Greg Wesson's Esoteric Globe

One of the great things about my commute is that, because I work in Central London, I have some awesome choices of commutes. In any commute, I cross the Thames River. I can take a bus from my place which runs through Parliament Square, by Big Ben, and then past Trafalgar Square. Or I can take the train in to Victoria, and get off at Temple tube, walking past Somerset House on my way into the office. The final (and most common) commute, I cross the Thames by walking across Waterloo Bridge to Waterloo train station and then on the way home.

The walk across Waterloo Bridge is amazing, though. To the east is St. Paul's Cathedral and beyond that the city. To the west, Charing Cross, the London Eye and the Parliament buildings.

A couple of weeks ago, crossing the bridge, there was a beautiful, red sunset, creating a gorgeous backdrop for the sites along both sides of the Thames.

Charing Cross rail Bridge and St. Stephen's Tower from Waterloo Bridge

London Eye and St. Stephen's Tower (aka Big Ben)

I never thought I would say this, but often the commute home can be a great balm for a hard day when the commute looks as beautiful as that.

I seem to have an on and off relationship with skiing. I started skiing when I was in my pre or early teens (somewhere around 12, 13 or 14 I think). I skiied a lot when I was a teenager, mostly in eastern Canada and the eastern USA. Then when I started working after University, I gave it up due to lack of time and money.

After 7 years, I picked up skiing again when I worked on a project over the winter in Denver, Colorado, followed by a project in California that allowed me to try out some of the resorts there. My last ski trip was the trip to Heavenly, California. After that, I spent 13 months in Atlanta, which is not really a hot bed of snow skiing, and skiing left my life again.

So it had been over 9 years since I last skied when a friend from London suggested a ski trip to the Alps. I had never skied in Europe, so how could I pass that up.

We spent a week in Morzine, France, part of the Portes du Soleil ski area spanning the border between France and Switzerland.

We arrived on Sunday, March 18th to a heavy snowfall. The week before the weather was bright, warm and sunny, and there was some concern that the snow would have melted off the hills. However, the snow continued through the next day, giving a hills an excellent coating of fresh snow and deep powder.

The snow was thick on the slopes that first day, and despite forgetting my goggles at home, it was a good day skiing. I got back after the first day we burning thighs. I jumped into the shower to clean up and soak my aching muscles. In the shower, I saw proof I had pushed hard. Embedded in my shins were small blue balls of fuzz from my thermals, pushed into my shins as I pressed against the front of my boots.

We were staying at an amazing chalet called Alaska right in the centre of Morzine. The chalet included a cook, chalet host and the services of a ski guide to take you around the mountains. I have never stayed at a fancy chalet before, and the experience was amazing. Good food, great advice from our hosts and champagne and canapes as apres ski. If there is any problem with staying in the chalet, it was that it was easy to over do it on the food and have too much.

Tuesday we woke to a sunny day on the slopes. I headed out with one of our ski guides on Tuesday and skied over towards the Swiss border.

This being France, on hill dining is a little different than the burger and fries that seem to be de rigueur in North America last time I skied there. Restaurants dot the hills, offering sit down dining for hot meals. Lunches over the week included roast chicken, pizza, sausages and fresh salads.

The week continued with sunny and warm weather. Beautiful spring skiing. One day I headed up to the top of Les Gets to check out Mont Blanc. There are views of Mont Blanc from all around Morzine and Les Gets.

Sunny and warm, I decided to sit down and have a half pint (or demi, as the French call them) over looking Mont Blanc.

Off the slopes, we also went and saw the Morzine Penguins ice hockey team play an exhibition match against a team from Megeve. The Megeve team plays in a lesser league, so it was a fairly one sided match, ending with the Penguins winning 15 goals to 3.

By the end of the week the sun had taken its toll on the snow on the slopes, exposing a lot of grass. One of the lifts goes over a horse farm, and the horses were enjoying an early spring forage.

It was definitely good to get out skiing again, and get my first taste of European skiing. Hopefully it won't be the last.

Imagine, if you will, you are walking along and ahead of there is a rather unassuming foot bridge. You might see a boat coming along, and think to yourself, "there is no way that boat shall pass under that bridge." Then the bridge starts to curl up, like a potato bug, getting out of the way of the coming boat.

That is what you will find at Paddington Basin, where Heatherwick Studio's have created the Rolling Bridge just outside the corporate headquarters of Marks and Spencer.

I previously worked in the area and had, in fact, crossed the bridge on multiple occasions without ever realizing there was anything special about it.

Then a couple of man come out, blocking off the two entrances to the bridge, and slowly it starts to curl up. It rises like a straight lift bridge at first, but then the end starts pushing higher, and the bridge starts to warp into a curve.

Eventually the bridge curls around onto itself, closing up into an octagon shape on one side, and freeing completely the channel it spans.

After a few minutes, the bridge unfurls, eventually spanning the channel again.

It becomes just a regular footbridge again.

The footbridge can be found at Paddington Basin, just to the east of Paddington Train station. The bridge is opened every Friday at noon.

Usually if a flight pulls away from a gate at anything other than the appointed time, its because you are running late. My flight down to Rome was one of those rare occasions where a plane pulled away early. The pilot and crew had gotten everyone on ahead of schedule so we could get away early. "Hopefully to miss the snow," explained the captain.

Snow? In Rome? That doesn't seem like travel as usual.

It wasn't. In fact, the snow that fell on Rome was the first snow since 1986. The radio was telling folks to stay off the road, and I saw more than my fair share of cars rattling down the cobblestone streets of central Rome with chains on their tires. It was a unique way to see Rome for the first time.

The snow had finished falling by the time we landed, so the pilots rush to get us off the ground was for nought and the snow didn't impact the flight at all. We were 20 minutes early, though, which would give me an extra 20 minutes of site seeing in Rome. All I had to do was get into town. That's where the snow hit me.

I was already in a poor mood from the wait in line for customs (we arrived just after a couple jumbos from China and India) when I arrived at the train station. The train into central Rome was delayed by 30 minutes, and once it finally got going dropped us only halfway towards central Rome, at Roma Ostiense station instead of at Roma Termini. I had to transfer to the metro, and then try and drag my roller suitcase 20 minutes through the snow covered pavement and cobbled streets of Rome.

Once settled into my hotel (right by the Trevi fountain), my mood improved. Despite the cold, snow and ice, the site seeing was good when bundled up against the cold. It did provide a few hitchs - for example, the Colosseum was closed due to the snow, there were a few streets shut down due to falling ice and I did slip on the ice, fall and jam my thumb. However, it did provide a unique view of many of the famous Roman sites I had seen many times in photos and on travel TV shows.

Snow in the Coliseum

Columns at the Foro Di Caesar

The Forum from Via dei Fori Imperiali

Columns at Largo di Torre Argentina in the snow

Largo di Torre Argentina in the snow

Lights along Via del Corso

Spit it out! Piazza Novona

Trident wielder, Fountains at Piazza Novona

Quirinale steps

Arch and fork in the road showing the snow in Rome

Spanish Steps, icy and treacherous

Statues along Via Del Fori Imperiali

Tiber River at Night

Trevi Fountain at night

Villa Medici, atop the Spanish Steps

Santissimo Nome di Maria al Foro Traiano

Santa Francesca Romana o Santa Maria Nuova

By the end of my four days, much of the snow had melted, however the cold was still there. The snow and cold provided a unique view of Rome, but I would like to see it in a more traditional setting - perhaps with some sun and warmth next time. Definitely will want to come back.

So on my last night, walked around the corner from my hotel to the Trevi fountain. I took off my gloves, shivered a touch from the cold air on my skin, and then dug into my pocket. I pulled out a Euro coin, turned my back to the fountain, and tossed it over my shoulder.

Rome, I'll be back.

"I don't think I have heard this much English since I arrived in Rome!"

I overheard that as two people squeezed passed me through the pre-game throng. The place was packed with Americans, mostly students. Despite the fact that it was getting close to midnight on a Sunday night, the crowd continued to grow and showed no signs of easing up.

The reason they were there, and that late on a Sunday, was for Superbowl XLVI, and the place they were gathering was the Scholar's Lounge on the Via del Plebiscito in Rome, Italy.

The Scholar's Lounge is a multi-room Irish pub with a fine selection of beers on tap and an international menu. It is as one imagines an Irish pub should be - wooden paneling, pictures of Irish poets, books lining book shelves and lots of whiskeys lined up behind the bar along mirrored shelves. It also, in the manner of many pubs nowadays, had multiple TVs to show all the latest sports, including American football.

Superbowl XLVI featured the New York Giants against the New England Patriots, playing in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Patriots were heavily favoured, however the New York Giants had beaten a heavily favoured and previously unbeaten Patriots squad in the Superbowl in 2008.

As we got closer to midnight, the cramped quarters became even more packed, and I had to fight to find a space just to stand. Soon every inch of floor space was filled with people watching the Superbowl.

Getting to the bar became a chore, having to try and push through the crowds. At half-time, I switched from pints to bottles of Peroni, and ordered three large bottles so I could try and make it through Madonna's half-time show and through the end of the game without having to try and fight my way back to the bar. Luckily I was able to find a small space, which even included a small shelf to put my extra bottles on and provided a decent view of on of the big screens.

Despite the crowds, the Scholar's Lounge was a great place to watch the game. It had an excellent atmosphere, lots of fans and a beautiful setting. A few less people might have made getting to the bar a bit easier, but one can't complain too much.

The game came towards the end with the Giants having the ball. Afraid that New York would run down the clock and kick a game-winning field goal, the Patriots allowed the Giants to score a touchdown run, giving the Patriots 57 seconds to try and win the game. However, the Patriots were unable to move down the field, and the Giants ended up winning the game 21 points to 17.

My own game plan worked out well as well. I was able to run through the entire second half without having to go back to the bar, and as the game ended still had half a bottle of Peroni left.

The crowd thinned out as the lights came on and I finished off the last of my beer. I walked out into the cold Roman night, wandered past the nearby Palazzo Venezia, up the street past the Trevi Fountain and back to my hotel. Another exotic location to watch the most American of events in an Irish pub.

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For more of my experience of watching Superbowl in international locations, check out my Superbowls Around the World Table of Contents.