Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

In early September I had a couple of visitors. Dad and Chad arrived on the same day for their Euro trip. They had the requisite schnitzel and beer for their first meal and I showed them around Wiesbaden.

The next day we took a Rhein river cruise up to St. Goar. It was a tad brisk on top of the boat, but we had great weather and saw so many castles. Some of us *cough* even saw submarines. We all really enjoyed the cruise and I don't think Chad thought he'd ever see so many old things within such a short period of time.



In St. Goar, we took a self-guided walking tour of the castle that was built in 1200AD. The views of the river valley were amazing and the castle had so many nooks and crannies to explore.
Chad flew to Paris the next day and Dad and I started our journey. Our main destination was the Belgium beer festival in Brussels, but on the way there, we stopped in Cologne so he could see one of the largest cathedrals in the world.

The festival took place the entire weekend, but unless you get there in the first few hours, it's terribly crowded and very difficult to maneuver (i.e. get beer). Instead, that evening we just went to the main square to see the craziness and then headed to dinner at Chez Leon. It's on a touristy pedestrian street, which meant we got to sit and watch people, a lot of them drunk, pass by our table. I don't know how long we were there, but I know we both enjoyed watching the characters walk by. We ate at the same place both nights, because the food was good and the people watching was phenomenal.


We had a lot of fun at the beer festival. We got there right when it opened at 11 a.m. You have to buy tokens to use inside the fence and Dad, for some odd reason, thought 20 was enough for the both of us. (I used 20 or more last year by myself.) I relented, knowing that we'd need more later...and we did. This year, you had to buy a separate token that you used to return your glass and when you did, you received the token back, which allowed you to get another beer. Last year, when you were done with your glass, you just set it down and someone would come by to pick them up. I guess, with this year's method, the vendors lost fewer glasses.


Dad's first order of business was walking around to all the stands to grab their coasters, which made great souvenirs. Dad also picked up some For his first couple of beers, I directed him to a few of my favorites and ones he might enjoy. We probably stayed there for about 4 hours before we went back to the hotel for a nap (and some water).



The next morning we made a pilgrimage to the Trappist brewery Westvleteren. The monks' brew has been voted as the best beer in the world (the 12 that is) and you have to have an appointment to be able to pick up cases of it. (I've written about this before.) They do have a cafe and a small gift shop, so I had a 12 and Dad had two blondes (those are beers). I made sure to give him a hard time for not having the best beer in the world and instead having blonde beer. Given that this was his first true indulgence in to the world of Belgian beer, I let it slide. We also each bought a six-pack, which is the only opportunity to buy the beer unless you were lucky enough to have an appointment to pick up crates of beer.

After the monastery, we headed to a beer store and found a couple of the beers that Dad enjoyed at the festival, as well as a glass or two, and I got a case of something too. The American military cemetery in Luxembourg was our next stop, but by the time we arrived, it had just closed for the day. We did go back before we headed home. Then, we made our way to the oldest city in Germany: Trier.

Trier has a lot of Roman ruins all over the city and I knew Dad would like it. We saw the amphitheater, the city gate, the baths, and the bridge--all Roman ruins. It's hard to believe that they're still standing and we can still get a good idea of what these structures looked like and how they were used.


On Dad's last day in Germany, I took him to the market, and for lunch to a great Italian deli that serves wonderful, fresh sandwiches, and some yummy prosecco. He also got to meet my friends Kim and Brian, and their ball of energy, also known as Jack.

It was a great visit and hopefully both Dad and Chad can return before I leave next summer.

If It's the Beaches

Azure Window, Island of Gozo, Malta

Malta. It's not a place many people on the west side of the Atlantic know about. Malta is a small island in between Sicily and Tunisia in the Mediterranean. It's been occupied by so many groups, I've lost count. However, the British occupied the island in WWII, as it was a sought after position, given the Nazi's hope to occupy northern Africa with the Axis power of Italy. Because of the British occupation, they speak English. The Maltese grow up bilingual, speaking both Maltese and English. In fact, during the second World War, the British almost made them give up Maltese, because it wasn't a written language. However, after some convincing that their language was secure, since the Nazis couldn't speak it and break what could be considered "code," they told them they could keep it if they turned it into a written language. So apparently on short notice they did so. The language has similarities to both Arabic and to Italian.

The capital, Valletta, was a port of call on the cruise I took last November and I loved it. The city was this mix of Europe and what I thought Africa might look like (I would find out days later in Egypt). But when I found out that other parts of the island were surrounded by this gorgeous blue and these amazing rocky coasts, I wanted to see them for myself.

I was in dire need of a vacation, particularly one that involved a beach or a pool and some sun. I flew down on a Thursday and I was at the pool, facing the Mediterranean by 2:30. I had a beer by 3.

Aside from the beer on this trip, the rest of my diet was not indulgent, as most would define the term. I ate a ton of local fish, which was sooooo good, like sea bass and the black meagre.

This is just for you, Gil. Sea Bass.

Malta is beautiful. You can't take a bad picture. The architecture is so different than what I'm used to. The sandy stone buildings look similar to Egypt, but a LOT cleaner. And then there's that magnificent blue water. It almost doesn't look real. The water really is that blue.

Looking at Valletta from across the harbor

I was supposed to have a tour of the island of Gozo on Friday; however, the private guide I hired had me reserved for 30 August and not 30 July. He made it up to me, though, and gave me a free 1/2 day tour of the island of Malta on Friday and my scheduled tour of Gozo on Saturday.
We toured the island of Malta, seeing some of the places that can be touristy, but then traveled off road, literally, onto rocky paths for some amazing views.

Marsaxlokk Harbor, is still a traditional fishing village. These colorful boats are the fishing boats.

The point of the tour was for us to see what the Maltese live like, so we even visited a "cafe," which was a hole in the wall that locals frequent. A bunch of older men, possibly there for several hours, and others who would stop in for a coffee and a pastizzi on a break. We did the same and tried a pastizzi, a traditional Maltese snack with a flaky crust sort of like a croissant, filled with peas and a potato type filling. It was great. I wanted to take pictures, but felt like it was intrusive, because this is what they do every day, which is nothing special to them. I thought a little like I was exploiting something so normal to them. It is normal, but it's Maltese to me, which isn't any different than an of us. It's just something that I never would have seen on any other tour or by myself and that's the only thing that made it unique.

Popeye's Village--the set where the 1980 movie was filmed and now serves as little tourist attraction.

The next day was my tour of the island of Gozo. The island is less commercialized than Malta, but still very similar. We took a car ferry over, which went past the island of Comino where the Blue Lagoon is located. I wanted to possibly take a boat tour for some snorkeling, but decided a pool and relaxing would do just fine. The tour of Gozo was beautiful and it was hard to take a bad picture. We saw what the Maltese compare to the White Cliffs of Dover, the Azure Window (at the top of this post).

We had lunch at this local restaurant. They grow all their own food and for lunch we had a plate of fresh tomato, olives, goat cheese, onion, and capers along with some fresh bread. It was delicious. He also took me to some sea salt farms. I had never even thought of how they collect sea salt, but this is one way it's done. The colors were very bright and the wind was also really strong.

You can see all of my pictures from my trip here.

My Old Kentucky Home

I had a wild hair. Which is funny, because it's usually a stiff chin hair, not a wild hair, but whatever kind of hair it was, I went home over the 4th of July for a wedding reception. I had already declined my invitation many weeks before, but bored one Saturday, I discovered "cheap" tickets, so I plucked the hair or smoothed the hair or...I bought the ticket, okay.

It was a quick trip home, I'll admit that, but well worth it. I flew into Washington and out of Louisville, where the reception was held. I spent 1.5 days in Baltimore, if you can count the rush hour traffic from Dulles Airport, which we avoided by stopping in Washington D.C. for Angus burgers and beer. On Friday Chris and I set out early on a road trip to Louisville, Kentucky.


Instead of the typical mindset of having to get there as quickly as possible, we drove and when we wanted to stop, we did. Our first fun stop, was at a casino somewhere near Charleston, West Virginia (but not Charlestown races and slots like you hear on the commercials in Ohio). In 30 minutes, we lost $33 in a few slots, but mostly my fault at the craps table. I was able to annoy a bunch of old men when I showed up to the table and everyone passed the dice until they got to me, when I happily threw them for craps. Everyone loses! Woohoo!!

Back in the car and on the road a while longer, I saw a sign for Louisa (Kentucky), when I exclaimed, "that's where my great-grandparents were from! I was there once to see G.G.'s (great-grandmother) grave!" The genealogist in Chris couldn't resist, so we turned the car around and headed back for the exit and found our way to Louisa.
Once there, we trolled through town searching for a cemetery and finally stopped to ask someone. He gave me directions and we headed up a hill to find it. I had been to Louisa once before when I was probably around 10 years old. The area where my great-grandparents had their house was going to be flooded to turn into a park and we went down so we could see it one time, and for Grandpa and my Dad to see it one last time. We saw where the house used to stand and some bricks that once made up the one-room school house where my grandpa attended. On that trip we also visited G.G.'s grave and all that I could remember was that the grave was on a hill.


So Chris and I searched this small cemetery, looking at every headstone and plate in the grass, but found nothing. Back into town we stopped at a gas station for water, where Chris asked a customer about another cemetery. He gave us the locations of two others, which were more out of the way than the first. The largest of the three we visited, I was certain felt right, but after searching, we found nothing. Although we didn't find the graves, we did learn that one of our federal government officials came from Louisa. Pretty exciting.


On Saturday morning, for breakfast we met Chris' family, who had driven up from Tennessee, along with his daughter and son-in-law, the bride and groom. I just loved listening to them talk, because I love their accents. However, after not understanding something Chris said (his accent gets thicker the more he's around his family), I was corrected by his Mama that he didn't have an accent. Yes Ma'am!

The reception was Saturday. It was a burger bar and a local Louisville brew, with instructions to "wear whatever you're comfortable in." Perfect. I think weddings are overrated. The beer was wonderful and the burgers were delicious! Low key and no chicken dances. Nice job, Jen and Scott! Congratulations!

We visited the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory and that was awesome. They had an exihibt where you could choose from 4 game-used bats to stand at a plate to swing or have your picture taken. Every kid was opting for Lou Gehrig's bat (or was it Mickey Mantle's?), but being the oddball Reds fan, I chose Johnny Bench's bat.


On Sunday, we went to Churchill Downs. Because of the holiday, it was free to get in. Completely confused on where we could sit to see the track out of the sun and how to bet on the races, we sought help. A lovely usher gave us seats for a very small tip, a card on how to bet, and the program for race day. We sat in "box" seats, which had a tv with the race and were directly in front of the room where the rich people stayed, with air conditioning, servers, tables, food, and drinks. They only came out to watch the races.


We bet on every race we saw. We knew nothing about the horses, but chose based on their names and sometimes their odds. Our math wasn't that great, but I think we came out almost even.

Here's to America's birthday and to chin hairs!

On an Evening in Roma

Over Memorial Day weekend I went to Rome with my good friends Kim, Brian, and their 4-year old son Jack. Rome was another place on my list that I have always wanted to see, so in April when Lufthansa was having a sale on flights within Europe, we combined that with a holiday weekend and booked it. We stayed at a place we booked through Vacation Rentals by Owner, which is a site that regular people use to put their house/apartment/whatever up for vacationers in cities all over the world. Our place was great. It was just down the street from the Colosseum, away from the noise of the main street, and included a private patio.

The Italian gentleman, Andreas, we rented the apartment from recommended restaurants, certain self-paced tours of sites, and also where the grocery store and other necessities were. Since we were starving, we went to the closest recommended restaurant to our hotel and it was awesome. It was a small place with seats outside and it was packed with Italians and tourists alike. The place across the street was empty. The prices were super cheap and the house wine was amazing. We liked this place so much that we went back for our last night. The best part was that the local Italians seemed to love it as much and they were regulars, judging by their interaction with the staff and owner.

On Saturday, we headed for the Spanish Steps. We hadn't had coffee or anything to eat yet, so in tremendous faux pas, we found a McDonald's and got coffee and croissants. We wandered over to a piazza that Andreas recommended, where you could climb to a high point and get a view of the city. After that, we had lunch and then walked to the Vatican, for which we had reserved tickets online.

Spanish Steps

View of Rome

First of all, the Vatican is huge. You walk in and you see signs pointing toward the Sistine Chapel, which is all I wanted to see, you walk down some halls, past beautiful artwork, and some awesome ceiling art, but you still aren't there. So you follow more signs and you think that it's got to be close. But it's not. More hallways, more art, more signs. Finally, you arrive to a huge, dim room full of tourists who wanted to see the same thing. And you look up.

Not the Sistine Chapel, but very beautiful.

Even though there are signs saying no photography and guards, too few for the large crowd, shouting 'no photographs', there are still people taking pictures. So, I turned off my flash, held the camera at my chest and pointed up for a few shots. It's hard to see (especially since I didn't bring my glasses) with the dim light, but it was absolutely amazing and beautiful. The crowds got to me, though, so I didn't stay long.

The Sistine Chapel

Me, in from the Vatican and not on fire!

Since we had been walking all day, literally from the Vatican to our apartment near the Colosseum, Brian and I went to the grocery store to get stuff for dinner. We bought super cheap wine, which turned out to be really good, and had pasta with sausage and zucchini on the patio that evening. It was wonderful.

The walk to Piazza Navona

Rome is filled with lots of statues with butts and phallic symbols. Funny.

On Sunday our only goal was to see the Colosseum and we figured 10 was pretty early, but were surprised to find the line already with a wait of 45 minutes. So instead of waiting, we joined one of the English tours they were trying to get people to join outside and I'm glad we did. Had we just paid for entry, we wouldn't have heard any of the stories of the entertainment that the Colosseum intended. Around 700,000 people died in matches and thousands of different kinds of animals from all over the world that the Romans could reach. The guide said that they had "comedy" shows in between the battles. The comedies were things like a dog versus a porcupine or a woman versus a midget.

Inside the Colosseum, this was the arena floor, which you can see they've reconstructed there on the right. The gladiators entered from beneath and the floor had trap doors to remove the dead animals or the gladiators. The gladiators were mostly criminals who were serving a sentence and they lived across the street, where they learned to fight. Being a gladiator, if you survived, was sort of like being a Hollywood star in today's world.

Since Jack wasn't having a lot of fun and Brian was bored too, they left Kim and I to walk around on our own after lunch. We strolled the city, saw Trevi fountain, and got a gelatto and coffee. That evening we went back to the same restaurant we tried the first night. Kim and I got an awesome spicy pasta and mussels dish and some delicious red house wine.

Trevi Fountain

It was a great trip, with great weather, and some great friends. I'm happy to have been able to see Rome with them.