Wow, it’s hard to believe that this time next week we will wake up in Washington. This year has been a great experience and one that Mike and I will look back at with a smile. England has been great for us on so many levels but I do know that Mike is ready to stop working such long hours. Overall though there has been far more good than bad about this experience.

We are both looking forward to getting back to Washington and our friends but I guess when you have had as positive experience as we have the return is bitter sweet. We can’t wait to get back to the people and things we left behind but by going back we are leaving people and things behind over here.

A few things we will miss:

Walking on a daily basis. We are located so centrally in Chester we rarely use the car when we stay in town; everything we need is within walking distance of our house.

Visiting with the owners at Brown Sugar on the weekend when we go in for our morning coffee.

The amazing Indian food!

The delicious hard cider, just can’t get it on tap in the US like you can in England.

The yummy chocolate, so much better than the stuff you get in the states. You can get Cadburry Chocolate year round.

The people; Moose, Kate, Dorothy, Craig, Al, Rachel, Jo and Jim. You have all made this year wonderful.

A few of the things we look forward to back in Washington:

Our own bed and possessions. While we have been fine I feel like when we unpack our storage unit it will be like an early Christmas.

Our friends and family. I can’t wait to see my brother and his girlfriend. I can’t wait to hang out with Erin and Rachel and so many other people.

Sushi! (this is for me, there are no sushi restaurants in Chester) and Mexican food (this is mostly for Mike as there are no good Mexican Restaurants in England).

Our tumble dryer! It’s not that they don’t have dryers in England it’s that we  don’t have one. I’ve gotten use to using a drying rack but I will love having my jeans dry in an hour instead of 1 to 2 days.

Overall this year has been such a great experience. I hope it is not a once in a lifetime opportunity but if it turns out to be I will look back at it with a smile.

We have had amazing travel opportunities between the cheap flights and the proximity of everything we have visited 10 countries in 11 months.

• England
• Wales
• North Ireland
• Ireland
• Netherlands
• Czech Republic
• France
• Spain
• Belgium
• Germany

I am making the most of this final week. Walking when we can, going to dinner with friends and enjoying one more pint while we don’t have to worry about whose driving home.

After spending the morning an early afternoon at the Dachau memorial we headed south another 2 hours to the village of Fussen. Fussen is right on the southern border with Austria. The countryside of Germany is beautiful and we were lucky to have great weather. This part of Germany attracts travelers looking to enjoy the outdoors and it’s famous castles. In the village of Neuschwanstein(about 3 miles from Fussen) are the two castles associated with Ludwig II. The first castle was his families “summer palace” when he was growing up and the second castle was the one he was building when he died and is famous for being Walt Disney’s inspiration for Cinderella’s castle.

After checking into our hotel we headed for the castles. By this point it was about 4pm so we wanted to explore as much as we could with the time we had. You can walk the exterior of both castles for free but to tour the inside you have to buy tickets for specific times. You can’t take photos inside but you do get a nice tour for your money. The tours for Neuschwantein Castle were already sold out for the day so we went to the other castle Hohenschwangua.Neuschwantein

Hohenschwangua

The natural beauty of the area was amazing and we could understand why the royal family spent their summers there.

After enjoying the castle and of course partaking in a lovely German beer we headed back to Fussen. Fussen is a cute little village and we found a great place for dinner.

The next morning we got up bright and early and decided to hike up to the Neuschwantein Castle. It’s a bit of a hike so they have horse drawn carriages for those who can’t or don’t want to do the hike; it’s only about 30 minute walk but it’s rather steep. We walked figuring between all the beer and the rich German food we could use the exercise. The castle is quite beautiful but I can only imagine how hard it must have been to get building materials up the mountain. I guess Ludwig II wasn’t known as the “mad king” for nothing. When he died construction stopped immediately on the castle so while it looks complete Ludwig II had much grander plans.

We continued on with our hike a bit past the castle to a great view point so you could really get a good shot of the castle. Again we had beautiful weather so it was great being outdoors.

On our hike down we bought these lovely donut type treats from a vendor an they really hit the spot. When we got back to the village we had to partake in bratwurst and sauerkraut for lunch.

Sadly we realized we should head towards Munich at this point but we realized we could have easily spent all 4 days of our trip just exploring that area.

After an easy drive back to Munich we checked into our hotel and then took the U-bahn into the center of town. The U-bahn was built in the early 70′s in anticipation of the Olympic games and it was so easy to use.

Mike had heard from a friend that we had to go to famous “beer gardens” in the park so that was our first stop. These gardens are in operation pretty much year round. Again we had lovely weather so it was nice to just take in the music and the people.

After the beer garden we headed for the Hofbrauhaus. It’s famous brewery/restaurant first established in 1589. They host their own tent at Oktoberfest and their other tie to history is Adolf Hitler and his fellow Nazi’s frequented the hall in the early days of the Nazi party. We sat outside in the courtyard. We met some lovely people at our large shared table, we met a man from Argentina and two couples one from Canada and one from Ireland.

Monday morning was the big day that was the day we were going to hit the Oktoberfest tents. The tents open early and close around 11pm but because like anything else they have a occupancy capacity your really have to be in the tents by 3pm on a weekday or else you risk not getting in. So after exploring Munich a bit that morning we took the U-bahn to the Oktoberfest grounds. It’s quite a site to see because surrounding the beer tents is a large carnival. It reminded me in many ways of the state fair growing up, lots of rides and lots of food.

After getting lunch we made our way through a few tents before settling on one for the night. We ended up meeting some fun people. One guy was from Canada, he was studying in England and was catching a train later that day to Switzerland to meet his girlfriends parents for the first time. Luckily he had a couple hour train ride to sober up. We also met 3 girls from New Zealand who had been working their way around Europe for the summer. After these people moved on a large group of Germans asked if they could join us and of course we said yes. We had a great time and were quite impressed with ourselves. We paced it well; we started drinking around 2 and made it till around 9pm. At that point Mike said he was ready to go back to the hotel. Thankfully the U-bahn station was nearby so we only had to stumble a short distance to catch our train back. (sorry if that is too much information mom and grandma).

Tuesday morning we woke up and surprisingly neither one of us felt any worse for wear. We headed back into the center of town to do some souvenir shopping and to get some breakfast. Our flight back to England left Munich at 3pm so after a quick lunch and shopping we headed back to catch our flight.

Overall Mike and I both really enjoyed Germany and could have easily spent more time there exploring the countryside and the other cities. This trip was our last trip before heading back to the US and it was a great time. Hard to believe in just 13 days we are moving back.

I originally started this post with the intention of writing about our entire trip to Germany but as I started to write I began to feel like the Dachau Memorial deserved its own post.

Since I knew we were going to be close to Dachau I felt like it was only the right and  proper thing to do. I feel it’s important for us to remember history and something as horrific as the Holocaust must never be forgotten. Because of this I feel like if one is near one of the camps it is important that one go and visit. Dachau wasn’t necessarily the worst of the concentration camps but it is famous for being the first camp and the model for all future camps established by the Nazis.

We flew into Munich early Saturday morning picked up our rental car and headed about 15 miles outside of the city of Munich to the city Dachau. The camp/memorial is on the edge of town.

Dachau opened in 1933 originally as a work/concentration camp for political prisoners. According to the information provided at the site it was built to house 6,000 prisoners but when the camp was liberated in 1945 there were over 30,000 prisoners. There is a lot of information at  the camp, the original guard towers and entrance gate still exist as well as the foundations of the barracks. Onsite there are three memorials, one set up by the Catholic Church, one set up by the Protestant Church, and one set up by the Jewish Community.  By the end of the war the prisoners at the camp included Jews, Catholic Clergy, Political Prisoners, Gypsies, Homosexuals and more.

“Work Brings Freedom” – this is the main gate into the camp.

The memorial set up by the Jewish community

There is no fee to visit the memorial. They have rebuilt one of the barracks so people can see how crowded they were. There are other buildings still standing that house the informational displays. If you know much about history there are certain names that pop out to you immediately like Himmler, he was frequent visitor and he was responsible for camps after the SS took over daily operations. According to the information provide he fired the first camp commandant for “not being cruel enough.” As I said earlier the camp started off as a political prisoner camp so the first inmates were member of political parties that were in competition with the Nazi’s to rule Germany. In the early days of the camp if a political prisoner was unlucky enough to also be Jewish there was a tendency for them to “commit suicide.”

After the war officially started it was turned into a camp for all prisoners. While the Nazi’s didn’t gas people in large numbers at Dachau they did kill a large number of prisoners and there were two onsite crematoriums. In addition to working the prisoners to death a number of medical experiments were performed on prisoners often with death as the end result.

Mike an I spent about 3-4 hours there and if we read everything that was available we could have easily spend another 2-3 hours. The displays not only discussed the history of the camp but the circumstances that led to the rise of the Nazi party. I knew most of that information already from history classes I have taken but I thought it was nice for them to include it. After we left Dachau we headed further south towards the town of Fussen on the Austrian border. I will put up a second post about Fussen and Oktoberfest in Munich.

Yesterday was Mike’s birthday and he decided he wanted to celebrate with friends in a truly “English” fashion. Chester has horse races every summer starting in May but we just haven’t been able to go since we’ve been here for one reason or another.  So he decided for his birthday he wanted to get dressed up and go to the races. While the race course has various sections so you can go in any dress Mike really wanted to “do it up” so we purchased tickets for the section that requires men to be in full suit and tie and women to be “smartly” dressed.

We had a lovely day with our friends Dorothy, Craig and Pete. After the races we went out to dinner and followed that up with drinks at one of our favorite Chester pubs.

It was a great day the guys pulled out their suits, Dorothy and I put on nice dresses, cute shoes and even purchased new fascinators. Since Dorothy is English I let her lead the way when we went shopping for our fascinators it was fun, I’ll probably never wear it again since they aren’t big in America but it was still fun.

Hard to believe Mike and I have know each other for more than a decade now. Time has gone by fast but we both feel like we’ve had a lot of fun these last 10 years and can’t wait to see what crazy stuff we do over the next 10 years; overall our twenties have been good.  It’s amazing all the things we have done in 10 years and we both feel like there is so much more we want to do.

Below are some photos of our day, hope everyone enjoys.

Pre-race pints at The Pelican.

Craig (L) and Pete (R)

The wind came up and Dorothy had a Marilyn Monroe moment with her dress.

Mike with his post race winnings.

Group photo after the final race.

Post race pint along the canal at Telfords.

Dinner shot while we waited for our roast duck appetizer.

A few weeks ago Mike and I traveled to Belgium and we had a great trip. The main point of this trip was to catch up with an old friend of mine. Rebekah and I were quite close in high school but we lost touch for a few years when I moved to Washington and she moved to Virginia. Thanks to facebook we re-connected a few years ago. After Mike and I learned we would be moving to England I mentioned to Rebekah that we would love to meet up in person. Months later after trying to juggle schedules we found a weekend that worked for both of us.

I knew that Belgium was a “divided” country between the German, French and Flemish (Dutch) factors but I didn’t realize how divided it was till we were there. There are literally French Sections and Flemish Sections and while people speak English in both you best not speak French in the Flemish section and vice versa. Our friends showed us a YouTube video that explains it pretty well. The country would like nothing better than to split into two countries but neither one can afford the debt on their own so they are stuck trying to deal with each other. They haven’t had a functioning government in over two years because of this division. Click here to watch the video (it’s short about 4 minutes).

Rebekah and her husband Aaron were amazing hosts and drove us all over Belgium exploring. After meeting Rebekah at the Brussels airport we spent Friday night catching up first at dinner in the village they live in of Le Hulpe and then at their home. Rebekah has two adorable little girls, Elorah – 5 and Annika – 2.

Saturday we intended to drive to Bruges but the traffic was horrible (it took 45 minutes to go 4 miles and traffic wasn’t getting better so we turned around). With that last minute change of plans we decided to explore Brussels instead. We saw St Michaels, explored the main square and of course had to stop by the “pissing boy” statue. It was smaller than we expected but it’s not far off the main square and quite the tourist attraction. Normally the statue is naked but that day it was dress in a cap and gown. We finished the afternoon with lunch and a delicious Belgium beer.

On Sunday we got up early and tried Bruges again. Luckily this time the traffic was much improved. We made it to Bruges around eleven. It’s a very cute town, we wandered around town exploring the little alleyways, Aaron and Rebekah had been there before so they knew some of the history. We found the beer wall, which had a large number of Belgium beers, I’m not sure if they are all there or not but it was quite a display. We were going to pop into a church off the main square that claims to have Jesus’s blood but being a Sunday they were in the middle of Sunday service. We stopped for lunch and more beer. After more walking and exploring around town we headed back to the car, we stopped along the way to purchase some chocolate and waffles. It was great weather while we were there so we spent Sunday night outside in Aaron and Rebekah’s yard just talking and playing with the kids.

Monday before going to the airport we headed west towards the town of Chimay. We stopped at a local abbey where the monks brew and sell their own beer to support their monastery. We couldn’t tour the brewery but we were allowed to explore the grounds. After lunch at a local restaurant we headed to the airport.

It was a great trip. Rebekah and Aaron have lived in Belgium for almost 4 years, they will be moving back to Virginia sometime next summer. Neither one of us knows when we will be on each other’s coast but we plan on keeping in touch. It was great fun to catch up and it was great that after all these years we had plenty to talk about. It was fun to catch up about our families but really we just talked about our lives and everyday things. I was worried we wouldn’t have much in common but in reality it seems like we have just as much in common if not more than we did 10 years ago.

* Edited to add photos 9-14-11 *

 

I realized today that I haven’t posted anything since the end of June. Well there are two reason behind that 1) our internet in Belfast was terrible so it was nearly impossible/painful to upload pictures for a blog entry and 2) we went home to Idaho and Las Vegas for 10 days and then headed back to Chester.

I will try to add photos but below is a list of just a few things we did in July.

• Explored more of Belfast and the surrounding countryside. (Ireland is a beautiful island)

 

• Experienced first hand the July 12th holiday in North Ireland. We have never seen a bonfire so big (about 10 stories tall)

• Moved back to Chester

• Took a 10 day vacation (5 days in Boise, 3 days in Vegas, and 2 days in the air)

Now that it is August we are getting settled back into our routine after vacation. We don’t have an exact date yet for heading back to the states but it will most likely be in early October; we should know more this week hopefully. Next weekend we are going to Brussels and I am so excited we are going to stay with my high school friend and her family. She and her family (she is married and has two little girls) have been living in Brussels for almost 4 years. I haven’t actually seen her in almost a decade but we kept in touch over the years when she moved to Virginia and then Brussels. Who would have thought two girls from Idaho would move away to opposite coasts only to reunite a decade later in Europe when they are both living abroad.

It’s a little sad to realize we only have a few months left of this adventure but we always knew it would have to end. I feel really fortunate to have had all these great experiences but soon it will be back to the US and the “real world” of job hunting. Oh well, I will not dwell on that right now instead I’m going to focus on the here and now and enjoy it while I can.

Mike has been working some extremely long hours since we arrived in Belfast but he is such a sweetheart in that he still finds the energy to go explore on the weekends. I’m sure after working 55+ hour weeks he would like nothing better than to sit on the couch all weekend. This blog entry covers two weekends.

Two weekends ago I starting talking to Mike about the weekend and what we would like to do/what was he up for when he surprised me and said “I’ve planned a drive for us hope you don’t mind.” I was pretty excited that on top of working long hours he had thought about me and planned a little weekend fun.

We explored one of the peninsula’s on the East coast of North Ireland. It was a bit gray but it never rained. We headed north towards Bangor and then got off the motorway (freeway) and hit little town after little town in the countryside. When we got to Portaferry (not a typo that is how it is spelled all one word) we took the shortest ferry ride ever, 10 minutes across the bay.

We stopped in a little town called Killyleagh for lunch and to take a look at their castle. The castle was closed to the public for the weekend because the junior military was conducting an exercise but we could walk around the outside. It was pretty new by Castle standards it was built in the late 1800′s.

On our way home we stumbled across the North Ireland Parliament building and made a mental note to go back when we had more time. We were meeting up with another couple for a Belfast guided pub crawl later and we were running out of time.

The pub crawl was lots of fun; we met a couple from Minnesota on the tour. They were hilarious so we invited them to join us for dinner after the tour. She is professor at a small Catholic university and she had lots of funny stories to tell. He works for the government but he use to work for a non-profit so we talked about the non-profit world. Some days I really miss my old job but you have to take the opportunities when the come.

Last Weekend

Last weekend we hoped to go to Cork but we couldn’t find a hotel that would take Lex so we decided to do another day trip instead. This time we headed West to the Irish Coast. Honestly you only know you have crossed between North Ireland into Ireland because the speed signs change to Kilometers per hour. There is no sign welcoming you to Ireland but as you get to the first town you notice everything is in Euro’s instead of Pounds and the signs are in both Irish and English. In North  Ireland everything is in English only.

We made a quick stop in Enniskillen to check out their castle. Sadly its gates were closed but we were able to walk around it and snap a few photos. The castle sits right on the river and had quite a lovely view. As we drove away we laughed because we saw a small circus setting up on the edge of town and they had camels, not something you expect to see tied up in North Ireland.

I had planned the day trip with two specific ruins in mind, the Sligo Abbey and Donegal Castle. We headed towards Sligo first. After a little help from the tourist office we found our way to the Abbey. The Abbey was built around 1253 and considering it’s age is in remarkably good shape. It isn’t the largest ruin but it was interesting. Many of the headstones are worn away so you can’t read them but a few were still legible. After exploring the Abbey we decided to get lunch. We found a little restaurant to get a bit to eat in and then we headed north towards Donegal.

Donegal seemed a bit bigger than Sligo but it was easy enough to find parking. We headed straight for the castle because it closed at 6pm and it was already 5pm. The castle is decently old being built in the 15th century and was the home of one of the last Irish Kings/Chieftains. The O’Donnell family were the occupants until the English conquered that part of the Ireland around 1610. Then the castle was given to an English family.

After exploring the castle we decided to start our 3 hour drive home. We specifically planned the route so that we made a loop instead of backtracking so we would see as much countryside as possible. We didn’t realize that would involve a “B” road, which is like our country roads back home. Paved but not exactly straight and certainly not very wide. It was beautiful lots of wildflowers and lakes but sadly our camera batter had died so we couldn’t take any pictures.

We are truly enjoying our time overseas. Mike is working very hard which makes it all possible and we are trying to make the most of it since we don’t know if this is a once in a lifetime opportunity or not.

The weekend after our trip to London we moved to Belfast for 6-8 weeks. We had a lovely sendoff from Chester from our friends by attending two bbq’s one on Friday and one on Saturday. That Sunday we took the car and traveled via ferry to Belfast from Liverpool. It’s an 8 hour ferry but it was our only/best option to get Lex and our suitcases to Belfast.

Since our first full weekend in Belfast was a three day weekend we emailed Kyle and Sarah (see previous entry about Harrogate) to see if they wanted to visit as they had not been to Belfast. They luckily could make it so we picked them up on Saturday and started a fun filled weekend.

We started off with a Black Cab Tour of Belfast. We chose the Political Tour and it was quite an eye opening experience. The violence was intense, but the city is moving past that and has rebuilt itself. President Clinton is really loved here because he helped negotiate the peace treaty known as the Good Friday Agreement, a cease fire was agreed on in 1994 and the treaty was signed in 1998. Some people tried to break the treaty in 2001 but luckily it didn’t succeed and the treaty is still in place. First we went through the Shankhill Neighborhood where there are a number of murals commiserating some of the violent history. The “troubles” as they are known started in 1969 but the issues between those wanting a Free Ireland and those wanting to remain part of the United Kingdom go much farther back.

We then moved to the other side of the “peace wall” which still stands today and is still closed every night. Sadly the violence was so bad at one point the citizens requested the wall be built between the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods. Our guide thinks it will come down one day but not anytime soon, he suspects that it won’t come down till all those who lived through it are gone. The”troubles” scarred an entire generation.

After our tour we moved on to happier things. We discovered an international food festival and settled into one of the beer tents with our food and beer. We met a really nice local man named Gary, he told us how 20 years ago he and his wife enlisted their son in the first “integrated” preschool in Belfast. Now it’s normal but back then the idea of Catholics and Protestants going to school together was unheard of and considered dangerous. His love of his city was obvious and he is happy that the country is in a better place these days.

After a night of pub crawling with a local Nigel, that Sarah and Kyle had met through a mutual friend, we woke up on Sunday and prepared for a trip to the Giant’s Causeway. We took the scenic route and it was amazing. The Irish Coast was as beautiful and green as one imagines. Along the way we stopped for lunch, a tour at the Bushmill’s Whiskey Distillery, a  few scenic hikes, and we eventually made it to Giants Causeway. It’s an amazing geological event, it’s actually considered one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the world.

After a long day, about 8 hours, we headed back to the city. We found a lovely sushi place for dinner and then ended the night with board games. We took Kyle and Sara to the ferry terminal on Monday and then headed back home to enjoy the rest of our Holiday Monday.

Again Mike will post all of our photos on the website www.mikeandgraceh.com.

And, phew I am finally caught up on our blog. Sorry I got so behind I will try and avoid that happening again.

After a lovely weekend in Harrogate we headed to London the following Saturday. Les Miserable is playing in London and Mike really wanted to see it so after looking pretty much since we arrived we finally got tickets for a Saturday Matinee.

We took the early train down on Saturday arriving around 8:15 am. Again lovely train system, the drive would have been 4 hours then we would have had to deal with parking etc instead we took the train which only took 2 hours.

Since Mike and I had been to London before a number of the large things had already been “ticked” for us. The weather started off lovely but became a bit breezy and rainy as the morning progressed so we decided to go to the National Gallery. It opened at 10 am and we spent the next 2 hours inside. Afterwards we decided to find a place for lunch, we tried a “Tex-Mex” place Mike found but alas it was not real Mexican food. I think we have pretty much given up on finding good Mexican in this country but Mike wanted to give it one more try.

After lunch the weather had improved a bit so we just wandered around the city before making our way to the Queen’s Theatre for the 2:30 show.

The show was amazing, the theatre was a small theatre by London standards but it was still great. The music  was wonderful and it was fun to see a show neither  one of us had seen before.

After the show we grabbed a bite to eat and then caught our 7pm train home. Overall it was a lovely day. Again it’s so nice to have the public transportation option so we don’t have to deal with traffic etc.

A fountain in Trafalgar Square

10 Downing Steet home of the English Prime Minister, a lot less obvious than the White House.

So you thought that Paris was the end of our busy few weeks, nope it was just the middle. The weekend after we returned from Paris we drove up to Harrogate, England to visit with Mike’s cousin Kyle and his wife Sarah. They have been living and working in England for 3 years and just extended for another 2 years. Harrogate use to be a spa town famous for it’s mineral water, it’s still a lovely town but now people come for the scenery and it’s proximity to York.

We drove up Friday after work arriving around 8:30. After we did the meet and greet with Lex and their dog we headed out for a pint. Kyle and Sarah showed us around town and we met a few of their friends.

On Saturday Kyle and Sarah took us to a local tea shop for breakfast. Then we headed to the military base Kyle works at where he took us shopping at the commissary. We have just gotten use to not having access to certain things but this place was like a little American grocery store prices and all. We didn’t buy too much but we did get the largest thing of Salsa we could find, tortilla chips and Mike purchased a 12 pack of mountain dew since you can’t find it in England. It was lovely.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with Kyle, Sarah and a few of their friends. The weather was less than ideal so we stayed in playing board games and enjoying a few pints.

Sarah made an amazing dinner of enchiladas, Spanish rice and salad. We haven’t had proper Mexican food in 6 months and Mike was in heaven.

After another late night we woke up Sunday enjoyed breakfast and decided we better let Kyle and Sarah have a little of their weekend to themselves. It was about a 2 hour drive home and we took the scenic route. Over all it was a great weekend.