Enlightenment!

"Did you know that Donatello came almost 100 years before Michelangelo? I always thought that Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donetallo, and Raphael were all around at the same time and fought crime together."
- Der Junge, Florence, 07 May 2013, 6:42pm

New posts....

Guten Tag! I'm on a much needed blogging update frenzy as we are about to enter the much anticipated Spring and a whirlwind of traveling adventures to come!

Just added:

Cologne (added 16 March 2013)
A big little reason to give Thanks! (added 16 March 2013)
Christmas market time! (added 16 March 2013)
Stuttgart Christmas Market! (added 16 March 2013)

And expected soon:

Ulm and Aalen with a visiting friend!
Munich with a visiting friend!
Return to US for Christmas
Baden Baden -das Mädchen's birthday -February 24

Future trips on the books:

Dresden -Easter

Prague - Easter

Florence - May 

Our wedding in Jekyll! - June

Munich Oktoberfest -Sept 22

Croatia - October

Stuttgart Christmas market!

aaaahhhh!
technology failure alert!

Alas we have no photographic evidence of our wonderful trip to the Stuttgart Christmas market.

My camera as they say in Germany went "kaputt" before we even arrived (i.e. the battery died)...so we took pictures with der Junge's phone... and then in January his phone went kaputt, and we lost all of the pictures! Schade!  (this will teach us not to wait so long to update our postings!)

Result: all we have to show for our Stuttgart Christmas market experience are our Glühwein mugs

this is what it looked like... and it was really an incredibly fun experience...

Stuttgart Christmas Market

So then there is always next year (perhaps we can get to the Nuremberg market next year)!

Christmas market time!

Germany is famous for its Christmas markets (Weihnachtsmarkt). The history of Christmas markets in this region goes back to the late middle ages.  Just about every town in Germany has some sort of Christmas market and they are a BIG deal, very fun and basically a great excuse to drink Glühwein (hot mulled wine) and eat giant spicy hot dogs in a festive outdoor market.  The best markets are in the bigger cities, like Ulm.  They basically run daily for the whole month of December until Christmas.  There are tons of open-air stalls with Christmas decorations, handmade crafts, and seasonal food.  Our first Christmas market was in the nearby town of Ulm.  Many of der Junge's colleagues live in this town as it is a bigger town than ours but within an hour commuting distance.

So much fun!

So we initially had great plans to visit the famous Nuremberg and Munich markets, but alas, due to the Kiwi Fiasco in Cologne, we scrapped the plans. New plan is to get to the Stuttgart market!

Look for the post to follow!

A big little reason to give Thanks!

We have exciting news to share that we have a brand new little nephew!

Happy Birthday and welcome to the world little guy!

Cologne (aka, Kiwi is not invited on any more trips)

So this is not a happy post unfortunately.

Our trip to Cologne was a big expensive disappointment. Not by the fault of Cologne, in truth it seemed a pretty cool city, but for Kiwi....

(turns out her separation anxiety is a bigger issue than we realized)

Suffice to say,

we got to see the train station.

the hotel.

the Dom Cathedral (across from our hotel).

and the Europcar Rental office. (to end our trip early...)

the beautiful, historic Dom hotel

our room

bathroom

if we only knew!

Dom Cathedral

Losses: 

Portable dog crate

the Dom Hotel's television remote control 

Tickets to the Kölner Haie 

Nonrefundable room (for check out a day early)

Nonrefundable train tickets 

Lessons learned... no more Kiwi trips and lots more training

Oh well!!!

Roman Holiday!

Finally! Our long-anticipated trip to Italy... an entire week in the "Eternal City" 

Buongiorno Roma!