After two years of regular attendance of the fair, I was ready to see the opening ceremony for myself.

Nine minutes before the scheduled start, the entrance to the fair was quiet, but it didn’t take long for a surprisingly large crowd to assemble. They filled the space around the entrance to the fair, except for a small area, cordoned off.

Many people recognized one another and began animated conversations, which is typical of the Schueberfouer.

There was a growing anxiety in the crowd as the cameramen and journalists pressed forward.

A group of politicians began assembling inside the cordon, joking among themselves and scanning the crowd. Some time passed, and a woman offered a shot of some golden scissors to the press. They did not seem especially impressed.

The crowd pressed in further. Quite a few people stopped by and shortly moved on, but more surprising were the number that stayed — given that most of them really couldn’t see anything beyond the backs of the cameramen.

Just a minute or two after five o’clock, a tall man in a resplendent jacket moved through the crowd to the center of things. He was Paul Helminger, Mayor of Luxembourg-Ville. He bantered with the multitude, smiled a lot, and posed for lots of photos. He cut the ribbon into about a dozen pieces, handing out the slices to his fellow luminaries.

Once the scissors were sheathed, the media descended and the interviews began. But where were the sheep?

I moved outside the crowd, scanning for ungulates. About half the crowd moved to the nearby beer stand.

The other half seemed to have turned 180 degrees, facing down the midway. Still no sheep in evidence, but this was a clue!

Now that the politicians were dispersed, perhaps the crowd turned to the sheep for amusement. Driven by my goal — to see some of the famous Schueberfouer sheep — I surveyed the possible routes to head off the parade.

On a path parallel to the midway, I weaved through the oncoming pack of thrill-seekers. Screams from the fair’s machines echoed off the restaurant’s glass walls as I scanned for a way to cut back in front of the procession.

I deliberately overshot my target and headed back down the midway. There were a few people milling around, but nothing like what I expected — a wave of Luxembourgers driven ahead of a herd of sheep.

I rounded a small bend to find my wool-bearing quarry.

I was not impressed. Neither were the band members who appeared to have lost interest in the proceedings.

Seriously, friends — I could have walked off with those five sheep.

Oh, there was still a crowd walking along the midway, about 50 feet behind the sheep. Politicians gave peripatetic interviews, and random fair-goers seemed content to walk along with them.

Sometimes, events in Luxembourg exceed my expectations. This one remains a mystery to me, not quite living up to the glowing descriptions I read in the local papers.

Nevertheless, the fair itself needs no hype. Do you like to be flipped upside down and flung around at a purported 5 G’s? As you like.


Would you like a dose of the best of American culture while you are tossed hither and thither? First, answer me this: Do you think those posters are product placement, or is the Fun Fair paying licensing fees to the UFC?


Who cares, when you can stop by the Kir Royal stand anytime, day or night?

My favorite Schueberfouer pastime is finding a seat in a beer garden that faces the fun and games, and then having a procession of tasty little glasses of beer brought to me.

Nope. Can’t do it.

The Bugle Style Guide expressly forbids earnest and cheesy opening statements like that one. Let’s start over. To the right, a preview of the most exciting part of last weekend. But first…

A three-day-weekend means three mornings of sleeping in. We planned our time accordingly, although we passed up the opportunity to visit the Cat Club.

Friday evening: The Grand Duke’s Palace. We don’t have pictures from this guided tour, because photos aren’t allowed. (Will is still smarting from getting caught by security while taking sneaky-shots in the Ville’s Museum.) We’ll leave the guile up to other photographers. Remember the finish for the Prologue of the Tour of Luxembourg? That’s the palace in the center. The Grand Ducal family will stand out on the balcony for special events.

It was a good tour and a lovely palace. Lots of German ancestors on the walls, and several charming contemporary portraits of the Grand Duke Henri’s family. Old furniture, fine tapestries, you get the idea. Our tour guide was informative and good humored. Plus, the proceeds go to charity!

Nota bene: The window for visiting the Palace is open for about six weeks each year, and you have until August 30th if you’d like to see it this year.

Saturday: Crappy weather, went to the Farmer’s Market, watched Wonder Boys. Briefly considered going to Picadilly, but we resisted the temptation to sample what is, effectively, a European wine cooler. (Teresa says, “It’s classy because it’s European!”)

Sunday: Crappy weather, watched The Princess Bride, ordered Chinese for dinner. Mission accomplished!

Monday: Lovely weather! Anita hustled us out to a hike around the Müllerthal (Little Switzerland) that we’d been planning for weeks. It was a short drive that led us to the little town with the address Müllerthal, Müllerthal, Luxembourg (Région Müllerthal).

The Müllerthal Trail is probably the most popular hiking destination in Luxembourg. It is certainly the most widely recommended by tourism guides in English!

Our crack staff of Bugle Guides know the core sights of the area pretty well, because we take just about every visitor to see the beautiful Luxembourgish woods. The geology makes for stunning rock formations and delightfully rough trails.

We followed the official Müllerthal Trail Two, for the most part. Sometimes, the trail runs along the top of some ridges, and sometimes through the valley. It’s a great way to see the sights from diverse points of view.

In the midst of all the standard-issue beauty, we saw the biggest slug EVAR.

For the first half of the hike, we made our way to the Schiessentümpel, the most popular waterfall in Luxembourg. We walked the ridge above the waterfall and then dropped down to the valley of the Black Ernz.

Most of the visitors drive to a parking lot less than a kilometer away, and walk along the road. We approached the bridge along the rock-faced cliffs on the other side of the river.

It is an irresistible subject for photography.

Most of the photos in this post were taken by our visitor, Teresa. She experimented with Will’s “big” camera, and she’s quite talented. Her best shots aren’t of the descriptive, “postcard” variety that we feature here. So we may need to do an online exhibition of her work later this year.

There were more people hiking and walking and driving around the Schiessentümpel than we’ve ever seen before. That’s no surprise, given that it was August and a three-day weekend in most parts of the region. Will said “Moien” to just about everyone, and very few responded in Luxembourgish. Again, no surprise.

The second part of the hike took us away from the crowds and onto a path that was new for everyone. We were delighted to discover that the well-tended trail weaved through the rock formations, with natural courtyards and delicate tunnels among the trees. Some of the formations have names (like “Eulenburg” below) and are associated with centuries-old legends and ghost stories.

We turned around before we reached Consdorf, bushwhacking and looking for another trail, before we settled for a logging road.

It didn’t take long before we were back at the Heringer Millen, a tourist center with a café and lots of useful information. In many tourist areas, there’s a compass-orientation installation — usually pointing the directions to well-known cities. Here, a novel version points to nearby sites of interest. (The project’s website seems broken. Here’s a link to a German-language, Flash-heavy webpage, if you’re desperate.) This cool, er… “thing” would be a good place to start a hike! (N 49.789553, E 6.305889)

Look at that sky! We hadn’t seen a day like this for weeks…

Naturally, Anita and Teresa absorbed the rest of the sun from our apartment’s balcony. Will went to see Captain America 3D, courtesy MyMosaik.lu — but that’s another story.

I shopped the idea around to Will and a few friends, but no one was interested in my plan: “Let’s get up and be on the road by 6:15 to see hot air balloons!” I will admit that when my alarm went off at 5:45, even I began to question whether this was a good idea. I checked the weather – overcast, but no rain. I had no excuse to crawl back into bed. To the balloon festival for me!

Technically, this event is called the World Balloon Trophy, an event that began in 1995. The festival started on Wednesday, but the crappy weather has cancelled at least two planned flights. From my previous balloon festival experience, I knew that the air was still in the morning and around dusk, and that makes for excellent flights.

I took off to Echternach on the back roads, since traffic is meant to be a killer, what with the Germans heading off on holiday in one direction, and Belgian and Dutch the other. Last year, we paid to park in the lot close-by, but I hoped that the crowds would be light so early. “Light” doesn’t begin to describe what I found.

The festival’s park was deserted. As I walked towards the viewing areas, I began to grow concerned that the morning flight was cancelled. Not long after that, I saw some activity on the “island” in the lake.

Normally, spectators would be kept off the island during the preparation and the launch. Since there were maybe 10 of us, security was light. I started off on the island bridge, because I didn’t want to be disruptive. It didn’t take me long to get my nerve and walk around and through the various balloon teams.

This experience was… AWESOME! I was right up and around the balloons. It is surprisingly loud during the prep. The balloons are initially inflated using cold air from a generator-powered fan.


Eventually, they switched over to the flame and heated air.

But once all the balloons had their shapes, the only sound was the occasional use of the burners to keep them inflated.


One by one, the balloons were released and each floated up into the sky.

But these are professionals, vying for the World Balloon Trophy. They were excellent pilots. They went up, then dropped back down.


Some went close to the water while others dipped in the trees.


They floated left, then back right.

They hovered over the launch site, while we gaped up at them.

Everyone enjoyed the amazing view of the graceful craft against a beautiful backdrop. It is not often you see 11 hot air balloons take off at once, in a small space. I was giddy with excitement. Below is a panoramic shot, so it’s really almost 360 degrees of balloons surrounding me.

Check out the video — you can hear the burners that I mentioned above.

Eventually, they started to spread out and float off into the distance. The chase cars packed up and rolled out…. my balloon viewing was done for the day. I made the long trek back to the car. In my concern about crowds, I parked about 500 meters farther away than I needed to. Heck, I think I could have driven directly up to the launch island before anyone would have said “Boo.”

Seeing the launch confirmed my desire to take a hot air balloon ride. I believe they are relatively common to do here in Lux. So I’ll be adding that chore to Will’s agenda.

If you’d like to see more, you can wait to see our full photo set, or you can look at the official photos from Saturday morning.

Bugle Public Engagement Officer’s note: If you’d like to take a balloon ride in Luxembourg, be sure to mention it when you book with the BBB&B!

We propose two videos to review our experience of those two days. You may want to watch each video in HD by clicking on the YouTube button and then the full screen button (four arrows pointing outward).

The photosets have detailed descriptions: Part One, Part Two.

After our comprehensive coverage of the first three days (Prologue, Stage One and Stage Two), we had our own rest day for Stage Three. (It was far up in the north, a beautiful area, but we were feeling quite lazy that morning.) It sounds like this stage was a lot like the previous ones: a Leopard TREK rider in yellow and the rest of the team with an iron grip on the peloton.

The final day of racing finished in Luxembourg-Ville, practically on our doorstep. Take a look:

And the requisite photoset is ready for your perusal, too.

Voilà!

Faithful Tumblr followers might remembering seeing a post that the city was opening the tunnel for just a few hours one Sunday. I’ll be honest – it wasn’t the tunnel that I thought we were going to get to see. I thought it would be the tunnel under the Petrusse River that once connected two sets of casemates. Instead, we saw a tunnel that is under the ENTIRE old city. For those who have been lucky enough to come to (or live in) Luxembourg, we can be more specific: we walked directly under the old city plateau. So it wasn’t “ancient rocky fortress” cool but “we’re really walking right under all that” cool.

Now, if Will were writing this post, you could count on some awesome maps, some historical details and an over-arching theme. Me, I’m going to show you a map I whipped up with powerpoint and a couple stars and prattle on a bit.

[Ed. - It was awful! She sent me this PDF file that I had to re-convert, and I'm concerned about copyright violations -- please don't sue us, Ville de Luxembourg, and thank you for the map -- and the stars look flattened because powerpoint is not an appropriate tool to make illustrations.]

At the yellow star (close to the Golden Lady), we entered the tunnel. The dotted line follows our path under the city (or a close approximation). The red star is where we popped out.

I’m not positive, but I think that every third person in Luxembourg came out that day. The critics agree. See the line?

It took less time than you would think before we entered the tunnel. As this is an underground tunnel, the photos aren’t going to be so exciting. But we’ll show you what we can! (Very low light photography is very hard. We’ll just call it “artistic” okay?)

The tunnel is big and easy to move through, as long as people didn’t cluster.

But what’s that, you say? Aren’t there supposed to be exhibits to learn about water and other water-related matters? Well, yes, there are – and they are perfect to cluster around!

The tunnel is over one kilometer long, and for the most part, it was very clean and tidy. At this point, it does not surprise me that the underground tunnels in the Ville are neater than my garage.

We enjoyed looking at some of the displays, but there were so… many… people….

Mainly we enjoyed the walk. Maps hung here and there allowed us to see where we were along the way.

Towards the end, I teased Will, saying, “The only thing this tunnel needs to make it a traditional Luxembourg experience is a band and someone selling sausages and beer.” Not long after that, I heard the music and smelled the meat. Indeed, close to the end of the tunnel was a band playing next to the refreshment stand, where you could get your sausage and drinks.

Overall, it was not the most impressive Luxembourg outing we’ve had. However, I’m glad we did it because (1) it is awesome to walk underneath the area that I work in everyday and (2) we confirmed our suspicion that the only way to get locals to come out is to serve food and drink!

If you’re lucky enough to be in Luxembourg on February 13th, the Aqua Tunnel will be re-opened, by popular demand. Is there a better way to start Valentine’s Day with your loved one? Or to celebrate World Water Day a little early?

If Will is really sweet, he’ll work up a Flickr set tomorrow, and link to it in the comments. Until then, the polyglots can enjoy video, while English-only underachievers are stuck with a few snapshots from a local website.

Most of the items are just links to interesting bits of the InterWebs, with a bit of commentary from us, the Bugle staff. It’s little more than a running compilation of websites where we are doing research for upcoming posts, or just slacking off. But there are also fresh photos from Luxembourg, posted to the Tumble on that day that they were taken. Current-ness!

If you use an RSS reader to keep track of your favorite websites and blogs, you can follow the Bugle Tumble’s RSS feed, too. (By the way, all the smartest and most attractive readers of the Bugle use RSS readers.)

Without further comment, some of the best recent items from the Bugle Tumble!

• A self-referential beginning, with two articles about Tumblr and social media in general: Tumblr is doubling in popularity and size every four months and Clay Shirky says that’s a good thing.
• Video of the running of the sheep at Schueberfouer 2010
• RIP Jack Horkheimer, Star Hustler extraordinaire
• Frank Schleck and his wife Martine held their wedding service and celebration on Saturday. The happy couple had already performed the civil ceremony at the end of last year in Mondorf, but delayed the church service until Frank had a spare slot in the cycling calendar. Several international cycling stars attended the ceremony, among them Fabian Cancellara, Kim Kirchen, and of course Frank’s brother Andy.
• The black panther is back! You may remember the big-cat scare from our post last autumn.
• What American soldiers in Afghanistan eat. Don’t miss the interactive tour through Meals-Ready-to-Eat of many nations.
• Globetrotter XL, a great online game to enhance your geographic knowledge. It’s not slacking if you’re learning! Bugle reader Dave threw down the gauntlet. Can you do better than 5488? Let us know in the comments. Keep your eye on the Bugle Tumble, where the staff will post our high scores in the future.

Objective Number One: Ride the big swings!

We loved the swings, especially the spinning view over Luxembourg. I think it was better than the Ferris wheel, although it requires a stronger stomach (and a warm jacket).

But wait, what’s the La Liberté doing? Looks more like La Libertine if you ask me. And since when is there a male version of the Statue of Liberty? Maybe one of Bartholdi’s men decided to visit the United States in mufti. Or this is a metaphor for intercultural appreciation. Any ideas?

There were comical representations of American culture all over the rides. It’s my favorite part of the fair — for cultural value, even better than the sex games and the beer gardens.

This year, we got a massive six-story waterfall as part of the water rides area. This is Luxembourg, so it was about 50°F — but that didn’t seem to make the splashing water any less attractive to the masses. Not us, no way!

The food is at least as important as the attractions, especially when the Jean La Gaufre is serving the Best Wafels in the World, with a VIP Room no less!

You can have your waffle plain, or loaded with whipped cream and strawberries (fraises). There’s chocolate sauce, too — and a gelato stand with a great Belgian chocolate flavor.

To assure us of their authenticity, there were several copies of the Manneken-Pis adorning the Jean La Gaufre stand, including one that periodically drenched the crowds walking by.

We’re becoming more Luxembourgish all the time, so we were sure to meet friends at one of the fair’s restaurants, to partake of the traditional meal of whole fish. (Alas, we have no idea what kind of fish it is.)

There are a few more photos (of things other than fish heads) in a new photoset, so be sure to click on over to Flickr.

If you’re looking for more, the Schueberfouer website is super media-savvy, with dozens of videos and a massive number of photographs. I can’t help kibitzing, though: Be prepared for a visual assault of bad website design (and turn down the volume if you’re at work — random sounds may be built into the webpages).

As usual, we’ll release photosets on Flickr with extensive captions — one or two days at a time. We wouldn’t want to overwhelm you! To begin, you can enjoy our pictures of the first two days, as we travel to Venice, board the ship, and thrill to the sailaway down the Guidecca Canal. You’ll see parts of our Crown Princess cruise ship, the city of Venice from dozens of high angles, and a few other treats.

If that description isn’t enough to tempt you, here are a few samples from our massive photographic record:

Of course, there is a photoset of leftover photos, for those who just can’t get enough. Also, future photosets will be added to the Cruise 2010 collection page on flickr.

Try to wrap your mind around a tradition that old. More than 30 generations.

As an ex-pat, I’m interested in looking at it from the perspective of cultural integration — or how long it takes to be considered a native. Consider the Daughters of the American Revolution, who have surely been in North America long enough to be considered well-integrated. Yet each of the white DAR members today can only trace her family’s presence in North America back through about 10 generations. So let’s say that a family that stays in the same area for 10 generations is not exactly a far-flung gypsy clan. More like local nobility — or land-bound serfs — but surely local.

Consider what that means for the Schueberfouer. A merchant at the first Schueberfouer could have migrated to Eastern Europe, founded a village there, and his family could have stayed in that village for as long as the USA has existed. Then, one of his descendants could have married a traveler and moved to Ireland. Her family could have lived in a town in Ireland for 10 generations before the upheavals of the 18th Century drove one of her descendants to the American colonies. And then one of her descendants could be a DAR member today, visiting Luxembourg during a summer trip on the family money.

The entire time, the Schueberfouer has been an annual event in roughly the same spot. (But no roller-coasters until the 20th Century, or for about one-tenth of its history.)

Anticipation is growing among the residents of Luxembourg that we know, life-long and short-term alike. Some people are looking forward to the hubbub of the outdoor beer gardens. Others, the giant Ferris wheel that takes you high above the city.

To get you ready for the Schueberfouer, we’ve posted photos from our visit to the fair last year. Enjoy the photoset, but be warned that some photos may not be safe for work (i.e. NSFW). The phrase “family fun event” means something slightly different in Luxembourg than in the US.

Luxembourg’s national holiday began, in the 19th Century, as a celebration of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg’s birthday. From the start, however, it was rarely celebrated on the reigning monarch’s actual birthday. The current date, June 23, was fixed in a national act of pragmatism. In 1961, both Grand Duchess Charlotte and Heir Apparent Jean had January birthdays. The weather in January was sure to put a damper on any celebrations. So it was decreed that June 23 (Grand Duchess Charlotte’s half-birthday) would be the National Holiday. And so it remained, although Grand Duke Henri’s birthday is in the relatively pleasant month of April.

The day of June 23 is reserved for formal, somber ceremonies. The Grand Ducal family, government ministers, and ambassadors celebrate a Te Deum at the national cathedral, followed by a military parade.

Tonight, the Grand Duke makes his way to Luxembourg City to attend the torchlit procession (and to ignore, benevolently, the antics of his subjects).

[Editor's Note: Sharon is a founding member of the Friends of the Bugle. Due to our recent crisis in content-generation, the Bugle's editors foresee an expanded role for Friends of the Bugle. To learn more about this exciting development, please contact us!]

I was a guest of the Bakker Bugle B&B just a few weeks ago. I could tell you how much fun we had traveling & enjoying time with our friends & their hospitality, as well as Belgium beers, wine, and food, but instead here is a snippet of what Will & I did one day……

We decided to walk around the city center in Luxembourg City, then the crazies came out… but this isn’t about them…it’s about us. We strolled through the park near the B&B and found a fading smiley face.

Minutes later, a strange girl handed us a free hat & pen without so much as a credit card application. As we walked farther, we saw a balloon plaza with the same emblazoned emblem of TANGO. Not only is it my favorite dance, but also a communications company in Europe. But this was no ordinary balloon….it was gigantic & Helium filled!!

Our two magnificent balloons were tied to my purse & I proceeded to carry them for at least the next hour. Wind, sharp street signs, tree branches, French tourists, crowds tried to deter me from goal, which was to arrive home safely with balloons intact — for my joy & the delight of others.

On our last stop before home…..I decided to sit for a minute on the new space-saucer-shaped bench. To my dismay Will continued to snap photos….which resulted in a stop-animation/ short-French inspired
film that I like to call Balloons Bleu.

I have to say I was really impressed with the outcome…. it was way more entertaining than my accidental digital shorts which were odd but funny. [Ed. - Thanks to FotoosVanRobin and Atelier Vanessa Maurer for the CC-licensed photos.] Click on the image below to see the award-winning compilation.

So what were the balloons for? Pure enjoyment and the promotion of the advertisers for the night marathon… but more about that later.

Here are some additional topics for further blog posts on my trip to Luxembourg. I’ll write more based on popular demand….

1. Homonyms and other problems when trying to speak English
2. Can cheese really be too stinky?
3. What’s wrong with day old croissants?
4. Hoegaarden is not what it sounds like
5. How much wine is too much?
6. What’s wrong with a nightmare-athon?
7. I never knew that Anita was a cat person!
8. Tantrum! Tripoint! Tantrum!
9. 1 flush 2 flush, red flush, blue flush
10. Land pirates!
11. Ducks are great but swans are evil spawns of satan.

The dog in question is an adult labradoodle, and he is a very well-behaved and friendly companion for walks and playing catch.

There are dog parks all over Luxembourg City, but they are the kind of muddy, befouled mess you’d expect for early spring. Still, it was great fun to play catch without a leash.

Our friend lives atop a hill in Belair, so we’ve seen two beautiful sunsets as we walked Sylvester between the rain-showers. Someone else has Sylvester until Friday, but then we’ll have three days with him.

Any ideas on how to amuse ourselves with our new friend?

• A very large PDF (more than 50 megabytes), also visible as a slideshow at the link
• A small PDF (with lower graphics quality)
• A photoset of the book’s pages on Flickr (best to watch as a slideshow)

We also made a teacher’s guide (PDF) with more information about most of the photos.

Finally, we’re building a photoset on Flickr with more photos than we could include in the booklet. The BCGCU 3000 is still balky, so check in later this weekend to see more photos and better descriptions.

We spent most of our time trying to find good signs at the borders, so we have an odd collection of “sights” around the Luxembourg area. We didn’t go to many of the pretty or historically meaningful attractions, but that actually made the tour very interesting for us. Anyway, it’s difficult to make even Little Switzerland look good on a gray and rainy day in February.

We’d like to share some of our photos and a few observations. Hopefully, we’ll be able to give it the full Bugle treatment before long!

The first sign that we’d arrived in Diekirch were pedestrians in coordinated costumes. But the parade’s been underway for an hour… hey, guys, hurry up!

We found the parade route with no problem. Our first sight was a marching band. Okay, looks good.

The first float featured a homemade confetti shooter. Nicely done, gentlemen. We would learn that confetti is one of the pillars of the Diekirch Cavalcade.

I shouted, “Anita, look! It’s Obelix and Asterix!” She broke my heart this Valentine’s Day by responding, “Who?”

I can’t read it, but I’m pretty sure this group had something to say about the plans to close the Diekirch brewery.

Now you’re seeing more of the spirit of the Cavalcade.

Most floats focused on one clear joke or commentary on recent events. Voici, the swine-flu pandemic.

From what we could tell, every float must be (1) pulled by a large farm tractor, and (2) equipped with a keg.

The evidence points to this: each and every DJ residing within 20km of Diekirch is compelled to lend sound equipment to a float, and serve as keg-master during the Cavalcade.

One great feature of the Cavalcade is that about half the spectators are dressed in crazy costumes.

Maybe the culture gap is much wider than I thought, but it looked to me like the dominant theme of the spectators’ costumes was, “Well, this looks bizarre and make no sense at all. I am fabulous!”

The donkey is the mascot of the city of Diekirch, so gussied-up donkeys figured prominently in many floats.

Really, there’s not much more to say, but plenty to see. We’ll work on a more thorough report when the sun stops shining here.

Next, Will managed to connect Australia and some of south east Asia to the main section.

Some puzzle work escaped the all-seeing eye of the camera. As you can see, Europe, most of Asia and Africa came together too quickly for Will to grab a snapshot.

We must admit that the puzzle has some “cheats” because each piece has a number and an arrow pointing to a neighboring piece. We do believe that the oceans would be nearly impossible without these aids. Here is a view of the inside of the puzzle.

We were able to get most of the land masses connected, giving us what we briefly called “the Pac-Man world”:

At this point, the puzzleball was sturdy enough that we used the stand to hold it up.

Will’s own challenge was the Pacific Ocean. So while I finished the little bits here and there, Will filled out the Pacific.

And then it was time. We had the Pacific ready to attach to the rest of the puzzle.

We thought it would be easy! We were wrong.

We will spare you the 45 photos and 10 minutes of video. It was a lot more difficult than I expected to get it all in there. Finally, between the two of us, we got it together.

We love our puzzleball! It is really sturdy once you get it together. I appreciate having a globe in the house, as it give you a much different perspective of county/continent sizes. Most maps don’t do the southern hemisphere justice.

Hearty recommendations for the puzzleball from this house. Ravensburger had a ton of designs — not just globes. Perhaps you and your sweetie could have a Valentines day challenge!

At several social functions during our recent visit to the US, my spouse Will told a somewhat humorous story involving the shooting of a movie in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland. I would like to address my remarks on those occasions.

In the course of his story, Will sometimes speculated that the movie being shot may have been Leap Year and cited evidence to support that guess. In most cases, I ridiculed this conjecture, claiming that the timing was impossible.

Recently, ads promoting Leap Year have appeared on local television. In response, I indulged my curiosity regarding the movie and its making.

I discovered that Will’s adventure in County Wicklow did, indeed correspond with some dates that filming occured in Ireland, generally. Thus, it is at least possible that Will’s hypothesis was correct.

I regret any impression of implausibility that I may have generated regarding that hypothesis. I also have deep regret for having deprived Will’s listeners of the pleasure of a story untainted by my commentary.

In all good faith,
Anita

I thought you might enjoy seeing the progress after the first evening of solid puzzleball work.

Antarctica came together pretty quickly. (Truth in puzzling – the half-dozen bottom-most pieces came attached to the black circle.)

Will worked on Australia

Zooming in….

My goal was South America. I did okay.

By the end of the night, we had made a real dent in the “bottom” of the world and were able to connect with South America

Sing with me! “I’ve got a lot of the world, in my hands. I’ve got some of the world, in my hands”

Stay tuned for further exciting updates! Marvel at our ability to complete a puzzle! Wonder at the patience we have to work together on the project!

At Bethel University, history professor Chris Gehrz produced a podcast called Radio Modern Europe for his course, HIS354 Modern Europe. The format is clever, using multiple means of presenting the material: short lectures, of course, but also breaking news bits, simulated interviews with historical figures, and even recipes.

The easiest way to access Gehrz’s podcasts is through iTunes, by looking up “Modern Europe History” in the iTunes U section of the iTunes Store and finding the Bethel University option. (Or simply clicking here, which hopefully will launch iTunes and send it directly to the correct place.) Don’t worry, the series doesn’t cost anything: Just click on “Subscribe” or “Get Tracks”.

If you don’t want to use iTunes, you may be able to get the tracks from a sort of RSS feed, linked here. But using that link may take some hacking around.

I just finished the third of 11 tracks, “Liberalism and Socialism”, so I can’t write a proper review of the entire series. But it’s good enough to recommend that you follow along with me. Gehrz presents what I would consider the mainstream version of European history. That’s no defect in the podcast, given its assumption that the listener knows little about Europe. (And I should mention that the audio tracks are not the only source of information for the intended audience: students who spend much more time on a full college course.) A novice like myself should start with the orthodox view, after all.

In some sections, Gehrz refers to slideshow presentations available through Blackboard, which is a kind of private Lotus Notes (or bulletin board) for colleges. It’s too bad we can’t follow along with his students, but the podcast lessons work pretty well by themselves, if you’d just like an idea of how Europe became the place we know today.

As it often happens with these things, the actual purchase of the globe was constantly delayed. The globe store had limited hours; I didn’t like the colors that I saw; and so on. Globes are expensive so I wanted my globe to be perfect.

Christmas 2009 arrived and I had not yet gotten around to buying a globe. Will was fed up with my antics and decided to take matters into his own hands. He reached into the interweb and, once again, found something to hold me until I find that perfect globe.

So I am now the proud owner of a Ravensburger Puzzleball. What he didn’t know was I had nearly bought the same thing a few weeks earlier! I saw it in a store in Luxembourg, but they only had the Puzzleball in German or French — and English names is one of my (many) requirements.

We opened it last night and started it. We had fun looking at the pieces, testing our geographic knowledge. (We don’t know much about islands and oceans.) We also found:

Chicago

Luxembourg (Look carefully!)

Ireland (and some of the British Isles)

I envisioned a quiet evening after work that would end with a nice little globe. I’ll admit that I didn’t realize how time-consuming the Puzzleball may turn out to be. There is a lot of ocean out there, kids.

We plan to keep you informed of our progress. I managed most of South America last night, but now we need to tackle the ocean around Antarctica before we can go any farther. Personally, I can’t wait to get to Russia as it will cover a lot of ground!

(Insert obligatory “I can see Russia from my house” joke here.)

A townhome across from Bugle HQ has been under renovation since we moved here. In fact, every third residence in Luxembourg-Ville seems to be under renovation. When we looked for apartments this spring, our expectations changed radically from our time in Dublin. By the second day of touring residences, a five-year-old apartment looked dilapidated.

Some renovations completely change the exterior of the building. Our own building might have a core structure that’s 100 years old, but it appears to be about ten years old from the exterior (and interior) style.

Back to the building across the street: the exterior renovations began recently, so the Bugle staff deployed some new toys to document the progress. And you, dear readers, get a special preview of the results. To Anita’s eyes, it looks a little like one of those beloved Sesame Street segments.

Here’s the first video, as the scaffolding goes up. There aren’t a lot of interesting parts to this one, but it is an effective introduction to our project. It’s just over one minute long. If you have the bandwidth, use THIS LINK and click on the HD button to see the fine details.

Then there’s the second video, from the second day of work. There are some nice bits in this one, including the final level of scaffolding from 0:40 to 1:05, the rubbish chute at about 1:20, and sunset at the end of the video. Again, here’s the link for best quality.

The third video, almost two minutes long, portrays a slow day due to bad weather. You do get to see some deliveries in the morning, and in the afternoon, the scraping and covering of the roof: the third link.

These are not the most exciting videos that have appeared on the Bugle blog, but fans of the Canadian program, How It’s Made may enjoy watching the process of renovating a Luxembourgish home. We may turn the highlights into a full-fledged Bugle Production, so all suggestions are welcome!