This Makes Me Want To Go Back To Rome

For the art, and the food, and the culture.  Not for the perfectly sculpted butts.  Although, those are nice too.

Been A Long Time

Ok, so I've been unexcusably lax in my blog here and I apologize.  But, I do have some great pictures to show for the trip we took with my parents.

My dad chasing a pigeon for me.  All hail the Might Pigeon Wrangler!

Having a spot of lunch at the Chateau Versailles

Stupid Swans!

 Ok, so I have a story about those swans up there.  Were at the Grand Canal at the Chateau Versailles and after lunch we were having a small stroll and taking pictures. I was trying to decide if I wanted to rent one of the boats and go out when I saw these swans making a heart with their heads.  No joke, it was a perfect heart.  I got so excited I tried to snap several pictures but as soon as I did they started to move.  This was the best picture of them I got.

The Chateau looking up from the canal.

Alaska trying to blend in.

One of the funnest things we did was rent a go cart and drive around the grounds of Versailles.  It's on a predetermined track and if you deviate the whole thing stops and tells you get into reverse and go back the way you came.  The hubs was our navigator and he was kind of lousy at it (took us off the track twice) but we had a lot of fun anyway. 

The best pigeon and Alaska picture I could manage.

My wonderful parents!

We ended the trip by spending the night in Frankfurt.  I got to see part of the city I'd never seen before and we had a good time.  The hotel I picked was really weird but they didn't axe murder us in our sleep so that was a plus.

Our next trip we're going to hit Oslo and Copenhagen and I'm really looking forward to that one.  I can't wait to post pictures of me and a viking ship.  Rawr.

Alaska Gnome and His Great Adventures

For those of you not aware, my sister gave me the official Travelocity Roaming Gnome last year.  His name is Alaska Gnome. I was tasked with taking him places and posing him in pictures. So far, he's been to England twice and several places in Germany.  He will be going to Switzerland and Paris next month as well.  He really does get around!

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany - Looking out our hotel room.

We're hoping to go to Denmark and Norway this summer as well so he'll be able to get those countries under his belt, too.  Before we leave Germany I'd like to at least visit Amsterdam if not spend the weekend there. 

London, England - Again, looking out our hotel room at Big Ben.

Some days he is kind of a pain to carry around but I swear we are taking a back pack with us to Paris this time!  When we were in London my shoulders ached from having to keep switching the side my purse was on and it got so heavy; even small souvenirs start to add up. 

The sis had a great idea of getting bumper stickers and covering him with them, but I kind of like the idea of doing it with stamps. They're smaller and once I get back to the States I can get some Mod Podge and stick 'em right on.  I still have some peeps that can send me some stamps from Jolly Old England and then I'll just have to make sure and buy extra stamps when I travel from  now on.  Oh, and you better believe he's getting his picture at Hard Rock! :-)

Frankfurt Follies

So I ran across this picture this weekend when I finally plugged in the SD card from my camera.  This particular picture was taken at a Starbucks in Frankfurt. We'd stopped in to get something warm to drink because we'd been wandering around the Christmas market most of the afternoon.  We decided to have fun with the camera and the hubs is always giving me a hard time about how there are never any pictures of me.  So there, here's a picture of me.  And also evidence that he may want to eat my face.  Ew.

Some days I'm not so sure about his motives . . . 

And The Oscar Goes To . . .

Just to start off, this is not going to be a cliched review of last nights penultimate award ceremony.  What it is going to be is an admission that as much as I love being here in Europe, I wish I were back in the States to watch the Oscars with my Mom.  You see, since I was in college, my mom and I have done our own Joan and Melissa Rivers routine while watching the various awards shows.  We critique the outfits, obviously, but we also look at the speeches and all the other nonsense that goes all with it all.  Ok mostly it's the clothes, who am I kidding.





Take this hot mess for example (the woman on the right). . . . why on this earth would you wear this hideous outfit to the Oscars when you were nominated?  Sure, if you are just going to be there, not an actor, director, writer or crew member, by all means make your own fashion statement.  But no, this woman was nominated and won!  As a result she had to go up on stage looking a fright.  My mother would have slapped me for going to something as prestigious as the Oscars wearing this failed ensemble.  I can only hope she thought she wasn't going to win.



Anyway, when I get back to the States I will gladly go back to my superficial and stereotypical review of Hollywood's elite.  It's ever so much fun! :)

Wine Fest Fun

We went to a wine festival in a small town not too far away from where we live last weekend.  It's situated on the Deutsche Weinstrasse (German Wine Road, basically) because the entire region is known for it's wine production.  And let me tell you, Germans know how to make excellent wine! It's some of the best I've ever had.  Sure, France and Italy are good. But man, there's just something about German wine that I love.

Wine and Church

I wish I was a wine connoisseur so I could more accurately express what I think are the qualities I love about it.  But I'm a poor ignorant country girls so I just drink what I like. Hehehe :)

Beautiful arched side street. Those are grape vines, not just random creeping foliage.

One of the other things that was great about this festival was the food.  It's so much better than American county-fair type food!! They have sit down places, like below, that serve food on real plates and it's all made to order and everything smells so darn good! I didn't think I'd learn to love the food here as much as I do, but man I'm going to miss getting good jaegerschnitzel whenever I want it.

Wine and food tent. Everything smelled amazing!

Instead of gorging ourselves (I had dinner going in the crock pot at home, silly me) we just decided to get some bratwurst and crepes on the go.  For the record, my crepe was better.  It was chocolate and banana. The hubs had marzipan in his. Blech :)

Good wine!

 If you ever go to a wine, or any other festival really, in Germany there's something you should know about the glassware.  When you purchase a beverage, you may notice the price being a little be more than what the price of the drink is. That's because you're in essence paying for the glass in advance.  If you don't want to keep the glass, just take it back to the place you obtain your beverage and they'll give you the deposit back.  If you want to keep the glass, just keep walking and use it at the next stand. It's awesome!

Keeper glasses

Better wine!

Anyway, just thought I would share our awesome day trip to a wine festival.  I hope I can do many more lovely German festivals before we leave.

A Gnome in England

Hanging out having some beers with us.

Even when you're in England, sometimes you just need a Frappucino.

Chilling on the side of the road.

Staring down Soy Sauce.

A gnome in a Garden. 

So we took this guy with us to England and had some pretty fun times.  I think he's pretty photogenic.  He'll be an excellent travel companion.