Planet Stoppenhagen

Finished

Finally. Done with the class. A week chok-full of wine regions, styles, soils, laws, regulations. It's enough to drive one to drink.

An update to my earlier post about the lack of police presence in London... I have been unable to update the site since then, as I spent two nights in central London to avoid any unncecessary commuting and did not have access to a computer. Anyway. Whatever I said earlier, forget it! The past two days in London were almost surreal. The amount of police presence was mind boggling. There were cops on the train cars, on the platforms, in the corridors between platforms, in the mail halls, on bridges, on sidewalks, etc. Comforting? Maybe. Unsettling, maybe. Bizarre? Definitely. The climate in London is so on edge right now that with every siren that screams by on the street, you have two thousand sets of eyes searching the surroundings and the same number of hearts skipping a beat or two. I am not kidding. My course was located about 500 yards away from London Bridge rail station and Tube stop. Also there is Guy's Hospital. Under a normal climate, hearing sirens every few minutes wouldn't be any big event, being that close to a hospital. But when you know how close you are to a major National Rail terminus and major Tube station, given the environment that London is in right now, suddenly the sirens you hear carry a little more weight and ominous tone. It made some moments of the course I was taking a little hard to concentrate on.

As far as the course goes, it seemed to go well. Eight weeks from now, I hopefully will be able to report good things as that is when I get my results.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

We can breathe now.

Weird

First day in London this week, I expected there to be a more somber mood hanging over the city. Apart from the 60-degree weather and pouring rain, it was actually, quite the opposite. While it was clear that there were a lot more careful glances from and at people on the train, both into the city and on the Tube, there was not the lack of numbers of commuters that I was expecting. In fact, the Tube was quite crowded, particularly around 5:30 when I began my journey home. Another thing that bears mentioning is that there was still a noticable lack of police in the stations. I was expecting numerous armed officers in and around the stations, but out of the four stations I was at this morning (Chorleywood, Marylebone, Baker Street and London Bridge) I only saw three police - all at London Bridge and not decked out in bullet-proof vests or sporting automatic weapons. In fact, they were just milling about talking to eachother. And, by the look of it, socially at that. I was surprised. At the same time I was also both comforted and alarmed as well. Comforted because it felt like business as usual, but alarmed in the sense that how is that going to deter something happening again?

Vigilance

On to London.

This afternoon, I am heading to London for that class. Starting tomorrow and through Friday, I will be taking the train in and out of central London each day, except on Wednesday night and Thursday night, I am staying at a hotel within walking distance of the class. I guess if I have to go, I may as well try to limit my susceptibility.

Should anything happen next week in London again (God forbid), I welcome anyone to call me. To call from the States, dial 011 44 7951 428 012.

On Sunday night through Wednesday morning we'll be at Monique and Mat's in Chesham (NW suburb). Their number is...011 44 1494 784 905.

Wednesday night I am at the TraveLodge Liverpool Street. They are at 011 44 870 191 1689.

Finally, should any of these fun and games happen next week, I am going prepared... I've packed clean underwear!

(No) More fun in London

Two weeks to the day and we've got more fun going on here in London. This time, although quite a bit lesser in scale than two weeks ago, still seems to me to hit a little bit closer to home.

Tomorrow, I put Steph on a plane to the US for a long-anticipated conference in San Diego. Ethan and I will then be going down to our friends, Mat and Monique's home just NW of London on Sunday. Starting Monday, I have a week-long certification class in central London. My plan is - and always was - to take the train from their house into central London and back each day. As if the class, itself, and the fact that Steph is gone isn't stress enough. Now, I have to travel in and out of London for five days in a row. Fun, right?

Apparently, ever since the events of a few weeks ago, the mood on the Tube has been very somber and apprehensive. Now, I can just imagine how it's going to be next week. But, as you've all heard it from our leaders after 9/11 and from PM Blair last week and, once again, right now (as I type this he is holding a news conference regarding today's events), you have to go on and do what you do. It's hard, though. Every other time something like this has happened we could sit comfortably knowing that we were not affected first hand. Now, it just seems a little too close for comfort.

Begium and Amsterdam - a bunch of windmills

Steph, Dan and Grandma Wolff - in action!
In late june, Setph's mom came out for a few weeks. While she was here, we took the opportunity to take a quick jaunt to the continent for a little bit of fun. We took the Hoverspeed trans-channel ferry with the car, which allowed us tremendous flexibility and freedom to enjoy the trip.

It was a fantastic trip. I'll simply let the pictures do the talking on this one. Just click the link below to get to the photo galleries.

Click here to go to the gallery for pictures.

OK in England

What a frightening and sobering day.

While we are 45 minutes by fast train from London, the events of today certainly reverberated around us, as they did around the world.

We have received numerous e-mails from people around the world asking if we are ok. I assure you that, yes, we are ok. Our everyday lives keep us out of London anyway, only having been there a couple of times in the last few months. However, Steph and her mom were there about a week or so ago and I often have to go to London for tastings now and then.

I have a certification course to attend in central London in two weeks. While I am not all that concerned about any further attacks, I am concerned about the simple inconvenience of the trains not running properly. Dang terrorists. Who needs 'em, huh?

Thank you for your concern.

Dan, Steph and Ethan

(Check back here later for an update about our Amsterdam and Belgium trip last week.)