The University of Madrid

On Monday after we arrived we loaded a bus at 9:30 and headed to the University of Madrid. Six of the men who were attending the ISO meetings here were asked to give a lecture on the ISOBus system and how it works and the importance of it. ISOBus in laymen’s terms is the ability from companies to interchange their tractors and implements and have them be able to communicate with each other electronically so that the information will be transferred not matter what color or name is on the product. (I am sure that when Andy reads this he will find many ways to correct it so be prepared for correction). So, we headed to the University with seven or eight companies represented and about 5 countries.
The school was extremely hospitable. They were very excited to have these men here and treated them very well. We were shown to the room where the lecture would take place and then we were taken up stairs to meet the dean of agriculture at the school among many others. They wanted to take lots of pictures of these men and this memorable lecture.
The lecture started at 11 and there were approx 30 people in attendance not including the 15 or so that came with our group. We broke for a break at 12:30 and went back at it again - it was all over about 2:30. It was very interesting to me to learn about the things I hear Andy talking about that are over my head. They explained it in a way that even I think I was able to understand. The men all did an excellent job. It was all done in English because that was the base language for all the countries represented.
The men and women in attendance were very interested and had some good questions. They were eager to learn more and were excited to be in on the initial lecture. They are already asking for more lectures/workshops so they can learn. I was very impressed.
When we were done at 2:30 we headed for "lunch" It was very nice - the menu is below. The food was wonderful and the fellowship was even better. Andy and I were sitting with the PhD professor - he also teaches thermal dynamics and combustion engines, and with two men who own their own implement companies in Spain. It was very interesting just to sit and listen to all the conversation.
So with all that being said here are some pictures from the day.

The ag college

The men making their way to the building

The room where the lecture was held - getting comfortable in the surroundings

The name of the room

This is the extension school for Madrid. I just thought that was cool

Signs in the lobby area of the ag college

The seal of the university

Andy was speaking on File Server

Andy speaking to the group

All the speakers and University members on the front lawn of the University

All the men and University members in the board room in the office of the dean of Agriculture

A John Deere display that was on the table there in the board room

Yet another pictures of the group

Display of Spain's military uniform

A book that was in the museum that the University is putting together

Here are some signs I found while wondering

Ag Economics -

Other colleges in the building

The men upstairs in the office

The President of the College welcoming them to the University


The resturant

Lunch with 30 or so

The menu

From Paris to Madrid

Well I am getting caught up one post at a time. We are finally to our trip to Madrid. Maybe tomorrow I will get the two days in Madrid uploaded and I will be one schedule again.

We left the hotel in Paris at 7 am on Sunday to ensure that we made it to the airport in plenty to time to catch of flight and get to Madrid. We were going through Dublin to get to Madrid because that is what the travel agency had booked. We got the the airport and stood in line and when we got up to the counter they could not find my ticket. She looked up and found Andy and not me, and again, and again. So she told us to go and see the ticket desk to see if they could find me a ticket to buy. At this point I was about to get sick. My stomach was unsettled to say the least. I told Andy to go ahead and check in but he refused. He stood by me and I am thankful. We get to the ticket counter and the man there is beyond slow. We stood there and explained our situation and that we wanted to purchase a ticket the same as the one that Andy had. He starts looking on his computer and while he is looking he proceeds to help the other 3 people in line behind us while we wait. After about 30-40 minutes he comes back and tell me that I do not have a ticket and they are closed today so he can not find out what is going on. Another sinking feeling in my stomach. I once again explained to him that I wanted to buy a ticket so I could go with Andy.
He comes back 15 minutes later and says that he can get me to Dublin with Andy and that is all he does not have a flight from Dublin to Madrid, I explained that I just wanted to get to Madrid. He lit up and said oh no problem. He goes to the next station and in less than 10 minutes has Andy and I on direct flight from Paris to Madrid. Andy had to forfeit his orginal ticket but we were together and skipped a 6 hour lay over in another country.
It was a day filled with many emotions frustration and lack of local language being a large part of it. But, all in all God was looking out for us and we made it here just fine.
So with all that he as the 4 pictures I took of our trip over.

The airport in Paris - those are tunnells running through the middle of the airport.

Finally our gate

Landing in Madrid - the airline was Vueling - very kind people

Andy on the bus in Madrid on the way to our hotel.

Finally Paris Pictures

I stink at spelling and the spell check is not working so please look over all my mistakes. - Thanks
Okay, usually when I post pictures from Paris they involve a lot of family and friends and grandparents. This time it is a little different. We were only able to be in Paris for two days and really only sight see for one. It was a packed day and we had a wonderful time. I took lots of pictures. So I tried to cut down on the the space by collaging them together. I will try to tell you what some of them are, some are just things I thought were cool or looked neat. We really did enjoy ourselves there other than it being dirty and a little scary at night it was great. I would go back again but it would be awhile. Not something I want to do back to back.

This collage is of our hotel, train station, Notre Dame, and some statue I thought looked neat.

This one is mainly of the Pantheon a replica of the one in Rome - it was very large and quite neat


More of the above

This is Sainte Chappell - the line to get in was really long and it was 7E each so we just took pictures from the outside. The other little statue - well your guess is as good as mine!

Lunch in a cafe in Paris - the menu and our food

This is The Louve - This place was amamzing. I would go back to Paris to see this again. It was mammoth and then some. It would take a week to really do justice to this place but here are some pictures. We did get to see the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, the painting of Napoleon's crowning, and much more. Not being real art gurus it was fun but to someone who really knows their stuff it would be amazing. It was a lot of fun. (side note - this is the place where large parts of the DiVinci Code were filmed)

More of the Louve - the bottom middle is the Venus de Milo

The bottom two are the crowning painting and the painted ceilings were the ceilngs of Napoleon's mothers apartments

The first one is the Mona Lisa - it was behind a glass case - did you know it was painted on wood? This is the Egypt part of the museum - Andy wanted to take some of these for MeMe. It was really cool

Most of these were taken in Napoleon's apartment - he lived in the Louve which was orginally a castle for a number of years

The Eiffle Tower. Really cool. Really Large!

More Tower
Paris was a lot of fun - if you ever get a chance to go - do it.

On the way to Paris

Slowly but surley I am getting caught up on all the posting I have to do. We did take a train to Paris. We got on a train in Zwiebruken and took it to Saarbruken - there we loaded a fast Euro-train to Paris, the trip took 1 hour and 50 minutes. It was very interesting to say the least. We had a great time. I must say Paris was a lot of fun, dirty and scary, but fun - more on that later. So for now here are our pictures of us taking out adventure from one country to the next -


Andy looking up something on his phone

Waiting in Saarbruken for the Eurotrain to Paris - we were lucky because it was 15 minutes late - our first train arrived abour 10 minutes late and we were worried we were going to miss our connection, but we didn't

Waiting on the train

Once we were in Paris we had to figure out the metro system to get around. Andy did an excellent job of navigation and we made it just fine. But train hopping and getting from place to place is really not all that fun when you are lugging all that luggage. But we made it just the same.

Finally in our room in Paris. This is the entire thing. It was smaller then our bedroom at home. I tell you these people like their food and room.
Okay more coming soon!

Rosengarten

We stayed at the hotel Rosengarten while in Zwiebruken, it was a very nice place with wonderful people and food. Attached to the hotel was a "rose garden" It was a nice little place, Andy and I had planned to go through together but got busy and we just did not make the time for it. So on the last morning while Andy was at work I went through the garden. It was raining so you can see all the moisture on the pictures. This place was large. I was told later that it is suppose to be one of the top five botanical gardens in Europe. I thought it would take about 30 minutes but after 90 minutes I was hurring to get out so I could meet Andy for lunch. It really was beautiful. If you are ever in Germany you should go through this. Here are some of the pictures I took. I though about a lot of you as I was walking. Andrea and Rosa I actually found. The rest I just thought about as I saw certain plants. Everything was labeled. There were trees, flowers, grasses, and much much more that a seasoned gardner would have appreciated.
Enjoy the View!!

Still more coming

Andy just looked up and we will have internet access in Madrid!!! I am so glad to hear that. I am still posting things from Germany and now we have a lot from Paris as well. We leave in the morning and head to Ireland for a few hours then on to Madrid for four days. I will try to get caught up on posting then. Thanks agian Andrea and Karl for keeping up with the boys. We are ready to see them again. Skype is wonderful but those hugs are even better. More to come . . .

To Eat Adventrously

Okay so on Thursday Hans and Michael took us to eat at a "special place" - I was excited and ready to go. I really wanted to try some new things here in this country and to be adventrous. So we drove, and drove, and drove some more and when I went looking for the next town there was not one. We were literally in the middle of no where. We pulled in to a drive way and he parks the car and we get out. We start walking down the hill to this home/resturant, and the story begins.
We are here because this place has a special menu on Thursday nights. They do this because Thursday is slaughter day. So on Thursday evenings they serve a meal with A LOT, A LOT of meat. I was told that I would not go meat hungry tonight, and that a vegetarian would not like this place - I should have know then that there was more coming. We find a place to sit and start looking at the menu.
This is a family farm and you can tell that the people who own the resturant also live in this house and there are a couple of barns surrounding the "parking area." It was a delecious meal and I would go back again, but I must say a couple of times that evening I was a little skeptical.

Hans, Andy, and Michael walking down the hill to eat.

Finding a place to sit

The menu - Andy choose the special at the top a variety of meat, and I choose Moli - it is like the 3rd one down. We tried to get enough varitey that we could try a lot and I think we achieved our goal. The only thing we did not try and were advised against was Leberknodel. We agreed when we found out that it was a liver rolled up in a ball and boiled. I think Andy might have tried it but I advised against and so did the others.

Here is Andy's plate, look at that large helping of Krout. Andy had a variety of meat and it was all very good.

This was mine. It was a large pork burger of sort. It was very good
Thanks guys it was great - we look forward to returning the favor in a couple of weeks.