Switzerland (Lucerne, Grindelwald part II)

 

For Marissa’s last birthday in Europe she decided that she wanted to visit Switzerland again.  The plan was to go to Lucerne (a cute little town on the lake) since she hasn’t been there and go back to Grindelwald since it’s so pretty there.

On the way to Lucerne we had to make a quick pit stop in Basel to get some Sprungli chocolate (Marissa’s favorite Swiss chocolatier). 

We spent the rest of the day wandering around Lucerne checking out the sights, walked across the famous wooden bridge and saw the Lion of Lucerne monument. 

 

The next morning we enjoyed a leisurely drive to Grindelwald stopping in several places to enjoy the views.  We arrived in Grindelwald that evening and met up with the Lesters for dinner.  We woke up early the next morning to do some hiking in the mountains.  After a 30 minute gondola ride there was a 2 hour hike ahead  of us to some lakes and views overlooking the city below. 

 

The Lesters’ main reason for going to Grindelwald was for the paragliding.  While they were doing that Marissa and I enjoyed a drink at the cafe and then headed back down the mountain.  

Antalya, Turkey

Towards the end of May my office sent me to Turkey, for the 2012 Inverse Problems: Modeling and Simulation Conference. Sounds fun, huh? It was - because Dan came along for the week! We stayed at a really nice all-inclusive resort that sits right on Turkey's #1 rated golf course and the Turkish Riviera.

Dan laid by the pool and golfed while I attended math talks, and we met at the resort’s huge buffet for lunch each day. We were even able to sneak in a couple of 1/2 day trips: one to the city of Antalya and one to Side (pronounced see-deh). We were pretty excited to get off of the resort because although it was nice, it was in the middle of nowhere and didn’t allow us to experience true Turkish culture. Our day trips changed that - we sampled Turkish ice cream, explored ruins, bought a Turkish rug, and ate amazing Turkish lamb kebabs.

 
     

It was a great trip that left us eager to return to Turkey some day. Maybe Istanbul next time? :)

Tuscany, Italy

I had been wanting to go to Tuscany to experience the beautiful countryside and sample the region's world famous wines for quite awhile, so Dan and I booked a trip for early May. Dan ended up having to sample all of the Tuscan reds himself (poor guy :P) but we still had an amazing time.

Our first stop was Florence, where we visited Ponte Vecchio (the city's most famous bridge) and El Duomo, climbed the Campanile Tower for some great views, and experienced (without a doubt!!) the best pizza of our lives.

 
For the remainder of the trip we used Siena as a home base and took short day trips to various Tuscan wine towns. Siena ended up being a very pleasant surprise; we both loved it! We spent early evenings relaxing in the always busy Il Campo (Siena's main pedestrian square); climbed the bell tower; visited the Wednesday morning market; got lost strolling through the hilly, narrow alleyways; and had *incredible* gelato (multiple times a day!). It also didn’t hurt that Siena has some seriously awesome food!

  
All of the wine towns we visited (Montepulciano, Pienza, Montalcino, San Gimignano, and Volterra) were beautiful but very small. We soaked in the views and bought a few bottles of wine to take home to the States.

  

I’ve already asked Dan to promise me that we’ll go back to Tuscany some day :).

Keukenhof (Netherlands) with Rita & Don

Rita and Don brought Dan's Aunt Judy and Uncle Dave to visit us in late April.  We visited Cologne, Germany, and La Trappe, the only Trappist brewery in the Netherlands, before heading to Keukenhof, the world's largest flower garden. It was cold and a little rainy but we managed to see a fair number of the seven million flowers that are planted there each year. We also made sure to sample our favorite Dutch treats, stroopwafles and poffertjes, before heading off to see the windmills in Kinderdijk. On our way home we stopped in the incredibly cute town of Delft.

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Our visitors also took a quick trip to Berlin for a couple of days while Dan and I worked. We had lots of fun and are so glad they came to visit!

Thailand

We had the amazing opportunity to visit Thailand in the beginning of April.  Marissa had been wanting to visit there for as long as she can remember (mostly because of the food!).  From Germany it was a 12 hour plane ride and a 6 hour time difference.  Marissa met me in Bangkok on Friday, and the next morning we went to the Chatuchak market.  This market was huge with over 5,000 stalls covering 35 acres, and it was all outdoors.  It was hot (around 95 that day) and crowded.  But the prices there are the cheapest in Thailand, and they sell everything imaginable from t-shirts, to furniture, to chickens.

 

The next day we took a boat to see some Buddhist temples and had a tuk-tuk driver drive us around for $1.50 for 2 hours.  I had to work for a few days, and Marissa kept herself busy with an authentic Thai cooking class.

After spending about a week in Bangkok we had had enough of the crowd and smells so we headed south to the island of Phuket.  We spend 8 days there and had a great time.  This was about the time Marissa’s morning sickness started, but she just assumed it was from the food.  So the first 2 days in Phuket we took it easy and relaxed at our hotel pool and the beach.

 

We rented a scooter for a few days and drove ourselves all over the island and explored different beaches and saw some beautiful views of the island.

One of the highlights of Phuket was taking a boat tour to Phi Phi island, home to Maya Bay (in our opinion the most beautiful beach in the world!).  This is the beach that is featured in the movie “The Beach” with Leonardo DiCaprio so unfortunately it was very crowded, and we were only able to spend an hour there to take pictures.  It was well worth it.  Our boat also stopped at several other islands and stopped at a few places to let us snorkel.