Our trip to Germany: sightseeing

Are you sick of hearing about our trip to Germany yet? Oh well! I have sightseeing pictures for you today. And then I swear, that's it.

Our first day there, we stopped at a vineyard. Not, like, a vineyard in the sense of "a place where you sample wine and eat food and buy souvenirs" or anything, but a big field of grape vines. We were clearly in wine country, because grape fields were everywhere.






Another day, we went to Burg Falkenstein (which I believe translates to Falconstone Mountain), to explore the ruins of an old castle dating back to the year 1135.









The next day brought us to Trier, the oldest city in Germany. The main historical feature of Trier today is the Porta Nigra ("black gate"), the only of four city gates built during the Roman Empire surviving today. The city itself was fun, too -- lots of people walking around and soaking up the sunshine. It was more touristy than any other place we went, but that was ok. European tourists are still more interesting that American tourists.






One last fun place we went was a tower called Ludwigsturm on Donnersberg ("Thunder Mountain," I believe). The view from the observation deck at the top was, according to The Awesome Husband's camera, pretty great, but I only climbed until the cement stairs ended and the metal stairs began. Walking down a spiral staircase with stairs you can see through didn't sound like my idea of fun.







I'll spare you all more photos of other random cute little German towns we stopped in. It was definitely a fun week!

Our trip to Germany: Göllheim

While yesterday's post may have made it seem like The Awesome Husband and I did nothing but eat and drink while we were in Germany, I assure you that wasn't (entirely) the case. We actually saw quite a few really interesting, historical, and just plain pretty places. I'd intended to show them all to you today, but I've been typing away and it seems I already have more than a post's worth of great pictures to share just from the town where we stayed. So, my plan's been thwarted. Sightseeing pictures will have to wait until tomorrow.

Göllheim is perfectly adorable. I don't think there was a tourist (other than us) for miles. Sorry, kilometers.

What's more perfectly adorable than goats?

Less adorable, but still infinitely cool: there are coffins from the Roman Empire in the middle of town. About 200 yards from where we stayed. Just hangin' out. One of them is a planter now.






Incidentally, to get to Göllheim from the airport, we took the Autobahn. I took this last photo through a car window.

Not bad for a point-and-shoot, and a girl who's only photographic trick is to use the "macro" setting.

Our trip to Germany: cuisine

I'll do a separate post tomorrow about the places we went and the sights we saw in Germany, but first things first: we ate really well. I didn't get a picture of everything (the Chicken Gorgonzola, in particular, haunts me still), but I snapped enough food and beverage photos to do a culinary post much like I did after our honeymoon.

Hefeweizen!

Served in a hefeweizen glass!

One more hefeweizen for good measure.

The other main category of beer options was the pilsners. The Bischoff brewery wasn't far from where we stayed.

Bitburger, another maker of pilsners, also offers cola-beer (pilsner mixed with cola): definitely the most surprising beer find of the trip.

Lest you think we shunned solid food in Deutschland, here's a sampling of the confections we enjoyed:

apfelkuchen

mokkatorte

The list of cakes at this cafe was particularly impressive.

black forest cake

Miraculously, I found it within myself to choose a cup of tea to pair with my black forest cake, thus declining the highly-recommended hot chocolate with rum in it. Not sure how I managed that one. I suppose rather than questioning it, I'll just chalk it up to a win for moderation. Or something.

As they say in Germany, "prost!"

Guten Tag!

Hi again, everyone! That little hiatus from the internet I took was occasioned by a trip to Germany. Senor Terrific and I spent a fantastic eight days in the land of beer and black forest cake. This weekend is all about doing laundry, psyching myself up for going back to work, and getting (somewhat) caught up on what I missed on the interwebs.

Travel post(s) with photos coming soon!

I'm waving!

Hey everyone, I'm going on an internet hiatus beginning today.  See you some time next week!

Field trip!

We went on a bit of an adventure today: we took Mr. Cecil, a sweet pup who adores people and isn't quite sure about dogs yet, to a dog-friendly beach about 15 minutes from our house. I should note, too, that Cecil has yet to master the art of riding in the car calmly. He gets either excited or scared or both, and whining ensues. We feed him a steady stream of kibble to reward him for lying down and chilling out, but all bets are off if he looks out the window and sees another dog.

Taken in the driveway, before we left. Not at all representative of the trip.

When we got to the parking lot next to the beach, Cecil noticed other dogs milling about before we even let him out of the car. We tried in vain to get him to sit, or look at us, or do *anything* he knows how to do. He wouldn't eat the food we brought to entice him into behaving well, and that's a sure sign that he's scared out of his little puppy mind. It wasn't looking good for a successful adventure.

BUT! Once we got to the actual beach and swapped out his five foot walking leash for his 50 foot Freedom Leash, as we call it, he was in heaven. He must have sniffed every grain of sand on the beach. That, plus, every time he came back to us, he got a piece of cheese (because coming back to us is a GOOOOD THING). Puppy heaven indeed.

Sniff! Sniff-sniff-sniff-sniff-sniff!

The best part, though, was that he did so well meeting all the other dogs. He sniffed them and let them sniff him, rather than freezing up like a little puppy statue. He even ran and played with some of them. Oh, it warmed our hearts to see that. Sadly, we didn't get pictures of that, because we were too busy jumping for joy and high-fiving each other. You think I'm joking, don't you?

By the end of the visit, Cecil had chilled out quite a bit.

"See, I'm being so good. That means more cheese, right?"

I wonder how many adventures it'll take until well-mannered, compliant Cecil joins us from the beginning?

Just a couple more hours...

This picture was taken a few weeks ago, but I think it's fitting so let's go with it.  I'm counting down the hours until the start of my vacation: two whole weeks away from my office.  No conference calls.  No Outlook pop-up windows telling me I don't have enough storage space to send an email.  Just sweet, sweet vacation.

Mind you, I'm mostly looking forward to going home and taking a nap.  The idea of a vacation cocktail (specifically, a cablecar) is fun, though.

Happy weekend, everyone!

The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Part Seven

It's been a while since I've done a Copycat Project post. You can find the "official" (yeah, those are air quotes) explanation here, but the long and short of it is this: I haven't updated my blogroll in forever and a day, and rather than update it now I find it much more fun to tell you incrementally about blogs I read (that, uh, you might want to read too, if that wasn't already obvious). Each blog gets its own post, written in the style of, or about the topic of, the recommended blog. Hence the fun little "Copycat Project" name.

I don't think I'm ever going to do one of these with an intro paragraph under 100 words. Oh well.

So, today I'm suggesting that you go visit Kasey at Thrifty Little Blog. She's a girl after my own heart, living within her means, balancing needs and wants, and generally being mindful of her spending.

Now, I'm pretty frugal in general (movies from the library for the win!), but my patience along with a generous helping of luck and generosity landed me a thrifty score last week that impressed even me. I'd been wanting to buy some downhill skis, having really enjoyed the two days of skiing I did about a year ago. (Skiing beats snowboarding by a MILE, by the way. I was actually able to move down the mountain instead of, say, clomping along on the bunny slope and throwing in the towel mid-way through a four-hour lesson. Ahem.)

Anyway, I thought about scouting out Craigslist for used skis. There was one pair for about $200 that I was afraid to bite the bullet on, not having much knowledge as to what signifies a good pair of used skis and what to steer clear of. I got a gift card to a local ski shop for Christmas, and I figured I could use it during an end-of-season sale: still spendy, but I'd be getting reliable skis from a reputable source. The gift card hung out under a magnet on the fridge for a few months as I put off what I expected would be a sizeable purchase.

Here's where the luck comes in: my fantastic mother-in-law, who hits the slopes often and is planning to upgrade from "intermediate" to "experienced" skis for next season, is giving me her old skis. And when I say "her old skis," I really mean "the skis she's been using up until now, which have been meticulously cared for and are no doubt in excellent condition." My mother-in-law is a lovely woman who doesn't foist her opinions on me or The Awesome Husband, AND she's giving me her skis? How lucky am I!?

With gift card in hand, The Awesome Husband and I did actually hit an end-of-season sale, but we made a bee-line for the ski boots. I started glancing at some of the price tags on the display models while the sales guy went to get the right size for me to try on: $300... $400... even with a benjamin to work with, those figures would still mean a dent in the bank account. It did, however, put into perspective how much I really would have had to spend for a complete skis-and-boots outfit.

But guess what? End-of-season sales are apparently no joke. I walked out of there having spent $89 out of pocket. Thanks to good timing (who am I kidding: procrastination) and a whole lot of luck and generosity, I'll be set with boots and skis next season for a cost to me of $89.

I still don't want it to snow again for a long, long time, though.

Happy Birthday from 60 Minutes

I had a really great weekend, you guys.  I'd been kicking around a culinary blog post at the back of my mind since Saturday afternoon, when The Awesome Husband put the finishing touches on the carrot cake he baked for my birthday and slathered with cream-cheese-sour-cream frosting (yes, it was as delicious as it sounds), but a) I didn't really take any pictures of the deliciousness, and b) by the time Sunday night rolled around, I was overwhelmed with how fortunate I am in lots of ways, not just with the tasty vittles.

To back up and be entirely trivial for a second, though, the carrot cake was only the tip of the culinary iceberg, my friends.  There were fancy sandwiches (pesto/tomato/mozzarella; roast beef/caramelized onion/cheddar) and vichyssoise (potato leek soup).  There was good coffee and bagels with cream cheese.  There was even a second birthday cake, people!  Chocolate with chocolate ganache frosting and white chocolate mousse filling, because my mother is a cake-baking overachiever.

Lots of people (like, a crazy amount) wished me well, and several were way too generous with the gift-giving (after they'd been instructed that gifts weren't necessary, natch).  It was a little overwhelming, and a good exercise in "graciously accepting the generosity of others."  (Am I the only one who feels uncomfortable without the opportunity to give something to the gift-giver as well in situations like that?)

So yeah, by Sunday evening I was filled with joy and gratitude.  And then we watched 60 Minutes, because I'm a big nerd and of course I think it's a great way to cap off one's birthday.  (In fact, I was a little bummed that the earlier celebrations of the day conflicted with Meet the Press.  Nerdy nerd nerd!)

Now, did anyone else watch 60 Minutes last night?  They ran a story on this gospel choir for teenagers in New York, and these kids, my gawd!  They're so talented and they have so much to deal with.  Like, friends being shot and parents they've never met and parents they live with who don't show up to watch them sing kind of stuff to deal with.  I almost started crying right there in my living room, thinking about how lucky I am to not have any IDEA what that's like.  I wouldn't re-live my teenage years if you paid me (standard shy wallflower stuff) but there was never one day, ever, when I felt unsafe or questioned whether my parents were proud of me.  I can't even fathom how my life would be different now if that hadn't been the case.  Would I have had the resources I needed to succeed academically, and professionally?  Would I have had the self esteem to be patient and wait longer than I'd envisioned to meet and marry the absolute best-fit-for-me, bakes-me-cakes-from-scratch, hugs-me-when-I'm-overwhelmed person in the whole wide world?  Thank goodness I'll never have to know.

I am so lucky, I can't even stand it.