Day 4

We started for coffee at Starbucks - why not?
At 8:30am on a volcanic sunday the streets seemed pretty empty, though there were quite a few folks dragging bags.  More refugees like us.  There was more matter on the cars, but it was hard to tell if it was smoggy stuff, ash, or pollen.


We left the hotel at 2:30pm, after working for a bit and walked down past the park to the Jubilee line.  The great lawn was greatly covered with seas of humanity, all seeking a couple last rays before the ash cloud blotted out the sun (which will happen any day now!).  We got to the station and trundled up towards Rayner's Lane without seeing that the Met Line was down for the day.  At Wembley we took a bus and then at Rayner's, we decided to walk the last 2 miles (not so smart).  Dragging out bags as we went, we certainly looked like refugees!


The hotel is seemingly better than The Barn, but the internet is questionable in the rooms and the high street is less inviting than Ruislip.  The hotel did offer to help us find a laundry service so I am in for that!  When we walked in, the desk clerk just looked at us and said - "Volcano?" and shook her head.




sigh.

Day 3

Well, today being Saturday and being stuck in the city, we went for a walk.
Nord had never been sightseeing in London, so the plan was to show him some sites.


The day dawned bright and breezy and so we set off about 9am for some coffee towards paddington.  Coffee and a bad bagel later, we were traipsing down towards mayfair to show Nord the palatial American Embassy and United called.  I chose not to answer it, as they only ever call with bad news (I later discovered it was indeed that).  


We continued to Green Park, Buckingham Palace*, St. James Park, the color guard at the War Museum (no changing of the guard today at the palace), Big Ben*, the London Eye*, the Globe*, Southwark bridge, Borough Market, Monmouth Coffee+, Tower Bridge and Tower of London*, Bank of England*, the Lloyd's building, the Gerkin*, Ropemaker Square, Fix+ off Old Street, the Bindery (closed and shuttered), Shaftsbury, the whole enitre length of Oxford Street on a Saturday, and then back to the hotel for tea.


[legend: * - tourist shots of Nord; + stops for Coffee ]


We had a soft goat's cheese (Shawley), baguettes, and fresh tomatoes from the Isle of Man for lunch in the plaza by the HMS Belfast on the Thames.


on the way home, down oxford street, into the sun, it was clear that there was a haze and we could no longer ignore the fact that there was a haze over the sun.  The air smelled burnt, but there was no particulate actively falling.  We had to admit, we were not going anywhere soon.


When we got back, I figured we walked 15.5 miles.  After a restorative cuppa tea, I called United back and lo and behold - the first flight now available would be the 22 - thursday, 7 days in.  Our plan may be to hang here until we are done with our work.

Day 2

All flights were canceled for today, but we knew that yesterday. We checked out of our hotel out in the burbs with an eye to being close to the train at Paddington. Everything was filling up fast for the weekend, but we used Priceline to latch on to anything in the area we could afford. Anything.

The only thing we could find was the lowly Hempel – a small 5 star north of the park. After a week at the Barn Hotel in Ruislip where the hot water didn’t work and you had to heat water to shave with in the kettle, where the walls were so thin that the guy snoring next door could be heard with the window’s closed, and where cute fuzzy mice frequented the lobby after the bar closed, the Hempel was going to be an unfortunate step down. The staff was quite pleasant when we checked in, though you could see they kind of looked down at us – at all of us refugees that were checking in.

I checked flights tonight – the first Saturday flight is already canceled. That means the first Sunday flight back is as well.

Still no particulate.

Day 1 Thursday April 14

Our flights were canceled today. All flights were canceled today. The UK airspace was shutdown and nothing came in or went out. It did remind me a lot of 2001 in that you could stand outside and there was nothing going over. Then I was at home under the landing approach to MHT and 5 times a day, I missed the sound of the airplanes that flew over. Today we were staying in Ruislip on the final approach to Heathrow and the 1 plane every 5 minutes was missing.

It was clear today and breezy. I expected a grey snow, but nothing fell.

The first flight we could get out was to be Sunday afternoon. Sunday, if and only if the planes flew in on Saturday.

Business Class + 1

Today started inauspiciously. The fog seemed less, but I already knew my plane was not in Krakow. The driver took me through the city rather than the highway, probably because of the time of day. This driver was the same one who picked me up from the airport and dropped me off last time, so I guess I have become a regular with him. Reminds me of Serge. Any rate, the city of Krakow certainly does not start at 5 or even 5:30 on Tuesdays in the winter. There was no one about and even the trams were empty (they start at a quarter to 5).

We left the city and got to the airport with no delay and the driver was able to change my 50 zloty note so I gave him much of it as a tip. He seemed genuinely surprised which surprised me, but made me feel good. The airport was mostly empty and many of the faces were long. It was clear no one slept there, but we were still outside of immigration. I got to the counter got my seats, though the system ate my eTicket number and they had to hunt for it. I figured that was because I actually had gotten a Business class upgrade for the MUC to IAD flight and now, I would lose it, either due to the weather or the loss of the eTicket number, however the travel god was smiling today. I got a good seat on the bus and got to see the sun rise over the polish countryside. All I saw of the outskirts of Katowice was a mall (Fashion Center) and an industrial site with smokestacks galor. Katowice airport is really nice. I didn’t need to check in, and there was no one in immigration, so the few of us there walked right through. Later, I saw others of us waiting there in line getting their papers stamped, so I guess, in a way, I never left the country….hmmmm…..

We all got on the plane, all got off – I love the way they work Munich. The plane docks next to the United flights. You get onto a bus and they truck you to the other end where you get to climb 5 flights of stairs (or take the elevator) and walk all the way back. Good exercise before a transatlantic flight. I was sitting in the back of BClass and got to watch this young mom with far too much luggage and a baby get on and then try to kick her stuff down the plane. No one offered to help or even make eye contact. When she got to me, I grabbed her gunk and took it down to her seat in the back of the plane. The stewardess looked at me as if I had two heads.

My seat in BClass turned out to be next to a pair of missionaries with a 7 month old. No idea what they were missionarying, they were not forthcoming with that, other than they had been in Romania for the past 3 months and though the baby traveled well (he did) it was really his first flight (so how did they know). The guy was from the south and must have weighed in at 300. She seemed to be mostly Romanian. BClass seemed to be empty at first, so I asked if there was somewhere else to sit, mostly because I have been sneezing up a storm, but still partially cause I didn’t want to find out the baby really was not a good traveler, but then it filled up – probably with other upgrades.

When lunch arrived, it was clear there was no way this huge guy and his wife and their baby were going to be able to have a BClass type experience (is that important), so after a flurry of activity the steward came to me and asked me if I would mind sitting in 1stClass. Um, how do you answer that?

Turns out 1stClass had 11 seats and 1 person. I got to spread out and play with the laydown seat. They still had me eat that gunk from BClass ;-) but the experience, oh the experience. (and actually, lunch was steamed cod with a light sauce and cous cous. Both of which were really done well. That type of food is amplified when it is reheated damp. Too bad all airline meals are not like that. I was sorry when I got to the end of this one. Note to self – the fish in Krakow was not as good as the airplane, don’t eat fish in Krakow.

Dog in the Fog

Today, Krakow was fogged in. I mean completely. It was so bad, the airport was closed all day. All flights in and out seemed to be canceled. What a travel nightmare. The hope was that the fog would lift and magically planes would appear to take us home tomorrow.


I met with a group to discuss their interests and needs with respect to a new methodology. They had been to the Openview Partners conference and heard a case study, related to it as that the host company had had the same problems that they did and managed to successfully over come them with the methodology – pretty compelling. There problems were inability to deliver releases on time, inability to estimate well enough, and inability to meet business expectations.

The hope is that we can find some way to translate what we know into a language that they can use – their team is not strong on English and no one is apparently doing even generic training in Polish.

Had dinner at the Calvary off the market square. They were empty and though the food did not seem to be as good as I remember it last time, it certainly was not bad. Had a faux English Polish beer – ‘dog in the fog’

Jan 13 - The Great Finale

Today was the great finale for the Orchestra of Christmas Charity's in Poland. On this day, apparently, all across Poland, they go out and beg/ask for donations in exchange for a sticker. Last year they raised $9M for children's charities. On the Market Square in Krakow today, they had a concert - early in the day it was folk music (with great costumes and instruments) and this evening it was more rock. Then, it ended at the way too age appropriate time of 8pm with a short fireworks display. The fog dropped and everyone went home.

We ate at Miod Molina and had probably the best pirogis yet and we discovered what warm traditional polish cheesecake was: a warm ricotta type cake with a slightly carmelized top and a soft almost custardy interior. We also drank a bottle of Trapiche Malbec - one lable was in english and the back in polish.

Jan 13 - Krakow

Today was overcast, foggy, and a little dreary - just right to pay our respects at Auschwitz and Birkenau. I have posted the pictures to ( http://picasaweb.google.com/mgelbwaks ), but here are my observations :

• Auschwitz is much smaller than I envisioned. It was also much more orderly and far less horrific than I expected. It was easy to see that the place was haunted but; whether it was because the cleanliness and order that was present or the lack of physical deterioration, it was just too sterile. The tour guide was great though. She was relentless with her scorn and contempt for the allies: bottom line position "The allies knew from '42 and did nothing. we asked them to bomb the rail junction and instead they destroyed light industry 10 miles away, and then they sent us the surveillance photos. They knew and did nothing. My country died here, and they did nothing." Unfortunately, all I could offer, under my breath of course, was my common and frequent lame excuse - "I can not apologize enough for my country, then or now."

One intersting side note: while I was sitting in the parking lot waiting to leave, I noticed birds - there were actually no birds inside the camp, only outside.

• Birkenau was far more expansive than I expected, particularly after Auschwitz. Birkenau was constructed as a solution camp. Auschwitz as a concentration camp. The germans figured out the process running Auschwitz in the early years and discovered that inorder to achieve their ultimate goals, they needed different facilities, and so constructed Birkenau for that purpose. Auschwitz held maybe 30,000, but could only process 1000 a day. Birkenau held in excess of 100,000 and could process 10,000 a day. The devastation was incredible and unexcusable - do note, without the rail junction, Birkenau would not have happened - and it would have taken a year to rebuild the junction (maybe).
  

There were birds at Birkenau, but there were also rats and insects. There were no people. All the people were left at the rail junction.

Jan 12th - a walk in the park

I spent much of the morning walking the eastern side of old town Krakow, working off the effects of a night flavored with too much buffalo grass. I have decided 2 things

• Krakow is full of two types of people - tourists and those who are vainly trying to ignore them. No one said so much as a word to me in 3 hours of walking, though eye contact was certainly there.
• There is by far much less dog crap in Krakow than there is in Buenos Aires. The streets were fairly clean and the sidewalks certainly devoid of poop - not something that can be said about BA

I ended up near the Blonia park marveling at the Kopiec on the hill. It loomed so large and looked so far away. When I got back, I looked at the map and realized that I was hardly far at all. It may be one of my greatest disappointments in that I did not get up the hill.

For January, it was quite warm - I watched them squeegy the ice rink with a zambonie.