Nid de poule

That's French for pothole. Which we're seeing a lot of these days, especially on the autoroute, due to the unusually cold winter. Big stretches of the middle lane are almost undriveable because of the round holes created where the 2-inch top layer of asphalt has disappeared. (Especially on the stretch between St-Ghislain and the R5,where the right hand lane has been closed for some mysterious reason for over a year, forcing the trucks to drive in the middle lane.)

Belgian roads are notoriously ill cared for. You can do some serious damage to your alignment on them. We joke, only we're not really kidding, that Strassenschaeden ("damaged road surface" in Germany) equates to "a really good road" in Belgium. That's how bad it is: what's considered a bad road in Germany is like freshly paved to us.

More from Berlin

One of the things we did on our recent trip to Berlin was go to the Loxx model train exhibit. I'd seen video of this and thought it was fascinating. I don't remember how many kilometers of track they've laid but it's a lot. They've basically recreated Berlin in miniature.


This is obviously not a scene from downtown Berlin, but you get an idea of the amount of detail that's gone into creating this exhibit.


This was one of David's favorite parts of the exhibit.

All in all, it was pretty cool. But pretty expensive too. Museums are not cheap in Berlin.

Who's here?

We had an after-work office get-together tonight in a part of the SHAPE Club we had never been to before. One wall was hung with personalized pewter beer mugs. There was SACEUR's mug, his deputy's, the chief of staff's, and one for each of the NMRs (national military representatives). They were almost all still hanging there, meaning they were unused. Conspicuously out, and therefore in service, were the mugs of the Czech and the Slovak NMRs.

It's funny if you know what great beer-drinking nations the components of the former Czechoslovakia are.

Better late than never, I guess.

We went to Berlin over the recent long weekend and did something we had never done before in all our travels: we took a walking tour. It was cold as a Norwegian well digger's… It was really cold, and there were about 4 inches of snow, which the Germans are only slightly more adept at clearing than the Belgians, and we near 'bout froze our feet standing in it listening to history lectures. But the lectures were interesting and good, and our guide was knowledgeable, and the group was congenial, and we saw the old city and heard cool stories, and we got a discount with the Berlin Welcome Card.

So now that we've been to a dozen or so cities and are nearing the end of the Big Belgian Adventure, we've decide this is the way to go.

Chrismas is over

Back in early December we watched the workmen set up the gigantic Christmas tree in front of the main building at SHAPE. It took a crane and a lot of men (a lot of supervisors...).

Yesterday we noticed them removing the lights.

Today we saw them take the tree down. This was a majestic beauty from the town of Malmedy over in eastern Belgium. And they unceremoniously chopped at it until it fell and then they began cutting the branches off so they could haul them away. We left before the trunk was completely nude. It was sad, not just for the wasted tree but because this was our last Christmas in Belgium.

Not Just No Longer Fun But Downright Hard

We put three girls and a fiance on three planes this past weekend.

Anyone who has tried to fly to the US from outside the US since the Christmas Day event has experienced the new procedures, which Brussels National is implementing with vigor: only one carry-on item is allowed because of secondary screening of all carry-ons for all passengers to the US.

We watched while passenger after passenger approached the Delta pre-check-in counter and expressed dismay and incredulity at being told their computer bag or purse had to be stuffed into their carry-on, or the extra bag would have to be checked - at 50 euros a bag. That's euros, not dollars, since these passengers are departing from a euro zone country. In the US they catch a break: it's only 50 dollars.

Delta seems to be taking advantage of the heightened security measures. It would be reasonable - and customer-friendly - for an airline to allow passengers returning from the Christmas holidays to check that extra bag for free. They carried on on the way over; what are they supposed to do - leave all that extra stuff behind?

I am not looking forward to my next flying-to-America experience. They've just made it too hard.

Talk about inflation!

The postage rates went up today while we were conducting a transaction! We had done two packages, when the supervisor came out and told the clerk that they were changing the way they calculated postage. They were no longer to enter the zip code but a zone number. And guess what. It calculates a higher rate. Go figure. It was about 0800 back on the East Coast, so maybe that's when the new rates were supposed to take effect.

The clerk was Rich's wife. That's one of the goofy things about being at a small overseas post: all the ordinary working people--postal clerks, store clerks, etc--are family members of the people you work with. It's kind of fun. Doesn't keep them from insisting on seeing your ID on every visit, though.

And no, we did not have to recalculate the postage for the first two packages, so I guess when you look at it the right way, we got away with one. Or two.