Last Few Weeks in London For A While

It's been a while since I've posted, but I thought I'd wrap up the past month or so here in London before I fly home for the holidays ...

Two weeks ago St. James' Year-10 Rugby team participated in a tournament final. This doesn't happen often, so when the boys make it this far the coaching staff goes the extra mile to make it a big deal for them and the school. The lads were invited to play at Allianz Park -- home to the Saracens Rugby Club, one of the top professional teams in England.

Here is a look at the stadium ...

As I said before, the coaches put forth a lot of effort to make a spectacle out of matches like these. I helped set up the locker room with brand-new jerseys for the evening ...

After receiving their new gear and putting it on, the squad headed out to the field to warm up ...

The match was awesome, a hard-fought battle. When the referee blew his whistle for half time neither team had scored. St. James' coach, Stu Willis, got his guys together and stressed to them that they needed to keep up the intensity. He commended the boys on their tough defense but urged them to push forward more on turnovers. He then left his team with the captain and they prepared for the second half kickoff.

The second half began the same way the first half started -- a tough defensive battle. With 10 minutes left to play the opposition, Lanister Boys School, broke through the St. James defense and crossed the touch line resulting in a "try" worth 5 points. St. James seemed dejected but kept coming at Lanister. Another late try put the opposition up by 10 and that's how it ended: 10-0 to Lanister.

After the match Coach Willis said he was proud of the boys, that they had fought hard and left everything they had on the field. He told his guys to hold their heads high, that they had done themselves and their school proud. Coach Willis' message stuck with me on the bus ride home. It reminded me of what Coach Torrey, Chaminade's head football coach, would to my teammates and I after our tough losses. He would tell us to give everything we had for each other. The philosophies behind rugby and football are very similar even though they are mainly played on different continents.

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Last week was the final full week of boarding at St. James before the holiday break, so on Tuesday we all went to the Hampton Court Palace to ice skate. I traded my usual Bauer Hockey skates for some rented figure skates and it wasn't pretty. But the scenery at the palace, Henry VII's pride and joy, was majestic.

Here you can kind of see the beautiful palace lit up for Christmas (I was being asked by the rink guards to put away my phone on the ice, but with a quick couple strides I was able to evade them and get the shot) ...

Here is another shot of the palace from the other end of the ice ...

I look forward to seeing all of my family and friends back in St. Louis. I leave London in the afternoon on Thursday, December 18 and get into Lambert Airport that night at 10:45 p.m.

Merry Christmas

Checking Countries Off the List...

The first thing that popped into my head when I was asked to chaperone the St. James student trip to Berlin was this goofy German kid I had become best friends with last year in St. Louis. I informed that kid -- Max -- that I was going to be in Germany for a few days and he told me to come to Munich (where he is currently attending college) for the week I had off from school.

So after sending the St. James crew back to London, I boarded a train. And after six hours, three trains, and one of the most claustrophobic experiences in my short life I arrived in Freising, a town in greater Munich where the science department of the University of Munich is located. Max was waiting for me on the platform. It was 6:15 a.m. and both of us were pretty groggy, so it was decided that we would sleep for a couple hours and do some sightseeing later on.

We woke up around 9:30 a.m. and took the train into central Munich. Max is actually pretty green to the city -- he has only been here a couple months and has been spending most of his time in Freising "studying" -- so we saw the few sights he knew and then wandered for a bit, giving us ample time to catch up and reminisce about the year he spent at Chaminade.

One of the first places we visited was an old church. We didn't know the name nor the history of it, but it had a high bell tower which allowed visitors to get some amazing views of the city. We climbed the many stairs and got a few pictures from high above Munich ...

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur. A lot of walking, a lot of talking, but I managed to stop and get some cool shots of the fascinating old architecture in downtown Munich ...

We returned to Freising around 7 p.m., completely famished. Max had already planned for us to go to one of his favorite spots in town: Weihenstephan Brewery. A little background on this place before I get into the amazing meal: It is considered the oldest continuous brewery in the world, established in 1040. Sort of gives you the feeling they're doing something right. Max also told me about how the University of Munich has a brewing program. I was skeptical about how someone could get a degree in brewing beer, but he explained to me that 95 percent of the graduates from this program acquire a job in their field within a year of graduation. The school works in cooperation with the brewery and students get hands-on experience there.

After attaining all of this information, I was getting even more thirsty. Although we were both primarily feeling hungry, we agreed trying a few beers would probably be a good idea. So we ordered the sampler, which provided us with three different beers in "tasting" glasses ...

The beer on the left is the Hefeweissbier, or wheat beer. The middle is the Hefeweissbier Dunkel, a dark wheat beer. The last is the standard pilsner, a staple in most German bars I'm told.

Then we feasted.

I'm just going to throw this out there ... the meal I consumed at this establishment is quite possibly the best meal I have ever eaten. Max recommended a dish filled with assorted meats including ox cheek, lamb, potatoes, and other fixings. Here it is in all its glory ...

After our bellies were full and we had "tasted" a few more beers we trekked back to Max's apartment for some more well-needed rest. The following days were a bit hectic for Max school-wise, so I did a lot of sleeping. He brought me to his physics study group one night and it was great to meet some of his friends from college, but, word to the wise: do not try to keep up with the Germans when drinking beer. It was quite nice to sleep in some of those mornings. I felt bad for Max, who had 8 a.m. classes, but I always seem to remember the saying my dad liked to use when I complained about early-morning wrestling practices: "If you want to hoot with the owls at night, you've gotta soar with the eagles in the morning." Thanks for that one, dad.

On Wednesday, Max asked me if I wanted to visit Vienna, Austria over the weekend. I kind of laughed it off with a "sure, dude" but he began to make actual arrangements for us to stay there. I thought he was joking. I still didn't really believe I was going to Vienna until I boarded the train early Friday morning and shortly thereafter saw the Bavarian countryside followed by the west Austrian Alps, which had just received their first batch of snow. The view from the train ...

The beauty of Vienna was apparent on arrival in the city. The place is just majestic. We were set to stay at Max's sister's apartment. I took a picture of an amazing church on our way to Lisa's ...

 

Lisa knows the city well, so she showed us the sights on our first day. We walked to the district where most of the tourist attractions are. Here is the Vienna City Hall...

And the Parliament building ...

Next we went to the historic Cathedral of St. Stephen, which is an incredible building to look at because it is an extremely old piece of architecture that flows into a more modern surrounding. Here it is ...

After all that, it was time for dinner. There is this place Max had been telling me about for a couple days that serves an oversized pork schnitzel and I was pretty excited that we were going to be able to dine there. It did not disappoint ...

Lisa was busy with work the next day, but we still had some amazing stuff planned. Shortly after we arrived on Friday, I met one of Max's childhood friends Samuel. He was great, and Saturday the three of us boys took in some sights together.

We started with a superb breakfast. I went with the bacon and eggs with some french toast. It seemed more like a work of art than a plate of food to me ...

Our first stop after that hearty meal was the Belvedere Palace. I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking here, but a brief history first: Prince Eugene of Savoy built this place in 1723 to serve as the capital building for the city of Vienna.

Below I am standing in the garden of the palace with the estate in the background ...

All three of us in front of the estate (you can click on these photos to enlarge them) ...

 

Max and I lounging on the steps of the mansion as if we run the friggin' place ...

We then proceeded to the palace's central cafe for some lunch. It was a beautiful building from both the outside and inside, as you can see ...

We then moved to the Schönbrunn Palace. This place is truly incredible -- the pictures I took really don't do it justice. Maximilian II purchased the land in 1569 to build himself a mansion and hunting grounds. The grounds and mansion changed hands many times over the following centuries and underwent many renovations. It became what it is today under Franz Joseph, the longest-reigning Austrian emperor. After his death in 1916, it became property of the state.

This is what you see upon arrival at the palace, the main residence on the enormous plot ...

Max and I behind the structure you just saw and in front of the vast gardens of the palace ...

The incredible vista we were able to take in (at the top of the structure in the previous photo) ... 

And of course a shot of the boys above this beautiful place ...

The gang was pretty exhausted after Schönbrunn, so we proceeded back into the city to find a place to eat dinner. We settled on a steak house and were not disappointed. The kitchen was about to close, so we just told the waiter "steak for four" (Lisa had joined us for dinner). This is what they brought ...

After dinner us lads decided to take in the Austrian nightlife and hit up a club ...

The next morning Max and I said goodbye to Lisa and Samuel and returned to Munich so I could catch my flight back to London later that day. We made sure to stop to get a picture with one of the Bavarian bears. Seemed wall-worthy, Aunt Mimi.

It was a great week. I have to say thank you to Max, Lisa, and Samuel for showing me around. It was amazing to see all of these sights. I will also be thanking Mr. and Mrs. Duennebacke for sponsoring our trip to Vienna.

It's funny ... if you told me I would be seeing Austria a year or two ago I would've thought you were crazy. It's been an amazing experience. I put together a little slide show for you guys ...

A Trip to Berlin

Last Wednesday I boarded a flight to Berlin, Germany -- perhaps the most historically significant city in the last hundred years. I was asked by the German teacher at St. James, a fella named Stuart Bridge, to accompany him on the trip and help look after the 12 students that were going. We arrived in Berlin at about 1 p.m. local time and promptly proceeded to a walking tour of the city. It was incredible to see Berlin and how the city had been affected by WWII and the Cold War. The first structure we saw was the Cathedral of Berlin ...

Next we saw the famous Brandenburg Gate, which was built in 1791 to serve as the symbolic end of the city of Berlin and the beginning of the German countryside. The German royalty would ride through these gates on their way to hunting excursions in the Tiergarten ...

Next we walked down Karl Marx Alley and ended up at Bebelplatz, which is quite a beautiful square in the city center but is probably most famous for being the location of many of the Nazi book burnings that were held in Berlin. The Nazi party wanted to have them here because the square is adjacent to Humboldt University, one of the best schools in Germany ...

We then spent some time at an untitled memorial for the deceased Jewish people from the Nazi era. The artist who was commissioned for the project did not leave a plaque explaining the design -- the goal being to leave it open for individual interpretation ...

We finished our tour at a still-standing portion of the Berlin Wall and learned about the many attempts made to cross it. The wall was 3.6 meters tall (or about 12 feet) ...

The following days were filled with museums and visits to other historical sites. Including the Victory Column, which was constructed in 1873 to commemorate the thrashings of the French, Danish, and Austrian armies in the many campaigns of the Prussian empire ...

 

A few of the St. James lads and I climbed the many stairs to the top of the 67-meter tower and were able to capture some amazing views of the city ...

 Of course I took a selfie at the top of this scenic monument ...

We exited the Victory Column and walked through some of the Tiergarten, which has been converted over the centuries from a royal hunting ground to a beautiful park. One of the kids I was chaperoning wanted to sneak into the picture -- so that's James below.

Later that night the St. James legion went bowling. The bowling alley was interesting -- almost like a nightclub. The manager hopped on some DJ decks and started mixing some pretty solid jams. I was impressed.

On our way back to the hotel I found a fairly blunt sign outside of a local pub ...

 

On our final night in Berlin we took the crew to a traditional German restaurant and fed them pork schnitzel, which was incredible ...

On the first day in Berlin I made a deal with one of the students, Caellum, to get a pretzel at every street shop we could find. Here we are at the airport with our last pretzels of the trip ...

I had some time to kill between seeing the boys off on their flight back to London and hopping on my train to Munich, so I stopped for dinner near the station. There was no room inside, so I was offered a seat outside with a blanket. Having experienced the cold winters of St. Louis, I happily obliged and took my blanket out into the elements and enjoyed a nice pizza ...

I am currently in Max's apartment in Munich, waiting for him to finish class for the day so he can show me around. We were able to share a meal last night and catch up. He's doing great. Many more adventures wait in the coming week with Max and the city of Munich...

Flyer Faithful

I basically know one person in London from back home: Mark Barron. He went to the University of Dayton with my brother Drew, so a couple weeks before I left my brother gave me Mark's email. I have gone out with Mark a couple of times since I've been here and I have sort of been adopted into his circle of friends in London because many of them also went to Dayton. It is amazing to me that the UD network of alumni stretches so far around the world. How crazy is it that a medium-size school in Ohio can bring people together on another continent?

So last night Mark invited me out to dinner with he and the Dayton crew. We went to an Italian restaurant in Kensington and I had the best pasta I have ever tasted ...

 

After dinner Mark and his roommate Joe were pretty tired (and had to work in the morning) so they headed home. One of the guys at dinner, Matt McNamara, shared my desire to night let the night end. Matt was actually pretty good friends with Drew at Dayton so we hit it off. He is living in San Francisco and has been backpacking around Europe for the last month. It was his last night in London so I suggested we go to a club ... he obliged. We decided on an establishment called TigerTiger right in Piccadilly Circus. We had a great time.

Matt's flight didn't leave until 8 p.m. the next day so we did a bit of sight seeing together. I took him to the places I knew. The weather was incredible which made the day even better. This was my favorite part of the day, Hyde Park ...

My next post will hopefully be from Germany. I am leaving Wednesday morning for Berlin and taking a train to Munich on Sunday to stay with my friend Max for a week.

An Eventful Weekend

I was feeling a bit sad heading into this past weekend, knowing that the Cardinals would be doing battle with the Dodgers in the NLDS and I would probably not be able to watch any of the games because of the time difference and the lack of enthusiasm for baseball in London. I sort of put it in the back of my mind because Friday was the St. James Staff Night Out and I was excited to hang out with some of the other people who work at the school. I kicked off Friday evening at my favorite burger spot Dub Jam, where I consumed this masterpiece ...

After dinner I proceeded to "Revolution Bar" in Richmond, West London, to meet up with the St. James staff. They were all great, very inviting. I had met some of them previously through PE and History lessons, but it was nice to converse outside of the academic setting.

Later in the night the younger teachers decided to move to another pub where a local band was playing. I was planning to catch a train home around that time, so I told one of the PE teachers, Stewart Willis, that I was going to take off. I've spent most of my time at school helping him and his class, and he instead insisted that I would be staying at his house for the night. I did not really have a chance to say no.

We got back to Stewart's flat at about 2 a.m. after meeting up with his roommate for one last pint. We sit down in his living room and he tunes his television to BT Sport, basically England's answer to ESPN. Low and behold my Cardinals were being broadcast on this channel. Ecstatic, I explain to "Stew" and his roommate James that this is my team, in the biggest game of the year thus far.

They were intrigued.

The game was in the fourth inning and the Dodgers were up 4-1 at this point. I explained to the boys that Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher in Major League Baseball but then told them about last year's NLCS, when my Cardinals picked him apart. They were skeptical about my optimism, and rightly so after the LA nine tacked on two more runs in the next inning to go up 6-1.

Amid all of this I was explaining the cultural importance of the St. Louis Cardinals and the passion St. Louisans have for their baseball club. So they understood -- I think -- when I began screaming at the top of my lungs while I watched the Cardinals put up eight runs on the outright favorite for the NL Cy Young Award and MVP in the top of the seventh. We watched them finish it out, and I think it's safe to say Cardinal Nation has grown by two. Here is a look inside their living room during the game, around 3:00 a.m. local time ...

I woke up Sunday feeling like doing some touristy things. I wanted to see some of the famous attractions in London. A few weeks ago I purchased a skateboard to get around the city a little quicker. So I went to see Picadilly Circus, skated a bit around Trafalgar Square, Oxford Circus, Regent Street, and Leicester Square ...

Regent Street ...

Oxford Circus ...

Picadilly Circus ...