Oslo

Inside City Hall

The city hall is supposed to the thing to see in Oslo.  It was beautiful inside.  We spent an arm and a leg on a taxi from the bus station to the port to meet our cruise and asked him to wait while we ran, literally, into city hall, snapped some pictures and then took off for the pier.  Oslo looked like any other big city.  We weren't hugely impressed.

Madrid in May

Toledo, Spain

We spent Memorial Day Weekend 2011 in Madrid, Spain.  We took the train to Toledo one day and spent our time wandering around this hilly town, shopping, and visiting the most beautiful cathedral in all of Spain.  In Madrid, we toured the Palacio Real de Madrid (The Royal Palace of Madrid).  If you visit the palace, avoid Wednesdays, as it's free for locals on that day.  We also spent time at the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art.  Entrance is free on most days at certain times, so check a guide book first.  We were there during the San Isidro Festival and were able to get tickets to see a bull fight.  Although I don't think I would be interested in seeing another one, I am glad I got to experience this.  Our favorite part of Madrid though, was the eating and drinking!  We went to a number of fantastic restaurants and bars.  The sangria there is the best I've had and the tapas were amazing.  We spent almost $45 on a plate of Jamón and it was worth every penny!  

At the bull fight

Champagne Tasting- Reims and Epernay

We spent a long weekend in the Champagne Region of France.  I had planned this trip out pretty well before we left.  Having the trip during their off season posed some need for setting up appointments prior to arriving in the towns and just stopping in for tours/tastings.  We drove to Reims first.  The champagne houses are spread out in Reims, which means you need a car to get around.  I had made reservations for us at Martel, G.H. Mumm on our first day.  We loved Martel.  It's a smaller champagne house and perhaps it was because it was our first that we loved it so much.  A short tour and tasting later, I was at the register buying our first of many bottles that weekend!  The tour at Mumm was great, although we didn't particularly love the tasting.  You may think the tours get old, but they don't.  They are pretty different and although they explain the same process of champagne making, it's still interesting..especially if you weren't aware of the process before hand.  On the second day, we tasted at Pommery.  LOVED the caves and the tastings.  This was our favorite tour and because we were in the off season..it was a private tour.  Just us and the guide which is great for getting your questions answered.  While in Reims, we visited the Reims Cathedral.  So worth a visit.  We also visited the Porte de Mars, which is right next to the train station.  It's the old entry gate to the city and was built in the 2nd Century AD.  On our last day in Reims, we stopped by the Musee de la Reddition, the historic room where the Germans signed the surrender document of WWII.  I'm really glad we made this stop.  It cost 3 euros to get in and actually has passes to five other museaums, including the planatarium.  You may want to check out the other options if you are into museaums, have kids, or maybe not so much into Champagne.
We spent another night in Epernay, which was much prettier and fancier than Reims..thus my favorite of the two.  The champagne houses in Epernay are all conviently located on Avenue de Champagne.  We had a scheduled tour at Mercier.  This tour was very cool because it was a little train that brought you for a ride through the caves along with an audio guide in your language.  The tasting was nice, not my favorite, but of course we ended up buying some.  We also stopped at some houses randomly for tastings, which was fun too.  The tastings can get expensive, but we would choose different champanges to taste and double our tastings that way!  On the way back to Germany, we stopped in a town called Dizy and drove up to the Hautvillers (High Village) atop the vineyards.  What a view!  What a town!  Of course we stopped at a place to taste called G.Tribaut, which I would recommend if you find yourself in Dizy.  It's all local and probably doesn't get shipped out of Epernay, but it was good.  If you're there, try the Ratafia (it's special to just this champagne house and has a whopping 18% alcohol level).  Yeah, I got this and could barely see straight walking back to the car..not the first time this weekend to be drunk by noon. :)  Although we didn't buy any Ratafia for home, we did come back with over 10 bottles of Champagne.
I've added our hotels and the restaurants in the Trip Planner section if interested.
Some tips:  First, you will hit many tolls (I think we counted 4 from Stuttgart each way).  However, stay on the autobahn.  Although it cost money in tolls, it's better than doing the back roads and they do take credit cards at the toll booths.  This was a tip given to me from someone who used to live in the area.  Second, fill up your gas tanks at stations part of super markets, ex. Cora.  They tend to be cheaper than gas stations by themselves.  Brian brought along a filled contatiner of gas that he got on base, so that saved up quite some money on gas as well.  I wasn't a huge fan of driving all that way with my pups and a filled gas contatiner in the back, but it ended up being fine and a good choice for using gas money on more champagne!
Also, the last Esso station in Germany is located at Haupstrasse 46, 76461 Muggensturm for those of you wanting to use your esso card. 

I'm in Africa! Ringing in the New Year in Morocco!

I still can't believe how lucky I am to have just taken a trip to Africa!  Morocco was amazing.  Our riad, which is a traditional Moroccan house or palace with an interior garden or courtyard, was absolutely amazing.  We had dinner there almost every night and I swear it was the best food I have ever eaten!  The location was perfect, right inside the medina.  

A medina is typically walled, contains many narrow and maze-like streets, and was built by Arabs as far back as the 9th century.  The medina in Fez is believed to be the world's largest contiguous car-free urban area.
On our first day, we decided to hire a guide to give us a tour of the medina.  We visited the tanneries and had one of the workers give us an overview of what they were doing.  Very cool!

The following day, Brian and I, well, who am I kidding, Brian felt comfortable navigating through the medina on our own.  We explored all day, getting lost and finding our way again, doing some shopping..Brian is quite the haggler and got us a beautiful mirror inlaid with camel bone for a 1/4 of the asking price.  Awesome!  On our third day in Fez, we decided to explore the country side and hired another tour guide, this time, with a car.  He was fantastic and brought us to the mountains where we fed wild monkeys and had tea with a 100 year old Berber woman.  Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley.  And on our last day, we took a tour of the ceramics factory.  Truly a memorable trip. 

Rome

Brian and I spent Thanksgiving in Rome this year.  What a great time of year to visit this city!!  I did reserve tickets online for the Vatican Museum.  I also did my research and found that the Rome Pass is a great thing to get if you plan on going to two or more other sights.  I knew we would go to the Colosseum and I also had read about the National Museum of Rome, which both accepted the Rome Pass.  The Rome Pass allows free admission to the first two sights as well as free metro rides.  It also allows you to not wait in line!  Score!!  So with the combination of having the Rome Pass as well as going at a time of year when there are little tourists, it made for the perfect trip to such a busy city as Rome.  We flew into the smaller airport and were able to hop on a bus that brought us right to Termini Station.  Our hotel was just a quick walk or one stop on the Metro away from Termini.  The hotel was great..see more info in Trip Planner section.
We loved walking around the Spanish Step area and shopping..okay I loved that part!  We love food and we loved eating all over Rome.  Such fantastic homemade pastas and yummy gelato too!  Who needs turkey on Thanksgiving?

Budapest

Brian and I spent Columbus Day Weekend in Budapest, Hungary this year.  We rented our own apartment right downtown, an awesome location.  We did the Hop On/Off bus one day, which I would recommend in this spread out city.  It includes a Danube River Cruise, which was nice, especially to see Parliament from the river view.  We took the English tour of the Opera House, which is really beautiful inside and if you've never been inside to see an Opera, then it's worth the price.  We stood in line to get into Parliament, but obviously got there too late.  If you go, you must get in line super early to get your tickets.
We toured the Hospital in the Rock, Castle Hill, and the rest of Buda mostly by the Hop On/Off bus.  We took a separate bus tour out to Momento Park.  It cost extra, but was worth it for the convenience of it all.  Here's some pictures of me with the Statues of the Communist Era in Hungary.

See me dictating from up near Stalin's boots?!

 We wandered around Pest mostly on foot.  Our apartment was in a great location and we really only used the Metro to get to the Spa.  The thermal spa was a fantastic experience.  Somewhat different from the mineral spas here in Germany and very different from the Turkish baths in Istanbul.  We spent the day at the Mineral Therm Bath and really loved it!  I would highly recommend it if you find yourself in Budapest.  We follow the Rick Steves guide pretty closely no matter what country we're in.  We've just found it to always have great info and great hotel/restaurant recommendations.  Budapest was no different.  Although our apartment didn't come out of there, most places we stopped to eat at did.

 I did happen upon a Chocolate Bar one night as we walked home from a yummy Indian dinner.  We went inside and we ordered our "hot chocolate".  These were really like a thick, hot, drinking chocolate.  I got Hungarian Bon Bon, which had Bourbon in it.  It was amazing and so rich, I couldn't finish it.  Brian was happy to help me out.  The next time we went I decided that I better go light and instead got a banana with chocolate, which was perfect and I was able to finish the whole thing!  YUMMY!!

Baden-Baden

We spent a night in Baden-Baden this Labor Day weekend.  We went to the Friedrichsbad, and I would highly recommend getting both the soap and brush massage and creme massage.  We walked around this super cute town, which reminded me of Newport, RI.  If you go, definitely take a stroll along the Lichtentaler Allee and take a peek into the Gönneranlage, a free rose garden.  If your interested in rose gardens, then you have to take a drive (about 10 min. from town) and visit the Rosenneuheiten-garten., it's on Moltkestrasse.  This garden costs a euro to enter and is just beautiful!!
A visit to the Casino while in town is a fun thing to do at night.  Jeans are not allowed and we think a sports coat is mandatory for men.  It costs 5 euros to enter and you must present your passport to get your entrance ticket which lasts the day.