Tag: Travel

First Christian Church of Peoria

| July 30, 2016 | 0 Comments

Tom Weber picked me up at the airport. He’s a good looking and  very fit 74 year old guy who’s done the cross country ride six years in a row. He also did a ride down the east coast, from Portland, ME to Key West. And a week later down the west coast.  Yeah, he’s pretty fit.

Looks like he took a page from Peter’s book on being secure in his masculinity. Peter wears multi-colored tights. Tom wears bright orange finger nail polish. What’s my thing going to be?  Not sure I’m quite so secure yet.

Tom took me to the Church where we’re staying. It’s the First Christian Church of Peoria.  The denomination is the Disciples of Christ. The church proper and its various rooms, offices, conference rooms are littered with sleeping bags and piles of clothes. I was told to choose a piece of floor and spread out there.

First order of business is to reassemble my bike, but I’ll need the assistance of the experts. And they have all made a shower run, going to a local Y or gym or pool. My bike will have to wait.

So, I’m sitting in a pew writing this.

A Trip to the Bund

| July 7, 2013 | 0 Comments

Went to the Bund at the recommendation of the concierge.  It is the waterfront walkway that overlooks Shanghai harbor.  He said there were shops and restaurants. I found neither. It was a very scenic place.  The Shanghai skyline is truly unique. It’s like the skyline that people in the 60’s would have predicted for the 21st century. Kind of like the Jetsons.

It was blazing hot. I walked along the waterfront and saw fewer and fewer people. The place was deserted and I was starving.  I actually, got a little light-headed. What a place to have my heart attack.

Finally, I just decided to walk off “The Bund” and go into the city to find food. Went down some back alleys, incredibly grim. Dirty and smelly. People in little hovels cooking food for sale in open pots with the trash nearby. Dogs and cats roaming freely. Incredibly unsanitary and I have a high tolerance for those things. Starving, but couldn’t eat. Do I have to go all the way back to the hotel for food?

Finally, I stumbled upon “tourist central” and bought a cantaloupe on a stick just for sustenance. It was actually very good. Then, I wandered into a large open tourist area that was packed with people. Found a Coldstone and was very excited. But it was not like U.S. Coldstone. Two scoops of ice cream in a cup. The clerk ripped open a small package of M&Ms and just poured them on top. I threw half of it away to maintain my diet.

Still hungry, I came upon a long line for a dumpling place. Figured they must be good dumplings, so I got in line and waited about 20 minutes for my dumplings. They were fine, but again, threw about half of them away because they seemed so heavy.

Went back to the hotel to cool off. Secured a private tour for the evening.

 

View from my taxi

| December 4, 2012 | 0 Comments

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I’m heading for Tianjin, a city outside of Beijing. Don’t know much a out it but it gives me an excuse to ride the high speed train.

In Beijing

| December 3, 2012 | 0 Comments
View from the J.W. Marriott in Beijing

Just arrived in Beijing to participate in the U.S. Ambassador’s Investment Forum, designed to educate Chinese companies on the challenges and opportunities of investing in the United States.  I will be on a panel with other service providers, including lawyers, accountants and investment advisors.

 
The 13 hour flight over was pleasant, even though it was delayed by four hours.   Once airborne, we had dinner and then I watched an episode of Breaking Bad on my IPad.  Figuring I should get the sleep in early since I would arrive at 8 pm, I popped an ambien and dozed off.  I woke up an hour and a half before landing, which was not my plan.  Must have slept for about 8 or 9 hours and now, here I sit, wide awake in my hotel room at 10 pm at night. 
 
What to do in Beijing in the middle of the night, since it will be a long time before I get back to sleep.

A Day in London

| October 28, 2012 | 0 Comments

I travelled to Europe yesterday for a series of presentations on the presidential election. I’ll be keeping an online diary over the next week for my stops in London, Brussels and Amsterdam.

The Flight

The flight to London was unevental except for a major scare at the outset that had nothing to do with flying. My laptop, on which resides the final version of my presentation, crashed and began issuing me scrary messaages. The last time this happened, a week ago, it took me 2 days to get my data back. If I’ve lost the presentation, life is going to be very difficult when I land. So, I stashed the laptop away and prayed. Fortunately, the problem seemed to go away when I logged back in at my hotel. I immediately saved the presentation in a Lockbox folder. Whew.

The Hotel

I’m staying at the Radisson Blu in Covent Gardens. Each of the 3 or 4 times I’ve come to London, I’ve stayed in Covent Gardens. It is one of my favorite places in the world, waling distance to the West End for plays, Trafalgar Square for iconic London and St. Martin in the Fields, my single favorite stop in the city. I have not stayed in a Radisson in probably 15 years since a horrific night in Binghampton, NY, when the fire alarm went off 3 times over the course of the night. My son, Danny, who was 7 at the time, was traumatized. We vowed never to stay in a Radisson again.

Continue Reading

Lost in Translation in Beijing

| July 16, 2012 | 1 Comment

Jintaixizhao Subway Station

Beijing is a difficult city to navigate, made more so by the fact that even the natives don’t know where anything is. I spent about a third of my day yesterday lost in the city and nobody could help me.

In the morning, I set out for breakfast with some colleagues at the Park Hyatt Hotel, a seventy story high rise near the China World Trade Center. I was told it was close by my hotel, the Grand Millennium. When I asked the concierge for directions, he suggested I take the subway. It was only one stop away and he wrote the name of the hotel in Chinese on a card. Feeling adventurous, I took his advice. Big mistake. Continue Reading

A View of Hong Kong Harbor

| March 14, 2012 | 0 Comments

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I am in Hong Kong on a business trip. This is my fourth or fifth visit. And, though it never gets old, it doesn’t seem as exotic as it once was. It’s a very international city and everyone I’ve encountered so far speaks English well.

The bad news is I’ve spent most of my time in my hotel room.  The good news is I have a 270 degree view of Hong Kong Harbor from my bed.