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New Zealand’s North IslandWith only a week to explore New Zealand, we focused on just seeing the norther half of the North island. The blue water and tropical, volcanic mountains looked very much like Kauai, which is a big compliment. Now that we know how much there is to see in NZ, it’s time to start planning our next trip! |
BudapestWe decided to spend our our last weekend in Europe soaking in the hot baths of Budapest. We loved this city more than we could have imagined. Beautiful, fascinating, and relaxing, all at once. |
Liz conquers her fear of heightsWhile hiking on the flanks of Mt. Pilatus, a beautiful mountain just outside of Lucerne, Liz slipped, fell, and somehow shattered her tibia in the process. We were fortunate to run into some very generous mountain bikers, who helped us call for help. The pictures do a better job of telling the story than I ever could. Liz was such a trooper — she stayed calm, cool, and collected throughout the ordeal, and let us know what worked and didn’t work as we help to move her to a clearing where the helicopter could see us. Two months later, she is still on crutches, but her bones and ligaments are on their way to full strength again. What do you say, Liz, same time and place next summer? |
ViennaWe’ve been negligent in posting pictures from the last half of our 2009 European Adventure, but now that it’s the Thanksgiving weekend, we figure there’s no excuse. Here’s the first in a series of belated photo montages: Vienna, home of the world’s best pastries! |
Halloween 2009We spent Halloween with Aaron and Kate at Kate’s parent place. You know it’s a party when someone breaks out the mullet wig. |
Organizing meals for the New Year’s 2010 weekendWe want everybody to participate in making New Year’s 2010 a great weekend. If you are planning on attending, please sign up to handle one of the meals (or a part of one of the meals) listed on the planning site: http://www.jooners.com/guest?t=help&p=none&l=-b6a1568:124bb0e29ee:177d We will keep a running tally of the total number of people, so you can decide how many boxes of wine to bring, or how many buckets of KFC to order. Current RSVPs: 20 |
Mama Mia…Tuscany is one bella regioneWe attended a two day cooking class in Tuscany a couple of weeks ago, and wow… it was really fun! We learned how to make fantastic eggplant parmesan, three kinds of bruschetta, delicious tiramisu, and the best raviolis we’ve ever had. Even better than the famous Hutnick Italian Scratch PartyTM raviolis, and that’s saying something! Tina and Manuela were great instructors with lots of positive feedback (“Si, perfecto!”) and assurances (“Non c’e problema”). Believe it or not, there were four “Mama Mia”s articulated over the two days (that’s 0.5 MM per hour). To know that Italians actually use that phrase was, as the Master Card commercial says, “priceless”. In addition to teaching us the basics of Tuscan cooking, the classes offered us a chance to spend two evenings with the instructors’ wonderful families and friends in their thousand year old villa tower. After fours hours of cooking each evening, we presented our creations to our appreciative new friends. The bed and breakfast we stayed at was ancient, too. We weren’t thrilled with the owner, but we loved the location. Other than the cooking classes, we explored two smaller towns south of Firenze. We spent most of Friday in Siena where the Palio, the famous horse races, take place twice a summer. Saturday we went to the Renaissance and Medieval town of Colle di Val d’Elsa where crystal has been manufactured since the 19th century. The Siena Cathedral was possibly the most impressive we’ve see yet. Rather than try to describe it, have a look at the pictures below. |
Prague – Tourista capital of the world (for good reasons)We just got back from Prague today and a few words of advice to anyone thinking of going for a visit – go in the fall after the tourists (meaning us) are gone. The low cost hotels, food and transportation make Prague a great vacation for Europeans and North Americans alike. The main sites were crowded . We’re talking Disney World crowded. But amazingly, everyone was happy and civilized, and we managed to enjoy our stay regardless. Prague is a city of mixed cultures and eras. There are castles and palaces from the 9th century and there are mid-Century Soviet-style buildings mixed in between. The older buildings are adorned with statues of Saints, cherubs or leaders from the past. The Soviet buildings are as expected – square and big with little to no decoration. The visit to the Prague Castle alone was worth having to contend with throngs of fellow visitors. It would take many visits to see and appreciate all eleven centuries of art, history and architecture. Here are just a few pictures that barely capture the spectacle of the ancient walled city and its centerpiece, St Vitus Cathedral. Who knew that the Czech Republic was famous for its beer? We conducted our own small taste test and agree that the beer in Prague is very good. Budweiser is the original beer of Bohemia and shares little resemblance to the American beer of the same name. Try as we might, the locals didn’t catch on to the Josh->”Bud” game. Even better than “original bud” was another local brew, Pilsner Urquell. Yum. As a transition from low- to high-brow, our grand finale was a pair of box tickets for La Traviata at the State Opera House. No fat lady singing, but a cute one dying and a moving performance just the same. The two tickets to sit in the first tier loge were only $60. That was the deal of the day! Either that or the 30kc (less than two dollars) gellato waffle cones. |
