Vienna & Bratislava, Part 1

This past Memorial Day weekend was a long one.  Over a 5 day period, from Friday through Tuesday, we drove down to Vienna, Austria, then on to Bratislava, Slovakia.  It was a lot of fun, and a lot happened, so much like the post of our last trip to Austria in October, I'll be breaking this down into multiple parts so you can read all at once if you'd like, or in stages.  Part 1 will be about the drive down and the first two days in Vienna.  Part 2 will be all Saturday night and Sunday in Bratislava.  Part 3 will be about being back in Vienna again Monday and the last part of the trip on Tuesday.

We got an early start Friday morning.  The driving time was 6 hours, but I knew with a gas station stop and a stop for lunch, we'd be looking at closer to 7 hours, and we had to be in Vienna no later then 4:15pm because the reception desk at the hotel was not 24 hours, and closed at 4:30pm.  I left early to drop the dogs off at the kennel, came back, loaded the car up, and we were on the road by 8:15.  After a quick stop on base to top off the tank, we hit the road at 8:45.  The drive was long, but uneventful.  We filled up right at the German/Austrian border, the continued on and pulled into Vienna right around 3:45pm.  The hotel was an interesting one...it was small, and consisted of 10-15 rooms made up in the traditional Ikea decor.  But it was quaint, and the price was unbeatable compared to the other hotels in the Inner Stadt area.  The hotel didn't have parking, but I had looked up parking garages prior to us leaving, and saw several around the hotel, so I wasn't worried.  What I didn't know until we got there was how ridiculously expensive the parking was.  We've typically found over night parking in garages for between 15-20 Euros a night.  In Vienna, the cheapest I could find was 40 Euros a night, but I found a few that were as high as 60 Euros.  After unpacking & checking in, we hit the city.  It had been a long day, starting at 5am, so we weren't really up for a late night, but we did want to walk around.  We walked to the main area of St. Stephen's Square and found a company that offered bus tours of the city with an audio guide.  When doing city tours, a personal guide is the best way to do it, but we knew the weather was supposed to be awful the next day, so being in a bus was the way to go.  We bought our tickets and walked around shops.  Our friend Jenny and her friend Heather (two of the people I went to Rome with) had been to Vienna a few days prior, and told us about, in their words, one of the best Mexican restaurants they'd ever been too.  I know we were in Vienna, but with how hard good Mexican is to come by, we wanted to check this place out.  So we saw on the map it was maybe a 10-15 minute walk, so instead of taking the metro we decided to walk and see some of the town.  By the time we got to the place, we were excited about Mexican.  Unfortunately this was some of the worst Mexican we'd ever had.  There's a place here in Stuttgart that is MUCH better.  Even the Mojito Shanna ordered wasn't that great.  I did like the Zipfer beer they had though.

After dinner, it started pouring rain, so we metroed back to the hotel and called it an early night.

The next day it was cold, raining and just nasty in general.  According to the weather report, though, it was the only day of our vacation that it was supposed to be like that.  We checked out of the hotel and drove over to the main square where the bus pick up was.  Thankfully on the weekends there is free street parking in the city, so we were able to park near the pick up and leave the car there all day for no cost.

The bus tour was three hours, and was a "hop on / hop off" kind of deal, meaning we could get off the bus at any stopping point, tour where ever we were, then get back on the bus when it came back around again and continue the audio guide tour.  For the first two hours we just stayed on the bus.  We saw the old town area and the newer parts of town.  The third hour we got off at Schloß Schönbrunn.  It's the imperial palace in Vienna.  It was a pretty impressive sight.

We walked around but decided we'd come back at some point before we left when the weather was nicer.  In the back they were setting up for a large concert...it would have been neat if we could have stayed for it, but the concert wasn't happening until Thursday.  When we walked off the palace grounds, we checked the schedule and saw that we'd just missed the bus, so we decided to just take the metro to the next stop we wanted to see, the Military Museum.

When we got there, we saw that it had been built in what had formerly been the city arsenal.

It was interesting to see their pricing...almost all museums have strict rules about not allowing photography.  This museum said you could, but only if you paid an extra 1.50 Euro.  I paid the extra cost and we went in.  When you first walk in, it's impressive, they have columns all over the place with sculptures.  The audio guide said it contained life size sculptures of all the past famous military leaders of Austria.  Next we walked into the WWI section.  This is what I had wanted to come here to see...they had the car that Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in which led to the outbreak of World War I.  You could even see the bullet hole in the side of the car from the bullet that killed his wife.  Next to the car was a glass case containing the uniform he was wearing when he was killed, and you could see the bullet hole in the collar of his uniform.

The rest of the museum was interesting, it had all kinds of artifacts from WWI and WWII, including part of a sunken U-Boat that was discovered at the bottom of the ocean floor in the '70's.

After the museum we hopped on the bus, finished the remainder of the tour, and were dropped off back at the main square.  By now it was almost 5pm, so we went to one last souvenir shop so I could get my Austrian Stein with the birthday money I got from Shanna's parents.

I liked this particular Stein because it had the flags of all the states, including Salzburg where we went last time, but hadn't gotten a Stein.  After that we got in the car and headed to Bratislava.

That's it for Part 1.  Click here or any of the above pictures to see all the pictures of the trip.  I'm breaking the posting up into 3 parts, but not the pictures.  The first part of the pictures are from Vienna (Friday/Saturday/Monday) and the second half are from Bratislava (Saturday/Sunday/Tuesday).

Click here for Part 2!

Rome

When Shanna & I first moved over here, we had a list of various places we really wanted to visit while we were here.  Italy was on the list, but for me, it wasn't high up there.  I wanted to visit, but it wasn't something I was super excited about.  That was still the case until I booked my trip to Rome...then I got excited.  Our friends Jenny and Chris had a friend of theirs from Wisconsin, Heather, who was visiting for a few weeks, so they decided to do an 8 day tour of Italy.  They started in Venice, then went to Rome, and finished in Florence.  Shanna had been to Rome, but not Florence or Venice.  Since Shanna couldn't get the time off, I decided to fly down to meet Jenny, Chris, & Heather in Rome and then fly back home when they left for Florence.

I've heard from people that Rome is like any other major Metropolitan city...it has it's dirty parts, it's ritzy parts, etc...  I can definitely agree with that assessment...a lot of it reminded me of New York City.  The major difference, though, was in Rome you could walk down a street, turn a corner, and be looking at a building that has been there for 2,000 years.  Rome may not have been the cleanest or prettiest city I've ever been too, but the historical part of it was absolutely stunning.

I had no delays or problems on the flight to Rome, and got in around 7pm.  After collecting my bags, I hopped on the train, and rode for 30 minutes into the city.  While sitting I ended up talking with the couple next to me who were visiting from England.  Apparently there was a tennis match going on and they were in town visiting.  Finally we pulled into Roma Termini, the main train station in Rome.

That night was relatively uneventful...it had been a long day travelling and Jenny, Chris, and Heather didn't arrive until the next morning.  I found my hotel, checked in, grabbed some dinner, and went to bed.

The next morning at 8am I met the group in their hotel lobby.  It was only a 10 minute walk from my hotel, so I had breakfast first, then walked over.  They were all pretty beat since they had taken an overnight train from Venice, but since check in wasn't until 2pm, they dropped their luggage off and we hit the town.

First up was visiting the Tourist Information office in the train terminal.  They have something called a "Roma Pass".  It got you entrance into two museums or ruins of your choice, discounts on all the rest, and unlimited use of the Metro for 3 days.  The metro alone was worth the €24 we paid for it.  With that purchased, we headed to the Colosseum.

 

Even realizing that the Colosseum was smaller now then in it's heyday, it was still an impressive sight.  We initially walked around to see it from outside, then headed inside.  It was incredible to think of all the stories & movies I've seen that took place here, and now I was in the actual Colosseum.  I didn't realize that underneath where the main arena part was there was an intricate system of rooms and pathways where the gladiators prepped before their fight.

After the Colosseum we took out the guide book to see what was close by.  Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps were both close to each other, and only 1 metro stop up, so we headed there next.  I'd never heard of either one, so I had no idea what to expect.  We first got to the Spanish Steps, and I have to say...they were a little disappointing.  All it was was a set of...steps.  It's been there for a long time, but I didn't get what the hype was.  At this point we were hungry, so we stopped & got lunch.  I got an awesome 4 Formaggi pizza and we ordered a liter of the house wine to share.  It was pretty warm at that point, so the cold white wine tasted great.  Next up was Trevi Fountain.  Now THIS was impressive.  It was also crowded, so I couldn't get a real close shot, but what I got captured the size & scope of this fountain.

At this point it was around 2 o'clock, and Jenny, Chris, & Heather were really started to drag, so we headed back to their hotel so they could take a nap.  I was fine, and not much of a napper anyway, so I headed to a local cafe and had some Italian beer and people watched for 2 hours while they slept.

It wasn't the most complex or interesting beer I'd ever had, but after walking around for hours on a hot day, it sure hit the spot.  I even got to play translator for a group of Germans sitting next to me.  They were older, and didn't speak much English or any (as far as I could tell) Italian.  They ordered a beer, and when the bartender said "On tap"? they just stared at him.  He repeated it, and they still didn't get it, so I asked them "vom Fass"?, which they understood, and said yes.  They then tried to speak to me in German, and while I was able to speak a little with them, the conversation didn't last long.

Later on I headed back to their hotel, and they were ready to go out.  That night was a relatively quiet night.  We had dinner, sat & drank wine, then found a beer hall I had read about that had over 500 beers on tap.  They had some delicious beers there that I'd never heard of, including some strong ales from Denmark that were fantastic.

Wednesday we got up early because that was the day we were visiting the Vatican.  We got really lucky with the timing.  The Pope was doing Mass at St. Peter's, so we went to the Vatican Museum first.  With everyone at the Mass, there was no line for the museum and we got right in.  They had a large section of Egyptian treasure that I wasn't expecting, but made sense when you think of how closely intertwined Rome & Egypt were 2,000 years ago.  They even had the Sarcophagus of Imhotep.  The artwork and architecture on display was stunning to say the least.  It took us approximately 2 hours to walk through it and that's with only stopping occasionally to read the inscriptions.  If we'd read everything, we'd have been there all day.  At the end of the museum was the thing that everyone comes for...the Sistine Chapel, with the famous ceiling painting by Michaelangelo.  I have to admit it surprised me...I didn't know much about the painting, but had always seen the famous part of Man reaching out with this finger and there being a cloud with God on it, also reaching out with a finger.  I had thought that image was the entire ceiling, but it's actually just a really small part of a much larger painting.  Pictures weren't allowed in there, so I had to be discreet with this picture...that's why it's a little blurry.

After the museum, we headed over to Vatican City and St. Peter's Square.  I went to Catholic school from 2nd grade until 6th grade, and we were raised Catholic, so I've seen images of St. Peter's Square and the Basilica a million times, but I never imagined I'd actually be there.  Pictures don't do it justice, it's awe inspiring when you walk in to the square.

After taking some pictures, we got in line for the Basilica.  This had a bit of a line, but wasn't too bad.  Our timing couldn't have been better...after being in line for 5 minutes or so we looked behind us and the line stretched forever.  Once inside the Basilica, it was beautiful.  I didn't know that St. Peter was actually buried there.  His tomb was found long after he died, and they built the Basilica around it.  The sculptures and paintings inside were incredible.

Once we left the Basilica we walked around the square for a bit, then got lunch.  At this point it was 3pm and we'd been on our feet walking around since 9am and we were all beat.  We took a two hour break at our hotels, and met back up for dinner.  That night I decided to try something different and got the Gnocchi...it was DELICIOUS.

After dinner we started walking.  Remember how I said earlier that in Rome you can pick a direction, walk and stumble upon a building that was thousands of years old?  Well that happened to us here.  We left the place we had dinner at, walked in a random direction, and stumbled upon a huge building.  I looked at my tour guide on the phone and it said it was St. Mary's Basilica.  In 420 AD construction started on it, and legend says the location was picked after someone (the current Emperor I think) had a vision where Mary appeared to him and told him to build where ever he found snow the next day.  He went for a walk, found snow on this particular hill, and had the Basilica constructed.  We kept walking after taking pictures, and just picked random streets to walk down.  I had my GPS, so we weren't concerned about getting lost.  We eventually came to another huge building.  I went to the front of the building to read the inscription, and it said it was the Basilica of St. Mary...now I was really confused.  Later on, though, when walking back to our hotel, we figured out that we had first come to the back of the Basilica, then we discovered the front of it.  Due to it's massive size and the fact that we had walked down random streets after seeing the back, we hadn't realized that we had back tracked to the front of the building.  We also came upon something we called the "cat ruins".  It was a fenced off section of some sort of ruins with a park surrounding it.  We sat in the park to take a break and eventually noticed a cat walking around the ruins, behind the fence.  Then we noticed another cat...and another...and another.  Just sitting there we counted 5 cats.  We decided to walk the perimeter of the ruins, and counted over 20 cats walking through the ruins.

When it started to get dark, we headed back to their hotel and found a wine bar to sit at.  It was our last night in Rome, so we decided to just relax, kick back, and drink wine.

The next day we had some time to sight see.  I had to catch the 3pm train to the airport, so we had plenty of time.  We all agreed we were beat from walking around, and decided to sleep in instead of starting early like we had been.  At 10am I met them in the train station and we headed to the Pantheon.  The Pantheon wasn't near any metro stops, so we got off at the closest one then walked the rest of the way.  Once there, it was an impressive sight.

It's the largest unreinforced dome in the world.  It has a hole at the top that provides the only lighting inside, so you'd think it'd be really dark, yet amazingly it was very well lit.  It also had a big surprise...the tomb of Rafael.  I had no idea he was buried there.

We had time for one more place.  We all wanted to visit the Catacombs, but they were open until noon, then closed down until 2pm.  It was a bit out of the city, so there was no way I was going to be able to see the Catacombs and be back in time for my train, so we decided to visit the Roman Baths instead.  The Baths were, unfortunately, a major disappointment.  I'm sure it was an impressive accomplishment 2,000 years ago, but over the years it had been largely stripped for materials to be used for other things.  The result was just a shell of its former self.  It cost €6 to get in, but thankfully we were able to use the Roma Pass to get in without paying.

After that we headed back to the train station and said our goodbyes.  My trip home was uneventful, but I do want to point out the temperature shock I had in Amsterdam.  The entire time we were in Rome it was in the low 80's, so when I flew out I was in shorts and a t-shirt.  I had a layover in Amsterdam before heading to Stuttgart, and the plane that took us to Stuttgart was a small one, and we had to be bussed out to the plane.  In Amsterdam, at 9pm, it was 50 degrees out.  I couldn't get on that plane fast enough.  And yes, for those thinking about it, it was definitely ridiculous that to get to Stuttgart from Rome, the flight went through Amsterdam.  I went the same route on the way to Rome.  If you're not familiar with the geography, it's like being in D.C. and wanting to fly to Miami, Florida, but your layover is in Boston, MA.

Overall I had a great time, and after hearing how much Jenny, Chris, & Heather loved Venice & Florence, I can't wait to visit there.  The next trip is coming up next weekend for Memorial Day weekend when Shanna & I visit Vienna, Austria and Bratislava, Slovakia.  For the 4th of July weekend we are doing a blind booking with some friends.  The way that works is you pick a group of cities that you could potentially visit, you pay for it, then it tells you where you are going.  The prices are dirt cheap, and it's exactly the kind of spontaneous traveling we like to do.  The cities are narrowed down to Zagreb, Croatia, Budapest, Hungary, Barcelona, Spain, Istanbul, Turkey, or London, England.

Clicking here or the pictures above to go to the page with all the pictures.  Jenny & Chris took more pictures with me in it, so when I get it from them I'll post them.

Queens Day 2011

This past weekend Shanna & I drove to Maastricht, NL, to celebrate Queens Day.  We had been in Amsterdam a few years back for Queens Day, and figured Maastricht wouldn't be as wild but was within driving distance, so we decided to make a weekend out of it.

Friday morning we dropped the dogs off at the kennel and hit the road.  The drive up, with the exception of some traffic, was pretty uneventful.  When we got to the hotel we unpacked and hit the town. We've been to Maastricht three times over the past three years, and it's not a large town, so I'm starting to become somewhat familiar with the area.  There wasn't much going on Friday night, so we took the time to just walk around town.  We knew on Sunday we wanted to hit the Limestone caves outside of town, so we started off by heading to the tourist information center to get tickets.  While there I noticed a brochure for a Beer Specialty shop.  It was hard to tell if this was a store or a bar, so we decided to head across the river to take a look.

It didn't take long to find the place, and it turns out it was a bar.  We sat down, had a few drinks, and talked briefly with the bartender.  She made it a point to describe every beer we ordered, which was interesting...she definitely knew her beer.  After that we found a place nearby that had GREAT kebobs for dinner.  We wandered around for a bit, but it quickly became evident that Maastricht was going to be a lot more quiet on Queens Day then we anticipated.  We eventually made our way back to a bar right next to our hotel where they had live music playing that night.

The next morning we got up early for breakfast, and then hit the Vrijthof Square, which was right next to our hotel.  The Dutch have permits for EVERYTHING...including selling things on the street.  The one day a year they allow anyone to sell anything they want without a permit is on Queens Day, so the Vrijthof Square had every day citizens out there, and was basically one giant garage sale.

They also had some opening ceremonies, which included them firing off a HUGE cannon.  We were close to it, and on the pictures page there is a video of it, but it doesn't do it justice...it was so loud you literally felt the pressure of the cannon shot all over your body.  Once the opening ceremonies concluded, it became a giant fest for kids.  At that point we decided to walk around town to see what else we could find.  We came across   what appeared to be a small wine shop, but Shanna said she recognized it and that they were actually a tiny vineyard and they gave tours.  We walked inside and asked about the tours, but the guy said since it was Queens Day they weren't doing them.  Then he said, jokingly, if we promised to buy a bottle of wine he'd take us around himself for a short tour.  We said sure, and it ended up being fascinating.  They import their wine from France in plastic barrels so no flavor is passed to the wine, then they put them in wood barrels and age them.  They bottle it when it's ready, and sell in their stores.  In their backyard area they do have a tiny vineyard, but it only yields about 100 bottles a year.  He said it was more for hobby then anything else.  He showed us that part, where they bottle it, and took us down in the cellar area to see where they barreled the wine.  Apparently a lot of local businesses have them store their wine in their cellar since they don't have the space in their hotel.

Once the tour was over we bought a few bottles of wine, approx 40 Euros worth, and gave him a 50, telling him to keep the change because we appreciated the tour.  He was grateful, and told us to come back later that afternoon.  That's when they open their sampling room up.  Normally people pay to sample the wine, but he said he'd let us do it for free.

We left the wine store and headed over to the Market Square.  The Market Square area is where we stayed the last time we were in Maastricht, and it had shops all over the place.  We spent part of the afternoon walking around the shops, and stopped occasionally to try some local beer.  We eventually headed back to the wine shop for sampling.  The way it worked is they give you what appears to be a hotel key card with however much money you put on it stored on the card.  Then you walk up to the sampling machine, put your card in, put your glass in front of the bottle you want to sample, push the button, and it gives you a sample and deducts the cost from the card.  The sample prices ranged from 25-80 cents, and he gave us a card with 5 Euros worth on it.  It was really neat how it all worked and the wine was delicious.

After we were done there we found a place for dinner where we could watch some of the dance shows going on.  By this time it was starting to get dark, so we decided to head back to that specialty beer bar we had gone to the night before.  We had gone earlier in the day on Friday, so with us going a little later this time, it was a little busier.  We still were able to get a seat right at the bar, though, and ended up having a great time.  The bar was filled with regular locals who were in a talkative mood.  The bartenders turned out to be the owners Peet and Mery.  They were both extremely knowledgable about beer, so we would tell them what we liked and they'd surprise us.  Each one they brought was delicious.  We eventually called it a night and headed back to our hotel.

The next morning we checked out around 11, but our scheduled tour of the caves outside of town didn't start until 2pm.  The last time we visited Maastricht we'd accidentally stumbled upon a town nearby called Valkenburg.  We had seen the ruins of a destroyed castle there, but hadn't gone to it.  This time, since we had 3 hours to kill, we decided to check it out.  The castle was first built in 1160, and was destroyed in battle in 1670.  It is the only castle ever built in The Netherlands.  These days you can take a tour and walk around, with pictures posted everywhere of what the section you were in would have looked like before it was destroyed.  The city of Valkenburg was first settled by the Romans 2,000 years ago because of the large deposits of something called Mergel, which is a type of stone used back then in construction.  Mergel is extremely easy to carve and shape, so inside the ruins they had a workshop for kids to make things out of the Mergel.

As you'll see from the pictures page, they must have had small feet back then...the steps literally only came out to half my foot.  After we'd seen the ruins we walked into town a bit and found an area called Lourdesgrot.  It was the side of a large rock, and had statues of Mary, an altar, and seats in front.  We didn't know what it was at the time, but I looked into it when we got home.  It's actually a replica built of the area in Lourdes, France, where Mary is believed to have appeared.

By this time it was 1:15, so we headed out to the caves area.  This tour was fascinating.  The caves were first opened in the 11th century.  The stone they had down there was extremely soft because of how much moisture was in the cave air.  It made excavation easy.  When the stone was brought to the surface it had no more moisture and hardened considerably.  The buildings of Maastricht back then were built using the stone from these caves.  About 100 years ago modern technology created more reliable building materials and the caves were no longer necessary.  The farmers that owned the land suddenly lost a large part of their income, so they decided to open it up to tours.  There were various paintings all over the inside of the cave that they did with charcoal.  Due to the high moisture level, paint wasn't an option.  The guide also told us that because of the coldness and dampness a human being could only survive for 40 hours down there before succumbing to hypothermia.

The guide also told us about a group of farmers who survived for three weeks in the tunnels during a French invasion a few hundred years back by building an oven.  They would constantly keep it lit, which kept them warm.  Eventually the French soldiers found them, but did not kill them.  Instead they just took their livestock that they had kept down in the caves with them.  They eventually were taken in by monks in the area, which is why their story is known.  The farmers were not educated, but the monks were and they recorded their story.

During the entire tour we had three lamps we carried around.  There were no lights at all built into the caves.  At one point the tour guide stopped and told us to put our hands on the left wall.  He said he was going to collect all the lamps, and was going to walk a distance.  He said when the lights went out and we could no longer see anything, start walking with our hand on the wall.  He said it would lead us to him.  He also said that anyone who didn't want to do that could just walk with him, but everyone stayed behind.  I've never seen such darkness in my life.  It was literally a complete absence of light.  We eventually all made it back to him though and it turned out to be kind of neat.  He had us do that to illustrate how much trouble you'd be in if you were in the caves without a light source.

Once the tour was over we hit the road and headed home.  Normally I'd leave it at that, but we did see one interesting thing on the drive home.  We passed a car on the road that had Texas license plates.  I don't mean on display in their rear window, I mean it was attached to their car and was the only license plate displayed, there were no European plates.  I don't know why they did that, but it was definitely not something I ever expected to see.

Despite Queens Day not being anywhere near the celebration it was in Amsterdam, we still ended up having a great time.  While Salzburg was by far our favorite city that we visited, our favorite country is The Netherlands.  The Dutch people are the friendliest people we've met, from the Wine store employee who gave us a guided tour just because to the locals who wanted to talk about beer, America, and anything else that came up in the Take One bar.  If you ever have a chance to visit The Netherlands, do it...you won't regret it.

My next post won't be until next Friday at the earliest because I'm leaving for Rome on Monday.  I'll have pictures and a blog post late next week or early the week after.  For pictures, you can click here or any picture in the post above.

Frühlingsfest & Easter

This past weekend was the kick off to the annual Frühlingsfest here in Stuttgart.  It's just like Oktoberfest, but on a smaller scale, and it runs from mid-April to mid-May.  Last year it was the first fest we went to since it started 5 days after we landed.  This year we arranged to meet up with some friends there.  Before we left for the fest, though, we had a mini-adventure.  Shanna wanted to pick up some soil and tomato plants, so she took the car & went to the Bauhaus while I stayed at home to do some of the yard work that needed to get done since we won't be in town this weekend.  A few hours after she left, the doorbell rings and I answer the door to find her standing at the door with nothing in hand.  Turns out her keys had fallen out of her purse when she got out of the car, and she'd left her phone in the car to charge, so when she got back to the car she'd locked her keys and phone inside.  Thankfully there was an Ubahn station nearby, so she was able to take that back to our house.  We took advantage of the situation and brought the dogs with us to get them tired out so they'd sleep that afternoon when we left for the festival.  We eventually got the car, drove home, and started to get ready for the fest.

Once ready, we met Jesse at his house (he lives 5 minutes from ours) and we all walked to the train station and headed to the fest.  We started off at a smaller, less busy tent and were met there by our friends Penny, Adam, and two of their friends.

We stayed there for about an hour, then headed the main tent.  Penny, Adam, & their friends had gotten tickets through work, but we found out about it too late.  So they walked right in, while we had to wait in the "general" line.  They would let a handful in at a time as people left, but after 45 minutes of waiting we'd barely moved.  At this point we noticed a guy walking near the line discreetly selling the wristbands needed to get inside.  We walked up and offered him 20 Euros for 3 wristbands, and he said ok.  We put them on and walked right in.  It wasn't until we found our friends and saw their wristbands that we realized the ones we had were fake.  They looked mostly the same, but under close scrutiny it was obvious they weren't real.  Thankfully the security people at the front were just glancing at the wristbands and didn't look closely.  We stayed there the rest of the night and had fun with the whole group.

The next day was just a relaxed day.  Because of the time difference we couldn't call anyone for Easter right away.  Shanna got creative with my Easter basket, not only with how she put it together, but also knowing that I always take a shower as soon as I get up in the morning, so she left it in the bathroom so I'd find it right away.

Later that afternoon when people in TX and DC were awake, we Skyped with the nieces & nephews.  After that I called and talked with my parents and grandmother down in Florida.  It was good to talk to everyone...turns out there's a good chance my Dad will be out in this area in mid-June, so hopefully that'll work out.  The last time he was here was the day our boxes arrived, so the house looks a little different then he remembers.

For dinner that night we fired up the grill for some steaks, and Shanna made garlic mashed potatoes and this great new recipe that was almost like a carrot/cheese/onion casserole.  We also opened one of the bottles of wine we'd been saving that we got from the Wine Expo in France a few months back.  For dessert, Shanna baked a lemon cake that was delicious.  Dinner is pictured below...and yes, that's the wedding china.  It's the first occasion we've brought them out.

The weather was perfect yesterday, sunny & 75 degrees, so we had to eat on the back deck.

That's it for this past weekend.  Friday we drop the dogs off at the kennel and head to Maastricht in The Netherlands for Queens Day Weekend, so I'll have another post next week about it.

Clicking the pictures above will take you to higher resolution versions of each one.  I also tried something different this time when I was referring to old blog posts, and it's what I'm going to do going forward.  Instead of saying "covered in a previous blog post" and making that the link, I'm just going make whatever sentence I use to talk about the previous experience into a link that you can click to read the previous blog post if you want.

Grilling weather

Just a quick blog post to say as I'm standing on the back deck, nothing beats grilling weather.

Mannheim

On Saturday some friends of ours gave us a call to see if we were free.  One of them, Penny, had recently changed jobs and was moving from Stuttgart to Heidelberg.  She wanted to know if we wanted to head up there with her and two other friends of ours to check an apartment out, then head over to Mannheim for an Easter Market.  We had nothing else going on, so we said sure.

The apartment we looked at with her was nice, and we think that's the one she's going to go with.  It's a new place, and is only a 5 minute walk from base.  After we were done there, we grabbed a bite to eat, and drove to Mannheim.

The Easter Market was in a park, and it was one we'd never heard of it.  Turns out it's a HUGE park that has flowers, a mini-zoo, a Chinese garden, and large spaces for people to have picnics, relax, or do whatever you want.  There was even a boat ride you could take throughout the park.  The first thing we noticed when we walked in were all the tulips.

After a few minutes of walking around, we came to the indoor area where they had all the Easter Egg vendors set up.  The vendors came from all over Europe...they had signs up from Russia, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and more.  Painted Easter Eggs are a big deal over here...they can be little chicken eggs, or as large as Ostrich eggs..sometimes they are even made from wood.  The prices ranged too...the cheap small ones were a few Euros and larger more intricate ones were several hundred Euros.

We didn't end up buying any eggs because a few days prior Shanna had gotten a great deal on a bunch of eggs that someone was selling on Stuttgart Yard Sales (the local version of Craigslist).  But it was neat to see all the intricate designs and paintings that were there.  Afterwards we walked around the park, then it was time to head home.

The eggs Shanna got look pretty good...she still has some of the metal trees left over from the wedding, and she decorated one at the house and one at her office with the eggs.

There wasn't much else going on this past weekend.  This upcoming weekend kicks off Frühlingfest (Spring Fest), which runs from April 23 - May 15th.  It's basically the same thing as Oktoberfest, but in the Spring time.  And of course, Sunday is Easter.  I'll have a weekend recap up next Monday or Tuesday.

Tonight we're heading to a co-worker of Shanna's house for a cook out.  What makes this outing unique is he's German, so I'll have a chance to practice all night.

We didn't take too many pictures, but there was more then I could post here without it looking cluttered.  You can see them by clicking here or any pictures above.

Schwarzwald and 1 year in Germany

The weather here has been spectacular the past few weeks, and this previous weekend was no exception. On Saturday we had talked about going to an Easter Market in a small medieval town outside of Frankfurt, but then we remembered seeing advertisements all over town for something called Lange Nacht der Museen, or Long Night of the Museums. Once a year Stuttgart keeps all their museums open until 2am, and they provide bus transport between them all. You pay 15 Euros and you get a bracelet to wear that lets you ride the buses and get in to all the museums. The Easter Market was a 2 1/2 hour drive one way, so we decided to just stay local and go to the Museum exhibits. We worked in the yard that day, and that evening we got cleaned up and ready to head out.

We had researched out all the museums we wanted to hit and thought we were set. We saw a "harbor" tour mentioned that looked interesting, especially since we had no idea Stuttgart even had a harbor. We get down town, get our bracelets, then we see it...the HUGE line for the buses that were heading to the harbor. Apparently everyone else had the same idea as us. I noticed on the map that the first bus stop was less then a quarter mile from us, so we walked there thinking the first round of people would get off at that stop, and we could hop on. We waited there for 30 minutes and watched as bus after bus drove by us. We then decided to head back to the first stop and got lucky...we made it on the first bus that stopped there by pushing ourselves on. Once we got to the harbor, we were in another line to get in. We said we'd wait 15 minutes, and if the line didn't move, we'd just leave. 5 minutes later, the line moved substantially. The problem is then it didn't move again for another 30 minutes, but we felt like we had committed so much time already that it'd be a waste to turn around now. We got down to the initial bus station at 7pm, when the whole thing started. We didn't get on the harbor boat for the tour until almost 10 pm. The harbor tour itself was also a huge let down. Basically you sat on the boat and as it took you through a series of canals. They had some light show effects on the buildings you went by, but that was it. Afterwards, we had to wait in another line and got packed into a bus going back. We were finally back at the beginning at 11pm. So 4 hours just to take one short harbor boat ride. At that point we had no desire to go through that again for a museum, so we headed home.

Sunday was a much more relaxing day. After we ate lunch we got a call from one of Shanna's co-workers. He was in the city and wanted to know if we wanted to meet somewhere to grab a bite to eat. We had already eaten, but we met him up because the place he was going sells some great beer. It was a warm sunny day, so perfect for sitting outside and enjoying both the nice weather and good beer. Yes..we went to our favorite place, Zum Paulaner.

We were there most of the afternoon, then we took the train back to our house. We've been talking forever about trying this Turkish place by our house, and we figured now was finally the time to do it. It was DELICIOUS. To any of you reading this who visit us, if you're feeling adventurous and want to try Turkish, we are definitely taking you there.

Before Shanna's co-worker called us, I had thrown out the idea of going for a drive through Der Schwarzwald, or The Black Forest. It wasn't too far from the house. We'd have to first drive to Baden-Baden, which is a little over an hour away, then we could take the Schwarzwaldhochstrasse, which is the road that runs through the Black Forest, up a mountain. When you get to the top you have an amazing view. Shanna has a tendency to go to sleep as soon we start long car drives, so that got shot down. But Monday was another beautiful day, so I decided I'd just go by myself. I loaded the dogs up in the car, and we went for a drive. The first stop was in Baden-Baden so I could adjust the GPS to force it to take me the scenic route home. The town itself was neat little town. Every one was out because of the nice weather, and it had an authentic medieval feel to it. I definitely want to go back there. Once that was done, I hit the road.

The drive was, simply put, amazing. It reminded me of driving through Austria in the sense that it was hard to focus both on the road and the scenery around me. There were several points along the way where I could pull over, get out, and take pictures. There weren't many places to pull over for the dogs that also had a view, but we stopped at a few along the way. I can now say our dogs have gone to the bathroom in the Black Forest.

On my way back to Stuttgart to pick up Shanna from work I went through another town I'd like to come back and visit, Horb a.N., or the long version, Horb am Neckar, which means Horb on the Neckar (river). It looked like fun small German town that would be a fun day trip.

The timing worked out perfectly, and I pulled up at Shanna's office 10 minutes before she got off work.

And finally, a note about today, April 12th. Today marks the 1 year anniversary of us landing in Germany. It's hard to believe that an entire year has gone by. We are mini-celebrating it tonight by going to the hotel we stayed at when we first arrived for dinner, brining the dogs, and meeting our friend Penny who we first met because she was also staying in the hotel a year ago after having just moved here.

As Spring warms the area up, Shanna & I have some travels planned for the next month, so you'll see plenty of blog posts about it. The first weekend in May we are driving to Maastricht, NL, for Queens Day weekend. We were in Amsterdam for Queens Day a few years back and had a blast, so we're both looking forward to this. I'm going to Rome a week & a half later to visit some friends of ours who are vacationing down there. Shanna can't get the time off, but since she's been before and I haven't, I'm going. And finally, at the end of May for Memorial Day weekend, we had talked about visiting our friend from DC who was going to be in Lithuania that weekend, but the airfare prices were astronomical, so we had to pass. With that being the case, Shanna is going to take a few extra days off and we're going to drive to Vienna, Austria and spend two days there, then drive on to Bratislava, Slovakia, and spend 3 days there.

So a busy month coming up! On top of all that traveling, Frühlingfest starts at the end of April.

The Zum Paulaner picture above will take you to a higher res version if you click on it, the other two pictures will take you to the album with the Black Forest pictures. I wish I could have gotten some pictures of myself, but with two dogs and no where to really set the camera up for a timed shot, it just wasn't possible. Alternately, you can click here to see the pictures.