Boston was brilliant

Chris and I had a great time in Boston despite Delta airlines misplacing our bags in Amsterdam for 2 days. The weather was very cold, but clear and I got the chance to take some great photos with my wide angle lens. We met up with Tim B who has been living in Boston for over 3 years now - he has even got an American accent now.

We had some gorgeous food at Legal Seafood - we looked dressed for the part during our meal on Valentines Day (jogging pants and fleeces) because all alternative outfits were stuck in Amsterdam.

Onto the CRASH B's (World Indoor Rowing Championships). The arena was a similar size the NIA in Birmingham but the arena was decorated throughout with bold and colorful CRASH B banners which created a fun atmosphere.

Chris raced first at 14:15 and was racing at the same time as fellow Empty the Tanks team mate Steve Hellwig who we met earlier in the day - he is a cool guy. The commentator informed us that in the Lightweight 30-39 race there were 3 Medalists from previous years, including Eskild Ebbesen, Denmark's Olympic Champion and World Record holder (Ebbeson came first with 6:15.8) In second place, retired German World Champion Peter Ording finished in 6:22.9. Chris came 5th in his race with a time of 06:56 which is a very respectable row - well done Chris.

http://utilities.concept2.com/replays/crashb2010/BHeat19

My C2 was on the first row (A2) and I was positioned next to the most muscly lightweight rower ever! I pulled in a below average row of 8:54.5 - I finished 4th out of 4 competitiors. The winner of my race was Petre Lueke, part of the German C2 team (She had a very loud coach shouting at her all the way through her 7:21.6 race).

http://utilities.concept2.com/replays/crashb2010/AHeat22

On the Monday we had a great day walking around Boston with Tim who gave us a personal tour of the city. We stepped into a cool shop or was it an anti-shop? From the outside it looked like a run down convenience store and there was a little room inside that was staged to look like a crappy store, BUT magically in the corner of the room was a fake drinks machinethat was actually a door that opened into a cool trainer shop. Very fun.

We woke up on Tuesday morning to snow! We spent a couple of hours in the local shopping mall keeping ourselves nice and cosy then headed off to the airport to catch the plane back home. If only things were that easy - snow delayed our flight by about 2 and a half hours which meant we missed our connection in Amsterdam to get back to Leeds.

We got home eventually of course - what an adventure Boston was!