Our wild night in Den Haag

Our wild night in The Hague with Sascha and Tonia, who have the most interesting jobs ever, working for the UN´s International War Crimes Tribunal.

We spent two nights in The Hague visiting my old grad school roommate Sasha. It was a bit rainy in The Hague so we didn't do a whole lot of sight seeing. We went to Delft for an hour or so and the rain came down in buckets so we popped into a restaurant and had some delicious poffertjes...small pancakes with fruit and whipped cream. Later we had a fun dinner with Sasha and Tonia and the next day we were off to Bruges, Belgium for a night.

First thing we did in Belgium was try some frites and waffles!! Breakfast of champions!! Bruges is a quaint little town with canals and walking streets and a nice square that had a great market going on the day we were there. We did a lot of walking around Bruges and enjoyed 2 full days there before heading to Brussels to meet up with old friends at my 15-year reunion!

our favorite dutchman

Aaaaahhh Amsterdam.....what a fabulous city! The weather was perfect for our 4 days in the city. Of course...after travelling through southeast Asia, India and all across Europe without getting sick, we both got sick in Amsterdam! Luckily it was just a 24-hour bug, but it severely cut into our sight seeing and ability to enjoy Amsterdam. We spent all day Thursday and Friday morning sick in bed and didn't truly get out to see the city until Friday afternoon when our good friend Rogier and some of his friends picked us up in a speed boat to see the city from the canals. It was a beautiful Friday afternoon and people were out enjoying the day.

After a few hours on the canals we went back to Rogier's place where we played the epic game Guitar Hero for a couple hours before cabbing back to our hotel.

The next day we explored the city on our own and met up with Rogier for dinner. On Sunday we met up with my uncle Keith and aunt Chris, from Belgrade, who were in town for the long weekend. We went to the Van Gogh museum with them then went off on our own to the botanical gardens. We met up with them later for dinner and that night we took the train to The Hague to check out the international criminal courts.

Rogier picked us up in a speed boat on the canals of Amsterdam. CJ knew that when he picked us up there would be booze and euro techno music involved...she was not disappointed!

deutschland and on to amsterdam

We spent one night in Salzburg, Austria before heading into Germany. Mozart was born in Salzburg and through the drizzle we saw the house he was born in and the town he grew up in...for a little while anyway. By the time he was about 6 years old he was touring Europe and impressing royalty with his piano prowess. After our rainy day tour of Salzburg we met up with Helga, Sepperl, and Helga's sister Gerta for a nice dinner just outside of town. They were all extremely hospitable and overly generous to us during our time in Austria...we can't thank them enough for all they did. We were sad to leave Austria, but that's exactly what we did the next day when Sepp dropped us off at the Freilassing train station. We were on our way towards Munich and the infamous beer gardens!

We were actually staying with a friend in Rosenheim, about 45 minutes southeast of Munich by train. We arrived in the early afternoon and did a quick tour of the quaint town of Rosenheim...quite nice. After lunch we went for a nice hike into the hills nearby with Kirsten and Tom...our gracious hosts.

The next day we went to Munich to explore the city. It was Father's Day in Germany and instead of father's spending quality family time as is tradition in the US...most fathers in Germany head for the beer gardens with their buddies! And that's where we went too! I think I enjoyed it more than CJ did, but visiting the beer gardens of Munich is a must.

After Munich and Rosenheim we continued north toward Mainz and Frankfurt where we met up with our German dentist friends that we met a couple years ago in American Samoa. I lived just outside of Frankfurt from 1983-85 and had not been back to my old neighborhood since then so I was quite excited to revisit my German past. The dentists were wonderful hosts as well and picked us up at the train station and showed us around Mainz and fed us wonderful german food and good beers.

The next day we explored a local market in Mainz before heading to my old town of Oberursel and Frankfurt. The Frankfurt International School where I attended 4th and 5th grades has gone through quite a renovation since I was last there. Just down the road from the school I saw the old apartment building I used to live in and we drove through the town of Oberursel which also brought back memories. It was a nice trip down memory lane. We then headed to Frankfurt and walked around the city, which also brought back fond memories. That night we had a grand feast with all the german dentists, it was great to see all of them again. The next day, we took the train to Dusseldorf to see my step-brother Ben and his family.

It had been several years since I had seen Ben and I had never met his wife and 2 kids...I couldn't believe he has 2 kids!! Two beautiful boys! We spent a few days with Ben and his family and visited Dusseldorf and Cologne which isn't far away. It was a nice relaxing visit before we headed to Amsterdam!

Here we are in Frankfurt with Frieda and Astrid (2 of the German dentists now living in Mainz) and Frieda's boyfriend Alex.











Grand feast with German dentists...Katie, Astrid and Nina!












In Dusseldorf with my step-brother Ben.

Sachertorte and Mozart

Vienna is a spectacular city! We drove up from Arnfels with Helga and Sepperl and stayed at their apartment for a couple days. They live across the street from the metro line that can take you anywhere in Vienna. After dropping off our things and having some lunch, CJ and I hit the town to do some exploring.

It was a beautiful day and the sights of the city were sparkling. It was a Sunday though so most of the shops were closed. We took the tram to the main part of town and headed towards the Stephansplatz and the Stephansdom. We strolled down Kaertnerstrasse in search of the Hotel Sacher and the world famous Sacher Torte. By now CJ has become a dessert connoisseur...granted her specialty is tiramisu, but she'll give an opinion on just about any dessert. The portion we got did not pass the harsh criteria of this judge...it was Sunday and we think we got a stale slice.

Nevertheless we carried on with our day and enjoyed the blustery yet sunny day in Vienna. We walked by the Opera House, the Hofburg, Parliament, and City Hall. We made our way back towards Stephansplatz walking down the Graben, a lovely walking street with several street musicians and other performers. And we're not talking about your run of the mill accordian player, we're talking high quality classical piano on the streets of Vienna. Mozart was born in Austria and did live in Vienna for a short time. We saw a house that Mozart lived in at some point during his life. All the shops were closed as it was Sunday, but there were lots of people out and about. After a nice Sunday strolling through the streets of Vienna, we hopped on the metro and headed home. The public transport in Vienna is fantastic, an essential for any great city.

The next day we slept in some before heading to the Schloss (castle) Shoenbrunn. As our trip winds down we find ourselves sleeping in more and getting later starts on our days...perhaps we're wearing down a bit or perhaps we're just enjoying the nicer accommodations staying with friends and family!

The sprawling castle in the southwestern part of Vienna has impressive gardens surrounding the castle. We wandered around the grounds for a bit, but didn't go inside. As we were leaving the grounds we, or I should say CJ, spotted a bakery that had an apple strudel show that was about to start...we had to check it out. We paid for tickets and got our strudel sample before sitting down in the front row eagerly anticipating the start of the show. As exciting as the strudel show sounded, it was actually more dissappointing than the Sacher torte from the day before. The show was rushed and the samples were cold, they should have given a sample from the actual strudel we watched them make...a hot strudel at the end of the show is much better than a cold one at the beginning. We left dissappointed and headed for the Sigmund Freud museum to sort out our feelings.

The Freud museum is set up in his old home and other people still live in the building. We just checked out the building and the book store, but didn't spend the money to tour the entire museum.

After Freud, we headed back towards the Graben walking street to meet Helga and Sepperl and their niece Monica for dinner. We had a nice italian meal near Mozart's house and then headed home. We were tired after a full down in the city and the next morning we were heading to Salzburg to see Helga's sister and the town where Mozart was born.

The most amazing firework show ever...on a Tuesday in Ljubljana!???

We really didn't know what to expect for Slovenia as our train rumbled toward Ljubljana. We arrived on a Tuesday and found a great hostel that was converted from an old Slovenian prison. Our room even had bars on it like a jail cell.

After we checked in we headed for the city to see what it was like. We grabbed a bite to eat and walked down to the main part of Ljubljana. There was live music in a square that we watched for a bit, then continued walking around. We were very impressed with the city in a short amount of time. As we continued our walk we startled by massive explosions behind us. We swung around to see the sky lit up by fireworks. The fireworks were up on the castle on the hill behind us and we sat for a good 15 minutes and watched the most impressive fireworks display either one of us has seen. Who knew there were such good pyrotechnicians in Slovenia and all this on a Tuesday night with us just arriving in town! At first we thought the fireworks were for us and I tried to convince CJ that I had planned the whole thing. For some reason she didn't buy that and as it turns out the display was for EU Day.

The next day we took a bus to Bled up in the Julian Alps. We spent a great day there walking around the lake and admiring the scenic beauty of the Slovenian mountains.

After a great 2 days in Slovenia we headed for the Staiermark region of Austria where we met up with our family friends Helga and Sepperl. They picked us up at the train station in Leibniz and we drove through the rolling hills of Austria towards Arnfels. We stopped at a winery on the way home and had a great bean salad with pumpkin seed oil and some asparagus wine. It is certainly asparagus season in this part of the world. We've seen it everywhere we go! As we quickly found out though, the wine itself wasn't made from asparagus, it just went well with asparagus.

We spent a great 3 days in Arnfels learning about how the locals heat their houses and the different wines of the region. There are great places to hike around the area too. We went to a wine festival at a castle nearby and enjoyed many of the local white wines. CJ especially like the trockenbeerenauslese, which is a sweet dessert wine. It was a great visit to southern Austria and our hosts were spectacular. They truly made us feel welcomed...and they just so happened to be heading to Vienna so we all hopped in the car and made our way to the big capital of Austria! After 3 days in the country, we were ready for some more city action!

Asparagus Gelato?!?

After our week in Ibiza we flew back to Milan where we went out to dinner and got the ultimate Italian meal...pizza with pasta on top of it! It was awfully good...then we followed it up with some Tiramisu. It was a nice welcome back to Italy.

The next day we were on our way to the watery streets of Venice. We stayed in Venice for two nights and luckily found a good deal on a hotel. Actually the deal found us as we deboarded our train. It was a small room with 1 single bed and 1 cot that I thoroughly enjoyed. It was the cheapest thing out there though and was centrally located so we could explore the canals of Venice.

We checked out St. Marks Square and wandered over the Ponte Rialto. We enjoyed several markets and had lots of pizza. On our second day we popped into a small local wine shop where they were selling wine straight from the barrel. We noticed the prices were quite cheap, less than 2 Euros per glass, so we ordered a glass of pinot grigio. The owner turned his back to us and started to fill our request. When he turned back around he was holding a 1.5 Liter bottle of wine!!! Apparently the prices were per Liter and not per glass!! So we walked off with a 1.5 Liter bottle of pinot grigio that cost us only 3 Euros! Not a bad deal, but too much wine for us to handle! We got some pizza to go with it and sat down in a piazza to enjoy both.

To finish off our gelato tasting in Italy we found a great gelateria where the owner made all the gelato from scratch. He had some odd flavors too including asparagus...yes asparagus ice cream! I had to try it so I got a scoop of asparagus and a scoop of chocolate as my late gelato in Italy. CJ got kiwi and grapefruit. The aparagus tasted just like...well, asparagus! It was refreshing, and certainly enhanced by the delectable chocolate. It was a nice way to end our Italian visit, and we really liked Venice.

Next stop...Ljubljana?!?!??!

Timeshare relaxation!

The longest we have been in any single location has been 3 days...so we were quite excited to have an entire week on the island of Ibiza. On top of that we were staying at a great timeshare...thanks Mom!!

We flew from Milan to Ibiza and took the bus out to the town of Santa Eularia where the timeshare was. I actually unpacked my bag completely for the first time since I can´t remember when or where. Looking back now the week flew by, but we did keep ourselves busy. We drank Sangria, ate Paella´s, compared spanish helado to italian gelato, toured the old town of Ibiza, walked along the coast to Es Canar and the hippy market among other things. It actually rained 3 of the days we were there and even hailed once!! We had only had one day of rain before our island paradise!

We also both won a calorie burning competition and CJ got a free hour with a personal trainer who looked like David Beckham while I got a 30 minute massage for our efforts, not bad, although CJ was sore for days after her training session.

We enjoyed cooking for ourselves again despite the small kitchen we had. Santa Eularia was a bit sleepy early in the week, but picked up as the week went on. Our last 2 days we had perfect weather and got some good beach time in. Unfortunately we didn´t feel up for shelling out the 50 Euro cover charge for the huge disco, and I don´t think it was quite disco season yet. Ibiza is a beautiful island with sparkling clear water that was still a bit cold while we there, but I did brave it once and jumped in.

We flew back to Milan after our week of relaxation and then went on to the flooded streets of Venice. More from there next time!

New photos are up!

We have some new photos up! You'll have to spend some time perusing old posts to see them, but that's fun and you can relive some of our adventures with photos this time around!