This weekend concluded the fourth running of the Tour of California bicycle road race. Levi Leipheimer, a Santa Rosa resident, won his third consecutive tour and continues the US dominance of this event. This is not surprising given the location and timing of the event, but many of the international cycling stars have made the trip to participate in what is becoming the start of the international pro cycling season. Micheal Rogers (AUS) and Jens Voigt (GER) finished 3rd and 4th. The Schleck brothers (LUX), heroes of the 2008 Tour de France. were also highly visible participants.
But of course the star of the show was Lance Armstrong. This was Lance’s first real race in his comeback. It was fun to watch Lance in his comeback and certainly Lance’s presence energized the crowds. The most amazing aspect was to watch Lance serve as domestic extraordinaire and lead the peleton in the final stage to ensure Levi’s win. It is rare and refreshing to see an athlete of Lance’s caliber and fame, be totally subservient to the team goals and sacrifice his own standing to help a team mate win the Yellow Jersey.
To help celebrate another successful Tour of California, here’s my video of the first Tour of California in 2006.
This video highlights the 2006 Tour of California time trials held in San Jose CA. The time trials began in front of the IBM Silicon Valley Lab where I work and finished near my house. I was able to see the start in front of the lab and then rode my bike to the finish line to capture this exciting video.
As part of my social networking, I created youtube.com/GreenWanderer and uploaded many of my videos. I thought I would feature them here to help launch the site. I also added one of the videos to ChannelDB2. So far I’ve received over 200 hits between the two sites.
A quick little video about the re-Christening of my 1973 Cal 2-27 (27′) sailboat. This event marks the beginning of GreenWanderer in my mind. You can see more about Calypso at jaybruce.com
Part of my journey into YouTube required an upgrade to WordPress 2.7.1 that I use to host this blog. After a lot of worry and procrastination I finally upgraded today and was greatly relieved as to the ease of the upgrade. I also upgraded the theme to give a new look and feel to the GreenWanderer blog. There are more changes in the pipeline. The Ocean Mist 2.0 theme that I use is available from TenByTwenty.com
February is the month for the Tour of California. Every year most of the big names in cycling race down the state. I usually manage to watch a stage or two in person, but this year job demands limited my access. I was content to watch Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer and George Hencapie on the Versus Channel. I don’t know why I’m drawn to the tour, but my legs start twitching when I watch them fight up the hills or sprint to the finish. I am inspired to get out on the road and feel the wind in my face.
The week started out cold and wet. The stages down from Sausalito to Santa Cruz and San Jose to Medesto were especially miserable which may have influenced my inability to find time in my schedule during the day. As the tour headed into the Sierra Nevada mountains, the weather broke and the sun came out. I took advantage to get out and spin my wheels, inspired by Lance and Levi. As the race headed to Paso Robles where my dad lives, I chose to cycle to work rather than drive to down south to watch Stage 5.
The Tour of California has become the preeminent bicycle road tour in the US and rivals le Tour de France in audience and spectacle. To watch the cyclists riding the same roads that I ride brings it all home to me. Although my interest in cycling dates back 4 decades, the Lance Armstrong era has certainly inspired me and brought cycling to the mainstream. I was thrilled when the Tour came to San Jose in 2006. To me the Tour and le Tour are two high points of my year. Yesterday when Levi won the time trials in Solvang I cheered for our home town hero.
I guess I’m just a tech head. I didn’t intend to include technology in this blog, but I can’t help it. The very nature of blogging dictates some level of technology savy, but I take it to the next level. I setup jaybruce.com a few years ago and then added GreenWanderer.com. I used Yahoo community webpage facilities and installed several open source packages including My SQL and WordPress to host this blog. I tour the world for IBM talking about DB2 for z/OS.
I have also been experimenting with social networking. I updated my linkedin account and added an account on ChannelDB2 for professional interactions. IBM has an internal social networking site called beehive where I received some honey and was highlighted for a week when I added a link to GreenWanderer.com. Funny how things come full circle. I also setup a GreenWanderer group on Flickr. So now all the pics that I’m taking with my new Blackberry Storm are at flickr.com/groups/greenwanderer
Technology seems to permeate my life. I recently acquired a Garmin GPS for my bicycle. I’m looking forward to buying my next boat so I can integrate a new computer system. I’m still working on getting my Blackberry connected to IBM’s email system, but once connected I assume it will be very difficult to disconnect.
Is there an inherent conflict between technology and a green life style?
Early environmentalists blamed technology for many environmental disasters. But now green technology is in vogue and green sports have GPS with computer interfaces. The carbon footprint of technology can be another matter. The large scale computer systems that run the internet can suck all the power available on the grid. Technology manufacturing processes produce highly toxic byproducts. I’m happy that IBM is a leader in green technology, but we still have far to go.
So I’ll continue to wander by foot, by bicycle, by sailboat and by public transit;
while I continue to steer by GPS, blog by Blackberry and chronicle by Internet;
then I’ll continue to take the stairs instead of the elevator and escalator;
course I continue to embrace my journey, just another day in paradise.
My journey took an interesting turn when an opportunity arose to meet with some customers in Brussels, Belgium. Due to the emergence of Brussels as the political capital of Europe with the European Parliament and the NATO Headquarters, there is a convergence of many technology company presences. My day was full with meetings, but I was fortunate to have selected a hotel close to the first customer location. After an afternoon visit to a second customer located off the highway towards Antwerp, I returned to the hotel and took a quick nap.
Brussles Town Hall
That evening I set out to walk the kilometer to the “Grand Place”, the center of Brussels history and culture. This magnificent square is surrounded by impressive gothic houses. The centerpiece is the magnificent town hall which features a 97 meter tower. Many of the buildings are topped by guilded statues. Since I arrived at dusk and stayed through the evening, the gold figures glistening in the setting sun were highlighted. As night fell the square took on a ghostly image.
I strolled the streets around the Grand Place looking for a nice place for dinner. I happened upon a small alley filled with seafood restaurants each with an ambitious hawker in front exposing the advantages of the cuisine within. I wondered up and down and choose a small restaurant that listed seafood and vegetarian offerings. I enjoyed a wonderful dinner and then headed back to the hotel.
One side benefit of the trip was my new Blackberry Storm. The motivation of the Blackberry was true international access, but the multimedia features received the most use during it’s maiden voyage. I enjoyed the MP3 player during many of my transits, but the camera proved the most fun. Since I always had my phone with me, I was always at the ready to snap a picture or two.
My journey through France and England has given me a genuine opportunity to practice my motto, “Embrace your Journey”. It started last week. My meeting in southern France ended earlier than I planned. I was hoping to leave a day early and spend the night in Paris. On the day of my departure there was a national strike that shutdown all transportation. Since I needed to take an early train, I decided to walk to the train station the night before to buy my ticket. Of course the ticket office was closed and none of the ticket machines would take any of my credit cards.
I went off in search of dinner. Soon I found myself at Pain & Cie where Pam and I had a wonderful Valentine`s dinner the year before. Feeling a bit lonely, I looked for Pam on instant messenger where she joined me virtually for another wonderful dinner.
The trip to London was uneventful. The night before my meetings, the worst snow storm in 20 years shutdown all transportation. Since my meetings were canceled, I took advantage to get some much needed rest. My attempts to go out to dinner were also unsuccessful. I ended up having a very nice dinner on the 23rd floor in the Hilton where I was staying.
The flight to Dublin and back the next day was marked by long delays. The wait in the Dublin airport became a comedy of errors as we were moved from one gate to another and then back to the first. The bright spot was an Irish pub where I enjoyed several pints of Guinness.
The next day was to start with a train ride to Nottingham. Unfortunately I did not allow enough time for London traffic and missed my train by less than a minute. It turned out that my original train somehow snagged an electrical line and shut down the entire system. We were transferred to a bus in Leicester which gave me a chance to see more of the English country side than the high speed train allowed. We transferred back to a train in Loughborough and were off to Nottingham.
Tomorrow I’m headed back up north and Friday I’m off to Brussels, I think I may have more adventures ahead of me.
I arrived in London a few days ago and am taking advantage of the weekend to do some sightseeing. This is my first trip to the UK and have always wanted to visit the land of my ancestors. There is so much to see in London, that I decided to use my hotel as the center and see what I could walk to.
I am staying at the Hilton Metropole which is conveniently located at the end of the line of the Heathrow Express train in Paddington. Pam recommended to take in some theater so I set off for Piccadilly Circus which is the center of the London theater district. After wandering around the discount ticket booths, I finally found a singleton ticket for the matinee of Les Miserables, an all time must see of mine.
If you’ve never heard of “Les Mis”, it’s an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel set in the French revolution and chronicles the worker’s struggle against the ruling class. Les Mis originated in London and is the longest running show in town. This powerful drama was even more poignant given that I was stranded in France for an extra day due to a national strike and gives real insights to the power of the unions in modern day France.
Buckingham Palace
On my second day in London, I decided to go to Buckingham Palace. I arrived just in time for the changing of the guard. As I jostled for position for picture taking, I found myself in a sudden snow flurry. Although not apparent in the pictures, it turned the entire scene into something from a fairytale.
I circled around the palace and came back to the “Queens Gallery” which was featuring the works of Rubens. What stuck me the most was a sample of the Crown Jewels. The similarities between the jewels in the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Sultan’s Palace in Istanbul were amazing. Something about “absolute power corrupting absolutely” came to mind. Or maybe given the modern day financial crisis, it’s just a matter of the power of “too much money”.
I just arrived in France and am taking the train from Paris to Montpellier. This is a four hour trip down the center of France and is a great opportunity to see the French country side. There is usually a six hour lay over in Paris, so the train gets me there faster then a jet.
Last year Pam and I took the train a couple of times and which got me over my phobia about taking trains in foreign countries. The real secret is to dress very warm as the train stations can be very cold in February. I am always amazed how many people speak English around the world.
As I left Paris behind me, the train passed through patch work farmlands with many meandering streams and old stone farm houses. The architecture slowly changed as we approached Nice to brick houses with those striking red tile roofs. In each small town, the magnificent steeples of century old churches would stand out among the red roofs. As we headed further south, the scenery shifted to rolling hills. As evening approached a mist settled into the valleys giving the landscape a magical feeling. I arrived in southern France as the sun was setting and was rewarded by a beautiful sunset.
This is my first blog on my new Blackberry Storm. I’m still getting used to typing on the screen, but I’m hoping I will get better with time. I should be able to blog a lot more now.
