Denmark/Sweden Christmas Markets

This trip began in an interesting way.  One day at work I was talking with some co-workers, and one of them mentioned Kopi Luwak coffee.  It was one of the most expensive coffees in the world, and for good reason.  You might want to skip this part if you get queasy easily.   The reason the coffee is expensive is because of what it takes to make it.  There is a type of coffee bean that a certain animal (can't remember which) has to eat.  It does not fully digest it.  The bean(s) travel through it's body, and when it hits it's stomach, it's stomach acid doesn't dissolve.   But it does change it's chemical makeup.  The animal then poops the bean(s) out, and the bean(s) are then harvested.

It got me thinking.  I wondered if any breweries brewed a Stout beer with it.  Sure enough, a brewery named Mikkeller in Denmark did.  I'd had their beers before, but they are not easy to come by in the US.  Each one I'd tried had been amazing.  We talked about going on a trip there, so I started looking in to it.  It turns out that Copenhagen has two Mikkeller bars where they only serve their beer.  They also have a famous Christmas Market.  The market is in Tivoli Gardens, a famous garden/amusement park.  I sent the info about the market to Shanna, and she was all in.  I had a four day stretch in Mid-December where I wasn't working, so we booked our trip.

Our friends ended up not being able to go, which was disappointing.   But if there is one person in the world I can always have a good time with, it's Shanna.  Last Thursday we got on a plane, and in a few hours, landed in Copenhagen.  The airport is so close to the border with Sweden that when we got outside, we had our choice of Swedish or Danish taxis.

We'd heard before how expensive things in Scandinavia were, but we still were not fully prepared.  Through out the weekend, EVERYTHING was expensive.  Even the 10km cab ride from the airport to the hotel cost $60.  We eventually got to the hotel and were checked in.  I'd read mixed reviews on the hotel, but we really liked it.  It was an old building, but had obviously been renovated inside.

After we got settled in, we figured we'd head to the Mikkeller bar for dinner and drinks.  Non-alcoholic for Shanna, of course. :)  It wasn't too far a walk, and we were there.  I have to admit, I was excited.  I love microbrew beers, and this brewery had some amazing beers with a great reputation.  With that came a large crowd, though.  We got lucky and were able to get a table for two.  Shanna had an alcohol free IPA that blew me away.  It tasted like a real IPA...had I tasted it without knowing there was no alcohol, I would have guessed 6 to 7 percent.  It was amazing.

When I had researched the Kopi Luwak beer, I'd seen the name of the beer they brewed it in.  What I hadn't realized at that point, though, was there was actually two beers they used it in.  That night, they happened to have one on tap, so I ordered it.  No beer there was cheap, but they were all amazing.  We spent several hours there enjoying the local brews before calling it a night.

The next morning we found a city tour bus that had a pick up point right in front of our hotel.  It was an interesting tour.  We learned about Hans Christian Anderson, and the places he frequented when he lived in the city.  We also got see the Little Mermaid statue which was built because of his story.  The highlight, though, was definitely the Changing of the Guard at the Copenhagen palace.  We've been to London, but didn't see the changing of the guard there.  So my expectation was to see a new set of guards come out and relieve the previous shift.  Boy was I wrong.  They put on a huge display.  They had a large marching band come out, parade around us playing music, then ceremoniously relieve the guards at each post.  It was really neat to watch.  What I expected to take 5 minutes ended up lasting for almost 30 minutes.

Once the bus tour was over, we got off and hopped on a boat tour through the canals.  I didn't post too many pictures from that since it was such an ugly day, but it was neat flying through the canals.  I had to laugh at one point.  When my friend at work and I were discussing going, he mentioned a restaurant he and his wife wanted to visit.  I had no idea how exclusive this place was...not only was there a six month wait list, but the average cost of a meal was $275.  I'm not kidding...$275.  Needless to say, he and his wife would have been dining by themselves that night. :)

When the boat tour was over, it dropped us off near a Christmas Market, so we walked around.  The irony is, with all the local food offered, we decided on German brats to eat.  After walking around the market, we headed into a local shop.  It advertised itself as a Sephora, which Shanna wanted to visit for their makeup.  I had to find a toilet while in there, and stumbled upon a beer shop in the basement.  Imagine that. :)  So Shanna walked out with makeup and I walked out with some new beers to try.

While walking around, we also came across a LEGO store.  We'd seen a LEGO store in the airport, and several around town.  It was later that we found out that LEGO is based in Denmark.  I had no idea.  We had to get a picture of the front of the LEGO store...they had a giant replica of the Copenhagen Palace guards we saw earlier.

From there it was on to one the famous Tivoli Gardens Christmas Market.  I have to admit...not only was I impressed, it was by far the best market we'd been to in Europe.  Year round the gardens have rides, arcades, and other things to entertain visitors.  During December, they also have a Christmas Market.  In walking through, we saw replicas of famous landmarks like St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, the Taj Mahal, old buildings in China, etc...  They even had a small area with live Reindeer that you could pet.

One of the more incredible things we saw were Willow Trees.  If you've ever seen one, you know how many branches they have.  Whoever set up the park painstakingly tied a strand of lights to each branch on the trees there.  The end result made each tree look like fireworks going off and raining down light.  It was amazing.  Shanna and I dipped fruit in chocolate, played classic carnival games, saw a light/fountain show set to Christmas Music, and had an amazing time.  We didn't ride it, but we marveled at the 100 year old Merry-Go-Round.  Shanna read later that this park was the inspiration for Disney World.

We eventually found a restaurant to eat at in the park.  It wasn't just any restaurant though...it was a brewery.  We started with creamy Lobster bisque, then Shanna had fish and I had a steak.  The food was outstanding.  Remember how expensive I said things were?  I normally don't talk about money, but to illustrate that fact, in addition to the food I mentioned, I had 2 beers and Shanna had a sprite.  So, two bowls of soup, a steak dinner, a fish dinner, 2 beers and a sprite.  Total cost with tip?  $200.  CRAZY.  After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

The next day I was on a mission.  The Mikkeller bar we'd been to the first night didn't sell bottles to go, but their bar 4km north of us had a bottle shop.  Shanna wanted to relax at the hotel, so I hopped a cab and headed up there.  This ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip.  When I walked in, it was just myself and the bartender.  I ordered a beer off the tap that looked interesting, then asked where the bottle shop was.  He pointed to the door, and I asked if I could take my beer.  When he responded "The only way to shop for beer is with one in your hand", I knew we could be friends.   When  I walked in to the shop, I sent a text message to Shanna saying we were lucky our suitcase had a weight limit on the plane.  She accurately replied, stating we were lucky this place wasn't near our house.  I wanted one of everything.  The bartender walked in and began recommending beers.  I ended up talking with this guy for 30 minutes...he knew his stuff.  Every question I had, he had an answer.  He was incredibly knowledgable about beer, and the Mikkeller brewery.  If we had an extra day, I could have spent the whole day talking with this guy.  I ended up trying the other Kopi Luwak beer they had, and loved it also.  I bought a bottle of each Kopi Luwak beer for myself and a few friends back in Germany, then cabbed back home.

Shanna & I had talked about visiting Malmö, which was across the border in Sweden.  We decided to do it...why not?  That way we could say we visited two countries on this trip.  Plus we'd heard their Christmas market was nice.  After a short 30 minute train ride, we were there.  The market was actually really disappointing, especially compared to Tivoli.  The "draw" was all the lights on the historic old street.  We did find a neat old building.  It was an old Warehouse built in 1595 in a Dutch style.

Other than that, and the Texas store we stumbled across, Malmö was disappointing.  Maybe we had too high expectations based on Tivoli in Copenhagen.  That night, after a train ride back to Copenhagen, we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, and called it a night.  I know, everyone who travels should avoid American establishments and try local cuisine, but I'm not going to lie...their burger was amazing.  It's hard to find a good burger made from good beef in Germany, so I was ecstatic to have this burger in Copenhagen.

The next day was pretty low key.  We slept in, got breakfast from the local 7-11, and headed to the airport via the train.  That's right, they have a 7-11.  Not just one, but a TON of them.  In a 1km radius of the hotel, we probably saw 10 of them...if not more.  I haven't seen a 7-11 since we moved here to Germany, so it was strange.

Copenhagen was amazing.  We had a great time, and now I want to visit more Scandinavian countries.  Maybe we'll hit the Fjords of Norway in the summer!

To see pictures, click here or any pictures above.

This might be the last post for awhile.  We're talking about Iceland in January for the Northern Lights, though...if we do, that'll be the last trip until the baby comes in April.  We'll see!

Salzburg/Berchtesgaden Christmas Markets

My work schedule for December was all over the place, but Shanna & I looked at it and found two extended weekends for us to take some trips.  The first three day weekend we had, we decided to head down to Salzburg, Austria, for their Christmas market.  We'd both been to Salzburg several times, and absolutely loved the city.  I could easily move there and live the rest of my life.

We would normally drive since it's only 4 hours away, but we booked in November, and every December we've been here there has been significant snow.  This time, to play it safe, we booked a train.  Go figure, we've had unseasonably warm temps all month.  But it was actually nice to sit back and relax, and have the train take us all the way there.  We had one quick lay over in Munich, then it was on to Salzburg.

Having been to Salzburg multiple times, I knew the street to look for hotels on.  Every other time we've visited, though, it's been in the summer when rates were astronomical.  So staying on the main shopping street was too expensive.  During the winter, though, tourism is down and the prices are reasonable.  As a result, we got a great hotel right on the main shopping street.  The Goldener Hirsch has been around for hundreds of years, and was a really nice hotel.

After we got checked in, we went for a stroll.  I knew about the Christmas Market by the Cathedral, but one of our friends told us the Fortress that over looks the city has a small one as well.  We decided to hit the Fortress one that first night.  When we got to the top, you couldn't help but be awed by the surrounding mountains.  We'd been up there before during the day, and it was beautiful.  Being up there at dusk was incredible.

I'm glad we did...it was small, with only 10-15 booths, but it was not crowded, and we thoroughly enjoyed walking around.   We found one vendor selling Raclette.  I'm not sure how to describe it other than melted cheese on top of bread and Prosciutto with some fried onion bits on top.  It was...no kidding..amazing.  I could have downed a few right there.  We washed it down with Glüwein for myself and Kinderpunsch for Shanna.  I normally don't like hot drinks, but this stuff is good.  Every Christmas market in Europe sells it.  When we were finished, we took the cable car down to the bottom.  We stayed out a little bit longer, but were beat after a long day, so we called it a night.

The next morning we got up and headed out to find breakfast.  The hotel was charging off season prices for the room, but not for breakfast...35 Euro/person was just a little too much.  We ended up finding a great cafe nearby that had a delicious breakfast.  Instead of 70 Euro total at the hotel, we paid 18 Euro total.  After breakfast, we headed to the Christmas Market.

We could not have asked for more beautiful weather.  The entire weekend there was not a cloud in the sky.  We walked through the market, finding all kinds of interesting things.  Without me knowing, Shanna found a Scotch flavored Chocolate bar she bought for me and gave to me this morning in my Christmas stocking.  One of the highlights of the market was the ice skating rink.  I enjoy ice skating, but Shanna never did that or roller blading as a kid, so she's not a fan.  We ended up standing there for awhile watching the kids ice skate.  It was fun to watch...some of them flew around the rink, others held on to the rail for dear life.

By the time we'd finished up, it was only around 1pm.  So we ended up looking up the bus schedule to Berchtesgaden.  Berchtesgaden is on the German side, and only about a 45 minute bus ride from Salzburg.  We'd driven through the town when visiting Hitler's Eagle's Nest before, but never actually stopped in the town.  We had talked about visiting their Christmas Market if we had time, so we took the bus and were on our way.  The ride there was breathtaking...I have to say it again, the entire area is one of the most beautiful places in Europe.

When we got there, we took a taxi to the market and walked around.  We loved the market.  The people were friendly, but I found the history there to be fascinating.  One thing that stood out above all others to me was a Mural and memorial dedicated to the soldiers from the area who died in World War I and World War II.  Travel around Germany enough, and you'll start to notice that a lot of areas gloss over or ignore 1914-1918 and 1939-1945.  Not Berchtesgaden, though...they had a memorial to their war dead right in the center of the Altstadt (Old Town) area.

It was really neat walking around the town.  For those that don't know, we have two dogs, a Rat Terrier and a Jack Russel.  While going through the market, we came across a store that had a dog out front playing with a deflated ball that looked exactly like our Jack Russel.  He would take the ball up to people and drop it in front of them.  They would either ignore him, or kick the ball.  He would fetch, and come back.  I know our dogs, though...when they drop something in front of you, fetch isn't what they want.  They want tug of war.  So when he dropped it front of me, I picked it up and held it.  Sure enough, he lunged and grabbed the other end.  He proceeded to shake and twist it, just like our dogs, trying to pull it loose.  The dog was awesome...if we could have brought him home, we would have.

We eventually finished, and took the train back to Salzburg.  When we got there, we wanted to find a place to eat.  We walked to a few places, and they were all booked.  We finally found a hole in the wall tavern that we absolutely loved.  I had a big pot of mussels, and Shanna had fried liver.  I had a few beers, so I was willing to be adventurous and tried the liver.  I have to admit...it was delicious.  It was the epitome of a dive bar, complete with cheap Christmas decorations.  But sometimes those are the best places to eat.  We headed back to the hotel from there, and called it a night.

The next morning we had breakfast at the same cafe, did a little more shopping, then headed to the train station to go home.

Salzburg is an amazing city.  If you ever have the chance to visit, don't pass it up.  It's full of history (our hotel was a few houses down from the one Mozart was born in), the people are friendly, and the area is beautiful.

The next post should be up shortly about our recent trip to Denmark for their Christmas Market.  In the meantime, you can click here or any picture above to see our pictures from the trip.

We made it on German News

Normally this is a travel blog, but every now and then I'll post something non-travel related.  Two weeks ago I was working over night.  Normally I get home around 7:30am when I work over night, but this particular morning I needed things from the grocery store, which didn't open until 8am.  So I got off work at 7am, waited an hour, got what I needed, and was home by about 8:45am.

As I pulled up to our house, I noticed Shanna's SUV was still parked in the street.  When I opened the door to the house, Shanna came from around the corner.  Turns out that she had placed her key ring in the car, accidentally hit the "lock" button on the door, and she closed the door so she could scrape the ice off.  With her keys locked in the car, along with her phone, all she could do was sit outside and wait for me.  Normally she would have had to wait about 15 minutes, but because I went to the grocery store, she was sitting outside for an hour and a half.

We've had ADAC since we got here, and it's more than paid for itself.  It's the German version of AAA back in the states.  I called them, told them what was going on, and they sent someone out.  When he arrived, I noticed a van behind him that said SWR.  I knew that was the local German news station, but didn't think they were together.  Turns out, they were.  When the ADAC guy parked, the van did too and three guys got out.  One had a big camera, the other a boom mic, and the third was the reporter.  The ADAC guy told us they were following him around all day filming a documentary, and asked if we minded them filming.  We said sure, and they proceeded to film the entire experience.  I had been at work all night, and had seriously considered changing into comfy pajamas before the ADAC guy arrived.  Now I was glad I was still in work clothes!

Every few days I've gone to SWR's website and searched for ADAC.  Finally, the video showed up a few days ago.

So, without further ado, here is Shanna & my's segment on German news.

The next post will be a normal travel one.  This weekend we're heading to Salzburg, Austria, for their Christmas Market.  Next weekend we're flying to Copenhagen, Denmark, for theirs.  But for now...enjoy the ADAC guy unlocking our SUV!

Marrakech and a new addition

Some of you might have noticed the new blog name.  For those who aren't familiar with German, the previous title was "Vier Nortons", which means "Four Nortons" in German.  That was for myself, Shanna, and our two dogs.  Now it's Fünf Nortons, which means Five Nortons.  That's right, Shanna & I found out back in August, right before our trip to Portugal, that she was pregnant.  The baby is into the second trimester at 14 weeks, with a scheduled arrival date of April 19th.  With one more person in the family now, the blog name had to change!

The other reason for this post is the recent trip last weekend to Marrakech, the capital of Morocco.  Back in August, one of Shanna's co-workers told her about a cooking class she took there.  They take you to a local spice market where you buy your spices, then they take you back to the class and show you how to cook a local dish.  Ryanair, a European budget airline, had some low cost trips there, so we decided to book it.

The downside to Ryanair is the airports they fly out of are rarely major airports.  For Marrakech, we flew into the main airport, but we left from Karlsruhe, which is about an hour north of Stuttgart.  Our flight was also late in the evening.  So Friday night, after Shanna got off work, we drove to the airport.  One of Shanna's co-workers had heard her talking about it and was interested in going, so he and his wife met us at the airport.  This was one of those times were it was good we weren't European citizens. If you had an EU passport, you had to wait in the main line.  If you had any other passport, you had to go through a different security line...and there was no one in that line.  So we breezed through security and before we knew it, were touching down in Marrakech.  When we stepped off the plane, the first thing we noticed was the weather.  We'd left Germany with it being 50 degrees and raining.  Here it was clear and 70 degrees.  I have to admit, I was surprised by the airport.  I was expecting dirty chaos, like we saw in the Cairo airport, but it was exactly the opposite.  It was clean, efficient, and a really nice airport.  It took awhile to get through customs, but after that our driver met us outside security and took us straight to the hotel.  One thing about Marrakech that did resemble Cairo was how people drove.  They have lane dividers in some places, but people completely disregarded them.

We got in late, so we went straight to bed.  The next morning we got up, and headed straight up to the rooftop for breakfast.  There wasn't exactly a view from the roof, but the rooftop itself was pretty, and breakfast was delicious.

The weather was perfect.  It was 70 degrees with a nice cool breeze blowing.  After breakfast, we headed up to the main square.  We were meeting our friends to take the city tour at 11, so we had plenty of time.  We got there early, so we decided to walk around the square.  There were all kinds of vendors out, including snake charmers.  I *hate* snakes.  And these weren't just any snakes...they were Cobras.

Needless to say I made sure we gave this section a wide berth when walking through the market.  There were also a lot of juice stands setup with freshly squeezed fruit juices.  Just like Istanbul and Cairo, the fruit grown in the area tastes amazing, and so do the juices.  After strolling around the market, it was time to head back to the bus stop area to meet Dom and his wife, Katie.  The tour was interesting.  We drove around for about an hour, seeing both the new town and old town.  It was amazing the difference.  The new town was very modern and clean...the old town was the exact opposite.  We visited the opera house, the royal gardens, the grand entrance to the old city section.  While we were not going there, we even saw signs for the interstate that led to Casablanca!

One nice thing about Morocco is, due to the long time France occupied it, everything is written in French in addition to Arabic.  While neither of us speak French, we could sometimes make out certain words.  With Arabic, we would have no idea what was written.  During the tour, the guide touted the reforms introduced by the current King, Mohammed VI.  Specifically, reforms to provide more rights to women, including the right to get divorced, to not be forced into marriage, and he removed the "head of household" designation that men automatically had, and instead designated family responsibility to be 50/50 between the man and woman.

The tour finished up back where we started.  We were hungry at this point, so we walked around the main square until we found a place that had a nice roof top terrace to eat lunch at.  It was here that I discovered a common local dish called Chicken Tagine.  A Tagine is a clay pot that has a triangular top.  You can cook all kinds of food in there, but my dish had chicken cooked in spices with olives mixed in.  It was, without a doubt, one of the best dishes I've ever had.

Of course, no dish there is complete with out fresh squeezed juice.  After lunch, we left the square and headed to the Souks, which were the local open air markets.  You could buy ANYTHING here.  From trinkets to food to paintings to livestock.  We strolled around until we came to the spice section.  Spices are one of the things Marrakech is known for, and Shanna had a list of spices she wanted to buy.  It was incredible how potent the scent in the area was.  It was also amazing to see SO many spices piled high.  You just pointed out what you wanted, and the merchant would scoop it in to a bag.  Based on friend's advice from back home, we brought plastic bags to wrap it all in.  The last friends who came said their clothes took four washes to get the Cumin smell out.

I can't remember everything she bought, but Shanna was probably most excited about the fresh Saffron she got.  It's grown locally, and is incredibly expensive in Europe.   Here, though, it's significantly cheaper.  It was getting close to the end of the day, and it had been hot all day, so we decided to part ways with Dom & Katie, and head back to the hotel.  We got cleaned up, then headed down to the hotel lobby for dinner.  There are two types of places to stay in Morocco, a hotel and Riad.  Riad's are former houses that are converted into Bed & Breakfast type places.  We were staying in Riad that had six rooms.  The main "lobby" used to be the center of the house, and was beautiful.  So we sat there, enjoyed dinner, and with my iPad, watched College Football from back home.  Technology can be amazing sometimes.

The next day we got up early and headed next door to the Riad that was hosting the cooking class.  Eventually everyone else showed up, and we had about 10 people or so.  Most were from England, and there was one couple from Denmark.  Our cooking instructor sat with us first, and explained the Chicken Tagine dish we'd be cooking, as well as some other dishes that we could try at home.  He gave us all a booklet with recipes in them.  We then headed out the hotel and next door to the spice shop.  We didn't end up buying spices...they had already done that.  But he did show us the various spices the shop offered, and explained each one.  We also got to smell them all.  When we were done there, we walked next door to a local baker.  From the outside, it looked like a run down building that we never would have walked in alone.  But once you were through the door, you saw a guy standing near giant wood fire oven.  The way this bakery worked is you would make the dough at home, and bring it to him.  While you were out shopping and running your other errands, he would bake the bread for you.  When you were done, you came back and picked it up.  Later in our cooking class we would make bread, and they brought it to him to bake.

From there we headed back to our class.  At this point a different instructor took over, and she walked us through the entire process of preparing the chicken, mixing the spices, chopping the garlic and vegetables, and cooking it in our Tagine.  At this point I decided we had to get a Tagine in the Souk before we left...things cooked in it were just too delicious to pass up.  She also had us add some "garnish" to our dishes in the form of rolled up tomato skin made to look like a rose.  I couldn't cut it in one giant piece, but Shanna did and it looked great.  When the meal was finally done, it looked and tasted amazing.

After lunch, as we were leaving, the instructor presented us with a bag each.  Inside they had given us our own Tagine!  Now we didn't have to go buy one.  We headed back to our Riad and dropped our stuff off, then headed back out.  It was around 2pm now, and we were meeting Dom and Katie at 4pm in front of the tombs in the old city.  Since we had time, there were some places Shanna wanted to visit.  One of them was labeled as "Craft" something from the outside.  It turned out to be a mini mall of sorts.  You walked in, and the entrance had these beautiful tiles all over the wall.  From there you had a small restaurant to eat at, and various shops to go through.   I really didn't care to go through the shops, so I gave Shanna all the cash, and I sat at the restaurant.

From there we headed over to another market area and walked around there, buying some fragrances and more spices.  Finally it was close to time to meet up with Dom and Katie.  More than once this trip I was glad I downloaded an offline map to my phone.  There were never any street signs posted.  So even though we knew from the paper map what streets to turn down, with them not being marked, the GPS and the offline map on my phone were invaluable.  We left with PLENTY of time to get there, and ended up just barely making it at 4 because of how hard these tombs were to find.  They were so hard to find, in fact, that Dom and Katie never showed.  We got there right at 4, and waited until 4:30.  At that point, the tombs were only open for another 30 minutes, so we just headed inside.  They were kind of interesting, but without markings, I think it would have been more interesting if we had a guide and knew what we were looking at.  The entrance price was only 10 Dirham, though ($1.10), so it's not like I was too upset about it.  It was still kind of neat to look at.

When we left, we ended up cabbing back to the hotel.  We had dinner reservations at 8pm that night, and we were wiped out from walking around all day in the heat.  After a nap, a shower, and a fresh change of clothes, we took a cab to the restaurant.  The food was OK.  I enjoyed my steak, but Shanna's Couscous dish was enormous.  She also ordered Ginger Ale, and at first sip, she thought it had alcohol in it.  Turns out it didn't, but it was made from fresh ginger, so it didn't taste at all like the typical Canada Dry ginger ale.  I had a great half bottle of Moroccan wine, though.

The next day was the day we left, but we weren't scheduled to leave until 1:30.  Our Riad offered spa services, so Shanna & I signed up for a Couple's Hamam and Massage.   I'll admit...had I known what the Hamam entailed, I would have opted for just the massage.  I hate being hot, and that's what the Hamam is all about.  We walked into the room in just our underwear, and they started cranking the heat up.  There was so much steam in the room that you couldn't see more than a foot in front of you.  Once your skin was nice and slick, the lady came in and washed you down with water.  She applied a layer of this lotion that smelled like Aloe, and then let you relax with it on your skin for a bit.  She came back in, rinsed it off, and then went to town all over your body with a rough piece of cloth.  Basically it felt like she was using sandpaper everywhere.  When she finished that, she rinsed you off again and put this black soap stuff all over you.  And finally, she showered you completely off.

We then dried ourselves, and hopped up on the massage table.  This lady could really work the muscles.  At one point, when I was on my stomach, I felt her massaging my lower back, but she was standing in front of me.  It was then that I realized she had hopped up on the table and was getting my back that way.  She hit muscles I didn't even know I had.  When it was all said and done, my skin was softer than it'd ever been, and my muscles were completely relaxed.  Well worth it!  Shanna & I had an amazing lunch at the Riad next door to us where we had our cooking class, then took the shuttle to the airport.

We had a lot of fun on this trip.  Pretty soon we'll be at a point where Shanna won't be able to fly, so while we don't have an immediate trips planned, any ones we take will involve either the train or driving.  So check back soon!

To see pictures, click any picture above except for the ultrasound picture, or click here.

Belgium / Netherlands Road Trip

Last month I swapped my work schedule around to help a guy out at work, and the result was I had a 5 day stretch of days off without having to take any vacation time.  Shanna & I decided we wouldn't fly anywhere, but would take a road trip through Belgium and the Netherlands.  I've wanted to visit the Westvleteren brewery for some time now, and there is a lady who lives in Belgium who restores antique furniture that Shanna has wanted to visit for awhile.

Saturday morning we hit the road, and spent most of the day driving to Gent, our first stop.  One thing I was curious to see was how the hotel was going to be laid out.  The pictures on the website showed a tiny front of the hotel that looked just like the other historical buildings surrounding it.  But then on the inside, it looked huge...much larger than from the outside.  We eventually found out from a tour guide later on that when the Marriott bought the buildings they used, they were required to keep the external facade, but could do what they wanted behind that.  So they only have their name on one of the buildings, but in fact they own four of them.  And behind the front of the buildings, it gets even larger, but you can't tell from the canal.

One other interesting side note about our hotel is in the pictures you'll notice two gold circles on the building, each with a swan in it.  In medieval times, when most people could not read and write, images were used to tell people what a building's function was.  If there was one swan on it, it was a place to eat.  But if there were two swans...it was a brothel.  So our hotel used to be a medieval brothel.

Once we got checked in, we walked out through the back entrance and were on the canal that runs through the Korenlei section of Gent.  This canal used to be one of the main passage ways for ships going from the English Channel to France, which made Gent an important medieval trading city.  During it's height, it was three times the size of London.  Now this area is popular both with tourists and the thousands of students who live in the city.  On warm days, you'll see people out sipping a beer, reading, or just relaxing.

Today was just a relaxing day, with no plans, so we spent the afternoon wandering around the old town part of the city.  We walked through the various churches there, stopped at cafes along the way, and took in the sights.  When it was time for dinner, we stumbled upon the castle in Gent.  In front of it were several restaurants, including a few selling Moules Frites, a Belgian speciality.  Translated, it's Mussels and Fries.  I got the garlic mussels and I have to say...they were some of the best mussels I've ever had.  I washed them all down with Piraat beer, one I hadn't had since I was last in the US.  Shanna never has to "convince" me to come to Belgium or The Netherlands...it could be for a shopping trip, and I'd jump at the chance for the food & beer alone.

After dinner, the sun was setting and we slowly strolled back to the hotel for the evening.

The next morning we got up and found a great little cafe to eat breakfast at.  The food was good, but what made the meal was the amazing hot chocolate.  Gent is farther north than Stuttgart, so while it wasn't freezing, it was pretty cool.  When the hot chocolate came out, it was steaming milk with a cup full of chocolate chips.  You dumped the chips in the milk, stirred it, and in a few seconds you had delicious hot chocolate.

We had a 2:30pm city tour scheduled, so with several hours to kill, we headed back to the castle, this time to explore it.  There were supposed to be audio guides, but we never found the place to pick them up.  So I don't have my usual historical background to give here, just that it was neat to walk around it.  One thing I noticed that was odd was the castle's location.  Usually castles sit outside of a city, and are used to defend it.  The Gent castle was situated right in the center of town.  Later on another tour we found out the reason...city defense was not it's purpose.  It was built in 1180 by Phillip of Alsace, and modeled after the castles he encountered during the Crusades.  He built the castle as a show of strength to the local residents.  Apparently, the citizens of Gent were prone to riots and rebellions, and he used this castle to squash any resistance.  The castle was built with metal pipes that ran from the torture chamber to the outside of the castle, so that when people were tortured, the whole city could hear it.

One of the biggest draws to the castle, aside from it's history of course, is the beautiful view of Gent from the top.

We had gotten lucky with the weather.  It was supposed to rain all day, but as you can see from the pictures, it was beautiful outside.  It did end up raining, but not until that evening when we were heading back to the hotel.  When we finished walking around the castle, we walked out front and noticed a plaque etched in the ground that we hadn't noticed before.  Apparently all the street lights in this particular square outside the castle were connected to the local hospital.  When a baby is born, the lights in the square flicker to let people know.  I thought that was pretty neat.

From there we walked over to a stand offering boat tours of the canal.  Canal tours are always interesting because it combines the history of the city with a relaxing boat trip through out the various canals.  The tour guide we had knew his stuff, and was a big fan of his city.  He pointed out several things on the tour that he used as examples as to why Gent is better than Brugge or Brussels.  He mentioned the Manneken Pis in Brussels, which is a huge tourist draw because it's a fountain head that is a little boy peeing, with water coming out of his penis to fill the fountain.  He then pointed out the same statue over a building that we passed.  That statue, he said, was built 350 years prior to the Manneken Pis, and unlike the Manneken, actually had a purpose.

Leather makers in medieval times needed to find something to help process cow skin into leather. Somehow it was discovered that urine would do this, but not just any urine.  It had to come from children.  They didn't know why, but it was shown in later years that the human urine eventually breaks down and becomes Ammonia, which is needed to make leather.  The problem is that chemical disappears once a person starts drinking alcohol.  So children, who didn't drink, had high concentrations of this chemical, and their urine was valuable.  So when a child saw this statue above a shop, he/she knew they could make some money by selling their urine to the leather maker.

The rest of the tour was interesting, but I'll admit...I was paying more attention to the beautiful scenery and relaxing on the boat than everything he was saying.  When we got back to our starting point, we had about 2 hours left, so we headed to a local pub to get some lunch.  The pub that caught our eye advertised that they had over 250 different kinds of Belgian beers to try.  They certainly did, including several Noel style beers.  There's just something different and amazing about Belgian Christmas beers.  It may not have been Christmas time, but that wasn't going to stop us from enjoying them!  The pub was situated right on a local square, so we just sat and people watched, waiting for the time to walk over to the city tour start point.  These are some of my favorite parts of our travels.  Seeing all the sights are great, but it's always nice to sit, have a drink, and watch the locals carry on their daily business.

The city tour was OK.  Our guide was nice, but we had a mix of English and French speakers, and she seemed to spend more time talking with the French people.  We did meet a nice couple visiting from Baltimore, though.  The husband sold software to various colleges around the US, so he had racked up a ton of miles and points.  They cashed some of it in, and took a trip to Belgium and The Netherlands.  We enjoyed talking with them through out the tour, and giving them suggestions on things to see in Brussels, where they were heading next.

When the tour was over, it was about 4pm.  Shanna was getting tired, so we picked up some beer from a local supermarket, and headed back to the hotel.  Shanna took a nap while I watched NFL pre-game shows.  We have the NFL Gamepass, which allows us to watch all the NFL games, but it also gives us access to pre-game shows.  So I streamed it to my iPad and watched while Shanna took a nap.

That evening we headed to a restaurant we'd seen that looked interesting.  It was a ribs place.  We'd seen several restaurants advertising ribs through the city, so we were intrigued.  Shanna ordered the BBQ ribs, and I got the spicy ribs.  This is one case where things were "lost in translation".  Shanna's ribs were GREAT, but mine were just OK.  They weren't spicy...they had spices on them.  Mine weren't bad, but they were dry.

The next morning we got up early because we had a long day.  We checked out of the hotel, and hit the road.  We were going to stop in Vleteren, Belgium, then make our way up to Zaanse Schans, Netherlands.  Ever since I first heard of the Westvleteren brewery, I've wanted to visit it.  They don't distribute their beer, so the only way to get it is from the brewery itself.  You can call and make a reservation for a limited quantity, or you can come to their store and hope they have some in stock.  Since they are extremely popular, and only open their reservation phone for a few hours a week, it was impossible for me to get through to reserve.  So we decided to risk it and hope the shop had some.  Worst case, they wouldn't and we could try the beer at their cafe.

The drive out there was interesting...to say it was in the middle of nowhere would be putting it mildly.  We were on the interstate most of the way, but 20km from our destination, we had to exit.  From there, we went through one tiny farm village after another.  I started to notice signs for various cemeteries, and they all had UK names and the word "farm" in it, like New Irish Farm Cemetery and Essex Farm Cemetery.  While driving through one town, we almost blinked and missed this one cemetery.  We decided to turn around and go look at it.  By turn around, in this small town, I mean put the car in reverse for 30 seconds and back up.

The cemetery turned out to be a British World War I cemetery.  It must have been recently renovated, because it looked brand new.  But when I looked it up on Wikipedia, this cemetery has been here since World War I.  These guys weren't buried here years later...they were buried as they died on the battlefield.  The "middle of nowhere" town we were in was a field hospital for the British.

It was sobering to walk through, and know all of these guys died right where we were driving through. One of the graves caught my eye, though, because there was something stuck in the ground in front of it.  As we approached, we saw it was a picture.  The picture had been laminated to survive the elements, and showed what appeared to be the descendants of the of man who was buried there.  The headstone said he was 19 when he died.  The picture showed what we assume were his kids, grand kids, great grand kids, and possibly great-great grand kids.  We've walked through various World War I, World War II and medieval cemeteries in our time here, and while they are sobering experiences, the fact is they are largely just names on stone.  You think about their family, but you don't know them, nor their family, so you don't make a connection with the headstones you see.  This was different.  Seeing his family, through at least 3 generations, if not 4, was incredible.  It was more than just a name on stone...you saw generations of people affected by his loss.

From there we got back in the car and continued on to Westvleteren.  We eventually found it, but I don't know how we would have without a GPS.  We went down all kinds of unmarked roads, through corn fields, and all kinds of crazy routes before we came to it.  We walked in to the store, but unfortunately, they were sold out of the beer.  So we sat down and had lunch at the cafe.  Shanna was nice enough to play Designated Driver so I could have the beers.  She had a sip to try each one, though!

After lunch, we hit the road.  Well, Shanna hit the road...I took a nice nap for most of the trip to Zaanse Schans that Shanna decided to capture on camera.  I also didn't notice until just now the plethora of crumbs on my shirt.  In my defense, I was eating a snack in the car and didn't want to brush the crumbs off until I got out of the car.

When we got there, the Bed and Breakfast was fantastic.  The house was built almost 100 years before the Declaration of Independence was signed, in 1680, and later became a small hotel.  The lady who runs it was really nice, and showed us around.  I couldn't believe we were sleeping here...walking through, it looked like one of the historic houses we've visited, but weren't allowed to touch anything.

After she showed us around, we walked around.  The area is artificially created, but still neat to see.  As the various windmills in the surrounding area closed down over the past 100 years, they moved them to this inlet.  The result is that all along the river you have Windmills.  I think there is around 10 or so.

Each windmill served a unique purpose, and they have displays in each one showing their original purpose.  Some were used to ground up spices, create paint, build clogs, etc...   Unfortunately most of them were closed on Monday, the day we were there.  That was the only day they closed...go figure.  We did get to go in some of them, though.  The cheese making one was neat, as was the spice grinding one.  You could buy various spices in there, and watch how the turning mill ground the spices down.  In the pictures section, there's a video showing it.   The shop that made the clogs was fascinating.   They had a clog that was used as a reference, and a machine that used the "reference" clog to make another out of a block of wood.  It's hard to describe, but there's a video in the pictures link at the end of this post that will better explain it.

When we were done walking around the Windmills, we headed across the bridge to a restaurant on the other side of the river.  It was AMAZING.  We started off with Potato Leek soup mixed with bacon and their warm baked bread with garlic butter, then we both had a pork filet rolled and stuffed with Brie.  At this point it was pouring down rain outside.  But when we finished dinner and walked back to the hotel, the rain subsided and a beautiful sunset came out of nowhere.

We absolutely loved the B&B.  Our only regret was we only stayed there one night.  We will definitely be back, we absolutely loved it.  The next morning we got up early, packed, and hit the road.  We still had one more stop.

When we first moved here, we visited a bazaar held at one of the local bases and met a lady named Codruta who was a vendor there from Belgium.  She took old antiques, and either refurbished them, or made entirely new things out of them.  They were meant primarily for use in the kitchen or living/dining room.  Shanna fell in love with her stuff, but at the time we couldn't afford what she was selling.  They hit it off, though, and have emailed back and forth occasionally.  We're finally in a position where we can afford her stuff, and Shanna is thinking ahead to our house in Huntsville, where we are moving from here in 2015.  Codruta has mentioned that she sells things she makes at the bazaars, but if you want something made, you don't just "order it".  She meets with you, gets an idea of what you are looking for, and she makes something for you with her touch.  It's not like ordering something out of a catalog.  You give her rough guidelines, but she has the freedom to make what inspires her.  Shanna loves her work enough that she was more than willing to do that.  So we drove to Codruta's house in Belgium and met with her.  Shanna and her talked for two hours.  It was actually really interesting talking with her, and learning about her history.  Her husband used to do antique restoration, and she liked to be artistic and recreate furniture from old pieces.  Together, they made a business out of it and did very well.  7 years ago her husband passed away, and she considered closing up shop.  But she found that being in her workshop, with pictures of her husband around, was a "safe place" of sorts for her, and she didn't want to give that up.  So she kept the business open, and had to learn all the things he usually took care of.  She got her truck drivers license, bought a new truck, learned the right way to load all her heavy furniture in the truck, and now does it all herself.

When we finally finished, we had one more stop.  On the way into town, we passed a beer store.  When ever we head to The Netherlands or Belgium, we rarely buy beer inside the city.  They are usually WAY over priced, so we look for a supermarket outside of city limits, and go there.  This place was amazing...they had all kinds of beers from all over Belgium, and for a fraction of the price in Gent. I knew I was going to love this place when we parked, and outside were crates of Belgian beer stacked way above my head.

We walked in, and it was like Christmas.  We loaded up the shopping cart with all kinds of beer.  They even had Delirium Noel, a beer I haven't had in years.  We eventually checked out, and walked out of the store.  As soon as we did, the guy running the shop locked the door and closed up.  It was then I noticed they closed from 12pm-1pm, and it was 12:30pm.  They must have stayed open just for us...I felt really bad, I had no idea.  But while we were loading the car up, the store keeper ran out with a box and gave it to us as a gift...it was a set of Delirium beer glasses.  I thought that was so nice of him!

From there we headed home.  This trip was a lot of fun...Belgium and The Netherlands are amazing countries, and we always have so much fun when we visit.  The people are nice, the food/beer is amazing, and the countries are beautiful.  You just can't go wrong.

The next trip planned is in mid-October.  That'll be Shanna & I's four year anniversary, and we found a place in Marrakesh, Morocco, that offers cooking classes.  They take you to the local spice and meat market, where you buy all your supplies, then they take you back to the restaurant where they teach you to cook local cuisine.  So we'll be spending a long weekend there.  Check back after for the post!

To see the pictures, click here or any picture above.

Portugal

Shanna's birthday was a few weeks ago, and she's talked about going on a beach trip all summer.  We had tried to find some low cost options using the "blind booking" option on German Wings, but the week we wanted to go they were all booked up.  I started searching around online, and all the usual places like Greece, Italy and Spain were either too expensive or had crazy flights that would have taken up a large chunk of the time we had.  Eventually I found a write up on a town in Portugal just south of Lisbon called Sesimbra.  It was an old fishing village that was right on the beach, and was supposed to have calm beautiful waters.  It sounded perfect.  German Wings just happened to have some low cost deals to Lisbon, and I found a great hotel right on the beach.

We took off Saturday morning, and had a direct flight to Lisbon.  Since Sesimbra is about a 30-45 minute drive from Lisbon, I'd arranged with the hotel to have a driver meet us at the airport.  He was a little late due to traffic, but eventually we hit the road.  As we were leaving Lisbon, he pointed out a bridge that we were about to drive over, asking if it looked familiar.  I used to live near San Francisco , and sure enough, it looked identical to the Golden Gate Bridge.  Turns out the company that made the Golden Gate Bridge also made this one.

He also pointed out the first Aquaduct built to supply water to Lisbon as we were driving directly under it.  It didn't take long to get there once we left Lisbon, and it was beautiful.  We checked in to our room, and the first thing we saw when we stepped out on to our balcony was the beautiful beach below.

We changed into swimsuits and flip flops, and headed out.  We hadn't had lunch yet, so our first stop was a little cafe on the boardwalk.  We had plates of shrimp and tapas with meats and cheeses.  The food the entire time was amazing.  The only complaint I had about the beach was that the water was cold.  But it didn't take long to get used to.  After we had lunch, we set up a spot on the beach and jumped in.  Well, Shanna jumped in.  I took my time slowly walking in to the water, getting used to it bit by bit.  I kept telling myself it would be better to just submerge myself, but I couldn't do it.

That afternoon was just about relaxing.  We swam in the water, laid out in the sand, and enjoyed having absolutely nothing to do.  When we were done, we walked off the beach and right into our hotel.  We got cleaned up, ordered room service, and sat out on the balcony people watching.  After we finished dinner, we were about to head to bed when we heard loud music outside.  At first I thought it was a car or someone's radio blaring, but it sounded live.  We looked outside, and there was a procession of people playing music and dancing through the streets.  We later found out that a festival was going on nearby.

The next morning, after breakfast, we found a tour we wanted to book that took you along the coastline in a boat, where you could Dolphin watch, and go swimming.  The hotel tried to calling the number on the flyer to book it, though, and no one answered.  The flyer said they weren't far from us, so we went for a walk.  The town itself was beautiful also.  There were countless buildings that had intricately painted tiles.

We made our way along the beach to the marina, but never could find the place to book our tour.  At this point it was about mid-day, so we just decided to hit the beach again.  The rest of the afternoon was sunning out on the beach, and swimming in the water.  One thing you couldn't help but notice was how clear the water was.  We would go out to the point where we had to tread water and we could STILL see the bottom, as well as all the little fishies swimming by.

Later that afternoon we walked back to our hotel, and happened to notice a shop that had been closed before.  It was labeled as a car rental place, but had signs in the window advertising tours they arranged.  We walked in to talk with them, and found out they offered the same type of tour we had been looking at earlier.  We made arrangements to go on the tour the following morning.  Afterwards we found a great seafood place to eat at on the water.  Shanna had grilled fish (I can't remember the exact type) and I had something that resembled seafood gumbo.  It had lobster, shrimp, crab and all kinds of delicious shellfish in it.

The next morning we walked down to the dock to meet the boat.  It was a little pontoon type boat, but the great part was it was only Shanna, myself and one other person, along with the guide.  The other person spoke some English, but preferred Portuguese, so our guide would tell us something in English, then the other person the same thing in Portuguese.

The tour started off in the harbor area where the boats come in after fishing to unload their catch.  It was about 10am, so we got to see the boats unloading directly into big trucks that would then take the fish to the local restaurants there and in Lisbon.  Now it made sense about the chalkboards in front of all the restaurants.  The chalkboards were blank in the morning, but that afternoon, had all the daily catches written on them.  So the seafood you were eating was actually caught that day.

From there we went down the beach, and continued along the coast line.  Once we left the beach area, the coastline became giant cliffs.  It was like that the majority of the way until we got to the next town.  It was absolutely breath taking.

As we started the boat trip along the coast, the guide pointed out a giant rock out cropping she called "The Lion".  Hundreds of years ago, sailors would give various unique rocks names to help identify where they'd been.  This particular one looked a lot like a lion perched in the water.

Next we came up on an old building that was in ruins.  That's where the fisherman used to live back when the town was only a fishing village, and not a tourist spot.  60 years ago there was a fire, though, and it was never rebuilt.  We also passed by a small village, and up in the hills we could see a convent.  Next to it were little buildings that were used by the nuns to give them a private quiet place to pray.

We finally reached Setubal.  We weren't stopping in the town, but the harbor area outside the town was where we were heading to watch the dolphins.  Our guide told us that it was hit or miss in seeing them, but they also kept their eyes out for a certain company's boats.  They have contacts with the various fishermen in the area, who call them when they spot dolphins.  So when the smaller companies see their boats, it means dolphins are in the area, and they follow them.  Sure enough, we saw one of their boats and followed them.  While we were behind them, I started to notice jellyfish in the water.  They were, by far, the biggest ones I'd ever seen.  Some were small, and could have fit in my hand.  Others looked large enough to cover my entire head and upper body.

We eventually came to an area where the boat ahead of us stopped.  It didn't take long for us to see the dolphins.  Our guide told us these dolphins are different then the typical grey dolphins people think of.  They are black, and the type of dolphin they are is not migratory.  They live in that area, and while they will sometimes disappear for a few days while they go out hunting for food, they always come back.  We saw a group of 4 or 5 dolphins swimming around.  We followed them from a distance, and spent the next hour.  In total, we probably saw about 20 dolphins, all in small groups swimming around.  I hadn't really cared about seeing them when we saw the brochure, but now that we were out there, it was really neat seeing them swimming in their natural habitat.  It was also tough to get a picture of them.  They didn't exactly stop to pose, and you never knew where they were going to pop up.  I was able to get a few good pictures, though.

When we finished there, we headed back to the coastline.  Along the way we past by an old fortress that had been converted into a hospital.  It had a small private beach in front of it that only patients and their families were allowed to use.

Eventually we made it to a small cove where we could swim.  The lady in the boat with us didn't want to, but Shanna and I did.  They didn't dock the boat, they just anchored down to a buoy floating by.  S Shanna and I dove in the water.  Like near our hotel, the water was cold, but it wasn't too bad and we adjusted quickly.  The guide tossed us snorkels, and we got to see all the huge fish swimming in the water around us.

After we climbed back into the boat and they brought out lunch.  They had made sandwiches, but the guide had also made a popular dessert called Farinha Torrada.  It was popular with the local fisherman because it would last for a long time, and they could take it out on the sea with them.  When lunch was done, they broke out a bottle of Moscatel, a popular liquor made from grapes grown in that area.  

Finally we made our way back to the dock.  When we got out, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around town.  We stopped in various shops, including one that was selling old Port wine.  I bought a bottle from 1981 (the year Shanna & I were born), but they had bottles from the 1940's, 1950's...they even had a bottle from 1847!  If only I had 900 Euro to spend on it.  We also stopped in a local market where they had fresh meats, cheeses, and...snails.  That's right, live snails you could buy to cook.  You just picked them right off the piece of rock they were crawling on.

We came back to the hotel, and decided to check out the roof top pool.  It had a beautiful view, and even better, the water was nice and warm.

The rest of the afternoon was a mix of the pool and us spending the last part of the day swimming in the ocean again.  The next morning we checked out, and the same driver took us back to the airport.  
This is a small blog post, because there wasn't a lot of sightseeing, it was mostly just a relaxing get away.  The weather could not have been more perfect.  From the moment we stepped off the plane to the moment we got back on, we never saw a single cloud.  The temperature was hot, but not unbearable.  The sun was definitely intense, though.  Even with constant sun screen application, we still got a little burned.  It's no wonder the local people have such dark tans.  But Shanna loved it, and we came back feeling much more relaxed than when we left.
If you ever find yourself in Portugal, try and stop by Sesimbra.  For the people reading who live in Europe, and want to stay in the town, the SANA Sesimbra hotel is great.  

The next post will come in a few weeks.  We have 6 days off, so we're going on a road trip, driving through Belgium and The Netherlands.

To see pictures, click here or on any picture above.

St. Petersburg

After we pulled up to the train station in St. Petersburg, our guide met us on the platform.  Edward had only been for Moscow.  In St. Petersburg, we had Elena.  For those that know me well, you know I have to have a shower every morning.  I can't fully function through out the day without one.  To the point that I was dreading day one in St. Petersburg because the plan was to pick us up at the train station, take us to breakfast, then start the day.  We wouldn't be able to check in and shower until late that afternoon.  I sucked it up though...one day wouldn't kill me.  Our first stop was at a restaurant along one of the canals that had breakfast waiting for us.  The place didn't know we were Americans, only that we were coming from Germany.  So on each table, they had little German flags set out.

Breakfast was pretty good, standard European fare with meats, cheeses, bread and yogurt.  From there we stopped at a church to take pictures, as well as a few canals and bridges.

One neat place we stopped at was steps that lead down into the Neva River that flows through St. Petersburg.  On either side of the step were mini-sphynxes "guarding" the entrance to the river that were originally guarding a Pharaoh's tomb in Egypt.  From there we headed to Peter and Paul Fortress. It sits on an island in the Neva River, and contains a giant church inside.  It was originally built as a prison, and remained that way for over 200 years until shortly after the Revolution, when it was converted into a museum.  The church that stands inside it today contains the bodies of all the Russian Emperors and Czars, including Czar Nicholas II and his entire family, who were killed in 1917 when the Bolsheviks overthrew the monarchy.  Even the fabled Anastasia is buried there.

One neat thing about our visit there was while the guide was talking, we suddenly heard a loud roar over head as several fighter jets in formation flew by.  That weekend there was an air show, so they were practicing.  The really neat part was they were all painted in the colors of Russia's flag...Red, White and Blue.  And the day we were there happened to be July 4th.  Never in all my life did I think I'd be watching fighter jets painted Red, White & Blue performing stunts and flying over head on July 4th in Russia.

Elena then took us to a church nicknamed Spilled Blood Cathedral.  Along the way, we stopped for pictures at the Aurora, a battleship made famous because in 1917 the crew mutinied and fired off a single blank shot from the guns.  That shot signaled to the rebels that it was time to attack the Winter Palace and begin the Bolshevik Revolution.

Spilled Blood Cathedral is called that because Alexander II was assassinated there.  We didn't have time to go in, but we stopped along the way and took pictures from a distance, then went the actual church to take pictures up close.  After taking some pictures, we strolled around a small market that was there.  One funny thing we saw was a vendor selling Matryoshka Dolls that were painted like US Sports players.  They had Football, Basketball, Baseball, etc...  What made us laugh was when we were looking over them, we saw one for the San Diego Chargers and the Arkansas Razorbacks sitting right next to each other.  For those that don't know, I'm a big Chargers fan and Shanna's a big Razorbacks fan.

When we finished up there, it was finally time to head to the hotel and check in.  Like earlier in the week, everyone took a shower, had dinner, and went straight to bed.

The next day Elena and the bus picked us up, and we headed to Peterhof.  It was the Summer Palace of the Czars.  It was built by Peter the Great, and given a German sounding name because Peter spoke many languages, and liked to give things foreign sounding names.  Along the way, we passed several apartment buildings that had a cardboard lining around them to make it look like it was made of wood.  I think the main reason was for some privacy.  But one balcony had a giant hole cut out so their dog could sit there and watch traffic and people passing by.  Unfortunately the only good shot I got was from the bus with a tree in the way, but if you look close, you can see the hole and the dog.

When we finally arrived, it didn't seem like much.  But after we walked through yet another flea market, we finally got to the palace and it was breath taking.  The palace itself looked a lot like other palaces we've seen.  What really set it apart, though, were the amazing display of fountains.

We started with a tour of the palace itself.  It was interesting, but like with most palaces in Europe, no pictures were allowed.  When the tour ended, Elena showed us some of the fountains, including "trick" fountains.  One of the most amazing things about the fountains were they were built before pump technology had been invented.  It was built downhill from a water supply, so every fountain functions based on gravity.  It was incredible to think of that as you watched the high speeds that water flew out.

One trick fountain looked like a giant mushroom.  The "trick" was a person would step underneath to escape the sun, and the ground was one giant pressure plate.  Once you stepped on it, the water would flow all around the mushroom's edge, essentially trapping you inside.  The only way out was to step through the water.  They had modified it so that the water was constantly flowing and visitors could see it.  It was a hot day out, so I took advantage and dipped my head in the cold water.

Another trick fountain was one you didn't see.  There was a long path through the trees, and the fountain was on a timer.  Once an hour, it would go off and completely soak anyone walking down the path.  Times were clearly posted, as well as an alternate path to follow if you didn't want to get wet, so the only people getting soaked were the ones that wanted to.  I thought it was just a little sprinkle until I saw people leaving that area.  They were completely drenched...there wasn't a dry spot on their body.

Another trick fountain again centered around a bench.  There were stones placed in front of the bench, and it was originally set up with some of the stones being pressure sensitive.  You step on it, and jets of water flew out of the bench at you.  Now, though, the stones don't cause the water to shoot out, it's controlled by a guy sitting near the bench.  It was popular with little kids who would take turns trying to figure out which "stone" caused the water to spray, then laughing when they got squirted.

Eventually we made our way to the end of the path where we ended up at an overlook with a view of the Gulf of Finland.  It eventually dumps into the Baltic Sea, but we couldn't see the Sea from there.

After that we had some free time to walk around.  We passed one area where you could rent costumes and dress up for pictures.  They even had costumes for kids to wear.

Finally we headed to the bus, and drove back to the hotel.  After having beautiful 75 degree sunny weather the entire week, we finally got a little rain on the drive back.  But it lasted about 20 minutes, then was gone, and was beautiful the entire rest of the week.

That evening we decided to check out the outdoor terrace bar on the third floor of the hotel.  It didn't have much of a view, but it was still nice to sit outside with a breeze blowing, relaxing after a day of running around.   Shanna, myself, and two friends from the tour group we'd made that week decided that we'd all try some of the local caviar.  I didn't know this prior to our visit, but apparently Russia is famous for it's caviar.  I'd never tried it before because eating fish eggs doesn't sound appealing, but when in Russia...

I went down to the store at the bottom of the hotel and bought a little can of it.  It was NOT cheap, so I was glad we were splitting it with other people.  When our waiter came around, we asked him for crackers to eat with it, and if I didn't know better, I'd think that request personally offended him.  Apparently it's their custom to eat it with pancakes.  Not the fluffy pancakes we eat in the US, but the thin kind more commonly known as Crepes.  So we ordered some Crepes, a round of Russian Vodka, and tried it.  I have to admit...I really liked the Caviar.  I didn't think I would, but it was good, and went well with the Crepes.

After that we called it a night.  The next day was our last full day in Russia, and we were on our way to visit the Hermitage Museum.  It's one of the oldest and largest museums in the world, founded by Catherine the Great.  It contains 3 million pieces in it's collection.  There were some really neat things in there, including paintings from Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Rafael.  The only person missing was Donatello!  It also had the only Michelangelo statue in Russia called The Crouching Boy.  I had posted on Facebook that we were in St. Petersburg, and Esra, our guide from when we visited Istanbul, told us we had to visit the oldest carpet in the world that the museum has...because it's Turkish.  So when we arrived at the museum we made sure to grab a map, and found it.  They had closed off the most direct route to the carpet, so we had to climb up the stairs to the second level, walk from one end to the other (the place is huge) and find another stair case to take us back down to the first floor.  When we found the stair case, it too was closed.  We finally found another stair case, and made our way down.  As we navigated through the rooms to the carpet, we finally got within one room of it...and the way was closed off.  Apparently for that day only they were holding a concert, and the room that contained the carpet was closed to the public.  Go figure.

One neat thing Elena told us as we walked through the rooms was that during World War II, most of the art was evacuated by train to other places to keep them safe when the Germans invaded.  The museum itself, though, was not maintained.  With the harsh winters and humid conditions, there was extensive damage to the wood flooring and walls.  They have since restored it, but left one panel unrestored so you could see the difference.

When we entered the Rembrandt section, we got to see the famous Prodigal Son painting, but the more interesting one to me was the painting called Danaë.  In 1985 a man visited the museum and asked to see the most valuable piece they had.  He was taken to this painting, where he proceeded to toss acid on it and slice it with a knife.  A security guard was able to stop him, but the acid that spilled on him cost the guard his hands.  After 12 years, they were able to fully restore the painting.  You can still see some streaks where the acid ran down it, but for the most part, you'd never know anything happened.

When we finished at the museum, we visited St. Isaacs Cathedral, the largest one in the city.  It was huge, and like most European cathedrals, ornately decorated.  The architect whose design was chosen for the church first broke ground when he was 30 years old.  He said at the time that this would be his life's work, and he was right.  It was finally finished when he was 70 years old, and he died shortly after it's completion.  One of the interesting things about the church was the giant dome in the center of it.  When the church was first built, the center of the dome had a large dove in the middle.  When you walked to the center of the church and looked up, you could see it.  During the Soviet Era, when religion was frowned upon, they removed the dove and replaced it with a giant pendulum.  After the Soviet Union collapsed, the pendulum was removed and the dove was put back.

When we left the Cathedral, the touring was done for the day.  The group mentioned to Elena that we were interested in a boat tour, so she said she would arrange it for the next day.

It was finally Sunday, our last day in Russia.  Elena wasn't picking us up until 1pm, so we had the whole morning to ourselves.  We slept in, got some breakfast, and met Penny and Adam in the lobby.  There was a metro stop next to the hotel, and we wanted to find this grocery store Elena had told us about.  It was built in 1902, but over the years, fell into disrepair.  It was recently renovated, and now looks great...and exactly like it did when it was built in 1902.  Thanks to Edward showing us around in Moscow, it was easy to figure out the metro.  And just like in Moscow, the metro lines are located FAR under ground.  It was a good 3-4 minute escalator ride down and back up.

We got off at the right stop, and after figuring out the map, we were able to find the place.  It was called  Kupetz Eliseevs, and it did not disappoint.  When you walked in the doors, it was like stepping back 100 years.  There was a self playing piano playing "old time" music, everything was beautifully decorated, and the food they offered looked amazing.  Fresh meats, cheeses, macaroons, live oysters, and of course, caviar.  The caviar was insanely expensive.  A 500G (17 oz) container cost almost $1,500.  They had a cafe inside too, so we sat down and ordered coffee (juice for me) and some sweets.  When they brought me my apple juice, it was unlike any apple juice I'd ever seen.  Instead of a clear amber color like I was expecting, it was green and cloudy.  I took a sip, and it tasted like an actual apple.  It was delicious!  They must have taken an apple and juiced it.  It was so good.  When we were done, and ready to pay our bill, they brought the check out in an engraved box.  We put our money in, closed the box up, and gave it back to the waitress...it was kind of neat.

I also finally found a souvenir I wanted here.  I didn't want to buy something just to buy something, so I was waiting until something caught my eye.  If nothing did, that was fine.  But they had a neat decanter with their logo engraved on it, and some martini glasses to go with it, so I picked that up.  It was either that, or the bottle of Cognac they had that came out to approximately $14,000.

When we left, it was about time to start heading back to the hotel.  We got there, checked out, and when Elena came, we loaded our luggage into the bus.  From there we went to one of the canals to begin our boat tour.  The bus couldn't pull right up to the canal, so we had to walk a bit.  On the way, we passed a huge event where people were racing on what looked like snow skis with wheels.  They were FLYING by us!  Eventually we made it to the canal.  As the boat got under way, Elena told us about some of the buildings we were looking at.  To be honest, though, everyone was just enjoying sitting back in the sun while cruising the Neva River.

When the boat ride wrapped up, we hopped on the bus and headed to the airport.  While it wasn't anywhere near as bad as our ordeal in Moscow, St. Petersburg airport has to be the worst airport I've ever been in.  And I didn't think anything could compare to the chaos in the Cairo airport.  There weren't any good signs telling you where to go, and it was a free for all.  On top of it all, the airport had no air conditioning.  With that many people packed into a small area, it was HOT.  We eventually found the right counter, but we had gotten there too early...we had to stand in the heat, waiting in line for the counter to open, for an hour and a half.  When it finally did, things went smoothly.  We checked our luggage, went through the passport control, and made our way to our gate.  Remember how I said there are a lot of American fast food chains in Russia?  Right next to our gate was a TGI Fridays.  We were all hungry, and chowed down on burgers and wings...a little taste of America before flying back to Germany.  The flight home was much smoother than the flight there, and before we knew it, we were in Frankfurt.  I've never appreciated being in a German airport like I did that day.  We hopped the train back to Stuttgart, and thankfully met up with Katia's husband, Scott, who was nice enough to give us a ride home.

Overall, this trip was incredible.  It had it's problems, but what trip doesn't?  We saw things that I never thought I'd ever see, and it's definitely a trip we'll never forget.  The visa process is a hassle, and it's not cheap, but if you ever have a chance to visit Russia, do it.  You won't regret it.

I'm not sure when the next blog post will be.  We both have 5 days off in September, so we're going somewhere, I'm just not sure where yet.  Stay tuned!

To see the pictures, click here or any picture above.