Werner's European Adventure: May 2009

After not being home since Christmas, it was nice to spend some time with friends and family at home in the Good Ole USA. I also got to catch an afternoon Royals game and see the newly renovated Kauffman Stadium. Obviously I'm a little biased, but what a great stadium! We went early and tailgated for a while. One of the things (yes, one of the many I might add!) we Americans have on the Europeans is sporting events. They have soccer and 6 day long cricket games. We have baseball, college football, college basketball, and did I mention the atmosphere at all of them! What's better than a good tailgate, walking in the stadium and then getting goosebumps from hearing the Star Spangled Banner (yep, happens to me every time)?!?!? OK, maybe a good F-16 flyover to top it off, but you get my point.

Jennifer and I outside the Party Deck.

Driving back from the game, we passed a Gates BBQ, so of course I couldn't resist stopping and grabbing a "beef on bun". Unfortunately, it was about 5:30 and we were meeting Tim and Josh in Lawrence for dinner. Oh well, it's Gates and I haven't had good BBQ since the last time I was home!

Me, Josh, and Tim at Quinton's after a couple beers at Free State. Don't get me wrong, I love the German beer, but it's dang hard to beat an Ad Astra or John Brown from The Free State Brewery in Lawrence. It seemed like the jukebox at Quinton's only played songs from when we were in college, which made us all laugh and wonder where all the time has gone since we were young and irresponsible. Well, young at least. HA!

This is the view from my parents' backyard toward a small rain shower behind a few of the windmills in town. See, Spearville is "green" and on the cutting edge. Even T. Boone Pickens would be proud.

I had a nice relaxing weekend sitting on the patio with a few drinks with mom, dad, and Brad enjoying the great weather. I can't believe I left without getting some pictures of your mugs to put on here! Next time!

Friday was a bank holiday in Europe (yes, another one), so I went to St. Andrews, Scotland to play a round of golf and see "The Home of Golf". I had great weather, which means sun and warm temperatures. I definitely had the typical St. Andrews "breeze" of 40mph though! I thought maybe I ended up in western Kansas at Mariah Hills.

I got into town late Friday night and decided to go get a bite to eat and not a block from my hotel I heard someone's voice that I recognized so I looked across the street, and sure enough - Bill Self! HA! What a small world (being over here has shown me just how small this world really is - somebody always knows someone else or something like that happens). There ended up being a pretty big group of KU people in town (including Greg Gurley).

Plaque on the outside of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club.

1st hole of The Old Course.

View from the 1st teebox.

Swilcan Bridge on the 18th with the clubhouse in the background.

The Old Course Hotel. A little out of my price range this trip.

Looking down the 18th fairway. The Royal & Ancient Golf Club on the left. My hotel was in the red building on the right, right behind the green. Great location!

Swilcan Bridge view to the Royal & Ancient Golf Club.

I like this picture. It is looking across the 18th fairway near the bridge to the 1st green (clubhouse in the background), but shows just how undulated the fairways are.

I didn't get to play The Old Course this time (the famous one - and the one where the 2010 British Open will be held) because I don't have an official handicap card (note to self for next time), but I played another one of the 7 courses there called "The Eden Course". I actually got to play by myself, which was really nice. Since I didn't bring my clubs, I rented them there and might have just fallen in love with the driver! These weren't any ordinary grab bag rentals either - Callaway Fusion driver, X-20 irons, and an Odyssey White Hot 2-ball putter! Not too shabby, I'd say. These are pictures from that course.

One of the infamous bunkers. I managed to stay out of these luckily! If you hit it toward the front of these, you might as well hit it backwards.

This is a picture of the 18th on "The New Course" taken from the patio of the Clubhouse.

This is part of the remains of an old medieval cathedral from about 1400.

Remnants of a castle.

Coastline near the cathedral.

I couldn't resist adding these. For whatever reason, I didn't even think about it before I rented a car, but I walked out of the airport and looked down and saw "look right" written on the pavement and forgot they drive on the left. Yep, stick shift and all. It wouldn't have been quite such a big adjustment except in the hour and a half drive, I bet there were 50 roundabouts. Now that was confusing the first 49 times! (roundabouts - ugh. They LOVE them as much as I hate them! They are everywhere.)