Thanksgiving In London

Ok...it was almost a month ago, but better late than never.  On Thanksgiving we flew to London to meet up with our dear friend, Kate from back home who was visiting her sister.  We even managed to find a restaurant that served up a delicious American Thanksgiving dinner.  Being in London with a good friend was the best medicine for the holiday homesickness that accompanies the season.  

On Friday we saw as much as possible........

Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard.  It fills up fast and we were there almost one hour early.  The ceremony really isn't that exciting, but knowing that you are seeing this ritual is what makes it so awesome.

Extravagance everywhere.  Everything from street lamps, to statues and fence posts were decorated with gold paint.   The money is literally visible.

Waiting patiently - in good company - for the changing of the guard.

It seemed like every fifteen minutes we were being warned about pick pockets and told to keep our belongings close.    "There are thieves among you!"  Seriously, those words were spoken, oh the English accent.

And the guards.

Feeding the squirrels of St. James Park.  If only her facial expression was more visible.    These little squirrels seriously walk up to anyone offering food and reach up to their hands and grab snacks.    Fun fact:  Rabies does not exist in the United Kingdom.  

Doing the tourist thing.  Good Times!

Hilarious to watch this little boy imitating the guard outside the Tower of London's Waterloo Tower that houses the crown jewels.

Tower Bridge - so beautiful in this light.  

Tower Bridge from inside one of the buildings of the Tower of London.  So much history, it was interesting and it makes me want to learn more.  

Tower Bridge reminds me of something from a Disney movie.

White Tower.  A great exhibit inside covering royal power and all the kings .  

Big Ben.

The London Eye bathed in blue lights.   Definitely buy tickets in advance online to save a few bucks and ensure you get a place.  Great views - London is so HUGE!

I know this picture is blurry, but I love how it shows motion and the complimentary colors are my favorite.

Big Ben and the houses of Parliament.  I wish we would of had more time to walk around this area.  

Yes, all of these pictures are from one day.  We were there on Saturday - saying good bye to Kate.  Then off to the British Museum, which is free - can you believe it.  We saw the Rosetta Stone there too - it didn't help me learn any more German though.  I thought it was interesting to see all of this ancient history in an amazing museum for free compared to paying 20£ to get into the Tower of London and then being hit up for donations at every turn including right after seeing the crown jewels...intriguing.  Either way I highly recommend both the British Museum and the Tower of London.

Also, definitely recommend getting an Oyster Card if you are going to use the underground or buses.  London is a huge city and it is so nice to be able to read everything - albeit a little overwhelming at times too.  I definitely want to go back some time as there was so much we didn't see.  Food poisoning plagued Travis and I was blessed with a sore throat, so from Saturday afternoon on we pretty much saw the inside of our hotel room.  Bummer!

I did however venture out with Hannah in the evening because, well, I was in London for gosh sakes!!!  Everyone had told me about Harrod's so I thought I'd at least go check it out.  Bad idea!!!  I don't know if it's a big shopping weekend or what, but the maze of a store was packed to the point of almost not being able to move so I high tailed it out of there once I figured out how to get out.

As I made my way to the subway the sidewalks became a sea of human bodies and then surprise, they stopped letting people into the station because the tubes were so over crowded.  Unbelievable, the collective energy was not feeling so great at that point and I didn't want to be trampled so I walked to the next stop.  Yes, I eaves dropped and followed some other folks.  Once to the next stop it didn't take long to realize the same thing was going on.  Craziness.  So I decided my only choice was to figure out the buses, which was easy enough, but regardless it took forever with traffic.  Finally I made it back to the hotel!

Sunday at the airport, flight delayed, wandering around I found a Boots Pharmacy and decided to pick up some drugs...why....because I don't have to translate them : )

A great time and it was so awesome to be with my friend Kate - love her, great memories and hopefully we can do it again!      

Heidelberg with Nana

What can I say there is always a castle!  Heidelberg is a beautiful city with a huge well preserved castle, plus it is only an hour from Frankfurt on the ICE train and since I don't have a car this made a great day trip for us girls during Nana's visit.

Nana & Hannah on the train

Our day started out by missing that speedy train to Heidelberg, but we simply went to the DB desk in the main train station and switched to the next train which was painless compared to what I anticipated.  After all that running trying to catch the train and the stress and worry of missing it - watching it pull away - we opted to pass our time waiting for the next train enjoying chocolate croissants.  

Once to Heidelberg, we grabbed a map at the tourist center just outside the train station, got our barrings and headed off to the old city center (Altstadt).  We decided to go straight away to the castle as it was the one thing we definitely planned on doing and didn't know how long it would take.  Making the trek up the hill was damp, but between the sweat and the drizzle my chocolate croissant was washed away.  There is a train up to the top - fare included in your entrance ticket to the castle - but my lack of planning (noticing a theme yet) or free spirit neglected to find out where the train stopped.  We did take it down!

The castle is great, bigger than I imagined and full of history.  We splurged on the audio tour, which was insightful and interesting.  During our castle exploring we stopped for lunch in the cafe for little sandwiches.   Hannah was a trooper in the pack for the most part.  In all the tour took a couple hours, rushing through the rainy mist, stopping for lunch and checking out the Apotheke (apothecary) museum exhibit.

All I really have our castle pictures of this adventure.  Enjoy!  I should mention that I've been playing with the Lightroom photo editing software so my lack luster photos from Heidelberg have been edited and it was fun!

Castle Terrace 

View from terrace overlooking the city

Overlooking the Neckar River

Castle gardens

Castle Powder  (ammunition) Tower 

Weekend in Berlin

Once again time has speed warped and I find myself having gone days without writing and knee deep in to do lists.  But alas, here I am with some free quiet time - duration unknown as Hannah's naps are anything but predictable - so now I can share stories and pictures of our weekend trip to Berlin.

Travis's Mom arrived on a Friday morning (yippee!) and we left on Saturday morning for Berlin via the Autobahn.  The train was expensive and not any faster than driving.  There was no time to exercise my trip planning skills before hand so we glanced through guide books on the way.

After over five hours in the car we made it to our hotel in Berlin, conveniently located near Potsdamer Platz - a great central location with the underground transportation station and lots of restaurants right there.  Our hotel room was nice (thank goodness the stars actually mean something here in Germany - unlike in Paris!).  We wasted no time after deciding which direction to head based on a choice of restaurant advertised on a map we picked up in the lobby - like I said zero planning ahead.

We made our way toward Brandenburger Gate (Tor) which was incredibly huge and so familiar after seeing it in so many movies and pictures.  I should mention we watched the movie Downfall the night before, which is a really great film about Hitler's last days and good to watch right before visiting Berlin.  After a delicious German dinner we headed back to the hotel, got Hannah and Nana settled and headed back out for some rare couple time.  Bonus to having grandparents visit!

For our "night out" we headed to the nearby Sony Center which is loaded with restaurants and great people watching.  The actual structure has the weirdest acoustics and is visible from so many places in the city.  So we found a nice little restaurant to enjoy a couple tasty beers.

Reichstag

Saturday we rushed over to catch the Third Reich tour - about a four hour walking tour - with an amazing knowledge and fact filled Irish tour guide, Barry - well worth the money and more.  The tour really started once we got to the main train station and then headed over to the Reichstag.  Our guide unloaded tons of facts and information about how Hitler and the Nazi party were able to take over the government - scary really when you think about it.  We saw so many sites, memorials, monuments, buildings and even the now parking lot where Hitler's bunker used to be (Seriously watch Downfall) and were exposed to so much history and information from Barry.  Seems like the tour was much longer than four hours.  He took us to new Roma Sinti monument, through part of the Tier Garten, to the Soviet Monument, to see Nazi architecture the few buildings that remain anyway and to the Holocaust Memorial, to the intact remains of the wall and ended at the Topography of Terror museum (great free museum).  A really great tour however haunting and after we visited the museum on our own Sunday night I was just about done focusing on the Third Reich and Nazis.

Roma and Sinti Holocaust Victims Memorial in the Tiergarten 

Russian Monument

The Wall - what is left - by the Topography of Terror Museum

Through the wall looking at the old Nazi Air Force Administration building

Checkpoint Charlie

We wrapped up our long weekend trip on Monday with a visit to the Checkpoint Charlie area including the newer Wall Museum and then continued on to the architecturally rich Gendarmenmarkt with it's two beautiful churches.  Finally, we ended at a cafe to enjoy chocolate croissants before getting on the road.

Berlin is a city that I would definitely visit again.  There were things we didn't have time to see and the atmosphere there was enjoyable and we crammed in as much as possible because we never know if we will make it back there.

We have a little less than two years here in Germany and so many places to see.  Any recommendations?

Tschuss

Paris

What did we do in Paris........walked, walked, walked and walked.  We stopped to snap pictures and eat, but we spent most of our time walking around, exploring and taking in as many sights as possible while enjoying the sunshine.  The forecast for our three days in Paris was wet and in the mornings when the sun burned off the clouds we took advantage.  Since we only ventured into the Musee d' Orsay we will definitely be returning to Paris sometime to check out the Louvre and other museums that we skipped to take in the nice weather.  A truly amazing city with so much history.
                                                             

Day One:  Started at Notre Dame

Crowded and beautiful - so much to look at inside this famous cathedral

Break for planning session and lunch

Onto the Louvre - the architecture is as impressive as the art collection  inside (I assume)

The rain - luckily - passing over us 

The Tuileries Gardens - one my favorites 

The Arc d' Triomphe and all the chaotic traffic - glad we weren't driving

On our way to check out The Invalides 

The bridge over the Seine by the Invalides

The Eiffel Tower at dusk - my favorite picture

Trying to get Hannah to look at the Eiffel Tower

With the lights going off - amazing to see

Day Two: Rain skipping over us again - so lucky!

Notre Dame from the Seine

Hydrating on the river boat and taking a break from all the walking

Taking in all the art at the Musee d' Orsay

Enjoying a view of the Seine

Last Day: The Opera - didn't want to miss it -  too bad it was closed to visitors

Rocking out on the train home

Eltville, Germany - Rheingau Region

We spent a lovely and leisurely Saturday in Eltville along the Rhein River - part of the Rheingau Region which is a very popular wine growing region of Germany - mostly Rieslings along with some other whites and a couple reds.  Some very tasty wines, I might add.



Eltville itself is a very charming little town right on the Rhein river.  A very picturesque place as well with all the tiny cobblestone streets, half timber buildings and sleepy cafes...perfect place for a relaxing afternoon.  As I develop my "cruise director" strengths I hope to stumble across pleasant places like this one often.  I have a tendency to pick a place and travel there with little in the way of an itinerary - instead leaving the time between meals open for discovering and experiencing a place.

We found a quaint tiny hidden away restaurant - or at least the backside garden of a larger restaurant from the main street - and plopped ourselves down for lunch and refreshments.  You can not visit the Rheingau without trying the wine nor visit during Pfifferlinge (Chanterelles) mushroom season and not enjoy some classic German dish with pfifferlinge-rahm (cream) sauce.  Therefore, I indulged in the homemade Knödel with Pfifferlinge Rahm-Soße dish with a nice glass of crisp white wine.  Delicious!

Next we ventured to the much talked about and advertised Kloster Eberbach about 6km from Eltville.  The parking lot was nearly full - a very popular place - then as we were buying our tickets to enter the monastery I saw the poster for The Name of the Rose the 1986 film starring Sean Connery then I remembered a friend telling me that they had filmed the movie in a monastery in the Rhein area.  No wonder it is so busy and there is a hotel on the grounds as well.



Kloster Eberback turned out to be pretty amazing and beautiful and huge.  The Cisterian architecture is impressive and dates back to the 12th and 14th century.  At the end we bought a couple bottles of the monastery wine after tasting.


The wine cellar, pictured to the left was a very cool space with candles lit over the barrels.  Unfortunately, you can not walk around too much (this picture was taken through the gate!).




Of course, as the sun was going down and we began our trip back home, I had to stop and snap a picture of the vines.  A perfect little day trip coming to an end as we speed down the autobahn back to Frankfurt.