Holiday craziness in Madrid

We decided that five days in Madrid would be our second to last trip before the arrival of baby #2. We had no idea that the week after Christmas in Madrid is insane!  The streets are literally teeming with thousands of people looking for a party. It's reminiscent of New Orleans during Mardi Gras. It made for great people watching but also some difficulty navigating the streets with a three year old.

We focused our days with a walking tour in the morning, a large and late lunch after G's naptime and then a museum in the afternoon.

My focus of the trip was the food of Spain. I had received some recommendations from friends and also through foodie sites like Chowhound.

Although breakfast isn't a popular meal among the Spaniards, they will stop for a churro and chocolate. The hot chocolate is so rich and thick, its texture is like a warm pudding.  The churros are served hot and sugary and are ridiculously good.

We also enjoyed our fair share of tapas, jamon serrano, calamares, chorizo and cocido madrileno (a chickpea and meat stew that is a specialty of Madrid).

We visited the Museo de Prado to see Diego Velazquez's Las Meninas and to the Reina Sofia Museum to see Picasso's Guernica. We also toured the Palace and a number of churches. We covered a lot of ground in five days. It was fabulous but being in the middle of my third trimester, it was also exhausting.  Would love to and plan to return and explore other cities in Spain.

Our time in Burgundy and Dijon

Burgundy is one of France's main wine producing regions known for both their Pinot Noir and Chadonnay grapes. Dijon is the capital of the province of Burgundy and where we decided to rent an apartment for the week. What a great choice. Dijon is the quintessential French town with half-timbered houses dating back to the 12th century. Our apartment was situated right in the center of town across the street from the Palais des Ducs et des États de Bourgogne or "Palace of the Dukes and the States of Burgundy".  Although it was bitter cold, we filled our days with walking tours, eating, wine tasting and cooking.

CM surprised me with a French cooking class, I suspect to compensate for the fact that I wasn't going to be able to go wine tasting, but nevertheless a fun way to spend an afternoon. The class had eight students and was taught entirely in French. I muddled my way through, having not spoken French since high school and prepared and tasted amazing fois gras, among other specialties of French cuisine.


Another day was spent in Beaune, a small town a half an hour from Dijon. A popular way to go wine tasting is to visit the wine caves. To taste multiple different classifications of Burgundy wines, you pay 10 euro and head down into the caves for a self-guided wine tour where you wind through the cave and end up in an old church. A very fun and very unique way to taste many (about 15) different wines..some excellent, others not so great.

Burgundy, Dijon, and even our little rented flat are all places in which I would love to return. We've experienced so many wonderful places, but this trip so far has been my favorite, even in the frigid cold and when I couldn't experience the wine. I can only think that the Burgundy region would be an amazing place to visit in the spring and summer (and not pregnant)!
Next stop...Madrid.

Italian adventure: Verona, Venice and Modena

A couple of months ago we realized that our time living overseas is limited (and punctuated by the birth of another child), so it was time to make some crucial travel decisions. We pulled out the atlas and discussed the countries we would like to further explore. France, Spain, Greece and Italy made the top four.

Northern Italy was the first of our four big trips. We rented a small apartment in downtown Verona and made the 6 hour drive. Prior to living there for a week, my knowledge of  Verona was very limited. Having taught it, I knew the famous Shakespearean play, Romeo and Juliet was set in Verona; and that people still flock there to see Juliet's home and balcony, thought by most to be folklore. However there is a lot more to this historical city. It houses the Verona Arena which is an ancient amphitheater built by the Romans that is still used today for opera, dance and theatre performances. In addition to the arena, many other Roman monuments, exquisite churches, and bustling plazas are found throughout the city.

Venice is only an hour train ride away, so we left early one morning to spend the day in the city on the water. After a fun train ride, we arrived in Venice and immediately hopped on a water bus to take us on the Grand Canal.  After we toured Venice on the water by boat, we headed to a great lunch at a small, nine table L'osteria where we feasted on Venetian specialities, followed by touring the city on foot. What a great day!

Modena was another day trip. CM wanted to hit the Ferrari Museum and Factory and I wanted to get my hands on some of that great balsamic vinegar for which Modena is known. The Ferrari Museum was kind of a disappointment. After visiting the Porche, Mercedes and BMW museums (my husband enjoys cars), we had certain expectations for the Ferrari Museum. Unfortunately, they weren't met. The staff was rude and it was small and expensive for what was on display. Modena itself was a lovely city with a large indoor market, (where I found my balsamic vinegar) and we shared some fantastic pizza, so the trip wasn't a total bust.

Our week in Northern Italy was memorable. We ate our way through the region and tried it all (who knew that the Veronese ate horse... regularly!??) and got a real feel for the Northern Italian culture. Off to France next....stay tuned. 

Triberg

Triberg is a quaint little town in the heart of The Black Forest. It boasts that it has the largest waterfall in the country as well as being the birthplace of the cuckoo clock. The town itself is a little on the touristy side, with many places to buy your very own Black Forest cuckoo clock and handmade wooden music boxes but the waterfall and the many hiking trails surrounding the fall, makes this a great way to spend the day.

If you ever find yourself in Triberg, lunch or dinner at the Parkhotel Wehrle is not to be missed.  We were a little leery taking a three year old into this relatively high-end and famous restaurant known for its intelligent cuisine and presentation of its dishes, but G proved once again that he enjoys the finer things in life. We had a wonderful lunch that started with the first course pictured below. A kurbis (pumpkin soup) accompanied with a savory pumpkin sorbet. Beautiful and delish!

Paris

AHHHH Gay Pareeee.... yet another one of our kid-less trips. This time my parents were visiting (once again). They are always more than eager to push us out the door on another adventure.

The train from Stuttgart to Paris is about 4.5 hours, a very easy way to travel.  We left early one morning and by lunchtime we were sitting in a little cafe around the corner from the Arc de Triomph indulging in a goat cheese salad and tartare de bouef (only CM  had his cooked in a patty surrounded by a bun avec pomme frites). :)

We spent our days there looking like the quintessential tourists. With our Rick Steves book in hand and numerous Michelin guide recommendations, we set off on foot (although took advantage of the user friendly metro when I was in heels) and walked until our feet were blistered and in some cases, bloody. We covered all of the essential sites. Walked and shopped along the Champs-Elysees, got in line early, before opening, to take the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower, walked through the Arc de Triomph, feasted in the Latin Quarter and checked out the Mona Lisa, among many other works, in the Louvre. We also did some things off the beaten path, including visiting the Memorial de Martyrs de la Deportation; a memorial to the Jewish Parisians who were deported from France to German concentration camps during WWII.

Having discovered after planning this trip that we were expecting our second child, I was unable to enjoy the amazing French wines. However, my husband was kind enough to tell me ALL about them as I sipped my mineral water. Visiting France numerous times while pregnant only strengthened my resolve to return and do a wine and food tour of the French wine regions at a later date ...many years down the road.

Rue de Vin "Thelma and Louise" Weekend

This summer my oldest and dearest friend and I took to the autobaun and headed to France to explore the Rue de Vin.  The Rue de Vin starts just outside of Strasbourg and extends about seventy miles through the Vogues mountains. It covers the Alsace wine region which are known mainly for their fruity white wines.

Having planned this trip a few months in advance, I had anticipated being able to enjoy the aforementioned wines. What I hadn't counted on was that I would be 10 weeks pregnant when headed out on this adventure. So...although I couldn't enjoy the "Vin" part of the Rue, the Alsacian villages, the patisseries, the rolling vineyards, and of course the company, made the trip a wonderfully memorable one.

Zurich

Christopher and I continue to make our way down our list of desired travels. We were able to take a little two day childless get-away when my mother-in-law came over from the States for a couple of weeks. For this trip, we chose Zurich, Switzerland.

Zurich is gorgeous but very expensive. The tree-lined streets downtown are filled with amazing high end shops; name a designer and they have a shop in Zurich.  It sits along the Zurichsee (Lake Zurich) and the weekend we were there, the city was hosting a water sports fest. The waterfront was packed with spectators and the competition as well as the people watching were great!

As with all of our little trips, we had some great food, great wine and overall wonderful time just hanging out with each other. 

Schwarzwalder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof (English Translation: A Real Snooze-Fest)

While researching places and things to do and see on our weekends, the Black Forest Open Air Museum (Schwarzwalder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof) caught CM's eye. Farmhouses, cottages, crops, and livestock are all contained in this outdoor park that demonstrates how people lived in the Black Forest for the past 400 years. The reviews online used words like "fascinating",  "informative", "culturally educational". It was also touted as the most popular and most visited open -air museum in Germany. Even with this info, I wasn't all that enthralled with the idea of this road trip, but I signed on when CM told me that we were also on the hunt for authentic Black Forest cake.

After a lovely car ride into the Black Forest we arrived at the Schwarzwalder Freilichtmuseum, paid our entrance fee and headed in to see what all of the hoopla was about. We spent an hour and a half walking around, checking out the way the farmers of the Black Forest lived. Frankly, it was really boring (how did these people endure this lifestyle?) However on the way in we spotted a refrigeration case filled with Black Forest cake; so with the prospect of the cake looming, I kept on truckin.

We ended up having a really nice lunch at the restaurant, although the Black Forest cake wasn't everything we had hoped it would be. German sweets aren't terribly sweet, so what looks like a cloyingly sweet cake was really kind of bland. We decided to call it a day and chalk it up to an experience.

I made quite the discovery on the way out. Between the corn and wheat, lay the answer to my question (how did these people endure this lifestyle?):

Cannabis!

CM says it was used to make rope and clothing (yea, okay.)

The Spring We Felt the Love... (visits from our Amerikanische Freunde)

What fun we have had these past few weeks. Many of our dear friends made the trip across the Atlantic this Spring to check out our life in Germany and to experience some of the local culture. I continue to be touched and humbled that they would spend their limited free time and their hard-earned money to see us. We visited cities, villages, castles and biergartens. We walked and talked and ate and drank. My heart was filled.