{"id":1340,"date":"2009-12-04T13:32:24","date_gmt":"2009-12-04T19:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/?p=1340"},"modified":"2009-12-04T13:32:24","modified_gmt":"2009-12-04T19:32:24","slug":"holiday-time-in-luxembourg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/?p=1340","title":{"rendered":"Holiday time in Luxembourg"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Well, I’m finished judging the entries for the drawing contest and have given them to EuroSpaceward to get the certificates printed up and notify the winners.\u00a0 My disguise is being delivered tomorrow morning – hopefully it will keep me out of trouble.<\/p>\n

And, my presentation is actually finished.\u00a0 Really and truly.\u00a0 I’ve even been able to have time to send it off the rest of the Board Members of ISEC to get their comments.\u00a0 Will wonders never cease…<\/p>\n

<\/a>So, I’m in Europe, in Luxembourg, and it’s the holiday season.\u00a0 I have some free time and am told that the local “Christmas Market” is a great place to do Christmas shopping.\u00a0 Also, I get a chance to walk around ‘old Europe’ and it’s always been a great pleasure of mine to do so.\u00a0 I’ve done lots of walking in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France, Great Britain (England and Scotland) and especially the Netherlands.\u00a0 I love it – it’s so different than where I live (a suburb of Chicago).\u00a0 There the streets are straight and wide and (relatively) new.\u00a0 You have to drive to get anywhere and the attempts to make a ‘town cente’ in the suburbs just don’t cut it.\u00a0 Old Europe streets are narrow and paved in cobblestones.\u00a0 You rarely can see what’s 50 yards in front of you as the streets twist in all directions – it makes walking anywhere seem like an adventure.\u00a0 And town centers are vibrant with life, especially during the holiday season.<\/p>\n

<\/a>I’d been looking forward to walking around in the old part of the city in Luxembourg City and I was not disappointed.\u00a0 I did get a good chunk of Christmas shopping done but, sadly, did not find anything for my wife.<\/p>\n

I have a confession to make – I did not buy my wife a Christmas present last year.\u00a0 She’s tremendously difficult to buy for and, when pressed as to what she wanted, she finally told me “A condo in Hawaii”.\u00a0 I wasn’t able to come up with one last year, but did have faint hopes that I might find something while Christmas shopping today that could act as a substitute.\u00a0 Alas, no…<\/p>\n

<\/a>I’ve included some pictures from today’s walking tour of Place D’Arms (the location of the Christmas market in the Luxembourg City Town Center).<\/p>\n

The first picture might take a little explaining.\u00a0 It’s an outdoor heater.\u00a0 Several of these were located by the tables located in the middle of the Christmas market – tables where people ate and drank their Gl\u00fchwein.\u00a0 They were quite effective – I can attest to that.\u00a0 Though there was no snow on the ground, it was damp and near freezing – the heaters were definitely welcomed by all who were there.\u00a0 The third picture is a 4-tiered chocolate fountain – there are chocolate \/ confectionery stores everywhere.\u00a0 The rest of the pictures are of the Christmas market.\u00a0 I particularly like the last one – it really seems to capture the atmosphere I saw and felt tonight.<\/p>\n

<\/a>The conference starts tomorrow.\u00a0 My internal clock is adjusting well and I should be fully functional, or at least coherent, by tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned!<\/p>\n

(Click on any of the picture thumbnails to see a full-size version) <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I’m finished judging the entries for the drawing contest and have given them to EuroSpaceward to get the certificates printed up and notify the winners.\u00a0 My disguise is being delivered tomorrow morning – hopefully it will keep me out of trouble. And, my presentation is actually finished.\u00a0 Really and truly.\u00a0 I’ve even been able […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}