I hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas! Dawn, Osu, and I had a great time in Dresden. We now have a new favorite Christmas Market! The Dresden markets were even better than we had heard and we really enjoyed exploring the different ones around the city. We were a little surprised when we arrived in Dresden on the 23rd that there wasn't more snow in the city. What little snow there was was dirty and rotten and not too appealing. However, on Christmas Eve night, a new storm rolled in, ensuring that we would wake up Christmas morning to a new blanket of white. We had a great walk around the old part of the city on Christmas morning, but didn't stick around for too long. I knew that the drive home was going to take longer than usual due to the still falling snow. My fears were realized when the drive that would usually take only 2.5 hours turned in to a 5+ hour ordeal. It really wasn't too bad, just slow due to the condition of the Autobahn.
Pictures from Dresden
On the 26th, we all decided to go have a little fun in the snow. Here is a short video showing what we did. (the video might take a bit of time to load - be patient!)
The original video can be found HERE
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
A bit of a different Christmas
First of all, we'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! We wish we could be with everyone at this time of year. That is one of the hard things about living overseas - being away from family and friends during the holidays. Heck, we have a big enough place now - how about you all come over and stay with us next year :)
This Christmas, we are taking it pretty easy. This morning we are leaving for Dresden and are staying for two nights in this fantastic city. We only decided on this plan late last week, having heard from numerous people that the Dresden Christmas market is THE market to go to in Germany. We actually hear this about a lot of the different markets around the country (and in France and Italy and Austria), but too many people have told us too many times now that Dresden truly is one of the special ones. We've been to the Nurnberg Christkindlmarkt - more than a couple of times. We did Rothenburg ob der Tauber last weekend. We've been to Hexannager and the Regensburg markets, Salzburg, and numerous other small markets around our area. They are all great! But, Dresden is one we really want to check out. When we asked each other "if you could only go to one more market, which one would it be", we both answered "Dresden".
So, Dresden it is. We're really looking forward to it! We'll be returning home on Christmas day with plans to take it easy, eat a lot of food, and watch a lot of movies. It sounds delightful to me!
Merry Christmas!
(All of the Christmas Posters I've created this year can be found HERE)
This Christmas, we are taking it pretty easy. This morning we are leaving for Dresden and are staying for two nights in this fantastic city. We only decided on this plan late last week, having heard from numerous people that the Dresden Christmas market is THE market to go to in Germany. We actually hear this about a lot of the different markets around the country (and in France and Italy and Austria), but too many people have told us too many times now that Dresden truly is one of the special ones. We've been to the Nurnberg Christkindlmarkt - more than a couple of times. We did Rothenburg ob der Tauber last weekend. We've been to Hexannager and the Regensburg markets, Salzburg, and numerous other small markets around our area. They are all great! But, Dresden is one we really want to check out. When we asked each other "if you could only go to one more market, which one would it be", we both answered "Dresden".
So, Dresden it is. We're really looking forward to it! We'll be returning home on Christmas day with plans to take it easy, eat a lot of food, and watch a lot of movies. It sounds delightful to me!
Merry Christmas!
(All of the Christmas Posters I've created this year can be found HERE)
Friday, December 17, 2010
Pictures - 2010 Favorites
It's finally done. I've gone through the thousands and thousands of pictures (something like 22,000....) that I took over the last 12 months and plucked out my favorite ones. I know that I am still way behind on posting up pictures from the many trips we took over the year, and it will still be some time before I get to those. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this set of pictures. It was fun going back through them all. Wow, we did a lot over this past year and definitely kept busy!
To see the full set, click HERE. A few samples below.
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Jef, Dawn, and Osu above the Mer De Glace in Chamonix, France  |
Monday, November 29, 2010
Finally - Pictures of the New House
Of course, when I finally get around to taking some pictures of the house, the place is an absolute disaster. See, we just returned from Rome yesterday and still haven't fully unpacked. Before we left for Rome, we hosted an early Thanksgiving with many of our friends. We never got the chance to fully clean up before heading off to Italy either. So, excuse the mess in the pictures, please. We usually are much cleaner people! On top of the dorm room-esque look of our house, we received our first big snowfall of the season last night (and it continues to come down as I type this). So, instead of seeing our nice green lawn and the various rosebushes and other plants, you can really only see a blanket of white surrounding the exterior of our place. I'll make sure to take more pictures in the spring, especially after we plant our garden.
It's probably been evident that both Dawn and I have been very busy these past few months. It's made it really hard to post much to the blog lately. It's also been hard for me to find any time to put many new pictures up from the trips we have taken. Hopefully I'll be able to get some of them up soon, however -especially for the bigger trips we've taken. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these pictures from the house - you can find them on my Flickr Site (<----- click on that link)
ps - I've created many, many new posters and placed them on my Taku Posters and Photography Site. Please take some time to look through them and tell me what you think! A lot of the posters are from trips we've taken, so it will give you some idea of what we've been up to!
It's probably been evident that both Dawn and I have been very busy these past few months. It's made it really hard to post much to the blog lately. It's also been hard for me to find any time to put many new pictures up from the trips we have taken. Hopefully I'll be able to get some of them up soon, however -especially for the bigger trips we've taken. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these pictures from the house - you can find them on my Flickr Site (<----- click on that link)
ps - I've created many, many new posters and placed them on my Taku Posters and Photography Site. Please take some time to look through them and tell me what you think! A lot of the posters are from trips we've taken, so it will give you some idea of what we've been up to!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
All moved in!
We’ve finally got all moved into the new house. It’s all setup and ready to go, except a few parts of the kitchen, not bad for a week and a half. We’ve got new rugs, since most of the house is tile or laminate, tons of wall space, and a nice big yard. Osu is adjusting well, although he wasn’t sure if he was going to be left here.
We went out exploring a bit this weekend. Nate got the bikes all ready to go, and Osu was happy to follow along. We started in our town and headed through the woods towards Mausdorf and then rounded back passed Godlricht and back to our house. Osu was pretty tired afterwards, but very happy. He is still recovering from the ride, which has made him run a little slower on our trip through the woods a different direction yesterday.
Currently, Nate is out in Austria. He’s headed down to Grossglockner, then driving the Grossglockner high Alpine road, and stopping in Hintertux to ski and head home. It is all for work, so he says J Nate will also be stopping in Innsbruck to get some cityscape pictures.
If all works out well we want to head to Strasbourg, France this weekend. The city looks beautiful and has a lot of history as well. But, you should read the history yourself; I don’t remember ANY history for very long.
We went out exploring a bit this weekend. Nate got the bikes all ready to go, and Osu was happy to follow along. We started in our town and headed through the woods towards Mausdorf and then rounded back passed Godlricht and back to our house. Osu was pretty tired afterwards, but very happy. He is still recovering from the ride, which has made him run a little slower on our trip through the woods a different direction yesterday.
Currently, Nate is out in Austria. He’s headed down to Grossglockner, then driving the Grossglockner high Alpine road, and stopping in Hintertux to ski and head home. It is all for work, so he says J Nate will also be stopping in Innsbruck to get some cityscape pictures.
If all works out well we want to head to Strasbourg, France this weekend. The city looks beautiful and has a lot of history as well. But, you should read the history yourself; I don’t remember ANY history for very long.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The View Has Indeed Changed!
Greetings All!
This past weekend we made the move to our new locale in Ursulapoppenricht (yes, it's a mouthful). We have actually managed to get a lot done in the last few days, although a lot of work yet remains until the pictures are hung, shelves are stocked, and things are organized. Slowly but surely, things are getting accomplished, however.
The picture at the top of the page was taken from the office/workout room in the new house. We don't really have a front porch anymore, so I figured the most interesting view would make the best banner for this page. Yes, that is a train that passes the house, but luckily, it is not a commuter line. I've noticed that the train comes by two to three times a day, and also luckily, not at horrific hours. You may also notice that we have no neighbors on this side of the house - just fields of corn, rapeseed plants and some other unidentified green stuff. It's quiet (except for the train passing a few times a day), peaceful, and a nice change from the 'city life' of Parsberg.
We'll start to update this blog a little more often as we get further settled in. Finally, things are starting to calm down for us. It's a nice change!
This past weekend we made the move to our new locale in Ursulapoppenricht (yes, it's a mouthful). We have actually managed to get a lot done in the last few days, although a lot of work yet remains until the pictures are hung, shelves are stocked, and things are organized. Slowly but surely, things are getting accomplished, however.
The picture at the top of the page was taken from the office/workout room in the new house. We don't really have a front porch anymore, so I figured the most interesting view would make the best banner for this page. Yes, that is a train that passes the house, but luckily, it is not a commuter line. I've noticed that the train comes by two to three times a day, and also luckily, not at horrific hours. You may also notice that we have no neighbors on this side of the house - just fields of corn, rapeseed plants and some other unidentified green stuff. It's quiet (except for the train passing a few times a day), peaceful, and a nice change from the 'city life' of Parsberg.
We'll start to update this blog a little more often as we get further settled in. Finally, things are starting to calm down for us. It's a nice change!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
The view from our front porch will be changing very soon
Unfortunately, that view won't be as scenic as the castle from our current yard, but we are both very excited about the move! Yes, it's finally happening. On October 1st, the movers come to haul our stuff 53.2 kilometers to the north. I've been alluding to the fact that a move might be imminent for the past couple of months, but I haven't been very forthcoming as to why. Basically, I am not renewing my government work contract and will be free from the constraints of a cubicle, 12 demanding bosses, irrational work demands, and performing tasks that I have found boring and unchallenging for the past 10 plus years. Instead, I will be doing my art, photography, writing, and web work fulltime from home. I have a few solid things in the bag right now, but also have 1,000 other ideas to implement and try out. I am really looking forward to these new challenges and opportunities!
As for Dawn, she has renewed her contract and will continue working at her current position where she is very well-liked and is doing a great job. The best part of all this is that she will no longer have to make the one hour slog each way to work every day. Instead, a 20 minute, very easy drive, will put her at the front door of her office. No more 4:30am alarms, no more getting home at 6:30pm after a long day, no more cramming in workouts and exercise in to her already busy schedule. We are both looking forward to her having much more free time after the move.
I will update our situation a bit more in the days to come - and when I'm more coherent. The last month of travel and work has left me a little thin on energy! The remaining weeks of September will not provide any respite either. We'll get through it, however, and very much look forward to kicking back in our new digs and enjoying our new lives starting in October. Yes, things are looking up!
As for Dawn, she has renewed her contract and will continue working at her current position where she is very well-liked and is doing a great job. The best part of all this is that she will no longer have to make the one hour slog each way to work every day. Instead, a 20 minute, very easy drive, will put her at the front door of her office. No more 4:30am alarms, no more getting home at 6:30pm after a long day, no more cramming in workouts and exercise in to her already busy schedule. We are both looking forward to her having much more free time after the move.
I will update our situation a bit more in the days to come - and when I'm more coherent. The last month of travel and work has left me a little thin on energy! The remaining weeks of September will not provide any respite either. We'll get through it, however, and very much look forward to kicking back in our new digs and enjoying our new lives starting in October. Yes, things are looking up!
Friday, August 13, 2010
In the rush of things, I almost forgot about.....Amsterdam
Once things settle down in a month or two or three, I'll sit down and actually write a bit about our trips we have taken this summer. I 'think' I've got some interesting things to say about each place we've been. If not, it will at least give me something to do when the inevitable shit weather of October/November hits Germany. As for now, free time just doesn't exist. We leave for the States on Sunday, spending a week in Chicago and then a week in Minnesota. We're really looking forward to the trips. Upon our return to Euroland, we immediately depart the next weekend for Chamonix, France. The next weekend, Jef and I will be doing a CPR class. The weekend after that is our anniversery weekend which Dawn and I will be spending in the Neuschwanstein area of Germany. After that, it's down to Berchtesgaden for the weekend. We may even try to fit in a trip to Oktoberfest somewhere in there. So, yes, it's going to be a busy five or six weeks for us coming up! I can't complain one bit, though.
So, on to Amsterdam. I'll keep this very brief - I LOVE that city! Is that brief enough for you? Great, so how about some pictures...... :)
So, on to Amsterdam. I'll keep this very brief - I LOVE that city! Is that brief enough for you? Great, so how about some pictures...... :)
Our penthouse apartment in A-dam. Yes, that is Jef sleeping. Dawn and I had the loft above. This apartment was awesome! However, getting up to it was not easy! Five flights of very twisty stairs in an old canal house.... not easy with luggage.
(L) Canal houses in central A-dam (R) Jef checking out the view from our kitchen window
(L) Dawn on the water taxi (R) Tour boat makes a turn on to the Amstel River Canal
A lot more pictures from this trip can be found HERE
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
and..... I almost forgot - a few 'people' pictures from the Italy trip
I don't just take scenery shots. Okay, so a good portion of my shots usually are landscapes and scenery, but I also like to point my camera at people as well. Two of my favorite subjects to shoot in Italy - Dawn and Jef. A few fun pictures that I'd like to share.
1) Dawn Above Manarola, Italy 2) Jef in Levanto, Italy 3) Dawn and Jef cooking dinner in the Val di Fleres, Italy 4) Walking along the harbor in Vernazza, Italy
More can be found HERE
A Few More Pictures from our Trip to Italy
The poor weather this past weekend gave me a chance to go through more of my backlogged photos taken on trips earlier this summer. Slowly, but surely, I'm getting through them all. Below are some various pictures taken while on our trip to Cinque Terre, Italy at the beginning of July. Besides staying along the Italian Riveria, we also spent a couple of days in the Alps of Italy in the Brenner Pass region. I really liked this area. Although busy with tourists, it was tame compared to a lot of places in Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. I'd really like to go back to this area in the future to do a bit more exploring. There are also a few pictures from Mutters, Austria, where we stayed the first night of the trip on the way down to Tuscany, and I've included a link to some pictures from Mittenwald, Germany, where we stopped on our drive back home. Here are the links to each set:
Colle Isarco, Italy (Brenner Alps)
Mutters, Austria
Mittenwald, Germany
Colle Isarco, Italy (Brenner Alps)
Mutters, Austria
Mittenwald, Germany
Friday, August 6, 2010
More Pictures from Italy
I've finally finished with the pictures of the five towns in Cinque Terre plus the city of Levanto which is just north of the Cinque Terre Region. I still have some other pictures to go through from the trip (mainly people pics) but should be done with those this weekend. I also have a lot of pictures left to go through from the Brenner Pass region in the Italian Alps. We stopped there for two nights on our way back to Germany after Cinque Terre. It will be a while before I get to making any posters from the pictures I took on this trip. I did get some really nice ones that will work very well for the art pieces, however!
To see the full set of pictures for each town, click on the name of the town below. I've also included a couple of my favorites from each town on this page.
To see the full set of pictures for each town, click on the name of the town below. I've also included a couple of my favorites from each town on this page.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Finally - Some Pictures from Italy!
It's taken me some time, but I'm finally going through the pictures from our trip to the Cinque Terre region of Italy. Currently, I only have the pictures for Riomaggiore posted on my Flickr site. I am about halfway through the pictures taken in Manarola, the next town up from Rio. I've organized the pictures by town as it makes it a bit easier to manage the more than 1,400 pictures I took when they are broken down in to categories. I'm hoping to get Manarola and Vernazza finished tonight and should have the remaining towns done by the end of the week. After that, it's on to the Amsterdam pictures and then the pictures from last weeks camping trip to Garmisch. I highly doubt I'll get through these all before we leave for the States in a week and a half, but I'll get what I can posted! Besides these bigger trips, I also have hundreds of pictures to go through from local trips we've taken over the past month or so. So many pictures, so little time!
Here are a few of my favorites from Riomaggiore, the town we stayed in while in Cinque Terre:
Here are a few of my favorites from Riomaggiore, the town we stayed in while in Cinque Terre:
View from above Rio, looking towards the mountains of Tuscany:
The boat harbor in Rio
Sunset Pictures
The entire set for Riomaggiore can be found HERE
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Another quick update - camping in Garmisch this weekend, trip to the States looms
Quick updates to this blog is all we seem to have time for right now Our being busy this summer, however, has not been a bad thing! I just look forward to when things slow down a little bit and we have some time to digest all we've done over the past few months.
There may be some big changes coming both our ways in the near future. We'll keep you all updated when we have more solid news. If it all works out, Dawn's 2.5 hours of commuting each day will be a thing of the past. That is a great thing!
This weekend Dawn and I will be heading down to Garmisch, Germany to do a bit of camping and hiking. The weather looks like it will actually be decent in that portion of the Alps and we'd like to take advantage of it! Jef is off for Budapest this morning for a week of travel. It sounds like he's got a fun trip planned! His first real solo journey since being here. I'm sure he'll have a great time.
Our trip back to Chicago and Minnesota is approaching fast! We're both really looking forward to it! It will be nice to get back to the US, even if it is just for two weeks.
If you've checked lately, you may have noticed that the link to my photo blog is broken. The new site should be up within the next week.
We'll write more later when we get a chance to breathe. I look forward to sitting down, going through the pictures from our trips and doing a bit of writing about what we experienced in each place. See you all soon!
There may be some big changes coming both our ways in the near future. We'll keep you all updated when we have more solid news. If it all works out, Dawn's 2.5 hours of commuting each day will be a thing of the past. That is a great thing!
This weekend Dawn and I will be heading down to Garmisch, Germany to do a bit of camping and hiking. The weather looks like it will actually be decent in that portion of the Alps and we'd like to take advantage of it! Jef is off for Budapest this morning for a week of travel. It sounds like he's got a fun trip planned! His first real solo journey since being here. I'm sure he'll have a great time.
Our trip back to Chicago and Minnesota is approaching fast! We're both really looking forward to it! It will be nice to get back to the US, even if it is just for two weeks.
If you've checked lately, you may have noticed that the link to my photo blog is broken. The new site should be up within the next week.
We'll write more later when we get a chance to breathe. I look forward to sitting down, going through the pictures from our trips and doing a bit of writing about what we experienced in each place. See you all soon!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Week Vacation- Cinque Terre
I suppose it’s my turn to write something, and I have a few minutes while my server is down. Hope you’re all enjoying your summer. Ours has been busy, but exciting. Most of you may know that Nate’s brother Jef is here spending some time travelling with us and on his own, while looking into job possibilities teaching Crossfit.
We spent some time in Cinque Terre, Italy last week. Actually, it was a whole week of vacation, not something we usually get to enjoy. The weather was warmer than we were used to, upper 80s and humid. It seemed no matter where we walked we would sweat for about 10 minutes after stopping. We made sure to swim almost every day in the cool water to combat the heat. Time was also spent kayaking, hiking, and just relaxing on our patio.
Cinque Terre, meaning five towns, includes five small towns in the Italian Riviera. Each town has a unique ambiance and we quickly picked out our favorites. We stayed in Riomaggiore, known by locals as ‘Rio,’ and it quickly felt like home. Having an apartment to stay in was great for watching people from our balcony, and allowed us buy and cook our own food fresh from the gardens in the 5 cities. By the end of the 6 nights we were helping other tourists as if we lived there for years.
The other cities in order north were Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. Manarola and Vernazza were my favorites, very peaceful places and fun short hikes to take to beautiful views. There were a few days Nate and I thought we’d ‘take it easy,’ and found ourselves hiking high up for great sunset photos.
The quick hike to Manarola was only 15 minutes and was called the “Lover’s Walk.” We took this many times, because the view was so pretty, and Manarola was good in all light. Many people left locks with their names on them and a tunnel of spray-painted with names and messages. We claimed one, as we didn’t think we really needed to spend 8euro on a lock with people drawn on it.
We discovered the town of Levanto late in the week, just a little farther north from Cinque Terre. The town was more local and less tourists. We took a nice stroll near the beach, took a few pictures, and Jef got a beer, warm of course. It was a little strange to see them selling it out of a booth ion the street, but why not?
We left Friday to head towards the mountains. We planned to camp in Garmisch, but the weather was rainy, so we stayed in the Italian Alps. We found a few towns to wander through and continue our relaxing vacation. We left Brennero and headed home Sunday. It was nice to get in a bit early and unpack and start the huge pile of laundry.
Cinque Terre was a beautiful place to stay, maybe next time in the late fall time period. We also know Italians go to bed after 1am and get up yelling again by 6 or 7am in the morning. Did you know that Italians think driving on the middle line on the freeway is safer because you drive straight? Yeah, that’s what I thought too…
We spent some time in Cinque Terre, Italy last week. Actually, it was a whole week of vacation, not something we usually get to enjoy. The weather was warmer than we were used to, upper 80s and humid. It seemed no matter where we walked we would sweat for about 10 minutes after stopping. We made sure to swim almost every day in the cool water to combat the heat. Time was also spent kayaking, hiking, and just relaxing on our patio.
Cinque Terre, meaning five towns, includes five small towns in the Italian Riviera. Each town has a unique ambiance and we quickly picked out our favorites. We stayed in Riomaggiore, known by locals as ‘Rio,’ and it quickly felt like home. Having an apartment to stay in was great for watching people from our balcony, and allowed us buy and cook our own food fresh from the gardens in the 5 cities. By the end of the 6 nights we were helping other tourists as if we lived there for years.
The other cities in order north were Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. Manarola and Vernazza were my favorites, very peaceful places and fun short hikes to take to beautiful views. There were a few days Nate and I thought we’d ‘take it easy,’ and found ourselves hiking high up for great sunset photos.
The quick hike to Manarola was only 15 minutes and was called the “Lover’s Walk.” We took this many times, because the view was so pretty, and Manarola was good in all light. Many people left locks with their names on them and a tunnel of spray-painted with names and messages. We claimed one, as we didn’t think we really needed to spend 8euro on a lock with people drawn on it.
We discovered the town of Levanto late in the week, just a little farther north from Cinque Terre. The town was more local and less tourists. We took a nice stroll near the beach, took a few pictures, and Jef got a beer, warm of course. It was a little strange to see them selling it out of a booth ion the street, but why not?
We left Friday to head towards the mountains. We planned to camp in Garmisch, but the weather was rainy, so we stayed in the Italian Alps. We found a few towns to wander through and continue our relaxing vacation. We left Brennero and headed home Sunday. It was nice to get in a bit early and unpack and start the huge pile of laundry.
Cinque Terre was a beautiful place to stay, maybe next time in the late fall time period. We also know Italians go to bed after 1am and get up yelling again by 6 or 7am in the morning. Did you know that Italians think driving on the middle line on the freeway is safer because you drive straight? Yeah, that’s what I thought too…
Thursday, July 8, 2010
One conference and one trip down
Hey all! I just wanted to write a quick update while I had a few minutes. As reported in my last post, things have been very, very busy for us. Last week saw us at a conference for work up in Grafenwoehr. Not really much to say about that as it was work after all and I'd rather not have to relive the experience by writing about it. However, after cutting out on a Thursday meeting early, we did manage to make our way up to Amsterdam for the long July 4th weekend. What a great, great, great city that is! Dawn, Jef and I all had a fantastic time up there and really hope we can go back soon.
The highlight of the trip to A-dam had to be experiencing the jubilation and utter craziness that ensued when Holland beat Brazil in the World Cup. Having lived in Germany during the WC four years ago, seeing celebrations when a big win has occurred is nothing new to me. However, this was different. The entire city went absolutely bonkers, and for the most part, it was pretty civilized. No overturned cop cars, no looting or burning of private property, and only one little scuffle that we witnessed. It was really cool to see so many people so damn happy. I'm not the biggest soccer fan, but I love the spirit of the World Cup. Quite possibly one of the coolest sporting events on the planet.
I did take many, many pictures on the trip (600+) but it's going to take some time before I get through them. I just have no time right now. We leave for the Tuscany region of Italy tomorrow evening and will be gone for 9 days total. I'm going to be so backlogged on pictures by the time this summer is over......... Well, it will give me something to do when the weather inevitably turns bad in Germany!
I hope everyone is doing well!
The highlight of the trip to A-dam had to be experiencing the jubilation and utter craziness that ensued when Holland beat Brazil in the World Cup. Having lived in Germany during the WC four years ago, seeing celebrations when a big win has occurred is nothing new to me. However, this was different. The entire city went absolutely bonkers, and for the most part, it was pretty civilized. No overturned cop cars, no looting or burning of private property, and only one little scuffle that we witnessed. It was really cool to see so many people so damn happy. I'm not the biggest soccer fan, but I love the spirit of the World Cup. Quite possibly one of the coolest sporting events on the planet.
I did take many, many pictures on the trip (600+) but it's going to take some time before I get through them. I just have no time right now. We leave for the Tuscany region of Italy tomorrow evening and will be gone for 9 days total. I'm going to be so backlogged on pictures by the time this summer is over......... Well, it will give me something to do when the weather inevitably turns bad in Germany!
I hope everyone is doing well!
Friday, June 25, 2010
The Busy, Busy Summer Begins
Today can be seen as the day that marks the start to our very chaotic and hectic summer. This is not necessarily a bad thing at all - we are both very excited for all of the trips and travel we have planned. It will definitely keep us on our toes! On some of the trips, we will also have an additional traveling partner. As some of you know, my brother, Jef, is staying with us for the next three months.
Here's a quick rundown of what's ahead: Next week Dawn and I have a work conference to attend. Jef may or may not join us for a night or two in Weiden. Next Thursday, Dawn and I are cutting out a bit early, meeting Jef south of Regensburg, and then heading to the Munich airport to board a flight for Amsterdam where we'll be spending the holiday weekend. Upon our return from Holland, Dawn and I head back to work while Jef does whatever Jef wants to do. At the end of the week, we hop back in the car and head for southern Austria and the Brenner Pass. The next day sees us driving to Cinque Terre, Italy. We'll be spending six relaxing days in this beautiful area, hiking, biking, swimming and simply taking in this unique coastal area of Tuscany and the Italian Riviera. On the drive back to Germany, we'll be stopping in Garmisch to spend two nights camping with friends who will be meeting us there.
In August, Dawn and I will be heading to Chicago for another work conference. After Chicago, it's off to Minnesota, Dawn's home state. We will be having a belated stateside wedding reception here. About 100 of Dawn's family members will be in attendance. Me? Only two. It should be a great time, though, and I'm looking forward to checking out Dawn's home and meeting more of her family.
Anyway, the summer is going to be a busy one! Once September rolls around, we do have some other plans including seeing a concert at Neuschwanstein Castle and also attending Oktoberfest in Munich. Then, things get interesting. I have no idea what's going to happen with my job right now and probably won't until early September.
Time for me to take it easy. Sleep did not come easy last night and the 2.5 hours I did sleep was not nearly enough! Have a great weekend!
Here's a quick rundown of what's ahead: Next week Dawn and I have a work conference to attend. Jef may or may not join us for a night or two in Weiden. Next Thursday, Dawn and I are cutting out a bit early, meeting Jef south of Regensburg, and then heading to the Munich airport to board a flight for Amsterdam where we'll be spending the holiday weekend. Upon our return from Holland, Dawn and I head back to work while Jef does whatever Jef wants to do. At the end of the week, we hop back in the car and head for southern Austria and the Brenner Pass. The next day sees us driving to Cinque Terre, Italy. We'll be spending six relaxing days in this beautiful area, hiking, biking, swimming and simply taking in this unique coastal area of Tuscany and the Italian Riviera. On the drive back to Germany, we'll be stopping in Garmisch to spend two nights camping with friends who will be meeting us there.
In August, Dawn and I will be heading to Chicago for another work conference. After Chicago, it's off to Minnesota, Dawn's home state. We will be having a belated stateside wedding reception here. About 100 of Dawn's family members will be in attendance. Me? Only two. It should be a great time, though, and I'm looking forward to checking out Dawn's home and meeting more of her family.
Anyway, the summer is going to be a busy one! Once September rolls around, we do have some other plans including seeing a concert at Neuschwanstein Castle and also attending Oktoberfest in Munich. Then, things get interesting. I have no idea what's going to happen with my job right now and probably won't until early September.
Time for me to take it easy. Sleep did not come easy last night and the 2.5 hours I did sleep was not nearly enough! Have a great weekend!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Dawn and Osu cuddling on the couch
For a dog, Osu finds some very interesting positions to sit in. This evening, he found leaning back against Dawn to be the most comfortable position and stayed this way for at least twenty minutes. Sometimes he sits certain ways that look painfully uncomfortable, but it just doesn't seem to bother him. He's our little yoga dog.
PS - Is anyone reading this blog anymore???
Sunday, June 6, 2010
A fine weekend in Germany (and finally some sun!)
A quick post here to share a few photos. I haven't gone through the photos from the BBQ we had at the house yesterday, but did go through the ones I took today so I could post the below photos. Basically, with it being so nice out again today, we decided to find a nice spot where we could take Osu swimming. We finally found a spot along the Schwarze Laaber near our house. Not only was it a good spot to throw sticks for Osu to retrieve in the water, but there was also a log spanning the width of the creek. Dawn couldn't resist testing her gymnastic prowess on the downed log, and surprisingly, Osu followed her. After successfully making it across the creek on the log, Dawn needed some room to turn around but Osu just wouldn't give her any space. So, since Osu was already wet, she gently shoved him off the log and in to the water. Later, Dawn decided to go back out on the log but Osu wanted nothing to do with it this time. However, after a couple of minutes of prodding, he finally did approach the log, eventually running out on to it to get to Dawn. Alas, in one of the funniest things I've seen this dog do, he slipped off of the log falling in to the water on his side. I didn't get any pictures as I was laughing too hard at his misfortune!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
What's up!
It’s once again been a long time since a post, especially for me. I don’t know how it seems like we got busier, but I think about posting. The last few weeks we haven’t gone anywhere far, but we’ve been getting a lot done. I’ve been going to the arts and crafts shop a few Saturdays to make frames for our new prints and paintings we bought on our ventures. Nate has been busy making posters out of older pictures he had, with a few trips in there to get new towns and vantage points. Lots of new posters to check out on the website. We counted about 104 last night!
We have a fun weekend planned for an extended Memorial weekend. Chamonix, France. I think most of you saw some pictures from last time, but we are really looking forward to this trip. We’ve been thinking about all the places we want to go back to and places we can get other good pictures. Hoping for some sunshine and pretty mountains scenes. Osu doesn’t know yet, but he’ll be excited to go too.
In other news, Nashville is not happening anymore for work. We had planned to have our wedding reception after our work conference in Nashville, but Nashville flooded. So, we are still eagerly waiting for the decision if Chicago will be happening August 23-27th. We are very hopeful, as we need these hours of flying to extend our trip to see everyone. We are supposed to know this week, but no news yet.
In other more fun news, I’m making a GIANT cake for our work SRP Conference here in Germany. It needs to feed 120 people, so it’s either 8- 8x8 cakes or 8- 10x10 cakes. They will be two layers with the logo drawn in the middle and other fun stuff around the sides. I made a tester for work this week, and it turned out really well…especially for 10 pm. Maybe I can get Nate to upload the picture for me too, the small one for now. The real test will be the last week of June when I put it together and move it from our house to Graf, a lovely hour plus ride.
I’d like to say my garden is going well, but it’s hard to tell. We’ve been having lots of rain and little sun. The strawberries are getting flowers, but the pepper and tomato plants haven’t done much. It hasn’t frozen, just lots of rain. I can’t tell much what the blueberry bushes are doing, cuz I’ve never had those before, but they don’t seem to be growing much above the ground. Hope I didn’t plant stuff too early, last year we missed the whole planting time.
One more thing before I go… We’ll have Jef out here starting June 21st. We’re really excited to have him here and do some traveling; Amsterdam for the 4th of July is already waiting for us.
We have a fun weekend planned for an extended Memorial weekend. Chamonix, France. I think most of you saw some pictures from last time, but we are really looking forward to this trip. We’ve been thinking about all the places we want to go back to and places we can get other good pictures. Hoping for some sunshine and pretty mountains scenes. Osu doesn’t know yet, but he’ll be excited to go too.
In other news, Nashville is not happening anymore for work. We had planned to have our wedding reception after our work conference in Nashville, but Nashville flooded. So, we are still eagerly waiting for the decision if Chicago will be happening August 23-27th. We are very hopeful, as we need these hours of flying to extend our trip to see everyone. We are supposed to know this week, but no news yet.
In other more fun news, I’m making a GIANT cake for our work SRP Conference here in Germany. It needs to feed 120 people, so it’s either 8- 8x8 cakes or 8- 10x10 cakes. They will be two layers with the logo drawn in the middle and other fun stuff around the sides. I made a tester for work this week, and it turned out really well…especially for 10 pm. Maybe I can get Nate to upload the picture for me too, the small one for now. The real test will be the last week of June when I put it together and move it from our house to Graf, a lovely hour plus ride.
I’d like to say my garden is going well, but it’s hard to tell. We’ve been having lots of rain and little sun. The strawberries are getting flowers, but the pepper and tomato plants haven’t done much. It hasn’t frozen, just lots of rain. I can’t tell much what the blueberry bushes are doing, cuz I’ve never had those before, but they don’t seem to be growing much above the ground. Hope I didn’t plant stuff too early, last year we missed the whole planting time.
One more thing before I go… We’ll have Jef out here starting June 21st. We’re really excited to have him here and do some traveling; Amsterdam for the 4th of July is already waiting for us.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Vienna, Austria
Well, once again we've been lagging behind on keeping this blog updated. Both of us have been pretty busy with other things and just haven't had the time. So, here's a quick recap of our trip to Vienna:
Day 1: We drove. It was kind of a boring and flat landscape - the non-mountainous part of Austria. We were pleasantly surprised by our apartment room. Very nice and spacious. Decent location. We spent the rest of that day checking out the old part of Vienna. Even took a horse and buggy ride!
Day 2: Spent most of the day exploring the old part of Vienna some more. It's a big area with a lot to see. We also went to Prater Park and enjoyed the amusement park. The weather turned beautiful that afternoon. Dawn did a bit of shopping, I did a bit of sitting outside in the sun. It was nice. That evening, we went and saw Nada Surf in concert. Very good show and they sounded great.
Day 4: All of the walking and travel from the previous days really did my gout and my back in. We ended up enjoying a nice breakfast at our hotel and then packing up and heading out early. The drive back was pleasant enough and we got home at an early hour which was nice.
Overall, this was a great trip. Vienna and Bratislava are great cities and I'd recommend seeing them if you're ever in the area. Now, we want to explore a bit more to the east and are checking in to Budapest, Hungary for a future trip.
Many more pictures from the trip can be found on my Flickr Site. Below are a couple of posters I made from the photos I took. The original photo is on the left and the poster on the right.
Day 1: We drove. It was kind of a boring and flat landscape - the non-mountainous part of Austria. We were pleasantly surprised by our apartment room. Very nice and spacious. Decent location. We spent the rest of that day checking out the old part of Vienna. Even took a horse and buggy ride!
Day 2: Spent most of the day exploring the old part of Vienna some more. It's a big area with a lot to see. We also went to Prater Park and enjoyed the amusement park. The weather turned beautiful that afternoon. Dawn did a bit of shopping, I did a bit of sitting outside in the sun. It was nice. That evening, we went and saw Nada Surf in concert. Very good show and they sounded great.
Day 3: We caught the boat early for Bratislava, Slovakia and had a great hour + long ride down the Danube. We spent that day exploring the city, a very beautiful city too, and really enjoyed our time there. The weather was once again spectacular. Oh, and we found an AWESOME mexican restaurant, the best we've found in Europe, in Bratislava of all places. The boat ride back was great and we spent a lot of time out on the deck taking in the scenery. We spent the evening wandering around Vienna some more. A great day.
Day 4: All of the walking and travel from the previous days really did my gout and my back in. We ended up enjoying a nice breakfast at our hotel and then packing up and heading out early. The drive back was pleasant enough and we got home at an early hour which was nice.
Overall, this was a great trip. Vienna and Bratislava are great cities and I'd recommend seeing them if you're ever in the area. Now, we want to explore a bit more to the east and are checking in to Budapest, Hungary for a future trip.
Many more pictures from the trip can be found on my Flickr Site. Below are a couple of posters I made from the photos I took. The original photo is on the left and the poster on the right.
Many more new posters can be found on Taku Photography and Posters
Monday, April 26, 2010
My car lives
Crazy how time flies. It's almost been about a week since my car incident. Last Tuesday was apparently going too well, got into work early to leave early, sunny skies, and a really good workout. On my sunny drive home, only about 20 minutes away, my car began slowing to a stop on B299. This road is like a county road in the states, frequently used by those living in the area and connecting several towns.
I managed to coast to a small break in guardrail and a lady helped me push my car the rest of the way onto the small patch of asphalt. We spoke in bad German and hand signals. She asked if I needed more help, a phone to call with or a number. I was al little confused about the number part, but told her I was okay. I have ADAC, like AAA, and would call them.
Hoping to spend more time with Nate that night, I left work early. I told him I'd be home about 5:30, so I called him right away to tell him I was stranded and I'd be starting my calls to Peter, the guy who sold me the car, and then ADAC. Peter was off in the woods cutting down trees, so I needed to get ADAC to check the car and then tow it to his house. Great. So, I call ADAC. I tell the lady I'm on B299 between two cities, but she doesn’t understand. I'm doing this all in German, but she doesn’t know how I can be by Pfaffenhofen and on B299. There are of course 2 Pfaffenhofens in Germany, maybe more, so I tell her the direction of two other towns near me. She becomes frustrated and transfers me to another woman. The second woman was much more helpful. I told her where I was and the direction I was traveling. Someone will be on the way, and I’m a priority cuz I'm in a dangerous location. Great! Have someone there in 30-45 minutes, maybe, then bring the car to Peter's home by 7 or 8, right.
I waited by the road for about an hour and a half before the first guy came. Either there were a lot of emergencies, or priority means nothing, I think the later. He checks the car out, broken fuel pump. Need to be towed. Nice, I asked for a ADAC truck that could tow to start with, but of course, no luck. The guy calls ADAC, says a truck should come in 30 minutes, okay, not too bad. I'm only starving and been walking in the dirt with my nice work shoes on, pacing at the side of the road bored.
Thirty minutes go by and I get a call, the truck is leaving now, and where am I? What? Where am I? I explain where I am in German again, I think he gets it and he hangs up. Another 30 minutes and he arrives, as it's getting dark. First he checks out the car again, then paperwork. After about 20-30 minutes we get the car hooked up to put on the flatbed of the truck. I think I'll be home in an hour, I call Nate to tell him I'm on my way through town, to Peter's, then the guy will bring me home.
The guy's GPS doesn't know where Hardt is...? I tell him I know the way to drive there, the way I always take. If he doesn’t know where it is, that's all we've got. We get into Lupburg, head down the hill, to find the road is closed, nice. No detour signs, so I call Nate ad he calls his boss. It's already about 9pm now, maybe later. We drive around forever trying to get there, through farms, back roads, several U-turns. We get to Peter's and unload the car, yay. Almost home. He didn't want to go back the same way thinking there was a short cut, so we get lost again for a long time. Half the time he's on the phone with his boss arguing. It's mildly amusing, but I'm tired and don't care. We finally get to the autobahn to drive to Parsberg. I have to call Nate to get me from the gas station because it took so long to get back. It's 10:30.
Nate comes to pick me up and takes me home. I have two hockey puck burgers for dinner and go to bed. Nate isn't a bad cook, just made dinner for me when I thought I'd be home at least an hour earlier.
I got to pick up the car after work the next day. Nate rode into work with his boss, so I could take his car. It's all better now, so I hope it stays that way for a while. What a pain and extra long day.
I managed to coast to a small break in guardrail and a lady helped me push my car the rest of the way onto the small patch of asphalt. We spoke in bad German and hand signals. She asked if I needed more help, a phone to call with or a number. I was al little confused about the number part, but told her I was okay. I have ADAC, like AAA, and would call them.
Hoping to spend more time with Nate that night, I left work early. I told him I'd be home about 5:30, so I called him right away to tell him I was stranded and I'd be starting my calls to Peter, the guy who sold me the car, and then ADAC. Peter was off in the woods cutting down trees, so I needed to get ADAC to check the car and then tow it to his house. Great. So, I call ADAC. I tell the lady I'm on B299 between two cities, but she doesn’t understand. I'm doing this all in German, but she doesn’t know how I can be by Pfaffenhofen and on B299. There are of course 2 Pfaffenhofens in Germany, maybe more, so I tell her the direction of two other towns near me. She becomes frustrated and transfers me to another woman. The second woman was much more helpful. I told her where I was and the direction I was traveling. Someone will be on the way, and I’m a priority cuz I'm in a dangerous location. Great! Have someone there in 30-45 minutes, maybe, then bring the car to Peter's home by 7 or 8, right.
I waited by the road for about an hour and a half before the first guy came. Either there were a lot of emergencies, or priority means nothing, I think the later. He checks the car out, broken fuel pump. Need to be towed. Nice, I asked for a ADAC truck that could tow to start with, but of course, no luck. The guy calls ADAC, says a truck should come in 30 minutes, okay, not too bad. I'm only starving and been walking in the dirt with my nice work shoes on, pacing at the side of the road bored.
Thirty minutes go by and I get a call, the truck is leaving now, and where am I? What? Where am I? I explain where I am in German again, I think he gets it and he hangs up. Another 30 minutes and he arrives, as it's getting dark. First he checks out the car again, then paperwork. After about 20-30 minutes we get the car hooked up to put on the flatbed of the truck. I think I'll be home in an hour, I call Nate to tell him I'm on my way through town, to Peter's, then the guy will bring me home.
The guy's GPS doesn't know where Hardt is...? I tell him I know the way to drive there, the way I always take. If he doesn’t know where it is, that's all we've got. We get into Lupburg, head down the hill, to find the road is closed, nice. No detour signs, so I call Nate ad he calls his boss. It's already about 9pm now, maybe later. We drive around forever trying to get there, through farms, back roads, several U-turns. We get to Peter's and unload the car, yay. Almost home. He didn't want to go back the same way thinking there was a short cut, so we get lost again for a long time. Half the time he's on the phone with his boss arguing. It's mildly amusing, but I'm tired and don't care. We finally get to the autobahn to drive to Parsberg. I have to call Nate to get me from the gas station because it took so long to get back. It's 10:30.
Nate comes to pick me up and takes me home. I have two hockey puck burgers for dinner and go to bed. Nate isn't a bad cook, just made dinner for me when I thought I'd be home at least an hour earlier.
I got to pick up the car after work the next day. Nate rode into work with his boss, so I could take his car. It's all better now, so I hope it stays that way for a while. What a pain and extra long day.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Car troubles and a few photos from the morning
I'll let Dawn tell the whole story if she feels up to it later. On her way home from work tonight, the fuel pump in her VW Golf went out, bringing her to a standstill on the side of B299. She eventually was rescued by ADAC (Europe equivalent to AAA) and is now on her way out to her car dealer/mechanic to have the car dropped off to be fixed and then she'll be on her way home. This will end up being a long day for her. Up at 4:30 am, out the door at 5:45, work all day, then deal with this on the way home. It's almost 9 pm now and she still probably won't be home for another half an hour. I feel bad for her and wish there was some way that she didn't have to do that drive every day. When something like this happens, it just adds to an already long day leaving little to no time for relaxation for her. Thank God we've got an extra long weekend coming up in Vienna. We both could use the time off.
I also got up early this morning to go shoot some pictures of the sunrise. It was nice, but not as good as I was hoping. I also wasn't able to stay long enough to get any good morning light on the castle. I waited as long as possible, but eventually had to load the camera gear and an extra dirty dog in to the Toyota to get home and then get off to work. Perhaps I'll try this again in the summer when the sun will be up earlier. Here are a few pictures from the shoot this morning:
I also got up early this morning to go shoot some pictures of the sunrise. It was nice, but not as good as I was hoping. I also wasn't able to stay long enough to get any good morning light on the castle. I waited as long as possible, but eventually had to load the camera gear and an extra dirty dog in to the Toyota to get home and then get off to work. Perhaps I'll try this again in the summer when the sun will be up earlier. Here are a few pictures from the shoot this morning:
Osu having some fun with another dog that was out early with it's owner. Cool dog and a nice owner who was pleasant to chat with. They may look like they are fighting, but they were actually having a lot of fun playing. This is how Osu got so darn dirty. And to think, I just cleaned the RAV yesterday.....
You can see the rest of the photos on my Flickr page
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