Tear Down the House

My last weeks in Germany were quite stressful and all a whirl.  I had a several things to do before the movers arrived.  But, the most important thing was buying my beer and compiling my inventory so it all could be shipped and Maryland could tax me.  My friend Jannine and I headed to Belgium for a beer run.  She's awesome AND she has a van.

 Don't worry, some of that is Jannine's.

But all of this is mine and will hopefully make it over.

 The no parking sign outside my house for the day of my move.

So I bought, I organized, I cleaned, I cleaned, I saw friends, I had dinners, I cleaned, I wrapped, I shipped and I ran on July 1st.  I am gone.  I am home.

What were some of the best three years and some of the worst are over.  When asked if I would order it again, that's a hard decision to make.  But without having ordered it, I wouldn't be where I am now, having seen all the places I saw and having met the good friends I made.  And for that, I am grateful.

Upward Over the Mountain

At the end of May I took my final European vacation--a cruise to northern Europe and to St. Petersburg--with Dad, Mom, and Wayne before I returned home.  I'll never be able to complete my places to see list and that's a good thing, but I did get to see a lot of those places during the cruise.  We departed from Copenhagen and visited Oslo, Norway; Aarhus, Denmark; Warnemuende, Germany; Tallin, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; and Stockholm, Sweden.

Copenhagen

 

We all arrived in Copenhagen either a day or two before the ship sailed.  It's a neat city, but then all of the cities in Scandinavia are neat.  We did some wandering and Dad found a new love--Carlsberg.

Changing of the guard in Oslo

Beer in Oslo

The beach in Warnemuende, Germany.

A delicious dunkel in Warnemuende.

Oslo wasn't much to me personally, but I did wander some and we saw the changing of the guard.  Warnemuende is about 3 hours is so from Berlin, but since I had been to Berlin several times, Dad and I stayed in this little seaside town.  It's very popular with Germans for the beach and has lots of fresh fish dishes.  So, we found an outside restaurant under cover when it started raining, had some lunch and some delicious Rostocker beer.

A medieval restaurant in Estonia.

An Estonian microbrew.

I don't know about everyone else, but Tallinn was my favorite stop on the cruise.  Mom found a tour company run by college students and we had a great walking tour of the city.  The country's history is fascinating and they seem to be very proud to finally be on their own, under no other country's control.  Our tour guide recommended that we have lunch at this medieval restaurant where everything is a euro, there are no lights, no utensils, and they jokingly serve you without any customer service. 

Catherine's Palace in St. Petersburg

Paying in rubels can't be that much, right?  Lunch in St. Petersburg.

Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood

St. Petersburg was interesting, perhaps only because we couldn't ever visit there for so long.  I'm glad I went, but I don't think I'll ever go back.  My one goal was to see an onion dome church, with the colorful tops and mosaics.  I got to see that and it was awesome!  Most of the time we were on a bus, though, which I'm not a fan of, but it was probably the better option after seeing how people drive.

 The Vasa in Stockholm

Probably the coolest thing any of us ever have seen in our lives was the war ship the Vasa, in Stockholm.  It sank on it's maiden voyage, just 2km from it's berth and remained at the bottom for almost 350 years.  When found it was almost completely intact.  It was HUGE and breathtaking.

The cruise was a wonderful way to end my tour in Germany, especially with Mom and Dad.