Barcelona

For President's Day, we knew we had one last trip to take before we moved back to the US.  Unfortunately, I got the cities mixed up that Shanna had and had not been to in Spain.  I thought she'd been to Madrid, but not Barcelona.  Turns out, it was the opposite.  But I had already booked our trip to Barcelona before I found out my mistake.  One other thing to note about this trip, while it's always neat to see a new city (and for me, a new country), this particular trip was mostly just exhausting.  Ben had always been a great traveler, but due to a few mistakes we made, he was not a happy camper this time.  We forgot his sleep sack, which is basically a blanket that he wears over his pajamas.  It stays on him all night so he can't kick it off, and it keeps him warm.  We also had his crib in the hotel placed right under a window.  The hotel was so hot we had to open the window, but this allowed cold air to flow in and down on to him.  The end result was he kept waking up through out the night, and during the day, we were exhausted.  So this blog post won't be as long as previous ones.

That said, though, we did see some neat things.  The first day there we opted to just go with a hop on/hop off bus.  Before that started running for the day, though, we visited a building designed by the famous architect from Barcelona, Antoni Gaudí.  His works are known for not having any straight lines and intricate colors.  This building looked like it was inspired by a Mardi Gras mask.

Notice in the picture that Ben is asleep.  While most of the pictures of him during our travels has him asleep like that, almost all the ones in Barcelona were like that due to him being up all night.  After we toured the building, we headed to the pick up for the hop on/hop off.  I never really liked those because the audio quality wasn't great, and it's just a dry presentation.  But we were so tired, there's no way we could have done an extensive walk like we usually do.  At least Ben enjoyed seeing the city from the upper deck.

We stopped and walked through a beautiful church along the tour.

For lunch, we stopped in a hole in the wall seafood place and had some of the best Paella I'd ever had.  Even Ben loved it, devouring it faster than we could put it in front of him.

The rest of the day was spent just walking around city center, shopping and touring.

The next day we took a taxi to a unique place on top of one of the mountains around Barcelona.  It was a huge church, and outside of it was an old amusement park.  What we didn't realize was they were closed on Mondays, and didn't find that out until we get up there.  But the church was beautiful, as was the view of the city.

At this point we were getting hungry, so we headed back to the city center to the big market place.  They had all kinds of fresh seafood, meats, cheeses, etc...  We found a little sit down restaurant to eat at, and had some delicious seafood.  I had to get a picture of the Jamon in the market.  I've never liked ham, but discovered I love Italian prosciutto when we moved to Germany.  In the past year, I've learned that it doesn't come close to aged Spanish Jamon.  It's not cheap, but the flavor is incredible.  They were selling entire legs in the market that you sliced yourself for the low low price of 125 Euro per leg.  Although, considering the cost of it when packaged, that's a pretty good price.  

That afternoon we took the hop on/hop off bus to some of the more remote locations, including the stadium where the local football team, FC Barcelona, plays.

Despite being exhausted, we did enjoy the trip.  The weather was beautiful and the food was delicious.  

To see pictures, click any image above or here.

Estonia

We're back in the US now, but we went on two more trips before moving back here.  With all the craziness that came from having all the Grandparents in town for Christmas, plus planning and executing an international move with a 1 year old, this is the first chance I've had to sit down and do some writing.  Ben is in Texas for the week with Shanna's parents, so I actually have an entire afternoon to sit down and write.

Back in November, Shanna and I were looking at somewhere to go for Thanksgiving, and thought we'd check out Estonia.  Their Christmas market started earlier than most of the ones around Europe, and the capitol city of Tallinn was one we'd wanted to visit.  I found a hotel right off the main market square that was built in the 1300s.  It was beautiful, but had one major drawback...no elevator.  With a stroller and a baby, it was no fun going up and down 5 stories to our room.  But, the room was nice, so I can't really complain.

That first night we fed Ben his Thanksgiving dinner, which consisted of Turkey, mashed potatoes, and corn, plus apple yogurt for dessert.  All baby food versions, of course.

Next, Shanna and I found a restaurant that was common in Estonia.  It was Medieval themed, but not like the gimmicky Medieval Times in the US.  They had no electricity in the areas where customers were, everything was candle lit.  They served ales brewed from recipes around the 1400s, and if a type of food hadn't been discovered in Estonia by the 1400s, it wasn't on the menu.  Shanna asked if she could have potatoes with her Elk Steak, but was told they hadn't made it to Estonia yet.  I had a delicious plate of Bear meat with their spiced ale.

Ben was getting tired after dinner, so we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.   One thing to note about that evening was it snowed.  So Ben saw his first snowfall in Estonia.

The next morning we had arranged for a tour guide to meet us.  She had just graduated college and was back in Tallinn giving tours while she was job hunting.  She walked us through the city, and had an amazing breadth of knowledge about it.  One of the most amazing things about the country is how digitally connected it is.  They are the first country in the world to have a card people carry around that they use for everything.  It has their medical records stored on it, they use it to authenticate to a website to vote online, it's their passport, drivers license...it even lets them store credit on it for using city provided services, such as public transportation.  97 percent of the country has a broadband connection to their house and/or phone.  I had noticed how much free wifi was available through out the city, as well as how fast it was.  Estonia is also spear heading an effort to allow people to become digital citizens of the country in the hopes of encouraging new business to come.  You wouldn't have to pay the taxes a normal citizen does, only business related ones, and you wouldn't have to reside in the country.  It's an interesting concept.  

She also talked about how the recent annexation of Crimea by Russia had the older generation extremely scared that Russia was coming after them next.  Until the early 90s, Estonia, along with it's neighbor countries of Latvia and Lithuania, were part of the Soviet Union.  The younger generation isn't worried about a return to those days (our tour guide was born the year Estonia regained it's independence), but the older generation is wary.  

Over all, it was a fascinating tour, not just because of the history of the city, but because of all the things we learned about the country from our guide.  One of the things she took us by that was neat was a Russian Orthodox church.  It looked a lot like the ones we saw through out Moscow and St. Petersburg when we were there a few years ago.

Once the tour was over, we headed over to the Christmas market.  It was pretty small, no where near the size of the ones in Germany.  But it was quaint, and they had some delicious food and drink to enjoy.  They also had different things than you usually see at a market.  They had ladies there selling hand woven hats, scarves, etc...  

Because of Ben's bed time, our days ended pretty early, and this one was no different.

The next day we had planned on taking a ferry to Helsinki, the capitol of Finland.  After talking with the tourism office, though, we just couldn't make it work.  We would have had to be at the dock by 7am, and it takes a few hours to cross the Gulf of Finland.  I don't remember all the details of why we didn't go, but the main reason was it required us to leave Estonia at 7am and we wouldn't get back until 10pm.  That was just too much with Ben.  

Instead we spent the day walking around the city and visiting areas we missed on day 1.  One of the neat museums we visited was centered around the Nazi and Soviet occupations.

That evening the Christmas market had dancers on stage, and Ben was mesmerized.  To this day, he still loves music and watching people dance.  He'll sit there and wiggle himself to the music.

The next morning we packed up, and caught a taxi to the airport.  We really enjoyed Estonia.  Some of our favorite trips have been to the smaller Eastern European countries that we didn't know much about, but found people who were friendly and loved telling us all about their country and their history.  And, across the board, their English was perfect.  

Estonia might not be at the top of your list of places to visit, but if you ever have a chance, do it.  It's a beautiful country with a fascinating history.

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

Krakow

One of my goals when we moved here almost 5 years ago was to visit all the countries that my family immigrated to the US from.  So far we'd been to 3 out of the 4 (Ireland, Scotland & Italy).  The only one left was Poland.  It came down to Warsaw and Krakow.  Both looked like fun cities to visit, but we settled on Krakow because I also wanted to visit Auschwitz, which was about an hour drive from Krakow.

With that settled, we booked our trip and flew out last weekend.  When we landed, we got our bags, met the driver, and headed to the hotel.  Before the trip, Shanna picked up thing for the stroller to pack Ben in to for when it's cold, and it's a good thing she did, because it was freezing when we landed.

The hotel was nice, and our room had a small balcony over looking a garden in the back. After we got everything settled in the room, we headed down to the Old Town area.  Along the way to Old Town we passed Walwel Castle, and in front of it, they had a large pole that pointed out various cities around the world, and how far away they were.  They had Rochester on there, at 7,400km away.  I thought that was neat since New York is where my Grandmother's family moved to from Poland.

Across from the castle was a small church, and in front of it was a giant cross that said "1940 KATYN 1990".  I had to look up Katyn when we got back to our hotel later that afternoon.  This was a memorial dedicated to the 22,000 Poles that were executed by the Soviets in what was later called the Katyn massacre.

The old town area was beautiful.  They had a large square, and lots of shops all around it.  There was a large church in the square, and every hour there is a man who goes to the top of the church spire, and plays a bugle.  Hundreds of years ago a guard would play the bugle to signal the opening & closing of the city gates, as well as a warning when invaders were approaching.  In 1241, a guard played the bugle to warn of a Mongol invasion army approaching.  In the middle of playing, he was shot with an arrow and killed.  They commemerate his sacrifice in Krakow today by having a person play the bugle every hour (I don't know if it goes through the night or not) and abruptly end the note to signify when the bugler was shot and killed.

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the old part of the city.  During one point when we were sitting at a cafe on the square, Shanna was going through a bunch of pamphlets she got from the hotel.  One advertised a traditional Polish dinner with Polish folk dancing.  It sounded like fun, so we headed over to the restaurant and made reservations for that night.  My grandmother taught my Mom some Polish cooking, so when we were younger we used to have Kielbasa and Pierogis...I couldn't wait to try some here.

That evening we walked back to the restaurant.  At this point fog had rolled in, so it was actually a pretty night to walk around with everything lit up through the fog.  We got the restaurant and took our seat.  Ben had slept on the walk over, but right as everything was getting ready to start, he woke up.  He had a lot of fun that night, and could not take his eyes off the dancers.  When they would take breaks, he would go back to playing with this toys at the table.  As soon as they came back out, he was back to staring at them.  The food was delicious.  I had a soup that I'd never heard of, but figured I'd try anyway.  It was called Zurek soup, and it was incredible.  There seem to be multiple recipes for it, but the one I had was a white broth poured over potatoes with bacon pieces and chopped boiled eggs in it.  The appetizer was the Pierogis I'd been looking forward to, and Kielbasa was used in the main course.  The last dance of the night involved all the patrons (about 15 of us) with the Polish dancers.  This particular dance had everyone holding hands and dancing in a circle.  One person would pick another, then the two of them would get down on their knees facing each other while we all danced around them, and they would kiss each other on each cheek.  The person who was picked then got up, picked someone else from the crowd, and repeated.  One lady picked Ben while Shanna was holding him, so Shanna got down on her knees, and the lady kissed Ben once on each cheek while he laughed.  After the dance, they came out and took some pictures with him.

The next morning a guide I'd arranged met us in the lobby, and we started off on the tour.  The hotel was on a street that divided the Old Town area from the Jewish Quarter.  Our guide first started with the Jewish Quarter.  Originally the Jewish section had been in the center square area of old town during the middle ages, but the king at the time wanted a strict divide between Jews and Christians, so he had them moved outside the Old Town area to where we were walking now.  The first stop was an old Jewish cemetery.  During World War II, the Nazis used it as a place to dump trash.  After the war the local residents cleaned it up, and restored it.  We walked along to the area where Spielberg filmed the "Ghetto" area for Schindler's List.  That wasn't the actual ghetto area, but it still looks today like it did 70 years ago, in terms of the building architecture.  From there we headed to a Synagogue.  Shanna & I thought about it, and we realized that in our travels we've been inside Churches, Cathedrals, even Mosques...but we've never been inside a Synagogue before.  So it was a first for both of us.

At that point we were done with the Jewish Quarter, and it was time to head to the Old Town area.  We started with the original entrance through the old city gates.  We couldn't walk through because they were working on restoring it, but we could see it form the outside.

We walked through out the old town area as our guide told us about the history of the city.  We ended the tour at a little off the beaten path restaurant.  We weren't that hungry, but we had to share a snack of Pierogis!   The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the various shops.  There was a display set up in the center of the old town area that said "Krakow", so we took pictures with Ben in front.

There was also a few other letters, so we took one in front of the large N.

The next part of this post is disturbing because I'll be describing the things we saw at Auschwitz.  If you don't want to read it, click here to skip past it. 

The next day we took a group tour to Auschwitz.  They had two small vans, but because we had the stroller and Ben's car seat, they gave us a van all to ourselves.  Everyone else had to cram in to the other one.  So that was nice.  What I didn't realize was how large Auschwitz was.  So large that it was built in stages.  The original part of the camp is called Auschwitz I.  Later Auschwitz II was built, and finally the area that most people would probably recognize pictures of was built, Auschwitz Birkenau.  The tour we were on took us through Auschwitz I and Auschwitz Birkenau.

Once we arrived, our guide took us in.  The first thing you see is the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign, which means "Work will make you free".

After having seen so many pictures of concentration camps when they were filled during World War II, it was eerie walking through the most famous one now.  We've been to Dachau while here, but most of that camp was destroyed at the end of the war, and only partially re-constructed for visitors.  Auschwitz is entirely originally.  What you saw as you walked through was what each prisoner there saw.  Auschwitz I was originally a Polish military base, so all the buildings that housed the prisoners were former military barracks.  Each building today is a mini-museum dedicated to a specific thing.  For example, one building was dedicated to all the things that were taken from the people when they arrived at camp.  To sell the lie that they would eventually be set free, the Germans had each person write their name, birth date, and any other info that would help them identify their suitcase.  They have a room with a glass wall, and behind the wall are hundreds of suitcases stacked.  You can read the names and birthdays of each person.  Would made that it particularly sad were the suitcases with birthdays listed in the late 1930s/early 1940s because you knew those were young children.

Another building had a small monument built by the Soviets who liberated the camp.  It has "1940-1945" written on it, and a glass bowl on top that contains ashes of human remains the soldiers found outside the crematorium. 

The next building we walked in to I considered not writing about, because as haunting as all of this was, this particular room was probably the worst one we went in to.  We were given a warning before hand, and Shanna didn't even want to go in.  Inside this room, behind a glass wall, was well over a ton of human hair.  When people arrived at the camp, the first thing they did was shave all their hair off.  The hair was then bundled up into bags, and sent off to factories in Germany where it was used to make carpets, rugs, and things of that nature.  When the Soviets liberated the camp, the Germans had attempted to destroy parts of it to hide their crimes, but several tonnes of hair were still left.  This was probably the single most disturbing thing we saw.  The rest of it required your imagination to picture what happened, but this was something you could see with your own eyes.  This wasn't a replica or re-creation, this well over a ton of hair of actual victims of the camp.

When we left the barrack area, we next headed underground to rooms that they put captured Soviet POWs in, and tested the gas that would later be used in gas chambers.  They tested on POW after POW until they got the mixture of the gas just right to kill as fast as possible.  Our guide told us the first few tests took the soldiers days to die.  From there we headed to the actual gas chamber.  You walked through, and when you walked out the back part of it, it put you into the crematorium.

Outside of the chamber was where the building that the Gestapo were housed in used to be located.  The building is gone now, and instead there is just a plank with a single rope hanging there.  Rudolph Hoess was the first commander of the camp, and in 1947 he was captured and tried by a Polish Tribunal.  He was convicted, and hung right on this spot.

After this part of the tour was over, they drove us to the Auschwitz Birkenau part of the camp.  That's right, they drove us.  That gives you an idea of how large this camp was.  This part of the camp I've seen many times in pictures, so I recognized it immediately.  As we pulled up, we saw the infamous tracks leading into the camp.

Our guide took us in, and the first thing you noticed was how large this camp was.  One of the most common pictures from camps in WWII shows people standing at the barbed wire fences looking out.  As you walked in, you saw a fence on either side of you that stretched almost as far as the eye could see.  I couldn't help but think of those pictures when I saw the fences.  On the tracks inside the camp they had one train car sitting there.  It was one of the original cars used to transport people to the camp.

For the next 30 minutes we walked around camp as our guide talked about daily life, as well as stories of people that were there that are known due to journals recovered and interviews with survivors after the war.

When it was all done, we were ready to head back to the hotel.  It had been a heavy day, and we were looking forward to getting back to Krakow and unwinding.  After getting back, I pulled up the address of Schindler's Factory.  Shanna didn't realize it was so close to us, and she really wanted to see it.  Along the way we walked over an interesting bridge that was all lit up with pink light.

We eventually reached it.  It wasn't much to look at from the outside, but you could see there was a museum inside.  Had we planned our time a little better we could have toured it, but instead we just had to settle for being there and seeing it from the outside.

One neat thing they did have on the outside, though, was pictures of all the people who worked in the factory that Schindler saved from camps.

We ended the night at a bar I'd found out about online that served a large selection of local Polish craft beers.  Not only was the beer delicious, it was ridiculously cheap.  I ordered a half liter stout for myself, and a half liter pale ale for Shanna.  Total cost was 18 Polish Zloty.  I did a quick count in my head, and realized that came out to a little over $5.  That kind of beer in most of Europe would easily set you back twice that.  Because it was brewed locally, it tasted amazingly fresh.

We finally called it a night, and the next morning headed out.  It took longer to get home than expected due to heavy fog at the airport, but we eventually did.

We really enjoyed Poland.  The people were friendly, the food was delicious, and the history was sobering.  It was an amazing experience, and one I'm really glad we got to do before we moved back.

To see pictures, click here or any picture above.

The next post should be up sometime this week.  Tomorrow we're taking an overnight trip to Rothenburg, Germany.  It's a small medieval town that we've heard is neat to visit, so we're taking advantage of the long weekend.  After that, the next post will be in early December after we get back from Tallinn, Estonia.  We're going over Thanksgiving break when they start their big Christmas market.

Florence

This post has been a long time coming.  We went to Florence, Italy, at the end of August, but this is the first time I've had to sit down and actually write about it.  It's amazing how your free time disappears when you have a kid.  But Shanna has him occupied upstairs, I'm sipping a beer, and ready to write.  One funny thing I noticed while sorting through the pictures was how much Ben has grown in just 2 months.  I can't believe how small and young he looks now compared to the end of August.

Shanna has wanted to go to Florence for awhile, so after our successful trip with Ben to Greece in July, we booked our trip to Florence.  The flight there was a quick direct shot, and before we knew it, the driver from the hotel had us at the front door.  It was a quaint little hotel right in the heart of old town.  We were just a few blocks from the giant Cathedral.  After getting settled in, we pulled up a map and found the restaurant a friend of ours from DC recommended.  It was a good choice, the food was amazing and I got to try some local Florentine beer.  We walked around after dinner as the sun set to walk off the heavy Italian food, and made our way around the Cathedral.  It was huge, and absolutely beautiful.

After the sun started to set, we headed back to the hotel to call it a night.

The next morning we got up and headed to the museum that had the famous statue of David by Michelangelo.  It's one of those things that was never on my "I have to see this" list, but now that we were here, I was looking forward to it.  The receptionist at the front desk recommended getting there right as it opened at 8am.  She said that by 9 or so the line would be as far as you could see.  But if you got there at 8, there wouldn't be anyone there.  She was absolutely right, when we walked up there was maybe 10 people in line.  By the time we walked out 45 minutes later, the line stretched forever.

When we walked in, there were several works from Michelangelo, but they had big signs directing you to the piece that everyone was there to see.  One thing that I didn't expect was how large the statue was.  I always thought it was life size at most, but this statue was HUGE.

After the museum, the next stop was the Hard Rock cafe.  That was the meeting point for the Italian cooking class we signed up for.  We'd done a similar class when we were in Morocco and really enjoyed it.  Since we both love Italian food, this was something we both wanted to do.  They took us down to the local market to pick out all the fresh food we were going to cook with.  Then, they took us to their cooking school that was inside a building that was built in the 1500s.  There was something kind of neat about learning to cook Italian food in a 500 year old Italian building.

The group that was there for the class all had one thing in common...mothers and their daughters.  It was really weird, there were at least 4 or 5 Moms there with their daughters.  Other than Shanna & I, there was only one other couple.   But everyone was really nice.  We had a mix of people from Ireland, Seattle, New Jersey, and Switzerland.  Our chef was great.  I was a little disappointed in the class in that I thought it would be like Morocco where we were actually doing the cooking.  We helped here & there, but primarily the chef cooked and showed us how.  But I can't complain about an endless supply of wine while watching a chef cook you an Italian meal.  The meal was an amazing Pasta Ragú (he made the pasta from scratch) and dessert was Tiramisu.

It might not look like a large portion, but it was heavy and VERY filling.   When it was done, we left the building and started walking around.  For those that know me, you know I can't stand "reality" TV, but Shanna loves it.  One of the shows she liked was Jersey Shore, and in one of the seasons, they spent the summer in Florence.  So before we left, I looked up some of the addresses, including the house they stayed at.  Because we had to take a picture in front, we picked Ben up a cheesy Italia hoodie, and I took a picture of Shanna & him in front of the apartment.

Yes...he's doing a fist pump.  From there, we balanced it out by visiting a church that had some of the greatest minds in Italian history buried there.  Michelangelo, Danti, Machiavelli, and Galileo.  I was in awe standing above the burial place of Galileo and Michelangelo.

After that, we did something we wouldn't normally do while in Italy...we found a pizzeria.  But not just any pizzeria....Vesuvios!   If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're lucky...it means you don't watch Jersey Shore.   That's where they worked during the summer on the show.  They had their stuff hanging all over the walls.  The pizza was actually pretty good.

The next day we planned an all day excursion to various cities around Florence.  Our first stop was a small medieval town built in 1214 called Monteriggioni.  It was a small town, but neat to walk around.  If you've ever played the Assassin's Creed games, this town was used in one of them.  As a result, there was a store there entirely dedicated to selling their merchandise.

From there we headed to Siena.  The area itself was first inhabited around 900BC, but was eventually built up as a Roman city.  The cathedral there was built in the 1100s, and was amazing.

After the tour of the city, we had some free time so Shanna & I found a small deli and got an assorted plate of olives, cheeses, meats and salad.  Of course, we washed it down with a bottle of house wine.  It was a simple meal, but one of the best we had all weekend.

Next up was San Gimignano.  It's another medieval town in the Tuscany region on the outskirts of Siena.  One of the things it's known for are it's large tower buildings in the city.  At one time there was close to a 100, but over the years, only 14 have survived.  That's still significant, though, since in most other cities in the area, none have survived wars and urban renewal projects.  While strolling around the area we found a cheese shop that sold a dry cheese mixed with Chianti wine.  It was delicious, so we bought a small block.  We also found some clothes for Ben.  The one thing you noticed as you approached the ancient entrance was the beautiful Italian landscape.

Our last stop of the day was at a vineyard in Chianti.  I'm not a huge wine drinker, but Chianti wine is by far my favorite kind.  This vineyard not only made wine, but they also made their own olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  They let us sample 8 different kinds of wine, along with a 30 year aged Balsalmic Vinegar, and olive oil infused with Truffles.  I bought a bottle of the Truffle Olive Oil, but couldn't justify the price of the Balsamic Vinegar...but it was amazing.  I came close.  We ended up leaving with a few bottles of wine and the olive oil.

The next day we strolled around the town, killing time until we had to leave for the airport.  We crossed a bridge in the area that had a long string of shops on either side.  It's been a market place since the Renaissance period.

This trip was a lot of fun.  We've been to Italy several times, and I always love going because the people are friendly, the food is delicious, and even the cheapest house wine tastes fantastic.


One of my goals when we moved here was to visit all the countries my family immigrated from over 100 years ago.  So far, I'd hit 3 out of the 4 with Italy, Ireland and Scotland.  The only one left was Poland.  I also really wanted to visit Auschwitz before we left.  With that in mind, our next trip was to Krakow, Poland.  That'll be the next post!

For pictures, click here or any picture above.

Greece

After a successful trip with Ben within Germany, we were ready to try a trip outside the country.  We had previously planned on waiting until September because his passport was supposed to take 3 months to come in.  Turns out it took 1 month.  So, a summer that we had previously planned on exploring Germany, now opened up to the rest of Europe.  Shanna was going back to work for the first time since Ben was born on July 7th, and I had a few days off for July 4th weekend, so we decided to take a trip.

Athens is somewhere I've always wanted to go.  To be able to walk along the Parthenon, and ruins of ancient Greece, which have been there for thousands of years, was an opportunity I did not want to miss out on before we move back home.  So I started looking at hotels, and found one right in the main shopping district of Athens, next to the Greek Parliament and with a great view of the Parthenon.

The day of the trip I was pretty nervous.  It was one thing to drive to Garmisch for one night when we had my parents there to help, but this time we were flying to another country for 4 days and only Shanna and myself to look after Ben.  I also had no idea how he'd be on an airplane.  Turns out we had nothing to worry about...he could not have been a better traveler.  Our first leg to Zurich was only 45 minutes, and he laughed and played in Shanna's lap the whole time.

The second leg to Athens, he slept the entire trip.  When we landed in Athens, it didn't take long to get our bags and head to the general area outside of security.  I had arranged with the hotel to have a driver pick us up, and he was there on schedule.  I don't know how to spell his name, so I'm going to write it phonetically.  Akis had a baby seat in his car, and in no time at all, we were on the road to the hotel.  It turns out the hotel did not have infant car seats, but since I had spoken with them ahead of time, Akis had borrowed the car seat from his sister, and was using that one.  Ben didn't seem to mind.

In no time at all, we were at the hotel and checking in.  After a quick passport check, they directed us up to the 7th floor to the "check in reception".  When we got up there, they had a glass of champagne waiting for us.

Once checked in and in our room, we were hungry, so we headed up to the top floor to get some lunch.  The food was pricey, but delicious.  It was much warmer than in Germany, so we cooled off with some Ceviche.  From the top, we had a beautiful view of the Parthenon.

After lunch we packed Ben up in the stroller and headed outside.  The hotel was located right next to the Greek Parliament, and in the heart of the shopping district.  It had been a long day of traveling, so we didn't want to do too much, but we did want to walk around.  The shopping district was nice, but what was really neat was while strolling down the alleys, we stumbled across an old church.  The artwork inside was amazing.  Turns out the church was 1,000 years old.  Amazing to think this church, surrounded by ice cream shops, kids stores, and fashion stores, had stood there for 1,000 years.  We eventually found a kebab stand, got dinner, and headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we had arranged a private guide to show us around Athens.  The hotel offered organized tours, but since we didn't know how Ben would be, we decided a private guide would be better.  That way we could go at any pace, and if we needed to stop for him, we could at any time without slowing a group down.  Our guide met us in the lobby at 8, and we got started.  The first stop was in front of the Greek Parliament, where every hour they have a changing of the guard ceremony.  It was neat to watch, but we both agreed, not as impressive as the changing of the guard in Copenhagen.  What was neat, though, was the reason they did it right there was because it was also the location of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

From there, we walked over to the ruins of the Temple of Zeus.  It was closed at that time, but we would return later in the day to walk around.  There wasn't much left, but there were several columns that were enormous...amazing to realize it was all built thousands of years ago, before anything close to modern technology was in place.  From there we started walking to the Parthenon.  One neat thing about Athens is it's not uncommon to come across an area completely dug out, with a plastic wall around the dug out area and a plaque.  When construction has taken place in Athens, they will often times come across ancients parts of the city while digging.  We passed several such places where you could see excavations of various places.  We came across an old bath house that had been found.

Eventually we made it to the top of the Acropolis, where the Parthenon and Temple of Athena Nike are.  We've seen a lot of neat things since we moved here, but some of my favorites have been ancient structures I learned about in history class growing up, like the pyramids in Egypt, the ancient stone buildings in Malta, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, and now the Parthenon in Athens.  Walking along side it was incredible.  From the top we had an amazing panoramic view of Athens.

When we had finished walking around, we headed down briefly to the Acropolis museum.  At this point Ben was ready to eat, and was getting fussy, so we didn't walk through the museum, just the ground floor which was free.

We headed back to the hotel, parted ways with the guide, and took care of Ben.  After he had a short nap, we pulled the map out and planned a walking route to cover the rest of the afternoon.  First up was to head to the old Roman shopping district.  We stopped in some shops, including one that sold baby and kids clothes.  Shanna found a shirt for Ben she liked, and when we walked up to pay, there was an older lady working behind the counter.  She smiled when she saw the stroller, but it was covered, so she hadn't actually seen Ben yet.  She pointed out pictures she had on the cash register of her grand kids.  Then she came around to see Ben, and got so excited.  She kept remarking how much he looked like her grandson.  When we looked at the picture, she was right, the resemblance was uncanny.

From there we headed through winding cobblestone streets and alleys until we came back to the Acropolis museum.  The nice part was it was air conditioned.  We also noticed how friendly and accommodating the employees were.  More than once we had someone come up to us and let us know that if we needed to change Ben, feed him, or do anything like that, they had a brand new family room at our disposal.  Shanna ended up using it to feed and change Ben later, and she couldn't believe how nice it was.  There was a comfortable changing table, a rocking chair, and other amenities to make bringing a baby there easier for the parents.   The museum itself was neat, too, with all kinds of artifacts found when excavating around the Parthenon, as well as tablets that used to be on the Parthenon itself here on display.

After the museum, it was time to head back to the Temple of Zeus.  Thankfully it was free, because there wasn't anything to see on the inside that you couldn't see from the outside.  But, it was neat to walk around up close to fully see how large this temple was, and how impressive it must have been to walk through it when it was built thousands of years ago.  From there, we headed over to the stadium built for the first Olympic games of the modern era in 1896.  They charged for admission, but like with the Temple of Zeus, you could see everything from the outside, so there was no need to pay money to go in.

It was getting late in the afternoon at this point, and we were beat from walking around all day.  We headed back to the hotel, and decided to see how Ben would react to a pool.  We had gotten the special diaper in case we went in the water, so we got him changed and headed up to the roof.  He did OK in the pool.  When just his legs were in the water, he was curious, reaching out and touching the water.  When the water hit is stomach, though, that's when he turned the pout on full force and started crying.  It wasn't a kiddie pool, where it stays relatively warm, so we figured it was probably too cold for him.  We ended up just sitting on the deck, having a few drinks, and heading back to the room.  That night the World Cup game was on TV, so we ordered room service and relaxed in the room all night.

The next morning we had an all day excursion planned.  The same guy who picked us up from the airport was there to drive us all around the Peloponnese region.  We had a different guide on this day, and were glad we did.  The previous day's guide was nice, and was knowledgeable, but it was obvious she was not comfortable around kids.  The new guide, Melissa, was the complete opposite.  She had 3 small kids of her own, and Ben loved her.  When we were driving, if Ben got fussy, she'd immediately stop whatever she was saying, and sing songs quietly to him in Greek.  He would immediately calm down.  Other times, when she was talking, Ben was fixated on her every word.

Our first stop was Mycenae, ruins of an ancient city.  It is estimated it was first build and inhabited around 4,000 years ago.  It's not on the highest point in the area, but it is at a high point, where you can see for miles all around.  Agamemnon lived there, and was buried there.  At it's height in 1370 BC, there was an estimated 30,000 people living there.  The site also had a small museum, which contained artifacts excavated from the area, including Agamemnon's death mask.  One of the neat things she pointed out was the city was built there because it was believed a giant was resting near by.  Sure enough, looking from the top of hill, the mountain range in the distance looked like a giant laying down.  You could make out the noise, the left eye, etc..  It takes some imagination, but if you look at the pictures page, you'll see it. 

 

From there we drove to a small town on the coast called Nafplio.  We had an amazing lunch there.  I branched out a little and had cheese stuffed squid with an appetizer of grilled octopus.  It was delicious.  And of course, we had to order the Tzatziki.   That stuff is absolutely amazing.  We had it on bread, with greek olives, on our kebabs, you name it.  We had it every single day we were there.  After lunch, we walked around the town.  We saw some beautiful private beaches, as well as a fortress that was built out on a tiny island in the water.  They also had a tiny, yet beautiful, church.  Melissa told us the Greek Orthodox baptismal ritual, unlike the kind I grew up with, involved olive oil instead of water.  And it wasn't a dab on the forehead, they soaked the baby in it.  Custom states that the more oil, the better.  She said that it was not uncommon for grandparents to stand over while it was being done, and point out various areas on the baby's body that were missed, like the arm pits.  

When we were done there, we headed out towards the ancient city of Corinth.  If you're familiar with the book in the Bible Corinthians, the people of this city are who Paul was writing about when he visited there.  Along the way, we learned a lot from Melissa.  Not just about Greek history, but Greek culture as well.  She was telling us that in their culture, you can't come up with your own name for a child until you have three of the same gender.  The reason is the first two boys are named after the grandfathers, and the first two girls are named after the grandmothers.  So her name, Melissa, was also her Grandmother's name.  Before we got there, we passed several stands selling fruit from the local farms, as well as honey, vinegar and wine made locally.  We stopped and sampled some of the wine...it was incredible.  We bought a bottle of White and Red.  We couldn't believe how cheap it was.  A 1.5L bottle was 4.50.  

Corinth, as well as the Temple of Apollo within the city, was all ruins.  So while there wasn't much to see, just knowing the history of the city made walking around fascinating.  If you remember the three types of columns from ancient Greece and Rome, the Corinthian style of column originated here.  I'm glad we had Melissa with us, though, because she knew what the city layout was.  So she could point an area that looked like a pile of rocks, and tell us it used to be a bath house.  She also took us to an area where Paul was put on trial for preaching Christianity.  They had a plaque there, with a quote from Corinthians etched in it.  Growing up Catholic, we learned all about the stories in the Bible, so it was pretty amazing standing here.  

On the drive back, Shanna and Melissa talked about anything and everything.  In conversation, Melissa asked us what our plans were the next day.  It turns out her son was turning 2, and because he was not in school, the only "friends" he had were all girls, because they were friends of his older sisters.  She wanted us to come and celebrate with her family so Ben could be there.  I'm not sure what he and the 2 year old really could have done, but still, I wish we could have stayed an extra day to go.  The chance to celebrate with multiple generations of their relatives in Greece would have been amazing.  Unfortunately we had a 1pm flight out, so there was no way we could have made it.  

The next morning we got breakfast at the local bakery and headed over to watch the changing of the guard.  The previous morning we had gotten there right after it finished, so we missed it.  This morning we made sure to get there on time.  As you can tell from the picture, Ben was enthralled.  

Like on the flights there, Ben was great.  One thing that was great was the VIP treatment we got at all the airports because of him.  We got to head to the front of the line for check in, security, and we got to board the airplane first before anyone, even the first class customers.  

We really enjoyed Greece.  I was stressed leading up to the trip because of all the unknowns of traveling with Ben, but he ended up being fantastic.  Now that we know he travels well, we have all kinds of trips planned.  Shanna wants to go to Florence for her birthday in August, and we're looking at Budapest, Hungary, for our anniversary in October.  We have a map up in Ben's room with pins of all the places he's visited, while Shanna was pregnant and after he was born.  By the time we move back home, we're going to have all kinds of pins in that map.  So check back next month!

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

Garmisch

A few weeks ago, when my Mom and Dad came to visit, we decided to take Ben on his first road trip.  At the time, his passport hadn't come in yet, so we could only travel within Germany.  Garmisch is a popular ski resort in the winter, and hiking destination during the summer.  We'd always talked about traveling there, but never had.  Since we couldn't leave the country, now sounded like a good time to visit.  Because this was our first over night trip with Ben, we kept it to one night.

We tried to put the dogs up at their usual kennel, but since it was a German holiday weekend, and this was a last minute trip, they were booked.  No big deal, though, because with two cars, we could easily transport the five of us, plus the two dogs.  We hit the road early Friday morning, and were down there in no time.  We'd driven close to Garmisch a few years ago when we drove to Nove, Italy, and one thing I remembered about the drive was how beautiful it was.  It did not disappoint this time, with a clear day and beautiful mountains.

We made it down there fast, and got checked in.  From the hotel, we had a beautiful view of the mountains.  In addition to wanting to visit the tallest mountain in Germany, the Zugspitze, we also were there to visit one of Ludwig's castles, Linderhof.  It's the only one of his three castles we hadn't seen yet, and was high on Shanna's list to visit because it's the only one of the three castles that is not only finished, but King Ludwig II actually lived in.

Before we could head there, though, we had to take the doggies on a long walk to wear them down, so that they would sleep while we were gone.  Dogs were allowed on the palace grounds, but not in the palace itself.  While we were walking around, Dad spotted a '73 MG, the first car he bought when he was commissioned in the Navy, and the car he had when he first met Mom.

After the dogs were sufficiently worn out, we put them in the room and headed to Linderhof.  After we got there and bought our tickets, it was a short walk through the forest area to the actual palace.  The palace was smaller than I expected, especially compared to the other two, Neuschwanstein and Chiemsee, but still impressive under the back drop of the mountains.

We took the guided tour, and thankfully Ben slept through the whole thing.  Shanna has a wrap she wears around herself, and Ben slides right into it.  When she has him wrapped up and is walking around, he goes right out.  He did wake up in the final room, and was mesmerized.  It was the hall of mirrors, modeled after the same hall in Versailles, and he couldn't stop staring at it.

When the tour was over, we walked around the palace grounds, then headed back to the car.  Once back at the hotel, we were both tired, and Ben was ready for bed, so we had dinner at the hotel restaurant and called it a night.

The next morning we had a delicious breakfast at the hotel, checked out, and headed to Zugspitze.  At close to 3,000 meters high (almost 10,000 feet), it's the tallest mountain in Germany, as well as the highest point in Germany.  It also spans both Germany and Austria.

There are multiple ways to get up and down the mountain, so we decided to use them all.  To get up the mountain, we took the cable car.  Once you got the top, it was amazing how much the temperature dropped.  It had been in the mid 80's at the bottom, but was 50 degrees at the top.  The view from up top was incredible.  You could see for miles up there, as well as the beautiful lake down below.

On the cable ride up, as we got close to the top, we actually saw two mountain climbers.  I don't know if they started at the base, or part way up, but still, I couldn't believe they were out there.  There is no way I would ever be out there doing something like that.  After we got to the top, there was a giant observation deck with restaurants, a bier garten, and of all things, chairs that you could stretch out and tan on.  The sun was more intense at the top, so even though the wind temp was 50 degrees, in the sun it felt much warmer.  There was also a cross at the very top of the peak, but it was only accessible if you were climbing the mountain.  And sure enough, as we got out to the area where you could see it, those same mountain climbers were making their way to it.  As they both touched the top, everyone who was in the general area started clapping.  If you look closely at the picture below, you'll see them above us as they were about to touch the peak.

We briefly walked over to the Austrian side of the mountain and looked around, but it wasn't any different than the German side.  

We took a cable car down part of the other side of the mountain, where they had a giant Maypole set up and a place to eat, but since no one was hungry, we then took the last method of transportation down...the train.  Most of the trip was actually underground so that the train can make it up in the winter with heavy snows.  When we were mostly down the mountain, we finally came out of the mountain.

By that point it was getting late in the day, so we headed home.

Over all it was a fun trip, and good to see that Ben could handle a trip with no problems.  Now that his passport is in, our next trip is planned for July 4th weekend.  In previous years, we've visited England and Russia for July 4th...this year we're heading to the birthplace of Democracy, and spending a 4 day weekend in Athens, Greece.  

Check back in a few weeks for that blog post!

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