Would You Go With Me

Two weekends in a row in May, I went on trips. On May 21st, my friend Kim and I headed to Bruges, Belgium, a small city in West Flanders sometimes called the Venice of the north. It's one of the cutest cities I've ever visited. It's very small, but has so many cute roads and what I think is beautiful architecture. After very annoying traffic all the way up, Kim and rushed to dinner to have what ever tourist visiting near the North Sea should have......mussels. And when in Belgium, beer. Kim was even a trooper and had beer, save for the last dinner.



The next day, we were grateful for the bright ball in the sky, which Germany seems to lack from October through May. We strolled through the city and took a canal boat ride to see some of what you can't by foot. We took a tour of De Halve Maan, the only working brewery left in the city, and had mussels for lunch. With beer. There were no museums or plans or large groups to satisfy. We just did what we wanted, which some might argue wasn't much, and had a lot of fun.


At the end of canal ride, our canal boat driver asked us if we could recall the story of Romeo and Juliet. As he did so, we approached a house with an open window, out of which a blond was looking. It turns out, she's the Juliet of Bruges and she's not a bad looking broad.

I'm Gonna Take You Home

I was able to go home....for the entire month of April. 1 week in Ohio and 3 in Maryland. Some might call it a boondoggle, but I call it comforting.

In Ohio, I got to spend some much needed time family time with Mom and Dad, and I even got to see Chad, the now MBA graduate, for a bit. I did a lot of relaxing, despite the fact that I was wide awake between 4 and 5 for the first week. Mom and I went to Wilmington to visit Great Aunt Rosey and Great Uncle Kenny. I showed up bearing gifts, which I later learned Kenny seemed to devour before Rosey had the chance to notice. (Don't worry, Rosey, you'll get your own soon.) We also got to visit Grandpa, who smiled at me, and that was enough. Dad and I drove some golfballs one afternoon. Okay, Dad drove golfballs, I just swung the club and was lucky if they went far enough that I didn't get to retrieve them to try again. We also got to see the Blue Jackets lose one last time for the season.

Kenny, me, and Rosey at the Veteran's Memorial in Wilmington

After a relaxing week in Ohio, I went to Maryland for work and, of course, fun. As usual, I ate my way through the city at places like Abbey Burger Bistro and Woodberry Kitchen. I got to see a group of good friends and pictures of a good friend's so-called "wife" and "child." I also took in the wonderful weather at some iconic Baltimore sights with my best friend. We also saw the O's lose one of the first games of the season.

Johnny America

French Navy

Yesterday, 7 friends and I headed to the Champagne region of France. It's been on my list of places to visit for a while now. I can even remember the year I spent in Austria wanting to go. So I made the arrangements and took care of most of the logistics for the trip.

My friends, David and Rita, who are stationed in Mons, Belgium and who speak fluent French helped us so much with this trip. They suggested visiting a smaller champagne house, away from the bustle of either Reims or Epernay, and then visiting a larger one for the underground tour. So we took the suggestion and we were lucky enough that they wanted to join us as well.

We all met at the champagne house Gobillard in a small town near Epernay, where we probably could have tasted as much as we wanted, all at no cost. They figure that the more you drink, the more you buy. It was really good and I liked that it was a small place. I bought 4 bottles and David and Rita, who are leaving in July, stocked up because they recently found out you could ship alcohol home to MD in your household goods and MD only taxes you 40 cent/gallon. That's nothing!

David was so sweet to make reservations for lunch for all of us at a 1 star Michelin restaurant in Epernay. The food was AMAZING. We ordered off of the 3-course menu, which was only 17 euro. I had snails in a cream sauce over an artichoke, then salmon lasagna, then a cheese plate for dessert, all with a glass of champagne. (Thank you David and Rita!!)

After lunch we said our goodbyes to David and Rita, then headed to a large champagne house, Mercier, for a tour of their underground tunnels where they age the champagne. The tour consisted of a movie, a snails-paced elevator with animatronics, and then the laser-guided train through the underground tunnels.
We went for the 3-glass tasting instead of the 1, but none of us liked the champagne at all. Good thing we had some at Gobillard.
By the end of the tour and tastings, we were exhausted. It had been a long day. We checked into the hotel, which was the nicest, cheapest place I'd ever stayed--60 euro for a 4-person room, and then we went to the grocery store for French wine and champagne. We had no idea what wines we were buying, so my criteria were 1.) French, 2.) under 6 euro, and 3.) that I like the label. I bought a bottle of decent champagne and a couple other cheap ones too and a bottle of creme de cassis for kir royales.
As always, I laughed a ton and I'm glad I was able to accomplish something on my list. I'm just grateful I have the ability to do these things and with some really wonderful people. I'm a lucky woman.

Gone Going

This month I've been to many countries. Notice that I didn't say I had spent a lot of time in many countries, because that would be a false statement.

Last weekend Will asked if I wanted to ride along to Belgium to get beer, because he had made an appointment to pick up his two cases of 12 from the Trappist monastery in Westvleteren. It's a 5-hour drive from here and he didn't want to go alone, since Amy was out of town, so I got the experience without the hassle of trying to call and get through to make an appointment. We left early Saturday morning and ended up driving from Germany, about 30 minutes through France, and back into Belgium. We stopped at two large beer stores on the way there. Lucky for me (but only because of this trip), Amy and Will are leaving at the end of June to move back to Maryland, so I got to stock up on some beer using the roominess in his Land Rover.

The first store we stopped at was like a Toys R Us for adults. The first thing you see after you drop off your empty crates and bottles for the refund is a bar. A bar in a beer store!! Now THAT is heaven. There were so many rows of crates of beer, many of them I had never heard of, that it was overwhelming. I knew what I wanted to get, but I exceeded my expectations and could have gone for more if I didn't think it would have been rude to take up that much room.


5 crates of beer and 4 large bottles of special Christmas beer that was leftover from the season, plus 6 glasses, a bar towel, a tray, and some Belgian chocolate. Any guesses to the damage done? You might judge me.


After playing Tetris in the car, we headed to the monastery. You have to call on certain days (noted on thier website) for a chance to make an appointment to pick up a specified number (usually 2 and sometimes 3) of crates of a type of their beer (the blonde, 8, or 12). It has been voted the best beer in the world, the 12 that is, but I think it might only hold the vote because it's so difficult to come by. Two crates of the 12 is 30 euro each, plus a bottle and crate deposit, which came to 100 euro. However, one crate of the 12 in the U.S. can be sold for about $400. Now, that's technically against the waiver that you sign when you pick up your beer that says you will not resell your beer, blah, blah, blah. At the monastery is the only place you can buy or taste the beer, legally, but the last time I checked, a Trappist order of police didn't exist.

The cafe where you can have a glass of each of their beers, a coffee, or a light snack, as well as make a purchase of their cheese, or a sampler pack of their beer and glasses.

I tried the 12 a few weeks ago at Amy and Will's house and I had tried the blond at the Belgium beer festival last September, so on this trip I also go to experience the process as a tag-along. I'm glad I got to go and I might try for an appointment for the 12 sometime, but it's not high on my list of things to do. The St. Bernardus 12 tastes quite similar and it's much, much easier to find at a price that's easier on the purse strings too.

The point where the check your license plate to match the order and give you your beer.Empty cases and bottles customers returned.

We were going to stay in a small town near the monastery, but once we got there and saw the room, even the draw of the hotel bar with 100 Belgian beers couldn't get us to stay. So we drove home that evening, stopping for Belgian frites (fries) along the way, and somehow adding another country to our trip--the Netherlands.

Things I Like to Do

Since Christmas, most of my time outside of work has been spent with friends, who I'm very lucky to have here. Mostly we just get together for dinner, conversation, or a movie....and a drink or so. This winter has been a long one (especially without my beloved laptop), but it was much better than last year. The number of days it snowed was absurd since "it never snows here." And because it never snows, they also don't believe in snow removal. Their idea of cleaning the streets consists of letting the cars drive on the roads to pack the snow down, which later turns into ice. It was so much fun.

Over the 3-day holiday weekend in January, my friend Dave and I decided to take a day trip to Koblenz. We heard it was a nice city and it's at the confluence of the Moselle and Rhein rivers. I'm sure it's a very pretty city, when your teeth aren't chattering and you're constantly looking for a church to duck into to get warm.

I don't look cold at all.Neither does Dave.

Also in January, I drove to Mons, Belgium to visit David and Rita, with whom I used to work. They were kind enough to invite me over for a weekend to be Belgian, which basically includes beer and french fries. I was in heaven. They have a fryer in their kitchen counter!! I'm afraid that would be a little too dangerous, even for me. Unfortunately, I forgot to take out my camera the entire weekend so I don't have any pictures. Mostly, though, all three of us had a beer in our hand and a fistful of fries in the other for a good part of the weekend. (And those who know me well or who have been reading my blog with interest and are probably wondering why I'd even make that statement--it's pretty much a given.) They also took me to SHAPE, which includes a grocery store filled with international food and drink, catering to the many nationalities stationed there. I think I'd like to work there just for the international food selection (and beer) without taxes!

In February, my friend Chris came to visit again. We relaxed around here and we also took a trip to Berlin. It was so cold that it was hard to walk around much, but we did take in some of the sights, since he had never been. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, and the East Side Gallery, which is the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall still standing. We also had dinner at a restaurant called the Alpenstueck, where I had the best meal since I've lived here. The Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, was also taking place and we got free tickets to a showing of film shorts by Mexican directors. There were no George Clooney or Leonarda Dicaprio sightings, but we felt famous.

Yes, that's ice on the river.I need longer arms for self-portraits in front of large monuments.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

This year, Christmas felt more like it should during the holidays. Mom came to visit and arrived with Wayne on the 23rd. Luckily, they were here for the last day of the Christmas market in Wiesbaden. They tasted potato pancakes, Gluehwein, and a bratwurst at the market, all within the first few hours they were in Germany. Not bad and that was just the first trip down. They wanted to see the market, which is called the "twinkling star market," at night. So around 4:00, when there was only a few more minutes of daylight (I'm not kidding), we went down to walk around again and have more food--this time potato soup.

On Christmas Day I had 12 of my closest, crazy friends over for dinner, drinks, and fun. Come to think of it, that's really what happens every time we get together, but this time it involved a tree and hot oil--Will and the other boys fried a turkey in my backyardish area and it was delicious. Everyone brought something to share and we had more food than we could stuff ourselves with. Surprisingly, Mom and Wayne weren't scared away and enjoyed meeting everyone. Mom realized that I am not an alcoholic--ALL of my friends drink this much ;)


We visited Ruedesheim the day after Christmas and then on Sunday we drove down to Trier and stayed the night. In Trier there are a ton of Roman ruins, which they enjoyed seeing, even if we couldn't get into some of them. It was colder than a witch's.....well, you know, so walking around outside was hard after while. Luckily there are heated churches and bakeries for kaffee und kuchen (coffee and cake) during the afternoon, which we delightedly sampled during the afternoon.

The next morning, although Wayne was feeling really sick, we drove the 20 minutes across the border to Luxembourg to see the American military cemetery and where Patton is buried. After that, we came straight home and Wayne went straight to bed, where he remained until they left on the 1st. Poor Wayne, on his first trip to Germany he stayed home sick for most of it.

Because of that, Mom and I just did little trips around here. The best was when we went to this old monestery, Kloster Eberbach, which isn't a monestary anymore. We had a great lunch there of Riesling soup, then took the walking tour of the monestery.

Mom was also starting to get sick and by the 31st, she had it. I went to a party and they were in bed by 8. I went to a couple's house down the street for a small party with fondue. Just before midnight we went downtown, where I went last year, to watch the crazy Germans light fireworks. This year, however, some of those crazies were my friends.

Although everyone could have done without the getting sick part, I'm glad I could have family here for Christmas.

Here are the pictures from Mom's visit and from Christmas.