay in the carrier scheduled for today when we drive back to Lafayette, but after everything she's already been through, it should be nothing for her!

After relaxing for a little while and getting cleaned up, my parents took Roxi and I out for some margaritas and Tex-Mex food. Although they do have it in the Netherlands, it doesn't really compare to the way they do it here. The first thing that Roxi and I noticed was that we were all given large unsolicited glasses of ice water...two things that you don't get in Europe. In fact, getting tap water almost always takes persistence and "ice water" usually only consists of two or three cubes. Next came the complimentary bountiful baskets of chips and cups of salsa, something else that would come in a smaller quantity and larger cost overseas. Dinner was great and helped me take care of the Tex-Mex craving I've been having. I've realized that the biggest pitfall I will have to try to avoid here in the States is to not let myself overindulge in my various American cravings!

I enjoyed our time in the Netherlands and Europe and it taught me quite about myself. I will miss our home for the past seven months, but right now, I am glad to be back in the USA. In the coming days, I will reflect on our time there but I will always have very fond memories of Enschede and the Netherlands.

Biking to Germany

Since we arrived in Enschede, it has been my plan to take a bike ride to Germany just because it is so close. Since the weather has gotten warmer and the rains have stopped, I've been threatening to go on several occasions now. Today was finally the day and it was a great afternoon of bike riding and exploring.

I started my trip at 1:30 in the afternoon by heading to the city center of Enschede. From there, it was uncharted territory. Thankfully, it's easy to get to Germany from the city center as you just follow Gronausestraat all the way.


Heading east towards Germany.


I appreciate the street name that tells you where you are headed.

The bike ride was very pleasant on the clear afternoon and although it was very sunny, it was not overly hot. After making my way through the small town of Glanerbrug, I crossed the German border and entered the outskirts of Gronau.


Leaving Enschede...


...and entering Glanerbrug, the last Dutch town before crossing the German border.


Leaving Glanerbrug crossing the Glanerbeek stream into Germany.


German speed limits in the cities, outside of the cities and on the motorways (in kph course).


Road sign for the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany.


Entering Gronau in the Borken district of Westmunsterland.


"Welcome to the Borken district."

After a short ride through the outskirts of the town, I arrived in the city center about forty-five minutes after leaving our apartment in Enschede covering a little over 10 miles in that time. I spent the next forty-five minutes exploring the city center and surrounding area before heading back home to Enschede.


Once in Germany, Gronausestraat became Enscheder Strasse.


Tower in the city center.


A picture really is worth a thousand words because without this graphic illustration, I might have been inclined to run over several people in Gronau.


St. Anthony Church


St. Anthony: patron saint of pigs.


Gronau Church


Dinkel River


Old building...


...new climbing wall.


Dragon-Cow or Cow-Dragon?


0.6 km to the Netherlands

Cologne and Aachen

Today I'm posting videos of me and Roxi's trip with my parents through Cologne and Aachen, Germany. After visiting us in the Netherlands, my parents struck out on their own to see Belgium and France. Roxi and I rendezvoused with them in Cologne were we spent the night. On May 3, we made a full day out of traveling back to Enschede with a stop in Geilenkirchen, my maternal grandmother's homeland. At the beginning of the day, we decided to make an extra stop in Aachen to visit the capital city of Charlemagne's empire.

Germany with Jack & Mary

Roxi and I had a fun but busy weekend of travel with my parents through a few German cities. We started our trip on Saturday afternoon with a four-hour train ride from Enschede to Cologne, Germany. It was a long but rather uneventful train ride except for a little trouble we had with the Deutsche Bahn ticket machine in Enschede. Immediately upon leaving the train station in Cologne, we were dazzled by the size of the cathedral in the adjacent square. It was impossible to capture in a single photo due to the sheer size and fact that it is so closely nestled amongst the other buildings in that part of the city. I've seen several of Europe's great cathedrals but I will never get tired of them as they are all unique and such an impressive testament to faith.





In typical fashion, Roxi and I studied a map in an attempt to find our nearby hotel and between the two of us, we were successful. We checked-in in advance of my parents and made ourselves comfortable at the bar where we asked the bartender for beer recommendations. We started with Dom Kolsch, a light and refreshing beer brewed on Cologne.



Next we moved on to the more internationally known Warsteiner.



As we began our third round, my dad showed up in the bar. My parents had just arrived in Cologne after spending the day taking a boat up the Rhine River from Mainz, Germany. My mom was resting in the room so my dad decided to join us in our beer tasting.

For our third beer, we tried Kostritzer, a very dark rich beer full of flavor.



From there, we moved on to another internationally known beer, Diebels. It was a lighter beer by comparison, but still a nice amber color and again very refreshing.



We finished our tour of beers by having a Erdinger wheat beer.



At that point, my mom joined us in the bar and we began to think about where we might have dinner. Being in Germany, we all wanted a nice dinner of traditional cuisine. The bartender recommended that we try Fruh near the cathedral. So we finished our beers and took the short walk back to the cathedral square.

The cathedral at night was just as beautiful as it was during the day. I tried for some night shots but they are always more tricky with a simple point and shoot camera.





We almost found the restaurant ourselves but needed a little direction from a local to get us there. We were seated immediately and given a round of Fruh beers. They were equally delicious to the other local beer we had tried earlier in the evening. We all put in our orders for food covering the spectrum of what is thought of as traditional German cuisine and when it arrived, none of us were disappointed.







Over dinner, Roxi and I listened as my parents told us some stories of their travels to Bruges, Paris, Mainz and the Rhine River cruise. It sounded like they had a fantastic time and I am glad that they were able to experience such a large portion of their trip without us giving our two cents on what they should and shouldn't do. After dinner, we were all pretty tired and so went back to the hotel to call it a night.

Yesterday morning, we had a fantastic breakfast buffet in the hotel (still nothing can compare with the breakfast in Sweden but definitely the second best we've had in Europe!). From there we took the short walk back to the train station to get our ticket for the day and get some more pictures of the cathedral.









In the past week of the trip, my dad had been doing some reading about Charlemagne and wanted to see Aachen if possible. Our plan for the day was to go to Geilenkirchen before returning to Enschede, but there just happened to be a train schedule that took us through Aachen. So we boarded the train and arrived in Aachen about twenty-five minutes later. There was a rather large police presence in the train station due to, from what we could tell, a soccer game that was happening later in the day. We looked at a map and decided the best place to see on this short visit was the city center. We took a taxi who dropped us off in front of the city hall on the site of Charlemagne's palace. We took the brief walking tour through the building admiring the view of Aachen Cathedral from one of the windows.



We didn't want to delay our trip to Geilenkirchen for too long, so we headed back to the station to catch our train. About forty minutes later we were in Geilenkirchen. The reason for our stop in this small, out of the way town is because my maternal grandparents and great uncles emigrated from the area in the late 1800s in order to avoid military conscription and religious persecution. They settled in south Louisiana around Roberts Cove about twenty miles from my hometown of Lafayette. My grandmother was born and raised in Louisiana in a fusion of German and Cajun culture that still exists today in the small town.

Most business were closed as it was Sunday, so we decided to again head to the city center to see what we could see. After taking some pictures of Saint Mary's Church, it began to rain so we sought shelter in the Jabusch Hotel & Restaurant. We sat down to another delicious German meal with some Jever, a very bitter beer. My mom told our waitress a little bit about her history and the waitress said that her father, the owner, came from an old family in Geilenkirchen and could probably tell her more when he had some free time. A little while later, Willi Jabusch came to our table and told us about the Geilenkirchen area. My mom and dad brought a book about Roberts Cove history complete with all of the family names that settled in the area. Willi reviewed the names and not only could he tell us exactly where my grandmother's family probably came from, he also pointed out that his family name was also on the list! We had a great conversation with him about his travels to the United States and my parents' travels in Europe.









All good things must come to an end and we had to head back to the station to catch our train in order to return to Enschede at a decent hour. We had a short ride to our first transfer station but when we were supposed to catch our next train, none showed up. Eventually we found out that our train had been canceled but the next train going the same way would be leaving in about thirty minutes. So what was supposed to be a short layover turned into a layover of a little more that an hour. Unbeknownst to us, in that time, my dad was starting to feel ill. A little less than two hours later at our next transfer station, he got sick. We all felt very badly for him especially since we had been hustling and bustling around all day. After a forty minute wait in on a cold platform, we got on our train bound for Enschede. My mom had also been feeling badly during lunch, so both she and my dad slept for most of the next hour on the train.

Finally we arrived back in Enschede just before 10:00 PM. We took a cab back to our apartment and put my parents to bed. They did so much traveling the last few days of their trip, it just took its toll on them. They slept in this morning and seem to be doing a lot better for it. This afternoon, we are all going to Amsterdam where Roxi will be flying to Rome this evening for work in Chieti for a few days and my parents will be heading back to the States on Tuesday. All in all it sounds like my parents have had a wonderful trip except for getting sick in the last couple of days. We loved getting to see them at the beginning and end of their trip and having such a great time seeing some new things with them.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Roxi and I have arrived in the Netherlands! We've actually been here for about a day now, but until this evening, we didn't have the internet in our apartment. Now that we're here and online, I thought I'd get the ball rolling by telling the story of our travels.

Roxi's post-doctoral fellowship is at the University of Twente near Enschede, The Netherlands. Our journey really began on Saturday evening when we finally decided we had packed enough in our storage POD. We left Lafayette for Houston to stay with my parents until our flight from Bush Intercontinental Airport on Monday afternoon. We were both very tired of packing for the past few weeks and we brought Roxi's cat Jupiter so we were all glad to have a day and a half to relax before our flight. And I'm glad we did because our trip was not without troubles.

We chose not to fly into Amsterdam because we got a cheaper flight into Dusseldorf, Germany which seemed to be about the same distance from Enschede. Either way, we knew from the outset that we would have to take a train from our flight destination as there is no major airport servicing Enschede. We also knew that the Enschede train station was a few miles from campus so a taxi would be required to get us to our final destination. So to summarize, our trip could have been the model for John Hughes' comback and sequel to the underrated Trains, Planes & Automobiles.

Every trip of this nature has a few snafus along the way, and ours came early and often. To start things off, in Houston Roxi's suitcase was very overweight (even after she had taken a lot of stuff out and left it in Houston with Jack and Mary) and was going to cost $500 to travel with us. Thankfully the extremely nice lady at the baggage counter informed us that we were each allowed two checked bags and so gave us two empty shipping boxes for Roxi to transfer some of her things into. So we ended up checking to suitcases and two boxes and paying nothing extra for the trouble! Potential crisis #1 averted!


Jupiter surveys the Departures entrance at the Houston airport.

The next poossible trouble started when the TSA guy said that Jupiter had to be taken out of her cat carrier to go through security! She was so good when Roxi carried her through the metal detector though. She was happy to get right back in the carrier case on the other side because she was so scared. Potential crisis #2 averted!

There was some delay in our leaving Houston as our flight eventually departed at around 5:30 or so...about 45 minutes late. We figured that most of that time would be made up in the air. Once on the plane we were all pretty uncomfortable but we managed. It was a little warm during dinner and Jupiter was fidgeting a lot so Roxi put her case on the floor (we had an empty seat next to us where we kept her case when it wasn't on one of our laps). Roxi and I were talking for only a few minutes when a man across the aisle said "Your cat got out." It took a second to register but sure enough, I turned to look down the aisle behind me and Jupiter was cautiously walking two seats behind us. The adrenaline must have kicked in because I'm usually afraid she might scratch me, but I quickly reached back and grabbed one of her back legs before she could duck behind a seat and got her close enough to me to pick her up from around her body and get her safely back into Roxi's arms. The whole thing only took a few seconds but it seemed like it took a lot longer and Roxi and I had to calm ourselves down quite a bit. We couldn't help but think about the trouble that could have happened! Potential crisis #3 averted!


Jupiter rests in the Frankfurt airport.

We figured out how Jupiter managed to get free from her carrier and made sure it wouldn't happen again. The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful but neither of us slept very much. Jupiter got a little sleep but she really didn't like to be in the carrier and fidgeted off and on for the rest of the flight. Roxi got several scratches and a bad bite when she was trying to pet and comfort Jupiter. We ended up landing in Frankfurt a little late but with enough time to make it to the connection if the gates were close to each other. Unfortunately they were not. Not only did we have to take a bus from the plane to the terminal, we had to walk a long way to get to the connecting flight terminal and go through security again. Of course they wanted Jupiter taken out of the carrier and Roxi was very worried about getting scratched or bitten again. But she managed with minimal pain and Jupiter again got right back into the carrier. After security we had way too far to walk and make it to our connection on time, so we rescheduled on the next flight to Dusseldorf about two and a half hours later. The ticket agent even gave us an unsolicited meal voucher for 20 Euros! Potential crisis #4 averted!


I take a load off with Ronald McDonald in the Dusseldorf airport.

We regrouped and went to a very quiet and secluded area of the terminal to let Jupiter out of the carrier on her leash. She explored a little but mostly huddled underneath my coat on one of the chairs. We tried to give her food and water but she wouldn't take any. She got a nice break from the carrier and got to stretch her legs for a good 45 minutes. She gladly went back into her carrier so that Roxi and I could get some lunch before our next flight. We got a good meal at the same cafe we sat at on our trip to Sweden a year and a half ago. We even had enough left on our voucher to leave a nice tip for our waitress! Our short flight to Dusseldorf was uneventful and I finally got some sleep. By this time Jupiter had given up trying to fight and was content to stick her head out of the carrier when Roxi opened it just to see what was going on. After a minute she would pull her head back in an go back to sleep. In Dusseldorf, we were happy to find that all of our luggage arrived including the two shipping boxes! We went to a good place and distributed the things from the shipping boxes into our two suitcases. Then it was off to the train station. The timing couldn't have worked out better! We got tickets to Enschede with only one train transfer at Dortmund, Germany as opposed to the possible two or three we were expecting if we had arrived on our originally scheduled flight. Our bags were large and heavy but we managed to get on an almost empty train car and had a leisurely hour to our transfer station. We only had about ten minutes to make the change in Dortmund and we were worried about dragging our baggage all the way across the train station. We made as mad a dash as we could with our very heavy bags and cat in tow. Of course there was an escalator from our arrival platform into the station but not vice versa so I heaved the bags one by one up the stairs. Thankfully our train was already on the platform and we had several minutes to spare before departure. Potential crisis #5 averted!


Roxi and Jupiter are cold while waiting for our train in Dusseldorf.

With a two hour train ride left for Enschede and travel weariness fully set in, Roxi decided to sleep while I stayed awake listening to my iPod. Of course I made sure to pay attention to the sign announcing the next stop as the train made many on the way to Enschede from Dortmund. I don't know how long into the trip we were, when everyone got off the train. I just figured it was a popular stop but someone else got on and then immediately started heading off. He noticed Roxi and I and waved us off the train. I was confused but realized that since train stops don't last long, we better get ourselves off at once! I told Roxi that we had to get off the train right now. She woke from a dead sleep more confused than I already was but I have to hand it to her, she moved more quickly than I would have if awoken from a sound sleep. At that time a conductor had made his way to our end of the platform and informed us that the train split at that stop and only the front cars continue to Enschede! He went on to tell us that we had plenty of time to walk up the platform and find seats before the front cars left. Just to be safe, we got on the very first car and got ourselves comfortable, but we were ready to move again if we had to! Potential crisis #6 averted!

After my rude awakening, there was no more sleeping for Roxi, so we just rode and paid attention to the stops. Jupiter got out of her carrier and sat on the seat next to Roxi, but she continued to hide underneath by bundled up coat. We were all definitely ready to be done traveling. Finally we left Germany and entered the Netherlands. Two stops later, we were at Enschede. It was cold and rainy but we were prepared. We made our way around the station until we found a taxi which took us to the after-hours apartment check-in on campus. Roxi went into the office while I stayed with the cab driver and talked about Enschede. Roxi returned a few minutes later with keys to our apartment! Potential crisis #7 averted!

We arrived at our new apartment a few minutes later and let Jupiter out of her carrier once and for all. She was very curious about the place, but really wanted to explore the stairwell outside of our door. As for Roxi and I, we are getting settled in and should feel like we are in a few days. All-in-all things are going pretty well here. Now that we have internet in our apartment we feel like we're connected to everyone back home!