The timely demise of the pumpkin head

It was 100 times better than a kinder egg...

Happy Halloween!

Miscellaneous

This is a hedgehog-y thing that died a tragic death on the roads of Germany. This was a well inside one of the castles.
This was Mr X's dinner one night. Doesn't it look horrible? I made something a little less awful for myself. Those phallic looking things in the middle are tiny sweet pickles.
This is a shot overlooking a valley here. I was attempting to capture the beautiful fall colors but I don't think it really comes through in the picture well so just use your imagination to brighten it up a bit.
This is Mr X about to step in a bunch of deer droppings. At least I think it is from deer as they are all over the place in these parts...

Random castles and Hilter's haunts

This past weekend Mr X and I laid low and stayed local. On Saturday we headed in to Nuremberg to explore around a bit. Mr X says he heard somewhere that it was Hitler's favorite city. I don't know if that is true but it is a beautiful place. Unfortunately for my readers, I think we only took something like 3 pictures the whole day.

On Sunday we went on a castle hunt. There are castles all over the place here so it's not that challenging to go hunting for them. I used a map that had the castles marked and I planned out a route in a big circle from castle to castle. We didn't drive more than 15 minutes at a time from start to finish. I had originally planned to see 8 or 9 but the day disappeared quickly and we only made it to 5 or 6. Some were ruins, some quite modern and some are still inhabited to this day.

This one has been converted into a fancy schmancy hotel which, from the looks of the Ferraris in the parking lot, is quite pricey.

This one is a well preserved ruin which holds festivals all summer long.

This one serves as both a residence and a museum.

In this one a family still resides. I loved how precariously perched on the rock ledge it is.

This one was my favorite of the castles we saw. It is very much in ruins and not much is done for it's upkeep. It is mere miles from the Czech border. The deer appear to use it for a loo as their droppings were everywhere...you could hardly take a non-squishy step. That is Mr X and I at the very top waving.

This was a view from the top, looking down at the rest of the castle remains.

This was the back/side view of what is left and Mr X is down at the base.

Mmmmm...cheese...

While Mr X and I were in Switzerland we naturally involved in some serious cheese consumption. First, our visit coincided with the the Big Cheese Fest of Lucerne. We went around the booths about 3 times, tasting and tasting.They even had fondue tasting! Then we treated ourselves to more cheese by going to the a restaurant in Lucernce called the Fondue House. I'm sure my arteries are screaming at me.

Me at the cheese fest - after one or two rounds through the tables already. We could smell the stench of the cheese fest from blocks away.

Isn't it pretty?

A giant fondue pot with huge skewers. (So yummy!)

This isn't traditional fondue, we went for the Raclette instead because Mr X had never tried it.

Mr X, waiting patiently for the cheese to start sizzling and sliding down.

About 30 delicious minutes later.

Calling all Chocoholics

Something I find interesting about Europe vs. USA: Bakeries, chocolate shops, cheese shops, butcher shops and pastry shops abound in Europe and are severely lacking in the US. There is at least one of the shops mentioned above on nearly every block in the cities and small towns alike. They are not nearly as abundant in the US, and no Starbucks absolutely does not count as a pastry shop. Neither does Dunkin Donuts. I suppose that since those shops mesmerize and entice me so much, it is a good thing that they are not so easily accessible. Here are some pictures of the latest chocolate temptations I have encountered in the last week. (And for those that are curious, the chocolate pumpkin is still alive and well.)

Solid chocolate 'chestnut' that appear to be roasting over the fire.

Chocolate porcupine treats on the bottom shelf and on the top shelf solid chocolate cows.

On the bottom shelf are special Lucerne Bridge chocolate cakes.

Liechtenstein

After we left Lucerne on Sunday, Mr X and I were whining about how our navigational system (affectionately named The Duchess of York) seemed to be taking us a bit out of the way and thus possibly making our 6 hour drive longer. But then we saw this sign:

The D in the white circle is for Germany (Deutschland), the A is for Austria. We were already in Switzerland (which is a while circle with CH in it) and we weren't sure what FL was. We suspected that it might be Liechtenstein. At that prospect we were pleased that The Dutchess had taken us on the path she did so that we could have a look around.

Turns out it was Liechtenstein so we stopped in one of the towns and drove through a few others. The country is about 100 square miles in size so it's quite small. Lucky for us the town we picked just happened to be the town that the prince's castle overlooks and we just happened to drive right to it. It is called Schloss Vaduz and the prince of Liechtenstein actually lives there currently.

After that we stopped at a church we found and toured around it for a bit. It was surrounded by a fairly large cemetery but I didn't take any pictures of that.

If you would like to find out more about the beautiful tax haven that is Liechtenstein, you can read more about it here.

Lucerne

On Saturday last weekend, Mr X and I left Zurich and made our way to Lucerne. It is southwest of Zurich and it takes about 45 minutes or less to drive there. I adore Lucerne, Switzerland.

Here is why:

Lucerne is a lovely, postcard quality town in Central Switzerland, right on the edge of Lake Lucerne. As of June 2007, Lucerne is the 7th largest city in Switzerland with a population of about 70,000 people.

We were, coincidentally, in town for the Big Cheese Festival of Lucerne. I was like a kid on Christmas morning. More on that later...

There are remnants of the old town walls on the hill above Lucerne. The walls include eight tall watch towers (you can see the tops of two of them in this picture). Last time I was here with my SIL we couldn't get up to the top to walk on the wall but this time Mr X and I were able to do so and it offered breathtaking views of the surrounding area.

This is one of the many beautiful views of the city and lake from the top of the wall. There is a ferris wheel in the picture that normally wouldn't be there. Some sort of carnival was going on that weekend.

These hairy cows (or bulls, or whatever they are) made me smile. They lounge behind the city walls.

Picturesque covered bridges stretch across the Reuss River. This is a view of the Kapellbrück bridge, built in 1333 but after a fire in 1993 much of it had to be rebuilt. The famous water tower that is part of this bridge is not visible in this shot.

Mr X standing a bit in front of the Dying Lion of Lucerne Monument (Löwendenkmal). This carving commemorates the hundreds of Swiss Guards massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when the Tuileries Palace in Paris was stormed by the mob.

The ferris wheel reflected itself spectacularly on the placid lake water. We were going to try and ride it, among other rides but we couldn't figure out how to get tokens because we couldn't understand the signs or the people. So we wandered and watched the carnival goings-on for a while and then, deciding we were too chilled, we headed back to our warm hotel.

The next morning we went up Mount Pilatus, which is just outside of Lucerne, to check that out before we left town. There are two places to go up, one with a cog wheel train (supposedly the steepest one in the world) and one on the other side where gondolas take you up. They have an alpine slide/toboggan up there and we were going to try that out but it was closed due to inclement weather. It is usually open through October and we were looking forward to it because it is rumored to be the world's longest toboggan ride at .88 miles. Maybe next time. The peak got it's name because of a local legend that Pontius Pilate was buried somewhere on the mountain. It is 7000 feet tall at the summit (which is the elevation of Santa Fe, NM interestingly enough).

This was a view from Pilatus. It was cloudy and overcast though so it was hard to see clearly very far.

It started snowing just as we arrived at the bottom of the lift and by the time we got up (about 20 minutes or something) it was definitely starting to stick. I was pretty excited about that (obviously). But even with my big puffy warm coat and wool hat/gloves/scarf I was still freezing out there.

So Mr X and I snapped a 'my hero' shot and headed back down to our car, cranked up the heated seats and headed home.

Zurich

This past weekend Mr X and I made our way down to Switzerland. He wanted me to see Zurich because I hadn't previously and I wanted him to see Lucerne because he hadn't yet. So Friday we got to Zurich around 3:30. It takes between 5 and 6 hours to get there depending on how fast you drive on the autobahn.

Our standing rule is that any hotel we stay in has to be less than $100 per night. It gets a bit harder to do that as the dollar continues it's sad but steady drop against the euro. *sigh* So in order to remain within budget we pretty much stayed in the crack whore district of Zurich. The hotel had a bar on the ground floor but the rooms, though very sparse, were clean and practical. There were probably about 5 or so exotic clubs within a one block radius of our hotel...In fact, just down the street they were having a special showing of "One Night in Paris". I saw more prostitutes in one evening walking back to our hotel than I can count. I heard quite a few as well - arguing, screeching about something or other, etc. It was very interesting. Luckily I was so tired that I slept through the majority of it.

But that all probably makes Zurich sound awful. It isn't. It's actually a very beautiful city and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mr X and I walked around for hours and hours. I found the most decadent and incredible chocolate shop to which I have ever been in my life and ate the most delicious piece of chocolate I have ever been lucky enough to taste. It is called Florentine Chocolate. It has a thick but not too sweet creamy milk chocolate bottom layer with slivered almonds in a kind of almond brittle layer on the top. Even Mr X, who is a dark chocolate fanatic, agreed that it was the best chocolate he has ever had.

The fact that Zurich is a banking mecca definitely shows. There are banks after banks scattered all over the place - mixed in which the chocolate shops and the tourist shops and the high end clothing stores.

Here are some pictures from Zurich:

This is the Limmat River which runs through Zurich.

A view of the older area of the city.

Mr X walking through the narrow winding streets.

This old style Citroen was so beautiful we had to take a picture. We saw a few of these here.

These little fountain things are all over the place. Mr X says they are like water fountains and you can drink from them. I'm not sure about that as I never saw a soul drinking from them but I did it anyway. Maybe it's just too cold and everybody is drinking espressos right now or something.

There are swans everywhere here. I probably have 20 or so pictures of them now. I kept trying to take a picture of this guy but every time I tried he kept flashing his rear at me. He's obviously proud of his backside so I decided to do him a favor and help him show it off to the world.

Amberg

Sometimes when Mr X has to work he drops me off somewhere for me to go exploring. So on Tuesday I explored Amberg, Germany. It's a small town but, as most places I have seen here, very picturesque.

I wandered around for hours. I explored the city library and some other bookstores. I was reading some of the German cook books. I thought it would be fun to actually make some of the items but I discovered that since I couldn't understand half the ingredients it was best not to get the book. I need to find a German cooking book in English and that probably won't happen over here. (Notice that I didn't simply say, I need to learn German - I guess I have ugly American tendencies. But in my defense it just seems such an impossible task...)

I browsed some of the clothing stores and drooled over every shoe I passed.

I stopped for lunch at a bakery/bistro where I ordered a veggie-laden wrap rather than the tempting treats behind the glass. I ran into a bit of trouble when I was done because I forgot to pay attention to what other customers where doing with their trays when they finished. After about 30 minutes of waiting, hoping someone would leave so I could watch what to do, I just gave up. I walked up to the counter with my tray and said rather stupidly, "Wo?" (means "where") while pointing at the tray. She directed me to a little area that was kind of hidden from view where I was to put the used tray. I quickly left.

Anyway here are some of the Amberg pictures for your viewing pleasure:

These pictures where from the center square in town.

I seem to have some sort of obsession with the houses that are just overgrown with ivy or whatever that stuff is. I think it is beautiful...especially in the fall when it is all turning colors.

I walked along the river and the gardens surrounding the river for a while. So many of the towns have such lovely little rivers wandering through them here.

I like how they have these sort of walled entrances in most of the little towns too.

Okay we are off to Switzerland this weekend. Zurich first...

Food for thought

I love food. A lot. The chances of me eventually being a beefy 300 pound woman are probably pretty good. So I try to reign myself in sometimes and work out regularly to counteract my food fetish. It's incredibly difficult for me to control myself in a foreign country where new and interesting (and delicious) foods are all around me. So those of you that will see me when I get back to the states in December and January, please be kind if I'm all chunky-like. Cuz here are some of the things I've been noshing on with wild abandon:

This is breakfast stuff for us here: milk in a box (it keeps for like 6 months unopened and unrefrigerated), various yogurts which are so much better than those in the states, and this incredible drinking yogurt ( the Mullermilch) that I have taken to using as the 'milk' in my cereal sometimes (brilliant, no?).

These are some of the cereals I've been eating. You are probably thinking the Fruchte Musli is probably the tastiest, but you are wrong, the knusper musli is incredible. There's even talk of Mr X taking a box home with him...

Sometimes we buy rolls from the 'backerei' and bring them home for sandwiches. We grab an assortment of meats and cheeses (different every time) for filling. Sometimes we just get crackers and spread liverwurst on them with some strange mustard and have those. Sounds gross, I know but it's good. I also included in this picture a very new Ritter Sport I found here: Dunkle Vollmilch. Basically it's dark milk chocolate. The perfect blend of milk and dark and oh so mouth-wateringly good.

We actually have been eating some fruit so we don't get rickets or anything. These grapes don't look it from the picture but they are huge! The fruit next to them is similar in size and shape to a peach but it doesn't taste like the peaches I grew up eating. It tastes more like a combination between peaches and apricots or something. I am loving them.

As you can tell based on previous posts, we've been having ridiculous amounts of hot dogs/bratwursts/sausages/frankfurters. It's kind of sickening but they do really know how to make these things perfectly appealing and appetizing here. In this Jeff's buying a bratwurst at a stand on the street in Vienna. They take a bun type thing and cut the top off and make a hole in it by poking a long metal rod down it and then they fill it with mustard and stick the brat in. The best one I had, hands down, was the one laced with cheese.

These things are everywhere around here. They are called Doner Kebaps. They fill a pita-ish bread with this gyro-looking mystery meat (but different) and then add some sort of sauce and lettuce and onions and some sort of spicy red powder. They are really good. I found one I like better than the Doner though and it's called the Huner Kebap. It's less like a gyro and more like a sandwich but with similar ingredients. Either one will really do a number on your breath though - Gum and breathmints are powerless.

And now we move on to treats and desserts...

We stop at ice cream and gelato shops every now and again. The best ice cream I've had in Germany remains the cone I had in Oberammergau with my SIL last March. Some others have come close though.

This is the biggest chocolate fountain I have ever seen. You can't tell from the picture but it was like four feet tall or something. Oh, and that's rich, creamy, smooth German chocolate pouring out of it.

I bought this little guy at a chocolate shop in Amberg (more on that town tomorrow). I am attempting to hold off and save it as a Halloween treat for Mr X and myself. But that seems so far away, doesn't it? I think the only thing preventing this delicious looking pumpkin face from already being in my belly is that it's just so cute. Less than two weeks left - I can do it, I can do it...

Hunting season

Last spring when I came to Germany I was here the first 2 weeks in March. I didn't see a single cow. In fact, the only place I saw an animal at all was in Switzerland. My SIL can vouch for me on that one. She and I drove along the Germany countryside and field after field was empty - not a single cow. All this delicious cheese and yogurt had to come from somewhere, right?

Well, this trip I have seen plenty of animals, all over the place, and I've documented it all with my camera (for proof). But what I want to know is where do all the cows go during the winter. If you happen to know please fill me in...

(This may just be a lone cow, but there are lots of them all over right now)

(This duck waddled right up to me, wanting some food, it made me nervous. I'm a wimp, I know.)

(Check out how fat these sheep are. Or maybe they just have crazy big puffy wool coats.)

(Mr X calls these Bavarian Oysters.)

(Getting pictures of the deer was my favorite, there are so many of them around here.)

(Eat your heart out all you hunters.)

Coburg

Last Sunday Mr X and I visited a town called Coburg. It's about 60 miles north of Nuremberg. This town is adorable and I really enjoyed wandering it. Supposedly it has been around since 1056 AD and it was spared any bombing during WW I because Coburg's prince Albert had married into British royalty. Interestingly enough, the current British royal house descends from this union, they just were renamed to Windsor during WW I.

Anyway, two highlights of the day were: 'bratwurst mit semmel' and the Veste Coburg citadel (one of Germany's largest castles - but it looked less like a castle and more like an armoury to me)

By the time we arrived in the city, parked and aimlessly made our way to the center of the town, I needed to use the ladies room. Mr X said he'd wait for me outside. I wasn't in there for longer than 3 minutes, I swear, but by the time I got back Mr X was standing there grinning and holding a teeny tiny roll with a long skinny bratwurst hanging out each end. I wish I would have had the camera with me because it looked pretty funny. Anyway, I was hungry so I got one too. They were pretty tasty but I still liked the cheesy ones from Vienna best. Mr X thinks these are the best he's ever had in Germany/Austria/Switzerland, hands down. He even got more on his way out of town later. So there you have it, if you're ever in this part of Germany, Coburg's got the best 'bratwurst mit semmel' in the country. Or you can just take his word for it.

(Mr X's bratwurst only had one bun, which is strange because we both asked for the same thing in German, so his looked much more goofy.)

**Interestingly enough, regarding Mr X's food experience here, I found out that The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (I didn't realize there was one) claims Frankfurt is traditionally credited with originating the frankfurter. However that same council says that this claim is disputed and the other story is that the hot dog was created in the late 1600s by a butcher that lived in Coburg. So maybe Mr X's taste buds have got it right.**

Enough of that, on to the Veste Coburg citadel. This place was amazing. It was built starting in 1225 AD on top of a hill on which the city is built and it is surrounded by beautiful park-like areas. There are 3 museums inside the Veste:

(This is a view of part of the citadel from outside the walls.)

The Ducal Palace, which consists of the rooms in which the Dukes of Coburg resided. This also includes the rooms where Martin Luther lived in 1530 after he had been excommunicated from the catholic church. He actually did some of the translating of the bible into German during his stay in these rooms. I guess the most famous room is the Hunting Room which is entirely made of wooden inlay panels. I got in trouble for trying to take pictures in this room. I only got one picture and it's not so great because my dumb flash was on, which is likely why I got caught.

The Armory Museum was one of the most interesting and unique things I have seen in Germany. I guess the one here in Coburg boasts the largest collection of medieval armor and weaponry in Germany.

(This was a real horse - just stuffed or taxidermified or whatever it is called.)

The 3rd museum was the Art Collections. We spent a while checking out the extensive glassware collection but breezed through most of the rest of the art rather quickly, as we are not art savvy folks.

~~~

If you do get the opportunity to check out Coburg, you should. It is definitely worth the effort.

German traffic signs

Since I just posted about a car, I thought I'd share a little bit about German traffic signs. Most of them are pretty self-explanatory and similar to those in the US. Mr X and I have, however, seen a few that we have no clue what they mean. We just continue on and ignore them...probably not necessarily a good thing but oh well. So today I went online to find out what one of the unknown ones that we see frequently actually means. I found it and it means we have always the right-of-way on that particular roadway unless otherwise posted (i.e. stop sign, yield, etc).

Anyway, I thought I would share with you some of the German road signs I found online here:

This sign obviously means that snow chains or tires are required. I put it up because I like the depiction.

It's got to be a bit alarming if you are driving down the road and you see this sign, don't you think? It actually means that there is an "unguarded quay, riverbank, or landing ahead or alongside the road."

This one means horses only. I wouldn't have known that it was so restrictive just by looking at it.

This is my personal favorite. This means that the road ahead is used by migrating frogs. Good thing they warn you because that would be so gross to plow into a bunch of frogs unexpectedly.

This one means to watch out for winter sports along the road. I've seen this one. They have places where the ski trail passes right over or right next to a small road. I thought it was strange.

Electrified rail crossing.

Traffic calming zone (No idea what that means - maybe go slow, calm down).

Water polluting cargo prohibited (again, wouldn't have deduced that from the sign).

This sign I put up simply because we saw it while driving around in Vienna. It was crazy to me that we were only a few hours drive from Budapest. I was half tempted just to go because I could...

The Panda is extinct

Once a month Mr X has to turn his rental car in for another one, although he can keep the one he has if he wants. Since Mr X's previous car was the Fiat Panda he opted to switch up and see if he would get a sweeter deal. So check out our new car for the next month:It is an incredibly nice BMW wagon with an in-dash navigational system and the biggest sunroof I have ever seen. It is so nice and comfy and it drives fast! Mr X's hands get a bit sweaty when he gets it over 100 mph.

Regensburg

On Saturday Mr X, myself and one of Mr X's acquaintances headed out to Regensburg Germany to explore for the day. This town is the 4th largest in Bavaria with BMW, Siemens, AEG and Toshiba as the major employers.

(This is a view of the city from the Stone Bridge.)

The first thing we saw as we entered the city center was what is known as the "Stone Bridge" - they were quite creative with that one, don't you think? Good thing though because I would likely have forgotten any other name. It spans the 'blue' Danube which is not particularly blue. It's actually rather greenish really. This bridge was built from 1135 to 1146 and apparently, at the time, was referred to as the eighth wonder of the world. There is a story that the superstitious regarded the bridge to be the work of the Devil because he assisted the builder in return for the first three souls of those who crossed it. The story goes that the builder cheated the devil by chasing a dog, a rabbit and a hen over it first. Pretty smart guy - I bet the devil was annoyed.

Right next to this bridge once you cross it is a historical sausage kitchen that has apparently been around since 1616. We stopped of course and sampled them - they were delicious.

(I guess this place is ALWAYS just completely packed. We couldn't even sit down.)

The largest structure in the town is the Cathedral of St. Peter. It is massive and apparently when it was first being constructed it could have held three times the population of the city during that time. Construction began in 1254 and took roughly 600 years to complete. St. Emmeram's Basilica received it's name from a traveling bishop who worked in Regensburg for 3 years and then was brutally murdered on a trip to Rome. His body was brought back and this Benedictine Monastery was built in his honor. It also housed a famous school of writing. There were crypts below that we check out as well.

(I stepped on this loose tile so I bent down to see how loose it was exactly. Mr X's friend was freaking out, thinking that I was planning on stealing it.)

This is the Thurn and Taxis Residence. The Thurn and Taxis family organized the first postal line in 1490 from Brussels to Innsbruck and later extended it to Vienna. Then Lemoral von Thurn and Taxis was made the Appointed General Post Master in 1615 and was promoted to some sort of princely rank. The family amassed an insane fortune. This residence is said to have more rooms than Buckingham Palace.

This is where the former Bishop lived and made beer apparently, as there was a brewery here too. But in 1810 Regensburg became Bavarian property and so did this place. Now it is a restaurant but you can still buy the Bishop's beer here. All in all, Regensburg is a lovely town and I really enjoyed it. I would have liked to spend more time exploring the Taxis place, but maybe next time. As it is, my feet hurt from walking so much and I have a lovely blood blister on each of my big toes for proof.

Smart cars

Have you seen those tiny Smart cars? They are adorable because they look like little toy cars or something. I love them. I desperately want to try driving one because they've got to be fun, I mean just look at them! We saw this one in Vienna with a very appropriate moniker on it for the area of the globe we are currently visiting:

But then we saw the newer and much more sophisticated Smart car. Check it out:

It might look larger to you, but it's not much. Probably it is a bit longer but it is really low to the ground and compact. I still like the other one better because it is so cartoon-esque but this certainly is a step towards "cool" for the Smart car company.

Art Schmart

I would never claim to know much at all about art. Most of the time I would say I simply don't get it, especially the kind of art where people are trying to make some sort of strange yet profound political or personal statement with it. I can and do appreciate some art: classics like Michelangelo's David and Venus De Milo, and the Mona Lisa, etc - just not new age-y type stuff. Maybe that makes me some sad, uncivilized and uneducated person. I can accept that, it's fine with me. That being said, those of you that are art-savvy may scoff at me for this one but I just can't help it.

Look at this guy:

He was performing in the middle of the Museum Quarter in Vienna. He had all these props and setups going on all around him so I was expecting some sort of involved performance to ensue. It never happened. All he did was sit in that bed with a microphone and half-heartedly say the words the the song that was being played on the sound system. He didn't even say all the words, he seemed to fade in and out depending on how distracted or bored he was. It also seemed to me that he didn't even really know the words to the song because he spoke them only after they had already been sung. It sounded like a tone-deaf child that was trying to fake it. Since he was outside maybe it was cold and he didn't want to get out of the warm covers. Or maybe he can't walk. I don't know but either way, what was the purpose of having all that other stuff just laying around? I probably would have respected the whole thing more if he would have at least really belted out the song and not neglected any of the words.

But, like I said, maybe I just don't get it...

Time to sleep

Look at the way they set up the beds here in Germany (they do it the same way in Austria and Switzerland):Genius, don't you think? I mean, there's a bottom sheet but no top sheet. You might be thinking that is gross, no top sheet, but I am just pretending to be certain that they wash/change the comforter thing regularly as well. (fingers crossed) If they do that then this really is a great setup. I know that when I lovingly and carefully put the top sheet on my bed at home Mr X usually destroys it in one night - that is to say that by the morning it is a twisted, jumbled and uncomfortable mess that may very well end up strangling one of us in the night someday by accident. Plus, look at this? So much easier to fold up and make your bed every morning...

My only beef with it is that it is essentially 2 separate beds. That's nice if you are traveling around with your SIL or something because you can kind of separate things so that you can keep the spooning down to a minimum. But if you actually want to sleep next to the person you are with then there's a rather uncomfortable wooden separator that makes that a bit of a pain, quite literally.

Day 2 in Vienna

Our second day in Vienna was on a Sunday. And yes mom, we went to church. Three times, actually. They were all Catholic churches but churches nonetheless.

Unlike the US, most places shut down completely on Sundays. Shops, a lot of restaurants, etc. I think it is so refreshing. Granted, as a tourist who wants to eek all she can out of a place the short time she is there, I sometimes find it a bother. But for the most part I think it is really nice that somewhere the sabbath is still the sabbath and people close things down to go home and spend time with their families and relax. At least that's how the scenario plays out in my naive and hopeful little mind.

The first church to which we went had Mass going on so we sat down and listened for a while. It was in English (is that strange to anyone but me?) so that was easy. It actually felt like being at my home church at the end because the pastor-guy announced that they were going to have a pizza party for the choir at 7pm at such-and-such's house to celebrate a job well done.

The next church was getting ready for Mass and a choir was practicing so we listened to that for a bit. Not wanting to sit through another Mass, we left.

The third church we went to twice. First to look around inside. Mr X decided that it would be a good church to go to if you had kids because you could look around for hours inside this place - it was so intricately decorated. A concert was scheduled for later on in the evening on the pipe organ so we decided to come back for that. It was a nice concert and the organist played some classic pieces and some original ones he wrote.

The three churches mentioned above were all situated around the Hofburg complex, which was the seat of Austrian power for something like six centuries.

We also stopped by Karlskirche (Karl's Church) but they were charging for admission and we are too cheap. But it was built after the plague epidemic of 1713 and dedicated to St. Charles Borromeo, the patron saint of the plague. I had no idea there was a plague patron saint...

After that we stopped by the Soviet War Memorial.

We walked through the Volksgarten. (No that's not cotton candy - it's a piece of Shokobombe cake and Schwartzwalden Torte which were oh so incredibly delicious later)

And we topped it all off by happening on an Audi car show that was happening in yet a different church parking lot area. The cars were absolutely beautiful, as you can imagine. But they had these security guard types there and when people started speaking German to us we quickly 'Danka'-ed and left.

Lange Nacht Der Museen

We arrived in Vienna somewhere around noon. We actually managed to find our hotel room pretty quickly. It only took a few wrong turns and a mad dash for a map and then we made it no problem. The population of Vienna is somewhere around 1.5 million so it is a fairly large city. We stayed within walking distance of the center. The young lady at the reception told us that we arrived on a great day because there was a huge flea market going on during the day and then starting at 6pm they were having an event called "The Long Night at the Museum" which only occur ed once a year. Basically all of the museums in the city participated and if you bought one ticket to one of the museums you could use it to get in free to any other museum you wanted. All museums were open special for the event until 1am and free buses were provided to take anybody to any museums around the town. We managed to visit 5 museums: The Lipizzaner, the Butterfly, the Torture, the Chocolate, and the Shoe Museums. By the time we finished, it was around 11:30pm and we were too tired and cold to keep going. Here are some pictures from the day:

This is Mr X in the maze of the market - it was so much fun to check everything out.This man was selling sauerkraut. He had these enormous barrels of the stuff and if you wanted some he would just reach in bare-handed and grab a fist of it and put it in a container for you. I just wanted to stand there and stare but I don't think he was too thrilled with me.

Here was the starting point for the Long Night at the Museum.This was the Butterfly Museum. It was beautiful and hot/muggy too which was nice since it was so cold outside. We climbed up these stairs that go through a giant tree trunk. I felt like I was at the Jungle Book part of Disneyland...

This was one of the many butterflies there. I have no clue what kind it was since my knowledge regarding the species is sorely lacking. (Nor can I interpret the German names) But I do know that there were a lot and they were the biggest ones I've ever seen. There were all these cocoons at the front of the building too. It was a bit reminiscent of Alien but on a much smaller and far less scary scale.They gave out ridiculous amounts of free (and incredible tasting) chocolate at the Chocolate Museum. We didn't feel that great after this stop.This was a chocolate sculpture - made entirely of different kinds of chocolate. I so badly wanted to destroy it by taking a giant bite (or ten) out of this.The Shoe Museum was more interesting that I expected. They had the various shoes set up out by the time in which they were popular. They also were serving various beverages for our drinking pleasure while browsing the crazy shoes. Mr X and I discovered that every one of those beverages was alcoholic. How generous of them. Do you see this shoe? Who on earth wore that and who thought it was fabulous? I wonder how many people broke their legs walking around on these things.This was a photo of some of the famous horse carriages of Vienna. No, they aren't Lipizzaner horses but that are very lovely anyway. And by the way, those Lipizzaner horses are impressive - they can jump entirely into the air with their rider and do these acrobatic kicks and such. It was very impressive to see.This was simply a picture I took because I thought it caught the look of the streets in the central area of Vienna quite well. It is a beautiful place and Mr X and I had a wonderful time here our first day.

Strange Statues

Here are some pictures of some statues/fountains in Nuremberg Germany. I like them because there is nothing particularly graceful or elegant about them. The first one reminds me of what I might look like by December if I keep eating so much chocolate and cakes and pastries and such while I am here.

The second could be me if I show some restraint in my nutritional choices but that isn't particularly comforting either as it appears starving might bring out my violent streak. Not to mention that apparently my boobs will complete the transition into the hideous tube sock variety. Mr X really can't win: fat or frightening. At least it appears that if I'm fat I'll be somewhat happy, right? Hmmm...I'm going to try to find a third and more appealing option.

I made it

Just in case my mother checks this blog, I'd better let her know that I made it safely to Germany. (Obviously, since I am writing this) Now I can move on to other things...

I'll start at the beginning with the trip over: My flights over were pretty decent. I had window seats the whole way and I didn't have to sit next to anybody that was noisy or smelly, so that was very lucky. The only bad part was that my three flights to get here were all totally separate. They weren't connecting flights or anything like that so when I got to Frankfurt, most of the people that were continuing on got off the plane and went to another gate down the way to catch their next flight. Not me. I had to get off, go through customs, exit the security area and then turn around and get in line for the security checkpoint all over again so I could go back in and go to my next gate. I had about 5 hours between that flight so time was no issue, in fact it was excruciatingly slow. I could have rented a car and driven to Munich in that time but that would have nullified the return portion of my 'cheap' ticket so it wasn't an option. Besides, it was interesting to watch all of the Oktoberfest-crazed people on their way to Munich. From what I could tell, it was a lot of people from England. They dressed up in costume quality Leiderhosen and Heidi-esque outfits, complete with blond pig-tailed wigs. Since there were so many of them, I was relieved that I wasn't headed into the heart of that undoubtedly drunken mad house.

Mr X picked me up from the airport and we took off to Salzburg, Austria. Salzburg is a beautiful little town with a big cliff-faced looking wall surrounding part of the old town area. Mozart memorabilia is everywhere because they really try to milk that, but all in all, it is an adorable place. This was the second time I've stayed there. Both time have been short one night stays on the way to a bigger city. It is unfortunate in a sense because I'd like to spend more time exploring the city, but so far I haven't ventured past the Zentrum (city center). Last time we stayed there on our way to Prague and this time on our way to Vienna. Anyway, after exploring a bit we had a nice German/Austrian dinner at Mozart's Cafe. I had sausage and sauerkraut with a roll and Mr X had the wiener schnitzel and rice with a side salad. Then we wandered home, went to sleep (I was and still am sleep-deprived) and took off the next morning to Vienna. More on Vienna to come. (with lots of pictures too!)

Report on my last day of work in 2007

I know I have said before that I work for a really incredibly company. (Fast Enterprises, LLC - there's my plug for them and no they didn't pay me to put that in here...okay maybe in a sense they did) But they are really wonderful for granting me this 3 month leave of absence. And they are very accommodating and caring for all of their employees, for example: My supervisor's father passed away right after Labor Day and they told him that he could take as much bereavement leave (paid, of course) and he needed. Most companies typically give 3 days per year. I think my coworker has used something like 8 days and he's going to use a few more as well. Anyway, I am going to stop yakking about this now as I would hate to jinx myself and come back to...no job.

So, since I work as a consultant, with a bunch of consultants, me and my little team are put into an everyday working environment with people that work for our client. Based on my previous job experiences, the client never particularly cares for the consultant. (I was previously the client) This may or may not be the case in my current work situation, but I really like the client's employees that I work with. Combine that with genuinely liking the members of my consulting team and well, it makes work a little easier to bear. (cuz work is work, right?) For those of you that are thinking, "wait a sec, she complains about her job all the time...", that is because no matter how much you like the people you work with, it sucks to have to sacrifice evenings and weekends on a nearly constant basis - it sucks the life from you.

Anyway, my point of this was to report on my last day of work for the year so I'll get to it now. The verdict? It was very pleasant. Everyone threw a pot luck luncheon for me of tacos and such. It was delicious homemade food and that's something I've been missing for a while and will likely continue to miss until I get home. (So it was especially nice - and of course I ate too much) I had posole for the first time and it was incredibly tasty stuff and now I want to learn to make it. (some other day when I am back home) Everybody was sweet and fun and they made me feel like I might genuinely be missed while I am away (hopefully it is true). And it is always nice to feel like people actually care. (My friend Kara even gave me a CD I've been bugging her for and a gift which I am not supposed to open until I get there...Of course I'll post on what it turns out to be once I finally get to open it. How exciting!)

So for those of you that I work with that are reading this - you rock! - and I will see you in January.

Cripes - I still need to pack and I leave in 11 hours.

Sometimes I am so dumb.

As I was getting ready for bed last night, I brushed my teeth, flossed and then pulled out my bottle of purple Listerine (my favorite).
I twisted the lid off and took a swig...only to discover that the purple liquid I just dumped into my mouth was my purple nail polish remover.

Nice, a mouth full of acetone. Upon contact the stuff burned so badly that even my teeth ached. Instinctively I spewed it out into the sink and craned my head under the faucet and sat there, letting the water flush out my searing mouth. I could taste the stuff for hours after that so I chain-chewed gum until I drifted off to sleep. (dangerous, I know, because that gum could easily have ended up in my hair - and that wouldn't have been the first time either) Today my tongue is raw and sore but I'm happy because at least my teeth didn't dissolve.


So the moral of this story is: Don't gargle nail polish remover.

Why would one do this?

Today is my second-to-last day of work for the year. *squeeeeak*

I just came back from using the ladies room (If you are wondering what my point is, I assure you there is one) and I feel the need to discuss something I have noticed going on in there: Chatting on the cell phone while in the loo. What's going on there? Why would one decide that's a great place to chat? I mean there you are having a nice conversation with so-and-so with the sounds of tinkling and other bodily noises in the back ground, not to mention the inevitable industrial strength flush. If one of my friends was chatting with me and I heard these noises I would be bothered. I mean, is my friend peeing while she's telling me about what this guy said to her last night? And even if she's merely standing there, I would be distracted by the sounds anyway.

Oh, and no I have never witnessed this at any other job I have had. Have you seen people do this? Or do you do this? I'm curious...

Almost there

Three more days until my flight leaves. I'm swamped with last minute work tasks but I am making progress on them. So it's looking like the item my boss was holding over my head in order to secure my LOA is getting closer to being done. I got the code to work and I'll just be adjusting it a bit tomorrow and then I can start testing. It has been a huge task for me but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Aside from that I still pretty much have everything to do at home still. So I will be up late tonight (and tomorrow and Wednesday) trying to get things in order. Did you know that the post office will only hold your mail for 30 days? After that I have no idea what happens to it... I guess I'll find out.

On another note, Mr X and I have decided against Belgium this weekend. We opted for Austria instead because it will be less driving. So we'll spend our first night in Salzburg and then head on to Vienna for the next two nights. Vienna will be new for me and I am really looking forward to it. (You can expect posts all about Austria next week then) Mostly, though, I'm just looking forward to seeing my husband again.