Memorial Day in Madrid

Hola!

In my last blog, I mentioned at the end something about booking our next adventure. Well, I'm still not going to write about that one. :)

Instead, I'm going to tell you about a little weekend jaunt we took to Madrid, Spain, over the Memorial Day three-day weekend holiday.

It was fun. The end.

Just kidding. :) It really was fun! We realized quickly how little Spanish we actually do know, and it was quite odd to find ourselves honestly thinking and trying to answer in German when people would talk to us. Guess our Deutch is going much better than we thought, even though it still doesn't seem like it!

Madrid is a beautiful city. I did tons of research beforehand by internet and guidebooks from the library to make sure our hotel was in a good location, and it was, right by a metro stop. From there we were able to get pretty much anywhere we wanted to go in the city. It is a huge city and we walked a lot!! Our hotel was nice -- the room was small, as most European hotel rooms are, and the toilet and sink were square! Yeah, imagine that one... haha!

My favorite part was the fact that they serve churros for breakfast - all you can eat! Can you imagine?! I was in heaven. Their sweets and pastries are delicious too, and I must admit I liked them more than the German bakeries. Probably because they are much sweeter and I do have a bit of a wicked sweet tooth.

Before we arrived, we both picked one thing we wanted to do for sure, and then from there after that I picked lots of random things near each other to try to make it to.

My pick was the Royal Palace.

I'm trying to upload a picture here but it doesn't seem to be working. Hmm. Anyway, the palace was amazing! I mean, simply stunning. I think my jaw was on the floor every time we turned a corner and went into another room! We waited in line for about an hour to get inside, in the rain of course, but it was completely worth it. No pictures were allowed inside, of course, but we took a few on the outside.

After that, we went to Carl's pick, the Zoo and Aquarium. It was a phenomenal zoo. The animals were unbelievable friendly, reaching through the fencing and such. Lots of people were feeding them, which is not actually allowed but they were doing it anyway. I'm sure that's part of the reason why they are so friendly toward humans! We got slightly lost on our way to the zoo as coming out of the metro you are in a big open parkland with no signs. But, we found it eventually. (We spent lots of extra time on this trip wandering around. Despite all the research we did beforehand and having our handy-dandy Frommer's travel guide book along with us, for some reason the exact locations of places kept finding a way to deceive us. It's okay though, the more walking we did throughout the city and the parks, the more of the city we got to experience!)

We also visited the museum of the Royal Navy, which could easily have been a top ten museum of all time probably for both of us, except it was all in Spanish! It was free so we couldn't complain. It even had a map drawn by the first mate of the Santa Maria, showing the route Columbus took, for Isabella and Ferdinand. Amazing.

We went to El Rastro on Sunday morning, which is the largest flea market in Spain. It was cool because it was all throughout some city streets. We didn't buy anything because it was mostly fabrics, clothing, leather goods, etc. We also visited the Parque del Retiro, which is the largest parkland in the city, and it was neat because there were lots of performers and vendors. The weather Sunday was beautiful so we stayed outside almost the whole time. We took the Teleferico cable car over the city too, which offered nice views of the Royal Palace and the skyline. That cable car provided us probably the longest and most confusing "where the heck is it?!" experience of the weekend... but, we found it finally.

There were so many parks, statues, fountains and buildings that we saw and admired but have no clue what they were! I know, that's kind of sad, but it was a beautiful city and it was so packed with stuff like that, that it was easier to admire and take some pics and keep moving.

As far as food, rest assured that Carl's taste for raw meat is still missing. Ha! No kidding, they like their meat almost like raw cold cuts, and even he was grossed out. (He hasn't been the same since the tar tar... hahaha!!) We found two yummy restaurants just by wandering the streets and looking at menus and also went to one vegetarian restaurant I had scouted out in the guidebook that was indescribably good. Even Carl loved that one, honestly!

Yep, we had a great time exploring Madrid and being able to experience a little of the Spanish culture. Would we go back? probably not. Did we need more time there to experience it all? definitely. Would we recommend it to others? Yes, but visit Stockholm first, that one still wins right now for coolest city. :)

All in all, a wonderful weekend. And let's not forget to stop and say thank you to all our service men and women, and remember the fallen, since it was Memorial Day weekend that we were traveling. God Bless America and our troops.

Don't forget to check out our Flickr page for more photos!!

Life in the 'hood... the 'parenthood'

Ok ok before anyone gets excited from the title of this blog posting, we are not going to be having a little one any time soon! Just had to say that right off the bat!!

We did, however, become 'parents' last week to a 10-year old and 13-year old as Lira, my boss, had to go to the States for a conference and left the kiddos with us! Yes, it was an experience to say the least. We get along great with them though, and they are so busy during the week with school and practices that it's not like we had to entertain them too much.

I did, however, learn how to brush someone else's hair, make fruit salad, make peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches, do homework, pack lunches, study for spelling tests, sign parent permission slips, drop off at school and pick up at practices after school, and, of course, get the call from the school nurse saying "Leslie needs to go home because she's got a runny nose and due to the swine flu scare, I can't let her stay at school." Sheesh! Busy week!

We all ate dinner together every night and I was so surprised and pleased at how easy they were to feed - they ate whatever we offered, including asparagus, edamame beans, vegetarian corn dogs, spagetti, soy milk, etc. (not all at the same time though haha) They also loved Carl's new signature specialty - smoothies. Every night before bed we all got a smoothie made purely of frozen fruit and vanilla soy milk, nothing more, nothing less, and they were delicious!

It was really fun having the around though. They're very well-behaved and fun kids and are self-sufficient enough that they were not a burden in any way. We have two very lovely guest rooms now so they each got their own room, too. Thomas and Carl mostly played video games for a little while before bed while Leslie and I did homework or played online math trivia games. Good times. I know they were anxious for Lira to get home though, but I am pretty sure they'll be back again in the future, which is definitely fine with us.

Also, Saturday, May 2, Kelli and Dan had a Kentucky Derby party at their house. Now, if you've known me for any amount of years you know I love me some horses, and growing up I was plopped in front of the tv alllllll day on Derby day. The party was mostly for their German friends to learn about the Derby. We all got dressed up and the girls all even wore fancy hats in the tradition of the Derby. Because of the time change though, the race didn't run till 12:30 a.m. our time, and we had the kids coming over early the next morning, so we left about 11:30 p.m. and I watched the race half in and out of sleep on our couch at home. No, I will admit, I did not pick the winner. I was hoping for a little General Quarters or Dunkirk action myself. Maybe for the Preakness?

And, this evening we booked our next big adventure.... stay tuned to find out the details of that one in a later post!! ( I have to have something to keep you coming back!)

Memorial Day poll winner!

Wow, thanks to everyone who voted on the little poll for "Where should we go for Memorial Day?" How fun is that?! People actually read this blog! haha :)

Anyway, I am happy to announce we have a winner! I booked the flight and hotel package yesterday evening....... and the winner is..... Madrid, Spain!

Haha! I know, it wasn't even a choice, sorry! Originally, we were choosing among the four cities I had put in the poll. We were going to book a train +hotel package through our Army travel agency here. We had actually decided on Brussels (main reason: it was the cheapest!) even though we want to go to all of them and I really appreciate the words of advice from those of you who offered suggestions! It was very helpful, especially since I stink at making decisions!

However, when we went to the agency to actually book the package, they were all sold out of those deals! ughhh!! We didn't know it was also a German holiday weekend and those deals are also sold by other travel agencies all throughout Europe. Bummer!

So, we backed up and started at square one. Hmm. Where do we want to go? The beauty of living here is that we can go to so many places! Jen and Nate wanted to go with us, so one day Jen and I got on the computer and literally went city-by-city on where the cheap airline flies and what flights were available. Oslo? No. Wroklaw? No. Zadar? Where the heck is that? No. Madrid? Yes, cool!

Long story sort of short, Jen and Nate can't go with us due to Nate's job. So I started looking at hotel+flight packages thru all the travel Web sites. I did lots of research and comparisons on hotels, metro access, saftey, traveler reviews, etc. and finally, finally, finally was able to book a flight+hotel package for us to Madrid for the weekend. Now we just have to narrow down what we want to do in the little time we'll have there!

In other news, times have been super busy around here lately as we've been trying to plan ahead for summer travel and work has been obnoxious with co-workers being out, etc. Wednesday night Jen and I had a girls' night where we went shopping in Speyer and found a very yummy Mexican restaraunt!! Yes, it was Mexican and it was good! Definitely going back again soon. Last night we went to Lira's to celebrate her birthday. Sunday, her kids are coming to stay with us for the week while she travels to the States. Should be interesting as I'll learn how to juggle all the things that come with the kids -- dropping off at school, getting to and from soccer and softball practices, eating dinner, doing homework, making lunches, oh yeah and going to work and making sure the doggies aren't cooped up too long in the meantime. Should be fun!

Last week we picked up a new-to-us bedroom set from one of Carl's co-workers. It's very nice!! So tomorrow morning we'll go get the bedding and then we will officially have two (nice, if I may say so) guest rooms. :)

A couple weekends ago we also ventured out to the botanical gardens downtown and the zoo. Both were fun!

All in all, we've been busy enjoying all the beautiful weather we've been having, too. Each evening we have been walking the doggies on a 2-mile route we found thru the woods near the house. They have loved it and it's been nice and relaxing for us as well, not to mention good for our health.

Take care all and I'll update again soon! Thanks again for reading and also for voting. I will try to come up with another poll question soon!

More Memories, End of an Era, and a Purple tree

We've thought of two more memories not mentioned in the previous post that are just too good not to share.

• In the Irish restaurant in Garmisch, dad wasn't sure what he wanted to eat. The menu of course was in German, but the last time we were there the nice Irish lady helped us figure out what everything was. Her German husband was helping us that night and wasn't great at sprechening English, along with our young German waitress. So, when dad saw something go by to another table that looked yummy, he wanted to know what it was. He asked the waitress "Was ... are they eating?" Was (pronounced 'vas') is "What" in German. How cute! We cracked up! He tried at least. I will have to say that my mom did a nice job earlier in the evening also asking "Haben sie riesling?" (Have you reisling?) It was so fun seeing them try to use their German. We are definitely the same way still, so I can't laugh too hard!
• Dad and Carl's adventure in the sauna in our hotel in Garmisch. If this sounds bad, it kind of is. Apparently, two over-sized German guys were already completely smushed into the sauna together, in their Speedos, of course, and kept trying to talk to Dad and Carl as they sat in the hot tub. Needless to say, that little trip didn't last too long before they were rejoining mom and me in the hotel room!

End of an era: Last night was the final evening of bowling league. The Stike Masters are no more... well, until next season anyway, and even then, I have a feeling the team may not be the same. They came in third overall for the season, and in two weeks at the awards dinner may actually win some money out of it! We had fun all season and it's kind of funny and sad to think that now it's over. Believe it or not, that league started just two weeks after we arrived here. So, it was pretty much the first thing we got involved in. At first I couldn't believe it would last till April, and there were a few times we were just plain aggravated that Carl was still stuck going to that stupid league every Tuesday night!! -- but all in all, it was a great experience. It brought us so much closer to Lira and her kids as well as Regina and Dan, and also Ray who was a sub, but then ended up being an official team member since he came so often, sometimes even just to watch. Carl has his own bowling shoes and will most likely be getting a ball this summer. His high game for the season came about a month ago when he bowled a 256. He plans to continue bowling and join the league again next year for sure. For me, well, I just enjoyed pizza night and the fact that the guys at the snack bar got to know me so well I didn't even have to order anymore - they'd call in my order when they saw me walking up, and sometimes even gave me free extra cheese or only charged me for the small pizza instead of a large. :) We took a team photo on Lira's camera last night so I hope to get that from her soon and post it.

Purple Tree: Tonight, we had a funny experience. The doorbell rang about 6:30 p.m. or so. I answered it to find a German guy and his 7-year-old son on the front porch. In broken German and English, we figured out that he was asking if we had a big purple tree in our garden. As a matter of fact we do, back behind the extra building in our vineyard, we have several large lilac trees. Apparently, his wife and son saw the tree from the side road and just wanted to see it up close (his wife was too embarrassed to come to the door so she was still in the car!) I told them sure, we can walk back there, so we went back to the vineyard. His wife, who is Canadian and speaks great English, was so excited and kept saying "She's beautiful!" over and over about the trees! So we ended up chatting with them for a good 20 minutes. They live up the street and she runs a shoe store around the corner in town! (Yes!! shoes and shoe repair!) They were super friendly and invited us to stop by any time we needed anything or just wanted to chat, and I let her take some lilac home and she was thrilled. I guess I will have to get some fresh lilac for the house now, too!

Pictures: Don't forget about our Flickr page! Be sure to check it out again because Dad has loaded lots of pictures from their camera on there now, too! http://flickr.com/photos/kristenandcarl

Favorite Moments from my parents' visit

Well, I promised another post with some more details on some of the most memorable moments from my parents' visit. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to do that!

I only wish that right now I had my mom's little red notebook that she kept notes in so I could make sure not to forget any of them -- yes, we wrote down funny moments as they happened!

I am thinking I'll do this one in bullet form instead of large paragraphs. These are simply going to be in the order I remember them as I type this tonight!

• Lunch at what we now call "Sleepy's Chinese Restaurant." This was in Speyer, at what is actually the place that serves what we all agreed is the best Chinese food we've ever had. We couldn't find a restaurant that was actually serving lunch by the time we were ready to eat (lots of places close down here in the late afternoons to prepare for dinner.) However, the yummy Chinese place was open. We enjoyed our food and the waiter was so cute, saying "please, please" the time. (He was using a literal translation of a German word that means please and you're welcome, only he was using the wrong English word. Too cute!) Well, after we had all finished eating we realized we hadn't seen the waiter in a while. Not unusual, since waiters here let you enjoy your food and you have to signal them for everything. One problem: he wasn't around to signal that we were done. So we sat and waited and chit-chatted but after quite a while got kind of curious. Dad decided to walk over to the counter and see if he could peek into the kitchen and find him. He came back to the table with a bit of a goofy look - "He's asleep behind the counter!" We didn't believe him until he offered to buy lunch if he was making it up -- we knew then he meant it. So dad went to the bathroom and slammed the door once, then twice and all of a sudden the waiter shot up out of his chair and came running over to see if we enjoyed our food. You could tell he was horrified and probably had no idea how long we'd been out or if we knew. We didn't tell him, of course! Too cute!
• Gabriella picking us up at the airport and not remembering how to find the parking lot! It was fun :) Then later we arrived to meet Simon for the first time with his wonderful breakfast he had prepared for us. We learned all about "Simon the Troublemaker" who that afternoon redeemed himself into becoming "Simon the Tourguide." My mom and I definitely enjoyed touring by the Royal Palace guards and getting our picture taken next to them! We also had a fika (coffee break) in a coffee shop built inside a 700-year old prison that day.
• Seeing the speedbump sign in Uppsala, Sweden: The Swedish word is "Farthinder." HAHA Of course we all had to get our pictures taken by the sign! (Okay, actually only dad and I had our pictures taken there).
• Riding the train to Uppsala and seeing my mom's goofy grin as the very attractive ticket taker came through -- she of course pulled out her camera and asked for a picture. :) He didn't mind!
• Eating dinner at Story, a new restaurant in Stockholm. The place was very nice -- cool atmosphere, kinda built below the street level so you are looking up at the people walking by. However, the boys got nervous when they saw the portion size, and we all got nervous when we saw the menu prices and the waitress told us we were supposed to order two entrees! Carl decided to be daring as he thought Simon explained that 'tartar' was actually very lean meat. Oh contrare. He later found out when his biff tartar arrived, that it was actually a plate of raw meat. Hence he is now King Carl de Tartar. He ate it! We all laughed hysterically! We all then ordered two desserts since we had to order two entrees. Almost the Swedish kronar equivalent of $350 later, we finally left.
• Walking into the Frankander residence on our second visit there and mom saying "Oh, this is nice! Where are we now?"
• Eating schneeballen in Rothenberg. It was fun to introduce them to a treat we had been talking about. A week later, finding mom sneaking a bite of schneeballen in the kitchen still. (It's okay, I had been sneaking bites earlier. Those things seriously last a long time!)
• Learning all about the funny rules and laws of mideival times at the Crime and Punishment Museum in Rothenberg. Who would have known that people were punished for telling smutty jokes, being a blabbermouth or baking a loaf of bread too small? We decided none of us would have lasted very long in that time period!
• Eating dinner in Leimen on their first night there, and seeing them try authentic German food for the first time. Dad never did find another dish he liked better than his Schwabentopf (I am sure I spelled that wrong) the first night!
• Eating ice cream in downtown Heidelberg after shopping and a nice old lady started chatting with mom in half English-half German.
• Mom taking pictures of everything! But the Flickr site is perfect for displaying all of them, and I'll admit, I took a lot too!
• Hiking to the gorge in Garmisch only to discover it was closed! But we went around the sign and kept hiking anyway. Got some great pictures.
• Watching dad demonstrate how to ski jump at the Olympic Ski Stadion (1936 ski jumping stadium) in Garmisch.
• Night Watchman's Tour at the Heidelberg Castle -- this was something I was covering for work, and we did it their last night there. Awesome. We were in the year 1622 and touring the castle with the night watchman as he was preparing for a battle with the Catholics. We met a sergeant, a townslady and the castle maid along the way. So much fun! Perfect way to end their trip but also a must for everyone else who is coming to visit!
• Walking, walking, walking.... we walked everywhere in Sweden, then hiked in Garmisch. Lots of exercise.
• Touring the Neuschwanstein Castle. The hike up to it is about a 30-40 minute hike basically straight uphill (it switches back and forth too). The walk itself was actually fun too and we beat the crowd. The castle was amazing.
• Searching for the lost city of Zitzelville (pronounced Zitzelwill) as we drove through Bavaria -- trying to find my grandma's long lost relatives!!
• Leif, Gabriella's father, singing a song after serving everyone "Swedish Punch" in celebration of Gabriella's birthday. All I know is that it burned when I drank it! But I had to ater he sang that song!
• Candy stores, candy stores, candy stores! We bought lots of gummies in Heidelberg but in Sweden I think we hit every single candy store we walked by -- their candy is awesome!

Alrighty well I think that's enough for now. I am sure I have left out many more of our favorite funny moments but I think this is good for now. :) I will add more as I think of them!

I hope you've enjoyed and I look forward to many more funny moments with whoever our next visitors are...any takers???

My parents' visit... is over already!!

Hard to believe that time has flown by so quickly that my parents were here for 10 days and are already back home again!

Needless to say, we had the most amazing time while they were here! I sort of had intended to try and update the blog during their trip, but obviously that didn't happen! We were on the go pretty much the whole time. I will make this as concise as possible and add more later.

Starting with day one, I picked them up at the airport and literally had tears in my eyes when I saw them. I was so excited! We spent the day trying to keep them awake (and failed for a little while in the afternoon, even I fell asleep! I had been up all night tracking their flight on the online flight tracker okay?!) I took them to my work and introduced them to everyone I work with. We then had dinner at a German restaurant in Leimen (yes, the first place we ate when we arrived here). It was delicious, of course. Then, we took them by the bowling alley so they could see what quickly has become our 'second home.' I know you're thinking 'they flew all the way to Europe and you take them to the American places?' Ah, only for today, and only because we just needed to keep them awake a little while and had a full schedule the rest of the time they were here.

Saturday (March 28) we headed to Rothenberg again for a nice little day trip. We enjoyed schneeballen of course, visited the mideival crime and punishment museum, the Kathe Wolfhart Christmas museum, and walked the city for hours. It was a nice introduction to Germany for them.

Sunday morning we flew to Stockholm, Sweden. It was so exciting! We got to spend three wonderful days with Gabriella and her family touring Stockholm. Seriously, that city is awesome!! We also took a train ride to Uppsala one day which was also neat. We enjoyed meeting her husband, Simon, who greeted us with a lovely homemade Swedish breakfast when we arrived, and also celebrated Gabriella's birthday with her family at their home Tuesday evening. While in Stockholm, we walked a lot! Simon the tourguide and Gabriella took us around and showed us lots of sights, and then Monday Gabriella went with us on a boat tour of the city, which was great! We also went to the Nordiska Museum and the Vasa Museum.

Wednesday, we flew back to Frankfurt and drove back to Heidelberg for a few hours to see the downtown. We enjoyed some shopping and some ice cream.

Thursday, we went to Speyer, our favorite little local town where we always do our shopping. We walked around there and ate a delicious Chinese lunch. It was a nice way to do some relaxing after going so hard in Sweden.

Friday, we packed up the car and headed to Garmisch. We hiked to a gorge, visited the Olympic Ski Jump Stadium used in the 1936 Olympics and walked around the town. Saturday, we drove to the fairy-tale land of the Neuschwanstein Castle and toured the castle, which is amazingly beautiful. That evening we had a yummy Irish dinner across the street from our hotel and went to sleep exhausted!

Sunday, we drove back to Heidelberg by way of Austria. We stopped along the way to take pics of the beautiful Austrian Alps and tried to go to a castle museum but realized we didn't have much time since we had to make it back to HD in time for our night activity. We picked up the red babies from the German language camp they had been attending and then headed to meet up with Kelli and her family at the Heidelberg Castle for the Night Watchman's Tour... very fun!

It was a sad day Monday when we had to drive to the airport for them to fly home. I could not believe our time was up and did not want them to leave! Scouty went with us to the airport so he could keep me company on the drive back. I learned that crying and trying to drive on the autobahn are not really a good mix... but I made it, and they made it home safely later that night.

All in all, a trip of a lifetime!!!

I have posted many pics on the Flickr page so please check them out. I really tried to make this a short entry with just the basics. Later, I will make another post of some of our most memorable moments... you won't want to miss that one! :)

Day trip to Rothenberg

Yes, I finally have something real to write about again - albeit a week late - but last Saturday we packed up the red babies and headed to Rothenberg ob der Tauber, about an hour and a half form where we live. This little city is from mideival times and it is enclosed by a city wall that you can walk along and have great views (we didn't do that though of course since we had the doggies.) However, we were able to walk for 3 hours just exploring the streets of the city! It was so fun!

Rothenberg is actually one of the most popular tourist cities in Germany, and it's easy to see why. It is picture-perfect for what you think of in a cute little Germany community from days of old (when knights were bold.... haha!! in memory of Grandpa Don...). It is also the home of the indoor Christmas village, something I'll have to blog about once we go inside (again, we didn't do that either because of the doggies).

Now, before you think we missed out on everything because of the reds, let me just say the weather was gorgeous and we were able to just wear light jackets for our strolls. The people of this city completely epitomized the German's love for dogs - I can't even count how many people smiled at Noel and Scout, or pet them, or talked to them, and even a few who got down on the ground and hugged all over them. They loved it, and I was so proud of them for being so well-behaved, too! We had no problems whatsoever; there were even a couple dogs who decided to bark at Scout and he ignored them.

We also discovered the famous schneeballen -- a Rothenberg specialty pastry. It's basically like pie crusts cut into strips and rolled up into balls, and then covered with topping such as sugar, cinnamon, chocolate or nougat. Some even had fillings throughout. I have since learned from Alia too that schneballen means snowballs, which is fitting if you saw them. They were very good and we of course bought several varieties to try. The lady in the schneeball shop was in love with the dogs and came out side to sit and cuddle with them. She kept talking to them in German and every once in a while would say 'ohhh, I love you! I love you!" and kiss them and hug them. It was cute, and the best part is she gave us an extra schneeballen for free! haha!

I also forgot to blog I think that about a month ago we took a really fun day trip to Sinsheim with Lira and the kids to the Technik Museum there. It was fun; cold that day, but fun. So no, we haven't been completely holed up in the house here but now that the weather is getting warmer we are feeling the itch to do some more exploring!!

Today is clean the house day since we have less than a week before my parents arrive! I CAN'T WAIT!!! Also, in a couple hours the doggies have an appointment at a German vet to get their doggy passports. That way they can travel more with us.

Check out the pictures from our trip to Rothenberg on our Flickr page! http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristenandcarl