Our Second Snow

I didn't think I'd be writing this post so quickly. I can't believe it has snowed again and I still don't have winter tires on my car. Last night I was sitting watching some TV and noticed there was snow on our balcony. With closer inspection I realized it was still snowing. I do have to say seeing it snow really puts you in the holiday spirit. It brings a smile to my face to see it snow, especially since I wasn't expecting it here. So I've captured the moment on film as best I could at night (it's only like 7pm), with no flash, through our window.


I did get up this morning at the crack of dawn to be first in line at the car place so I could get the winter tires on my car. I'm now ready for anything mother nature throws at me....and I expect this might be our last snow now that I've said it.

Our first Snow

Last year the weather was strange here in Wiesbaden. It was cold and rainy all summer and during the winter we never got any snow. This year we had a beautiful summer, but I really didn't think winter would be any different. I thought it would still snow in the mountains and only tease us with a taste of white by giving us a thin layer of frost on really cold winter mornings.

Boy was I wrong. It snowed last night. Here's what I woke up to. I know its not a lot, but its more than we got all of last season.

And this would be fine except I don't have the winter tires on the car yet. Here in Germany if you are in an accident in the wintertime and you do not have winter tires on you are to blame, no matter what. So I guess I'll be getting those winter tires on soon.

PR dinner night

Once again we wanted to cook up some Puerto Rican food for our friends. So on Saturday night we had everyone over for some home cooked food. I have never really cooked for 20 people but things went off without a hitch and aside from having some leftover rice there were no leftovers. Here are a few pictures from our night.

Wii are proud new owners of.....

our very own
I have held off this life changing event for a year and a half and could no longer keep Javier out of the electronics store. And though it has not completely taken over our lives, I suspect it will soon enough.

More to come as our life begins to revolve more and more around this little plastic box.

More Halloween Pictures

20081031 - Halloween

Guess who?

So we wanted to have some real fun with our Halloween costumes this year. I wanted to find a funny couple that we could be and Javier had grand thoughts of re-creating a warm afternoon in Baltimore exploring the costume stores. I think we came to a pretty good compromise. Can you guess what he was?

Here's your first clue:


And your second:


Last clue:


Do you think you know what he was for Halloween? Scroll down to see if you're right.








Answer: A chicken and a farmer's daughter (basket of eggs was included)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN Everyone!!

2nd Annual Octoberfest

Finally, pictures from Oktoberfest are up. There is really no need for explanation here. There was lots of beer drinking and singing. Though the pictures may imply otherwise, there was no underage drinking going on. And for those of you worried that there may be some incriminating photos of you here, you're safe. This is the PG version of our time in Munich.

20080930 - Oktoberfest

Barcelona

At some point I will try to get some captions on these pictures. Barcelona was a great trip and besides being a great city to visit we got to see Javier's cousin Javier! I think we've seen just a fraction of what there is to see in Barcelona but what we did see was amazing. A lot of the pictures in this album are of Gaudi's architecture. Its really worth seeing in person, I'm not sure the pictures do it justice. Enjoy!

20080926 - Barcelona

The City of Lights

Flights to Barcelona were cheaper from Paris than they were from Frankfurt so it was the perfect excuse to hit another of Europe's must see cities. Here are some pictures from our quick tour in Paris. We just had a day and a half, but we managed to see the highlights and check out a few of the most famous museums.

20080924 - Paris

Heidelberg with the Goas'

Our last day trip before heading off to Paris and Barcelona was to Heidelberg. It was Javier's first time there too so it was fun watching him experience it. Here's a few pictures from the trip.

20080923 - Heidelberg

An overnight to Burg Eltz, Trier and Luxembourg

The first weekend Javier's parents were in town we headed to Luxembourg by way of Burg Eltz and Trier. . It was a great mix of things to see and still managed to be a laid back trip.

Our first stop was Burg Eltz. It was the first time for me and the view from the top of the hill was breathtaking. I didn't realize how deep into the valley the castle actually was until we started walking.



Our next stop was in Trier. I have enjoyed previous trips to Trier so we decided to spend the afternoon there. We visited the Thermalbad ruins and Porta Nigra. We also managed to make a stop at the Villeroy & Boch outlet before it closed. We head a great italian dinner and headed to bed so we could get an early start to Luxembourg the next day.





There was a lot to see in Luxembourg but we just focused on a few things. We decided to take the bus tour so we could see both the new and old parts of Luxembourg. We spent some time in the Museum of Modern Art. The building itself was pretty cool. They built this very modern museum on top of old ruins of some kind of castle. You can see some of the walls in this picture to the right. On the left of this picture is actually the castle itself, moat and all. The museum was free since they were changing their main exhibit but there were still some cool things to see. Our favorite exhibit was this Michael Jackson piece. I was going to post a picture, but you've just got to see the video:


Then we headed to the Bock Casemates. Though the crawl spaces were dark and closed in it was neat to explore. Here are a few pictures of the old cannons we found:


Our last stop was the American National Cemetery in Luxembourg. It was right outside of the city so we made the stop. It was a surprising to see...I didn't know we had a cemetery here. It looks a lot like Arlington if you've ever been there. Here's a pic of Javier standing in front of all the crosses.

Javi's parents are in town

I know that I am very behind. I thought maybe I could get away with just posting albums but I thought this first one might need a bit of an introduction.

Javier's parents came to visit so we had two weeks of day trips and overnights planned to show them all that Europe had to offer. To ease into our traveling (I can get a little crazy...just ask anyone that has traveled with me) we spent the first few days in Wiesbaden and in Rüdesheim. The weather was beautiful and they loved all the shops as well as the views of the Rhine. Though we've seen these sights before, its always fun to watch people experience it for the first time.

Here are a few pictures from Rüdesheim.

20080919 - Rudesheim

Berlin

I know I am long behind on posting so I'm trying to just get a few out at a time in hopes of catching up before another month passes by. September was full or travels. My first trip: Berlin.

It was a great city to visit and had so much to see. I spent almost 4 whole days and still didn't get to see everything. I did manage to go to the Berlin Philharmonic and visit the Pergamon Museum. All my pictures are below. If Google's web albums is cooperating today, I'll try to add some captions as well.

20080912 - Berlin

One of the days I was in Berlin I took a guided tour through Sachenhausen, one of Germany's concentration camps. It would be wrong to use the word enjoyable, but I did find the tour very educational and insightful. I thought it was important to see. Here are some pictures if you're interested.

20080912 - Sachsenhausen

Brussels Beer Fest

Well we just got back from Brussels Beer Fest and what a fun time. Its nothing like your Oktoberfest beer fest but it stands on its own for other reasons. It set up more like a wine fest with small tents for vendors so that participants (a.k.a. the drinkers) can sample a bit here and there. Each beer also comes with a unique glass that is supposed to heighten the flavor.

So in following suit with my astute wine choices (I pick by labels) I decided it was appropriate to pick beer based on the glasses. Here's a sneak peak:


The rest are coming, Google's Picasa Web Albums no longer lets you embedd albums so I've got to wait until that gets fixed to post the rest of the pictures.

Update: Google finally fixed their Web Album links and I can post albums again. Now that albums are up and running again I have no excuses. More pictures and posts to come of September's festivities. For now, here are the rest of the pictures from the Brussels beer fest.

20080906 - Brussels Beer Fest

England

I headed to England this weekend to visit my friend Catherine and her two angels Elaina & Phoebe. We had a great weekend. We saw Stonehenge, toured the Cotswolds (Bibury is the cutest town ever), and did some unpacking (Catherine & James just moved). It was a fun weekend. Thanks for being a great host Catherine!

Miami

Our last stop during our US trip was to Miami. It was great to stay with Maria and Eddie and an added bonus that Javier's parents were able to join us as well. Unfortunately Adrian wasn't able to join us, we missed you Adrian.

We had a fun filled time while in Miami. We ate lots of great food, played golf at the Doral, and did lots of shopping. We even got a tour of the hotel where Maria is sales manager. Check out the pictures we took from the 42nd floor pent house!

Javier had a chance to play with Maki, Eddie & Maria's dog and all it did was really make Javier want a dog even more. I've convinced him to wait it out just a while longer, but I think one more visit with Maki and I may be out of luck (Maki's pictures is in the album below).

It was a great weekend and our only wish was that it could have been longer.

Check out the pictures below in this online album.

20080802 - Miami

Javi turns 30!

We celebrated Javi's 30th birthday with a trip to NYC to see Brent. We had an awesome Korean BBQ dinner. The next day we had lunch with Jeni Jones and then headed to NY's newest trend....cupcake cafes. Take a look at this monstrous thing!

You can tell that Javi definitely enjoyed his as well.
It was great to seen Brent and his new place. We can't wait for him to come visit us now.

We continued celebrating Javi's b'day on Tuesday when we got back from NYC. We went out for Sushi and then went back to the house for cake. I think we really surprised him, he had no idea what he was in for. Take a look.


Need an up close look at his birthday surprise. Click on the pictures below.

Sarah & James tie the knot

The reason Javi and I were back in the states was to attend Sarah & James' wedding. Of course we were glad to be home to see all our family and friends and we have S&J to thank.

On Friday night Sarah & James hosted a BBQ by the lake.

20080802 - Last day of singlehood

On their big day everything fell into place. Kim, Amy, Jean & I spent the morning getting ready with Sarah. We tied up loose ends and prayed that the sun would come out. And it did, just an hour before the wedding took place the skies cleared and James & Sarah had their perfect day.

20080802 - Game Over 08

Javi, meet Javi

Luxembourg

I only spent the day in Luxembourg but I managed to see quite a bit. I did a tour of one of their famous casemates, took a bus tour of the old and new parts of the city and finished off with a walking tour of the old part of the city. Its not at all what I was expecting, but there were plenty of great things to explore. This is definitely worth a weekend trip in the future.

Here are some pictures of my tours that day.

20080721 - Luxembourg

Trier, Germany

Trier is about a 2 hour drive from where we live. Its a bit farther on the train but the views you experience are worth the extra time. I wanted to check out this town for just one site, Porta Nigra, but I found that there was a lot more to the city. Our day trips book says that Trier has the greatest collection of Roman remains to be found anywhere north of the Alps. Though I'm sure I haven't seen them all, at this point, I have to agree.

I spent two days here touring the city and its ruins. Here are some of the highlights.

Mainz Wine Fest

This was one of the wetter fests we've attended. To see just how wet it got, take a look at Alan and Elizabeth.
Fortunately it cleared up. We even have the rainbow to prove it.

Carnida de Torros

I wanted to get pictures up before I headed to the states so I'm posting the album with little text. I will try to expand upon our crazy experience when I have a bit more time. Until then enjoy these pictures:

20080704 - Running with the bulls

San Sebastian, Spain

On our first stop to meet "El Toros" (the bulls) we stayed a few days in San Sebastian, Spain. It's along the northwestern coast of Spain, very close to France. It's a beach town so we expected to spend plenty of time on the beach. Unfortunately it rained, so we spent a lot more time inside the super-cool apartment that we rented. Here's a photo album of our stay.

20080704 - San Sebastian

60th Anniversary Berlin Airlift

This year was the 60th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift. To celebrate Wiesbaden and the surrounding communities put together a series of events for the weekend. Even the nearby Army base had an event and opened it up to the general public. I went with Jonathan and Danielle and it was really a great time. The first thing we got to do was go inside a C-17. We waited in line for 2 hours to sit in the cockpit, but I'd say it was worth it.

After finally getting to the front of the cockpit we had to dash over to the field for our helicopter ride. I've always wanted a helicopter ride and it was definitely worth the wait. We ended up on a refueling flight so we got to take off and land twice. Our ride was about 35 minutes long.




We also were around in time to see the famous "candy drop". Gail Halvorsen was an American pilot that used to drop candy after delivering his supplies. He is still famous today for what he did for the children of Berlin. Read more about him from the link above. Here's the best picture I got of the candy drop.





Here are some of the views we saw from our helicopter ride.

20080629 - helicopter ride

James Bond lives ... in Wiesbaden

Kim and John thought a James Bond theme was perfect for our Anniversary Party. So we got all dressed up, donned funny Bond-like names and headed to the Kurhaus Casino. Everyone looked great and left a winner. Of course no good night can end there. We headed to the Marshall's for Bond-tinis and Anniversary-tinis and a whole lot of debauchery.

20080623 - James Bond Party