The Grandparents come for a visit

Back in early June, my parents came for a visit.  It was perfect timing because I was able to tell them in person that Noah and I are expecting.  At first I thought it might be too soon (I was only ~6 weeks and hadn’t seen a doctor yet), but as their arrival approached, I knew there was no way I could keep that kind of secret in. 

As the timing was in between Mother’s and Father’s day, I told them that I had gifts for them to celebrate.  In fact, I had Oma and Opa themed presents, and they were shocked and extremely excited to know they had 2 grandbabies on the way (as my brother’s wife was also expecting – but now baby Tegan is 6 weeks old!!). 

Mom figured it out before Dad

The next morning we loaded up the car and headed to Austria for a long weekend getaway.  Our main destination was the little tourist town of Hallstatt, but we found a cheap apartment hotel in the nearby town of Rußbach.  Rußbach was incredibly charming and cute – a typical small village nestled in the alpine valley.  We leashed up the dogs and went on a small walking tour. 

The next morning, we left the dogs at the apartment and drove past Hallstatt to the Dachstein mountains.  Here you find some amazing ice caves – though not without a nice little hike up from the gondola.  As it was so hot outside, it was a wonderful relief to enter the chilly caves (though not a dog-friendly place).

The only way through is via a guided tour, and it turned out we were the only English speaking family in the group of about 40.  The tour guide was very accommodating and told us to stay up front with her, and she would translate her German speech to English for us at each station.  The only issue – some people really wanted to be in the front and would cut us off, only for the tour guide to tell them they had to stay behind us as we needed English translations.  We would then hear ripples of people talking about the ‘Brits’ at the front. 

And of course being at the front had some advantages – I was able to get some nice photographs without anyone in them! 

After our tour and lunch at the nearby restaurant, we took the gondola back down and drove past Hallstatt again back to our patient pups at the apartment.  They were more than ready to hop in the car to join us when we finally made it to Hallstatt.  It really was as picture perfect as you see on the internet – though there were plenty of tourists (including us of course).  

We ate dinner at a cute restaurant on the water, and Noah spotted a swan being ‘chased’ by his larger, paddleboat version. 

My parents had really wanted to take a boat ride on the lake, but we had already missed all the trips for the day.  So the next morning after checking out, we went back to Hallstatt so they could catch the first boat of the day.  As I am not a huge fan of boats, and we had the dogs with us, we stayed on dry land and took some of the same pictures as the day before – but this time with sunlight! 

After meeting back at the dock (where the girls made quite a few friends while we waited), it was time to head back to Munich.  While Hallstatt was adorable and definitely worth a visit, it was the perfect size for a short weekend getaway.  

Catching up with the Apapapate's

We recently caught up with our good friend Rakesh and his wife Emily, who we met for the first time.  They were both travelling for work and had to make a short stop in Switzerland.  So we spontaneously arranged a weekend meet-up with them along the Austrian/German/Swiss border at Lake Constance (also known as Bodensee).

We picked them up at the town of Bregenz, Austria in the Honda Jazz.  We made the 2 hour drive from Munich and they took the train in from Zurich (you know, the Washington DC to Zurich to Bregenz connection).  We didn’t waste any time on chitchat and headed straight for the nearest mountain gondola (Pfanderbahn) to get up into the mountains, enjoy some views, and drink a beer.  We made a few attempts to stroll around the animal park but the rain kept us mostly inside.  

Eventually we set out for an early arrival to our hotel in the nearby town of Mellau, which happened to be offering cheaper rates than along Lake Constance.  We were in for an amazing surprise as we made the 30 minute drive to our hotel.  The mountains and scenery were so incredibly beautiful… I will let the pictures do the explaining on this one.   But the surprises did not end there because we were completely blown away by the amazing guest house we ended up at.  Apparently it is brand new and we may have been one of the first guests to stay there (at least judging by Booking.com).  Our little apartment was equipped with a kitchen and an enclosed balcony with the most spectacular waterfall and mountain views.  This felt like a 5 star kind of place for a 2 star price. 

After an evening of catching up we spent the next day back along Lake Constance in the town of Lindau.  This is the same place we came to for Julie’s birthday last year so we were able to navigate our way around the adorable little town with ease.  Number one on our destination for the day was this restaurant/café which offers the most delicious wraps and healthier oriented fresh food (exactly the kind of food missing from the scene in Munich).  This was one of the highlights from our previous trip to Lindau and we were not about to pass it up.  And just like we remembered, the fresh wraps were incredible.  Oh and of course spending the day with our fabulous friends from America was also wonderful. 

It was, however, just a short visit, which meant we were back on the road to Munich by the afternoon.  So the last time I saw Rakesh was of course in Brazil for the World Cup last year.  The time before that we were in Hawaii.  I sense a trend here, looking forward to seeing you in Asia somewhere and sometime in the near-future old buddy old pal!

Celebrating the 29th year of my existence

Last week, Noah and I packed up the car and the dogs and headed west for my birthday vacation.  While the destination wasn’t as ‘cool’ as an Amazonian jungle (how Noah spent his 29^th birthday last month), it was still an amazing vacation spot: Lake Constance.  The lake lies on the border of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.  We decided to stick to the German side of the lake – mainly because it was the closest spot to Munich / the shortest drive for us.  Plus as Switzerland is not on the Euro/ I hear it is rather expensive, we passed on that country.  So even though I could look across the lake to the Swiss side only 15 kilometers away, I still have yet to set foot in Switzerland.  Future trip here?  Ok, I digress…. 

Switzerland across the way (and a Swiss boat to boot!)

We stayed at the beautiful historic Hotel Bad Schachen near the island of Lindau.  The history of this hotel began over 250 years ago when a mineral spring was transformed into a spa.  The current hotel that we stayed in was built in the early 1900s.  In fact after WWII, the French occupational troops used Hotel Bad Schachen as a holiday location until 1949, when the hotel began to welcome guests once again.  Of course I just did all this research writing this blog, so we had no idea of all of that when we were actually there last week. 

But what we could easily see was that our choice of hotels was perfect.  For starters, we had a wonderful corner balcony with a beautiful view of Lake Constance. 

The next great perk of the hotel: a lakeside swimming pool with a huge lawn of lounge chairs and direct access to the lake.  My first birthday activity (after unpacking of course) was a given.  It was time to lather up in my SPF 100+ sunscreen and do some swimming.  After dipping one foot in the lake, I bailed and dragged Noah to the swimming pool which was supposedly 2 whole degrees warmer.  Once I had my fill of swimming, I was ready to lay in a lounge chair and enjoy my book.  Noah, who can never get enough of the water, grabbed his snorkeling gear and jumped into the lake.  Crazy boy. 

The only picture I took of the pool area... and you can't see the pool

Soon it was evening and time for my birthday dinner.  Noah had found a BBQ restaurant nearby – Stadthaus – known for high quality BBQ.  As we are always looking for alternatives to a traditional Bavarian-German meal, this sounded fantastic.  And we both knew that we shouldn’t have our expectations too high, what with coming from Texas and all.  My official review on this place is if you go in expecting a unique style of smoked meats, and not Texas BBQ, then this place is great.  But even though my mind knew that the pork in my pulled-pork sandwich was truly fantastic, I couldn't help but wish it had some amazing BBQ sauce in it to truly make it perfect.  Damn you Texan BBQ and the high standards you have instilled in me!!! 

Ready to head out for my birthday dinner

The next day we decided to check out the island of Lindau – about 3 kilometers away.  Since the morning weather was so perfect, we skipped on figuring out a train route and instead leashed up the dogs for a wonderful walk through Schachen and then along the lake.  We passed some truly amazing homes mansions, and I spent some time dreaming about a life where we could live at one of these places.  Though I will happily take a 5 day visit and count myself lucky. 

The dogs waiting at the train crossing; Beautiful photo of the park path Noah took

40 minutes later we were in the heart of the island.  We stopped for an amazing lunch at Cafe/Bar/Restaurant Großstadt, a lunch so great Noah claimed this was his favorite restaurant ever and began outlining a plan for us to open a similar place ourselves.  Our food was simple – a pepper soup and a Mediterranean wrap – but it was done so perfectly and with such a freshness that gave it an edge that other wrap/soup cafés just don’t seem to have.  Though you should pass on the chocolate milkshake – it was a room-temperature protein shake.  I don’t know when I will finally learn my lesson and stop trying to find a good chocolate shake in Germany.  

We spent the next few hours exploring the little island of Lindau, which was so small we could walk all the way around it in that short time.  We saw the Rathaus, strolled along Maximilianstrasse, saw the pretty tiled Diebsturm, and checked out the harbor, Seehafen.  We even found a place that would put your name on rice.  I had no idea how international this idea was. 

Left to Right: Diebsturm; Rathaus; Cute colorful buildings

Seehafen

Your Name on Rice!

As we walked back to the hotel, we could feel that the temperature had definitely risen since our morning stroll.  So what better way to cool off?  Back to the pool/lake – where this time I toughened up and skipped the pool and went straight for the lake.  We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and reading and relaxing.  That night after dinner, we watched The Shining.  I had mentioned to Noah that the hotel reminded me a bit of the hotel in the movie and was shocked to learn he had never seen it!  Now he is all up to speed on the famous ‘Here’s Johnny’ scene, and next time will not be shocked to learn what Redrum means. 

Our only set plan for Friday was to rent a paddle boat in front of the hotel, but when we woke up to choppy water and lots of wind we decided to move that plan to later in the afternoon.  Instead we took a short drive down to Austria’s Pfänder Mountain where you can take the award winning cable car up the mountain.  Seriously – it earned the title of "Ausgezeichnete Österreichische Sommerbahn", or “Excellent Austrian Cable Car”.  At the top there is a small ‘Wild Park’ with a walkway through a few zoo-like pens.  We accidently started at the back and wound are way to the front, where only after we exited the entrance did we see the sign that the dogs weren’t allowed.  Oops! 

The trip down

Back at the hotel that afternoon, we saw the water had finally calmed down.  Paddle boat time!  We Noah paddled us around to check out the beautiful mansions that neighbor the hotel.  And of course I had my floatie with me, so I was prepared for our swim in the lake.  

I'll take either one of these - I won't be picky

Saturday brought the rain with it.  And it was nonstop rain – beginning at 10am Saturday and then following us back to Munich the next day.  I had expected the weather to turn, so we had made sure to fill our prior three days with all the outdoor activities that were a ‘must’ for us.  Because of that, we had no problem with the idea of staying inside all day.  We spent the morning reading on the balcony, and then had a nice lunch of cake down in the hotel lobby.  In the afternoon we checked out the hotel’s spa / indoor pool area (have I mentioned how amazing this hotel was?).  I am finally learning to use vacation time to simply relax, and this was definitely the place to do it.  The rest of the day was spent watching movies, reading, and playing minesweeper on the iPad (we are both obsessed).  The dogs were also happy to have a respite from such ‘busy’ days so they could work on catching up on all that missed daytime sleep.  

A well-rounded, healthy lunch

When Sunday morning arrived, it was time to make our way back to Munich.  Of course the dogs were extremely alert to our packing - working hard to ensure they didn’t get left behind.  By the time we made it back home, we had left the rainstorms behind and returned to blue skies.  And since I have extra vacation days from working while Noah was in Brazil, I was able to take Monday off too.  It was nice having one more day of sleeping in before returning to reality (sorry Noah!).  

Sadie watching our every move while we packed up

Before My Socks Dry in Vienna

This blog is a bit delayed, as we just now have had some down time since our Anniversary trip to Vienna 2 weekends ago.  Better late than never!

Before the trip, we were doing our usual research into the city of choice, and ran across a reference to a film from the 90s: Before Sunrise.  It is a romance film of two people who meet on a train from Budapest to Vienna and spend the day/night exploring Vienna together. As a side note, the sequel Before Sunset was released 9 years later (2004), and the 3^rd film Before Midnight was released 9 years after that during the week of our anniversary (just two weeks ago!).  Each film features the same actors, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.  Therefore, it really seemed fitting to start the trilogy about the couple who met on the train to Vienna while we were taking the train to Vienna ourselves.  Now if we produced a movie about our own experiences in Vienna, then we would have to title it Before My Socks Dry, since the weather took a little bit away from the Hollywood romance seen on film.  But still, Ethan Hawke can’t compete with me.

Overall, we had a really nice, relaxing time in Wien even though we were limited on sightseeing due to the persistent rain.  Starting about May 20^th, most of central Europe began the weeks of non-stop rain that caused the record flooding we have been seeing this last week or so.  We were really lucky that our trip and our lives in Munich were not affected other than some wet socks.

Upon our arrival Thursday, we were greeted by our really cool, circus themed hotel with an early check-in – 25hours Hotel Wien.  We dried off, warmed up, and then made our first ventures in the city only to find that EVERYTHING - including most restaurants - was closed because of the holiday (which we misunderstood in thinking it was only a German holiday).  So we found a café where I had an iced coffee and Julie a bad, over microwaved chocolate cake (what café doesn’t have fresh cake?!).  To cope with our failures and re-start, we went to the English theater to see The Great Gatsby, which we found quite entertaining despite the sometimes ill-fitting Jay-Z/Beyonce music.

On Friday, we slept in and went out for brunch at an amazing Israeli inspired restaurant called Neni in the Naschmarkt (open air market) serving delicious pita bread, humus, fresh cheese, falafels, and breakfast arrangements.  This may have been the highlight of my trip had the sun not come out the following day.  Despite the umbrella/raincoat combos, we still had to go back to the hotel so we could change socks afterwards.  We took some nice, long afternoon strolls and got to see the essence of Wien through the some small breaks in the rain.  We stopped at a beautiful café for a break but were completely fooled a second time when Julie ordered the same cake and a few minutes later we heard the microwave beeping in the kitchen.  Stay away from the delicious looking Mohr im Hemd.  At this point, tired of peering from underneath our umbrellas and of falsely advertised cakes, we decided to settle in back at the hotel restaurant, 1500 Foodmakers, for dinner (plus we needed to change our socks a second time).

At Naschmarkt.  Octopus anyone?

Rathaus, Votivkirche

We had some fantastic pizza at the hotel along with homemade orange iced tea (me) to drink.  Then our luck took a turn for the better and the sun came out just as the sun began to set.  We rushed paying the bill so we could run out with our camera and see the sun/sky again (keep in mind that we had been living in constant rain the week before in Munich as well).  We took a wonderful stroll to the city center and were able to see the whole city from a fresh, umbrella-free perspective.  Then we realized how Wien felt like the “Paris of the East” in that every building/structure has such elaborate architecture that is bigger and more dramatic than your average European city. 

View from our hotel's roof; Julie jumping for joy at the lack of rain; Hofburg

Inside Stephansdom; Hofburg

The following day our luck continued and we had about 8 hours of good sunshine – we rushed through the city to see all the things we felt we were missing out on.  Perhaps we were over ambitious when we decided to jump right in and walk about 3 hours from Hundertwasserhaus, through Prater, to the Danube without eating breakfast.  Thankfully an overly-elegant café on the not-so-pretty river was able to rescue us with some water and a Sachertorte.  We made it back the tourist safe-haven near St. Stephansdom for some lunch at an outdoor café.

Hundertwasserhaus; Having fun with statues in Prater

After lunch, we toured the nearby streets and squares before making a stop at the Dorotheum auction house (think antiques road-show gems).  Despite the fact that we were getting a bit worn out, the sunny weather drew us out of the city to Schloss Schönbrunn, which is like our own Nymphenburg Palace by our apartment except the gardens/grounds are much more impressive.  The best part of the entire trip was scaling the hill behind the castle to the Gloriette for refreshing city views and the perfect break from our “see all of Vienna in 8 hours” kind of day.  We went back to the hotel for some more pizza and pasta (and more homemade orange iced tea for me).  We nixed the idea of going back to the Prater for the evening, as cramming a 4 day vacation into one sunny day can wear a person out.  Instead we settled for the second installment of our trilogy (we didn’t get to the third one as it is in limited release).

Since I only brought 4 pairs of socks for a 4 day trip, and was averaging 3 a day on rainy days, I was pleased to wake up and find them all dry.  This was just in time as the rain had begun again as we made our way by train home.  Although we couldn’t have the Vienna trip we were really hoping for, we realized just how lucky we were when we saw the flooding damage across the land as we made our way home – especially after our train was diverted due to flood damage through the town of Passau, which would be hit the worst with flooding beginning that night.  And even through all the rain, we still thought it was an awesome, very beautiful city worthy of anyone’s Europe itinerary.

*queue happily-ever-after music*

Carving Some Fresh Powder

With all the effort around moving last year, we missed the ski season in the Alps.  So this season, I made it a top priority to hit the slopes as soon as possible. 

The Friday before Christmas break I took a day off and went snowboarding with a colleague.  We set off for a small resort just on the edge of Austria called Seefeld.  There we were - while many others labored away at the office the day before Christmas break - amongst the fresh alpine air home to some of the world’s greatest winter athletes.  This was really the perfect skiing condition- fresh snow and empty slopes.  In fact it was so empty that I would expect the resort probably lost money this day.  I started the day slow, adjusting to the new board, and I was feeling like a real professional out there- perhaps because nobody was around to see my falls.  Eventually my ego got the best of me though, because after a few hours I began attempting jumps (if you can call it that) and maneuvers that were outside my ability and taking some pretty rough falls.  In the end, a half day was enough, considering there were no lines for the lift.

 Having conquered one alpine mountain, I was anxious to take Julie out to the slopes so she could test out some skiing herself.  The other weekend we were invited by one of Julie’s colleagues to join him on a trip to Garmisch (home of the 1936 winter Olympics).  We purchased the Garmisch Ski Express ticket, which includes a round trip train ride plus an all-day ski lift ticket for just 42 EUR- a very reasonable deal I might say.   

We set off early Sunday morning and 2 hours later we were at the base lift and rental shop.  Eager to hit the slopes we rushed renting my board and Julie’s skis, and after boarding the first gondola Julie realized she left her poles back in the lobby.  I guess it goes without saying she is still VERY NEW to skiing.  But no worries, us guys took a quick run back down the mountain to get warmed up and retrieve the poles, and we were all reunited in no time. 

After wearing Julie out on the baby slopes, I spent the rest of the day trying to keep up with Zsolt on the rest of the mountain (who grew up in Canada and is a very good snowboarder).  At one point we ended up on the steepest part of the mountain, which in my opinion deserves a color beyond black, where I managed to slowly slide/roll/tumble my way down to the bottom (while Zsolt rode down pretty much flawlessly).   Later I learned this trail is known as “Kandahar” which is the downhill speed course used for the Olympics in 1936 and other world cup competitions.  At least the views were beautiful up here, and thanks to Zsolt’s new Intel phone, we have some pictures.

One of the surprises of Garmisch was the vast number of English speakers we heard.  It really felt like we were at a ski resort in Colorado and there happened to be just a few German tourists….a very strange feeling.  In fact during our lunch break, I think we heard more English than German!

After some lunch on the mountain and a long break to recover from my Olympic tumble, I joined Julie on some smaller slopes which were serviced by T-bar lifts.  These are the lifts (less common in America) where a T-bar suspended from a running cable drags you up the mountain while the skis/snowboard remains in contact with the ground.  I think this kind of lift is unpleasant for all, but especially worse for snowboarders who must straddle it between the legs and ride up with one foot unclipped from the bindings.  As I was riding it for the first time I encountered a very steep hill when the lift was stopped, which left my straddling this T-bar, dangling from one leg as my back leg was unclipped from the binding, for what felt like 30 minutes at on a 45 degree uphill slope.  Needless to say, I’m not the biggest fan of T-bar lifts after this.

As we were leaving we stopped in a lodge near the base to kill some time before our return train.  We were shocked to see all these random American brands/products and one section was stocked just like a Walgreens or CVS from the States.  Ecstatic that I found David Sunflower Seeds, I rushed in line to purchase them, noticing that the prices were even marked in $USD!   And that is when the cashier politely explained that this was an American military operation, and only those with valid military I.D. could make purchases (or enter the building, but somehow we escaped that notice). It finally made sense why we heard so many Americans on the slopes: we were in the vicinity of a large US military service.  Sadly, I was not able to purchase my sunflower seeds, but I’m just glad the troops aren’t deprived of them (thanks for your service!).

That was our first (hopefully not last) time skiing in Germany!  We both paid the price the next day, and Julie’s grapefruit size bruise on her leg gave us weeks to remember just how much fun we had.