With Thanksgiving tomorrow - here is our version of "Turkey"

With Thanksgiving tomorrow, and no plans to celebrate it, it might be a day that could leave us a bit depressed.  I mean, this is my favorite holiday, and the last 5 years Noah and I even hosted it at our home in Phoenix.  This time – I have meetings until 6pm (I mean, no one here cares it is Thanksgiving), no time to bake or prepare any Thanksgiving style dish, and no family to share the day with.  So you folks back home – you win tomorrow!!  Instead, we will just have to focus on the perks of living in Europe – one of which is having a constant stream of visitors!! 

This month, we had my brother, Logan, and his girlfriend, Ashley, come for 2 weeks.  Since I had to work a holiday the other month, I had 2 bonus days off that Noah sadly didn’t.  But at least I was able to take off the first few days of their visit to give them a proper tour of Munich.  Sadly for them, the biergartens are all closed for the winter, so instead I took them for lunch at the Augustiner Brewery, where we had a German photobomb us.

When Friday arrived, the four of us (we finally included poor Noah) were off to Istanbul!  This was the trip Noah and I had been looking forward to the most, because we had heard so many amazing reviews from friends and coworkers.  Plus Western European cities, while all amazing in their own right, tend to look roughly similar.  We were finally going to a city that should look and feel completely different.  We weren’t let down (though for those of you still to go – expect cats, lots of cats).

We landed and were whisked to our hotel, where we immediately were greeted by this view of the Blue Mosque from the hotel’s rooftop:

Our first stop was the Grand Bazaar, which is a massive maze of hundreds of stores split up by category.  And most stores are selling very similar things – but according to the shopkeepers, their store has the best items and best prices.  We were able to locate a beautiful Backgammon set (something we had wanted to get from Istanbul ever since we knew we were going), and some lunch.  Other than that – it was a lot of wandering and admiring, but also trying not to be seen looking to avoid the shopkeepers.

Next stop – Spice Bazaar!  This one was the place to get food items, mainly spices (no surprise there), Turkish Delights, and dried fruits.  I am still disappointed that I never saw dried pineapple or dried strawberries later on in the trip, because I really could have used more.  Noah’s bag of dried ginger is still going, even back in Munich, that lucky duck!

Friday night we found ourselves walking the İstiklal Avenue (Independence Avenue) looking for a fun spot to eat.  After some interesting propositions (some food, some ‘other’), we finally stumbled upon a crowded street off the main avenue filled with restaurants, bars, and people.  This is where we wanted to be.  We chose Keyif Restaurant at random, and sat upstairs with the roof open and with a band periodically playing.  I think we all fell in love with Turkish food this trip, and this place didn’t disappoint.  Logan and I also indulged in dessert, which would be a theme that developed over the trip (what is wrong with you two – Noah and Ashley?!?).

Saturday was a rainy day, so we stuck to the buildings.  First we explored Topkapı Palace which clearly has beautiful views of the city… but better on a clear day.  Oh well.

Then we moved on to the most impressive building I have ever seen – the Hagia Sophia.  I can’t believe it was built almost 1,500 years ago in the 6th century – I am amazed that they could build something like that way back then (I think it would be a difficult project even today).

Saturday night we went to see some Whirling Dervishes, and this was definitely not what we expected.  I think the videos on youtube are more ‘Hollywood-ized’ where you see a bunch of Dervishes whirling to music, and it looks like a grand time.  While I am really glad we had the experience, we decided it felt more like we were intruding on someone’s private worship time.  It was very intense, and not as much ‘whirling’ as I would have expected.  

 Our last full day in Istanbul started out with a quick trip to the Blue Mosque, then an hour or so trying to figure out how to get around the city with a marathon taking place (solution – an overpriced taxi ride to the pier).  After another 30 minutes of trying in vain to find a ‘official’ ferry to the Üsküdar side of the river, we luckily ended up on a less-than-official looking ‘public’ boat that took us to the right place.

Over in Üsküdar, we toured the amazingly over-the-top Dolmabahce Palace.  Sadly, no photographs are allowed inside (those of you who use your flash when it says not to – this is what can happen!!), but take my word for it – this place is dripping in luxury.  From crystal staircases, to gold encrusted everything, to the most magnificent Ceremonial Hall, this was my favorite of the two palaces.

Our last big stop in Istanbul before heading home the next day was to make it to Asia!!  We had absolutely no plan of what to see/do when we arrived to that side of the river, but all of us (except Noah, who has been to Israel before) wanted to be able to say we technically have been to Asia.  After walking along the coast, we found a bunch of rug-covered bleachers facing the water, at an outdoor café.  We settled in with our hot cocoa (me) and our Turkish tea (everyone else), and waited for sunset.  We then proceeded to take a more than necessary amount of sunset photos.

When we returned to Munich Monday, it was back to reality for Noah and me, and off to Prague for Logan and Ashley.  We then rented a car for the weekend to spend some time in the Alps.  We wanted to try to see Eagle’s Nest in Berchtesgaden, and while we knew it was closed, we thought we could still perhaps make it up to the area anyways.  Nope – a firm “Was machen Sie!?!” (What are you doing!?!) from a ranger made us turn around on the unpaved road, and instead we settled for a lower mountain.

The next day we hit up Chiemsee and the islands Herreninsel (man-island for the monks) and Fraueninsel (woman-island for the nuns).  Both were beautiful to walk around, and the smaller Fraueninsel even has a Christmas market!  It just wasn’t open yet, you know, because they have to wait until after Thanksgiving, of course.

Now it is back to just the two of us (and the dogs, of course), and our next visitors aren’t planned for a few months.  I guess now is a good time to start planning next year’s vacations.  Potential visitors – 2013 is now open!

Innsbruck, Tirol

While I was dealing with backing up our recent photos (methods that Noah deems extreme – with the combination of external hard drives, burning onto CDs, and uploading to the cloud with my various accounts), I realized that our trip to Innsbruck last November was left off of the blog.  Sure this wasn’t that big of a trip, but the main point of our blog is for us to be able to look back and remember all our excursions, big and small, we take while we are here.  The second reason – to let our moms/grandma share in our adventures from 3,000 miles away.  So with that precursor, I will write about Innsbruck, almost three months later, and cheat and change this date for the blog so that this falls in the right chronology – between ‘Our First Snow of the Year’ and Istanbul.

What sets this trip apart from our others this year, is that we took our dogs with us out of the country.  Yes – the pups ‘used’ their pet passports we got them.  And ‘used’ is in the most loose sense – since Germany and Austria are both members of the Schengen ‘borderless’ area – essentially removing borders between the member countries – there is no border check to verify our passports.  But that didn’t matter – we wanted to make sure we were still following the rules like good pseudo-Germans! 

First, a cute dog story:  Our dogs have always loved riding in cars, and since living in Munich they have fallen in love with Aunt Ellen’s little blue Twingo car (important detail) – it means a trip somewhere fun.  We decided to use our new car-sharing program and rent a car for the trip to Austria.  Noah went to pick up the car and parked it outside the apartment.  When it was time to leave, the dogs were beyond energetic, as they knew a road trip was in order by the fact that we packed their food and leashes in our luggage.  When we opened the front door, amongst all the cars parked on our street, there was one small blue car.  They both darted straight to that blue car and looked at us to let them in.  The problem – we rented a silver car that was parked further down the street.  I am no scientist (I will leave that to Noah), but to me it shows that dogs have both memory and proves they aren’t as colorblind as people tend to assume.

And we were off!  With Noah working to re-learn how to drive a manual transmission, we headed south to Austria.  We did have to make a quick stop at a gas station to purchase a vignette – required for driving on the Austrian highways.  Think EZ Tag for you Houstonians, except for a much steeper fine – over 100EUR.  After a few hours, and finagling the small city of Innsbruck by car, we found a parking spot and headed to our hotel – the Hotel Weisses Kreuz.  Any idea why we might have favored this place when we saw it on the internet??? 

 It was a very cute, historic hotel, dating back to the 15^th century.  It had many levels and various corridors, connecting the different sections of the hotel that were probably purchased at different times, as the place expanded.  Plus the location was perfect – right in the center of things, and just a few yards/meters away from the Goldenes Dachl & the Helblinghaus.

We saddled up the dogs and took off towards the Nordkette mountain.  We took a series of funiculars and cable cars to reach the top, where we stopped to take some family photos.  

Dog's unsure about riding a cable car

We then took the last cable car up to the very tip-top – though this was in the clouds and a bit creepy.  It felt like stepping out onto another planet.  There were all these crows that were just flying, but not moving, because the wind was so extreme.  We only spent about 15 minutes at this level before heading back down below the clouds for some hot chocolate at the restaurant.

One level below, while we were waiting on the funicular, my eagle eyes spotted the tiny yellow and blue markings of an Ikea across the city.  I love Ikea.  But the one in Munich is rather hard to get to, and there was a picture frame I wanted that the Munich one didn’t have.  The next morning we found ourselves in the Innsbruck Ikea, surprisingly leaving with more than just that one picture frame. 

After our morning shopping excursion, we picked the dogs up from the hotel and headed off to explore the city.  We stopped in Dom zu St. Jakob – a baroque church that the Asam Brothers helped decorate.  For those of you who have visited us, we probably took you to our favorite church in Munich – Asamkirche, built by these brothers a decade+ later.  It made the church a bit more interesting for us.  We then walked along the main pedestrian zone located around the Annasäule column.  This was established in 1706 as a remembrance that Bavarian invaders were defeated in the region three years earlier.

The next day it was time to head back to Munich, but we had a small side trip planned to visit Achensee – a small alpine lake on the Austrian side, somewhat on the way home.  We figured the dogs could use some hiking around before the long drive back.  To reach the lake we had to head up some steep roads – which really tested Noah’s manual driving expertise (or lack of it).  We had our first stall-out on a steep hill (versus our stall-outs on flat ground) – which resulted in the car quickly rolling downhill backwards.  Luckily we were the only ones on the road, or we would have definitely hit a few cars on our way down.  After a few scary moments, Noah was able to kick the car back in gear and drive off.  Only later did we learn of the ‘commonly known’ hand-brake trick.  It is only common knowledge when everyone drives manual – which is just not the case in the States!! 

A little while longer we all made it to the lake, the car in one piece.  This is where I will give Noah a shout out for his amazing driving abilities – I know if it were me, I would pay 10x the price to get an automatic car, and then because of that not go anywhere.  The weather was very windy, which made it rather chilly.  That didn’t matter – the dogs were happy, the lake was pretty, and we all enjoyed the fresh air.

Sadie so worn out she fell asleep sitting up in the car

All in all it was a great weekend getaway, and it is always a bonus when we get to take the dogs with us on vacation.