Rome Sweet Rome

When I revisit our trip to Rome, my first memory is the Colosseum romancing me as I step out from the metro station; it was dramatic, unexpected, and truly breath-taking. Secondly, I think of crazy crazy drivers. We did checked off all tourist spots; including Vatican city. 

We walked, ate delicious pizza, drank strong coffee, walked, relaxed at cafe's, and walked. We stayed at this interesting hotel recommended in the Rick Steves guide, surprisingly it wasn't packed full of Americans. We try to travel outside of our comfort zone, while still being comfortable. Speaking of, I think I've mentioned before that major world events seem to always happen while we are traveling. Over the long weekend, terrorists attacked the city of Mumbai, ultimately killing 164 people. The terrorist were barricaded in the Taj Mahal Palace hotel for three days (another reason for us to stay clear of mainstream hotels.)

Rhine river again

A day trip with our friends Chris and Diana to the view the castles of the Rhine River. This time by car and the bonus of it being fall. Fall is my favorite season! A couple of the castles are open for internal viewing. My Chris can explain all the cool history of the castles and how they were used for fortification. We had dinner at a restaurant in one of the castles. Dinner was great unfortunately I can't remember the castle or the name of the restaurant.

red fortress above Tauber

Day trip to Rothenburg! We "walked atop Rothenburg’s city walls and climbed to the top of the town hall for great views and visited the Medieval Crime Museum (Mittelalterliches Kriminalmuseum)" just as Tripadvisor advised. I really enjoy being surrounded by vast history. I feel a deep connection with Europe. I wonder if this feeling is psychological - based on my education or if genealogical - am I some how connected to this place through the past (don't be close-minded it's possible). It could just be what I'm interested in, but I believe in cause and effect, even if you aren't aware of the cause. Anyway, we didn't take many pictures. We ate at a local restaurant we stumbled upon, Burgerkeller, which turned out to be delicious-I'm not a huge fan of German food, so it was a pleasant surprise. 

Rhine River cruise

Chris is in the States so I took the opportunity to go on the Rhine river cruise with a friend. Chris isn't a huge fan of cruises. Beautiful and all the other superlatives apply, along the river are various castles and vineyards-like a dream. I never want to leave here.

Lorelei

The story of Lorelei: According to German legend, there was a once a beautiful young maiden, named Lorelei, who threw herself headlong into the river in despair over a faithless lover. Upon her death she was transformed into a siren and could from that time on be heard singing on a rock along the Rhine River, near St. Goar. Her hypnotic music lured sailors to death. The legend is based on an echoing rock with that name near Sankt Goarshausen, Germany.

The Paris for Europeans

Someone told me Brussels is the "Paris for Europeans". ewww! I hope not! I was not impressed. It's very possible that my expectations were too high. It was a fun drive there (yes, I took pics of license plates along the way, but I won't bore you this time). The most memorable scene from this trip was Chris getting cursed by a gypsy. Set Scene: We were having coffee at a cafe and this scary lady approached us, asking for money. Well, we assume she asked for money-there was a slight language and odor barrier so we didn't lean in for clarification. So, Chris politely said no. The lady then said something that sounded horrific with squint of hers eyes, upturn of her nose and she even spit a little. I'm pretty sure she cursed our unborn children. No need to be nasty lady, geez!

Miracle of Life

I had the pleasure of being present when my good friend's 1st baby was born. I had the pleasure being the first to hold this brand new little girl.

Unbelievable

It's amazing when you recognize God at work in real time. Usually I recognize afterwards, but today I knew that all sequence of events, me being there at the time was not an accident.

Mommy, Daddy, and baby are doing fine. 

We can be in France in an hour

How cool is that?! I'm never leaving this place! So, yea we went to France this weekend. The drive is a litlle over an hour. I entertained myself by taking pictures of licenses plates. I've always been interested in license plates, as a little girl I would sit in our driveway and write down all the plate numbers that went by. 

Is this weird?

Anyway, Strasbourg is cool. Apparently, it has flipped from belonging to France and Germany over the years, so you feel both influences.

ich liebe diesen Park

I organized an outing for the ladies. Luisenpark in Mannheim, Germany. A beautiful place, I can't think of an equivalent park in the US, maybe Central Park. A small fee to enter, but it's worth it for the cleanliness and lack of riffraffs. We spent this visit walking around the park, which is 41 hectares according to Wikipedia (no source). I plan to bring Chris back here, I see us just hanging out at the park, packing a picnic and lounging under a tree!

Me

They have animals here too!

The ladies

It was a great day. I love this Park!

Road trip

I keep hearing about this amusement park of flowers in the Netherlands and well...I have to see it. So, a road trip it is!

We stayed in Amsterdam for a bit, the architecture is lovely, but there didn't seem to be much to do. I didn't do too much research, the Anne Frank house didn't excite me and the Heineken brewery was closed for remodeling. We walked around I don't remember even seeing a museum in the immediate area of our hotel. We ate at a cuban restaurant which I later found out was a chain-restuarant *Rolling eyes*. We also ate at quaint restaurant, the name I can not recall, but I ordered swordfish and was surprised and delighted that the little guy was staring at me when he arrived steaming on my plate.

I took approximately 5 pictures in Amsterdam, that's how uninspired I was. The red district did have some beautiful women in the windows, I wanted to take pictures of them. But, I didn't.

Next we went to Kuekenhof - the world's largest flower garden in Lisse, Netherlands. I don't know how excited Chris was about this, but I was excited enough for both of us. See...

Ugh... I look so tired, night shift is killing me. But, these crazy work hours do allow me to travel for long weekends. Anyway, Kuekenhof was beautiful.

How can I miss someone I don't know

I've had this overwhelming feeling of missing my little nephew, my brother's son, lately. The funny thing is I have never actually seen the little guy in person. This, I believe, is a testament to the strength of family love. So, little DAB I made a video for you.

Latter-day Saturday Post #1

So I decided when I don't have anything too interesting to share with you I will post something from past the timeline of this blog.

That Day
Latter-day Saturday Post #1 is our wedding day, which I still believe to this day, was the best, most perfect, most romantic wedding ever...in the history of weddings.

 This is the location, The Byodo-In in Kaneohe, Hawaii. It rained earlier in the day, so the ridges in the background had waterfalls running through them. Gorgeous!

 We were married by this nice Buddhist priest. Only our immediate family members were in attendance-just the way we wanted it. Despite my make-up bitch lady not showing up our day was perfect.

This is at the hotel after the ceremony, this location is where chris proposed to me after I repeatedly botched his plan for a proposal. Our reception was a Paradise Cove Luau. Not only did this day go exactly the way we wanted, we shared it with the people who matter most, and we didn't get caught up in the event. My rant on consumerism and the crock "they" sold as the American Dream will come later.

On your 30th Birthday...

...we shall go forth to thy Holy place

Look how happy my guy is! I'll have to check our wedding photos to see if he was grinning like that on  that day. Anyway, we loved Dublin. The people were gracious and down to earth. Of course we had our fill of fish and chips and beer; I was introduced to cider. Cider is good, but not worth 6lbs in 2 days (I really enjoyed the cider). We didn't make it outside of the city, but we will definitely be back.

Good times on the Irish music pub crawl.

Even our shadows are in love at St Patrick's Cathedral

speaking of Holy and St. Patrick's Cathedral...it's sponsored by Bailey's Irish Creme.

Gotta love it

IRISH OUT!

NYE - Danger Edition

New Years Eve in Heidleberg is c-r-a-z-y. It's like (I imagine) being in a drunken fire fight. People actually shoot fireworks everywhere, even at each other. This pic was taken shortly after a fireball bounced off my head. Chris didn't tell me until the next day, I thought it was a cork.