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. 

Starkbierfest

The last weekend of March we headed to Munich for Starkbierfest with the Lesters.  The rules for Lent back in the day stated that only bread and water could be consumed, and of course for the Germans, this included beer.  They decided they needed a beer with more sustenance to get them through the long days of Lent, so they invented starkbier or “strong beer”.  The Paulaner monks called their starkbier Salvator or “Savior” and made it with 7.8% alcohol.

 

The first night in Munich we joined a group of Germans and Australians and did the “Munich Beer Challenge”.  A German tour guide took us around Munich to 4 different breweries and told us the history of “Beervaria”.

 

The next day we explored Munich, went to the Virktualmarkt, and did some shopping.  After that it was time to head to Nockerberg where Starkbierfest is.  One last time for us to wear our Liederhosen (leather pants) and dirndls.  Starkbierfest is basicaly Oktoberfest with stronger beer, and the beer is served in steins instead of glass mugs.  We drank some beer, ate some pretzels and brats, sang along with the music and made some new friends.

Chamonix, France

During our last trip to Chamonix two years ago I discovered the Vallée Blanche, a famous 20km off-piste ski run with a vertical descent of over 8,800 feet.  So we decided to go back to Chamonix for this once in a lifetime ski run.  Marissa was equally excited because it meant eating at her favorite Creperie and indulging in her newly discovered love for macaroons.

The trip got off to a rocky start. The night before we left, the guide company called and said that the conditions would not be ideal to ski the Vallée Blanche on the day I was planning and my guided tour had been cancelled.  Then 2 hours into our drive one of our tires popped, and I had to change it on the side of the Autobahn.  After that we ended up sitting in a traffic jam that added about 5 hours onto our drive.  However, once we made it to Chamonix everything went smoothly. 

Saturday night I was able to find a guiding company to ski with on Monday when the conditions were supposed to be good.  We spent Sunday strolling through town stopping at cafes and eating crepes and macaroons.

Monday I met the ski guide at 8:45 at the bottom of the Aiguille du Midi.  There were 6 other people in the group, and we all had to put on mountain climbing harnesses and wear avalanche beacons.  The ride to the top of the mountain took an hour and from there we had to walk along a ridge at the top of the mountain for about 200 meters until we could put on our ski equipment.  From the top of the mountain the Matterhorn in Switzerland was visible.  The ride back into town took about 4 hours and the snow was two feet deep the whole way down.

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After snowboarding over 13 miles I was pretty exhausted so I met Marissa in town, and we had a few more macaroons and headed back to Germany. 

Belgian Brewery tour weekend

Dan and Brandon were getting dangerously low on Belgian beer so we decided to spend a weekend in mid-January touring Belgian breweries and restocking their supply.  Our first stop was the Achouffe brewery, where we ate lunch and sampled several different beers.

 
Next we drove to the town of Antwerp where we visited a cool little bar full of locals.

 
The following day we toured De Dolle Brouwers, a family run, organic "hobby brewery" in a town called Esen. Our tour guide was the mother of the brewer.  She had to be at least 85 and had such spunk and such interesting stories to tell. We even got to chat with the brewer afterwards!

                         
That night we stayed in a town called Poperinge where we had an awesome dinner at the hotel and of course tried some more Belgian beers.

 
The next day we were on the road again, this time headed to two Trappist breweries, Westvleteren and St. Bernardus. Dan and the Lesters love the beer from both of these breweries and wanted to pick up some souvenirs.

After packing the trunk of Brandon's car with 5 cases of beer and a fair amount of Belgian chocolate we headed home :).

Christmas Market weekend

In mid-December we spent a weekend visiting German Christmas markets with Brandon and Alicesara. Being that it was our last winter in Germany we had to make sure to get our fill!   Our first stop was Nürnberg, home of Germany's most famous and most popular Christkindlesmarkt (2 million visitors a year!).  We drank plenty of Feuerzangenbowle and Glühwein to stay warm; ate pretzels, Lebkuchen (gingerbread), and Nürnbergers; and bought fun German souvenirs.

 

 

Next up was Rothenburg, a very cute city popular for its medieval old town.  We walked along the top of the wall surrounding the city, ate more of our favorite Christmas market treats, and enjoyed the festive atmosphere.

 

 

 

We had a great weekend and are very thankful we got to experience three years of Christmas markets. Such a fun way to celebrate the Christmas season!