goldeneye

First of all, I am very surprised that they went through (now former airport) Tegel to get to Kazakhstan - since Kazakhstan is in the former Soviet Union, so I was expecting them to go through Schönefeld (now part of Berlin Brandenburg airport) to get there, unless there was a stopover somewhere. Those pouches with the clues - again, probably part of a task for the Final Leg. Shades of Season 13 come back with that find the clue in the Meat Market in Almaty - I wonder if that is the same marketplace they went through like the one back in Season 13 - shades of a Switchback there too.

Rewinds back to my last two vacations in Europe (2017 and 2018), both including Berlin - and based on the filming dates for this Amazing Race, I was physically in Berlin about 72 hours ahead of the racers AND I went into Berlin the same way from Paris the racers did, by train via Gare De L'Est, but mine was indirect with a supper stopover in Karlsruhe before the overnight train to Berlin for me and also getting off at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, like the racers did. That said, can the search for the clue task on the East Side Gallery qualify as a Switchback? The Race visited this very area back in that infamous Season 6, but there was a cluebox standing somewhere there. It seems that they stayed mostly in the Eastern side of the city, except for nearly the end of the leg, when they went to Neukölln, which is on the West Side. I would have easily known at least half of the locations that the racers went through, even tho going via the Trabant would have been challenging, to say the least! *Note my definition of West vs East here is based on the former location of the Berlin Wall. What an episode to relive my vacation on my birthday, no less - since my 2nd European vacation was a gift to self to celebrate a milestone birthday for me. I wonder if the trunk part in the East Side Gallery is maybe the answer (or part of) to a Final Leg task...

As for the trains, not sure how the train schedule would have been then, but the Geneva to Martigny direct trains are once every 30 minutes - but the train from Martigny to Vallorcine and Vallorcine to Chamonix are both once an hour, with the Vallorcine to Chamonix trains timed for arrivals from that Martigny-Vallorcine train and gives 5 minutes connection time. Moreover, in Martigny, it gives about a 3-minute connection time between trains and I believe it may not be a cross-platform transfer at Martigny station, while at Vallorcine it is. If one had enough time at the Geneva train station, it is possible to try to buy all three tickets there, but I am not sure if any team knew that before hand (much less knowing that this journey required 2 changes of train).

Speaking of S9, who can forget that big eyebrow Phil gave after one of Eric/Jeremy said "I'm gonna smack you woman!" entering the pit stop on Leg 2?

If any team did glance at the French €1 and €2 coins which they might have gotten as change from their train ride from the airport to the biplane roadblock (since a taxi covering that distance easily can be €150+ one way), they probably *might* notice the motto (which was the "answer" of that roadblock) on one side of the coin. I wasn't exactly surprised that Chris/Logan had to wait one hour(?) for that return trip to Paris since that station is basically near the southern extremity of that line (RER D). Alabama really, really got lost in trying to find the rapping area, since I notice that they passed the "Sèvres – Lecourbe" metro at some point, which is some ways from the rapping area (even though they are on the right track if they chose the Bust A Crab detour, since that detour is a few stops off of that line (line 6), located near the Montparnasse train station)... Wonder how far behind Alabama is from the Paparazzi team...

This team reminds me of a "generation gap" team like Ron and Christina, but with a Southern slant (since they're from Alabama), but of a different type of "generation gap" though.

Being an Asian male myself, I really want to like this team, but what happened at the Detour makes me feel that this could be the trainwreck team if they make it far, given that both are likely "Type A" personalities. I don't know if I am ready to see a Colin + Joe (from Joe and Heidi from S16) rolled into one person - and that's what Rick could potentially turn into.

Shelby, it was, but not anymore since it is no longer on Sunday nights. As for Friday nights, I can no longer watch it when it airs since I am at a event on Friday nights, but at least I now have CBS All Access so I can catch up the day after - not sure how they count those who watch it later on demand, if they do count them in some way.

When they were talking smack about some of the other teams, I felt that karma was going to strike back at them full force and it did at the Detour, to the point of a Field Philimination - one of the worst possible Philiminations, making it more amplified since it was on the first leg. Oh, and Phil didn't have to go too far to run the Philimination, since the Pit Stop was about 2 km from the Detour site, if what a vendor told Team Texas was true.

I certainly didn't peg them as the Boston team from first, then again they did expose a harsh reality check about Boston - I really want to root for them since I am also a Bostonian, but I just can't see them get past about the midway point due to that poor first leg, but hopefully for them, it's just a blip.

Now we've had a double elimination before (Season 19) - how about start the race with more teams (15 to 20), but make it with more multiple eliminations (yes, triple-eliminations or even quadruple-eliminations!) and multiple speed bumps (last 2 to 4 teams in a non-elimination leg will need to run the speed bump). Add a twist to the U-turn and make it a multiple U-turn (up it to a triple or quadruple U-turn) - a roulette U-turn - basically, if one elects to use the roulette U-turn, put your team as the team who is using the U-turn first and then activate the roulette - programming would be required so that the roulette doesn't land on the own team or a team already U-turned at the same U-turn (if said U-turn is a double (or multiple U-turn)).

Could "Black Monday" befall on The Amazing Race? That we can't tell yet - but, is there a chance that they may try to change the time slot this soon to another night if they renew it for at least one more season? Then again, Friday nights have been the "graveyard" for pretty much many TV series (barring the famous "Dallas" series, which aired on Friday nights). My bet is that they will renew it just one more season (hopefully not all dating couples again!), with about a 5% chance that it would be a two season renewal.

As a note, the Tokyo to Nagano Shinkansen have some trains that make more stops than others... Specifically speaking, we have somewhat figured out that it took place on a Saturday, since the 9:04 that Libby/CJ missed was a Saturday-only run. The relevant schedule (http://www.eki-net.com/pc/jreast-shinkansen-reservation/english/wb/common/timetable/e_nagano_d_b/index.html) shows the following available that the teams possibly took (from Tokyo station): 6:24, 6:44 (Sat only), 6:52, 7:24, 7:40 (Sat only), 7:52, 8:12(Peak travel season/other specific days only), 8:36, 9:04 (Sat only) and 9:20 (Libby/CJ's train) - and believed to still be current, as they started the race in mid-November - as such, the real-time day at this point would have been November 15, 2014 (which was a Saturday). Ergo, the first teams likely took either the 6:24 or 6:44 trains - as it depends whether or not they got to either Tokyo or Ueno stations in time for the 6:24 from Tokyo - since it showed at least a few teams entering Akihabara station and having to take a train/metro from there, since the Shinkansen to Nagano doesn't stop at Akihabara. So, even if Libby/CJ didn't bleed the 20 or so minutes (including emergency stop time) and caught the 9:04, they still would have been some distance (at least 30 minutes to and hour) behind Blair/Hayley. With that said, mmmmm, ramen! Of course, I would have my ramen without those scallions though...

Now, to answer the question re U-Turns - Yes, one can actually use both a a blind U-turn and a regular U-turn in the Race - I remember reading that one of Margie/Luke claimed that it was allowed in their original season - given they did use the Blind U-turn in Russia early that Race, and they had also apparently discussed the U-turn in China at the penultimate leg as well. As for the leg itself, has anyone noticed that the two detour options were on the same Tokyo metro line, within two stops of each other? That said, one would have to take the right exits from the Tokyo metro stations to pull this off - given one metro station in that neighborhood (Shinjuku itself) has more than 60 exits! As for Kanda Shrine in Chiyoda in Tokyo, there were four metro stations in its vicinity - and a number of teams actually navigated the Tokyo metro system to varying degrees of success. It took me a while to locate that park which could be translated as "Wakaba East Park," that is close to the Yotsuya metro, which was quite away from the Detour locations (around four to six metro stops away in fact!) It is very possible for one who is well versed already with Tokyo (and kanji for that matter!) to complete this leg in 120 minutes or less - if the team decides to take the Sake Detour AND not being U-Turned!

Am I the only one to notice that many of the teams (five or six of the teams) that arrived at Narita decided to take a taxi at TEN times the cost of a train and probably arrive there with little (if any) time savings over those that took the express train (30 minute intervals, 53 minute commute time)? For the record, the apparent quote for a taxi from Narita into Tokyo is 30,000 yen (around US$300) and would take 60 minutes to 90 minutes, and that is outside of rush hour! Now I am not sure how much money these teams were given at the start, but one wonders if spending the equivalent of US$270 more from the Amazing Purse for transport in the first leg will have a factor in the later legs if these teams last that far...