Greece!

We celebrated Dan’s 29th birthday with a week long trip to Greece and ended up falling in love with the stunning views, the food, and island life.

Our trip began with two days in Athens where we braved the intense heat and visited all of the ancient sites including the Acropolis, Ancient Agora, and the Temple of Zeus.  They were nothing short of awe-inspiring.  We also had a traditional Greek meal of mezedhes: lots of small plates of typical Greek dishes like tzatziki, yemista (baked stuffed veggies), and meatballs.  It was delicious and left us completely stuffed!

 

Next up was Mykonos, an island known for its intense nightlife.  We were excited to experience it, only to find out that the bars and clubs don’t open until after midnight, and people party until 8 or 9 in the morning!!  We decided we were too old for that and settled for exploring Mykonos’s largest town, Hora; enjoying the hotel pool; and relaxing on the beaches.

 

We spent our last three days on Santorini, a group of four islands in the Aegean Sea that were created 3,600 years ago by an enormous volcanic explosion.  We stayed in the town of Oia, in a cave house built into the side of the caldera.  It had to be one of the most amazing places we’ve ever seen.                                                     

 

Our favorite day of the trip was spent driving around the island (only 45 minutes top to bottom!) in a rented four-wheeler.  We stopped at two beaches, a red sand beach and a black sand beach, and did a wine tasting at a local winery.  It was so much fun having the freedom to go anywhere we wanted.  The sun on our faces and the wind in our hair, while we zipped around the windy roads, weren’t bad either!

We also got to explore the town of Fira, watch beautiful sunsets, and eat lots of amazing Greek food.  We discovered that we love souvlaki, feta cheese, and Greek yogurt more than we ever thought possible!  The Greeks make a pretty good crepe too :).

We had an unforgettable trip and would love to go back to Greece some day!

Day Trip to Luxembourg

I never tire of traveling, and it had been almost three weeks since our Ireland trip (far too long!), so Dan and I took a day trip to Luxembourg, the capital city of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.  Luxembourg is a tiny country (only 51 miles long and 35 miles wide) in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany, and it’s only a two hour drive from Wiesbaden!

Our first stop in Luxembourg was the Casemates, an immense underground military defense system built in 1644 by the Spanish.  The Casemates are 23 kilometers long and could shelter 35,000 people, along with equipment, horses, bakeries, and slaughterhouses, in the event of an emergency.  They were dark and full of spiders but very impressive!

The rest of the day was spent eating, wandering through the pedestrian zone, visiting the fortifications, and shopping.  We also happened to stumble upon my favorite Belgian chocolate shop!

It’s always fun to visit a new country!

View Full Album

Ireland

In early July, we took a trip to Ireland with our friends Alicesara and Brandon.  We spent six days driving the coast and stopped in a bunch of cute little towns along the way.  The scenery was beautiful, the people were incredibly friendly, and there were sheep everywhere!

We had fun trying traditional Irish food like Irish stew and bacon and cabbage, and some of us (not me!) were even brave enough to try black pudding. 

We toured the Jameson Whiskey Distillery and the Guinness Brewery, drove the famous Ring of Kerry, and made sure to check out the pub scene everywhere we went.

The highlight of the trip was definitely the Cliffs of Moher.  It was one of the most stunning places I’ve ever seen.  Our favorite town in Ireland was Kinsale, a yachting community with a beautiful harbor and quaint, narrow streets.

 

 

 

 

 

We ended the week in Dublin where we celebrated my 30th birthday with a walking tour of the city, some Bailey’s cheesecake and shopping, and an awesome Thai dinner.  What a great trip!

View Full Album

Chelsea & Ryan’s Visit

Chelsea and Ryan made their very first trip to Europe to visit Dan and I in late May/early June.  They got a whirlwind tour of this little corner of the world visiting six cities in four different countries in only twelve days!  We introduced them to life in Wiesbaden, visiting the Saturday morning market in the Marktplatz, having a picnic in Kurpark, and giving them a taste of brats and crepes at Wilhelmstrasse Fest.  We also visited some wineries on the Rhine and took a day trip to Trier, Germany’s oldest city, and Bernkastel, a quaint little town on the Mosel River.

After all of that our visitors ventured off to Venice, Italy, to meet up with Ryan’s parents for a few days.  They had a great time eating pizza, pastries and gelato and enjoying the beautiful canals. 

When they got back we headed to the land of prostitutes and marijuana…Amsterdam!  It definitely wasn’t our favorite city but it was an experience, and the boys thoroughly enjoyed the Heineken Brewery tour.  Lastly, we met up with our cousin, Molly, in Brussels, Belgium, for some waffles, chocolate, and Belgian beer.

We are so happy Chel and Ryan were able to visit, and we hope they had fun! Miss you guys! 

Switzerland

I can’t believe that it’s almost August already, and we haven’t updated the blog since April.  I think a twitter account might have been easier to keep up to date. 

 

Marissa and I decided to take a trip to Switzerland for our two year anniversary in late May, and it was beautiful.  We left work early on Friday and drove to Zurich, which is a really cool town built right on a river and a lake. 

 

We spent about 1.5 days exploring Zurich. We saw the Church, took a ferry boat ride, and climbed to the top of the mountain to enjoy some wine and Swiss chocolate while overlooking the city.

View Full Album

After Zurich we drove to Grindelwald to spend the day hiking. The weather was perfect, and the views were awesome. 

After all that hiking we stopped for pizza at a nice restaurant with really good views of the Alps.  It was the perfect trip to celebrate our anniversary!

The invasion of the Rocks

We were so excited to have our family come visit us a few weeks ago, all 7 of them.  Their first flight was cancelled because of a volcano, but luckily after a few meltdowns and a couple hours on the phone they were able to slide their trip back a week and still visit. 

Not sure whose idea the shirts were (Staci), but it made it easy to find everyone at the airport. 

It was so nice to see everyone all at once and to show them all of our favorite places in Germany. 

We showed them all around Munich and Heidelberg, and even took them to Neuschwanstein where we got engaged two years ago.

Can’t wait till next year when everyone comes back.  It was nice to get to spend some time with Bryce; hopefully she remembers us the next time we see her.

Champagne, France

This past weekend Dan and I visited the Champagne wine region of France with a group of friends. We got up bright and early Saturday morning and drove four hours to Épernay, the principal entrepôt (or trading post) for Champagne wines. After getting slightly lost in the vineyards and along the narrow roads of the old town, we visited a small Champagne house called Gobillard. Gobillard has a very charming little tasting room where we sampled four of their best Champagnes. Dan and I are not big fans of Champagne but we could definitely tell that this was top quality bubbly.We then had lunch at a French restaurant nearby where we all ordered fancy (and delicious) three course meals. Our next stop was a much larger Champagne house, Mercier. Mercier has the world’s biggest Champagne cask on display (it holds the equivalent of 200,000 bottles!), was founded in 1858, and is the number one selling brand of Champagne in France. We took a train ride 30 meters underground through the Mercier cellars while our tour guide told us all about the history of the company and the making of Champagne. That was followed by another tasting!We really enjoyed seeing where Champagne is made and learning a little more about this sparkling wine. I was shocked to learn that two of the three grapes that Champange is made from are red!