With less than two weeks to go...

I am experiencing some nerves. While most everything is booked and paid for: all accommodations (except the albregues on the camino... and I'm still not sure where I'm staying in Manchester), all ten flights, sixteen of nineteen train trips (the remaining three are day trips I'll purchase on-the-spot), all eight coach trips and most museum and tour tickets; I'm like flat broke!

But I guess I should be. I've invested $5,000. Ideally, I need to earn $5,000 more over the next 13 days... about $400 per day. 200 panes per day. I've got this, right? The work is lined up, just need to go knock it out. And quit spending so much, both trip-related and non. Staying on budget for 100 days will be one of my biggest tests.

Speaking of which, this is the first blog from my new laptop/tablet combo. A week or so ago I spent $300 on a Lenovo Flex 3. Super lightweight (for packing all over Europe) and came with Microsoft Office. I'll need that to write the power point presentation... which I still need to do. Another cause of nerves. The Keynote will be the culmination of my research and there's still some digging around left to do once I'm in Europe. I can certainly cull from my former papers, articles and presentations, but I want to manage two other feats: go a little deeper, while at the same time, presenting a bit lighter, more familiar, almost, than my last presentations. I want it to be fun for the audience. I know how to engage through humor... but is Vincent a laughing matter? Hope I find the right balance. The past experiences have given me a lot of confidence. My scholarship is sound; my research is, I was going to say interesting, but no, it's fascinating. Van Gogh painted the Last Supper and nobody noticed? You can't make this stuff up.

I wasn't sure about what to wear for the Keynote. I don't want to pack a heavy suit all over Europe that I'll only wear once. Romantically, I imagined showing up disheveled as Indiana Jones midway through a journey. But packing that whip? Ultimately, I bought a light khaki, linen suit. Now I've got something I can use not only for the conference but for looking dapper when it seems apropos. I may even grow to like that image of a new me. I'll have to get it dry cleaned before the speech... probably in Rome, then wear it on the plane? Could get crumpled pretty easily but I arrive in Brighton the day before the lecture and I doubt I can find a dry cleaner to get it done in less than twelve hours.

I have spent much of the last three weeks mulling over minutia like this. I've booked a fairly tight schedule, having invested nearly $2,000 in transportation. I have to be at an airport, train or bus station on time at least 34 different times. Having checked Google maps for proximity from each accommodation, I should be fine.

In other news, my friend Rachel from South Carolina will be joining me in Rome and Brighton! I haven't seen her since college, so I'm very excited to get caught up with her. Which reminds me, I need to contact Dr. Haldane at Iafor and arrange for a few invited guests... wonder how big this new venue is?

Ciao for now,
Jared

Dear Wells Fargo Fraud Protection Services,

Get off my back! Yes, it's really me booking planes, trains, automobiles, BnBs, museums, the Eiffel Tower, a Rhine cruise, Leonardo's Last Supper in Milan, and wine tour through Venice. While I appreciate your uber-invasive software, tracking my every move, it has been a pain in the ass trying to book this trip!

Goals Update:
The best part of this quest so far, has been its ability to help me focus. I am at the halfway point between deciding to do this and leaving on June 2nd. I have earned 50% of my monetary goal and spent it accordingly: 75 days and nights all booked and paid for, also 9 out of 10 flights, most museum tickets, most bus tickets and about half of the train tickets. I have three weeks to raise the rest, paying for the last 25 days and other missing bits, plus the money I'll need to get around and live once I'm there. Planning on $40 a day, hoping to schlep a few hundred more windows and make it $50 a day. Luckily, I'm booking up. A ton.

This weekend I'm doing my yearly Lake Oswego gig. 15-18 homes over two days. Last year I had to do it on my own as my brother bailed to visit the Oregon coast. This year I'll have Sam and his girlfriend Corinne to help. Corinne hasn't washed windows before, but hey, this isn't rocket science. It takes five minutes to learn how to properly wash a window (a lifetime to master).

Health Update:
I have lost 15 pounds! Down from my late-winter chud of 208 to 193. I'm in mid-summer window cleaning shape. Hoping to drop another 8 by June; less weight to carry around Europe. I've only ridden the stationary bike a handful of times. Doubt I've even put in  the 91 km I plan on doing my first day in Holland.

Espana:
My original plan was to travel the Eastern coast of Spain, from Barcelona, down the Costa del Sol to Malaga then up to Seville and onto Portugal. I needed to add two days to Spain, taking two days from Central Europe. Much cheaper to fly in and out of Athens on a Wednesday than a Friday. What to do with these two days? Madrid! Madrid? It's a lot of travel time to the heart of Spain and back. But, the Prado, the Goyas? How can I not? I'm also considering using those two days to hop from Gibraltar to Tangier. Notch another continent in my travel belt? Also sounds good. Luckily I've got a month or two before these details must be sorted.

Nothing more to add for now, my dear reader. Yes, I'm talking to you, my one reader :) These preparation details seem banal, but maybe I'm not approaching them correctly? Well, it's a learning process. And hey, the first chapter of Walden, with its Economy, parts A through E? Not that enthralling either.

Until Later,
Jared

Rothenburg is not Rottenburg and Other Lessons Learned

I'll be visiting three churches named after Saint James. The first is Sint-Andrieskirk in Antwerp, Belgium. There is a stained glass window of a Stella Maris, the Virgin Mary as, well a somewhat pagan protector of the seas. Vincent van Gogh found it striking and art historian Debora Silverman posits it may have influenced what many believe to be Vincent's Symbolist rendition of a Madonna, La Berceuse.There aren't any good pictures I've been able to find on the internet. I'll be sure to post some :)

I thought the second church, St. Jakobskirche, is in Rottenburg, Germany, a town southwest of Stuttgart. Good thing I checked! The church, with its Holy Blood Altarpiece, is in Rothenburg ob der Tauber some 200 km away. St. Jakob's is also famous as a starting point for the Camino de Santiago. A 2000 km trek, my route from Porto will be much shorter. Still, I guess I'm some kind of modern pilgrim, and perhaps the final leg of my journey actually begins in Germany.

The altarpiece (only the center is shown here) depicts three scenes from the gospels. Christ's arrival in Jerusalem, his Last Supper and his trial in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was carved by a German named Tilman Riemschneider. It took him five years. Riemschneider became a victim of the of the Protestant Reformation. After a failed peasant revolt, legend has it, both his hands were broken, ending his career as a sculptor. What a waste.

\The final church named after St. James is now the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Spain; the ultimate destination of my journey.

New Bookings:

Nearly all of June and July are sorted for accommodations and airline travel. One flight left to book: Athens to Barcelona. This list looks insane to me but flying is now often the most economical way to travel in Europe:

June 2:    PDX - AMS         Portland to Amsterdam
June 20:  ORY - MRS          Paris to Marseilles
July 11:  FCO - LGW         Rome to London
July 22:  EDI - CPH            Edinburgh to Copenhagen
July 24:  CPH - CGN         Copenhagen to Cologne
Aug 3:    VCE - ATH           Venice to Athens
Aug 10:  ATH - BCN          Athens to Barcelona
Aug 28:   LIS -  OPO           Lisbon to Portugal
Sep 8:     SCQ - AMS         Santiago to Amsterdam
Sep 9:     AMS - PDX        Amsterdam to Portland

The bookings have been smooth. One mistake, I booked a discount train ticket from Brussels to Paris. It was only $20! In my excitement and haste, I forgot I hoped to bring my bike with me all the way to Bologna. I thought about paying separately for the bike, $30 -- the bike is more valuable than I am, but then I found a flight from Paris to Marseilles for less than the cost of a train ticket. So now, I have no idea where Frank's second-hand bike may end up as it won't be flying.

Meanwhile, business is humming along. I'm even working the weekends and putting in 8 hour days! I prefer my 5 to 6 hour days but the work is a little more satisfying with my quest in place.

Tchau for now,
Jared

Caucus Democracy: Another Reason to Move to Europe

In my fervor to have Senator Bernie Sanders (Rock Star - Vermont) become the next President of the United States, I agreed to be an alternate delegate at our local caucuses last month. This meant I had to attend the county caucus yesterday with some 2,000 of my fellow citizens. I also wanted to support my son, Sam, in his attempt to become a delegate in Philadelphia this summer at the National Convention.

What a disaster.

We arrived at noon and were shuffled into a high school gymnasium. With no air conditioning, it quickly reached 90 degrees. We waited until 7:30 for the staff to sort out which alternates would replace the delegates (some 400+) who failed to show up. I had to ask several times, but finally I filled in for an alternate who left after she was selected to replace a delegate who didn't show. Long story short, we were then shuffled into the auditorium, where at least we had decent seats -- those bleachers! -- and listened to some 60 people give a one minute speech, explaining why they were the best candidate to go through that nightmare again in Tacoma later this month. Sam wasn't deterred: I was going to upload the video but apparently it's too large. It can be found on my facebook page. We didn't get out of there til ten pm. I swear it was more exhausting than working all day.

Venice

Not being too familiar with Italian geography, I had no idea Venice is a three hour train ride from Bologna. Makes for a lousy day trip. I thought I'd have to scrap it. But 100 days in Europe and no Venice? No way. So I've scratched Budapest. I'll have to do Eastern Europe some other trip. After Vienna, I'll take the train to Trieste (maybe venture into Croatia?), then the next day, I'll head to Venice and stay a couple of days. Trying to figure out if it's better to fly out of Venice or take an overnight train to Rome to catch a flight to Athens. 

No new bookings to report. Just schlepped windows all day, followed by a solid forty minutes on the stationary bike. Oh, and this is for you, mom. Visited the doctor today and he gave me plenty of Prednisone should my gout flare up :)

Hasta for now,
Jared

May Day!

Happy May Day, a holiday nobody I know celebrates. My mother would tell me stories, growing up as a little girl in the north of England, about celebrating this day. They'd twine banners as they danced and bobbed around the Maypole. Another tradition that has slipped away, replaced by media. So it goes.

Bookings so far.

Yesterday I decided to snap up Athens and Rome. So I'm set for a week with Alkistis on the beach and five days with Paoloa and her two dogs near the heart of Rome. Vatican City? An hour stroll away. Shorter walks include the Borghese Museum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and Colosseum. With some research, I think I'm going to buy the Rome City Pass, think it's called OMNIA. Unlike Paris, which offers free admission to a bunch of museums and attractions I'll never make it to (and for too much money), the OMNIA pass includes your price of admission to the spots you actually want to see (as a tourist for the first time in Rome): the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's, the Colosseum, a few others; and free usage of the transit system is included. Save a few bucks and have some impetus to see at least three or four of the options.

My first night in Amsterdam is also booked. Went with the Hans Brinker Hostel, a mere ten minute walk from the Bastards at the Van Gogh Museum. In better planning my route from Schipol Airport to the city, it looks like Frank the bike guy might be first on my to-do list. I'll text him when I've landed. So the hostel looks like way too much fun. They have a bar and restaurant, with inexpensive meals for about 6 euros. They also have a club in the basement that doesn't close until 3 or 4 in the morning. Need to watch I don't try to party like it's 1999. I do not recover as quickly. Of course, 5 hours on the bike to Otterlo the next day can sweat out a lot of... impurities.

I've spent a quarter of my budget so far booking rooms, travel and a new suitcase (it's also a backpack and small enough to act as carry-on luggage for Europe's strict budget airlines) and a few other items. I will spend the next quarter of my budget filling out the accommodations, travel and as many museum, sightseeing tickets as possible. I understand it's necessary to book well in advance if I want to see Leonardo's Last Supper in Milan. I'll skip long queues at many museums by having my ticket already in hand.

I was going to blog about my second pilgrimage today, but I think I'll save that for later. Today, I'm making my sister and family a full English breakfast, because, why the hell not? This afternoon, I'll be attending a local political event: the Clark County Democratic Convention. I'm an alternate for Bernie Sanders. I'm going with my son, Sam, I'm looking forward to his speech. I'll be sure to post it tomorrow.

Auf Wiedersehen for now,
Jared