TAR21: Eps 8 to 10
Dec. 9th, 2012 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsLeg 8:
1. We finish up the last leg with the goat farmers getting a four-hour penalty for not finishing the swimming before the pool's closing time, then helping Abbie/Ryan at the lock tree Roadblock, before being surprised at checking in in 5th, while James/Abba (having lost Abba's passport earlier in the leg and still not having found it) will also be running the next leg after all, but not only with the Speed Bump, but also having to find Abba's passport before the next point where they need it (J/A joke about finding their missing cabbie and making him a Speed Bump :-D) As it happens, the next leg is all-Moscow...
2. We don't even get departure times on the new leg, as taxis get lost, a Chippendale tells their cabbie "Si" and Trey/Lexi get splashed through the window on their way to a Russian university's study hall (before waiting for "Beyonce" at 8am :-D) for a Roadblock: "Who's in the zone?" Basically, figure out the time in various cities in Russia when given the time in Moscow. Easy, right? Well, only for the goat farmers. This proves to be the most interesting part of the leg, thanks mostly to the over-the-top teacher administrating the Roadblock as an exam :-D, but also Chippendales and T/L doing it at the same time and taking 11 turns to figure out what the "+4" next to Moscow means (apparently, they were just blindly adding the plus values to the Moscow time)... which is still about 15 turns less than Ryan (!) Nadiya/Natalie use their Express Pass (no choice really, since it's the last eligible leg), while J/A stop by a police station to check if anyone's turned in their passport (nope). Chippendales chide their cabbie for having a coffee and snack :-D, while N/N's cabbie think they're heading to McDonald's :-D :-D
3. Detour between learning a soldier dance and recognizing historical figures at a cocktail party. Turns out J/A aren't the only ones with leg problems: Chippendales soldier through their dance (huh, a pun ;-)) on a sprained ankle one of them got way back in Shanghai. Goat farmers are the only ones doing the cocktail party, and even manage to have a bit of fun doing it. In the farmers' own words, the historical figures are "quite lively for a dead crowd" :-D
4. Pit stop is at some mini-theater in a park. Chippendales (in spite of the ankle) win a trip to Costa Rica, while J/A are so far behind that we don't even get a good look at their Speed Bump (taking a priest to a church; placed before the Roadblock) before their elimination.
Leg 9:
1. Teams get a flag with instructions to head to the central train station of that country's capital city. It's the flag of the Netherlands (though a few of the teams initially think it's France, especially T/L, who only get corrected at the airport [!]), so next stop is Amsterdam. Alitalia is reluctant to sell N/N tix to Amsterdam via Rome due to a one-hour connection, but the twins pester the ticket people into selling it to them anyway. Chippendales just fly direct to avoid (in their words) a tight 45 minute connection. A/R get another Frankfurt connection... actually, they've booked two different flights out of there in case one falls through. Apparently that airport isn't done screwing with them yet though, as after missing their first chosen flight due to early closure, they're forced to change planes for their connection to Amsterdam due to mechanical problems (Ryan: "I hate Frankfurt, I hate frankfurters... I hate Frankenstein" :-D), putting them on par with the goat farmers (again) as they run into them at the Amsterdam airport.
2. In Amsterdam, I get to see a couple places I've been: the airport and the escalator to the train station, the Amsterdam Centraal station with its wind vane clock (and here, a clue pick up for the Fast Forward, more on that in a moment), and the "I amsterdam" sign as part of Phil's intro to the Detour (more on that later). N/N's pestering pays off, as they're first to arrive in Amsterdam, and take the Fast Forward, which entails riding a floating bus (I actually saw one of those during our boat ride in Rotterdam) and eating 5 smoked herrings (each, with onions) in 7 minutes. Disclosure time: one of the reasons I have so few photos from the day we spent on our own in Rotterdam is that I had some herring (just one, actually) at the local market, and didn't want to get the herring smell all over my camera. As for the flavor, if one's acquired a taste for sashimi, one will find it quite delicious :-) N/N finish the task first go with about 45 seconds to spare.
3. Those who do not eat herring, get to ride the canals and eat a local snack at a "Poffertjes" boat instead, as a pickup for a Detour: recreating Rembrandt's Night Watch painting in live action at the local museum (behind the "I amsterdam" sign), or organ grinding and collecting 30 euro in tips. After a slow start, the Chippendales do their organ grinding topless (hey, it's their schtick :-D) and get 10 euro from one of their passers-by :-D This is then followed by a double U-Turn, and here, strategy happens: the Chippendales U-Turn A/R, and T/L deliberately pick the Chippendales to block A/R from using it on the goat farmers. When A/R and goat farmers see this much later, A/R are really teed off because they'd pegged the Chippendales as someone who wouldn't U-Turn them (the two teams they thought would, however, did suggest this strategy to the Chippendales back in Moscow). Although the farmers are rather reluctant to cut them loose, they head off on their own anyway, while A/R grind their organ in the rain (in a bit of a heartwarming moment, one of their passers-by puts them out of their misery by giving them 6 euro :-))
4. On to Ransdorp for the Roadblock: "Who's ready to go back in time and make a last ditch effort?" It's a "switchback" to the last time TAR ran a leg in the Netherlands: ditch vaulting. Cross a ditch, get some wooden shoes with the next location printed on them, cross back. Unlike the original Roadblock, we're spared the sight of some guy stripping down to his skivvies, and most clear it on the first go. Even the goat farmers, even when Josh sprains his ankle while running to the task :-)
5. Pitstop near some local church (more specifically, the reputed house of Rembrandt's mistress), where N/N win the leg and $5000 cash each ("All the clothes we've wanted" :-D) The Chippendales consider checking in as the clock at the church strikes 6:00pm as a sign from God (it's one of them who has the dad with cancer, who also apparently puts in 50-60 hour weeks). After a long tough day (which includes falling into the ditch during the Roadblock!) A/R are finally eliminated, and they're kinda teed off at the Chippendales for the U-Turn.
Leg 10:
1. Everyone flies to Barcelona in the morning, meet up with each other near the ferry terminal, and spends the day at the beach... because the ferry to Mallorca won't be leaving until 11pm (!), allowing the goat farmers to finally catch up with everyone else. On Mallorca however, they quickly fall behind again after heading to a museum with the same name as the local cathedral they're supposed to go to get their next clue from a bunch of devils, but this happens to be a self-drive leg... good news for Beekmans, bad news for the twins, who (you guessed it) have trouble driving stick (and navigating).
2. Roadblock in Rafael Nadal's hometown: "Who's ready to get smashed?" Involves succesfully returning 20 serves from a tennis ball machine. Trey aces it first go (HEH) as the Chippendales compare his headband to Andre Agassi, while Josh struggles with his sprained ankle, the hot sun, and being 42 (!), prompting Brent to compare his grunting to Monica Seles :-D Next stop: some cave with some guys playing guitar for a clue pickup.
3. Detour is between dressing up as a bull at a bullring and running around matadors before hitting a target (lightly, more on that in a moment), and attaching blades to a windmill and picking up their clue from guys dressed up as (who else?) Don Quixote and Pancho. Chippendales and T/L choose to do the bulls, but while T/L actually get to do the bulls, the Chippendales happen across the windmills and decide to do that one instead (talking about how their show sometimes has them wearing construction outfits and wielding fake hammers :-D) T/L appear to be making good time, until they end up running into their target hard and knocking it over, forcing them to do it over. And Lexi somehow hurts her finger really bad, so they switch ends for the do-over.
4. Some castle on the top of a hill is the pitstop, with some woman dressed a headless man as the greeter. In spite of their minor setback at the Detour, T/L get first place and a trip to Mexico. Chippendales are 2nd, leaving it down to the twins and the goat farmers fixing windmills. The twins brag about learning Spanish at Fordham, but it doesn't help them much here as (in their own broken Spanish) "Pero nosotros muy estupido" :-D Goat farmers end up taking 3rd, leaving N/N in 4th... and having to do a Speed Bump in the next leg, as it's a non-elim. Coming up, a two-hour finale.
1. We finish up the last leg with the goat farmers getting a four-hour penalty for not finishing the swimming before the pool's closing time, then helping Abbie/Ryan at the lock tree Roadblock, before being surprised at checking in in 5th, while James/Abba (having lost Abba's passport earlier in the leg and still not having found it) will also be running the next leg after all, but not only with the Speed Bump, but also having to find Abba's passport before the next point where they need it (J/A joke about finding their missing cabbie and making him a Speed Bump :-D) As it happens, the next leg is all-Moscow...
2. We don't even get departure times on the new leg, as taxis get lost, a Chippendale tells their cabbie "Si" and Trey/Lexi get splashed through the window on their way to a Russian university's study hall (before waiting for "Beyonce" at 8am :-D) for a Roadblock: "Who's in the zone?" Basically, figure out the time in various cities in Russia when given the time in Moscow. Easy, right? Well, only for the goat farmers. This proves to be the most interesting part of the leg, thanks mostly to the over-the-top teacher administrating the Roadblock as an exam :-D, but also Chippendales and T/L doing it at the same time and taking 11 turns to figure out what the "+4" next to Moscow means (apparently, they were just blindly adding the plus values to the Moscow time)... which is still about 15 turns less than Ryan (!) Nadiya/Natalie use their Express Pass (no choice really, since it's the last eligible leg), while J/A stop by a police station to check if anyone's turned in their passport (nope). Chippendales chide their cabbie for having a coffee and snack :-D, while N/N's cabbie think they're heading to McDonald's :-D :-D
3. Detour between learning a soldier dance and recognizing historical figures at a cocktail party. Turns out J/A aren't the only ones with leg problems: Chippendales soldier through their dance (huh, a pun ;-)) on a sprained ankle one of them got way back in Shanghai. Goat farmers are the only ones doing the cocktail party, and even manage to have a bit of fun doing it. In the farmers' own words, the historical figures are "quite lively for a dead crowd" :-D
4. Pit stop is at some mini-theater in a park. Chippendales (in spite of the ankle) win a trip to Costa Rica, while J/A are so far behind that we don't even get a good look at their Speed Bump (taking a priest to a church; placed before the Roadblock) before their elimination.
Leg 9:
1. Teams get a flag with instructions to head to the central train station of that country's capital city. It's the flag of the Netherlands (though a few of the teams initially think it's France, especially T/L, who only get corrected at the airport [!]), so next stop is Amsterdam. Alitalia is reluctant to sell N/N tix to Amsterdam via Rome due to a one-hour connection, but the twins pester the ticket people into selling it to them anyway. Chippendales just fly direct to avoid (in their words) a tight 45 minute connection. A/R get another Frankfurt connection... actually, they've booked two different flights out of there in case one falls through. Apparently that airport isn't done screwing with them yet though, as after missing their first chosen flight due to early closure, they're forced to change planes for their connection to Amsterdam due to mechanical problems (Ryan: "I hate Frankfurt, I hate frankfurters... I hate Frankenstein" :-D), putting them on par with the goat farmers (again) as they run into them at the Amsterdam airport.
2. In Amsterdam, I get to see a couple places I've been: the airport and the escalator to the train station, the Amsterdam Centraal station with its wind vane clock (and here, a clue pick up for the Fast Forward, more on that in a moment), and the "I amsterdam" sign as part of Phil's intro to the Detour (more on that later). N/N's pestering pays off, as they're first to arrive in Amsterdam, and take the Fast Forward, which entails riding a floating bus (I actually saw one of those during our boat ride in Rotterdam) and eating 5 smoked herrings (each, with onions) in 7 minutes. Disclosure time: one of the reasons I have so few photos from the day we spent on our own in Rotterdam is that I had some herring (just one, actually) at the local market, and didn't want to get the herring smell all over my camera. As for the flavor, if one's acquired a taste for sashimi, one will find it quite delicious :-) N/N finish the task first go with about 45 seconds to spare.
3. Those who do not eat herring, get to ride the canals and eat a local snack at a "Poffertjes" boat instead, as a pickup for a Detour: recreating Rembrandt's Night Watch painting in live action at the local museum (behind the "I amsterdam" sign), or organ grinding and collecting 30 euro in tips. After a slow start, the Chippendales do their organ grinding topless (hey, it's their schtick :-D) and get 10 euro from one of their passers-by :-D This is then followed by a double U-Turn, and here, strategy happens: the Chippendales U-Turn A/R, and T/L deliberately pick the Chippendales to block A/R from using it on the goat farmers. When A/R and goat farmers see this much later, A/R are really teed off because they'd pegged the Chippendales as someone who wouldn't U-Turn them (the two teams they thought would, however, did suggest this strategy to the Chippendales back in Moscow). Although the farmers are rather reluctant to cut them loose, they head off on their own anyway, while A/R grind their organ in the rain (in a bit of a heartwarming moment, one of their passers-by puts them out of their misery by giving them 6 euro :-))
4. On to Ransdorp for the Roadblock: "Who's ready to go back in time and make a last ditch effort?" It's a "switchback" to the last time TAR ran a leg in the Netherlands: ditch vaulting. Cross a ditch, get some wooden shoes with the next location printed on them, cross back. Unlike the original Roadblock, we're spared the sight of some guy stripping down to his skivvies, and most clear it on the first go. Even the goat farmers, even when Josh sprains his ankle while running to the task :-)
5. Pitstop near some local church (more specifically, the reputed house of Rembrandt's mistress), where N/N win the leg and $5000 cash each ("All the clothes we've wanted" :-D) The Chippendales consider checking in as the clock at the church strikes 6:00pm as a sign from God (it's one of them who has the dad with cancer, who also apparently puts in 50-60 hour weeks). After a long tough day (which includes falling into the ditch during the Roadblock!) A/R are finally eliminated, and they're kinda teed off at the Chippendales for the U-Turn.
Leg 10:
1. Everyone flies to Barcelona in the morning, meet up with each other near the ferry terminal, and spends the day at the beach... because the ferry to Mallorca won't be leaving until 11pm (!), allowing the goat farmers to finally catch up with everyone else. On Mallorca however, they quickly fall behind again after heading to a museum with the same name as the local cathedral they're supposed to go to get their next clue from a bunch of devils, but this happens to be a self-drive leg... good news for Beekmans, bad news for the twins, who (you guessed it) have trouble driving stick (and navigating).
2. Roadblock in Rafael Nadal's hometown: "Who's ready to get smashed?" Involves succesfully returning 20 serves from a tennis ball machine. Trey aces it first go (HEH) as the Chippendales compare his headband to Andre Agassi, while Josh struggles with his sprained ankle, the hot sun, and being 42 (!), prompting Brent to compare his grunting to Monica Seles :-D Next stop: some cave with some guys playing guitar for a clue pickup.
3. Detour is between dressing up as a bull at a bullring and running around matadors before hitting a target (lightly, more on that in a moment), and attaching blades to a windmill and picking up their clue from guys dressed up as (who else?) Don Quixote and Pancho. Chippendales and T/L choose to do the bulls, but while T/L actually get to do the bulls, the Chippendales happen across the windmills and decide to do that one instead (talking about how their show sometimes has them wearing construction outfits and wielding fake hammers :-D) T/L appear to be making good time, until they end up running into their target hard and knocking it over, forcing them to do it over. And Lexi somehow hurts her finger really bad, so they switch ends for the do-over.
4. Some castle on the top of a hill is the pitstop, with some woman dressed a headless man as the greeter. In spite of their minor setback at the Detour, T/L get first place and a trip to Mexico. Chippendales are 2nd, leaving it down to the twins and the goat farmers fixing windmills. The twins brag about learning Spanish at Fordham, but it doesn't help them much here as (in their own broken Spanish) "Pero nosotros muy estupido" :-D Goat farmers end up taking 3rd, leaving N/N in 4th... and having to do a Speed Bump in the next leg, as it's a non-elim. Coming up, a two-hour finale.
