Random Thoughts

J Blog advertises: "Music * Travels * Food * Random Thoughts." Well, I have given you plenty of music and travels, and even a little bit of food. (I regret not taking more pictures of food...would have been a good way to remember certain parts of the tour. Maybe next time.) However, I have yet to give a post of "Random Thoughts"...until now.

**When we first arrived at the Harrisburg, PA Airport, we met a couple of SOA volunteers who were there to take us to Elizabethtown. One of the volunteers (Robert) traveled with us to Europe and helped load/unload the equipment truck, and I got to visit with him from time to time. The other gentleman, whose name I cannot remember, had made the trip several times in the past, but did not go along this time. While we were riding on the shuttle bus, he was discussing the instruments he played, and some of the music jobs he had held in the past. He mentioned that he was probably best known for his bass drum playing, and that he had played the bass drum on the soundtrack to the movie, "Backdraft." That is about as 'random' as it gets.

**While we were in Innsbruck, Austria, Macklemore (of "Thrift Shop" fame) was staying in the same hotel. (Rumored--not confirmed.)

**All of the countries we visited use the Euro as their form of currency except Switzerland, which still uses the Swiss Franc. I can only imagine what this tour was like in the past, when every one of these countries used their own currency.

**While in Cortina and Venice, Italy, I heard multiple songs by Sting on the radio. I mean, like five or six different songs from Dream of the Blue Turtles (released 1985) and ...Nothing Like The Sun (1987). In multiple shops, over the course of three days. The songs were so old and so pervasive that I had to check on the internet to see if Sting was still alive, since it seemed like there may have been some kind of tribute going on. I was happy to find out Sting is not dead, and I'm happy to report that his mid-1980's albums are still very popular in Italy.

**We visited two cities that had hosted the Winter Olympic games: Innsbruck (1964 and 1976) and Cortina (was scheduled to host in 1944, cancelled due to World War II, and did host in 1956). Paris has hosted the Summer Olympics twice as well.

**James Bond came up from time to time during our travels, as Grindelwald was the shooting location for several scenes in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and Cortina was the site of filming for the ski resort scenes in "For Your Eyes Only." As for Rothenburg, Germany, it served as the village setting for the movie "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and was also a shooting location for the last two Harry Potter movies. And of course, Venice and Paris have been popular shooting locations for a large number of movies. When we came home this week, one of the things we did was to go as a family to see a movie. We saw "Red 2," and I'm sure I was very annoying in pointing out the places in Paris that were in the movie.

**Stresa, Italy is on the shore of Lake Maggiore. This lake is featured in the Ernest Hemingway novel, "A Farewell To Arms." The protagonist in the book travels north on the lake because he is being pursued by Italian military police (the north end of the lake is in Switzerland).

**I watched "Les Miserables" on both the flights to and from Frankfurt. I also finally got around to watching "Zero Dark Thirty" on the flight home; I highly recommend it if you have not seen it. As for the flights themselves, I also highly recommend Singapore Airlines. They do a fantastic job.