Malta

Moving to Europe six months after we got married has meant that each wedding anniversary so far, we've been able to travel to interesting places.  The first anniversary we did Salzburg, Austria, the second one we went to Dubrovnik, Croatia, but this anniversary we wanted to do something a little different.  I figured we'd be a bit burned out on sight seeing after going non-stop for two weeks in Slovenia and having friends from the US come visit.  I wanted to pick a place where we could sight see if we felt up to it, or just relax if not.  I've heard great things about Malta, so I found a hotel right on the water and booked it.

Wednesday was the actual day of our anniversary, but since we both worked, it was pretty low key.  Shanna gets home usually a few hours before I do, so she picked up a few things and started cooking dinner.  When I got home, we had a delicious meal of crab cakes, green beans, and bread baked with onions, apples, and brie inside.  It was delicious!  For dessert, she picked up my favorite kind of cake...Coconut.  It went great with some Pumking beer from the US that our friends brought us when they visited the week prior.  As I've said before, American micro-brew is a rarity here, so when we get our hands on some, we savor it.

Friday we flew out of Stuttgart around 1pm, and it was a short 25 minute flight to Munich, then a two hour flight to Malta.  When we landed, the Malta airport was so small that there weren't gates to dock the plane with, you just stepped off the plane and a bus took you to the terminal.  The first thing we noticed was how warm it was.  It had been in the mid-50's when we left Stuttgart, and it was in the mid-70's now.  When booking the trip, I considered renting a car in case we wanted to drive around the island.  As soon as we got in the car of our driver from the hotel, I was glad I hadn't.  I knew Malta had been owned by the British until the 1970's, but didn't think about their roads.  Sure enough, they drove on the left side of the road and the drivers side in the car was on the right.  It would have been a nightmare trying figure out how to drive there.

When we got to the hotel, we checked in and headed up to our room.  I'd opted to upgrade our room to a harbor view, and am glad I did...it was BEAUTIFUL.

After getting settled, we headed down to the front desk to look for something to do that evening.  After looking through some brochures we decided to head to something called the Birgufest.  It's held once a year in a town nearby, and it sounded like fun.  The hotel had a taxi service where they'd drive you anywhere on the island.  We had them drive us there, and they dropped us off right at the entrance to the old town area.

The first thing we noticed was it didn't seem to be filled with tourists.  There were all kinds of families out there, and you could just tell they all lived in the area.  There were food vendors everywhere, both on the streets, and in buildings that you could walk through.  We found one little building that opened up into a small courtyard when you walked through.  We bought a Malta Platter and something to drink, and sat down and enjoyed the music in the courtyard.  It was all lit with red lighting and candles, and the moon was over heard, so it was pretty in there.

After the snack we walked further into town.  I knew the island was predominantly Catholic, but the number of churches everywhere was staggering.  Each one we went into was beautifully decorated with an amazing amount of hand carved wood, gold, silver and more.  There were also a handful of exhibitions we walked into with relics found in the ruins of churches bombed during WWII.  One of the neat things they had was a printing mold from the 16th century used to make playing cards.   We walked around the streets for the next few hours, stopping at various vendors and inside old buildings, and just relaxing in the festive atmosphere.  When we were done for the evening, we called the hotel and they came & picked us up.

The next morning we headed down to the Spa in the hotel to make reservations for Sunday.  The plan was to do some sightseeing on Saturday, then on Sunday get massages and relax at the pool until we had to head to the airport later that afternoon.  Unfortunately they were all booked for couples massages on Sunday, but they had one opening at 3:15 on that day.  We figured that gave us 5 hours or so to sight see, then come back to the hotel.  First, though, we went up to the breakfast floor to get something to eat.  The amount of food they had was overwhelming!  And the view was beautiful.

After breakfast we used the hotel shuttle to get to the center of town, and bought tickets on the hop on/hop off tour bus.  We had to wait a few minutes for the next bus to arrive, so while we did we chatted with the guy selling the tickets.  He told us that Rolex was holding their annual yacht race, so we would probably notice a lot of yachts around.  We'd already seen a ton of the massive ones, but shortly after he said that we noticed a bunch of yachts with sails going by.  The race is 606 nautical miles long, starting in Malta and going north and all around the island of Sicily, then returning to Malta.  I couldn't remember the exact length of the race, so I just looked it up...in doing so, I found out that the winner just crossed the finish line this morning.  The race started when we were there on Saturday.

Eventually the bus came by and picked us up.  It was one of those buses where the top had seats and no roof, so we got lucky and found seats up there.  It was another beautiful day, about 80 degrees with a nice breeze blowing off the water.  The tour lasted a few hours, taking us all over the southern part of the island.  Since our massage was scheduled for mid-afternoon, we didn't have time to get off and sight see, but we were ok with that.  I was glad that from the road we could see some ancient ruins that are credited by Guinness as the oldest free standing man made structures in the world, dating back to 5,000 B.C....that's older than the Pyramids.  We also drove by cliffs that dropped off into the water, which was absolutely stunning.

We got back to the hotel around 3, then headed down to the Spa area.  It was nice down there...we spent the first 30 minutes relaxing in a jacuzzi, then got out and had an hour long massage.  I was so relaxed that I nodded off a few times.  Once we were done, we headed out back to the pool area.  It was a huge pool and sat right next to the Mediterranean Sea.

We swam around for about an hour, then headed back up to the hotel room.  Shanna had scheduled another spa treatment for herself Sunday, and we wanted to go swimming again Sunday morning, this time in the pool and the sea, so we didn't go out Saturday night.  Instead we cleaned up, put our "nice" clothes on, and headed down to the hotel restaurant.  It was a great dinner...we had delicious seafood from the area, a bottle of wine, and had a beautiful view of the harbor at night with everything lit up.

The next morning we got up early, and after eating breakfast, headed down to the pool area.  First up, though, we had to swim a bit in the sea.  We've been near the Mediterranean Sea a few times, and never gone in, so we had to say we did it.  It was cold at first, but it didn't take long to adjust.  I don't know if this sea is saltier then others, but the first thing we noticed is how buoyant we were!  With no effort at all, we were floating.  There were also a bunch of small tropical looking fish swimming around us.  After a dip in the pool, it was time to pack things up.  While I checked out, Shanna went down to the Spa for her next session, and I sat in the lounge area playing on my iPad and sipping a beer.  We both were enjoying ourselves. :)  Once she was done, we hopped on a shuttle and went to the airport.

This is a shorter post then most, partly because it was only over a 3 day weekend, but also because sight seeing wasn't the main goal here, it was just for the two of us to get away & relax.  There's only so much I can write about when it comes to "we went swimming", "we sat around the pool", etc...  But it was a much needed get away, and we had a great time.

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

This will probably be the last post for awhile...we're both getting a little burned out on constant traveling, so there's nothing planned between now and when we fly back to Texas in December.  We might hit a few Christmas Markets in the Netherlands, though...if we do that, I'll post about them!

Slovenia

For Columbus Day weekend, Shanna and I had four days off, so we decided to travel somewhere.  I pulled up a map of Europe and Slovenia stood out for some reason.  I started doing some research on it, and it looked absolutely amazing.  After looking up all the things to do on Slovenia's Tourism website, it made me wish we had a few more days to see everything.  Once it was settled, I booked our hotel with the plan being to drive down there first thing in the morning.  I had mentioned to my Mom about it, and she asked if we minded her & Dad coming along.  Of course we didn't, it would be great to see them again, so they booked their flight and landed a few days before we were supposed to leave.

I picked Mom & Dad up from the airport on Tuesday, and over the next few days while Shanna & I worked, we recommended various places for them to visit.  We'd rented a car so it'd be a more comfortable drive down, so they drove that to Ludwigsburg, Tübingen, and a few other places.

Friday morning came WAY too early.  We hit the road about 6:30am.  The plan was to arrive in Lake Bled, Slovenia, around 12:30 or so, and tour the area that afternoon, then head on to the capital city of Ljubljana that evening, where our hotel was.  That plan was changed as we approached Munich, and came to a halt on the Autobahn.  I did a search on a Traffic app on my phone, and it turns out a tractor trailer had flipped and was blocking all lanes of traffic.  So the police were routing everyone through a single exit.  We sat in barely moving traffic for 3 hours.  At that point we decided it wasn't going to work out with us stopping in Lake Bled, so we decided to visit it on the way out of town on Monday.  Once we detoured around the accident and got back on the Autobahn, the trip was smooth all the way to the Slovenia/Austria border.  Apparently coming from the north there's only one entrance into the country because of the mountains.  It was an 8km (5mi) tunnel that was down to one lane.  So they'd stop traffic from one direction for 30 minutes to let people drive from the other side, then they'd stop them and open traffic back up for 30 minutes from the side that had been closed.  The result was for 30 minutes people were walking around on the Autobahn chatting with each other.

We finally arrived in Ljubljana, 12 hours after we left Stuttgart.  Our hotel was by far one of the best hotels we've ever stayed in.  There are plenty of hotels that can offer a comfortable bed, nice shower, etc...  Where this hotel stood out was it's customer service.  The front desk receptionist said it would take a few minutes to process our passports, so she offered us a complimentary drink from the hotel bar while we waited.  And I don't mean a glass of water...Dad & I had a beer, Mom had a glass of wine, and Shanna had green tea.  By the time we finished our drink, our rooms were ready.  Lyza, the receptionist, walked us up to our room and asked if this was our first time in Slovenia.  It was, so she pulled out a map and showed us how to get to the old town area, some good places to eat, and suggested things to do on our trip.  She then told us the hotel restaurant would be closed for the weekend, but if we wanted to go tonight, they'd take 10 percent off our bill.  We were exhausted, and had no desire to go find a place, so we took her up on it.  The restaurant did not disappoint...I had an amazing spicy penne pasta dish with crispy bacon on top.

The plan for Saturday had been to drive to Piran, a coastal city, while stopping at some caves along the way.  While sitting at dinner, Shanna looked over the brochures from the front desk and found a day trip excursion for 45 Euros a person that took us to the caves, Piran, as well as several other stops.  It was a small van, not a giant bus, so we decided to do that instead.

The next day we got up bright and early since the van was picking us up at 8am.  The breakfast, which was included with the cost of the room, was amazing.  In addition to a delcious spread of meats, cheeses, fruit, & cereal, they also had eggs to order, and pancakes.  We had a big breakfast, and the van picked us up right on time.

We've done small day trip excursions on previous trips, and in that small environment of a car, you can't help but get to know the people you are spending the day with.  I'm bad at remembering names, but we had a guy from Australia, two girls from Australia (not with the guy, just happened to be from Australia) and a guy from Gainesville, FL.  Our first stop was at the Škocjan Caves.  You descend into the caves with a guide, and they explain everything you're seeing.  It was an amazing display of Stalagmites and Stalactites.  Unfortunately, though, no pictures were allowed until you reached the end of the cave, so we only have a few pictures from there.

It took about 2 hours to walk through the caves, so when we were done we took a cable car back up to the top and met up with our group.  We then headed on to the grounds where they raise the Lippizaner horses.  I'd never heard of them, but Shanna & Mom had and loved the stop.  They were fenced in, but had HUGE pieces of land to roam on.  They would come up to the fence when people approached, so you could pet them too.

When we were done there, we headed to a small family run Slovenian restaurant for lunch and to sample some delicious local wine.  From there we headed on to Piran.

Piran did not disappoint, it was BEAUTIFUL.  It sits on the Slovenian coast, surrounded by the Adriatic Sea.  From the city you can see the coast of Croatia.

We walked around Piran for about an hour.  The city itself was pretty, and on top of a hill over looking the city was a beautifully decorated church.  It had the best spot in town, over looking both the town and the sea.

When we were done, we had one more stop.  We arrived at Predjama Castle right as the sun was starting to set.  I'd read about this castle while researching things to do, and it looked really neat, but I didn't think we could fit it into our itinerary.  It's a castle that's built halfway into a cave in a mountain.  It was designed like that to make it harder to take in a battle.  Our guide told us the story of the knight who originally owned the castle.  Apparently he got on the bad side of the Austrian king by killing a relative of his, so the King sent his army to kill or capture him.  He holed himself up in the castle for a year.  There was a secret back entrance the army didn't know about, so he would escape that way to collect food and supplies.  He'd then taunt the army by throwing food down at them.  The only reason they were able to get to him was his servant sold him out.  The weakest part of the castle was where the bathroom was.  So the servant put  out a flag when he was using the bathroom, and the army then fired a cannon shot right at the bathroom, killing the knight inside.

After we walked around the castle grounds, the tour was coming to an end.  We then were driven back to our hotel around 8pm.  It was a long day, but we were ready for dinner.  We decided to head over to the old town area and see what we could find.  We found a small cafe, but they only sold dessert.  The guy that ran the place, though, recommended a place called Sokol for good Slovenian food.  He was right, it was good...and the house beer was delicious.  We walked off dinner, then called it a night.

The next morning we slept in, then headed down to the old town area for a free walking tour of the city.  We'd done free tours before, and they are usually great.  I think it's because the tour guide is only paid in tips, so the more informative and interesting they make it, the more tips they get.  I can't remember our tour guide's name (I think it was Neja, or something like that), but she was fantastic.  Very knowledgable, but at the same time she kept the subject matter interesting.  We walked all around the city learning about it's history for 2 hours.  The last part of the tour was when she got to more modern times, talking about the end of World War II, and creation of Yugoslavia and communist rule, as well as the brief war for independence in 1991.  She also had us pose for a picture...the resolution is small, but if you look closely, you can see us on the right.

Once the tour was over we grabbed a small snack, then headed up to the castle that over looks the city. There's a cable car that takes you to the top.  Once up there, you have an amazing view of the city.  We weren't interested in taking another tour, so we just walked around the castle grounds and enjoyed the scenery.  We then headed back to the hotel to take a nap.  It'd been a long day, and it was much needed.  That evening we asked the front desk for a recommendation for a good restaurant to eat at.  Not only did the receptionist make a recommendation, he then called the place to make a reservation for us.  We started to walk there, but then it started down pouring rain.  We ducked into a small cafe to have a few drinks to wait out the storm.  It subsided a bit, but never really stopped, so the cafe waiter offered to call us a cab.  When we finally arrived at the place for dinner, we were seated, and then the waiter brought us a round of champagne, courtesy of our hotel.  Again, it's the little things like that that really made this hotel stand out.  I wish this hotel was a chain, because I'd stay at it every place we travelled to.  Dinner was delicious.  I had rabbit wrapped in bacon, and Mom had an interesting dish...horse meat steak.   It was surprisingly tender and tasty.  I was expecting it to be tough, but it wasn't at all.  It was our last night in the city, so we had a few bottles of wine, some amazing food, and then headed back to the hotel to call it a night.

The next morning we hit the road early, around 9am, because the plan was to tour Lake Bled, then head home.  The previous day we'd run into some people from our Saturday tour, and they mentioned how amazing Vintgar Gorge was.  I looked it up, and it was only a 5 minute drive from Lake Bled.

When we first got to Lake Bled, it was beautiful.  It was cloudy, but still looked amazing.  We got on a small ferry boat that took us to a small island in the center of the lake.  It's the only island in Slovenia, and is one of their most famous destinations.  We got to the island, and walked up a bit to the top of it where a church was.  Inside the church was a beautiful altar, and a huge rope.  It was attached to giant bells in the bell tower, and was called the Wishing Bell.  You ring the bell & make a wish...so we'll see if it comes true. :)  They also had a mailbox and a gift shop that sold postcards, so you could send a postcard with the postmark from Lake Bled.  Mom bought one and mailed it to our Grandma.

After about 30 minutes we'd seen the island, so we got back on the small ferry and took it back.  Next up was the Castle that sits up and over looks the lake.  By this time the sun had come out and lake was even more stunning.  When we got to the top of the castle, we had an amazing view of the lake and the surrounding country side.  Of course we took pictures, but they just can't capture how beautiful the place was.

The castle itself didn't have much in the way of a museum, but they had some neat little shops.  There was a section where you could fill an empty wine bottle with wine from their cask, cork it, dip it in wax to seal it, then the guy there dripped hot wax on the bottle and let you put a stamp on it.  There was also a printing shop with a medieval printing press.  I ended up getting a neat bronze hand made picture of the lake.

From there it was on to the Vintgar Gorge.  We grabbed a bite to eat along the way, then got to the Gorge.  It was absolutely stunning there.  They'd built wooden walk ways all through out the gorge, so you could easily travel through an area that would have been impossible to traverse otherwise.

It was about a kilometer and a half to the end, then you had to walk back, so all told it was about 2 miles of walking.  But you were so mesmerized by what you were seeing that it flew by, and didn't seem like 2 miles at all.

From there we hit the road, and drove home.  The next day Mom & Dad flew home.

This trip was a lot of fun, and we saw some amazing things.  I'd never heard of Slovenia before we moved here, and prior to researching this trip, knew nothing about what the country had to offer.  The scenery was beautiful, the people were incredibly friendly and helpful, and it was all capped by one of the best hotels we've ever stayed at.  If you ever visit Ljubljiana, make sure to stay in the Hotel CUBO. You will not be disappointed.

We have some friends in town from the US for the last weekend of Volksfest (Stuttgart's version of Oktoberfest), then next weekend we're heading to Malta for our anniversary.  I can't believe it's been 3 years already.  I won't put up a post about Volksfest because there's not much to write about, but I'll definitely post in a few weeks about Malta.

To see the photo album, click here or any picture above.

Ashley's Visit

I know it's been awhile since my last blog post. The truth is, it's been a long summer between a trip back to the US and other things going on, so I haven't had time to post. I'm starting the first post of a few over the next month about a friend's visit last week.
A month or so ago my friend from back home, Ashley, sent me an email saying she'd be in Switzerland for a few weeks with her family and wanted to meet up. We haven't seen her since our wedding in 2009, so I was looking forward to showing her around the area.
 Last Monday she and her cousin, Caitlin, took the train from St. Gallen, Switzerland, up here to Stuttgart. I had that day and Tuesday off, so the plan was to show them around Stuttgart on Monday, then stop at various places on the drive back to Switzerland on Tuesday. The two of them arrived around 1pm, and we headed back to the house. It'd been a long train ride, so the first part of the afternoon was just showing them around the house, and catching up. They even got to enjoy the fantastic AFN PSA's we get instead of commercials on TV. We then rounded the dogs up and walked to downtown Stuttgart. I showed them around the main shopping street in Stuttgart, Königstraße, and a few other landmarks. It was about 30 minutes before Shanna was getting off work, so we stopped at a local Bier Garten to relax and have a few beers. One thing I love about living in Germany is when we take the dogs to restaurants, they always bring a bowl of water out for them. It was a warm day, so the dogs were happy to have a drink with us.

Eventually I got a call from Shanna saying she was on her way, so we headed to one of our favorite restaurants here, Zum Paulaner.  They have great Bavarian beer and food, and the girls loved it.  It'd been a long day, so we then headed back to our place and called it a night.

The next morning we all slept in, then I took them to an Italian buffet place near by.  Their food is delicious, and for lunch, dirt cheap.  After lunch, we hit the road.  The first thing they both wanted to see was a castle.  There are quite a few Schlosses around here, but most are more like Palaces then Castles like most people picture them.  Schloß Lichtenstein is more of a traditional castle, and the one we usually take visitors too.  

I've taken the tour at least 4 times, so I helped them get their tickets, then I sat outside on the seats over looking the valley while they took the tour.

After the tour ended I showed them around the castle grounds, took a few pictures, then we hit the road for Switzerland.  The next stop was the one I was looking forward to, Rheinfalls, Switzerland.  I'd never been there before, so I was excited to see it.  It's supposed to be the largest waterfall in Europe, but I'm glad I was forewarned about what to expect before hand.  When I heard "largest falls" I was expecting something on scale with Niagra Falls...it was nowhere near that.  It WAS beautiful, but not nearly as large as I originally thought.

We got there 2 hours later, parked, and headed down to the falls.  The first thing I noticed was the sound...it was LOUD.  Eventually we got to the dock area, and it was amazing.

We got our tickets, then got on the boat that took us to a small island in the center of the falls.  Once we docked, we walked up a flight of stairs until we got to the top, and from there you had a 360 degree view of the falls, the lake it dumped in to, the old bridge nearby, and everything else.  It was loud, fast moving water, and was beautiful.

After taking a few pictures, we headed back down and took the boat back to the dock.  At that point it was getting late, and I still had a 2 1/2 hour drive back to Stuttgart that night, so we hit the road to get to the small town of Teufen where they were staying.  We got there an hour later and their family wasn't at the hotel.  They wanted to show me the view of Teufen and the Alps, so we drove a little further up the hill from their hotel to a stunning view of the town.

We eventually met up with her family at the hotel.  I hadn't seen Ashley's Mom in several years, so it was good to see her again.  The first thing I noticed about the hotel was how small it is.  As in, my head hit the ceiling.  

They kicked around various ideas of places to eat.  The first place we went to was closed (I forgot that Ruhetags, or Rest Days, are common in Switzerland), but eventually we decided on a restaurant near the hotel.  Again, this was place had a low ceiling, and I had to slightly duck while walking around.  The place was really nice, and the waiter was fantastic.  He spoke German, of course, but when he switched to English he had a British accent.  He mentioned he'd studied English for a year in London, and absolutely loved it.  I ordered an AMAZING dish of White Sausage with Cheese Spätzel and Apple Sauce (not pictured below).  It was some of the best Spätzle I've ever had.

After dinner we sat around talking, and eventually it was time for me to head home.  It was getting late, I had a 2 1/2 hour drive home, and I had to work the next day.  I hated saying goodbye, the two days had flown by and reminded me how much I missed my friends from back home.  I had a lot of fun with Ashley, and really enjoyed meeting and hanging out with her cousin Caitlin as well.  It was a great week, and I hope they come back soon.

Next week Shanna's sister, Nikki, comes in to town, so I'll have another post ready after that.  I took a few pictures, but most were taking by Ashley and Kaitlyn.  When I get their pictures, I'll upload them to the same album.  For now, click here or any of the pictures above to see the pics from the trip.

Memorial Day 2012

Ever since we moved here, Normandy has been on the very top of my "to visit" list.  Our friends Jenny & Chris found a package tour that included not only Normandy, but Giverny (where Claude Monet lived) and an afternoon in Paris.  It was over Memorial Day weekend, and it was the perfect timing.

The day started off EARLY.  On Friday we arrived on base at 5:30am and hit the road.  We had a few stops along the way, and finally in the early afternoon we arrived in Giverny, France.  Art has never been a big interest of mine, but history is, and knowing who Claude Monet was, I was looking forward to walking through his house.  Shanna was looking forward to seeing the garden he painted, as well as the Lilly Pond in his back yard that inspired one of his more famous works.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  It was sunny, about 75 degrees, and not a cloud in the sky.  It was peaceful walking around the pond.

After walking through the Pond area, we walked through his house.  The preservation society that runs it has set it up so it looks identical to when he lived there, based on pictures and accounts of people who visited.  When you walk in the front door, it's like stepping back in time.

We spent an hour or so total there, then it was time to get back on the bus for the last leg of the trip to the city of Caen in the Normandy region of France.

We finally pulled in around 8pm to the hotel.  It had been a LONG day of travelling, but everyone was hungry.  The tour had arranged a sit down dinner at a local steakhouse, but as soon as we heard it wasn't a pre-order meal, we decided not to go.  With 80 people showing up and ordering at once, we'd be lucky if we were home by midnight.  We ended up finding a McDonalds nearby to get something quick & easy.  I was impressed with how hi-tech the McDonalds was.  There was a lot of people there, so they had employees walking around with PDA's.  They'd take your order, print a slip, and by the time you got to the front of the line, you just handed your slip in, paid, and took your food.  The line flew because of it.  They also had kiosks where you could order yourself and not wait for a person to come to you.  I wanted to get something that you can't find at a typical McDonalds, so I got a McBaguette...it was actually pretty good!

After that we headed back to the hotel & called it a night.

The next morning we woke up to bright sunshine coming in the room.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and I couldn't have been happier.  One of my biggest fears about this trip was we would have bad weather.  After breakfast we hopped on the tour bus and hit the road.  Our first stop was an interesting one...a German Military Cemetery.  I had no idea they had these in France.  While later on in the day we'd see plenty of people at the US memorial sites, aside from our tour, there was no one at the German one.  It was a beautiful layout, and obviously well maintained and cared for.  In the center of the cemetery was a giant hill with a cross on top that had stairs leading up to the top.

We spent about 20 minutes walking around there, then got back on the bus.  Our next stop was St. Mere-Eglise, the first town on the western front of France liberated.  They have an Airborne Museum there that was really neat to walk through.  When we first pulled in to town there was a big church and you could see a parachute draped over one of the spires with a mannequin dressed up like an Airborne trooper hanging from it.   The reason is a group of paratroopers had the bad luck to land right in the middle of town after jumping.  Most were killed immediately, but this trooper, John Steele, got stuck on the church roof.  He played dead, and when they went to cut him down, he got the drop on the German soldier and managed to escape.  In reading about this, it turns out he made many trips back to the town, and it became a second home to him until his death.

It was neat reading about the stories from D-Day, including how the US Military dropped dolls in fake parachutes as well as inflatable tanks.  They dropped them far away from the actual drop zone so that anyone looking through binoculars would think they were real.  After we were done with the museum we walked around town for a bit.  One of the best parts of visiting countries outside Germany is getting to try different local foods.  It was almost lunch time, so we headed to a local baker in town and got cheese sandwiches.  I then headed next door to a butcher and bought some salami to go on it.  So I had a bree & salami sandwich on a fresh baguette roll for lunch...it was DELICIOUS.  We walked around town for a bit more, then got on the bus to head to Utah Beach.

It was incredible to walk on this beach, with how quiet & peaceful it was, and imagine what it was like almost 68 years ago to the day.  This particular section of Utah Beach didn't have too much.  There was a museum, but we weren't there long enough to go through it.  Instead we walked around reading the various memorials, and walked through the only remaining German Bunker.  It was captured almost immediately and used as HQ to direct other attacks that day.

We then took the bus to our next stop, Point du Hoc on Omaha Beach.  Point du Hoc is a huge cliff side that Army Rangers scaled on D-Day under heavy fire.  The first thing you noticed as you approached the area near the top of the cliffs was all the hills.  As you got closer, you realized those aren't man-made hills...those are the massive craters left from the Artillery shelling from the Allied attack.  Some of these craters were at least 20 feet deep.

As we approached the cliffs and looked over, it was incredible....I don't know how they managed to scale these cliffs under a hail of bullets.  There was a command bunker at the end that you could walk through. As we walked around the area we saw the remains of train tracks.  It turns out the Germans had a small railway system going between all the underground bunkers so they could easily send supplies back & forth.

From there it was on to the American Military Cemetery build on the deadliest part of Omaha Beach.  This was relatively flat land, so the initial wave of the D-Day attack suffered heavy casualties.  You wouldn't know that know though...it looks like any other beach, albeit with headstone after headstone.  When we first approached it after getting off the bus, we saw a marker on the ground.  It was a time capsule of news footage from June 6th, 1944.  I thought I'd seen somewhere that it was to be opened on June 6th, 2044, but in looking at the picture, I don't see that.  So maybe I just thought I saw it.  The cemetery wasn't too busy, but there were soldiers there practicing for the Memorial Day ceremony they were going to have on Sunday.  I was glad we were there the day before, though, so we could still walk freely around.

The first part we went to was the small museum they had there.  They had one room filled with stories of various soldiers, including the four brothers that inspired the Saving Private Ryan movie.  They also had a story about soldiers from Bedford, VA.  That was particularly interesting to me because I remember reading a book about the soldiers from Bedford.  That small town in VA suffered the largest loss of life per capita in the nation.  If you ever find yourself in Bedford, there's a great D-Day memorial there.  There was a lot to see there, but it's best described by the pictures rather then words.  What I will say is it was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had.  Walking through the cemetery, as well as along the upper part of the beach, was incredible and something everyone should do once in their lifetime.

When we were done there, we headed to a section of Juno Beach where there was a large contingent of German heavy artillery guns.  There wasn't much different from this location then other parts we'd visited with German Bunkers, except these had the large guns intact.

We spent about 45 minutes walking around the various bunkers, including the main command bunker located on the sea cliffs.  Off in the distance we could see the remains of the artificial port the British built to keep the waters in that area calm for ships and transport vehicles.  Finally it was time for dinner.  Our guide had a restaurant picked out in a small seaside village that looked a lot like any seaside resort town in the US.  In fact, it reminded me a bit like Ocean City, MD.  The food was pretty good...not the best I'd ever had, but far from the worst.  At the very least, it was nice just to sit for a bit and enjoy dinner and drinks.  When we finished we still had some time, so we walked around town for a bit.  There was a boardwalk area, a large carousel, and a bunch of shops, although those were closed.

We had one more stop for the day.  Our guide swung by the hotel and gave people the option to call it a day if they wanted.  The older people, and those with young kids, got off the bus, and the rest of us stayed on.  Our final stop of the night was Pegasus Bridge.  On the night of June 5th, several gliders flown by British soldiers landed at the bridge and secured it.  It was a crucial entry point into the city of Caen, and the Germans had wired it to blow.  Since they landed in gliders, it was quiet and they were able to secure the bridge without it being destroyed.  The original bridge has been moved and set up as a museum.  In 1994 they built a replica of the bridge in the same spot.

Finally it was time to call it a night.  We came back to the hotel, took showers, and pretty much fell into bed because we were so tired.

The next morning, after breakfast, we piled into the bus again.  The clear weather from the day before was gone, and it was now cloudy and slightly raining.  I was bummed, but was glad we at least had the nice weather the day before with all the outside activities.  It took us about 2 hours to get to Mont St. Michele, a large Monastery built on a rock, surrounded by water.  Along the way, the weather slowly cleared, and by the time we got there, it was clear skies and sunny.  As you approached, the Monastery was imposing on the skyline.

It was built in the 8th century, and over time a small village sprung up around it.  Originally it was an island, but awhile back the French government decided they didn't want it to be an island, so they built a dam nearby.  Recently they've changed their mind, and are part way through removing the dam and changing it back to being an island.  Unfortunately it was low tide, so it was mostly sand around the rock, but it should be impressive when it's fully surrounded by water again.

The bus parked, and we walked to a shuttle area that took us closer to the Monastery.  It was a steep hike up to the top, but once we were in, the view was amazing.  Below you can see the Atlantic Ocean in the distance.

While we were walking through, there was a service going on.  I'm not sure if it was Catholic, or something else, but it was still impressive.  Inside the chapel area were large stained glass.  They were burning incense, so because of the lite haze in the air, the sunlight looked like individual rays coming in as the choir was chanting.  On the pictures page you'll see a picture of it, as well as video.  It took about an hour to walk through the whole thing with our audio guide.  It was interesting, but it kept describing these rich tapestries that were no longer there...I wish they'd had replicas at least up to see what it was like back then.

When we were done we walked through the small village within the walls.  There really weren't houses anymore, they'd all been converted to gift shops and restaurants, but it was still neat to walk through the narrow streets.

When we were done, we took the shuttle back and had lunch.  Again, it was baguette sandwiches...man were they good.  We then headed to the town of Bayeux.  The town is famous for having the Bayeux Tapestry on display, which is 70 meters long and showcases the story of William, Duke of Norman, and his conquest of King Harold of England at the battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D.   The tapestry itself was neat, but what really brought the story alive was the audio guide.  It depicted in rich detail the story of what lead to the attack, as well as the battle itself.  It was neat to see the story, as well as realizing this tapestry is over 1,000 years old.  

When we finished there, we walked around the little museum for a bit, then spent the rest of the afternoon walking around town.  We snacked on Macaroons and spent the last 30 minutes or so sipping some Belgian beer at a local cafe.  That's one of my favorite parts of traveling...eating or drinking at a local cafe and hearing people converse around us in the local language...French in this case, of course.

We headed back to our hotel, and that evening had lunch at a local steakhouse.  I wasn't in the mood for steak, but this place had one of the best burgers I've had in Europe.

The next morning we hit the road to head home.  We had one more stop, though...Paris!  I'd never been, so I was looking forward to seeing the city, albeit for a short time.  Our bus drove all through the city.  We stopped in front of the Eiffel tower for a picture taking opportunity, then proceed to drive around the massive round about that goes around the Arc du Triumph, as well as the fashion district that stretches the Champs Élysées.

We also stopped in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral for a few pictures.  Finally it was lunch time.  Personally, I thought it was delicious.  Our appetizer was shrimp cocktail, and the main dish was Beef Burgundy with potatoes.  After lunch, we walked around for a few minutes, then that was it for our trip.

We saw some amazing sights, and some incredible places.  Over all, this was by far one of the best trips we've gone on.  There are some definite pros & cons of bus tour travel.  It was nice to not have to plan anything, and just show up.  I'm convinced we saw more in those 4 days because of the itinerary and them taking us everywhere then we would have if we'd done it ourselves.  The cons were the bus drive was MUCH longer then a car drive because of the slow speed limits the buses have to maintain.  Plus where ever you go, you bring the crowd when it's you & 40+ other people.  While I'm not sure I'll do a long bus trip like this again, I have no regrets about this trip and am glad we did this.  It's one of those trips I'll never forget.

The next blog post will probably be towards the end of June, after Shanna's Mom and her niece & nephew come visit.  They'll be here for 2 weeks, so I might just post periodic updates instead of doing one large post at the end.  We'll see.

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

Trier

Last month it was slow at work, so I was browsing the local news.  I came across a story about a Trier, Germany, and how they were putting the supposed seamless tunic that Jesus wore right before his crucifixion on display.  The cathedral has had it in it's possession for about 1,000 years, and has taken it out for display only a few times.  The first time was in the 1500's, and it has only been put on display 3 times in the past 100 years.  The article mentioned that it would be on display from mid-April to mid-May, so Shanna & I decided to take a trip to Trier to see it.  Regardless of whether you believe it's authenticity or not, it IS over 1,000 years old, so that alone was enough to pique my interest.

We decided to take the dogs with us this time, so on Friday I packed everything up during the day.  I had the day off, but Shanna had to work, so when she got off work the dogs & I picked her up and hit the road.  On the way we hit traffic jam after traffic jam, followed by a torrential downpour of rain and hail.  What should have been a 3 hour drive ended up being 5 1/2 hours.  We eventually pulled into Trier, though, and got to our hotel.  The reviews I'd read said it was an unusual hotel, but that people liked it.  I couldn't agree more.  The "theme" seemed to be 70's, but you could tell it'd been remodeled recently.  And our room was HUGE.  Well, huge by European standards, big by American standards.  It had a bedroom, an "office" area, and the bathroom in between.  Essentially, three rooms.  Even though it was newly renovated, I still laughed at the 70's colors.

After getting settled, we ordered room service for dinner and called it a night.  The next morning we woke up early and got ready.  The cathedral didn't start admitting people until 10:30am, and we were ready to walk out the hotel at 9, so we decided to take the dogs with us to explore the town.  I'd picked this hotel because of it's proximity to the the Altstadt (old town) area, so it was a quick walk into the heart of old town.  It didn't take long for Shanna to find a new store she loved...if it was located in Stuttgart, I can only imagine how many Euros they'd get from us.

We were casually walking through town, but we had a destination...the tourist information center.  Most trips we have time to look up things to see, but we'd both been so busy with work that we really hadn't had time.  I'd talked with co-workers who mentioned the Black Gate, but that & the tunic were the only things I knew to visit.  We eventually got to the Tourist Information center, and signed up for the 1:30pm walking tour.  The info center was located right at the Black Gate.  The Black Gate was the original entrance to the city during Roman times, and the only surviving entrance today.  Originally built in approximately 180 A.D., it's an impressive structure.  Since we had the dogs with us, only one of us could go up inside the gate.  Since Shanna didn't really have an interest, I went in.

The gate was multiple levels.  I was disappointed that there wasn't much in the way of documentation, but it ended up being not a big deal because our tour guide later that day was so knowledgable.  But I'll get to that later.  As I walked through, it was incredible to think people had been doing what I was doing for 2,000 years in this very structure.  As I walked up to the first level, I heard what sounded like shouting in German.  My first assumption was it was just kids goofing around.  Then I turned the corner and saw a Roman guard!  Of course, it was just an actor.  Apparently, one of the tour options is a guy dressed as a Roman guard who shouts at you on a tour.

The view from the top was amazing...you could see the entire old town area, plus the surrounding hills.  When you look at the page of pictures that I'll link to at the end, I included a movie I took that is a panoramic view of the city.  At one point I was looking out over the city when my phone rang.  It was Shanna telling me to come around to the other side.  When I did, I saw her sitting out front with both dogs next to her.  I called out Murphy's name and laughed as he looked around, trying to find me.

I eventually came down and we took the dogs back to the hotel.  They were tired, so it didn't take long for them to go to sleep.  We left them in the room, and headed to the cathedral.  The line was LONG when we got there, but it didn't take nearly as long as I thought to get through.  From the time we got in line to the time we were walking out of the church was only 1 hour.  When we got in line, I noticed these tall colored sticks everywhere.  Shanna had read that they were pilgrimage sticks.  As we got closer to them in line, we noticed most of them had strings of yarn wrapped around them.  I don't know where they came from, but close to the entrance was a guy using the string to weave blankets.  It was neat seeing him do it using no machinery...it was entirely using manual methods.  He was using a crude version of the machine that the lady in Istanbul used to weave the Turkish rugs.

At one point in line a priest (or maybe he was a cardinal or bishop) walked through followed by altar boys.  There was a person carrying a portable speaker behind him that was playing music.  As it played, the people in the crowd sang.  It was all in German, but really neat to watch.  In the pictures section, I have a video posted there of them walking into the cathedral.

Finally we got inside.  Unfortunately they'd made it pretty clear that no pictures were to be taken.  They had people standing all around ready to kick you out if you took a pic, so I didn't risk it.  The tunic itself definitely looked old...I don't know if it looked 2,000 years old, but it definitely looked ancient.  It was in a sealed off, climate controlled glass case, but you could get right up on it and look at it.

After we walked outside, we had about an hour before our tour started.  We grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the tourist information center to start our tour.

The guide we had was great...he was VERY knowledgable, and captured our interest from the start.  He first took us to the Black Gate and explained everything about it.  From 180 A.D. to 1,000 A.D., it was the entrance gate to the city.  From 1,000 A.D. to 1800 A.D., there was a church built around it.  In 1800 the Church was torn down, and from then until now, it's been a gate again.  We'd walked through the gate earlier, but hearing all kinds of information explained about it was fascinating.  He showed us parts of the Church that still remained, as well as a stone that'd been exposed over the years with a number carved in it.  That number was how the company who supplied the stones from the local quarry charged the Roman government.  We'd walked right past it earlier and hadn't noticed it.  One other interesting fact he mentioned about Trier was during it's prime, the city was the second largest Roman city next to Rome itself.

From there we walked a short distance to the house that Karl Marx grew up in.  Regardless of your political beliefs, and whether you support Socialism or not, it was still neat to see buildings associated with such a key historical figure.

From there we visited the Three Kings house, which was built during Roman times and recently restored. We meandered from there to the market square, which had been a continuously running market since 958 A.D., then on to a large sundial monument.  Trier has many cigarette companies, and they paid for this sundial.  The running joke locally is that the center of the dial bears a strong resemblance to a cigarette.

From there we headed to what used to be the Emperor's reception hall.  If you look closely at the pic below, you can see some plaster.  The "style" during Roman times was for no bricks to be displayed, they plastered over everything.  In the picture below, you can still see the last remnants of the plaster that used to coat the building.

Once inside, our guide told us all about history of the reception hall.  After the Romans had left, and the Catholic Church had taken it over, one of the local Bishops wanted to tear the place down.  He started, but only got part way through.  Eventually it was restored, but to give a visual, our guide showed us a picture of what the inside used to look like.

At that point our tour was over.  Shanna & I walked through the gardens, then headed to the ruins of the Roman Baths.  We were going to walk through them originally, but we found a vantage point to look inside and realized there wasn't much left.  Since that was the case, we decided not to head inside.  Instead we took a short walk from there to the Amphitheater.  It was here that the Romans used to hold Gladiator fights, both between men and animals.  While walking through we got to walk under the Amphitheater where the Gladiators would prepare for battle, as well as in the rooms on the main levels where they'd keep the Lions that the Gladiators would fight.  The picture below is taken from within the Lion's den, looking out to the center of the ring.

In it's prime, the Amphitheater could hold 100,000 people.  It obviously used to be much larger, there's no way you could fit that many people now.  Once we finished walking around, it was time to head back to the hotel room for the dogs.  We put their leashes on and headed back out.  Our first stop was the Karl Marx birth house.  I didn't care about going inside, but I wanted a picture of the house.  After that, we headed to the Roman Bridge.  Rumor has it the Romans built the bridge over the Mosel River into the city.  That's a debated fact today, but it was still nice walking out to the bridge and taking a picture.

From there we wandered around looking for a place to eat dinner.  We eventually found a small place that had some of the best Italian food.  I had lasagne and Shanna had a ravioli dish.  We started with a plate of Buffalo Mozzarella that was DELICIOUS.  It was coated in Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar.

I also got to sample some local beer that was amazing.  After dinner we were beat, so we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

The next morning we packed up, and while we'd seen all of Trier that we wanted to, we wanted to stop somewhere on the way home and sight see some more.  Shanna pulled out the map on the iPad and found Bingen.   It's a major city located on the Rhein river, and they have daily cruises from there along the Rhein.  It was an hour drive from Trier to Bingen, and when we got there, we bought our roundtrip tickets for the cruise, and headed out to the docks.  While it was cold, it was also clear & sunny, so a beautiful day for a Rhein river cruise.  We had lunch on the boat and sampled a great bottle of local wine.

The whole ride the dogs just sat under the table snoring.  We slowly cruised down the Rhein, looking at all the towns and castles along the way.  The boat stopped at it's final destination in St. Goar.  I'd never heard of the town, but as soon as we stepped off the boat it was obvious this was a town made for tourists.  It was nice walking down the old town street and going through all the shops.  We picked up a few bottles of local wine, and I got a new stein.  This one was unique because it was made from black crystal...the more I look at it, the more I'm glad I paid the extra money for it.

Eventually we headed back to the dock, and took the cruise back to Bingen.  From there we hit the road, and headed home.

Overall this was a great trip.  It was nice to get away with Shanna & the dogs, and just relax and view Germany.  Almost all of our trips involve a country outside of Germany, so it was nice for a change to stay in a country where we were comfortable with the local language and could easily drive to wherever we wanted.

As I stated in a previous post, we have a lot going on between now and Mid-July.  Our next trip is next weekend, Memorial Day weekend, to Normandy, France, to view the beaches of D-Day and various memorials related to it.  Normandy is somewhere I've wanted to visit for years, so I can't wait for this trip. Check back after next weekend for a full report!

In the mean time, click here or any pictures above to see the see the pictures from this past weekend.

Summer Travel

This is just a short post to let you all know to check back here every few weeks over the summer.  Between now & Labor Day we have trips planned to Trier, Normandy, the US, Slovenia, as well as a visit from Shanna's Mom and her Niece and Nephew.  So there'll be lots to read about!